Strike: The Ink Black Heart episode 3 recap: an unmasking and a killing

Strike: The Ink Black Heart marks the return of the BBC's hit crime drama, adapted from J.K. Rowling’s novels written under the pseudonym, Robert Galbraith.

With Cormoran Strike (Tom Burke) and Robin Ellacott (Holliday Grainger) reprising their roles once again, the detective agency are approached with a rather unusual case. Edie, the co-creator of a popular cartoon turned TV show, Ink Black Heart, comes to Robin to plead for help after a barrage of abuse and stalking by an unknown online persona known only as Anomie. At first, the agency is too busy to help her, but then the case turns into a murder investigation and they must act quickly to unravel an intricate web of lies and suspects.

Here's a recap of everything that happened in Strike: The Ink Black Heart episode 3.

The penultimate episode opens on the scene of Barclay's crash. Phillip has pulled over and turns the motorbike off, but Barclay is nowhere to be seen. When he goes back to his car, Barclay strangles him from behind and calls the police.

Strike and Robin watch as DCI Murphy questions Phillip. He says that while Phillip said he was in detention, he in fact sent the student home early and he knew where Edie was because he'd installed a tracking app on her phone. Though Phillip argues it was with her consent, DCI Murphy then shows him the photos of him meeting up with Yasmin. He says that Yasmin is writing a book on The Ink Black Heart and that he's been consulting on it, passing her inside information for years.

Phillip says he went to Highgate Cemetery to find Edie, but that a big bald guy ran off and dropped Edie's phone. Murphy accuses him of keeping the phone to steal Edie's ideas so he could write the film script. At the same time, Robin is in Drek's Game and Anomie is there, so they determine it can’t be Phillip who is Anomie despite his attempted murder of Barclay. A private chat pops up, “Have you got your ticket for Comic Con live?” Anomie says they need everyone there to send a message to the film producers. Either they embrace Drek’s Game or they lose the fans. Anomie tells her to make sure to wear a costume with a mask. Anomie will be there dressed as Drek.

As DCI Murphy accuses the Halvening again, Strike wonders why they would take Edie’s phone. Anomie taking it makes sense as they also want the ideas like Phillip. He thinks it's more likely that Anomie has learned the tricks of the Halvening somehow and used them to kill Edie, knowing the Halvening will be on the hook for it. Anomie is hiding behind the Halvening, he says, but DCI Murphy doesn’t buy it.

When they get back to the office, Grant Ledwell, Edie’s uncle is there. Anomie is tweeting out secrets about the film script, that they’re casting Hearty as a human. It’s not public knowledge, just a discussion, but somehow Anomie knows. He says him and his wife both got a phone call, the same as Strike, instructing them to dig up Edie Ledwell though he omits the letters. Strike mentions it, and Grant admits he was busy enough arranging the funeral, but he brought it. He says two people wrote letters, but that Josh also dictated his to Katya. He says Edie called Grant last year and said Josh wanted her out, that she needed advice.

Grant wants Katya Upcott to be the main suspect, but as he says this Katya is walking down the street as Mitch observes her while Anomie is in the game on her laptop. She can also hear Katya's son, Gus, practicing his cello. So, they rule both of them out.

Robin gets back to the office and Strike is dressed as Darth Vader, his costume for Comic Con. Robin is in a Reddit group called narcissist parents and finds Jago's daughter, she talks about him beating them up and his ex-wife, but Robin says using this against Jago will only make the daughter's life worse.

At Comic Con, Robin has arranged an interview with Yasmin about her book under the guise of being a journalist. Strike goes to scout out anyone in a Drek costume, but there's a lot around. Talking to Yasmin, she says she works with insiders, like the Drek’s Game creator, Anomie, as she’s a moderator on the game. She raves about Anomie and says Edie should’ve been fair and let him monetise the game. She says the other creator, Morehouse, is close with another mod, Paperwhite, and that they're always chatting on their own.

She reveals that Paperwhite sent Morehouse nude photos, that she sent them to all male moderators. She mentions another moderator called Fiendy who knows Morehouse in real life. That Fiendy likes football and peacocks, they surmise Fiendy is a Leeds supporter, and that their mum’s always sick.

Robin questions Yasmin over Edie Ledwell being targeted by far-right terrorists and that Yasmin passed on their fake information to Josh claiming that Edie was working with Anomie. Yasmin says the guy who sent her the files is black, not a racist. She says he’s an actor, the guy who took over playing Drek, plays under a pseudonym, Vile Pachore but he told her who he was and that he’s doing a new play and she’s going to meet him.

Strike changes into a Drek costume and talks to another Drek who is going round trying to find Anomie, like him. Strike says there’s something familiar about his voice, so Robin follows him. Meanwhile, Inigo Upcott makes his way outside the house without his wheelchair. Mitch follows him.

As Robin and Strike wait on the train platform after Comic Con, still following Drek, a person dressed as a skeleton barges past and pushes the Drek onto the train tracks. Just before a train comes, Robin and another man jump into the track to get him out and they make it just in time. He's unconscious but they find out his name is Oliver Peach. They notice a Viking tattoo on his stomach, Al Giz, the Al Gizzard Strike found on Twitter. He's the son of Ian Peach, a man who ran for Mayor. Oliver is going round looking for Anomie, but Anomie wasn’t dressed as Drek. That’s how he knew Oliver was looking for him.

Anomie pinned Edie’s murder on the Halvening, but they figured it out. Oliver Peach is an anagram of Vile Pachore, the moderator Yasmin mentioned in Drek’s Game. He was trying to manipulate people about Edie as the Halvening target influential women, and he gets mixed up with Anomie. Oliver ends up helping Anomie, but then Anomie knows what Halvening do and uses their tactics to get away with murder.

Mitch reveals Inigo Upcott made a call from a cafe. She recorded it. He says, "My darling girl, you have to stay strong and calm. By rights, the Ink Black Heart belongs to you. We both know that, but you mustn’t call me again. Message me on Tribulationem et Doloram, (Inigo’s forum for autoimmune sufferers)." They realise he's calling someone he's met over the website and they remember that Josh's ex-girlfriend, Kea Niven, has ME and that Inigo was defending her when they went to speak to Katya.

They watch a video Kea posted a video on Twitter revealing how she came up with the idea of The Ink Black Heart and how she has a tattoo of Drek that she got years before Edie and josh made the comic. She says that Edie Ledwell stole her ideas and her boyfriend.

On a group, Kea Niven is mentioned as threatening to stab her ex-boyfriend and girlfriend the night before the murder, then deleted the tweets. Robin goes to see Inigo. She asks about Kea. Robin logs into Drek’s Game, Anomie is there. She asks if Inigo shared information with Kea about The Ink Black Heart. Inigo says she’s not Anomie or Morehouse. Robin thinks Inigo was used by Kea, the same way Yasmin was by Phillip - to get inside information.

Strike goes to visit Kea. While her mum answers the door and Kea asks who it is, suddenly she disappears. Strike goes on her computer and sees Inigo’s forum and Drek’s Game in the search bar, as well as the group they mentioned her in before. Her mum comes back, Kea’s gone.

Later that day, Kea agrees to meet Strike in a pub. She reveals she got back together with Josh and he admitted he gave away the ideas by accident, but then Edie tried to kill herself. He asks about Inigo Upcott, but she lies about speaking with him. When Strike calls out the lie, she admits she gets information out of him, but only because a girl messaged her and told her she could. The handle on Twitter, RachLedBadly. Her mum has Lupus, that’s how she found out about Inigo’s site. The post on the group, she says, is from Anomie, giving out her phone number, home address, and even her mum’s work. When asked about the deleted tweets, she said she was angry that Josh had told her about meeting Edie at their spot, which he'd done by accident when trying to call Katya, and that she was angry and didn't mean it.

The opposite of LedBadly, Ledwell - Grant’s daughter from his first marriage, the ex-wife with Lupus. Rachel’s a massive The Ink Black Heart fan and lives in Leeds, matching the MO of the moderator who knows Morehouse, Fiendy. And if Fiendy knows Morehouse, then that'll lead to Anomie.

As they plan a trip to Leeds, Pez calls Robin and calls her Robin, not Jessica. He reveals that Wally saw a video of her on the train platform after the heroic rescue of Oliver Peach. She's banned from North Grove.

Robin and Strike head to Leeds to speak to Rachel. She’s only a girl. She’s worried Edie would be mad at her for being one of the haters in Drek’s Game, but that she didn’t hate her, she loves The Ink Black Heart. She says Morehouse was her best friend in the game until she found out who he was in real-life and he got angry. She said he tweeted on his Morehouse account something he should've posted on his private account and she dug around and found him. His name — Vikas Bhardwan, a doctor in astrophysics in Cambridge.

The next stop then is Cambridge to find him. When they arrive, he’s locked in his room. A woman waiting outside says he has only spoken about speaking with a girl online once. She says she saw him chatting to the girl called Paperwhite who asked him, “Can we go and see Robin Ellacott together to talk about Anomie?” He told the woman that Paperwhite is a beautiful artist and doesn't care what he looks like.

Instead of waiting for the police, Strike uses his skeleton key to get into Vikas’ room. When he goes inside, Vikas is sat upright, murdered at his desk.