Review: Miss Scarlet and the Duke, Season 1, Episode 2: The Woman in Red

Well, that was a jolly good mystery! 

The show has escalated very quickly from relatively tame missing persons cases to murder! I was, however, very impressed with the way Miss Scarlet handled this case. 

I have to admit that if I caught someone standing over a dead body with a knife, I would also believe pretty firmly that the knife man did the killing (the plot reminds me a bit of the novel Murder on Cold Street). Miss Scarlet, however, was very clever about finding out the truth of the situation. And, obviously, I'm glad that she saved an innocent man from dying; although, it sounds like he might be sentenced to ten years hard labor anyway. 

I was also genuinely surprised to learn about the wife's role in the case, and I was pretty stunned to see that she was cold enough to wear the red coat to watch her husband DIE. That is BRUTAL.

However, as interesting as the mystery was, I thought the character revelations we saw in this episode were far more intriguing. I'm really starting to feel like I'm getting to know Miss Scarlet and William Wellington. Quite frankly, I can easily understand why they're friends. They're like basically the same person! The only difference is that Eliza is more determined. If they don't end up as a couple by the end of the season, I'll be shocked. 

I also really enjoyed getting to know Moses in this episode. I was a little surprised to see him working with Eliza at the end of this episode, but I think they're going to be great business partners. Even though their backgrounds are very different, they are both treated as outsiders in their society, and that's definitely something that brings them together. Plus, I think they've both learned to respect each other's abilities. 

The show also really filled out Rupert's character in this episode, which is good because the show kind of made him seem like a bit of a joke in the last episode. So, I'm glad they gave him some real complexity and depth in this episode (plus some real problems). His mother, however, is still a joke in my opinion. What can I say, her tiny, ridiculous hat made me giggle. 

In fact, there's a lot of subtle humor in this show. I laughed every time Eliza ended up in front of the magistrate for some sort of investigative shenanigans. I certainly hope that the murderous wife in this episode paid Eliza's fine before firing her! 

Rating: 8/10