The Turning Point
The penultimate episode of Strike brings a turning point for our characters. Robin’s revolving door of excellent disguises continue, climaxing into quite the tense chase sequence at the end. Cormoran’s methods are much more old-school of course, and this leads him to some big revelations to help with the case. All of this builds up to an open ending that leaves the door wide open for the finale. Episode 3 of Strike: Lethal White begins with a shocked Robin calling Cormoran over to help deal with the Chiswell situation. With a pair of gloves on hand, Cormoran has a look around for clues while phoning the police. Robin meanwhile, starts taking photos and notices a note and evidence that Chiswell swallowed crushed pills with his wine. Two Weeks later Cormoran receives a message confirming Billy has been moved out of critical care. He also meets Izzy who remains convinced that suicide is not the real story here. Given how proud Chiswell is and his strong morals, Izzy believes Chiswell’s wife Kinvara is the killer. As she keeps talking, Izzy mentions a pony buried out the back of their farmhouse. Despite this story, both Robin and Coromoran remain convinced that Billy’s narrative is correct. For now though, they’re invited in to meet the rest of Chiswell’s family. Only, this throws up further questions given they’re clearly a dysfunctional family. To narrow down the search, Cormoran learns there were 3 sets of keys. As he starts asking Kinvara questions, Izzy turns hostile and Cormoran’s questioning is cut short. Instead, they decide to visit Billy for answers. Only, unfortunately the institute refuse to let them see him. He’s not in the right frame of mind and he’s been self harming. Those cuts also happen to be in the same animal shape we’ve seen carvings of all over the place. With little to go on, Cormoran trades vital information with the police for details on Chiswell’s cause of death. The time was between 6am and 8am and this man missed a few calls around 7. The pills used to crush up inside the glass were actually Kinvara’s. Given Chiswell’s taste buds (or lack thereof) it must be someone close to him knowing this. However, it’s not Kinvara as her alibi is water-tight. This leads them to the cleaner who was the only other one with a key. She also has no love lost for Chiswell. Robin does her best impression of a Goth worker and heads in as “Becca”, her new persona. Back at the office, she and Cormoran flirt a little over her new disguise before they pay particular attention to a text message. One that signed off as CCB – Christopher Burns. While Robin revises more bands (after all, just the one makes her a bit obsessive), Cormoran goes on the hunt with a good old fashioned tail. That tail being Mallik and someone Cormoran pays particular attention to. He has links to Christopher Burns and confronts Mallik at his house. Only, this guy tries coming at him with a knife. Obviously this is a bad move and he’s easily overpowered. Finally Mallik opens up and admits that he was trying to find something on the computer that night. Jimmy stopped him before he was able to pry further. However Cormoran does have a crucial clue to go on. A keyword Mallik was told to look for. Murape. Robin’s homework definitely pays off and she manages to get close to Flick, even going so far as being invited to a party. If there’s one thing this girl can do – it’s put on a convincing disguise. As Jimmy shows up, Robin manages to hide her phone in the storage room and record their conversation in private. That chat certainly heats up and as muffled raised voices come from the room, Robin becomes increasingly interested in just what they spoke about. Later that day, Robin heads back home and confronts Matt about exactly why he wants to be with her. He tries to make amends by fixing up the green dress he ripped but some wounds just can’t be healed with green thread. Robin has bigger fish to fry anyway. With the recording saved on her phone, she heads back to the office with Cormoran. Together, they listen to the recording. Jimmy lost his wallet but more importantly something hidden inside – an incriminating note. If Flick really did take it, it may be hidden in her apartment. At the party, Robin eases herself into the groove and starts looking around for the wallet. Only, Jimmy finds her and confronts the girl, intimidatingly asking for her last name. This inevitably leads Jimmy in to search online to try and find exactly who she is. Robin meanwhile finds the note Flick hid from Jimmy and quickly takes a picture. Unfortunately Jimmy has also done his homework and finds out Becca is actually Robin. As a chase ensues, Robin runs for her life and manages to escape from Jimmy – who’s promptly arrested by police along with Flick. As the duo mull over what they’ve learned so far, they deduce that Jimmy may have been having an affair with Kinvara and was the one responsible for poisoning Chiswell. Back home Robin stands on an earring… an earring that doesn’t actually belong to her. Unfortunately her detective background helps piece together that Matt is having an affair again. Only, she’s over this. Matt calling her cheap and a flake is enough to make her decision to leave even easier. He tries to convince her otherwise, but Robin storms out and gets in a taxi. As tears stream down her face, the tears she sheds feel more like relief than despair.
The Episode Review
Episode 3 brings forward even more suspects to the foreground and it’s something that immediately brings multiple questions surrounding just who’s responsible for murdering Chiswell. Furthermore, Robin’s abrupt end with Matt is something that’s been coming for a while but still satisfying to see. Robin has finally seen sense and left this guy and his despicable comments at the end are only further evidence that she can do so much better. Her disguises are constantly great and despite what Matt says, she’s a natural at this line of work. She’s also critical to this investigation too, managing to bag some pretty significant evidence to use going forward. With all eyes now turning to the finale, the door is left wide open for where this one may go next.
