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Cozy Mystery Thursday | Ludwig (Season 1, Episodes 5 & 6) · Cozy Comfort Club Podcast

0:03
SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to Cozy Comfort Club,
0:05
SPEAKER_00: your place for comfort TV,
0:07
SPEAKER_00: cozy mysteries, and feel-good stories you can add to your watch list.
0:11
SPEAKER_00: So we have four episodes,
0:13
SPEAKER_00: four solved cases, one missing detective, and a whole lot of questions.
0:18
SPEAKER_00: But with only two episodes left,
0:21
SPEAKER_00: is Ludwig finally going to tell us what happened to DCI James Taylor?
0:25
SPEAKER_00: Today, we're wrapping up our Ludwig Season 1 deep dive with Episodes 5 and 6,
0:30
SPEAKER_00: with Episodes 6 serving as the season finale.
0:35
SPEAKER_00: Ludwig stars David Mitchell as John Taylor and Anna Maxwell Martin
0:39
SPEAKER_00: as Lucy Best Taylor, and the series is currently streaming on BritBox.
0:43
SPEAKER_00: Both episodes are rated TVPG,
0:45
SPEAKER_00: run approximately 58 minutes each, and originally premiered in October of 2024.
0:55
SPEAKER_00: So we've made it through four murders,
0:57
SPEAKER_00: countless puzzles,
0:59
SPEAKER_00: a missing identical twin,
1:00
SPEAKER_00: a very suspicious Sinclair case,
1:03
SPEAKER_00: and more than a few people that I'm still not sure I can trust.
1:06
SPEAKER_00: So now we just have these two episodes left and we're going
1:09
SPEAKER_00: to see how this puzzle actually comes together.
1:12
SPEAKER_00: And of course, this is your spoiler warning for Ludwig Season 1, Episodes 5 and 6.
1:17
SPEAKER_00: So we're going to be discussing everything,
1:19
SPEAKER_00: the individual cases,
1:21
SPEAKER_00: the suspects,
1:22
SPEAKER_00: the reveals, James' disappearance, and whatever answers the finale will give us.
1:27
SPEAKER_00: So if you haven't finished Season 1 yet,
1:29
SPEAKER_00: this is definitely your chance to go watch and then come back when you're ready.
1:33
SPEAKER_00: All right,
1:34
SPEAKER_00: before we open up our first case file,
1:36
SPEAKER_00: let's talk about where we are and what I need answered before the season ends.
1:42
SPEAKER_00: So going into episodes five and six, there are so many questions.
1:46
SPEAKER_00: And the biggest thing I need to know is who was that mysterious person dressed all
1:52
SPEAKER_00: in black at the end of episode four?
1:54
SPEAKER_00: So we saw them sitting in front of a computer monitor or two,
1:57
SPEAKER_00: searching the web and collecting some information about John and James and Lucy
2:02
SPEAKER_00: and Henry.
2:03
SPEAKER_00: And there were even photographs going all the way back to John and James's childhood.
2:08
SPEAKER_00: So who is this person?
2:09
SPEAKER_00: How long have they been watching this family?
2:11
SPEAKER_00: But most importantly, how are they connected to James's disappearance?
2:16
SPEAKER_00: Then there's this suspicious phone call to James's phone asking why he was still at
2:20
SPEAKER_00: the police department and really just trying to figure out what he was doing there.
2:26
SPEAKER_00: Thanks to my closed captions,
2:27
SPEAKER_00: I already had a pretty good idea of who was on the other end of that call.
2:31
SPEAKER_00: But I still want to know why they called and what they expected James to be doing instead.
2:37
SPEAKER_00: I also need John to make a little progress deciphering the cryptic messages
2:42
SPEAKER_00: that James left behind.
2:43
SPEAKER_00: So we know that James planned his disappearance and he deliberately left clues
2:48
SPEAKER_00: for John and Lucy.
2:49
SPEAKER_00: But what is he trying to tell them?
2:51
SPEAKER_00: And I'm still interested in John and Lucy's history.
2:54
SPEAKER_00: We've gotten these little glimpses of their childhood and the relationship
2:58
SPEAKER_00: that they had before Lucy marries James.
3:02
SPEAKER_00: But I do want to know more.
3:04
SPEAKER_00: What exactly was John and Lucy's relationship like back then?
3:08
SPEAKER_00: And is there more to that history than what we've been told so far?
3:13
SPEAKER_00: And of course, we still have the infamous Sinclair case.
3:16
SPEAKER_00: We need to know what happened here.
3:18
SPEAKER_00: Why were there two different crime scene reports for the exact same case?
3:22
SPEAKER_00: Why did James's original report describe what happened as a professional murder only
3:27
SPEAKER_00: for it later to be changed?
3:28
SPEAKER_00: And where does Chief Constable Ziegler fit into all of this?
3:33
SPEAKER_00: His name has been kind of all around this investigation from the beginning.
3:37
SPEAKER_00: And with everything we've learned about this Sinclair case,
3:41
SPEAKER_00: I really want to know whether he's actually involved in whatever James uncovered or
3:45
SPEAKER_00: if there's another explanation for his connection to it.
3:49
SPEAKER_00: And finally, Holly Pender.
3:50
SPEAKER_00: Why did Holly erase John's search history after he used Ziegler's account?
3:54
SPEAKER_00: Why did she protect him?
3:56
SPEAKER_00: And what does she mean by she wouldn't do it again?
4:00
SPEAKER_00: At this point, we know Holly knows something.
4:02
SPEAKER_00: We just don't know what.
4:03
SPEAKER_00: So going into these final two episodes,
4:07
SPEAKER_00: the individual cases matter,
4:08
SPEAKER_00: but we're looking for answers about James,
4:11
SPEAKER_00: the Sinclair case,
4:12
SPEAKER_00: Ziegler,
4:13
SPEAKER_00: the person watching the family,
4:14
SPEAKER_00: Holly, those cryptic messages, and John and Lucy's past.
4:18
SPEAKER_00: So basically,
4:19
SPEAKER_00: it seems we've spent four episodes collecting the puzzle pieces,
4:22
SPEAKER_00: and now we want to see what picture they make.
4:26
SPEAKER_00: And here's our first case file.
4:28
SPEAKER_00: Case file number one, episode five, the victim.
4:31
SPEAKER_00: Our victim in episode five is Mr.
4:33
SPEAKER_00: Ian DeRose,
4:34
SPEAKER_00: the headmaster of an unnamed school where he had worked for around 20 years.
4:39
SPEAKER_00: So he originally served as the Now,
4:40
SPEAKER_00: as the investigation begins,
4:42
SPEAKER_00: we do start to discover that DeRose had several difficult situations happening at
4:45
SPEAKER_00: the school before his death.
4:57
SPEAKER_00: The crime.
4:58
SPEAKER_00: DeRose is found hanging inside his office by Ms. Freya Cordwell and the school's caretaker.
5:05
SPEAKER_00: There's also a typed note,
5:07
SPEAKER_00: which initially makes his death appear to be a suicide,
5:09
SPEAKER_00: but there's one pretty glaring problem.
5:13
SPEAKER_00: This man was the former head of the English department and the note is filled
5:17
SPEAKER_00: with grammatical errors.
5:19
SPEAKER_00: So that is something that John cannot ignore.
5:24
SPEAKER_00: The investigators.
5:25
SPEAKER_00: Once again,
5:26
SPEAKER_00: we have John Taylor secretly impersonating his identical twin brother,
5:30
SPEAKER_00: DCI James Taylor, alongside D.I.
5:32
SPEAKER_00: Russell Carter and the rest of the Cambridge police team.
5:35
SPEAKER_00: DS Alice Finch and DC Simon Evans and DCS Shaw overseeing the case.
5:41
SPEAKER_00: The basic mystery,
5:43
SPEAKER_00: on the surface,
5:44
SPEAKER_00: DeRose's death looks like suicide,
5:46
SPEAKER_00: but if he didn't write that note, then we're dealing with murder.
5:50
SPEAKER_00: So the question becomes,
5:52
SPEAKER_00: did Ian DeRose take his own life or did someone at the school kill him
5:55
SPEAKER_00: and stage his death to look like a suicide?
5:58
SPEAKER_00: And if this was murder, there's an even bigger puzzle.
6:01
SPEAKER_00: How did the killer get out when DeRose's office door was locked from the inside?
6:05
SPEAKER_00: We officially got ourselves a locked room mystery.
6:09
SPEAKER_00: So while John is trying to solve DeRose's death,
6:12
SPEAKER_00: the mystery surrounding James is getting pretty messy.
6:16
SPEAKER_00: So Lucy manages to trace the number behind that mysterious phone call that we got
6:22
SPEAKER_00: from episode four to James's phone.
6:25
SPEAKER_00: It registered to an address in Wales under the name Jillian Botley.
6:30
SPEAKER_00: I think it was Jillian, right?
6:32
SPEAKER_00: Now, Lucy claims she doesn't know who that is, but of course, I didn't believe her.
6:37
SPEAKER_00: I don't think we're supposed to believe her.
6:39
SPEAKER_00: The address is about eight hours away and Lucy decides she's going to go anyway.
6:44
SPEAKER_00: And Henry is definitely like his parents.
6:47
SPEAKER_00: Because he's sneaky and very smart.
6:49
SPEAKER_00: And he knows that his mom is up to no good.
6:51
SPEAKER_00: So he secretly climbs into the backseat of the car and he goes with her.
6:56
SPEAKER_00: And Lucy doesn't even recognize it until they're a few, I think three hours away.
7:00
SPEAKER_00: And she gets a phone call from the school saying that he's not there today.
7:05
SPEAKER_00: Now, Lucy, to me, seemed really tense throughout this episode.
7:09
SPEAKER_00: Plus, she's frustrated with John because he still hasn't really confronted Holly
7:14
SPEAKER_00: about what she knows.
7:16
SPEAKER_00: Now, John does finally get some information from Holly in this episode, but it's not what we...
7:24
SPEAKER_00: So Holly says something to James along the lines of, or pretend James, right?
7:29
SPEAKER_00: Along the lines of, let's not pretend it never happened.
7:32
SPEAKER_00: And she brings up this kiss between them at the Christmas party.
7:36
SPEAKER_00: And John is stunned because now he's wondering whether his brother may have cheated on his wife.
7:41
SPEAKER_00: And there's another problem.
7:42
SPEAKER_00: D.C. Simon Evans overhears the conversations.
7:45
SPEAKER_00: Meanwhile, Lucy and Henry make it to Wales, and we discover exactly who Jillian Botley is.
7:52
SPEAKER_00: She is Matt Neville's wife's maiden name,
7:56
SPEAKER_00: and Matt Neville So,
8:00
SPEAKER_00: Jillian and Matt Neville,
8:02
SPEAKER_00: they both answer the door and they refuse to explain to Lucy what's happening
8:06
SPEAKER_00: because they think she may have been followed.
8:08
SPEAKER_00: And this is where I think things were getting pretty interesting between John and Lucy.
8:13
SPEAKER_00: So, when Lucy gets back,
8:14
SPEAKER_00: because by the way, Henry stayed at the hotel while Lucy went to the house.
8:19
SPEAKER_00: But Lucy says to Henry that the house was abandoned.
8:22
SPEAKER_00: She won't tell him anything else.
8:24
SPEAKER_00: And she says the same thing to John, that the house in Wales was abandoned.
8:27
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, that's a lie.
8:29
SPEAKER_00: And John didn't even know where she was going anyway.
8:31
SPEAKER_00: But John doesn't tell Lucy what Holly revealed.
8:36
SPEAKER_00: So now these two people who are supposed to be working together
8:39
SPEAKER_00: to find James are withholding information from each other.
8:42
SPEAKER_00: So by the end of the episode,
8:44
SPEAKER_00: Holly calls Lucy directly and she tells Lucy that she needs to speak with her
8:49
SPEAKER_00: in person about James and she sends her her address.
8:54
SPEAKER_00: Lucy decides that she's going to go.
8:55
SPEAKER_00: So now I'm thinking, okay, what does Holly know about James that she can't or won't tell John?
9:00
SPEAKER_00: Is she going to mention about this kiss?
9:02
SPEAKER_00: Because at this point I was like,
9:04
SPEAKER_00: I was kind of unsure, but I'm like, possibly they had a little bit of a kiss.
9:07
SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's the connection there.
9:09
SPEAKER_00: After what happened in Wales,
9:10
SPEAKER_00: I'm not even sure Lucy is going to tell John what she finds out
9:15
SPEAKER_00: because they're just hiding now.
9:18
SPEAKER_00: I don't like that for them.
9:20
SPEAKER_00: Let's move on to clues and suspects.
9:23
SPEAKER_00: So biggest clues right away.
9:24
SPEAKER_00: There are a few details that make DeRose's supposed suicide feel suspicious.
9:29
SPEAKER_00: First is the typed suicide note with grammatical errors.
9:33
SPEAKER_00: Again, we're talking about a man who previously ran the English department.
9:37
SPEAKER_00: Could he make mistakes?
9:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, of course.
9:39
SPEAKER_00: But enough to draw someone's attention.
9:42
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
9:43
SPEAKER_00: That is suspicious to me.
9:44
SPEAKER_00: And then we have the biggest puzzle of the case.
9:47
SPEAKER_00: DeRose's office door was locked from the inside.
9:50
SPEAKER_00: If someone murdered him and staged the scene, how did they get out without unlocking the door?
9:55
SPEAKER_00: And there's another tiny detail that does catch John's attention.
10:00
SPEAKER_00: Well, first,
10:01
SPEAKER_00: it was the banana peel that he saw that made him think about the trash bin
10:06
SPEAKER_00: in DeRose's office.
10:07
SPEAKER_00: And so he realizes there was an apple in DeRose's office and the trash bin
10:12
SPEAKER_00: and it wasn't completely rotted.
10:14
SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't seem like it's that important, but of course, this is Ludwig.
10:18
SPEAKER_00: If John notices an apple in a trash can,
10:21
SPEAKER_00: we already know we have to pay attention to that apple and that banana in
10:24
SPEAKER_00: a trash can.
10:26
SPEAKER_00: All right, our first suspect was Miss Freya Cordwell.
10:30
SPEAKER_00: She lives in a cottage on the school grounds.
10:32
SPEAKER_00: And let me stop right here real quick,
10:34
SPEAKER_00: because I loved seeing that Freya had an interpreter during the investigation
10:39
SPEAKER_00: since she's deaf.
10:39
SPEAKER_00: Also, Rose Ailing Ellis?
10:43
SPEAKER_00: So we officially have our Code of Silence by Ludwig crossover because Rose plays Freya.
10:49
SPEAKER_00: And after talking about her performance in Code of Silence and maybe
10:52
SPEAKER_00: a few weeks ago, maybe a week or two ago, I was very happy to see her pop up here.
10:58
SPEAKER_00: Freya had only recently become engaged to Mr.
11:01
SPEAKER_00: Bishop with the proposal happening over a video call that weekend.
11:05
SPEAKER_00: She's also one of the people who discovers DeRose's body.
11:10
SPEAKER_00: So on paper, Freya has quite...
11:13
SPEAKER_00: And that incident is what led to an argument between Mr. Bishop and Freya.
11:16
SPEAKER_00: So she's connected to the
11:44
SPEAKER_00: Many different pieces of this case.
11:47
SPEAKER_00: Suspect number two is Mr. Bishop.
11:49
SPEAKER_00: This is Freya's new fiancé and the school's sportsmaster.
11:53
SPEAKER_00: This man was setting off alarms, I think, for everybody.
11:56
SPEAKER_00: His alibi is that he was away in the Scottish Highlands, house-sitting for his parents.
12:01
SPEAKER_00: That already sounds sus.
12:03
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, he has been described by Mr.
12:05
SPEAKER_00: Todd as a bully, and there are questions about whether he may be manipulating Freya.
12:11
SPEAKER_00: And then he has a relationship with Isaac.
12:14
SPEAKER_00: Isaac is the school's Rugby star and captain,
12:18
SPEAKER_00: and Mr. Bishop seems really invested in him in his future.
12:22
SPEAKER_00: We also have Sasha Sparks.
12:23
SPEAKER_00: She's the school's head girl.
12:25
SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't really consider her a suspect necessarily, but she's also Isaac's girlfriend.
12:30
SPEAKER_00: And there are concerns about Bishop's inappropriate behavior toward her.
12:34
SPEAKER_00: To be honest, Bishop himself seemed aggressive and confrontational during that investigation.
12:39
SPEAKER_00: So there was even a point where he's like hinting to John that he could have killed Rose.
12:45
SPEAKER_00: That was like so dumb.
12:47
SPEAKER_00: I don't know why he would even say that.
12:48
SPEAKER_00: I guess he was like, OK, you won't even figure this one out.
12:53
SPEAKER_00: Suspect number three is Mr. Todd.
12:55
SPEAKER_00: So he's the housemaster who also happens to have been John
12:59
SPEAKER_00: and James's mathematics teacher when they were children.
13:02
SPEAKER_00: Small world, right?
13:04
SPEAKER_00: So Todd remembers DeRose as a good and kind man.
13:08
SPEAKER_00: Although Mr. Todd seems forgetful and says he can't see very well without his glasses.
13:12
SPEAKER_00: But unlike some of our other suspects, Todd doesn't have an alibi.
13:16
SPEAKER_00: We already know that there were rumors that DeRose may have been planning to let him go.
13:20
SPEAKER_00: So Mr.
13:21
SPEAKER_00: Todd's history with the victim and then a possible motive and not having an alibi
13:27
SPEAKER_00: and this connection to John and James's childhood makes him very interesting even
13:32
SPEAKER_00: beyond the case.
13:35
SPEAKER_00: Suspect number four is Isaac Upton,
13:38
SPEAKER_00: and he has a lot riding on what DeRose planned to tell the school board.
13:43
SPEAKER_00: He's the captain of the rugby team,
13:45
SPEAKER_00: has a scholarship to Cambridge in his future,
13:48
SPEAKER_00: and he got caught using an illegal substance on school grounds,
13:52
SPEAKER_00: and that could jeopardize all of that.
13:54
SPEAKER_00: So if DeRose or the school board recommends serious disciplinary action,
13:59
SPEAKER_00: Isaac could potentially lose his scholarship,
14:02
SPEAKER_00: his rugby future, and the opportunities that he'd been working toward.
14:05
SPEAKER_00: And so that gives him a pretty big motive to want DeRose out of the way.
14:10
SPEAKER_00: Mr. Bishop was definitely my main subject, but John still had one major problem.
14:16
SPEAKER_00: How do you prove that he murdered DeRose when the crime itself seemed impossible?
14:20
SPEAKER_00: And this is where we get some really good character development for John
14:24
SPEAKER_00: because he turns to Mr. Todd for help.
14:26
SPEAKER_00: So we learned that Mr. Todd wasn't simply just a former math teacher.
14:30
SPEAKER_00: He was so important to John.
14:32
SPEAKER_00: He was his mentor.
14:33
SPEAKER_00: He helped inspire what would eventually become Ludwig.
14:37
SPEAKER_00: And he even protected John from bullies when he was younger.
14:40
SPEAKER_00: And there's something so bittersweet about John seeing this man again.
14:45
SPEAKER_00: I mean, earlier in the episode,
14:47
SPEAKER_00: we see that John is worried that Mr.
14:49
SPEAKER_00: Todd could represent like a version of his own future.
14:52
SPEAKER_00: So John built so much of his life around him.
14:55
SPEAKER_00: And so John has to change the puzzle.
14:57
SPEAKER_00: And that really helped him crack the case.
15:25
SPEAKER_00: Let's talk a little bit about that apple, okay?
15:27
SPEAKER_00: Remember that partially eaten apple sitting in the trash bin in DeRose's office?
15:33
SPEAKER_00: Of course that mattered.
15:34
SPEAKER_00: John realizes that the apple belonged to Mr.
15:37
SPEAKER_00: Bishop and it proves that Bishop had actually been inside DeRose's office
15:42
SPEAKER_00: that morning.
15:43
SPEAKER_00: And once John knows that Bishop was there,
15:45
SPEAKER_00: he could finally start reconstructing what actually happened.
15:49
SPEAKER_00: And so Bishop strangled DeRose and staged his death to look like a suicide.
15:54
SPEAKER_00: He typed a fake note,
15:56
SPEAKER_00: complete with those grammatical errors,
15:57
SPEAKER_00: and then created what appeared to be an impossible locked room mystery.
16:02
SPEAKER_00: But Bishop didn't really need to...
16:06
SPEAKER_00: He never left.
16:08
SPEAKER_00: He locked a door and then he hid behind it, waiting for DeRose's body to be discovered.
16:13
SPEAKER_00: Once the door was opened and everybody was distracted by what they found,
16:18
SPEAKER_00: the body hanging,
16:19
SPEAKER_00: Bishop slipped out and then he later kind of reappeared as
16:23
SPEAKER_00: though nothing ever happened.
16:24
SPEAKER_00: So all of that attention on the locked door and even the keys being left inside kind
16:29
SPEAKER_00: of helped sell this illusion that the killer couldn't have possibly escaped.
16:34
SPEAKER_00: But the biggest piece of evidence comes from something Bishop himself recorded.
16:38
SPEAKER_00: Remember, Mr.
16:39
SPEAKER_00: Bishop supposedly proposed to Freya over video while he was away in
16:43
SPEAKER_00: the Scottish Highlands.
16:44
SPEAKER_00: There's just one problem.
16:46
SPEAKER_00: In the background of that proposal video, you can hear the school's clock tower bells chiming.
16:51
SPEAKER_00: And this is so cruel because Freya is deaf.
16:54
SPEAKER_00: And Bishop knew, or Mr.
16:56
SPEAKER_00: Bishop knew, that she couldn't hear those bells in the background of the video.
17:00
SPEAKER_00: So he could use that recording to convince her that he was somewhere else.
17:04
SPEAKER_00: But John could hear them in the video, and now Bishop's alibi completely falls apart.
17:10
SPEAKER_00: Did anybody else notice that when the episode opened,
17:12
SPEAKER_00: there was this big focus on the clock tower and the bells chiming?
17:16
SPEAKER_00: So it was like a giveaway at the beginning.
17:19
SPEAKER_00: So I thought that was a pretty cool connection.
17:22
SPEAKER_00: All right, let's talk the reveals.
17:24
SPEAKER_00: So Bishop deliberately tried to steer the investigation away from himself
17:29
SPEAKER_00: while manipulating the people around him, especially Freya.
17:32
SPEAKER_00: So his motive comes back to protecting himself.
17:35
SPEAKER_00: DeRose was going to report Bishop's inappropriate relationship with
17:38
SPEAKER_00: an underage student to the school board,
17:40
SPEAKER_00: and that would expose his behavior and then, of course, threaten his position.
17:45
SPEAKER_00: At the same time, Bishop stood to benefit if she moved into a more powerful role at the school.
17:51
SPEAKER_00: And he believed that having his fiance in that position would help make the allegations go away.
17:57
SPEAKER_00: So DeRose wasn't just standing in the way of Bishop's career.
18:01
SPEAKER_00: He was preparing to expose him.
18:03
SPEAKER_00: And so, of course, Mr. Bishop killed him before he could.
18:08
SPEAKER_00: Let's talk red herrings.
18:10
SPEAKER_00: I think Cordwell was the biggest red herring.
18:12
SPEAKER_00: On paper, she had plenty to gain.
18:15
SPEAKER_00: She could move up within the school.
18:16
SPEAKER_00: She could earn more money.
18:17
SPEAKER_00: And she was one of the people who actually discovered DeRose's body.
18:20
SPEAKER_00: I do wonder how come the caretaker was not a suspect.
18:25
SPEAKER_00: But I guess maybe they got a witness statement from him.
18:27
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, but in reality, Mr. Bishop was pulling the strings with her too.
18:31
SPEAKER_00: The locked door itself was almost another red herring because we spend
18:34
SPEAKER_00: so much time asking,
18:36
SPEAKER_00: how did the murderer leave the room when the answer was, he never did.
18:40
SPEAKER_00: At least not until everybody else opened the door for him.
18:44
SPEAKER_00: Did I solve it?
18:45
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think I did suspect Mr. Bishop.
18:48
SPEAKER_00: I think we all did, didn't we?
18:50
SPEAKER_00: But it also seems so obvious and I never get these things right.
18:54
SPEAKER_00: So I was like, I can't be right about this, but I kind of was.
18:57
SPEAKER_00: But I think it wasn't even just about, was it Mr. Bishop, but like how to prove.
19:02
SPEAKER_00: In this case, it was just very complicated to prove it was him.
19:05
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he was aggressive and confrontational and all these other red flags waving everywhere.
19:11
SPEAKER_00: And so that's why the solution did still work for me.
19:15
SPEAKER_00: The reveal still worked because I suspected the right person,
19:19
SPEAKER_00: but I didn't solve the actual puzzle.
19:21
SPEAKER_00: The apple,
19:21
SPEAKER_00: the fake alibi,
19:22
SPEAKER_00: the clock tower bells, and especially not Mr. Bishop hiding behind the door.
19:27
SPEAKER_00: I did not get that at all.
19:28
SPEAKER_00: I would have never guessed that.
19:29
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
19:31
SPEAKER_00: But John put that together.
19:34
SPEAKER_00: And I have to mention one final moment that I loved.
19:37
SPEAKER_00: At the end, Mr. Todd trips Bishop.
19:40
SPEAKER_00: And that was so sweet.
19:43
SPEAKER_00: Because all those years ago, Mr. Todd protected John from the bullies.
19:47
SPEAKER_00: And here he is all these years later.
19:49
SPEAKER_00: And he's still protecting John from a bully.
19:52
SPEAKER_00: So that was such a perfect full circle moment.
19:56
SPEAKER_00: All right, let's move on to favorite character moment.
19:58
SPEAKER_00: My favorite character moment is definitely John and Mr. Todd.
20:02
SPEAKER_00: I love getting to see how much this man means to John.
20:05
SPEAKER_00: Mr. Todd wasn't simply his old math teacher.
20:08
SPEAKER_00: He was a mentor and he helped shape the direction of John's I loved the flashbacks.
20:14
SPEAKER_00: They were wonderful.
20:15
SPEAKER_00: We get to see young John solving one of those complicated puzzles for the first time.
20:19
SPEAKER_00: And you can almost trace a straight line from that to the man that he becomes.
20:22
SPEAKER_00: And so that experience kind of sparks this lifelong And I think,
20:26
SPEAKER_00: obviously,
20:27
SPEAKER_00: he was wondering if he will eventually end up in a similar position or not.
20:43
SPEAKER_00: Older, more isolated,
20:45
SPEAKER_00: no kids, no family, no marriage, and no longer able to depend on his mind.
20:51
SPEAKER_00: But by the end, John does realize something important, that Mr. Todd is still very brilliant.
20:57
SPEAKER_00: His mind may work differently now,
20:59
SPEAKER_00: but he's still the mentor that John remembers and able
21:02
SPEAKER_00: to help John see this impossible puzzle differently.
21:06
SPEAKER_00: So at the end, I think John has a little bit more hope about his own future too.
21:11
SPEAKER_00: Favorite scene.
21:12
SPEAKER_00: My favorite scene is Mr. Todd asking John why he was pretending to be James.
21:16
SPEAKER_00: That was such a powerful moment.
21:18
SPEAKER_00: John is surrounded every day.
21:19
SPEAKER_00: He says this every day by detectives,
21:21
SPEAKER_00: people who are trained to investigate,
21:24
SPEAKER_00: observe behavior, notice inconsistencies and figure out when something isn't right.
21:29
SPEAKER_00: And somehow none of them realize that he's not James, at least.
21:34
SPEAKER_00: Maybe Holly did.
21:35
SPEAKER_00: But Mr. Todd does.
21:38
SPEAKER_00: And after all of these years,
21:39
SPEAKER_00: after not seeing John since he was young and while struggling with parts
21:43
SPEAKER_00: of his memory, he could tell these two brothers apart.
21:46
SPEAKER_00: And that says everything about how special their relationship was.
21:50
SPEAKER_00: And Mr. Todd didn't recognize John because he had all the facts in front of him.
21:53
SPEAKER_00: He recognized John because he knew him.
21:56
SPEAKER_00: I just love that so much.
21:57
SPEAKER_00: I thought that was such an important part of this episode.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: And the scene was a little emotional when you think about John spending so much
22:05
SPEAKER_00: of this season pretending to be somebody else.
22:07
SPEAKER_00: But for a moment,
22:08
SPEAKER_00: he's standing right there in front of someone who sees him as he is John Taylor,
22:14
SPEAKER_00: not his brother.
22:15
SPEAKER_00: So that may be one of my favorite character scenes of the entire season.
22:18
SPEAKER_00: Funniest moment.
22:19
SPEAKER_00: So I'm going to give this one again to I think maybe last week.
22:23
SPEAKER_00: I can't remember if I said the funniest moment was between DC Simon Evans and DS Alice Finch.
22:28
SPEAKER_00: But I love this this little duo when they're placing bets on
22:31
SPEAKER_00: whether DeRose's death was a murder or suicide.
22:34
SPEAKER_00: Oh, my God.
22:35
SPEAKER_00: And of course, Finch wins the bet.
22:37
SPEAKER_00: And I am really going to miss the dynamic between these two.
22:41
SPEAKER_00: They bicker like siblings.
22:42
SPEAKER_00: They're always competing with each other.
22:44
SPEAKER_00: And they're almost always together.
22:46
SPEAKER_00: And if you didn't know,
22:48
SPEAKER_00: Jaron Howe,
22:49
SPEAKER_00: who plays Simon Evans,
22:50
SPEAKER_00: and Izuka Hoyle,
22:51
SPEAKER_00: who plays Alice Fernandez,
22:52
SPEAKER_00: Howl
22:57
SPEAKER_00: has also been very busy playing Dr. Dennis Whitaker on HBO's The Pit.
23:02
SPEAKER_00: So now I'm sad I didn't realize how attached I've gotten to these two
23:07
SPEAKER_00: until I knew we weren't going to have this dynamic next season.
23:10
SPEAKER_00: All right, best twist.
23:11
SPEAKER_00: My best twist is definitely the clock tower bells.
23:14
SPEAKER_00: I thought that was such a clever way to destroy Bishop's alibi
23:17
SPEAKER_00: because he specifically used Freya's deafness against her.
23:21
SPEAKER_00: He knew she wouldn't hear those bells in the background of his video proposal, so he thought...
23:26
SPEAKER_00: He could convince her that he was somewhere completely different.
23:29
SPEAKER_00: But the evidence was sitting there in the background the entire time.
23:32
SPEAKER_00: And Freya couldn't hear it, but John could.
23:34
SPEAKER_00: And that's the kind of clue I love because once it's revealed, it seems so obvious.
23:38
SPEAKER_00: But obviously, I didn't catch that while I was watching.
23:41
SPEAKER_00: Let's talk cozy moments.
23:44
SPEAKER_00: There was actually quite a bit that felt cozy about this episode despite the murder.
23:48
SPEAKER_00: We have the clock tower,
23:49
SPEAKER_00: of course,
23:49
SPEAKER_00: the academic setting,
23:51
SPEAKER_00: which you know I love,
23:52
SPEAKER_00: the old architecture,
23:53
SPEAKER_00: the cottages, Cambridge, of course, and that crazy green, so green rugby field.
24:00
SPEAKER_00: But I think the coziest part for me was actually revisiting John's positive memories
24:06
SPEAKER_00: from his childhood.
24:07
SPEAKER_00: And we've heard about some of John's more difficult childhood experiences throughout
24:11
SPEAKER_00: the entire season.
24:12
SPEAKER_00: But I really love getting to see that there was also this teacher
24:16
SPEAKER_00: who saw something special in him and encouraged his mind and introduced him
24:20
SPEAKER_00: to something that would become fun.
24:22
SPEAKER_00: A lifelong passion and he protected him when he needed it.
24:25
SPEAKER_00: So that was really comforting.
24:28
SPEAKER_00: And having John be able to return to that part of his past and realizing that Mr.
24:33
SPEAKER_00: Todd is still Mr. Todd.
24:35
SPEAKER_00: All right.
24:35
SPEAKER_00: So now we're going to jump into our final case file,
24:38
SPEAKER_00: case file number two, episode six, our season finale.
24:43
SPEAKER_00: So our victim in the season one finale is someone we know very well by now,
24:47
SPEAKER_00: Holly Pender, a civilian working in IT for the Cambridge Police Department.
24:52
SPEAKER_00: And Holly has been one of the characters that I've been watching so closely all season.
24:56
SPEAKER_00: She has used her technological skills to help the department solve cases,
25:01
SPEAKER_00: but there have also been little signs that Holly knows much more that she's letting
25:05
SPEAKER_00: on.
25:06
SPEAKER_00: And she seems suspicious of James,
25:09
SPEAKER_00: or quote unquote James,
25:11
SPEAKER_00: Almost from the beginning,
25:12
SPEAKER_00: she knew what John had been searching for when he accessed information
25:16
SPEAKER_00: through Chief Constable Ziegler's account.
25:18
SPEAKER_00: And instead of reporting to him,
25:20
SPEAKER_00: she erased his search history and warned him that she wouldn't do it again.
25:24
SPEAKER_00: Then in episode five,
25:25
SPEAKER_00: Holly told John about the,
25:27
SPEAKER_00: you know, kiss between or supposed kiss between herself and Jane's Christmas party.
25:33
SPEAKER_00: And that left John wondering whether his brother had been cheating on Lucy.
25:36
SPEAKER_00: And remember, by the end of episode five, Holly called Lucy directly.
25:40
SPEAKER_00: She told Lucy that she needed to meet her in person to talk about James and sent her
25:44
SPEAKER_00: the address.
25:45
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm thinking, OK,
25:46
SPEAKER_00: finally,
25:47
SPEAKER_00: Holly is going to tell us what she knows, except Lucy arrives and Holly is dead.
25:53
SPEAKER_00: The crime.
25:54
SPEAKER_00: Holly is found lying on her kitchen floor,
25:57
SPEAKER_00: surrounded by blood, apparently stabbed with a kitchen knife.
25:59
SPEAKER_00: And unfortunately for Lucy, the circumstances could not look worse.
26:03
SPEAKER_00: The neighbors heard what sounded like a fight,
26:05
SPEAKER_00: the police were called, and when they arrived, Lucy is inside Holly's home.
26:10
SPEAKER_00: Lucy has no ID on her and isn't communicating with the police.
26:14
SPEAKER_00: She's arrested on suspicion of Holly Pender's murder.
26:17
SPEAKER_00: And I also noticed something completely random.
26:20
SPEAKER_00: Holly's address is number 21, just like Lucy and James's house.
26:23
SPEAKER_00: Does that mean anything?
26:25
SPEAKER_00: Probably not.
26:25
SPEAKER_00: But this is Ludvig, so apparently I'm suspicious of house numbers now, too.
26:30
SPEAKER_00: All right, let's talk about the suspects.
26:32
SPEAKER_00: At first, the prime suspect is obviously Lucy.
26:35
SPEAKER_00: She's at the crime scene.
26:36
SPEAKER_00: She's holding what appears to be the murder weapon.
26:38
SPEAKER_00: The neighbors heard the argument and then Lucy's potential motive gets worse.
26:43
SPEAKER_00: Now, remember when D.C. Simon Evans overheard Holly talking to John?
26:48
SPEAKER_00: Who he thought was James, about their kiss at the Christmas party.
26:51
SPEAKER_00: Simon now has to tell DCS Shaw and DI Carter what he heard.
26:55
SPEAKER_00: So from their perspective,
26:57
SPEAKER_00: that really gives Lucy a motive because Holly had a relationship with her husband.
27:02
SPEAKER_00: Later, another suspect emerges and it's Adam Newsome.
27:05
SPEAKER_00: He's Holly's alleged boyfriend who had been at Holly's house the previous day.
27:09
SPEAKER_00: So now the question becomes whether Lucy really walked into a murder scene at
27:13
SPEAKER_00: the worst possible moment or whether someone deliberately made sure
27:17
SPEAKER_00: that she would look guilty.
27:19
SPEAKER_00: All right.
27:20
SPEAKER_00: The evidence.
27:21
SPEAKER_00: The biggest piece of evidence is obviously the bloody kitchen knife Lucy was holding
27:25
SPEAKER_00: when the police arrived.
27:26
SPEAKER_00: And then we have Lucy herself being present at the crime scene.
27:29
SPEAKER_00: The disturbance and Simon's revelation about Holly and James.
27:32
SPEAKER_00: So everything points towards her.
27:34
SPEAKER_00: But Lucy believes something much bigger is happening.
27:37
SPEAKER_00: And she tells John this.
27:39
SPEAKER_00: She thinks the person who killed Holly is connected to the Sinclair case
27:43
SPEAKER_00: and potentially to what happened to Reese Bowman as well.
27:46
SPEAKER_00: Remember, he took his own life in his cell.
27:49
SPEAKER_00: So, well, he was in prison.
27:51
SPEAKER_00: And while Lucy is trying to explain that,
27:54
SPEAKER_00: we have Chief Constable Ziegler on the phone with DCS Shaw.
27:57
SPEAKER_00: And he's concerned about what this could do to the department's reputation
28:01
SPEAKER_00: because he's preparing to give a speech about police and public trust.
28:06
SPEAKER_00: Now, we have a dead employee,
28:08
SPEAKER_00: a missing DCI, and a questionable murder investigation and many people lying.
28:14
SPEAKER_00: So we have bigger problems than public trust.
28:18
SPEAKER_00: We can't even trust the police department in general.
28:21
SPEAKER_00: So our final case gives John an incredibly personal puzzle.
28:25
SPEAKER_00: Who killed Holly Pender with Lucy's knife?
28:27
SPEAKER_00: And if Lucy didn't do it,
28:29
SPEAKER_00: how can John prove that she's innocent when practically every piece
28:33
SPEAKER_00: of evidence seems to say otherwise?
28:35
SPEAKER_00: Except solving this case is about to expose something else
28:38
SPEAKER_00: because John can no longer continue pretending to be James.
28:42
SPEAKER_00: With Lucy under arrest, D.I.
28:44
SPEAKER_00: Carter takes the lead on Holly's murder investigation.
28:48
SPEAKER_00: Carter has to interrogate Lucy, but he also quietly gives her an opportunity to call John.
28:54
SPEAKER_00: And this is the moment we've been waiting for.
28:56
SPEAKER_00: John confesses that He isn't DCI James Taylor.
29:00
SPEAKER_00: He's James's identical twin brother and he has been impersonating him.
29:04
SPEAKER_00: After five episodes of wondering how long John could possibly keep going with this,
29:09
SPEAKER_00: the secret is out.
29:12
SPEAKER_00: And John is taken to a holding room while the department tries
29:15
SPEAKER_00: to figure out what they're going to do with him or without him.
29:19
SPEAKER_00: Meanwhile, Henry is picked up from school, brought to the station.
29:22
SPEAKER_00: He's crying and he wants to figure out how he can help his mom.
29:26
SPEAKER_00: And of course, you know, his dad still trying to figure out what's going on with his dad.
29:30
SPEAKER_00: This is difficult for any teenager.
29:32
SPEAKER_00: But Henry does something very important.
29:34
SPEAKER_00: He takes his dad's orange notebook.
29:36
SPEAKER_00: And I think we know now we do not underestimate Henry.
29:41
SPEAKER_00: He's a big part of this too.
29:42
SPEAKER_00: And then we get one of the biggest reveals of the season.
29:46
SPEAKER_00: Now remember that mysterious person dressed entirely in black.
29:50
SPEAKER_00: Who have been watching the family?
29:52
SPEAKER_00: The computer monitors, the maps, the photographs of James, John, Lucy, Henry.
29:56
SPEAKER_00: It was all Holly.
29:58
SPEAKER_00: Holly was the person conducting the surveillance,
30:00
SPEAKER_00: and apparently she may have been gathering information she could potentially use
30:04
SPEAKER_00: to blackmail James.
30:05
SPEAKER_00: She was the person sitting in that car taking pictures too.
30:07
SPEAKER_00: Her home contained all of those things,
30:10
SPEAKER_00: all the files and the photographs and the maps and the information on a number
30:13
SPEAKER_00: of people, including a file on DCS Shaw.
30:16
SPEAKER_00: But Holly wasn't simply snooping on James.
30:19
SPEAKER_00: We discovered that she had a direct connection to the Sinclair case, so Holly was the leak.
30:24
SPEAKER_00: And she had been secretly providing Sinclair with information from inside
30:28
SPEAKER_00: the police department.
30:29
SPEAKER_00: So now we know that Holly's involvement in everything, you know, is starting to make more sense.
30:35
SPEAKER_00: She wasn't just that kind of strange IT person who happened to find,
30:41
SPEAKER_00: you know, useful information.
30:42
SPEAKER_00: And when you think about it, she did find some very, very detailed information.
30:47
SPEAKER_00: She was very good at her job, but she's also been collecting information all along on...
30:53
SPEAKER_00: John, James, Henry, Lucy, and probably everybody in that police department.
30:58
SPEAKER_00: And Simon figures out something else that I love.
31:00
SPEAKER_00: The story about Holly and James kissing at the Christmas party, it wasn't true.
31:04
SPEAKER_00: Holly already knew that John wasn't James, and she brought it up to test him.
31:09
SPEAKER_00: So if she told the real James,
31:10
SPEAKER_00: you know,
31:11
SPEAKER_00: remember when we kissed at the Christmas party,
31:12
SPEAKER_00: he would know it never happened, and John didn't.
31:15
SPEAKER_00: So Holly got her confirmation,
31:17
SPEAKER_00: and so the man walking around the police department wasn't James Taylor, of course.
31:23
SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, she got me.
31:25
SPEAKER_00: I think she got me with that one.
31:28
SPEAKER_00: So even after learning the truth about John's identity,
31:30
SPEAKER_00: Carter still knows something pretty important.
31:34
SPEAKER_00: John can solve this.
31:35
SPEAKER_00: It's like he's in the holding room.
31:38
SPEAKER_00: He is in trouble and you're still depending on him to solve a murder
31:42
SPEAKER_00: that he's actually directly involved in.
31:45
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, so Carter secretly gives John the case files while he's sitting in the holding room.
31:50
SPEAKER_00: And then John makes a request after he pretty much solved it in his head.
31:54
SPEAKER_00: He says he wants to explain what happened,
31:56
SPEAKER_00: but he needs to do it in front of everyone, in front of witnesses.
31:59
SPEAKER_00: Because after everything he and Lucy have uncovered,
32:02
SPEAKER_00: and then of course what James told him,
32:04
SPEAKER_00: John doesn't know who inside this department he can trust.
32:06
SPEAKER_00: And so, of course, you know, we don't blame him.
32:09
SPEAKER_00: Now let's talk about the reveal, the other reveal.
32:13
SPEAKER_00: So John realizes that Holly's murder wasn't carefully planned.
32:17
SPEAKER_00: The killer hadn't expected Lucy to arrive.
32:20
SPEAKER_00: So someone had barged their way into Holly's home and then they hurried.
32:24
SPEAKER_00: We heard another person coming into the flat and then they hid.
32:27
SPEAKER_00: And Lucy comes inside,
32:29
SPEAKER_00: discovers Holly's body behind the kitchen aisle and she picks up the knife,
32:32
SPEAKER_00: puts it on a stool and that's where the killer gets the opportunity.
32:35
SPEAKER_00: The knives are then switched.
32:36
SPEAKER_00: So when police arrive and they find Lucy holding a bloody knife,
32:41
SPEAKER_00: they're seeing exactly what the killer wants them to see.
32:44
SPEAKER_00: But Lucy wasn't Holly's killer.
32:46
SPEAKER_00: Adam Newsome was.
32:48
SPEAKER_00: And we learned that Adam wasn't simply Holly's boyfriend.
32:51
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't her boyfriend at all.
32:52
SPEAKER_00: He had been doing grunt work for Holly's side business
32:55
SPEAKER_00: because Holly had another life outside the police department
32:59
SPEAKER_00: and she acquired information and she sold it.
33:01
SPEAKER_00: And so that explains the surveillance,
33:03
SPEAKER_00: the files, the photographs, and why Holly seemed to know so much about everybody.
33:08
SPEAKER_00: But Holly's murder also brings us back to the mystery
33:10
SPEAKER_00: that I've been waiting all season to understand, the Sinclair case.
33:15
SPEAKER_00: There are files missing from the Sinclair case.
33:18
SPEAKER_00: And then Henry and John turn their attention back To James' orange notebook
33:23
SPEAKER_00: and together they crack another one of James' codes.
33:26
SPEAKER_00: And then once they crack the code,
33:28
SPEAKER_00: we find out that James has left them something really important.
33:31
SPEAKER_00: It's an address for a storage room.
33:33
SPEAKER_00: So John, Lucy and Henry, they all go there and inside are all the missing Sinclair files.
33:40
SPEAKER_00: So James had been leaving them a trail to get to this point or to get to
33:45
SPEAKER_00: the storage room the whole time.
33:47
SPEAKER_00: And now we finally get confirmation about what happened with that investigation.
33:52
SPEAKER_00: So James was the first on the scene of the Sinclair case.
33:55
SPEAKER_00: He believed that Sinclair's death was a professional hit,
33:58
SPEAKER_00: but within 24 hours, James was removed from the investigation.
34:02
SPEAKER_00: DCS Shaw told him to drop it.
34:05
SPEAKER_00: James didn't.
34:06
SPEAKER_00: And Holly knew that James had been taken off the case.
34:08
SPEAKER_00: So now we know that James's disappearance is connected to something he uncovered.
34:13
SPEAKER_00: But then Ludwig, of course, gives us the moment that we've been waiting six episodes for.
34:19
SPEAKER_00: So while John, Lucy, and Henry are at the storage location, we see James.
34:25
SPEAKER_00: Yep, we see him in the flesh.
34:28
SPEAKER_00: We've been talking about this man for nearly six hours, and we finally see him.
34:34
SPEAKER_00: OK, he's alive and he's nearby.
34:37
SPEAKER_00: He's hiding and he's watching.
34:39
SPEAKER_00: His family doesn't see him, though, but we do.
34:42
SPEAKER_00: The viewers, we do.
34:43
SPEAKER_00: OK,
34:44
SPEAKER_00: so after an entire season of theories and cryptic messages and all these warnings
34:50
SPEAKER_00: and these crime reports and everything else, James Taylor is alive and well.
34:55
SPEAKER_00: And apparently he's still hiding for a reason,
34:57
SPEAKER_00: which means we got an answer to one huge question and about 20 more just opened up
35:01
SPEAKER_00: to.
35:03
SPEAKER_00: And after everything John has done,
35:05
SPEAKER_00: impersonating a police officer,
35:07
SPEAKER_00: solving murder after murder,
35:08
SPEAKER_00: and then admitting who he is, the Cambridge Police Department makes him an offer.
35:13
SPEAKER_00: They discover that John Taylor is actually Ludwig,
35:16
SPEAKER_00: the famous puzzle setter, and John is offered.
35:18
SPEAKER_00: He gets to solve cases as himself and we get to stay in the police department.
35:33
SPEAKER_00: So that's good for the show.
35:35
SPEAKER_00: And at the very end, there's another case waiting and John is ready to solve it.
35:40
SPEAKER_00: And after spending the season watching this reclusive man get dragged out
35:45
SPEAKER_00: of this little safe world that he created for himself,
35:47
SPEAKER_00: this little bubble, he has somewhere to go.
35:49
SPEAKER_00: People who can see and acknowledge his gift.
35:53
SPEAKER_00: And whether he expected it or not, I think John Taylor has become a real amateur sleuth.
36:02
SPEAKER_00: All right, let's talk favorite moments for episode six.
36:05
SPEAKER_00: My favorite character moment or really favorite character of this entire episode has
36:09
SPEAKER_00: to go to D.I.
36:10
SPEAKER_00: Russell Carter.
36:11
SPEAKER_00: Carter completely sold me in this finale.
36:13
SPEAKER_00: I loved watching him take the lead on Holly's murder investigation.
36:17
SPEAKER_00: He took the case seriously.
36:18
SPEAKER_00: He did his job.
36:19
SPEAKER_00: But at the same time,
36:20
SPEAKER_00: you could tell he was still trying to give Lucy and John the benefit of the doubt.
36:24
SPEAKER_00: And then he discovers that this man he's been working with You know, isn't even James.
36:31
SPEAKER_00: John had been impersonating his brother the entire time.
36:33
SPEAKER_00: He didn't know that.
36:35
SPEAKER_00: Yet Carter still trusts John's mind enough to secretly give him the case files
36:39
SPEAKER_00: and say, OK, you solve it.
36:42
SPEAKER_00: I love their scenes in the interrogation room and holding rooms
36:47
SPEAKER_00: because we see how much their relationship has changed since episode one.
36:52
SPEAKER_00: And then after everything is over,
36:53
SPEAKER_00: Carter is the one offering John the civilian consultant position.
36:58
SPEAKER_00: Deepo Olav was fantastic in this episode.
37:01
SPEAKER_00: Give this man his Supporting Actor Award because he earned it from me.
37:06
SPEAKER_00: My favorite scene is when John, Lucy,
37:08
SPEAKER_00: and Henry finally reach the storage room and discover all
37:12
SPEAKER_00: of those missing Sinclair files.
37:13
SPEAKER_00: And then since we spent the entire season just following all these clues
37:17
SPEAKER_00: that James left behind,
37:18
SPEAKER_00: and then there's physical proof that we weren't just making all of this up.
37:23
SPEAKER_00: James really did uncover something.
37:26
SPEAKER_00: And then we see James.
37:27
SPEAKER_00: Being able to see him alive was such a satisfying moment.
37:31
SPEAKER_00: And what fascinated me was how different James felt from John.
37:35
SPEAKER_00: So David Mitchell isn't just wonderful.
37:37
SPEAKER_00: Wearing some elaborate disguise.
37:39
SPEAKER_00: It's his demeanor.
37:40
SPEAKER_00: The way that he kind of carries himself feels different enough
37:43
SPEAKER_00: that I thought immediately I was like, OK, that's James.
37:47
SPEAKER_00: And now I cannot wait to see more of him and watch how David Mitchell shifts
37:53
SPEAKER_00: between these two brothers when we eventually get to spend more time with James.
37:59
SPEAKER_00: Funniest moment,
37:59
SPEAKER_00: my funniest moment has to be with DC Simon Evans asking John to sign the Ludwig book
38:04
SPEAKER_00: for his mom.
38:05
SPEAKER_00: Of course, it's for his mom, right?
38:07
SPEAKER_00: Remember,
38:07
SPEAKER_00: all the way back in episode one,
38:09
SPEAKER_00: we established that Simon is a complete mama's boy and he is constantly talking
38:14
SPEAKER_00: about his mother.
38:15
SPEAKER_00: So once everyone discovers that John is actually the Ludwig, Simon needs an autograph for mom.
38:21
SPEAKER_00: And honestly, that's the perfect Simon Evans moment to end the season on.
38:26
SPEAKER_00: Best twist.
38:27
SPEAKER_00: My best twist is actually one of James's final cryptic messages.
38:30
SPEAKER_00: So James leaves John a voicemail.
38:32
SPEAKER_00: He's claiming he's just like their father, a bowerbird.
38:35
SPEAKER_00: Is that what he called a bowerbird?
38:36
SPEAKER_00: He says that family life wasn't for him and that he was unhappy.
38:41
SPEAKER_00: And for a moment, John believes him.
38:42
SPEAKER_00: But then John realizes something.
38:44
SPEAKER_00: Bowerbird isn't random.
38:45
SPEAKER_00: It's connected to a book that their father gave them.
38:48
SPEAKER_00: And it's also a book that Henry now has from them.
38:52
SPEAKER_00: And so once Henry and John put their heads together,
38:54
SPEAKER_00: they realize James has hidden another message inside what he said.
38:59
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, he couldn't just leave a normal voicemail.
39:01
SPEAKER_00: Everything has to be a puzzle.
39:02
SPEAKER_00: But I loved it because, again,
39:05
SPEAKER_00: James is communicating with John in a language he knows his brother will understand.
39:11
SPEAKER_00: Cozy moment.
39:12
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to be real with y'all.
39:13
SPEAKER_00: Episode six is probably the least cozy episode of the entire season.
39:17
SPEAKER_00: We have Holly murdered, Lucy arrested, John exposed, police corruption, hanging over everything.
39:22
SPEAKER_00: It's not really a walking tour or And a school, you know, none of that.
39:29
SPEAKER_00: But somehow I still found it cozy,
39:32
SPEAKER_00: especially John sitting on the floor of that holding room surrounded by
39:35
SPEAKER_00: the crime scene photos.
39:37
SPEAKER_00: That hasn't seemed cozy,
39:38
SPEAKER_00: but there was something maybe comforting to me just from watching these episodes
39:42
SPEAKER_00: of him just quietly working through the puzzles in his head all alone
39:46
SPEAKER_00: to prove Lucy's innocence.
39:49
SPEAKER_00: Because that's John's comfort zone.
39:50
SPEAKER_00: You give him somewhere quiet in a puzzle.
39:54
SPEAKER_00: And he good.
39:55
SPEAKER_00: And just leave him.
39:56
SPEAKER_00: Just leave it to him.
39:58
SPEAKER_00: And so I also loved John bringing Lucy coffee in the morning.
40:02
SPEAKER_00: Was Lucy actually there drinking?
40:04
SPEAKER_00: No, she was arrested.
40:06
SPEAKER_00: But the intention was cozy.
40:09
SPEAKER_00: All right, so now we're going to get into our cozy mystery and season finale conversation.
40:13
SPEAKER_00: So what made Ludwig season one cozy?
40:16
SPEAKER_00: When I think about what made Ludwig cozy,
40:18
SPEAKER_00: there are obviously all of those traditional cozy elements.
40:21
SPEAKER_00: We have Cambridge,
40:22
SPEAKER_00: the River Cam,
40:23
SPEAKER_00: King's College,
40:24
SPEAKER_00: churches,
40:24
SPEAKER_00: cottages, academic settings, architecture, classical music, puzzles, cozy homes.
40:30
SPEAKER_00: Crosswords, chest, whatever.
40:31
SPEAKER_00: Blankets and the gorgeous orange and teal color palette.
40:36
SPEAKER_00: That was beautiful.
40:37
SPEAKER_00: But after finishing the entire season,
40:39
SPEAKER_00: I think John is actually one of the coziest parts of this show.
40:43
SPEAKER_00: He is this reclusive.
40:44
SPEAKER_00: He's an aggressive puzzle setter who has created a structured little world for himself.
40:48
SPEAKER_00: He likes his routines.
40:49
SPEAKER_00: He likes his quiet, being alone.
40:51
SPEAKER_00: And he's thrown into this completely unfamiliar environment where he has to interact
40:55
SPEAKER_00: with people and solve murders and pretend to be his identical twin brother.
41:00
SPEAKER_00: And they were nothing alike, really.
41:01
SPEAKER_00: They looked alike, but they're very different.
41:04
SPEAKER_00: But somewhere along the way,
41:05
SPEAKER_00: John starts to find a place where the things
41:08
SPEAKER_00: that make him different are actually valued.
41:10
SPEAKER_00: I feel like he's like his found family to some degree.
41:13
SPEAKER_00: And I think there's something so comforting about that.
41:16
SPEAKER_00: Now, by the finale, he's not pretending to be James anymore.
41:20
SPEAKER_00: The police department really wants John and they want his mind and his way of solving problems.
41:25
SPEAKER_00: And I really love that journey for him.
41:28
SPEAKER_00: Favorite character of season one, of course, is going to be John for me.
41:31
SPEAKER_00: But there are so many supporting characters that I grew attached to.
41:35
SPEAKER_00: Lucy, Carter, Holly, Finch, Simon, or Evans, and even Mr. Todd in episode five.
41:41
SPEAKER_00: But John is really the heart of the show for me.
41:43
SPEAKER_00: He's eccentric and...
41:45
SPEAKER_00: And I just, I really love him.
41:48
SPEAKER_00: And like I said, I loved him in Peep's show.
41:50
SPEAKER_00: I've watched probably almost every episode of that with my husband.
41:54
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I love how in both roles he's awkward and funny and intelligent.
41:59
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, he just always has no idea how to navigate a normal social interaction.
42:05
SPEAKER_00: And somehow David Mitchell makes all of it work without making John feel like a caricature.
42:10
SPEAKER_00: And I think what I loved the most was watching his confidence grow.
42:14
SPEAKER_00: Favorite Favorite case and reveal of the season,
42:16
SPEAKER_00: this one is easy, episode four, the reverse test.
42:18
SPEAKER_00: I thought episode three had taken the top spot and then episode four happened.
42:21
SPEAKER_00: The construction site murder itself was clever,
42:24
SPEAKER_00: but I did not think it would be my favorite because I wouldn't consider that
42:27
SPEAKER_00: to be one of my favorite settings for mystery.
42:30
SPEAKER_00: But that reveal was on another level for me.
42:33
SPEAKER_00: Watching him like work that crime backward using reverse chess and all like
42:38
SPEAKER_00: the cinematography and the camera movement.
42:40
SPEAKER_00: It was just so wonderful.
42:42
SPEAKER_00: I loved it.
42:43
SPEAKER_00: Like I said in the last episode,
42:45
SPEAKER_00: I think it's going to go down as one of my favorite cozy mystery reveals
42:49
SPEAKER_00: of all time.
42:50
SPEAKER_00: Episode three is a very close second though.
42:52
SPEAKER_00: That Moonlight Sonata reveal and watching them, like the separate cases come together was great.
43:00
SPEAKER_00: Did the James mystery stick the landing?
43:02
SPEAKER_00: I would say yes, but obviously we're not finished.
43:06
SPEAKER_00: I'm okay with that.
43:07
SPEAKER_00: I didn't need the finale to answer every single question.
43:09
SPEAKER_00: I just needed it to give me enough answers
43:11
SPEAKER_00: that I felt like it was worth spending six episodes wondering what was going on.
43:15
SPEAKER_00: And it did.
43:16
SPEAKER_00: And we know James is alive.
43:18
SPEAKER_00: We know his disappearance is deliberate.
43:20
SPEAKER_00: We know that he was investigating something involving the Sinclair case.
43:24
SPEAKER_00: We know he believed that Sinclair's death was a professional hit in that.
43:27
SPEAKER_00: He was removed from the investigation.
43:29
SPEAKER_00: Now, Holly was connected to Sinclair and all of this stuff.
43:31
SPEAKER_00: And somehow Matt Neville's connected and he's with his wife and they're hiding.
43:35
SPEAKER_00: Like we have a lot of puzzle pieces.
43:38
SPEAKER_00: Let's just put it that way.
43:39
SPEAKER_00: We have a lot, but we still don't know the whole story.
43:42
SPEAKER_00: So I still want to know why exactly can't James come home?
43:46
SPEAKER_00: Who is he hiding from?
43:47
SPEAKER_00: Who can he actually trust?
43:48
SPEAKER_00: What happened with the Sinclair investigation?
43:51
SPEAKER_00: And when are John and James finally going to be in the same room together?
43:54
SPEAKER_00: So the finale answered the question I needed answered most,
43:58
SPEAKER_00: that James is alive,
43:59
SPEAKER_00: but it left enough pieces missing that I desperately want season two.
44:03
SPEAKER_00: Am I excited for season two?
44:05
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
44:06
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
44:07
SPEAKER_00: And surprisingly, one of the things I'm most excited about now is James himself.
44:12
SPEAKER_00: We barely saw him.
44:14
SPEAKER_00: But I can already feel the difference between James and John,
44:17
SPEAKER_00: okay, from just based on the demeanor.
44:19
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, they're identical twins played by the same actor.
44:22
SPEAKER_00: So we don't want it to feel like the same person.
44:25
SPEAKER_00: So I can't wait to see how that plays out.
44:29
SPEAKER_00: And yeah, and just how the consultant role will go for John.
44:34
SPEAKER_00: And I love at the last scene how he puts on those glasses,
44:38
SPEAKER_00: takes the contacts out, and now he's able to wear his glasses.
44:42
SPEAKER_00: No more pretending.
44:44
SPEAKER_00: So my final thoughts on season one overall, Ludwig completely won me over.
44:49
SPEAKER_00: I went into this expecting a quirky amateur sleuth,
44:52
SPEAKER_00: some dry British humor, some clever puzzles and stuff, whatever, right?
44:56
SPEAKER_00: And I like Anna, Maxwell, Martin.
44:58
SPEAKER_00: I knew she was going to be good.
45:00
SPEAKER_00: I knew it was going to be good, right?
45:01
SPEAKER_00: And I had already watched the first two episodes.
45:04
SPEAKER_00: But what I got was something much more character-driven than I expected.
45:11
SPEAKER_00: I think the mysteries got better as they went along too.
45:14
SPEAKER_00: The bigger story kept me watching.
45:16
SPEAKER_00: The music is such a huge part of this and the color palette.
45:20
SPEAKER_00: Somehow,
45:20
SPEAKER_00: I think that's what makes the series genius is that all of this,
45:25
SPEAKER_00: the music,
45:26
SPEAKER_00: the mystery,
45:28
SPEAKER_00: the characters,
45:29
SPEAKER_00: the setting, like all of it, the colors, all of it made it such beautiful.
45:36
SPEAKER_00: It was an experience.
45:37
SPEAKER_00: And I said that in another episode, this show feels like an experience.
45:41
SPEAKER_00: And I really think it can set the tone or I think it could really help filmmakers
45:47
SPEAKER_00: or writers or directors that are working on mysteries be able
45:52
SPEAKER_00: to make really good quality mysteries.
45:54
SPEAKER_00: Like this is something that you could definitely look at as like
46:00
SPEAKER_00: a cozy mystery done extremely well.
46:04
SPEAKER_00: Um and and again we also have an amateur sleuth who kind of stepped into
46:11
SPEAKER_00: a detective role like really stepped into it and he was really likable and
46:17
SPEAKER_00: a character that you want to be around I think that's a big part
46:20
SPEAKER_00: of cozy mysteries you want to feel like you are spending time with
46:24
SPEAKER_00: that character like I don't mean to change the subject.
46:27
SPEAKER_00: I'm thinking about doing an episode on art detectives,
46:29
SPEAKER_00: but that's kind of what I was missing in that show.
46:31
SPEAKER_00: I think art detectives somehow is so cozy and somehow I really liked it,
46:37
SPEAKER_00: but there's something like a connection I don't have to the leads that I had
46:41
SPEAKER_00: to John.
46:42
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know if that's more telling about me or if it's about the writers or whatever.
46:47
SPEAKER_00: But this is the kind of cozy mystery I love.
46:50
SPEAKER_00: Clever without feeling cold.
46:51
SPEAKER_00: Funny without being too silly.
46:54
SPEAKER_00: Cozy without sacrificing a really good mystery.
46:59
SPEAKER_00: And now that John Taylor has a place in the Cambridge Police Department, come on season two.
47:07
SPEAKER_00: Ratings.
47:07
SPEAKER_00: And now for my final ratings for Ludwig Season 1, Episodes 5 and 6, y'all.
47:13
SPEAKER_00: Overall, I'm giving it a 5 out of 5.
47:16
SPEAKER_00: Yep, I am.
47:18
SPEAKER_00: 5 out of 5 for me.
47:19
SPEAKER_00: Cozy rating, 5 out of 5 for me.
47:22
SPEAKER_00: Mystery, 5 out of 5.
47:23
SPEAKER_00: Rewatch, 5 and 5 and 5 and 5.
47:27
SPEAKER_00: This is going into my Hall of Fame.
47:29
SPEAKER_00: Season 1 of Ludwig is up there.
47:31
SPEAKER_00: Right, right near All Creatures Season 1.
47:35
SPEAKER_00: The other Bennett sister season, Marlo Murder Club, but it's at the top.
47:39
SPEAKER_00: I put Love Vig above all.
47:42
SPEAKER_00: That's just me.
47:43
SPEAKER_00: Fight me.
47:46
SPEAKER_00: Okay, the whole season one, five out of five.
47:48
SPEAKER_00: I don't give perfect ratings just because I enjoy something,
47:50
SPEAKER_00: but by the end of this season, it gave me everything I want out of a show.
47:55
SPEAKER_00: And season two, I think, will be on BritBox in October.
47:58
SPEAKER_00: I think they just announced that.
48:00
SPEAKER_00: So what?
48:01
SPEAKER_00: Of course I'm going to be talking about that, and I can't wait.
48:05
SPEAKER_00: I'm just, like I said before, I'm just sad about D.C. Simon Evans and D.S.
48:11
SPEAKER_00: Alice Finch.
48:12
SPEAKER_00: I really like those two.
48:14
SPEAKER_00: Now I want to hear from you.
48:15
SPEAKER_00: What was your favorite case from Ludwig season one?
48:18
SPEAKER_00: Did you figure out any of the murders before John?
48:21
SPEAKER_00: What do you think is really going to go on with James and the Sinclair case?
48:24
SPEAKER_00: And are you as excited as I am for season two?
48:28
SPEAKER_00: Send me your thoughts and theories.
48:29
SPEAKER_00: I would love to hear them.
48:32
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for spending part of your day with me here at Cozy Comfort Club
48:35
SPEAKER_00: and joining me for this Ludwig Season 1 deep dive.
48:39
SPEAKER_00: And if you've been enjoying these deep dives and want
48:41
SPEAKER_00: to help support Cozy Comfort Club, you can now buy me a coffee or tea.
48:46
SPEAKER_00: Your support helps me continue spending time watching, researching, and creating these episodes.
48:51
SPEAKER_00: And you can find a link right in the show notes.
48:54
SPEAKER_00: And whether you support financially,
48:55
SPEAKER_00: follow the podcast,
48:57
SPEAKER_00: leave a rating, or simply listen each week, I really appreciate you being here.
49:01
SPEAKER_00: Also, a quick reminder about our new schedule,
49:04
SPEAKER_00: we're moving to one main episode a week,
49:06
SPEAKER_00: which gives me more time to really dig into the shows we're covering
49:09
SPEAKER_00: and bring you these deeper discussions.
49:12
SPEAKER_00: I'll still be dropping bonus episodes whenever I can,
49:14
SPEAKER_00: so definitely keep an eye on your podcast feed.
49:17
SPEAKER_00: And next week, we're heading back to the Yorkshire Dales again.
49:20
SPEAKER_00: We'll be finishing All Creatures Great and Small Season 2 with Episodes 4 through 6.
49:25
SPEAKER_00: And I'm also planning a special Countdown to Christmas bonus episode covering
49:29
SPEAKER_00: the Season 2, Episode 7 Christmas Special and finale, The Perfect Christmas.
49:35
SPEAKER_00: So we have plenty of cozy TV ahead of us.
49:42
SPEAKER_00: If you enjoyed today's episode,
49:44
SPEAKER_00: make sure you're following the podcast so you don't miss what's coming next.
49:47
SPEAKER_00: You can also follow me on Instagram at Cozy Comfort Club and subscribe to
49:51
SPEAKER_00: the Cozy Comfort Club Substack for weekly watch lists,
49:54
SPEAKER_00: reading updates, and even more recommendations.
49:57
SPEAKER_00: Also, if you are on Instagram,
49:59
SPEAKER_00: on Sundays I'll post what's new each week on PBS Masterpiece, BritBox, and Acorn TV.
50:05
SPEAKER_00: And if you're watching Ludwig,
50:07
SPEAKER_00: definitely send me your theories because I have a feeling we're going to have a lot
50:10
SPEAKER_00: to talk about when season two arrives.
50:13
SPEAKER_00: Until next time, stay curious.