Magpie Murders, Episode 4

Before the funerals, a flashback presents Alan chatting warmly with Katie. The apparent friendliness is striking beside his previous behaviour. In London, Charles again asks Susan to decide whether she will lead Clover Books. She wants more time. On the drive to Suffolk, he suggests a route around roadworks, and their conversation turns to possible solutions to Alan's fictional murder.

Pünd collapses and Fraser takes him to Dr Kamal. The doctor recognises the seriousness of his condition, although Fraser remains unaware of the diagnosis. Pünd uses the consultation to ask about Mary's death. Kamal thinks she fell while cleaning, and recalls that Brent summoned him after noticing an unanswered telephone. Joy asks Pünd to speak with Robert about the death of his younger brother.

The services for Alan and Sir Magnus place both sets of acquaintances under observation. At the fictional gathering, Chubb reports that the stain on the burned paper is blood consistent with Sir Magnus's blood group. The document was more than waste thrown casually into a fire. At Alan's reception, Sajid asks whether he has appeared in the book, and Susan identifies his counterpart as the village doctor.

Melissa, Alan's former wife, explains that she encouraged him towards detective fiction after his literary ambitions failed. Success brought money without the standing he wanted. Their son Freddy's resentment shows another consequence of Alan's family life. Melissa also reveals that she once dated Andreas. Susan conceals her own relationship with him while absorbing the news. James announces that he is selling Abbey Grange to Jack White, reversing Alan's old struggle with his neighbour.

Robert finally tells Pünd about Sam's drowning. The brothers had been playing a treasure-hunt game on the estate during the war. Sam disappeared near the lake, and Brent found him. Robert describes the blame that spread through his family afterwards. The story explains why the landscape carries painful associations beyond the current murders.

Susan visits her father Max in hospital. His apology does not become the reconciliation she might have hoped for: he defends the relationship that broke the family apart and makes assumptions about her life. Afterwards, Susan recognises pieces of her parents' story in Alan's manuscript. Sam echoes Samantha, her drowned mother; Darnley rearranges the letters of Ryeland. Katie admits telling Alan about their family during a conversation that seemed sympathetic. Susan's anger turns towards the author who transformed private grief into entertainment. An anonymous photograph then brings another unwelcome question about Andreas.

• Susan’s parents become a television subplot.
• Sam is called Tom in the novel.
• Freddy appears on screen but not in person in the book.

The added family material gives Susan a personal reason to object to Alan’s methods. She is not only assessing whether a disguised portrait will work in a crime novel: she experiences the consequences of turning someone’s grief into a plot. The changed child’s name matters to the screen version’s wordplay, so a reader remembering Tom should not treat the television name as an accidental inconsistency.