Miss Scarlet and The Duke 3×01 “The Vanishing” Spoilers Ahead
Welcome, Miss Scarlet and The Duke, fans! Last we parted in the Season 2 finale, Eliza and William headed up the stairs to her office to play charades with Ivy and Mr. Potts, but not before sharing a moment. Luckily, fans didn’t have to wait too long to watch their favorite Victorian-era private detective, as Season 3 is up and airing on PBS!
Without hesitation, Miss Scarlet and The Duke 3×01, “The Vanishing,” opens with Ivy, Clementine, Mr. Potts, and Eliza getting their mug shots taken. It looks like sh-t went down off-camera, but Duke obviously arrives and gets them released. But that doesn’t seem to simmer down the upstanding citizen known as Mr. Potts, who is furious to have spent the night in jail. Ivy is mortified; it’s clear that she worries about what “Barnabus” may think of her. Meanwhile, Eliza is more determined than ever to expand her business — she realizes that she can’t solely rely on Moses for assistance and needs more resources. Therefore, she goes out to multiple banks for a loan, only to be unsuccessful.
Despite her success as a private detective, Eliza still struggles to obtain clients and meets with everyone’s oh-so favorite and ridiculous journalist, Mr. Sinclair, to place an advert. Mr. Sinclair suggests he hires Eliza to investigate the disappearance of Alfonso the Great Magician, who seemed to have vanished from his act last night. In turn, Eliza and Mr. Sinclair will publish a series covering Eliza’s investigation, which Eliza agrees to.
Coincidentally, back at Scotland Yard, William has instructed his men to no longer give tip-offs to the press about their cases after Mr. Sinclair published important information regarding a high-profile armed robbery case. Meanwhile, As Eliza begins her investigation and speaks with theater members, she initially begins to suspect that the magician’s disappearance is a publicity stunt. However, Scotland Yard is informed of a body that has washed up from the Thames, which turns out to be Alfonso, the missing magician. The next day, both William and Eliza show up at the theater to conduct their respective murder investigations. Consequently (and due to his general dislike towards Mr. Sinclair), William is not happy about Eliza’s partnership with Mr. Sinclair. He refuses to work together on the investigation as long as Eliza is involved with Mr. Sinclair’s article.
Eliza learns that Alfonso didn’t use his magician’s wand at his last show and had been planning on selling it for his retirement. She and William end up at the entertainment shop where Alfonso intends to sell the wand. Eliza is able to twist William’s arm to interview the shop owner together, and they learn that Alfonso did not arrive to sell and that Alfonso’s family had been impersonating the magician for five generations. William seems to be in a hurry and refuses to answer Eliza’s questions about the autopsy of Alfonso’s body.
Naturally, she and Moses break into the mortuary, where they learn Alfonso drowned and had fractures to his head. They also find a key in a hidden compartment on his shoes. Moses and Eliza head to Alfonso’s dressing room in the theater, where they find a safe and his wand hidden in a desk. Eliza surmises that since Alfonso never used the wand during his show and never showed up for his appointment to sell it, Alfonso was already dead during his last act.
Eliza reports her latest findings to Mr. Sinclair and suggests she turn in the evidence she found to the police. Mr. Sinclair convinces Eliza otherwise, stating that all the attention will be turned to William. Eliza seems to take his advice, as the next day, William shows up at her office for no apparent reason. Both of them are suspicious of the other and scope each other out, trying to sniff out if either has found out more information. It is hilarious that both of them obviously want to share their findings and discuss the next possible move but can’t bring themselves to do it because of Mr. Sinclair. So they do the next best thing — they rant to Ivy and Fitzroy.
But alas, the twosome join forces after the shady journalist publishes an article regarding the investigation and embellishes information without mentioning a word to Eliza. After rightfully calling him a “washed-up hack” and refusing to work together, Eliza apologizes to William for getting involved with Sinclair. With Sinclair’s threat to ruin Eliza looming over her head, she focuses on solving the investigation with William. They eventually learn that Alfonso was depressed and his death was most likely suicide — his final act was impersonated by his rival’s daughter as a final homage.
Miss Scarlet and The Duke 3×01 “The Vanishing” wasn’t so much about the mystery but a few main things: Eliza’s ambition and its cost to her and those around her. She is very determined in her career, and goodness knows she’s had to work twice as hard to get half of what men like Nash have. However, in her pursuit of becoming a successful private detective, Eliza has often had tunnel vision and remained ignorant of how her actions affect others. There were multiple instances demonstrating this in just “The Vanishing” alone — she’s been postponing her monthly dinners with William and forgetting about them; she is causing issues between Ivy and her relationship with Mr. Potts; she got her acquaintances all arrested; and she chose the prospect of publicity for her business over her relationship with William. As William reminds her at the end, “there’s more to life than work.”
Speaking of William, viewers got to see more of his character scattered in brief moments throughout “The Vanishing.” Regardless of Eliza’s comments, it’s clear that William cares about his job when he decides that enough is enough and that his men can no longer speak to the press when it interferes with their ability to do their job. He also doubles down on his instruction when he finds out that Detective Phelps talked to a reporter and warns him that if he repeats the offense, he will be fired. William also releases Eliza from jail for the umpteenth time, and I daresay it won’t be the last. More importantly, he is still looking out for Fitzroy. After Phelps bruises Fitzroy for informing Duke about the tip-offs, William doesn’t press Fitzroy about who caused the damage to his face when Fitzroy declines to say. Instead, he takes Fitzroy to Moses and asks Moses to teach Fitzroy how to box. Lastly, while it’s clear that Eliza’s preference to choose her work life over her personal life is often the source of his irritation, William looks out for her career because it’s important to her. He prevents Sinclair from doing further damage to Eliza’s reputation and career by letting his men talk to reporters again.
I have a feeling that this won’t be the last time that Eliza’s focus on her career can lead to negative outcomes, but I hope I’m wrong. The good news, we have more episodes of Miss Scarlet & The Duke on our way! What did you think of the season three premiere? Share your thoughts in the comments below, and catch new episodes every Sunday on PBS.
I have a feeling that this won’t be the last time Eliza’s focus on her career leads to adverse outcomes, but I hope I’m wrong. The good news, we have more episodes on the way!
Now streaming on PBS: What are your thoughts on Miss Scarlet and The Duke 3×01 “The Vanishing?” Let us know in the comments below.