Return to Paradise is a Death in Paradise spin-off starring Anna Samson as DI Mackenzie Clarke. Here's everything that happened in the first episode...
Return to Paradise opens on the beach in Dolphin Cove. We see some surfers. Stuart Grainger, the president of the local surf club, introduces himself and shows off the trophy they will be competing for. He declares the surf carnival open. In the bar, Stuart smugly kisses his partner and dismissively tells waitress Becky to get cleaning. Becky gives him a look.
We see a property for sale board with husband and wife estate agents Susan and Stuart's pictures on. Stuart shows someone around the property while someone on a motorbike looks on. Back at the beach, the surfers pull a body out of the water. And it’s Stuart! He has a knife plunged in his back. And the theme tune starts...
We see DI Mackenzie Clarke in a cab to Dolphin Cove. When the cab driver, Trevor, realizes it's her he throws her out of his cab for what she did. She's obviously not liked! He drives off and leaves Mackenzie stranded miles away from Dolphin Cove. She starts walking…
She arrives at her beach property, which looks not a million miles away from the shack in Death in Paradise. Certainly, it has a great view. Detective S.C Colin Cartwright (Lloyd Griffith) inspects the body on the beach with Constable Felix Wilkinson (Aaron L Mc Grath). It turns out to be Colin's first murder case. Their boss, Senior Sergeant Philomena Strong (Catherine McClements), turns up. Colin says he's talked to Susan and the victim Stuart had a 2 pm appointment with a buyer called Grant at a property. Philomena breaks it to Colin that they need a senior detective on the case. Mackenzie talks to a crying woman on the phone.
Colin interviews the man, Grant, looking at the property, who says he left about three leaving Stuart to lock up. Grant says he knew Stuart but not well. Mackenzie walks into the house and asks where Stuart is! Colin says he's unavailable. Mackenzie replies: "He's dead, that's why his receptionist is crying. You're a detective so it wasn't natural causes. Murdered then". Colin looks highly uncomfortable as Mackenzie rapidly pieces together parts of the case. She explains she's a London cop. She heads outside and spots what looks like a surveillance camera! She notes Stuart's stuff is in the house but he was found in the water. Together they watch the camera footage. Grant left at 2.59 pm and the body was found around 4 pm. On the camera footage there's no sign of Stuart leaving the property. But how did he then end up dead on the beach 2km away?
She observes that the place isn’t cheap and that Grant is a mechanic. Colin checks his notes looking baffled. Mackenzie says: "Grease under his fingernails, pay attention!” She wonders why a mechanic would come to see a house he probably can't afford. The boss turns up and swiftly packs Mackenzie on her way, saying they have all the help they need. “Check his lungs,” Mackenzie says and then makes it clear she's going. Mackenzie phones London and we see a postcard from Saint Marie! The person she's calling declines the call.
The next day, Philomena learns that she’s not getting a detective to help on the murder case. She’s gutted, we wonder who might be able to help?! Mackenzie is cleaning her mum's house out. Philomena turns up and asks for her help. Mackenzie says she’s got too much on in London, but Philomena tempts her in with details of the case.
Mackenzie heads to the police station, which looks remarkably similar to the one in Saint Marie complete with a murder board. She's introduced to Felix. She doesn’t hang about. She looks at the photos of the body and asks why Stuart’s blazer is missing a button. What happened to it? The button is clearly going to be crucial! Police volunteer Reggie Rocco (Celia Ireland) walks in and she's actually pleased to see Mackenzie and gives her a big hug. Reggie is a retired teacher who now volunteers with the police. Colin reads out the victim’s phone messages: "She knows about us and she's fuming. We need to meet". Colin says Stuart deleted the message after he’d sent it to waitress Becky.
They go to intereview Susan who says she was on a run between 3 and 4 pm on the day of the murder. Susan says she knew Stuart was having an affair with Becky. Susan says Stuart had ended it with Becky. Reggie and Felix go to investigate someone’s letterbox being knocked over.
Becky seems a lot more upset than Stuart's wife about his death. She says she was in love with him. She says he didn't dump her and was going to leave his wife and move in with her. She claims he didn't because Susan made him sign a pre-nup so if they divorced he'd get none of the family fortune. Mackenzie spots that Becky is pregnant!
Hooray! It's DI Jack Mooney!
Later, Mackenzie hides her number and again tries London — and DI Jack Mooney (Ardal O’Hanlon) picks up! She asks him if there’s going to be an inquiry and he indicates he can't talk but says it will be months before he can update her on what's happening. He puts the phone down on top of some files about Mackenzie, which references Operation Nightshade (drug trafficking) and Operation Blackout (cybercrime). Colin comes into the house and Mackenzie says the house is her mother's. Colin smirks and says you can sometimes see a lady bathing out the back naked. And Mackenzie says yes, that’s her mum! Awkward!
Mackenzie asks if there’s anything from forensic accounts and Colin says that's him and he’ll get onto it tomorrow. The autopsy is tomorrow as well. "Oh yeah, no rush," says Mackenzie sarcastically. Lloyd hits back that they're a small team without big city resources. He does have the last week of security footage from the house and Mackenzie starts whirling through that. The next morning, Colin turns up with two coffees at Mackenzie's. Colin said there's no evidence at the house and no evidence a killer has cleaned up either. Mackenzie says she doesn’t drink coffee and throws it in the bin! Turns out she's been up all night looking at the footage. There's not much other than Stuart coming in and out of the house while always glued to his phone.
We meet Glenn
Colin says Glenn Strong, the boss's son, is the pathologist. Mackenzie clearly knows Glenn and looks worried. She ducks out of seeing Glenn. Glenn emerges from the water after surfing. He says that the murder weapon is just a standard kitchen knife and there are no prints. Glenn looks stunned when Colin says Mackenzie is on the case. Colin comments she's not winning many friends and Glenn replies she's a good person deep down. "How deep?" quips Colin.
Back at the station, Colin asks Reggie if there's anything between Mackenzie and Glenn. She says nothing except Mackenzie leaving Glenn at the altar six years ago, flying to London, and never speaking to him again! Meanwhile, they've identified the motorbike that knocked over the letter box. It's owned by a criminal called Zayne who lives with Becky! They go to talk to Zayne who makes a dash for it. He passes Mackenzie who joins in the chase and she turns out to be a lot quicker runner than Colin or Felix and executes a perfect rugby tackle to take Zayne down on the beach. Zayne admits to being at the house on the day of the murder and seeing Stuart and the mechanic. He says he's no longer living with Becky and went around to hers just to pick up his engagement ring. Mackenzie suggests being dumped for a rich estate agent is a good motive for murder. But Zayne says he was lurking at the house to wait for Becky, not Stuart.
The team has their suspects: Zayne, Becky, Susan, and Grant. Colin says Becky had a key to the house but Mackenzie points out there’s no evidence Stuart was killed there.
At home, Mackenzie finds a dog waiting for her, Frankie. Frankie is closely followed by Frankie’s owner, Glenn. He says there was water in Stuart's lungs and Mackenzie says she knew it! Glenn says the victim drowned and was stabbed! He drowned before the knife wound killed him. Glenn says there's a maximum five-minute window between the knife being used and Stuart going into the water. She says they need to time how long it takes to get from the house to the nearest water and if it’s more than five minutes they know Stuart was killed in the house. Poor Glenn does the running and it takes more than 10 minutes to get to the sea, so Mackenzie knows he wasn't killed in the house. Glenn clearly wants to talk, but Mackenzie shuts him down.
Back at the station, Colin says mechanic Grant's finances were a mess and he was in debt to Stuart. Also, it seems he had a childhood crush on Stuart’s wife, Susan. Mackenzie says they all have motives but how did they do it? Reggie says it’s like they’re investigating the wrong crime and that comment resonates with Mackenzie. "If we could fit the crime to the evidence, what crime would that be and who benefits," she ponders. Mackenzie heads to the coastline with Colin and finds something, we presume the missing button!
Stuart's killer is revealed
In true Death in Paradise/Agatha Christie style Mackenzie gathers the suspects. She says the murder makes no sense until you look at it from the other direction. Stuart was murdered but he wasn't meant to be the victim. She continues Stuart publicly declared he was meeting someone at the house and knew where all the security cameras were at the house and the blind spots. And the buyer he was showing around was no such thing as Grant clearly couldn't afford it. Stuart was creating an alibi, she declares, so he could kill his wife!
Stuart, taking advantage of the blind spots on the cameras, slipped out of the house with the idea of intercepting his wife on her run and killing her by pushing her off the cliff. He then planned to return to the house and leave in full view of the camera with his accomplice Grant. He'd then be able to marry Becky, bring up their baby, and inherit all his wife's money.
Mackenzie then reveals that Grant warned Susan of what her husband was planning because he's always loved her. And then we see Susan plunge the knife into her husband’s back! They struggle and he falls off the cliff to his death. Well, he deserved it really! Susan denies it and says there's not a shred of evidence that Stuart was there. But then Mackenzie produces the button! Susan is arrested for Stuart's murder.
Back at the station, Mackenzie says sorry to Colin for throwing his coffee in the bin and explains she’s not really a people person. She says Colin can be her tenant, but he says he can't afford it, and she says just to pay what he likes. She goes to see Glenn and says she's off to London. Finally, Glenn confronts Mazkenzie about why she left and hasn't called him in six years. She says it was about her and not him. She wanted more than Dolphin Cove.
She goes to see her boss Philomena who says DI Mooney has explained how Mackenzie was facing suspension for tampering with evidence. She denies she was and says she was stitched up. Philomena believes her but says there's only one place in the whole of Australia that would let her be a detective and that's Dolphin Cove! And can she bring some milk in the morning… Mackenzie knows her fate!
