Strike: The Ink Black Heart has seen the return of the BBC’s hit crime drama, adapted from J.K. Rowling’s novels written under the pseudonym, Robert Galbraith, and here's how the series ended.
With Cormoran Strike (Tom Burke) and Robin Ellacott (Holliday Grainger) reprising their roles once again, the detective agency are approached with a rather unusual case. Edie, the co-creator of a popular cartoon turned TV show, Ink Black Heart, comes to Robin to plead for help after a barrage of abuse and stalking by an unknown online persona known only as Anomie. At first, the agency is too busy to help her, but then the case turns into a murder investigation and they must act quickly to unravel an intricate web of lies and suspects.
Here's a recap of everything that happened in Strike: The Ink Black Heart episode 4.
The final episode opens on Vikas’ body being removed from the scene. Robin and Strike watch the CCTV and witness Vikas going in and out of his room, but Strike notices it’s not Vikas, but the killer in disguise. It’s Anomie again using the Halvening methods of using latex masks to hide their identity. The detective says they’re about to arrest the Halvening, but it's clear now that Anomie works alone — the next victim, Paperwhite, Robin says.
When it comes to the problem of Strike's ex, Charlotte, Robin mentions that Jago is going to Kent this weekend and Robin wants to run surveillance to try and capture his abuse towards his family to use against him. While in the car, Robin enters Drek’s Game and goes into a private chat with Paperwhite. She tells her to call the police. She says Vikas is dead and that Anomie killed him, but before Paperwhite can respond, she gets banned from the game.
Later that day at the office, Pat opens a package and suddenly runs into Strike’s room before a huge explosion. They’re okay, but the parcel bomb has destroyed the place. As Robin arrives at the scene, DCI Murphy says they rounded up the Halvening this morning, but the bomb got through before they could intercept it.
Strike goes to see Yasmin to ask more questions. He tells her 13 members of Halvening have just been arrested, but she lies to say she hasn’t dealt with them, yet she took information from them and passed it onto Josh. Strike tells Yasmin that Morehouse (Vikas) has been murdered. Fearful, she reveals that Anomie has been making her play as him in the game and tells her when to login and play. This gives Anomie an alibi for the murders and voids all their investigations when they've ruled a suspect out because they haven't been on the game when Anomie has. She says she doesn’t know who Paperwhite is either and that Fiendy (Rachel) is the only male moderator left. He tells her to call DCI Murphy and tell him everything, but to call if Anomie gets in touch.
Meanwhile, Robin leaves a message to Rachel to see if she got sent the photo of Paperwhite that should reveal her true identity. Rachel sends it. Robin uses it to search for similar images on Google and finds Nicole Crystal, an artist. They go to Nicole's house to show her the photo and ask about Paperwhite, she doesn't know anything about it. They ask about Drek’s Game, but she’s never played it. She says she took the photo for her ex-boyfriend, Marcus, but he wouldn't have sent it to anyone. She mentions he lives with his sister, Darcy. Strike asks about Vikas, and she says he followed her on Twitter and liked her posts, but she never understood why.
From this conversation, the pair realise that Robin wasn’t banned by Anomie when she was talking to Paperwhite, that Paperwhite is Anomie. Anomie was using the Paperwhite persona to get into Vikas’ private life and keep tabs on him.
At Robin's apartment, Strike is staying there after the office, and his home, were destroyed by the bomb. Robin goes to spy on Jago, but Strike warns her first that he he’s abusive to all women, not just his wives and children. As soon as she arrives in Kent, Robin is filming Jago on her phone when she witnesses him slap his daughter round the face while they’re horse riding. He then forces his other daughter to take on a jump that’s too high, which results in her falling off and breaking her leg. Robin rushes over and calls an ambulance. Jago stares her down.
Meanwhile, Strike looks through Marcus’ Twitter and discovers that his sister, Darcy, has deleted her account. Looking her up online, he finds her playing piano. He calls Marcus and he reveals that someone was being abusive to Darcy online, so she deleted her accounts. When Strikes asks what was going on when that happened, he says nothing, that it was completely out of the blue. They were in London studying and Darcy was at the Royal Guild of Music - the same place Gus Upcott, Katya's son, goes.
After the ambulance leaves, Jago follows Robin and says he knows she’s Strike’s partner. He tries to attack her, but she tackles him to the ground and punches him in the face. She sends the video to Strike. Strike goes to visit Jago at his home and Charlotte’s there. Jago agrees to keep Strike's name out of court, as he now has evidence to use against him if he did. As Strike goes to leave, Charlotte comes onto him and says she’s still going for joint custody of her twins, despite what she knows about her husband and the way he treats people. Strike sees her for who she really is and says goodbye.
That evening, Robin answers the phone and looks distressed by what she hears. She calls Strike. A death threat had been diverted from the office. He tells her to get out of the flat and go to a hotel. She says they’ve arrested the Halvening, but he panics and says he’s coming to get her, though he’s in a lot of pain. She agrees to go to a hotel and instead, Strike goes to the hospital. The doctor tells him to keep weight off the amputation for 4-6 weeks, but is concerned about his leg spasming.
Strike heads to the hotel to meet Robin and they talk about the case. They say Anomie destroys anyone that hurts his feelings. Darcy and Kea were two of them, and Edie, of course. They go to meet Grant Ledwell as they believe he's hiding something. They ask about the call he said he had with Edie. He says, it was last year sometime.
He asks about the call about digging up her body and reading the letters, but that he didn't mention the letters before, and that when he referred to bringing them to the coffin to bury with her, he only mentioned one letter, not two So, where did the other one go? They accuse him of never having a call with Edie, but for some reason he felt like Josh was trying to push her out. Why? Because of the letter Josh wrote and that Grant hid. He admits there was other evidence and they ask to read it. Grant says what Josh wrote was disgusting and the fact that Katya wrote it down when he dictated it is shocking. As they read the letter, they realise the handwriting isn't Katya's.
Meanwhile, Barclay goes to meet Marcus and Darcy. When he shows Darcy photos of the murder suspects, she recognises Gus. He tried to jump her at a party, but they kicked her out. He spoke to the Royal Guild of Music and they said he hasn't submitted work in a year and he said he's been in hospital.
Unfortunately, the Royal Guild of Music already got in contact with Inigo, meaning Gus will know they're onto him. They try to get there in time, but when they show up to the Upcott's home, the lights are out, but Robin hears a woman screaming for help. Strike tells Robin to wait for the police, but she breaks in with his skeleton key and runs in. Suddenly, Gus comes out of his room and tasers Strike, who has run in behind Robin, and then stabs him. Robin runs upstairs to find the rest of the family; Inigo has been stabbed and lies dead on the floor, Katya and Flavia are hiding in the bathroom and Katya has also been stabbed.
Robin locks the door to protect her, Katya, and Flavia, but Gus starts breaking the glass to get in. Gus tells her to take off her clothes or he’ll make her watch him cut his mum and sister's heads off. The police arrive, just in time and restrain Gus. Downstairs, Strike is suffering from his stab wound, and as he tries to speak to Robin, he can't get out his words of what he really want to say to her.
It cuts to the hospital where Robin is visiting Katya. Katya blames herself for letting Gus down. Robin then goes to visit Strike, who is fortunately recovering. She reveals they found a latex mask, taser, and knives hidden under the floorboards in Gus's room. That he'd been playing a recording of practice while he played Drek's Game and snuck out the house.
He'd also bugged the house, so that's how he was getting all the private information from his mum. They also found the real letter from Josh to Edie, nothing like the one Grant read. In fact, Flavia actually saw Gus swap the letters and that’s why she was calling people from an unknown number asking them to dig Edie up and read the letters in the coffin. Robin says if I hadn’t gone in, you wouldn’t have been stabbed, but Strike says she did the right thing and the whole family would’ve been killed.
Despite the unspoken words between Robin and Strike, she reveals she’s going on a date with DCI Murphy. When she goes back to the office, he’s finally added her name on the door of the agency.
