Strike: The Ink Black Heart marks the return of the BBC's hit crime drama, adapted from J.K. Rowling’s novels written under the pseudonym, Robert Galbraith. With Cormoran Strike (Tom Burke) and Robin Ellacott (Holliday Grainger) reprising their roles once again, the detective agency is 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 2.
The episode starts with Robin dressed as Jessica on a group tour of Highgate Cemetery, where Edie was murdered. She calls DCI Murphy and asks where exactly it happened. She finds the spot and it's precisely where Anomie took her in Drek's Game for a private chat. She's interrupted by Pez, who asks her why she's there. He reveals him and Edie were working on a new cartoon together, and that at North Grove, both Edie and Kea, Josh's ex-girlfriend, were working on the exact same idea of Hearty, the titular character in The Ink Black Heart. He says Edie got rich and Kea got poorly and had to move home to live with her mum. Pez invites Robin for a drink later.
Back at the office, Robin goes to see Strike and they discuss what she’s found. Strike has been doing his own investigation and wonders if Anomie is part of the far-right group, the Halvening. The man who was with Wally had a Norse sign tattooed. A man named Al Gizzard who comments on Wally's videos shares the name with a Norse symbol, Algiz. When delving deeper into Al's social media, he finds a man named Jamie Kettle replying to him. When he looked up Jamie, it was the man that was with Wally. The man who fought with him in the street. The Halvening all share tattoos like this.
Robin and Strike go to visit josh in hospital. Katya, his agent, is there. They ask to speak to Josh alone. When they ask about Anomie, he says Anomie had been messaging him privately for years. The last message, "Understand this. A film deal will be the end. You've been warned." Edie had called Josh the day before meeting up, but Josh felt like no-one else knew where they were. He's insistent it's not Wally or Pez, but has suspicions about Edie's fiancé, Phillip. He says he showed up at North Grove, a tough ex-cop looking to protect Edie and now he wants to write a script for the film. Edie had ideas, but she kept them all on her phone, which was stolen by Anomie.
Josh mentions that he was meeting Edie to talk about information that Yasmin, Edie's ex-assistant, had brought to him. He says it was evidence that Edie was trying to do a deal with Anomie behind his back and kick him out. He'd only told his agent, Katya, that he was going to meet Edie that day. Recalling the events of the day, Josh said he only saw a groundsman, a large bald man. But, when he was stabbed, the footsteps were light. Strike wonders if the groundsman was someone else in disguise. Josh is reluctant to help any further, but Strike says for Edie, he should protect The Ink Black Heart because she loved it and he loved her. Meanwhile, Barclay is running surveillance on Edie's fiancé, Phillip Ormond. He captures him dropping off an envelope to Yasmin.
After seeing Josh, Robin and Strike go to visit Katya next. Her son, Gus, answers the door and goes back to his cello practice. She says her son has a girlfriend now called Darcy, that he studies at the Royal Guide of Music, and that her husband Inigo and daughter Flavia are upstairs.
Inigo, Katya's husband, is an angry man, and he's also unwell. In his wheelchair he sits in the room as they try to speak to Katya. She's written a list of everyone she suspects and Inigo says their prime suspect should be Yasmin because she knows her way around computers. They mention Josh getting the fake dossier about the Anomie deal with Edie, Inigo says Edie and Josh hated each other and that Kea is the true writer of The Ink Black Heart. Katya dismisses Robin and Strike as her husband becomes more angry. Outside, their daughter, Flavia, approaches them and says her mum is always with Josh and doesn't care about her. They add Gus and Inigo Upcott, Katya’s son and husband, to the list of suspects. Strike wonders if there’s a partnership in play - like Anomie and Morehouse creating Drek's Game together.
An uninvited guest turns up — Strike's ex-girlfriend, Charlotte Campbell. Says her husband Jago found a nude photo she sent to Strike and Jago says he’s going to name him in the divorce, that he’ll be in all the papers. Charlotte warns that the paparazzi will be following him and he won’t be able to work, unless Strike finds some dirt on Jago they can use against him. Out of nowhere, she says to Robin that she looks like Strike's girlfriend, Madeleine.
Strike doesn't want to tell Robin about what happened with Charlotte, but she gets it out of him and says they need to do what she says or they won't be able to carry on the agency.
Robin goes to art class at North Grove again. When she tries to sneak upstairs, Wally sees her. Then Nils appears. He invites her into his room to see his work. He says his father died of cancer, but he really died of anomie. On a painting, she reads Thule Ultima, when asked, he says the Vikings believed that it was a place beyond the world. Where Edie is now. Pez comes to find her and the team cross Pez and Nils out as suspects.
Elsewhere, Phillip Ormond meets Strike for a drink. His hand is injured and he says he teaches computer science and he met at North Grove because it's near his school. When asked if he’s involved with anyone to do with The Ink Black Heart, he lies. He says him and Edie were working on a script for The Ink Black Heart film, she was going to give him a co-writer credit. Strike says her phone had the notes, and the killer took it. He says he worried when Edie wasn’t home when he finished running detention after school. When Strike asks directly about Yasmin, he says Edie was harsh for sacking her, but he didn’t know her. He asks about the bruising Robin noticed on Edie's neck. Phillip gets aggressive, and Strike decides to leave. Barclay follows Phillip on his motorbike after the meet.
Back at the office, an unknown number calls Strike and says in a robot voice that he needs to dig up Edie's body and read the letters that are in her coffin. Meanwhile, Robin, still undercover as Jessica, and Pez have a drink in the pub. Pez reveals Wally is getting a tattoo of a Viking letter, like the Halvening.
Barclay continues to follow Phillip closely, though Phillip manages to escape by turning his car off and hiding. Fortunately, Barclay notices and hides again, so that he can continue to follow Phillip, but now suspicion is raised.
At the pub, Pez kisses Robin. Robin asks if she thinks they’ll ask Pez to take over the drawing now that Edie is gone. He says that he doesn’t want the money, but that Phillip has been harassing him to give him the stuff they'd been working on like he has the legal right. He refuses. From this, Robin excuses herself and sends the audio recording telling Strike to listen about Phillip Ormond. He rewinds it too far and hears Pez kiss her.
Back on the pursuit of Phillip, Barclay watches as he pulls over by a bridge and throws something into the water. Barclay manages to retrieve it and calls Strike to tell him he's got Edie's phone. But, as he’s driving home, Phillip has hidden again and follows him. In a tense moment, Phillip chases Barclay down and drives him off the road, making him crash and fall of his bike.
