‘Tommy & Tuppence’ Finally Kiss — But Is Their Romance Already in Trouble?

When we last left Tommy (Josh Dylan) and Tuppence (Antonia Thomas) in Episode 3 of Agatha Christie’s Tommy & Tuppence, a simple case of a missing pearl necklace had turned into murder. Theater producer Archie St. Vincent (Alex Jennings) died from a severe allergic reaction after an onstage kiss with his wife, actress Gilda Glen (Saffron Burrows), leaving no shortage of suspects behind the scenes. But Aunt Ada (Imelda Staunton) suggested they were looking at the case all wrong and needed to uncover Archie’s secrets instead. That led them to critic Omar Bevington (Orlando Seale), whom they found bludgeoned. Tuppence chased a fleeing suspect, only to be thrown down a flight of stairs. Warning: Spoilers ahead for Agatha Christie’s Tommy & Tuppence Episode 4.

Love reignited…then quickly snuffed out

After taking a nasty tumble down the stairs, Tuppence (Antonia Thomas) wakes the next morning to find Tommy (Josh Dylan) by her side with tea and painkillers. He also has a new clue: the voicemail left on the watch mentioned a document waiting at the registry office.

But first, there’s the matter of that kiss. Or, rather, those kisses. Tommy and Tuppence finally give in to what has been building between them — until a knock at the door brings everything crashing back to reality.

It’s Julius (Nicholas Richardson), Tuppence’s estranged husband, who has come bearing divorce papers and one brutal introduction: “When your sister said you started an amateur private detective agency with an ex, I thought that was code for mental breakdown.” Julius is sticking around while he searches for a director for his movie and tells Tuppence he’ll be at the Radcliffe if she wants to talk. He also gets Tommy’s name wrong, calling him “Tim.”

Romantic moment officially over.

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The more they dig, the more suspects are found

Tuppence throws herself back into the case. She and Tommy head to the registry office and attempt to impersonate Omar Bevington (Orlando Seale), only to discover the clerk knows he’s dead. They eventually sneak onto the computer anyway and uncover a major secret: Miranda (Denise Black) was — and technically still is — married to Archie. They never divorced because Archie didn’t want to pay up. And, BTW, those were her pearls.

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When confronted, Miranda insists she didn’t hold a grudge. That isn’t exactly true. She hated Gilda, especially after Gilda lost the pearls that once belonged to Miranda. But underneath all that anger was something else: Miranda still loved Archie. “I was happy to take anything I could get,” she admits.

Omar had been digging into Archie’s past and knew about the marriage, but Archie apparently wasn’t worried.

What if the victim was not the greatest person?

With everyone being forced out of the theater, Tommy and Tuppence turn their attention to the flowers and tributes left behind for Archie. One particularly nasty note leads them to a florist, who identifies Mary as the sender. The deeper they dig, the clearer it becomes that working with Archie wasn’t the fantastic experience everyone expected. His ego had made life miserable, even for Gilda.

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That raises a bigger question: What if Gilda had a reason to want revenge, too?

The duo discovers that Gilda’s original downfall and the reason for her comeback arose after private emails trashing her costars were leaked to Big Bad Hype, a gossip site owned by Omar. So, why would Archie later invite Omar to the show? Tommy and Tuppence begin considering another possibility: Archie himself leaked Gilda’s emails, destroying her career only to later position himself as the man responsible for resurrecting it.

Gilda confirms it. Omar told her Archie was behind the leak. She wanted revenge, but professionally — she planned to outshine Archie onstage. She calls him a bastard but admits she still grieves him.

Tommy and Tuppence have their first fight

Meanwhile, the kiss has created a problem Tommy and Tuppence can’t investigate their way out of. Tuppence keeps pushing Tommy away until he finally forces the conversation. She tells him, “My husband wants a divorce, Tommy. And you are right, we are not at Uni anymore! I have a proper grown-up life. I just don’t know if I can implode it for you!”

“Well, I’m not the one who keeps trying to do exactly that,” he fires back.

And with that, they have their first real fight.

Tommy goes to Aunt Ada, who allows him “one more cocktail’s worth of wallowing” before suggesting the best cure might be stirring in a complication of his own. Right on cue, fangirl and investigator DS Draper (Callie Cooke) texts him with new information.

Tuppence, meanwhile, meets Julius to discuss their divorce. He points out that she ran away and then ghosted him for a month. She admits she wasn’t herself in Los Angeles and didn’t want him buying her a career. Julius doesn’t want to give up on them, though. He wants to try again.

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A crack in the case thanks to peanuts and bad whiskey

Draper then gives Tommy the clue that finally cracks the case: Traces of peanut were found in the lipstick used by Gilda before Archie’s fatal allergic reaction. The police also recovered the document Omar requested from the registry office — a death certificate belonging to a woman.

Tommy and Tuppence now know who did it. They just need to prove how.

They gather the cast and crew at the theater and stage a trap involving peanut whiskey. When Mary (Lucie Shorthouse) appears to have an allergic reaction, Tuppence suggests she inherited Archie’s peanut allergy, being Archie’s secret daughter and all…

(She didn’t. The whiskey is just terrible.)

The death certificate belonged to an Iris Vetner, Mary’s mother, whose iris tattoos and flowers provided another clue to her identity. Iris met Archie at the theater and had his child. Mary recently obtained DNA results proving Archie was her father, but when she confronted him, he reacted cruelly.

That also explains why Archie hired Blunt’s Brilliant Detectives in the first place. He never wanted a serious investigation. He hired inexperienced detectives because he planned to frame Mary for stealing the pearls, which were ultimately discovered hidden inside the cheap hand soap he gave everyone as gifts.

Mary decided to get revenge first.

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Knowing about Archie’s peanut allergy, she microwaved his EpiPens to sabotage them and put peanut oil on Gilda’s lipstick, effectively turning Gilda’s kiss into the murder weapon. Mary then broke into Archie’s dressing room to retrieve the DNA results that could connect her to him.

Unfortunately, Omar overheard Mary and Archie fighting. Desperate for gossip, he planned to expose what Archie had done, which would have immediately made Mary a suspect. So, Mary killed Omar with the critics’ award.

Mary tries to run, but Julius tackles her before the police arrive and arrest her.

But wait! There is one more mystery to solve…

The case may be solved, but Tommy and Tuppence are anything but. Julius, thoroughly impressed by his wife’s detective work, declares that Tuppence has “main character energy.” She is then left with a choice: Go for drinks with Julius or go home with Tommy.

“Where is home?” Julius asks.

It’s a question Tuppence doesn’t have an easy answer to, and it leaves the future of Blunt’s Brilliant Detectives looking uncertain. In the end, Tommy texts Draper, Julius kisses Tuppence, and Miranda finally gets her pearls back.

But the episode has one last mystery.

Ada is asleep in bed when her voiceover declares, “There is a murder afoot.” A mysterious figure sneaks into her room and tampers with her private stash of booze, suggesting Archie and Omar’s murders may be solved, but something much bigger is unfolding, and whatever is happening could affect Tommy and Tuppence forever.

Agatha Christie’s Tommy & Tuppence, Tuesdays, BritBox