What’s Worth Watching: A Ripping Good Yarn

MyAnna Buring in Ripper Street
Bernard Walsh/BBC America

Ripper Street, “The Peace of Edmund Reid” Season Finale (Wednesday, June 17, 10/9c,BBC America)

The third season finale of the moody Victorian British crime drama brings to an end not only some of its trademark complex and dark storylines but some familiar characters as well. It opens with the murder of reporter Ralph Ackerman (Elliot Levey) as he tries to uncover the connection between magnate Theodore P. Swift’s (Ian McElhinney) stolen bearer bonds and the horrific train wreck that began the season. But what viewers will care most about is the deepening guilt of Swift’s daughter, brothel owner Susan (MyAnna Buring) who’s supposedly carrying the baby of forensic expert Capt. Homer Jackson (Adam Rothenberg), and whether Det. Inspector Edmund Reid (Matthew Macfadyen) will get justice for himself and Matilda (Anna Burnett), the daughter he long thought dead.

Despite the satisfying and emotional finality of the episode, there will be more to come. Two more Ripper Street seasons have been ordered in the UK and will be aired on BBC America.