Tommy (Josh Dylan) and Tuppence (Antonia Thomas) may have stumbled into their first murder investigation together, but solving it is about to get a lot more complicated, both professionally and personally. After an Alice in Wonderland-themed wedding ended with the Queen of Hearts/Tatiana (Fola Evans-Akingbola) dead and the groom/The White Rabbit, also known as Bingo (Toby Regbo), looking increasingly guilty, the second episode of BritBox’s Agatha Christie‘s Tommy & Tuppence picks up with the former couple convinced that the police have the wrong man.
Their biggest clue? There wasn’t just one White Rabbit running around the Alice in Wonderland-themed wedding that night. There were two. Warning: Spoilers for Agatha Christie’s Tommy & Tuppence Episode 2. Need to catch up on the cozy mystery? Read up on Episode 1.
1 Rabbit + 1 Rabbit = 1 Murderer
Tuppence awakens in Tommy’s apartment to a bit of a fright, but they are both back on the case after realizing there are two White Rabbits. After Tuppence dodges calls from a mysterious Julian, they head out to see Detective Inspector Merriot (Chizzy Akudolu), who isn’t as jazzed to see the duo. She doesn’t appreciate them hiding evidence in her case.
They explain their button theory and that Tuppence was followed; however, according to Merriot, Bingo had the means and the motive, as he was going to meet Tatiana, signaling her with a “lover’s code.” Merriot figures Bingo was the one with her missing phone. She then issues a strong warning to the duo to butt out.
A little snooping leads to big clues
Out of ideas, the duo heads to Aunt Ida (Imelda Staunton), who makes them realize they need to find the other bunny. So they go back to the mansion where the wedding was to begin their search. Tommy realizes that he was with Bingo when he got the “lover’s code,” a string of flamingo emojis, and that he couldn’t of had Tatiana’s phone. Someone set him up. They search the garbage heap out back and make a startling discovery: The second White Rabbit costume.
They bring the costume to Tommy’s biggest fan, Detective Sergeant Draper (Callie Cooke), after which they find out that Cheshire Cat/Lena (Della Saba) lied about her alibi. Heading to Tatiana’s former workplace to confront Lena, they find Tatiana’s husband, Sebastian (Sebastian de Souza), yelling for Tati’s possessions. A talkative receptionist explains she was the one who got rid of his wife’s stuff.
On the street, they find Lena, who tells them Simon (Sean Pertwee) ordered her to get rid of Tatiana’s things, and that she found a password which led to something…else. She is afraid. She flees, giving the duo a key to her apartment, where they find the password themselves in an Alice book.
Not that it helps. The password gets them nowhere. But Tuppence remembers that she called Tatiana’s phone to help her find it. She dials it, and it goes to voicemail, but she gets a call back, only it is not from the murderer. It is even scarier…
Tuppence’s life is in shambles
Instead of a murderer, it is something far worse: Tuppence’s terrifying sister, Constance (Eleanor Fanyinka). Tuppence forgot to pick up her nieces, and her sister is livid. While she was with Tommy, Tuppence’s husband, Julian, sent her flowers and gifts to win her back. “Tuppence, what is the plan here?” She wants her sister to make a decision. Is she getting a divorce, or is she going back to Los Angeles and working on her marriage?
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The revelation that Tuppence is married is just one of the many ways that BritBox’s Tommy & Tuppence has been updated for a contemporary audience
“She’s married in our version of it, to someone else, but she’s at a real crossroads in her life and doesn’t know what she’s doing,” explained Thomas to TV Insider. “So he kind of forces her to stop and think and really kind of be a bit more present instead of just avoidant.”
“Definitely dicey,” said Thomas. “I’d say that in and amongst the crimes that they’re trying to solve, that’s the big heart of the piece, which Tuppence is very much pulled in two directions in regards to figuring out what she wants and the rekindling of ‘this’ — them coming back together. It’s sort of stuff that’s been left unfinished. So it’s tricky.”
Was Alice just an innocent bystander in Wonderland?
Meanwhile, Tuppence discovers that influencer and jilted bride Alice (Madeleine Walker) now has a book deal. What if the murder helped her career?
Tommy and Tuppence track down the costume shop where the White Rabbit outfits originated, and discover that an alias was used for one of the rentals, but that Alice signed for both with little hearts over the “i”s. They go to the police immediately.
The police arrest Alice, and they discover she wrote most of her book before the crime even took place.
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Old problems arise between the dynamic duo
Tommy and Tuppence head to Tommy’s to find Albert (Charlie Condou) knocked out and Tommy’s flat ransacked. Tuppence wants to text Simon because she suspects he is in on it, but Tommy is furious. Albert was hurt because of them. They were possibly followed, and it put Albert in harm’s way. The two get into a fight, which gets to the core of why they broke up. Tuppence “rushes into things without thinking” while Tommy thinks he is “better than her because he plays it safe.” Tuppence leaves in a huff.
“Tuppence is sort of completely chaotic,” star Thomas told TV Insider. “At the beginning of it, her life is sort of all over the place, and actually Tommy makes Tuppence pause and have to like really think about her actions and think about the choices that she’s making in her life, and [how you] actually you can’t be completely impulsive about everything.”
“Tommy is the opposite. Tommy is sort of meticulous and thoughtful and overthinks everything. There’s a process and procedure to things… That’s why I think they are good at it in the end,” said Dylan.
“Tommy kind of brings the details…and Tuppence brings the chutzpah,” explained Thomas. “But in their relationship, and in the past, where it went wrong was for that reason. Tuppence is sort of too impulsive. Can things be more considered?”
Who killed the Queen of Hearts? The murderer revealed
Instead of heading to Los Angeles to see her husband, Tuppence goes to a construction site where Simon’s next project is underway. With no phone and no backup, she realizes she is not alone. She runs into Sebastian, Tatiana’s mourning husband. She offers him the password that she found in Tatiana’s apartment in exchange for a confession. He says Alice did it, and her father will get away with it.
Tuppence breaks it down: Sebastian convinces Alice to have a themed wedding for the costumes; they get two of the same bunny ‘fits, then they steal their partners’ phones; and when everyone was watching the fireworks, he killed Tatiana, making her think that the man she loved killed her. Then he texted Bingo to meet in the cloakroom to lure him to the scene. He killed Tatiana, who was eclipsing him in business and making a fool of him in their marriage, and Alice got rid of her competition, a cheating husband, and got a book deal. They did it together.
Now there is only one problem: Tuppence is alone on an abandoned construction site with a killer.
Tommy arrives with the police, causing Sebastian to panic. He begins to fight Tuppence, choking her after she swats Tatiana’s phone from his hand and off the side of the building. Tommy stops him, but with all lost, Sebastian leaps from the side of the building.
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Happy ending and secrets unveiled
So, what were Simon and Tatiana really doing? Simon was actually a drug kingpin, and the password hid the fact that he was a drug-smuggling kingpin. That is why Lena was afraid and what put Tatiana’s life in danger. That was the real business.
Bingo gets to go back to teaching kids football, while Alice rots in jail
As for T&T? Tuppence decides to move in with Tommy for now as flatmates, and Tuppence tells Tommy about Julian, and she needs more time to think. They are now in business together. Thanks to the start-up money given to them by Bingo, they are now partners at Blunt’s Brilliant Detectives, complete with offices at the Lady Albert…with the possibility of more.
Agatha Christie’s Tuppence & Tommy, Tuesdays, BritBox