Who Killed the Queen of Hearts? Mystery Explained

After a bit of a hiatus, Tommy and Tuppence are back on the case, but this isn’t quite the duo Agatha Christie introduced more than a century ago. Agatha Christie’s Tommy & Tuppence brings the former couple, now played by Antonia Thomas and Josh Dylan, into the present day, reimagining them as two former flames still trying to figure out their own lives when murder unexpectedly brings them back together.

Tuppence is a struggling actress juggling the occasional odd job, while Tommy is a successful writer who hasn’t had a new book in a long, long time. The two dated at university a decade ago, but they’ve since gone their separate ways, with Tuppence even moving to America. Now, a very modern murder mystery, complete with an Instagram-ready wedding, influencers, and online trolls, puts the exes back in each other’s orbit.

“It’s a completely modern story,” said star Antonia Thomas to TV Insider. “I think Phoebe [Eclair-Powell], the writer, took a lot of inspiration from period characters. She has taken bits and pieces from all of the books to create a very modern story. It’s not a completely traditional retelling at all.”

“Tommy and Tuppence are not professionals at solving crimes. Our characters stumble into it. We are in a world where there are phones, and solving crimes is different. It’s not an analog world,” said Josh Dylan. “You would think on the surface that would reduce the fun because everyone is so connected, but Phoebe, the writer, found amazing ways to kind of keep that quintessential mystery.”

“In a world where everyone wants to be a sleuth these days, where everyone is listening to true crime podcasts, it felt like an organic process. Two people caught up in a scenario, and they sort of slowly but surely stumble their way into becoming detectives.”

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The duo reunites in the most unusual of circumstances: An elaborate Alice in Wonderland-themed wedding seemingly designed for Instagram. Tommy is there as a photographer as a favor to the groom, Bingo (Toby Regbo), who is dressed as the White Rabbit. Tuppence, meanwhile, is part of the waitstaff as a favor for a friend.

The bride, Alice (Madeline Walker), is a bit of a control freak, although Bingo seems willing to do just about anything to make her happy. There’s just one major problem: He is apparently having an affair with Tatiana (Flora Evans-Akingbola), who is dressed as the Queen of Hearts. Tatiana is also fighting with Lina (Della Saba), the Cheshire Cat, while Alice’s father, Simon (Sean Pertwee), isn’t exactly thrilled with the festivities. He owns a development company and wants to bring his new son-in-law into the business, which would mean Bingo giving up his dreams of teaching kids football.

Then Tommy and Tuppence run into each other. Despite the decade between them, there are clearly still some sparks between them.

Things take a turn when Tuppence finds Tatiana sobbing. She admits she’s having an affair with Bingo and says she has lost her phone. She uses Tuppence’s phone to call it, and arranges to meet with Bingo in the cloakroom at midnight.

As the crowd outside is distracted by a dazzling array of fireworks, Tatiana meets the bunny of her dreams, but her fluffy suitor is holding a knife, causing the Queen to scream.

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Tuppence spots a headless bunny, Bingo, fleeing the scene and leaving a trail of blood behind him. Bingo finds Tommy and desperately tells him, “She’s hurt. Please. In the cloakroom.” While Tommy runs to the room, Tuppence follows the bloody trail to the cloakroom, where she finds a dying Tatiana. Before Tuppence can get help, Tatiana presses a button into her hand and leaves her with three damning words: “Bingo did it.” Tuppence screams, and the authorities are called.

With everyone else downstairs watching the fireworks, and with Tuppence’s testimony, Bingo quickly becomes the obvious suspect and is arrested.

Tommy brings Tuppence back to his flat above a pub called The Lady Albert, run by the lovely Lady Albert (Charlie Condou), where they start going over what happened. Tuppence showers off Tatiana’s blood, and the two begin picking apart the case. Something doesn’t sit right. Tatiana seemed genuinely scared, and neither of them believes Bingo is a murderer.

Unable to sleep, Tuppence does some investigating of her own and discovers that someone named Plane Jane had been trolling Tatiana on Instagram, including leaving a “Rot in hell” message among the many R.I.P. messages. Tommy recognizes the moniker from the party, and he looks at the photos, as the police confiscated Tommy’s camera, but they apparently didn’t realize his photos automatically uploaded to the cloud. Among them is a picture of Tatiana fighting with her coworker Lina, whom Tatiana had called “Plane Jane.”

Tuppence tracks Lina down to her job as a real estate agent, and she and Tommy pose as German influencers to investigate. Their cover doesn’t last long once they start asking too many questions, but they learn a few important things. Tatiana had the favor of Alice’s father, Simon, who refused to fire her even when daughter Alice asked him to. More importantly, Alice already knew about Bingo and Tatiana’s affair. Lina also has an alibi: She was in an Uber heading home when Tatiana was killed.

If Alice already knew about the affair, Bingo’s supposed motive suddenly looks a lot weaker.

Alice later comes looking for Tommy because she wants his wedding photos, but he tells her the police have them. Tatiana’s husband, Sebastian (Sebastian De Souza), is also there and appears devastated by her death. Tuppence, naturally, does some prying around the house and finds a dirty glove from one of the costumes.

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At a diner, Tommy and Tuppence line up their suspects. There’s Bingo, who stood to lose Alice and his potential business deal if the affair came out; Lina, who had reason to keep Tatiana quiet about her online trolling; Alice, who could have wanted revenge; Sebastian, the grieving husband whose startup seems a little like a pyramid scheme; and Simon, Alice’s father, whose relationship with Tatiana raises its own questions.

But with Bingo charged with first-degree murder, it looks like the case is over. Tommy and Tuppence part ways again, seemingly for good. But not so fast…

Tommy visits his beloved Aunt Ada (Imelda Staunton), a former detective and founder of Blunt’s Brilliant Detective agency, who gets him thinking about the White Rabbit costume. Tuppence saw a rabbit running away that night, but she never actually saw Bingo inside it. What if there were two White Rabbits?

Meanwhile, while playing a corpse on the set of a police procedural, Tuppence has her own eureka moment. Still dressed in her costume, she rushes off and realizes someone is following her before running into Tommy.

That’s when Tuppence remembers the button Tatiana gave her before she died. She shoved it into her bra and forgot about. It was from the vest of the White Rabbit costume. But when Tommy later compares it to Bingo’s costume on the camera reel, all of his buttons are still there, which means there were two white rabbits, and one missing a button was the one that killed Tatiana.

And just like that, Tommy and Tuppence are back on the case.

Agatha Christie’s Tommy & Tuppence, Tuesdays, BritBox