The Bletchley Circle Season 2 Episode 1: Recap and Summary [Spoilers]

And a look ahead at Episode 2, Episode 3, and Episode 4

(ITV)

The Bletchley Circle series 2 returned with episode 1 on January 6. So what happened? [spoilers ahead]

The drama, focused on the lives of four extraordinary and brilliant women who worked at top-secret Headquarters Bletchley Park during World War II, began at Bletchley Park, where we meet two characters who worked along the main four characters during the war.

That would be John Richards, one of their bosses, and Alice Merren, an assistant who wasn’t utilized to her full capacity. The pair were having an affair.

The show quickly moves into the present, where Merren stands over the body of Richards. She is thought to have murdered him.

But Jean, who knew about the affair during the war, doesn’t think so. But Alice is refusing to speak even to her own lawyers.

Jean moves to reunite the group in the first series--Lucy, who is more confident now as she works for Scotland Yard; Millie, who works as a German translator and isn’t sure she wants to get involved; and Susan, who is still haunted by what took place earlier in the women’s lives, particularly serial killer Malcolm Crowley, and worries about the safety of her family.

All four do end up teaming up to try to prove Alice’s innocence, starting with discovering that Richards sent a bouquet of flowers to a woman who wasn’t his wife, but wasn’t Merren either. Millie goes undercover and gets the address of the woman they identify as Elizabeth Lancaster.

Merren, though, was ultimately found guilty of murder. She tells the four about the mysterious Lancaster, but the ending won’t come until the next episode. It’s a two-parter.

In a look-ahead, PBS describes episodes 3 and 4:

“Episodes 3 and 4, ‘Uncustomed Goods,’ find Millie branching out into what she believes to be an innocent sideline of dealing in unaccustomed goods. This endeavor leads to her being kidnapped and held in a seedy hotel by some gangsters. On discovering this, Alice goes to Jean and Lucy to help. The girls start to investigate in order to save their friend and, as they do so, uncover a much darker, hidden world of crime.”