O Brave New World
Miranda
O, wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
That has such people in't.
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
That has such people in't.
- The Tempest, Act V, Scene 1
Season One, Episode One
Written by: Paul Matthew Thompson & Jude Tindall
Directed by: Piotr Szkopiak
Original Air Date: February 25, 2018
On the eve of her wedding in Stratford-Upon-Avon, hairdresser Luella Shakespeare becomes suspicious that her fiance is having an affair, so she retains private investigator Frank Hathaway. Frank ordinarily doesn't do "extra-maritals", but he needs the work and so reluctantly starts digging. Abruptly, Luella cancels his services and goes through with the wedding, only for her new husband to be found dead in the honeymoon suite.
This episode provides examples of:
- Both Sides Have a Point: Frank grouses that Lu's
attachment to her car isn't normal; she retorts that at least her car won't bigamously marry her and steal her life savings. - Can Always Spot a Cop: Two private investigators, Frank (a former Detective Inspector with the Arden Criminal Investigative Division) and Thiago Cabrera (a former Captain in the Panamanian National Police) pull this trope on each other.
- Chekhov's Gun: The set of deer antlers that Lu's uncle gave her as a wedding present makes a handy Improvised Weapon for tripping up Janice when she tries to get away.
- Clear My Name: Luella Shakespeare is framed for the murder of her new husband. She teams up with private investigator Frank Hathaway to clear her name, and ends up becoming his new partner.
- Con Man: Luella's fiance turns out to have been one, with an M.O. of romancing single women, marrying them, embezzling all of their money, then faking his own death and disappearing.
- Damned by Faint Praise: Luella's mother, Genevieve, seeing her daughter in her wedding dress, says her daughter has done amazingly well "...with what you've got."
- Desperately Seeking A Purpose In Life: After being cleared of the murder charge and getting her money back, Lu has the option of reopening her hair salon. She decides instead to go into partnership with Frank, because she wants to do something more meaningful than "cutting hair", and was surprised to find out she could actually be a good detective.
- The Dog Was the Mastermind: Veronica, the hotel hostess, turns out to be the murderer, who lured Clive to the hotel after recognizing him as the husband who abandoned her.
- Establishing Character Moment:
- Frank takes surveillance photos of a car being used in an insurance scam. Unfortunately he's failed to notice the scrapyard's guard dog, and bolts back to his getaway car... which is a taxi, the driver of which refuses to budge until Frank pays his fare.
- Later, even after Lu has fired him and ordered him removed from her wedding, he attempts to sneak into the reception in costume to warn her against going through with the marriage.
- Still later, after Lu's new husband has been killed, Marlowe enters the crime scene and finds Frank going over the body with a practiced hand, revealing that he used to be her superior.
- Luella, while struggling with an intruder in her late husband's home, accidentally sprays Frank in the eyes with her pepper spray, but also recalls perfectly the registration number and the hire agency's tag of the intruder's car.
- Fallen-on-Hard-Times Job: Frank used to be a well-regarded Detective Inspector with the Arden CID, until he was forced to take early retirement; his agency is struggling when Lu approaches him, which is why he's willing to reverse his usual policy against "extra-marital" cases.
- Groin Attack: When Frank confronts Janice, she swings a hold-all loaded with cash at his midsection. He catches it and smirks at her... until she brings her foot up and drives the hold-all into his crotch, allowing her to make her getaway.
- Hyper-Competent Sidekick: Sebastian, especially noticeable through The Power of Acting that he uses when going undercover.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: The episode takes its title from The Tempest.
- I'm Standing Right Here: After Clive's assistant is caught and arrested, Frank explains to Marlowe that Clive was a con man with an M.O. of seducing, marrying, and then robbing "lonely, pathetic, desperate women..." Lu, Clive's latest mark, says she thinks Marlowe's gotten the point.
- I Need to Go Iron My Dog: Frank berates Sebastian for not standing in the way of the repo men, and he defends, "I was tuning my lute" (he says this while actually holding one).
- I Want You to Meet an Old Friend of Mine: Mark Benton (Frank) and Nigel Whitmey (Clive) previously appeared together in the episode "The Stakes Are High" of Death in Paradise, which aired in January 2018, only one month before the premiere of Shakespeare & Hathaway - Private Investigators.
- Magic Plastic Surgery: Veronica.
- Master of Disguise: Sebastian, crossing over heavily with The Power of Acting. In this episode he infiltrates a car hire agency by posing as a technology cleaner, with a particularly unsightly eczema on his face.
- My Beloved Smother: Lu's mother Genevieve.
- Not Helping Your Case: When confronted by one of the wives he bankrupted and abandoned, the Con Man remarks how much better she looks after losing over 60 pounds and some plastic surgery, and says that if she'd looked that way when they were married, he would have let the honeymoon go on for at least a few more days before abandoning her. Unsurprisingly, that is what provokes her to reach for a knife.
- Notable Non Sequitur: When the hotel staff are being interviewed after the murder, one of the waitresses complains that a pair of shoes have been stolen from her locker. These later become the vital clue Frank uses to crack the case.
- The Precious, Precious Car: Lu loves her fire engine-red Mini Cooper. Frank has trouble squeezing into the passenger seat, and complains that she should get a 4X4.Luella: [whispering to her steering wheel] Don't you listen to him. [kisses it]
- Ripped from the Headlines: Frank compares Lu's affection for her car to "that bird that married the Eiffel Tower", referencing Erika Eiffel (nee LaBrie).
- The Scream: Genevieve, seeing her daughter emerge from the bridal suite in a daze with blood all over her hands.
- Sherlock Scan: Luella might not be a trained detective, but as a hairdresser she is accustomed to noticing details about people, and demonstrates as much when she and Frank are surveilling Janice:Frank: Ooh, quite the detective.
Lu: Do you think so? - Turn Off the Camera: While being escorted out of the hotel by the police, Lu angrily brushes away a news cameraman, causing him to drop the camera to ground level, which turns out to be a Chekhov's Gun.
- Widowed at the Wedding: Luella Shakespeare's new husband being murdered at their wedding. When the husband is exposed as a Con Man, Lu becomes the chief suspect. She teams with private investigator Frank Hathaway to prove her innocence.
