The latest episode of A Murder at the End of the World is here, with episode 3 spending a lot more time in the present day (instead of in flashbacks) as our lead character Darby Hart (Emma Corrin) learns about the mysterious figure in the mask.
After the two-episode premiere of this new murder mystery last week, episode 3 landed on Hulu (in the US) and Disney Plus (in the UK) on Tuesday, November 21. Don't worry, you don't need to remember every detail from the previous episodes, and you can find our recaps of them to the side.
Episode 1 brought us the titular murder, but in episode 3 the bodies begin to stack up, as do the clues as to the real culprit. So let's continue the investigation together in our A Murder at the End of the World episode 3 recap.
Spoilers for this episode (and the previous two) ensue, so you've been warned.
The masked figure is everywhere
We begin with a flashback to Darby and Bill (Harris Dickinson) several years prior to the events of the show, as they continue their hunt for the Silver Doe killer. They go to the spot where another one of the victims was found.
In the present day, Darby is still reeling from the footage she found of a mysterious figure in a mask visiting Bill just when he died. She goes to a gathering in the library, and attempts to speak to Rohan (Javed Khan) after his outburst the day before, but she's interrupted by Lu Mei (Joan Chen) asking how she is, who's in turn interrupted by Lee Anderson (Brit Marling) to ask what Darby found in the footage (she's reticent to answer), who is then in turn interrupted by Andy Ronson (Clive Owen) to talk about Bill. Can't anyone finish a conversation in this hotel!?
The gathering is for Ziba (Pegah Ferydoni) to sing some of her country's music, and as she does, Darby starts to picture all the attendees wearing the mysterious mask. The woman slips out to follow a server into the kitchen to question him — this is the person she bumped into in the hallway just after Bill's death. He only answers one question, telling her that he brought Bill three cups of tea that night. While in the kitchen, Darby copies down a list of where all of the guests are staying.
The investigation moves to Google
It's research time, and Darby gets the AI assistant Ray to scan the internet for anything connecting Bill to any of the guests. There are connections in most cases but there's nothing for Andy, and also all records of Rohan post-2006 are missing. Just then, and in the dead of night, Darby sees someone leaving the hotel.
Darby follows this figure into the cold wilderness, and almost gets caught at one point. That's when we find out it's the masked figure, who's also wearing brown walking boots with red laces. Darby follows this figure to an overlook where they give a morse code signal: "One Down Still A Go". From off in the distance, a response is sent.
After returning to the hotel, Lee visits Darby with her child Zoomer who can't sleep. Once again Lee asks about what Darby found in the footage, and the woman finally shows her the footage of the masked figure. While Lee doesn't know who the masked person is, she knows that the mask is one specifically designed to thwart AI attempts to scan faces. This limits the owner to someone who must have known about the hotel's software... which is unfortunately just about everyone there.
The next morning, the hotel concierge has brought Darby a nice warm coat, and that's because they're all going on a recce into Iceland. Unfortunately, everyone is wearing the same snow shoes, so there are no red-laced brown boots in sight.
As they walk, Darby questions Rohan. The man admits that Bill stopped him drinking five years ago, and saved his life that way, but Rohan is back on the booze now. At the end of the hike conference, attendee Oliver (Ryan J. Haddad) shows them his 'robotic swarm', a herd of large ant-like robots which have been designed to carry out basic human tasks like gathering food, enabling people to spend more time thinking.
After the walk, when people are gathering back their shoes, Darby finally finds out who owns the red-laced shoes... and it's Rohan! Darby whispers to him the code that he signaled last night, and the man tells her that he would never hurt Bill, but implores her to drop her investigation.
An exile from Iceland
Later that day Darby is enjoying a coffee when Zoomer enters the lounge, wearing a VR headset and playing around on it. He offers it to her and she sees a magical castle that he's playing in. Then Andy comes along and, after giving her a biography on Walt Disney, asks her to leave the hotel. She's been interrogating the staff and guests and continuing an investigation despite toxicology evidence that Bill really did die of a morphine overdose.
Andy tells her that she's only investigating because that's what she does as a living and because she feels pain at her dead ex-lover. He takes her ring from her (remember, the thing she uses to access all the doors in the hotel), puts her in her room and tells her to pack, as a car will take her away soon.
Darby packs while the news plays a report on Bill Farrah's death. It says he was holidaying alone in a small town, not at the retreat.
Another flashback shows Darby and Bill meeting the one survivor of the Silver Doe killer, and they win this woman's trust by showing her empathy and commitment to making the world a better place. She shows them a pin which was found in the back of her car, which must have belonged to the killer.
Back in the modern day, Darby leaves a message on Andy's phone, saying that she wants to keep her room. She then goes to Rohan's room and calls through the door to him but the security man, Todd (Louis Cancelmi), arrives to escort her to the car.
Darby and Todd go to her room to pick up her bags, but Rohan calls her on her phone. The man admits that he went to Bill's room after the younger man promised to give him some important information, but he left because Bill seemed high (in fact, he'd already been drugged at this point). However he knew what information Bill had... but before telling Darby, Rohan gets into a scuffle.
Darby runs to Rohan's room but he's not there; instead he's in the dining room, collapsed on the floor. He's dead. Andy tells Todd to get everyone underground immediately.
