We're now into the second half of A Murder at the End of the World, with episode 4 bringing us closer to the end of the seven-part murder mystery, and yet we're still adding new suspects to the list.
A Murder at the End of the World episode 4, which debuted on Tuesday, November 28, gives our main character Darby Hart (Emma Corrin) her closest brush with death yet, as she investigates further leads and comes closer to realizing the villain's endgame.
The show is all about a murder in a remote hotel in Iceland, but as the series progresses, it's beginning to seem like this isolated locale isn't the only "end of the world" that could be addressed!
But enough cryptic hints; let's dig into our A Murder at the End of the World episode 4 recap. Obviously, spoilers for this (and previous) episodes ensue.
Sneaking around the hotel
The episode begins where the last left off. Rohan has been murdered and the guests of the hotel are shepherded down into the place's emergency bunker (except Andy, who has his own place to hide it seems). The guests discuss and decide that Rohan died of heart failure; Darby concurs that it was probably because his pacemaker was hacked.
Security woman Eva says that the last time she went to their medical suite, the pacemaker interface had been used, so it looks like Darby was right. Eva's wife and other security guard Todd returns and says that because of the storm, police won't be arriving for 2-3 days. Eventually, though, the all-clear is issued and they leave the bunker, with guests having their electronics confiscated and being put into lockdown in their rooms.
Lockdown doesn't sit well with Sian (Alice Braga) who visits Darby's room. After Darby flummoxes the woman with hacker terms, thereby figuring out that this isn't the killer (who's clearly a hacker), Alice offers to lead Darby to Rohan's body. She knows all the secrets of the building, and they sneak through the place to see the body.
Darby finds on Rohan the red torch that he used for signaling in the last episode, and explains to Sian this plot point. The two come up with a plan to find out who Rohna was signaling to, and they use two extreme conditions suits that Sian uses for her job (as an astronaut) to survive the Icelandic storm that's soon to be raging outside. They embark on snowmobiles.
A suspect and a snowstorm
As they explore, Sian and Darby discuss the other members of the group, and we learn even more motivations for whatever's going on:
- Lu Mei wasn't a fan of Bill, because Bill's famous art critizied smart cities, which is Lu Mei's line of work
- Lu Mei and Andy are direct rivals, and no-one knows why the latter invited the former
- David doesn't like Lee, because her pregnancy stole Andy's attention from his work (and from David) to the child Zoomer.
Eventually, the duo tracks the path to the coast, where a wooden stake and rope lead to a barrel floating in the ocean. It's from Rohan's ship, and contains a small boat that's typically used to ferry people from larger boats to the shore. However the storm begins to close in, and they decide to flee.
On the drive back, the snowmobile breaks down. Uh-oh! Their suits keep them going as they trudge back, and eventually, they find the ranger station (from the previous episode) which still has a car outside. They take the car.
When inside, Sian is quick to hack the vehicle's interface to get it going, which contradicts what Darby deduced earlier about her not knowing hacking. Darby is immediately quite suspicious of the woman — she's now a suspect.
On the drive back, Sian tells Darby that Andy has done climate projections and that the extreme temperatures people are expecting in 2050 could come a lot sooner. However Andy won't tell the world for fear of panic. Also, Andy's company is plum out of money, especially the space program that Sian heads up; she's no idea where the cash has been funneled but it seems to have gone somewhere mysterious.
The second suspect and the secret child
Eventually, the road gets very slippery, and Sian accidentally drives the vehicle off a small cliff. As Darby crawls out of it, she passes out, and we get a flashback to her investigation with Bill (Harris Dickinson).
The two go to a morgue to see a skeleton and suffice it to say it has silver jewelry like all the others. It has an engagement ring for one E. Bell, and they plan to investigate further, as Darby thinks this could be the ring from the serial killer's first victim. Also, at one point, Bill sneezes because of a hereditary condition that occurs when he suddenly goes from dark to light, a point that will be very relevant later.
The two go to a motel, and Bill sneaks a glance at some departing guests' luggage to find out their names. Later they go to the front desk to say they've lost their cards, pretending to be these people, and they manage to get the room for free for the night. Don't try this at home.
Darby is fixated on the case, which upsets Bill. She goes in to kiss him but he pulls away before more happens, and they end up quite cold. That changes the next morning when they "do more", so to speak.
Then Darby wakes up in the present, and Sian is dragging her across Iceland to get her back to the hotel. She falls asleep and wakes up again in the hotel's medical suite, where Eva, Sian and a few more people are fussing over her.
Eva opens a cupboard, revealing lots of morphine — remember, Bill was killed by an overdose of the stuff — so she joins Sian in the category of "big suspect!". However, Sian doesn't stay in that category long.
She's not been able to remove her suit's helmet, as it's locked down on her, and her air is quickly running out. Todd tries to drill into it, and Andy arrives and tries to hack it off (first using a computer, then a blunt object) but it's no use.
Eventually, they have to do an emergency tracheotomy on Sian, slicing into her neck to be able to get her to breathe. At the sight of this Darby, understandably, passes out.
Darby drifts in and out of consciousness, and Lee Anderson (Brit Marling) looks after her a lot. When the girl finally fully awakes, it's clearly been a while, as only Zoomer is there, playing pretend doctor on her. Darby opens the curtains to see the storm... and the sudden jump from dark to light makes Zoomer sneeze. He has a hereditary sneezing disease (dis-sneeze?) like Bill... could this confirm Darby's suspicions, which Lee tried to downplay, that Lee and Bill were having an affair?
