'Luther': Where John and Alice Left Off
The Big Question
Will fans see Alice (Ruth Wilson) return as well in BBC America’s new ‘Luther’ special, premiering Dec. 17? All Idris Elba would tell Yahoo TV is, “Her presence is felt.” While we wait for the answer, here’s a look back at one of TV’s most unexpected and compelling relationships — and a reminder of where we left off after three seasons.
The Meet-Cute
In the series premiere, DCI John Luther interrogates the brilliant Alice Morgan after she discovers her parents murdered in their home. With no sign of forced entry or a burglary, Alice is Luther’s prime suspect — particularly after he yawns and she doesn’t (it has to do with the part of the brain that handles empathy, and she has none).
The Obsession
After Luther proves a worthy match in the interrogation room, Alice is free to walk… but not before she tells him she enjoyed their chat. “You’re very interesting,” she says.
The Bait
Luther knows Alice wants to impress him and be adored for her beautifully twisted mind. His plan: He’ll give her attention and take it away. Then, she’ll fray and screw up.
The Warning
Luther visits Alice to tell her that he knows she kept the gun used in the murders. She’s starting an investigation of her own: what really happened to the child killer Henry Madsen (who the audience saw Luther let fall from a height that put him into a coma)? Why has Luther’s wife, Zoe (Indira Varma), left him? In short, it’s game on.
The Other Woman
To remind Luther who he’s dealing with, Alice scares the hell out of Zoe (Indira Varma), whom he still loves.
The Bridge, Part 1
Luther guesses that Alice stuffed the gun into her murdered dog, knowing it would be cremated and she’d receive the ashes. He steals the urn and lures Alice to the bridge, where he tells her if she doesn’t leave Zoe alone, he’ll arrest someone else for the murder of her parents — plant evidence if he has to — so the enigma around her will be gone. “You’d degrade the law you serve, just to protect some woman who cast you aside like offal?” Alice asks. “In a second,” he answers, putting his wedding ring back on. “And you think I’m the monster,” she says. “Love is supposed to dignify us, exalt us. How can it be love, John, if all it does is make you lonely and corrupt?” Luther goes to see Zoe and says he’ll now accept that he has to let her go. He phones Alice and tells her she loses — there is love in the world.
The Therapist
Determined to find out why Zoe left Luther, Alice lets herself into the home Zoe shares with her new love, Mark (Paul McGann), for a revealing chat.
The Bridge, Part 2
Luther asks to meet Alice on the bridge and calmly threatens to kill her if she doesn’t let Zoe alone. What happens next is the reason fans allow themselves to love Alice: She tells Luther that she likes Zoe. Why? “She’s strong, she has dignity, she loves you a great deal,” Alice says. She explains that Zoe always guessed he let Henry Madsen (Anton Saunders) fall, and that wasn’t why she left him; she had to watch what it did to him while he refused to talk about it. She’d thought she lost him to the dead. Alice says she’s telling him this because they’re friends and she wants to make him feel better. She wants to put the past behind them and promises she has no desire to hurt him or Zoe and will leave Zoe alone. He thinks about it. “One coffee doesn’t make us friends,” he says.
The Boundaries
After Alice arranges for Mark to be beaten, Mark accuses Luther of having set it up. Alice comes clean to Mark, and Luther tries to break ties with Alice. But Alice does know how people work: Zoe feels guilty about not backing Luther and they have sex.
The Sore Loser
To save Luther’s career, Alice poses as a doctor and suffocates a recovering Henry Madsen so he won’t be able to tell the authorities how Luther let him fall. Luther is livid and says he never wants to speak to her again. Alice retaliates by telling Mark about Luther and Zoe’s tryst (complete with a visual aid).
The Change of Heart
After Zoe tells Luther she’s staying with Mark — she and Luther had just found a nice way of saying goodbye, in her mind — Luther asks to see Alice. He tells her she was right: there is no love in the world. It’s mostly cruel and deceitful. But she corrects him: She killed Henry Madsen because she wanted to help him. So, “There is love in the world,” she says. Luther finally expresses appreciation. “Thank you,” he says, gently touching her cheek.
The Unlikely Allies
After Luther learns his colleague and friend DCI Ian Reed (Steven Mackintosh) is dirty — a plot involving stolen diamonds — Ian kills Zoe. Jilted Luther, however, is the one most everyone assumes did it. He can only turn to Alice to clear his name. “You and I are who we are,” she tells him. “So I need you to know this, John. Of all the people in the world, I would never betray you.” When Luther catches up to Ian, Ian wants Luther to kill him, but Luther won’t. After Ian stabs Luther, Alice gets a hold of Ian’s gun. She thinks Ian deserves to die, Luther doesn’t — she’ll let Mark be the deciding vote. He tells Alice to shoot him.
Round Two
At the start of Season 2, Alice has attempted to slit her wrist enough times to be transferred to a less-secure mental facility. Luther visits her, and she tells him the job and his friends will suck him dry — he needs to step away and find a life worth living for himself. He eats an apple. When he leaves, he places a keycard into the apple and throws it over the facility’s wall. Alice, on a walk, finds it and naturally escapes.
That Look
Alice shows up at Luther’s place and asks him to leave with her. The funny thing is, she says, it won’t be her who ends up killing him; it will be those he’s staying for. She whispers something in his ear that the audience doesn’t hear, then leaves.
The Turning Point
In Season 3′s penultimate episode, a vigilante serial killer, Tom Marwood (Elliot Cowan) shoots and kills DS Justin Ripley (Warren Brown) when he won’t walk away. Because Luther knew Justin was being questioned in an internal investigation into Luther’s tactics, Luther is accused of allowing the vigilante to take the shot. He’s also accused of sending the vigilante to try to kill his new girlfriend, Mary (Sienna Guillory).
Help Arrives
And she’s back! In the Season 3 finale, a gas-masked Alice intercepts Luther as he’s being transported.
Brutal Honesty
Alice insists she’s back to help the people Luther loves. “You assert a fabulous moral conscience, John. This adherence to unwritten law, yet time and again, it devastates the people you claim to hold dear, but you don’t stop. Seems to me your conscience has killed more people than I have,” she says.
A Widow
Alice and Luther take time to catch up on each other’s love lives. Alice claims she married an “intensely intellectual” man named Bertrand, who sadly passed away. “Some little girls grow up wanting ponies. I always wanted to be a widow,” she says. Luther tells her about Mary, who Alice assumes is a pixie, a sprite, a daydream of the uninteresting life Luther imagines he wants to live.
The Plan, Stan
Why did Alice really come back? Because she wants Luther, she admits as they drive to set their plan in motion. First step, she visits the colleagues on Luther’s side, DSU Martin Schenk (Dermot Crowley) and tech wiz Benny (Michael Smiley), and asks them for help. What’s more important: Punishing her guilt or proving Luther’s innocence? With the prison personnel files they give her, Alice decides Marwood would kidnap the prison doctor’s pregnant wife to force him to kill Marwood’s wife’s attacker. Luther also knows that Marwood wants to die a martyr, admired by the public. So when they find him, Alice films Marwood unknowingly confessing that he killed Justin — and threatening to kill Luther, another cop.
The Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship
Alice flees with the evidence while Luther tries to make a deal: He’ll give back the footage if Marwood tells him where he’s hidden the pregnant wife. Marwood doesn’t believe Luther. Instead, he shoots Luther in the leg and learns where Mary is being kept from a text from Benny on Luther’s phone. Marwood wants to kill Mary and have Luther feel his pain. Alice, now at Mary’s location, manages to transfer the file proving Luther’s innocence, and warns Mary exactly what she’ll do to her if she ever doubts and betrays Luther again. When Marwood shows up, Alice stays calm and protects them both. But Marwood corners them on the roof.
The Choice
Luther arrives to find Marwood pointing a gun on both Alice and Mary. He tells Luther to pick one. Finally, Luther names Alice. “Shoot Alice!” But Mary knock the gun away as he fires, and Alice stabs Marwood in the throat with a long nail we’d seen her use earlier during their escape. “Oops. Sorry, couldn’t resist,” Alice says. Luther tells her to run. He says he’ll let Marwood bleed out, as Marwood wants, if he tells him where the pregnant wife is. Marwood does. But Luther keeps pressure on the wound until the medics arrive anyway.
The Switcheroo
Benny says Mary has been arrested and hands Luther a note from Alice. They both know what we don’t figure out until Luther goes to say sorry to Alice: the ladies switched places. Mary doesn’t care what else Alice has done, she saved her life. With that, she tells Luther he should go. And he does…
The Bridge, Part 3
He Alice on the bridge. She tells him he really does need to lose the coat. He tosses it into the water. “Now what?” she asks him. And off they walk. But to where?
Luther returns tonight to BBC America for a special that begins with Idris Elba’s titular detective taking time away from the badge and his predictable wardrobe. Before long — thanks to news brought by new faces DCI Theo Bloom (Darren Boyd) and DS Emma Lane (Game of Thrones’ Rose Leslie) and unforeseen events — he’s back in London searching for the truth about a mystery we won’t spoil and hunting a cannibalistic serial killer.
The Luther special premieres Dec. 17 at 9 p.m. on BBC America.