The new FX miniseries A Murder at the End of the World is turning out to be an interesting exploration of sub-genres and the use of different milieus to tell an intriguing story. The series acts like a detective story, a serial killer story, a whodunit, a neo-noir, and has the feeling of a dystopian crime thriller as well. The creators, Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij, are interested in setting up a mood that might linger on long after you’ve ended the episode. It doesn’t mean that the plot is uninteresting, but certainly, there is an attempt to enhance the atmosphere of the mystery thriller through the music and the arresting cinematography. In the third episode, we see the young amateur sleuth Darby Hart getting closer to the truth behind Bill Farah’s death. In the previous episode, Bill was found dead after having overdosed on morphine. Darby couldn’t believe he could have committed suicide, and after she found evidence that pointed to Bill’s death being a murder, she began her investigation covertly. The prime suspect was a masked person, and this episode delves deeper into the mystery, with another murder about to occur soon.
Spoilers Ahead
Where Did Darby Begin?
The masked person could be anybody. Darby had told Lee about her plan to find out who murdered Bill, thinking that Lee was once in a relationship with Bill and would care to find the truth about his death. Lee guided her to hack the door cameras, and that’s how Darby saw the masked person. She showed the footage to Lee, and both women discussed Bill’s legacy. Lee figured that Darby was in love with Bill and didn’t hesitate to clear up any doubt she might have had regarding their photos online. Lee had been the victim of online character assassination when deepfaked videos of her were uploaded online, and she had given up hacking. It was then that Bill contacted her, and they were not in a relationship. They did get intimate once, but while both were inebriated, it was completely meaningless. According to Lee, they were always meant to be just friends. Darby, hearing all this, found some peace, but she was nowhere close to figuring out anyone’s motive for killing Bill. Darby talked to Tomas, one of the resort’s workers. Darby had seen Tomas carrying tea to Bill’s room. She was interested in knowing how many cups Bill had ordered. It was important for Darby to figure out if Bill had plans to be alone or was waiting for company. Tomas tried to ignore Darby’s attempts, but ultimately he had to tell her that Bill had ordered three cups, meaning he’d expected two more guests to join him. Why, then, would he inject himself? More importantly, who were these two guests he was expecting, and did one of them kill Bill?
Who Wore The Shoe With The Red Laces?
The itinerary seemed to have been undisturbed by Bill’s apparent suicide. Andy, the tech genius’ plan was to continue with the ‘show’ he had planned for the guests. The following day, Darby and others were to follow Andy into seeing Oliver’s extraordinary invention, which could save mankind after the climate deteriorated and humanity found itself surviving in bunkers and underground shells. Darby had something else on her mind, though. She had seen a mysterious figure go out in the dark, trekking dangerous terrain to signal something far away. The figure wore the same mask that Bill’s last visitor (perhaps his murderer) had worn. When Lee saw the masked person, she told Darby that there was nothing inherently unique about the mask. It was a general mask used by many around the world to prevent AI from recognizing their faces. Darby followed the mystery figure and saw them signaling a message through Morse code. The message implied that another murder was to happen at the resort. Darby only saw this person’s shoes, which had bright red laces, and she used this clue at Andy’s ‘show’ the following day. It turned out that Rohan, the climatologist, was the one who wore those shoes and was indeed the masked man who visited Bill last. Rohan revealed that Bill had helped him get sober and that he did go into his room, but he never harmed him. He had already injected himself at that point.
Why Did Darby Decide To Stay?
Andy always looked at Darby like she was up to something wicked. Darby, on the other hand, couldn’t look at Andy without suspicion after he insisted that Bill had committed suicide. Andy knew about her little investigation and confronted her when she tried to disturb Rohan during Oliver’s ‘robotics show’. He shocked her by revealing that it wasn’t just Darby who knew about the masked person. Rohan was a climatologist who had once been imprisoned in Russia, and he had decided to go off the grid since then, which meant he used the mask whenever he felt he could be recognized clearly. Andy also revealed that Bill’s heart rate, monitored through AI, had risen even before Rohan had entered the room. If Andy is to be believed, the police had already been given all the details, and even they were convinced about the suicide. Andy told Darby that he had made all the arrangements to fly her back to America, as staying at the resort would only make it difficult for her to process her grief.
Throughout A Murder at the End of the World Episode 3, there are segments that show the time period when Bill started his investigation into the ‘Silver Doe’ case with Darby. The case was a strange one, where the killer seemed to be leaving a trail of cases identifiable only by silver jewelry. They had gone on to meet a survivor who gave them the silver pin, which perhaps led to Darby tracing the murders and ultimately finding the killer. The survivor had praised Darby and Bill for their tenacity, and remembering that never-give-up attitude, she declined Andy’s patronizing advice of going back home and decided to stay. There was another murder on the horizon, and Rohan knew who was behind it. He had signaled it to somebody, and Darby was sure that if she persisted, she could get Rohan to talk. Rohan gave her a call and tried to tell Darby an important piece of information, but he died before he could mumble it out. Darby listened to him suffer through the phone and ran to help. It turns out that there were others who came running for help, but Rohan was not in his room.
Darby saw Rohan’s hip flask laying on a table in the room, leaking alcohol, while Rohan was found near the receptionist’s desk. Darby didn’t expect Rohan to be the second victim, and now her suspicion turned towards Andy, who seemed like the mastermind playing with her mind. Rohan was perhaps poisoned, but Darby now had to be extremely careful, as Andy knew what she was up to. She had decided to stay, and now that Bill’s overdose had become public information, news channels were tarnishing his image. There was another reason to stay and solve the case. Maybe Andy had a motive to kill him, as he had once been with Lee, or maybe Bill had been against the use of artificial intelligence and made his revolutionary art against its rise. The next episode will solve some of the plot, or perhaps we will see Darby lose herself in the web of lies and deceit.
