The second episode of The Bletchley Circle opens on a somber note. The victim Susan and her friends found at the end of the last episode is receiving a public funeral. Susan attends this and as she listens to the eulogy, she reflects on what she has gotten herself into. At the same time, her friends were wanting to back away from the investigation but now changed their mind after finding the victim. They are all motivated to continue their search for the killer. Now that they correctly predicted the location of the fifth victim, they believe they are on the right track to finding out the killer's identity.
Back at their meeting spot, the women start to narrow down their list of suspects to seven men. In the last episode, they figured that the victims would not leave with any normal man--the man would have to have some sort of authority in order to lure them away from the trains. Thus, they expect the killer to work on the railways. However, they do not have enough data to determine which one could be the killer. Susan decides to attempt another meeting with the deputy commissioner to ask for help.
Unlike their first meeting, the deputy commissioner does not have as much patience for Susan. After the failed attempt at finding the victim at the wrong location, the deputy commissioner does not have as much faith in Susan's claims or pleas for help. Another man in the room that works for the deputy commissioner, warns Susan of her claims: "They want evidence, not theory." Her pleas for help and lack of conclusive evidence hurts Susan's claims. Although she does not have the credibility of being an authoritative figure, she does have extreme intelligence that the deputy commissioner does not expect her to have. He gave her a chance with the first search, but now all credibility she may have had is dashed aside. He doesn't listen to her pleas for help or her tips for possible suspects. Despite his unwillingness to listen, Susan is undeterred and returns to the group to brainstorm some more.
There are a few issues with the situation. Legally, Susan and her friends do not have the same power as the police have. Societally, they are viewed as the weaker sex that must return to fulfilling the role of housewife (even if they were employed in the war although the public does not know that they were codebreakers, not clerks). If the women had an actual job (such as a police officer), they may be viewed as more credible to take on the case. However, since they are not employed and doing this behind the police's back, they are undertaking an incredible amount of pressure and secrecy until they have enough evidence to prove who the killer is to police.
Morally, the women feel an outstanding need to solve the case. The police do not have the same moral determination as the women do because they are too busy with other cases, or they do not know where to look. Additionally, another moral issue lies in Susan's constant cover ups of her "book club" to her husband, Timothy. She has never admitted to him that she worked at Bletchley Park as a codebreaker. Anyone who worked for Bletchley Park were forced to sign orders of secrecy to prevent them from ever telling anyone about their true jobs. The orders of secrecy are morally and legally binding, so they cannot tell anyone about their previous positions or they will be prosecuted.
Susan returns with bad news to the group, explaining how the deputy commissioner did not want her to waste his time again. They will continue to search for the killer, but they will not return to the deputy commissioner unless they have proof. As they spend some time thinking, they remember Bletchley Park and how their jobs were to stay on top of the ever-changing enemy codes. There may be potential that the killer is somehow covering his identity by pushing it onto another person. From here, the women decide to split up with two of them going to interview the wives or neighbors of the suspected men, and two remaining at the library to peruse through newspapers.
Jean, who is a librarian, has access to the archives. Archiving is the process of preserving information for the public good, or to collect information in order to monitize it. In this time period, archiving is carried out through human action. Otherwise, archiving may happen through automatic algorithmic means and represents the memory of the internet. Jean hopes that the archives could provide some clues to the killer's identity. She and Lucy stay back to use the microfilm machines to study old newspaper clippings to see if there are any previous patterns to the killings, or if there are more incidents outside of London that the killer may have executed. These microfilm machines have the ability to magnify text onto a screen that allows the user to better read the material. Originally, this technology was used by a scientist that developed microscopic novelty texts in the 19th century. Over the next several decades, the microfilm machine found more usage during the war to scan and check messages from war to see if there were any microscopic messages or codes) and during the 1950s, transitioned into a more educational tool used in libraries for general information gathering. In the end, the women find that seven victims that were also strangled like the five London victims, were reported years before. This may be the connection they need to help pinpoint a more likely suspect.
Jean and Lucy then go to the central records office and see Angela, a woman Jean recognizes from her Bletchley Park days. They ask Angela about some of the suspects and find that many of the suspects are feeble-minded. That makes them less likely to be the killer as the killer is so methodical and plans his kills in a pattern-like manner. While they are at the office, Jean asks a question to Angela regarding what her role was at Bletchley Park, but Angela plays dumb. Jean tells Lucy later that Angela may have worked in a rumored, special department that specialized in distributing misinformation to the enemy.
Susan and Millie retrieve the address info of some of the other suspects and they go to the Marlow House where a suspect named Gerald Wiggins lives. He is not home at the time, and his door is open, so they investigate. They notice a picture of the railway lines in his office when suddenly, his housekeeper appears. Susan and Millie lie about why they are there and they find out from the housekeeper that Wiggins is feeble-minded. He was in the war and had shrapnel lodged in his head, permanently damaging his brain. She says that he loves numbers, but is incredibly awkward with social aspects of life and other simple tasks.
When the group of women finally meet back up, Susan and Millie tell Jean and Lucy about Gerald Wiggins. The exchange of information between each woman is a great example of crowd sourcing. Today, crowd sourcing means the pooling of information, input, and ideas from a range of individuals to perform a task or solve a problem. Crowd sourcing is most commonly associated with the internet, especially with how social media encourages the collaboration between users in basic conversation or to fix an issue. Despite being closely associated with modern technology, the woman here demonstrate how crowd sourcing used to happen.
They all split up to search for more hints about the killer's identity. Although he is smart with numbers, they all agree that he lacks the cognitive function to plan such elaborate killings. Jean suggests that the killer is using Wiggins as a scapegoat. Shortly after, the women hear that the deputy commissioner found items in Wiggins's train station locker that connect him with the killings. At the halfway mark of the episode, the women are certain that the evidence was planted in Wiggins's locker. That evidence, although a physical object, may correlate to disinformation, which is false information created and circulated with the intent to harm. It may even change perceptions of reality or truth. In this case, the evidence in Wiggins's locker was meant to harm him and frame him for the crimes. The police accept this reality because of the presence of the evidence in his locker. Now with no good lead, the women must consider more options if they hope to find the killer.
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