The third and final episode of the season opens where we left off. Susan is in the mental hospital with Malcolm Crowley. She does not know his true identity and he lies about who he is. He also knows that Susan is looking for him because of the train station incident and the fact that she is directly asking for Malcolm Crowley's files. He takes her to the file room and sits down at his desk. He fumbles for a cigarette as he explains that he signed the Official Secrets Act of 1939, just like Susan did at Bletchley Park. Therefore, he cannot hand over the files. As Susan listens, she looks over at his pack of cigarettes and recognizes it is the same brand of cigarettes found at the murder sites. She thanks him for the opportunity to talk anyway and quickly leaves the mental hospital.
Scared knowing that she was with the killer, she runs to the police to tell them about Crowley's file room. The police respond by going to the mental hospital, but they find his office completely empty. He managed to take all of the files which is detrimental for Susan's search for more concrete evidence. It is important to reiterate how privacy is so crucial during this time. Since both Susan and Crowley signed the Official Secrets Act of 1939, they cannot verbally speak about their jobs during the war. Additionally, they are not allowed to pass on information (such as files) to other people. Although Crowley tries to "help" Susan, he does not have any intention of giving her the files. Legally he cannot do that as they are property of the mental hospital, and neither is he willing to. Susan originally found out about Crowley's identity from Cavendish. During their first meeting, Cavendish was hesitant to share much information. Like Crowley, he could not hand over the files. However, even Cavendish just mentioning Crowley could be dangerous because it violates the secret act. Thus, Susan's biggest issue is the privacy of the files relating to Bletchley Park and other wartime operations. The identity of the killer is essentially protected by the secret act.
Regarding privacy and technology, the archives Jean utilized in the last episode contain public information. They contain books and newspapers that can be used by the public for whatever use they wish. The records at Angela's office are also public records, but there are some records that are off limits and guarded by laws or government acts. Since the internet did not exist at this time, there was no real technological privacy law. The only privacy law applicable to the show is the Official Secrets Act of 1939 because it is preventing the women from obtaining confidential information.
Defeated from the failed police bust, Susan returns home. Her husband, Timothy, is waiting for her in the foyer. Apparently Susan missed a memorial ceremony for Timothy's old friend. He yells at her for being out so late and not telling him where she was. He is also extremely disappointed about her absence at the ceremony. He tells her that whatever she is doing needs to stop. She apologizes but she still does not tell him the true reason behind her actions.
Meanwhile, Lucy is still taking refuge at Millie's apartment. During the day when her husband is normally at work, Lucy sneaks back into her home to retrieve her belongings. She has no intention of returning to him. Later on, Susan and Jean go to Millie's apartment to talk about the investigation. Susan tells them about her surprise meeting with Crowley and they all deduce that Crowley is using the hospital to choose someone with mental issues to pin the crime on someone else, which is why he looked through the files and stayed there. Susan decides she needs to see Cavendish again to see if he has anything that may give her more information on Crowley.
Once she arrives at his house, Cavendish tells Susan he does not have Crowley's actual file. Susan explains that Bletchley Park came across completed data from the enemy. What they had to do was backtrack to clean code and decipher what the meaning was. In this case, she argues that she must have information about Crowley and what he did at the Electra House. Cavendish does reveal that Crowley's job was to create provocative pictures of women with demoralized captions suggesting that the situations depicted were happening to the army men's wives at home. It was created to discourage the enemy army men from continuing to serve in the war, effectively aiming at the army to shrink so the British and American armies could overpower the Germans and their allies. When the building Crowley worked at was bombed, he was buried under the rubble for three days with a dead woman. After he was removed from the rubble and released from the hospital, he returned to his job of drawing those postcards. However, after that accident, his artwork changed from provocative to more macabre. Now armed with this information, she returns home so her husband Timothy won't get angry again.
When she gets home, Timothy hands her the daily newspaper with the crossword. He tells her he found it mostly completed when he picked it up that morning and apologized, considering how much Susan loves puzzles. Susan deduced the remaining crossword answers resulted in the number 236. This is an address. She leaves quickly with the sudden realization that she knows that address belongs to Mr. Cavendish. She heads to Cavendish's house where she finds the front door ajar.
Mr. Cavendish is sitting at his desk with a bullet wound in his head. A gun sits on the desk and it looks like he committed suicide. Susan calls her friends to help her and they arrive at the scene. Lucy refuses to look at Cavendish due to how badly she was scarred with the first victim they found. Susan looks around and finds Cavendish's files are gone. This shows that Cavendish did not commit suicide. Rather, he was killed by someone who took the files as a way to enforce strategic retroactive history. This can be defined as "a powerful tool for creating a public image of technology" (Shelangoskie 85) or the practice of rewriting past events in order to align them with a desired present representation or future outcome. Although this is technology oriented, the thief theoretically did this because their goal was to steal information to prevent a certain outcome. They did not want the files in Susan's hands. They stole the information to prevent the women's investigation from going any further. It can be inferred that Crowley was the thief. The box of postcards is what remains, which may have been on accident. She decides to take the box to the deputy commissioner where she once again begs for his help and for him to believe her. He continues to deny her and tells her to stop for Timothy. He threatens consequences if she continues.
This marks the halfway point of the episode. Crowley has all of the information while Susan is left with only postcards. She also has no idea where to go next. She is still determined to find him though, despite the deputy commissioner's remarks. With time running out, the women have to keep cracking the code, or the killer's pattern, to find the answers and Crowley's location.
Sources
Shelangoskie, Susan. "Anthony Trollope and the Social Discourse of Telegraphy after Nationalisation." Journal of Victorian Culture, vol. 14, 2009, pp. 72-93.
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