A Case Of Coincidence: Part Two

The conclusion of the case finds Inspector Masters digging into the deaths of the five women, and the investigation has settled on Eddie Brannel. Eddie was a mentally challenged childhood friend of Sarah Quin's, and his confession is partial in the most frustrating way possible: he admits to the other killings, but he denies killing Sara herself. The denial puts Masters in an uncomfortable position. His insistence on taking Eddie's protestations seriously goes against direct orders from above, and the episode becomes a study in a detective trusting his instincts over procedure.

That act of insubordination is what cracks the case. Masters goes against orders, follows the thread Eddie's denial has exposed, and learns the true identity of the killer. The title's promise is fulfilled: what looked like a pattern of serial murder was, in the end, a case of coincidence, and the resolution reorders everything the first part appeared to establish.

Keith Barron's Masters carries the hour with the quiet stubbornness the part demands, and the supporting cast is strong: Caroline Bliss' Sarah Quin, Don Henderson's Ray Brannel, Michael Fitzgerald's Edward Brannel, Garry Cooper's Sergeant Holt, Kate Buffery's Dr Lucas, Pip Torrens' Michael Quin, Thomas Wheatley's Dangerfield, Brian Poyser's Freddie Wyatt and Andrew MacLachlan's Tony English. Geoffrey Case and Ruth Rendell wrote it, and Gavin Millar directed. The conclusion was broadcast on 29 March 1996, a week after the opening part, and it is the episode where Masters' faith in Eddie is finally vindicated.

The episode's beating heart is the conflict between professional duty and personal conviction. Masters risks his career on the word of a man everyone else has written off as a killer, and the risk pays off. The true killer's identity lands with the force of a properly earned revelation, and the story closes with justice done for all five women and the coincidence finally laid to rest.