Episode 1

Luther has gone to ground. On a leave of absence, he is holed up in a rundown cottage on the edge of England, living small and hoping the world forgets him. It does not work, naturally. A visit from old colleagues at the Met brings news that drags him back to London. But the peace he was building is gone before the kettle boils.

London has not been peaceful either. A serial killer is eating parts of his victims, and the bodies are piling up fast enough that the papers have noticed. Schenk and his team are trying to work out the twisted logic connecting the victims, but the killer is outsmarting them at every turn, and each mutilated body is a small defeat. Luther's return to the bullpen is framed as a choice, but nobody watching believes he had one.

Neil Cross wrote it, Sam Miller directed. The episode introduces the new order at the Met with a light touch: Darren Boyd's DCI Theo Bloom and Rose Leslie's DS Emma Lane are fresh faces who do not instantly defer to Luther, which is more interesting than another round of hero worship. Warren Brown's Ripley, Dermot Crowley's Schenk, Laura Haddock's Megan Cantor and Michael Smiley's Benny Silver hold the continuity, with John Heffernan's Steven Rose and Michael Obiora's Errol Minty filling out the ranks.

The cannibal angle is handled with the show's usual refusal to flinch, and the killer's confidence is the creepiest thing about him. He is not hiding. He is ahead, and he knows it. The bullpen looks different to Luther now, and the hour does not pretend he slots back in easily.

The episode ends with Luther back where the series has always wanted him, in the middle of the worst case in the city. The cottage is a memory. The work has him again.