The 'Miss Scarlet' Season 6 Finale Feels Like a Goodbye

Miss Scarlet wraps up its sixth season with its most balanced episode yet, a surprisingly well-put-together installment that makes great use of its full ensemble and is undoubtedly the strongest of this run. But despite its overall quality, it's also an hour that will undoubtedly leave fans wondering about the show's future. Because "The Line of Duty" feels an awful lot like a series finale, even though it's not being advertised as one.

The episode concludes in a way that feels deliberately, almost calculatedly tidy, with every major character getting what roughly equates to a happy ending without labeling any of those moments as such. Sure, Blake and Eliza don't get married — technically, they aren't even engaged – but they've professed their love, and they no longer have to worry about conflicts of interest in their professional and personal lives thanks to Blake's promotion. Even Sophia has figured out that they're together and is fine with it. (What were they telling her before this??) A wedding is pretty much the only thing that doesn't happen for them this week.

In fact, everything is pretty great for everybody. Blake is named Superintendent. Barnabas is back to work at the mortuary. Ivy is promoted to Clerical Manager at Scotland Yard. Eliza gets a huge payday, enough to finally hire some new investigators for her practice. And all the applicants are women, highlighting just how far we've come since the show started and Eliza herself was struggling to be taken seriously as a private investigator. In what world is this not a series finale?

Sure, if series creator Rachael New wants to, there are places its narrative could still go: Blake and Eliza's inevitable marriage, Eliza's struggles to adjust to life as a step-mother, or her attempts to mentor a squad of female detectives with very different experiences than her own once were. But if Season 6 is anything to go by, it's not entirely clear that any of those things are arcs Miss Scarlet is all that interested in exploring. (Particularly since its titular heroine didn't even appear in a third of its episodes, hardly a sign of dedication to her interior journey.)

Instead, much of this episode is obsessed with endings of one form or another, as Eliza and Blake work on what is meant to be their "last" case together. In the wake of Isabel Summers' arrest, Scotland Yard will require everyone to sign a declaration of interest, outlining their personal relationships with anyone they work with in the line of duty. Blake will be forced to disclose his romance with Eliza, and she'll lose the Yard as a client. But before they can deal with that, they have to figure out whether a government official has been murdere.

"The Line of Duty' sees the return of Miss Scott (Lindsay Bennett-Thompson) a.k.a. the Governess, a British intelligence officer we met back in Season 5 finale "Dangerous Liaisons". She charges Eliza and Blake with looking into the death of unseen Sir Joseph Milner, the undersecretary at the Foreign Office. Allegedly, he fell from his horse, sustained an injury that was subsequently infected, and died from a fever a few days later. Miss Scott wants to be sure there was no foul play (even though she already seems pretty darn convinced their was.)

Anyway, Blake's department will get a budget increase to hire new officers and Eliza will get double her usual fee once they solve the case, so it's in everyone's best interest to help out.

Since they've been encouraged to use discretion in their investitgation, Eliza immediately involves the two least discreet people she knows: Clarence and Moses. But despite the fact that neither of them are particularly...stealthy in terms of their tactics, it's wonderful to see the show's most oddball pairing reuinted on a case. And the full sleuting ensemble — which also includes Det. Willows, Ivy, and Barnabas Potts at various points — is a genuine delight, as everyone works together in both smart and entertaining ways.

Everyone plays to their strengths, with Clarence digging in to Milner's finances, Moses shaking down his contractors, Blake and Eliza quizzing the servants, and Potts back in the mortuary investigating Milner's dead body. But despite the fact that this is one of the few cases all season that ultimately involves an actual murder, the case itself is still fairly mediocre. The real joy in it is in watching this group of oddballs work, and it's a nice reminder that this show is still capable of being genuinely fun when it tries.

What's less fun are the multiple, often ham-fisted conversations about Eliza's relationship with Blake. It's clear that the show wants you to think she's about to dump him in the name of protecting her business, so that her later insistance that she won't give him up for anything is the kind of growth she wasn't capable of displaying a few seasons ago back when William Wellington was still around.

That it all ends up being little more than a thought experiment — because it just convenient ly works out that they both get to keep better, more expansive versions of their original jobs — is somewhat disappointing, if only because it would actually make for interesting television to see Eliza have to truly make such a choice and live with the consequences.

If "The Line of Duty" truly turns out to be where Miss Scarlet concludes, it's not actually a bad ending. Everyone seems happy, successful, and building toward the future.

Whether this is a legitmate ending or simply the show's creators hedging their bets about a renewal prospect — and, if so, I'm not mad at them for concluding this season in such a way that i can serve a dual purpose if need be — it's satisfying, and generally respectful to everyone's journey. We could do a lot worse. But we'll just have to wait and see what happens next.

All episodes of Miss Scarlet are available on PBS Passport the PBS Masterpiece Prime Video Channel.