'Houdini & Doyle' recap episode 104: ‘Spring Heel’d Jack’

Last week on Houdini & Doyle, our makeshift detectives disproved a man of miracles. This week, they take on a supposed demon.

A man, Underhill, and his wife celebrate selling a fleet of motorbuses to the city. Someone slips a letter under their door. It’s an unsigned quote from Moby Dick that sounds like a threat.

Underhill later wakes to strange noises and leans out his window to investigate. Something knocks him out to fall several stories to the ground.

Doyle’s children ask him about their mother. There’s no change in her condition. Such disappointing news after her breakthrough last week.

Houdini and Doyle arrive at Underhill’s apartment house. Stratton gives them the note. There’s no evidence of a struggle. The doorman says he saw a creature take a gravity-defying leap after the victim fell.

Houdini tells Merring that Underhill was probably drunk and fell. Stratton says plenty of stables would be upset with Underhill for his bus sales.

Stratton tells the men that she has to step out and pick up some medication. Doyle reminds her he’s a doctor, but she says she’s fine. It sounds suspicious.

Houdini and Doyle interrogate a stable owner, Tuttle. He owns the biggest stable in London and has the most to lose from the bus sales. He refuses to answer Doyle’s questions without police identification.

Our men investigate Underhill’s apartment. Houdini stole paperwork from the stable and finds the handwriting it similar to the threatening note. He thinks Tuttle killed Underhill. So, how did he leap to the next building?

Houdini & Doyle S01E04 handwriting
Credit: FOX

Doyle compares the case to the unsolved mystery of a phantom called Spring Heel’d Jack. Houdini meets his friend Biggs who asks about the phantom. He writes for the newspaper. Houdini tells him there’s no phantom.

Stratton spies on a man and woman meeting in the park.

A woman sees a shadow outside her window that night. Fire explodes from the marauder’s mouth and he crashes through her window trying to abduct her. Her maid saves her and the man runs away.

Stratton claims to be ill. Houdini and Doyle interrogate the accosted woman at her home. She says the man who grabbed her had glowing eyes and leaped off the garden wall. She recently had an argument with Tuttle over her bill from a carriage ride. Her demon story is made less credible by her recent stay at a mental hospital.

Houdini and Doyle knock on Stratton’s door, but there’s no answer. They fear she has collapsed and Houdini picks the lock. She’s not home. Doyle wants to leave, but Houdini searches for clues. They find no medicine, but there’s a man’s ring with an odd symbol in her dining room drawer. They find a telegram from someone named Nigel asking her to let him explain.

Houdini sees Stratton through the window and hides, leaving Doyle to be found snooping. Stratton is irate. When Houdini comes out of hiding she tells them both to leave.

Doyle’s son finds the drawings of the demon. Doyle tells him the chances of the killer being a demon are very slim. Usually Doyle is the one looking expressly for paranormal answers. Maybe he just wants to calm his son’s fears.

Houdini follows Tuttle then sends a letter to Doyle asking to meet him. When Doyle gets there, it’s a bordello. Houdini tells him that Tuttle is upstairs, the same place he was the night of Underhill’s death. So, he couldn’t have committed the murder.

A man is walking home and is attacked by Spring Heel’d Jack. The police find the man speared on the top of a fence. He was a slumlord.

Biggs shows up at the crime scene. Doyle accuses him of being vile and inciting panic through his stories. Biggs says if the man had read his story, he’d still be alive.

Stratton walks down a nearly empty street and hears someone following her. She hides and hits the man from behind. It’s Doyle. He apologizes for breaking into her home and says he’s available if she needs help. She tells him she can take care of herself and storms off.

Doyle sees a man on a side street suddenly change direction. He knocks on Houdini’s door. He shows him a picture of Nigel. He saw him spying on Stratton on her way home.

Doyle tells Houdini he doesn’t have to hide his opium use from him. He asks if it’s for pain management.

The next morning the streets are empty. Stratton found another Russian, Vladimir, on her list of victim’s acquaintances. He was rejected by the woman from the mental hospital and was evicted by the landlord. What’s his connection to Underhill?

Vladimir works as a gymnast at a local carnival, so he definitely could have made the supposed impossible leaps. They question him, but he claims he’s been at the carnival every night. Doyle digs through his belongings on a side table.

As Biggs walks home, a phantom figure jumps him and breathes fire. Instead of being afraid, Biggs asks him why he jumped out like that. He says they need to lay low. The phantom takes off his mask and Biggs is surprised to find it’s Houdini.

Doyle found luminescent powder, wax and ethanol on Vladimir’s table. They explain the glowing red eyes and flames. Vladimir confessed that Biggs hired him.

Houdini visits Biggs in jail. Biggs says no one was supposed to get hurt. The landlord slipped while climbing the fence. Houdini asks him about Underhill, but Biggs denies having anything to do with that.

Doyle follows Stratton again and sees her reject Nigel. Doyle tells Nigel he won’t let him hurt Stratton. He says he’s just a friend of her husband’s.

Doyle tells Houdini that Stratton is married. Why doesn’t her house look like a man lives there?

As the screen fades, a phantom crosses the roofs above them.

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