This script has been lightly edited for clarity.

 Jace Lacob: Before we get into this week’s special bonus episode, a word of warning: if you haven’t yet watched Moonflower Murders all the way to the end, please stop listening to this podcast right now and watch that series first as we’re about to discuss the ending and reveal the killers. Consider this a blaring spoiler alert.

Sufficiently warned? Ready? Okay, here we go…

I’m Jace Lacob, and you’re listening to MASTERPIECE Studio. Over the course of Moonflower Murders, two sleuths — editor-turned-amateur-detective Susan Ryeland and professional-but-fictional-detective Atticus Pünd — must contend with four murders and three killers. 

The first two murders happen in Susan’s world — first, that of notorious baddy Frank Parris, which took place eight years earlier. And then the disappearance of Cecily Treherne, whose body is later found buried in the woods.

The other two murders take place in Pünd’s world, within the pages of Alan Conway’s novel Atticus Pünd Takes the Case. Actress turned hotelier Melissa James’s murder in Episode One sets the plot in motion, and later, her husband John Spencer is stabbed with a Turkish dagger from one of her movies.

Susan and Pünd must work together to figure out the connection between these murders and what hidden clues in Conway’s book led to Cecily’s death. In the end, justice is served, the guilty punished, and killers are unmasked. Today, we are joined by a cast member who speaks now about their homicidal role in Moonflower Murders.

Jace Lacob: We are joined once again this week by Moonflower Murders star Pippa Bennett-Warner. Welcome.

Pippa Bennett-Warner: Hello! Thank you, Jace. Thank you. How are you?

Jace Lacob: Good. How are you doing?

Pippa Bennett-Warner: Yeah, I’m good, thank you.

Jace Lacob: By the end of Moonflower Murders, Madeline Cain is revealed to be, if not the killer, then a killer, in this case, Melissa James’ husband, John Spencer. What did you make of that twist, that the accomplished and devoted detective’s assistant Madeline was secretly a killer, one obsessed with actress Melissa James?

Pippa Bennett-Warner: I thought it was brilliant. And it was so unexpected. When I was reading it, I had no inclination that it was going to happen, so when it did, I was giggling. I was giggling. No, I think it’s genius. I think Anthony making Ms. Cain one of the murderers is genius.

Jace Lacob: She’s in the unusual position of being the detective’s assistant in an active crime investigation. But she’s also the reason Pünd is even there in the first place, and then ultimately also a killer for Pünd to catch. How much of a challenge was it to track and then conceal Madeline’s true motivations during this?

Pippa Bennett-Warner: What we would do is we would do the flashbacks as separate things. So, I’d play the sort of truth, if you like, of the scene, and then we’d pick up her inner monologue. And it was quite difficult to keep remembering to not show that side, and to stay fully devoted to… I couldn’t really show anything in my eyes until later on in the season, but she’s so clever, that’s the thing. Anthony gives her real agency and makes her clever, which I really like.

Jace Lacob: She flirts so closely with danger, I think, and I think that’s one of the reasons I love Madeline so much. But there is this really delicate, almost balletic movement to your performance here. As Madeline, you have to anticipate Pünd’s needs, but there’s this cunning quality to her that you can’t tip your hand to too much. We get little glimpses of it, but you have to be so careful not to show her true thinking. How do you compartmentalize those aspects of her personality while being true to her whole self?

Pippa Bennett-Warner: It’s a good question. I think it starts with the writing and the writing really gave me that. And then I think on top of that there was a real kind of, flexibility isn’t the word, but because she’s written the way she’s written and because there is this heightened sense of reality, I knew what the parameters were, and I knew that within those parameters I could just play and make her… I mean, she’s a little strange, is Madeline.

I think Pünd is very fond of her. I think he’s sort of like, who is this woman? She’s quite bizarre. And I think that’s how she gets away with it, because, when I first read it, I don’t know, the way she walked came into my head. All the little face stuff that I ended up doing for her really popped off the page for me. I think she’s a little mad and I think maybe Pünd knows that deep down, that she’s not quite right. But in a really charming way.

Jace Lacob: In a very charming way, she’s not right. Pünd confronts Madeline in Episode 6. She was obsessed with Melissa. She hired an actor to play Edgar Schultz. Her plot ends up unraveling completely as he reveals her to be Spencer’s killer. She believes Spencer killed Melissa and she takes her vengeance. Was it a crime of passion, finding herself alone with Spencer on the stairs? Or do you think Madeline always intended to follow Pünd to Tawleigh and dispatch whoever he unmasked as Melissa’s killer?

Pippa Bennett-Warner: Ooh, good question. First, I’d like to say that Edgar Schultz, who’s played by Martin, played the original Pumba in the original Lion King that I was in.

Jace Lacob: Whoa!

Pippa Bennett-Warner: Yeah.

Jace Lacob: That’s awesome.

Pippa Bennett-Warner: I know. And we worked together on The Smoke, which was a Sky series that ran for one season in 2013, I want to say. And then I hadn’t really seen him until being reunited again on Moonflower like 10 years later. But yeah, he played Pumba, and I was little Nala. So, there’s a little fun fact. It was just really very sweet. And he’s again, just a gorgeous human being and so funny.

I think she… I mean, the fact that she even hires an actor, the whole thing is just really funny. I think she was on a mission. Yeah. I think she wanted to get to the bottom of it. And whoever had killed Melissa James was absolutely not going to see the light of day after Madeline found out about it. I think she was a woman on a mission and Pünd was a way to get there, potentially, yeah. She did what she set out to do. I admire her focus and her determination.

Jace Lacob: She has commitment. She has commitment.

Pippa Bennett-Warner: Exactly. Exactly.

Jace Lacob: There’s a moment after she plunges the Turkish dagger into John Spencer that she steps back and admires her work, taking pleasure in her revenge. What did you make of that moment specifically, the way she revels in this act of vengeance?

Pippa Bennett-Warner: Well, the thing about that is, in that beat, do we see the real Madeline Cain? Like, is that actually who she is? And I think I like that angle of she’s actually this horrible murderer who puts this mask on of a sort of quite sweet, odd woman who has clearly no social life and stays up and writes chapters for her boss and things like that. I definitely enjoyed playing that beat and I think she is just delighted to have achieved her goal of killing him and avenging Melissa’s death who she’s completely besotted by and with.

MIDROLL

Jace Lacob: In Episode Six, Madeline says to Pünd,

CLIP

Madeline: I’m so sorry, Mr. Pünd.

Atticus: Sorry? That you committed a terrible crime, or that when you killed John Spencer, you had chosen the wrong person?

Madeline: Well, both really.

Jace Lacob: It’s clear that Madeline is completely mad, but it’s played so delicately here. She just deflates. She’s still professional and crisp, but she just deflates. Do you think she knew Pünd would catch her in the end?

Pippa Bennett-Warner: I think so, and I feel for her in that moment because she’s flying high until he starts, but he started working this out a couple of episodes before, of course. But yeah, I feel for her because I kind of don’t want her to get caught because she’s so delightful. But I remember reading that and again, just laughing. I don’t know, maybe I shouldn’t be finding this quite so funny, but I did, I found it really funny. And then the way that Rebecca and I kind of found that beat of what that beat should be, and it was, I don’t know, she just, yeah, she’s sort of like, yeah, I know, sorry.

I think she hands in her resignation immediately afterwards, doesn’t she, or something, I think? She goes, I’m going to hand in my resignation and she’s sort of weirdly kind of at peace with it. She’s like, of course, kind of thing. I don’t know, I find that bit funny.

Jace Lacob: You touched on this. I want to drill down a little more to the way that she handles her unmasking, which is so pitch perfect for her character.

CLIP

Madeline: I will be giving you my notice, Mr. Pünd. With immediate effect.

Atticus: I accept your resignation.

Jace Lacob: And then she smiles at him from the car as she’s driven away. But there’s this innate sadness to Pünd here. What do you ultimately make of their dynamic? What were Madeline’s true feelings for Pünd in the end?

Pippa Bennett-Warner: I think she’s devastated that she’s let him down. She did what she wanted to do, and she was going to do it and it needed to happen, you know, a life for a life. But that connection she has with Pünd is so lovely and truthful and respectful and I think, I remember doing that bit and the little smile. I think he smiles, they both smile at each other, don’t they? And then she drives in the police car, and you do feel a bit, I remember shooting that and feeling quite sad. And I did feel like I’d let Tim down, not even Pünd, Tim. And so yeah, I feel for her in that beat because I feel maybe she hasn’t quite thought through what she’s done.

Jace Lacob: Had Melissa James not been killed, do you think Madeline Cain would still be dutifully typing up Pünd’s notes in his office every evening?

Pippa Bennett-Warner: One hundred percent.

Jace Lacob: Is this just a case of Madeline being a moth who drifted too close to the flame of murder, a woman who finally got her wish to, “…enter the world of Melissa James”?

Pippa Bennett-Warner: Yes, possibly. Yes. And I wonder, if she was around today, if she was, you know, a real person, and she was still in prison or whatever, would she have regretted her choice? She probably would. But, like you say, she managed to step into the world of Melissa James. So maybe it’s kind of an eye for an eye, you know?

Jace Lacob: And she, as I said, she moved from custard creams to custody and got to experience this vicarious thrill. But I think she maybe represents all of us watching or reading Agatha Christie-style crime novels. Like, we get too close to this investigation, too close to murder, and maybe we’re sort of changed by it. So, is she maybe a proxy for those of us who love murder mysteries?

Pippa Bennett-Warner: Yes, I think she might be. I wonder how people will respond to her, if there’ll be a kind of understanding. Because I’m assuming that most people won’t see it coming. And then when it does happen, will people, I don’t know, sympathize with her? I don’t know. I’m quite intrigued as to how she goes down in that respect, if people can kind of see why she did it or if people just… Do you know what I mean?

Jace Lacob: I think it doesn’t help her case that she killed the wrong man.

Pippa Bennett-Warner: I know, I know, I know! Bless her.

Jace Lacob: Pippa Bennett Warner, thank you so very much.

Pippa Bennett-Warner: Thank you.

With justice served and the criminals behind bars, we can rest easy as we say goodbye to Pünd and Susan… for now. Next week, we travel to the quaint town of Marlow, where three everyday citizens take it upon themselves to investigate a local murder. 

CLIP

DS Tanika Malik: Mrs. Potts, I can’t have you interfering. This is a police matter now.

Mrs. Potts: Of course. And I’m sure you’ll do an excellent job.

The premiere of The Marlow Murder Club begins Sunday at 9 p.m. Eastern on MASTERPIECE on PBS.