"Bloodline" Supplies a Backstory No One Asked For on 'Miss Scarlet & the Duke'

Miss Scarlet & the Duke Season 3 has been a roller coaster of episode quality. "Arabella's" was one of the series' best recent installments, while "Hotel St. Marc" was one of its worst. And now there's "Bloodline," an installment that sits somewhere uncomfortably in between. At least the hour is thematically interesting, even though Miss Scarlet's traditionally feminist perspective is largely absent. (Or, at least, it doesn't take the form we expect.)

"Bloodline" is once again an episode from which William is almost entirely absent; however, it at least mercifully contains no Nash. Instead, this story concerns a frame job, in which the solution to the mystery was meant to save a crime lord's son, Michael Galanis (Alex Bhat), who doesn't have the stomach for the not-exactly above-board business that he was expected to inherit.

The story of a third-generation crime boss in training who doesn't want to live a life of crime is interesting in the same ways Eliza and other women reject traditionally feminine roles. But there's also little evidence that Eliza's elaborate plan to keep Michael out of jail will help him since his father will still try to toughen him up after his release, and Eliza can't always save him. Like her own situation, she may be fighting hard, but it's difficult to see how her actions will bring about real change.