Grimsburg – Season 1 Episode 6 “Murder on the Splurt Express” Recap & Review

Murder on the Splurt Express

Episode 6 of Grimsburg takes place in millionaire Alistair Chudwell’s large mansion…or should we say, “train-son.” The mansion is situated on railway tracks and can morph into a running train.

Everyone from the station is invited to a murder mystery party. Each of them plays a different role in the play…until it doesn’t remain a play at all. When Alistair goes to “fake die,” everyone thinks he has done it. They try to find out who is the murderer based on the facts of the game. Marvin Flute gets his guess wrong but Stan, for whom Marvin forgot to call a babysitter, gets it right.

This makes Marvin jealous of his son, forming a recurring theme in the episode. However, it turns out that Alistair is really dead and now, the group must find out the identity of the killer. They divide into pairs to look for probable clues. Each of the pairings is used to bring out a facet in one of the other characters.

In a surprise outcome, Kang and Pentos strike up an unexpected friendship. What is even more startling is their shared interests, which bring them closer.

Chief Stamos finds the creature from the film The Shape of Water trapped in a large water tank. Although she initially tries to play it down, Stamos wants to get rid of her loneliness by dating it. Meanwhile, Stan continues to upend his jealous father whose sentiment grows stronger with every new clue he solves.

Wynona and Summers instantly hit it off, although the former has no idea about the latter’s crush. In conversation, Summers is also led to believe that she might be the killer due to her obsession with dead bodies.

Everything is tied up in the living room when Marvin steals his son’s notebook after believing it to contain the identity of the killer. However, after gathering everyone to make an announcement, Marvin comes up short. When Stan learns about his father’s betrayal, he is heartbroken as Marvin tries to move everyone on from this embarrassment. The bigger source of tension in the room is the fact that one of the group is the killer. This turns everyone against each other.

A chaotic breakout results in flying objects and Marvin running away from his son in shame. Stan follows him, saying “Grudges as for babies.” He consoles Marvin for the night’s events and reinstates his confidence in crime-solving.

The father-son duo reach the conclusion that Alistair’s death was a “happy accident.” A big splurge right as Alistair was going to “pretend to die” ensured that the knife went right through his heart. He was not murdered. The announcement comes to everyone’s relief as they make their peace with the events of the day.

The Episode Review

This is unmistakably the wildest episode in Grimsburg till now. The show has proven to be quirky and chaotic with bold creative decisions. But Episode 6 pushes the gauntlet to the extremes. The movie references and inspiration are tasteful, albeit misguided. They do feel out of place on occasions but the makers do well to tie them together.

Marvin’s lack of self-awareness is being developed as a pivotal part of his character’s journey. Maybe that is why he is such a treat to watch on the screen.

The plot is light on details in this episode. Although the structure is quite good, it doesn’t have the level of detail to make the journey to the conclusion interesting.