Josh Dylan and Antonia Thomas in "Tommy and Tuppence" (Photo: Courtesy of BritBox)

The finale of Tommy and Tuppence’s first season has to serve many masters. It has to wrap up the third and final mystery that our intrepid investigators have found themselves involved in, answer our lingering questions about what happened to Tommy’s Aunt Ada, and sort out the future of Blunts Brilliant Detectives, all before Tuppence’s flight back to Los Angeles takes off.

On the plus side, it manages all that, though the pace is a bit rushed and the plot more condensed than most of us would probably like. Its final pieces fit together neatly, from the ballerina painting that reveals Mrs. Lancaster is secretly Julia Starke, to the initials of the dead children that mark their graves hidden by out-of-season roses on the famous Red House painting. Tommy and Tuppence manage to rescue bartender Fran’s (Alexa Davies) daughter Hattie (Alara-Star Khan) before another dead body can join their ranks, and the show even manages to drop a few hints about where things might go in a potential second season.

But matters of the heart prove a harder case to solve. The finale doesn’t really revisit the emotional issues Tommy and Tuppence got into last week; every time it feels like it might, something comes up (a clue, Tuppence’s sister with a top-secret government job opportunity) to derail any forward momentum. Is it frustrating? A little. Does it make sense when we’re just at the end of the show’s first season? Unfortunately, yes.

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Timing Is Everything in ‘Tommy & Tuppence’s Season 1 Finale