Ripper Street Series 1 Episode Guide

Matthew Macfadyen, Jerome Flynn and Adam Rothenberg star in more channel premiere episodes of the Victorian police drama, Ripper Street.

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Episode 1 - I Need Light

A young woman is found brutally murdered – the hallmark signs of the Ripper all over her body – Reid must find the truth, even though the city is gripped with fear and believes their nemesis is back stalking the streets.
Episode 2 - In My Protection

Ernest Manby, a 63-year-old toy maker is found beaten to death. George Lusk and the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee claim that 14-year-old Thomas Gower is responsible.

Reid's conscience is challenged by a radical lawyer Eagles, a friend and confidant of Reid's wife, and orphanage governess Deborah Goren (Lucy Cohu) and it leads to Gower being put under the protection of Reid. Jackson’s drinking and gambling have led to the loss of the ring that ties him and Long Susan to their American past.

The two events lead to the death of Eagles and a dangerous task for Long Susan to recover the ring from a gambling den run by Carmichael (Joe Gilgun) who uses his vicious child gang to attack Miss Goren’s orphanage to kill Gower sheltering there with Reid and Drake, the location having been given up by Jackson when he and Long Susan are captured by Carmichael.
Episode 3 - The King Came Calling

Fear of the return of "King" cholera joins Whitechapel's H Division and the independent City of London police forces amid the panic.

Captain Jackson's autopsy discounts cholera and indicates St Anthony's Fire caused by wilful contamination of food in both boroughs. Inspector Sydney Ressler (Patrick Baladi) joins Reid’s team as they scour Whitechapel for clues and connections of five dead City of London workers that include transvestism and homosexuality.

Reid's wife seeks patronage for her charity efforts and is rebuffed and succumbs to the same illness seeing her dead daughter in her delirium.

As Jackson’s lab fills with bodies, and with no clear connection between the victims to be found, the team work against the clock to find some underlying pattern amidst the rising tide of sickness and death.
Episode 4 - The Good of This City

The clearing of a Whitechapel slum for the underground railway by progressive councillor Stanley J. Bone (Paul McGann) of the new LCC reveals a murder scene of two bodies, two young children in an adjoining room and an unreliable girl witness.

Lucy Eames (Emma Rigby), a beautiful, disturbed, three months pregnant former 16 year old prostitute at Long Susan's brothel, is the centre of a complex web of conspiracy which involves benevolent Dr Karl Crabb (Anton Lesser), a leading psychiatrist specialising in lobotomies.

Reid discovers one killer is someone he knows and the mystery children are taken from the safety of Miss Goren's (Lucy Cohu) orphanage as Reid closes in on a solution that leads to corruption and abuse by seemingly respectable individuals.
Episode 5 - The Weight Of One Man’s Heart

A military style robbery is a puzzle to Detective Inspector Reid when the stolen gems are returned save for one blue sapphire. Drake's heart has fallen for Rose, and he hopes for a life with her, despite warnings from Reid and Jackson.

She, however, has dreams of being an actress. Drake is confronted with his past when his former commanding officer during the Mahdist War, Colonel Madoc Faulkner (Iain Glen) returns to London to seek compensation for the 'unjust' treatment of the British army's soldiers by planning an audacious robbery of the Royal Mint, requiring Drake's help to gain entry. Reid closes in on the robbers and Drake finds his loyalties put to the test.
Episode 6 - Tournament Of Shadows

With the London Dock Strike of 1889 leading to protests in the streets of London, the killing of Jewish anarchist Joshua Bloom (Ferdinand Kingsley) in a bomb explosion and the wrecking of the International Working Men's Club in Berner Street sees Reid and the team fighting international terrorism lead by Russian spy Peter Morris.

Jackson, using his Pinkerton experience, goes undercover to infiltrate the strikers but Reid is warned off the case by Commissioner James Monro and Superintendent Constantine of Special Branch who seems to have prior knowledge of Morris' activities, Jackson's past and Reid's daughter's death.

When his wife tells Reid to clear their daughter Matilda's bedroom, he opens up to Miss Goren (Lucy Cohu), telling her of the circumstances of how he received burns to his body when his daughter disappeared, and stating that he believes she is still alive.
Episode 7 - A Man Of My Company

An international shipping magnate, Theodore P Swift arrives in London with his Pinkerton retinue to complete the acquisition of an ailing London shipping line.

The leader of the visiting Pinkerton clan, Frank Goodnight, badly wants to find Captain Homer Jackson. Jackson, however, doesn’t wish to be found. Meanwhile the murdered body of an engineer, inventor of a new ship's engine that could save the ailing company, draws Reid's attention just as Jackson and Long Susan's past comes back to haunt them.

Reid's investigation of the engineer's wife, (Shauna Macdonald), has disastrous results for Constable Hobbs and Goodnight's handiwork places Jackson under the suspicion of Chief Inspector Abberline when a prostitute is found murdered in the same manner as the Ripper's victims.
Episode 8 - What Use Our Work?

Reid is adrift and his team in pieces and Leman Street is shaken to its foundations following recent events.

With Abberline convinced that Jackson is The Ripper, the captain is in custody and facing the death penalty. Reid is convinced of Jackson's innocence, and brings in Joseph Lavender who had seen The Ripper with one of his victims the previous year, but Lavender proves not to be the key to Jackson's release from custody. Reid seeks solace with Miss Goren and Drake with Bella, one of Long Susan's girls.

Rose leaves the brothel to stay at Mrs Reid's shelter and, through a newspaper lonely hearts page, she seeks out a wealthy husband. When Rose disappears, Reid and Drake suspect that a white slavery ring is operating in their midst, with previous Ripper suspect, Victor Silver, at its head. Reid reveals Silver was one of the missing victims from the boat accident that he and his daughter were on. Silver is assisted in his work by his sister Clara (Ruta Gedmintas) and brother. Jackson is eventually given the chance to prove to everyone (most importantly Abberline) that he is not Jack the Ripper.

Reid, Drake and Jackson are left free to continue cleaning up the streets of Whitechapel