CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR DEAD HOT

From writer Charlotte Coben, daughter of prolific crime novelist Harlan Coben, comes twisty Gen Z mystery, Dead Hot, pitched somewhere between crime thriller, comedy and LGBTQ+ romp. Bent coppers, furries, the second coming of Christ, miniature horses, a dodgy priest, and man whose surname is “Hamburgerson” collide in this hectic, eclectic murder mystery. It’s a lot.

Elliot (Bilal Hasna) and Jess (Vivian Oparah) are devoted best friends and Elliot is dating Jess’ twin brother, Peter (Olisa Odele). The three live together until one day Elliot returns home to find Peter missing and his bloodied, severed finger lying in the middle of the kitchen floor. Peter hasn’t been heard from since, but the two hold hope that he might be still alive somewhere.

Five years later Elliot is struggling to move on until he meets Will (Marcus Hodson). He and Will hit it off and spend the night, but then it happens again… Will appears to vanish, leaving only a severed finger behind. Only the finger is made of cake, the policeman at the scene is acting strange and “Will” probably isn’t even called “Will”. Meanwhile Jess gets a match on the DNA analysis site she’s signed up to. Could it be Peter? And what about Elliot’s aunt Bonnifred (Rosie Cavaliero) and the fiance she’s never spoken to (Hamburgerson!), let alone met? It’s going to be a stressful week.

From here on out it only gets more complicated so let’s break it down by section.

Who is Will?

Will is actually called Andrew. For a time it looks like he’s an insane chameleon with multiple alter egos including boxing gym coach Pauly P, but in fact he’s an actor who has created a performance art version of 12 Angry Men playing every characters himself, who each have social media personas… Although he’s also apparently a wannabe documentarian who has been investigating Peter’s disappearance with the view to getting a show on Netflix or similar.

Andrew becomes “Will” when he’s hired by a client known only as ‘The Brutalizer’ to go on a date with Elliot and get him to snog him (more on this in a bit). He’s being paid £50,000 to do this (more on this in a bit too!), so he decides to go very method and learn everything he possibly can about Elliot. From here he learns about Peter’s disappearance and, we discover in the finale, becomes obsessed with the case.

Who sets up the finger cake?

That was Andrew. The motive is a bit shaky, but essentially he does it to test Elliot to see if he might be responsible for Peter’s disappearance. He also films unboxing the cake, setting the stage and Elliot’s distraught reaction when he finds it. Which does make you think it’s a bit reckless of the police officer at the scene to take a bite from it – who (other than Andrew) knows what’s in that cake?!

Who is The Brutalizer?

That’s Elliot’s aunt Bonnie. Bonnie is horrendously treated by her mother (Elliot’s grandmother), Francine (Penelope Wilton) who constantly calls her names and strongly favors Elliot. When Elliot was dating Peter his homophobic grandmother cut him off financially but after Elliot’s disappearance, when Elliot allowed her to believe he was no longer gay, she began heavily subsidizing Elliot again and cutting Bonnie out. Bonnie’s plan was to get Andrew to seduce Elliot into kissing him, which she would then photograph to show to her mother. This she does, but Francine bribes her not to mention that to Elliot, thereby keeping Elliot in the closet. Francine has a lot more secrets to keep but, as ever, more on that later…

Why did Bonnie offer such an enormous amount of money to Andrew for the seduction when her own motivation was money? Unclear but it’s a useful plot device.

The Brutalizer is not the one who murdered Andrew. It’s presumably convenient for bent copper Danny (Peter Serafinowicz) to have Elliot believe that. In the police station he gets a stooge to pretend to have shot Andrew by accident.

“Who am I covering for?” he asks. “The Brutalizer” Danny responds, which suggests that Danny must have discovered who Andrew was hired by (which doesn’t play out in any meaningful way but we’ll allow it).

So who did kill Andrew and why?

It was one of Danny’s corrupt gang of coppers. Apparently it was because Andrew was wearing the hat that Jess had stolen from a boy in the club. He was supposed to assassinate Jess because she knew too much about the McGargee family. Given he killed Andrew with a single shot to the head from a distance does make it a bit hard to swallow that he can’t tell the difference between Andrew and Jess. But there you go.

Why does Andrew tell Elliot not to trust Jess?

Just before he’s shot, Andrew is about to explain why he told Elliot not to trust Jess and why he sprayed Elliot in the face. He is conveniently shot before he can do so. In the finale when we understand that Andrew was an armchair detective investigating Peter’s disappearance, we learn he is suspicious of Jess. It seems like the reason for this is because she nicked a bloke’s hat in the club. A hat that Andrew steals back, ultimately leading to his assassination… This isn’t a documentary, people.

Who is Christina?

Christina (Rebekah Murrell) is not, in fact, Jess’s sister, as she initially claims. Instead she is the mother of Peter’s child, Nico. Peter was seeing Christina on the side (while dating Elliot) and she fell pregnant. Peter broke up with Christina and in a fit of rage she accidentally cut his finger off. Danny is Christina’s half brother, who turns up to do a clean up job. However, Tina did not kill Peter, and nor did Danny. Christina did, on the other hand, kill their father the priest. He had been convinced (!) that Nico was an immaculate conception and the second coming of Christ, and therefore decided to leave all of his considerable wealth to Tina and Nico.

But Danny wasn’t having that and revealed Nico’s provenance to his dad. Dad planned to disinherit Tina, and confronts her about her choices, she gets mad and kills him before he’s actually had the chance to change his will. Danny turns up to clean up the scene, also knocking off the two janitors who found the body, leaving no trace of his sister’s crime. Danny then intends to kill Tina, Nico and Jess and take the inheritance which will then be his in the entirety and sodding off abroad for a quiet life.

Who killed Peter?

Weirdly enough, this was Francine. Peter came to her after Christina cut his finger off, to ask her for money. He planned to give Christina enough money to raise Nico and to leave forever. But Francine, knowing that Elliot loved Peter, was enraged on Elliot’s behalf and killed Peter, instructing her badass maid Honeysuckle to bury the body. She’s under the delusion that getting rid of Peter would stop Elliot from being gay. It’s Francine who buys Nico the little horse and sends money to Christina. But when Francine confesses everything to Elliot and Jess, Jess has secretly rung Rigby (the make-shift taxi driver who was actually an undercover cop investigating Danny) so he hears her confession in full and she’s arrested.

Is Peter even dead?

The final sting suggests that in fact, Peter isn’t dead at all but was in hiding while Francine was still in the picture (presumably in case she finished the job). At the end he calls Jess and Elliot. Despite a lot of murder and trauma it’s probably a happy ending for the three.

Dead Hot is available to stream on Prime Video.

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