We come to this place to mourn another OTP gone too soon. After four seasons — and after finally starting to get together — Eliza and William of Miss Scarlet and the Duke are no more. Ahead of the show’s fifth season, Masterpiece announced that Stuart Martin, who has played William “Duke” Wellington since the pilot, will be leaving the show, cutting the lead couple’s burgeoning romance short.
It’s a frustrating end for one of TV’s best slow burns. For four seasons, we’ve watch as longtime friends Eliza and William annoyed each other, fought with each other, fought for each other, and denied their feelings. The fourth season finally seemed to bring the pair closer to the HEA we all assumed was coming eventually. A flashback episode seemingly cemented their relationship’s trajectory, and in the present day, William finally dropped the big “I love you” (and dropped a kiss on Eliza while he was at it). William’s departure for New York seemed surely temporary, a device to allow Martin to keep other filming commitments. Alas, it was not to be.
The Season 5 renewal announcement promises “new romance” for our beloved Miss Scarlet. Whether it’s with someone we’ve already met or a new character, though, it just won’t be the same. In farewell, let’s take a peek back at some of the best moments between Eliza and William in the four years we saw them.
Season 1, Episode 1: William Comforts Eliza
Within the first 15 minutes of the first episode of Miss Scarlet and the Duke, we understand the core relationship. Just minutes after watching Eliza and William bicker when she sneaks into his office, we see him comfort her at her father’s funeral. As she cries and confesses to William that she feels left completely alone, he says nothing — as, we know, is his style. Instead, he takes one hand in his and wipes the tear off her cheek.
These first couple of scenes tell us everything we need to know about Eliza and William. They have a much deeper relationship than either wants to admit and a long history. They annoy the hell out of each other, but when push comes to shove, they’d do anything for one another.
Season 1, Episode 5: William Rescues Eliza
Another trope to check off the list: hero goes feral when heroine is in danger! This being William and Eliza, though, things aren’t quite as easy as that. After finding out Eliza is missing, William is on the case, soon finding her accidentally locked in a cell in an abandoned prison.
The sequence is full of their trademark banter. William doesn’t pick the lock fast enough for Eliza, so she just takes the tools and does it herself, while William gets into a fight with a man in the building. To William’s annoyance, Eliza rips his expensive coat to bind his hand wound, and they continue on their escape adventure. It’s a delightful action sequence that also showcases their impeccable chemistry — and, once again, the fact that they’re there for each other even as they can’t stop squabbling.
Season 1, Episode 6: An Intimate Dinner
The final arc of Season 1 sees Eliza unwillingly confined to her house for protection. William (naturally) agrees to stay the night for her protection, and they end up having a candlelit dinner alone in the kitchen. We get a front-row seat to their serious old-married-couple vibes, which they even lampshade in the scene.
After learning that Eliza truly cannot cook at all, William lightly teases her, then teaches her how to boil an egg. Of course, in the cramped kitchen, extra-close proximity and held gazes are unavoidable. As they joke about what it would be like if they really were an old married couple, William’s gaze drops to Eliza’s lips and lingers a moment too long. As usual, the tension is quickly punctured, but it’s there and it’s impossible to ignore. By the end of the episode, Eliza has accepted William’s invitation to another dinner — one where her cooking will not be on the menu.
Season 2, Episode 1: What’s Keeping Eliza and William Apart
Sometimes, it’s hard not to wonder, when they so obviously care for each other, Eliza and William don’t just get together. The second season premiere reveals some of the bittersweet answer. After a complicated case leads to tension between them, Eliza tells William that she needs to be able to make her own decisions about work — even if it makes things awkward for them, and even if they become closer. William brings up his own worries: if they become involved, his position at Scotland Yard will be even more at risk.
It’s not a happy scene, and it leads to a divide between the duo for most of the season. It also foreshadows what will come to be their biggest obstacle. Part of what draws them together is their mutual love (and talent) for their work. At the same time, though, their work puts them at odds sometimes and threatens their reputations. Time and again, that conflict is what stops them from taking that next step.
Season 2, Episode 6: Eliza and William Almost Admit Their Feelings
One of the best parts of any slowburn ship is when they come thisclose to having The Talk, but something gets in the way. That’s exactly what happens in the closing minutes of Season 2. After nearly being forced out of the police department, William’s future is uncertain, and it’s not helped by a fight he has with Eliza.
Of course, they can’t stay mad at each other for long. Eliza finds William lingering outside her office one night. She’s ready to tell him something, but hesitates after he reveals that he’s staying in London after all. Just as he leans towards her and reaches to take her hand, they’re interrupted by the arrival of Potts and Ivy. She promises to tell him tomorrow, but we know she won’t, and so the slowburn continues.
Season 3, Episode 2: Eliza and William Go on a Dinner Date
Eliza and William’s regular dinners are a mainstay of Miss Scarlet, underscoring their closeness in a socially-restrictive era. This time, they’re on a case and pretending to be married — and, as always, looking at each other like that. There’s plenty of their usual banter as they quip about what it would be like if they really were married.
Underneath the flirtation, though, is something more serious and real. They’re there as equals and partners, trusting each other on an investigation. It’s a demonstration of how far they’ve come (and how naturally behaving like a couple comes to them).
Season 3, Episode 6: William Confronts His Own Feelings
One of the best moments for Eliza and William doesn’t even have half of the couple in it! In the final minutes of Season 3, William sits down with girlfriend Arabella. He’s late to a date again, after a case that saw him pretending to be engaged to Eliza (and giving a very romantic speech while “in character”). Arabella says what we’re all thinking. “You are in love with her,” she states.
William can’t deny it, and the look on his face says it all. In hindsight, though, Arabella’s parting words feel much harsher. She warns William that, although Eliza has feelings for him too, her ambitions will always come first.
Season 4, Episode 1: “You Look Beautiful”
It’s the first time we’ve gotten to really see William encounter Eliza since his revelation at the end of Season 3. And boy, does it pay off. Overwhelmed with too much work and too few officers, William goes to his office to decompress. Who should he find there but Eliza?
She gives him her usual smile and sweetly tells him that he looks tired. In response, he just looks at her and, completely serious, says, “You look beautiful.” It’s the start of a running theme this season: William is ready to wear his heart on his sleeve, but Eliza still has her walls up. Still, who doesn’t love when a leading man calls his love interest “beautiful”?
Season 4, Episode 3: Eliza and William First Meet
Can an entire episode count as a “moment”? If it’s this Season 4 standout, you bet it can! After present-day William suffers a nearly-fatal gunshot wound, Eliza sits vigil at his side and thinks back on their first meeting, over a decade ago. We get to see their prickly introduction when a teenage Eliza, frustrated over not being taken seriously, is forced to welcome her father’s latest witness: scruffy, newly-arrived-from-Scotland William.
What unfolds is exactly what you would expect, given their adult relationship. They bicker, they challenge each other, and they irritate each other. But Eliza and William also have an instinct for understanding each other from day one. After solving a case together (including a very sweet ballroom scene), William decides to go into police work. When he tells Eliza this, she’s visibly frustrated at the unfairness. That’s when we get the moment we’ve heard about since the first season: their first kiss. It’s sweet and impulsive, a moment of both comfort and attraction. Actors Laura Marcus and Matt Olsen are pitch-perfect as young Eliza and William, and the episode gives us hope for their adult counterparts’ future.
Season 4, Episode 4: The Scene We All Were Waiting For
As it turns out, the most-anticipated scene between William and Eliza wound up being the last time we’d see them together on Miss Scarlet and the Duke. While convalescing at Eliza’s home, William is rethinking his life and his future. At Ivy’s urging, he pens a letter, which we only see glimpses of, but which includes a declaration of love for Eliza.
When Eliza arrives late for dinner, apologetic but thrilled over solving her case, William is there in a serious mood. He tells her that he’s taking a job in New York for the next year. Then, he does what we’ve all been wanting him to do for years, and he tells her he loves her. He also, however, tells her that he can’t stay in this limbo forever — they can’t be together in the jobs they have, and he can’t be around her all the time without being with her. So he’s taking the job and giving them time to figure out what to do and how to be together. Before he goes, though, they give viewers one parting gift: a devastatingly tender kiss. If we had to leave this couple behind, at least we left it on something lovely.