Bad Education S2E3 - "The Funeral" Recap

Alfie and his pupils prank call Pickwell and when she storms off to their classroom, they are not in there. However, it is rigged so that she is covered in goop and has feathers blown onto her to make her resemble a chicken. Following the prank, Fraser announces to the staff that Pickwell has gone missing and makes it clear that "Chickengate" might have had something to do it. Her car has been found by authorities abandoned by the side of the road. Alfie then finds a suicide note from her in his teacher mail slot. In it, she blames Alfie for her jumping off the bridge, though Alfie says another name when reading it out loud.

Fraser promotes Rosie as interim head mistress while he looks for a more permanent replacement. Alfie is haunted by guilt over Pickwell's suicide and the blame she placed on him. He begins to wonder if he's being haunted by her so at the suggestion of his pupils, he decides to put on a memorial for her. Alfie is further alarmed when Rosie shows up during the planning with a hairstyle much like Pickwell's.

Alfie assists Fraser with the interviews for Pickwell's replacement. The applicants include a man who has been working in medieval-themed pornography, a woman whose name is "Gay Phistor," a man named "Mark Skid," and a man that may or may not be suffering from PTSD. Power seems to be going to Rosie's head, as her demeanour continues to become increasingly Pickwell-like. Also, Alfie is still seeing visions of Pickwell.

When Fraser announces that Pickwell's funeral is coming up, he asks to go with the attention of  appeasing his guilt. He brings Joe along. At the funeral, Alfie asks to say a few words, but upon getting up to the front, Joe points out that they are at the wrong funeral. Rosie threatens to report Fraser because of all the medieval pornography now on campus if he doesn't offer her the position permanently.

Grayson threatens Alfie and pulls him into a classroom, only to break down crying because of Pickwell's suicide. He then forces Alfie to give himself a wedgie as a cover for what they were doing together in the classroom. Alfie has another vision of Pickwell, made more frightening by the fog on the ground, which is later shown to be the result of a chemistry experiment. Joe loses his mobile phone and it's revealed to be in the casket of the man whose funeral he and Alfie mistakenly crashed.

Pickwell's memorial is underway, with all of Alfie's pupils dressed up in black and reading the various interactions they'd had with Pickwell. None are all that moving, though they all read them as if they are. Things begin to go wrong. They release some pigeons, wanting them to be like doves, but instead they end up defecating on the pupils. The wrong music begins playing, and the portrait of Pickwell is also defecated on, making her appear to have a Hitler-stache.

Alfie and Rosie make up and Rosie returns to her normal physical appearance as well as behaviour. Alfie heads into the art closet and begins making some pottery before Pickwell sneaks up behind him and reveals that she faked her death and cashed in her life insurance. She plans to visit a pen-pal in Argentina but needs a thousand pounds from Alfie first to get away. He tells her she will be missed and that Grayson was devastated. She reveals that she had also made him feel he was to blame for her death. In total, she had done this to about five people. She thanks him for the memorial, saying it was the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen. She kisses him and smacks his cheek before walking out.

Bad Education airs on Tuesdays on BBC Three.