Death in Paradise's Naomi heartbroken – but there’s a sweet silver lining

She initially referred to him as an "old friend from back home", but she later confided in Darlene that they had been together for four years, before eventually breaking up when she moved to Saint Marie.

"It was weird, not gonna lie," she said of bumping into him. "But it's fine. He's over it, I'm over it. It's okay."

But clearly, she had a lot on her mind and after they next spoke, he asked her to join him for a drink.

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Jump forward to that evening and Naomi and Emmanuel were laughing like no time had passed at all as they reminisced about her dad's famous chilli.

If you didn't know their history, you'd think they were very much a couple.

They then went for a walk on the beach, where the conversation turned to their breakup.

"So how come you never asked me to come with you?" Emmanuel asked.

"I thought you didn't want to," she said, clearly taken aback by his question. "St Barnabas is your home, you always said you'd never leave."

"You never gave me a chance," he said.

But when she queried why he had never communicated that to her, he responded: "I got it into my head that you wanted to be rid of me. I didn't want to hold you back."

And just like that, Naomi was reevaluating everything.

But just as she was about to suggest possibly picking back up where they left off, he stopped her with some unanticipated news: Emmanuel is engaged.

Naomi was speechless in the moment and remained so when she later sat down with Mervin for dinner at his mum's favourite restaurant. But it didn't take long for her to break down.

Now, on paper Mervin is the last person you'd want to cry in front of. He didn't pick up on her subdued mood when she first arrived, which couldn't have been any more apparent, and as soon as the tears started falling, he thought there was some sand lodged in her eye.

And he calls himself a detective...

But then the penny dropped and suddenly, he actually did what he was supposed to do: Mervin comforted his colleague.

When she then started to question if she'd made the wrong decision by moving to Saint Marie, he didn't put his foot in it, but said exactly what she needed to hear most.

"I think I messed up," she said. "He's moving on with his life, just like everybody else I know. If I had stayed on St Barnabas...."

Mervin cut her off.

"Then you wouldn't be here doing what you love doing," he said. "Life's about choices."

And in another entirely unexpected move, he then opened up about his own engagement back in London.

"Trust me, it's not all cracked up to be," he said. "Work kind of got in the way. She got fed up with never seeing me, surprisingly."

It was a rare moment of vulnerability from Mervin that not only helped to put things into perspective for Naomi, it also allowed her to be vulnerable too, in turn chipping away at the tension that has existed between the DS and her new boss following his arrival.

"It's kind of hard when this is the only thing I'm actually good at," he added and all of a sudden, Naomi's tears had dried and she was laughing as they decided to order some pound cake.

While the sting of Emmanuel's news might take some time to wear off, Naomi knows she's exactly where she should be, for now at least – and her bond with Mervin has strengthened in the process.

Death in Paradise airs on BBC One on Fridays.

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