During one of the club's parties, Darcy arrives and angrily demands a special meeting with the Assembly of Superiors on the "Circle of Justice" asking why they plotted a "filthy rotten murder" and implicated him. The centre of the circle opens as a trapdoor and Darcy is killed. On Mrs Peel's recommendation to Cartney, Steed stands to join the Hellfire Club and is given two membership tests including drinking an industrial amount of alcohol (which Steed does easily), and removing a pea from the line of an axe wielding member. Rather than trying to take the pea away, like another member who lost two fingers because of it, Steed simply blows the pea off the table as the axe is descending. Steed is welcomed by the group. As he is leaving, Steed overhears the gang and learns that they plan to stage an outrageous coup which will have the "whole country up in arms". Steed and Mrs Peel attend an orgy and investigate, spotting a cache of explosives. Steed questions a drunk girl and is told the gang are aiming to blow up Culverston House where a major international meeting is to take place that night. After being led away by some "ladies in waiting" at Cartney's request, Mrs Peel re-enters in a "Queen of Sin" outfit, holding a snake, and Cartney says to the group "she's yours to do with what you will". The members carry Mrs Peel on their shoulders, throwing rose petals on her as Steed watches with anxiety. As the assembled revelers watch a fight, Darcy's housekeeper recognizes Steed and exposes him to the organization as a spy. He wins the ensuing sword duel against the club expert (the man who lost two fingers). Mrs Peel goes underground and defeats the two members laying out the explosives before being attacked with a whip by Cartney, who drops to his death through the circle trapdoor when his whip catches on the hidden switch.