Day 176: Poirot, The Adventure of Johnnie Waverly

Show: Agatha Christie’s Poirot

Episode Particulars: S1EP3, “The Adventure of Johnnie Waverly”, original airdate January 22^nd, 1989.

 Summary: Poirot gets a visit from Marcus Waverly (Geoffrey Bateman), a country squire who has been receiving threatening notes saying that someone intends to kidnap his son Johnnie (Dominic Rougier) unless they’re paid a large amount of money. Poirot and Hastings (and eventually Japp, once his arm is twisted enough) go over to the Waverly manor to protect the boy from the kidnapping, which is supposed to take place at noon the next day. Yet despite their best efforts, Johnnie ends up being kidnapped anyway, leaving everybody confused and upset. Although by the end, it’s only the audience that will wind up confused.

Standalone Thoughts: It’s starting to feel like the showrunners were trying to get the weaker Christie stories out of the way, or at least figured they’d be good ones to use while everybody was learning the ropes. It makes a certain amount of sense on the one hand, but it also means that they weren’t always putting their best foot forward. In addition to the way they handle the tropes in this episode (see below), there’s not a lot of supporting characters, very little in the way of questioning, and no grand reveal scene. Missing one of them is ok, but the lack of all three just keeps it from feeling like a proper mystery. Or maybe that’s just me.

There’s also something odd about the pacing. Normally, the murder or crime happens at the start of the episode, or at the very least one-third of the way through the story. In this case, it’s almost exactly half-an-hour into a fifty minute episode before the kidnapping actually occurs, giving Poirot only twenty minutes to solve the case (which probably explains the lack of the elements I mentioned above). I think the intent was to build up the tension for the moment the kidnapping occurred, but it didn’t really work for me. Mostly, I look back and say “Wait, why did it take so long to get to the kidnapping? What on earth did we spend all that time on?” The answer, apparently, is a little bit of setup and laying out the clues, a little bit of character development, and a lot of filler masquerading as the other two things. I don’t know what should have been cut to maybe make room for more clues, but I do know something needs to go.

This isn’t actually a bad episode, but it’s one that has a lot more potential than is actually explored. The acting from the four regulars are fine, though nobody really stands out this time, and the story makes good use of the setting. Little by little, I think the cast and crew are figuring things out. All I can do is wait for them to put it all together.

Number of Tropes Followed/Subverted: The episode made several feints to following several of the tropes, but in the end, we have 4/15 tropes, 1/15 subversions, and another uncertainty when it comes to “Playing Fair”. The subversion, “There’s More to Life Than Murder,” is present from the beginning, because there’s never once any suggestion that this is going to go any farther than kidnapping. Trope-wise, we’ve got one spoiler trope that is barely hinted at before being deployed; a creative use of clocks that I think qualifies it for “Stopped Clocks are Wrong”, even if it doesn’t fit the exact definition; enough suspicion being laid on the servants in the early going that I’m willing to call it a use of “The Butler Did it…Again”; and a case of “Funhouse Manor” that I knew was coming long before the characters broached the subject. As for “Playing Fair”, well, there’s enough clues presented that it makes sense when you look back over the episode, but given how late in the game “Funhouse Manor” and the spoiler trope come into play, I’m reluctant to say that we were given all the facts. I’m not sure if that’s the fault of the original Christie story or the way the show presented things, but while I’m pretty sure it’s going to get better, it’s currently not giving me a lot of confidence in the way they’re handling the mysteries.

Other: *We get a reference to Miss Lemon’s elaborate filing system today, which I think is one of the few recurring things in the show. Something I’ll have to watch out for, I guess.

*Hasting’s car and love of driving come up a lot in this episode, including making a small contribution to the plot. Part of the reason for this is because Hastings announces he’s been accepted to be a participant in an upcoming big race. I mention this mostly because I’m curious to see if this comes up again as well, or was just a bit of business for this one episode.

*Poirot explains to Mr. Waverly that there isn’t enough time, money, or manpower for the police to protect every single person out there, but that most of us have our own “little policeman”, though criminals seem to lack them. It took me a moment to realize what he was saying, but I have to admit, that’s one of the more lyrical descriptions of a moral compass I’ve heard.

*Given what I do over on my main movie reviewing journal, I feel duty-bound to mention that a cat makes a brief appearance in this episode, sitting on Mrs. Waverly’s lap and happily being stroked by her and Johnnie. It contributes nothing to the story, but as with all cat appearances (well, the ones that end well for the cat), I’m happy to have it there.

Most Interesting Character: Unfortunately, while there was potential for several supporting characters, they either didn’t get much screentime or didn’t have much of a personality. Which means that my choice, by default, is;

Marcus Waverly

While the personality is a familiar one (arrogant, snobbish Lord of the Manor), Bateman’s the only one who puts any real verve into the performance, and it did allow a bit of interplay between him and Hastings about how these sorts of things aren’t done in England. It’s my weakest choice yet, but it’s the best I can do.