Day 177: Poirot, Four and Twenty Blackbirds

Show: Agatha Christie’s Poirot

Episode Particulars: S1EP4, “Four and Twenty Blackbirds”, original airdate January 29^th, 1989.

 Summary: While Poirot is having a social dinner with his dentist (yes, really), they get into a conversation with their waitress, Molly (Cheryl Hall) about the old man seated a few tables away. It seems he’s in the habit of coming into the restaurant twice a week, but last week, he came in on a different day and ordered very different foods. Poirot is curious, and becomes even more curious when the man, Henry Gascoigne, is found dead at the foot of the stairs a few days later. The police and their new forensics division say it was a fall down the stairs, but Poirot has his doubts. And when Poirot has doubts, you can bet that there’s more going on than meets the eye.

Standalone Thoughts: What really stands out to me about this episode is that, after three episodes where the writers/filmmakers tried to keep things hidden to keep the mystery going, it appears that they just gave up and said “The hell with it, we aren’t even going to try this time around”. They still sprinkle in some clues here and there, but the opening very strongly hints at where the mystery is going, and within five minutes of discovering Mr. Gascoigne’s death, you’ll probably have figured it out. Which means about forty minutes of waiting for the characters to catch up. There is some hope that things are more complicated when there are hints about a love triangle from way in the past, but it’s just a red herring, and that ultimately makes things even more frustrating.

Maybe it’s for that reason that most of the episode feels so bland. There’s not much in the way of energy from any of the characters, like everybody’s going through the motions before arriving at the inevitable conclusion. Even a scene featuring female nudity seems dull, and when that happens you know something’s gone wrong along the way. About the only thing that sort of works are the bits of business that run through the episode; Poirot’s sensitive teeth help drive the plot forward, and Hasting’s obsession with a cricket match that’s being played is at least consistent and leads to a humorous payoff. Otherwise, there’s nothing here to really recommend the episode. I’d feel that way even if it was in the middle of the show’s seventy episodes—having it as the fourth episode just makes my bafflement at the stories chosen to debut the show even stronger.

Number of Tropes Followed/Subverted: We get a solid 4/15 tropes today, and no subversions. There’s an unquestionable “Coincidental Comment”, a “Stopped Clocks are Wrong” (there’s no actual clock involved, but I’ll still count it), and a serious case of “Actors Insulting Themselves”. With all of that, it’s no wonder that the episode clearly wins in “Playing Fair”; in fact, given everything I said above, I think it plays a little too fair. There’s a difference between allowing us to play along and just handing the answer to us, after all.

Other: *Poirot and Japp have a scene where Japp discusses the new at the time idea of forensics, and how it’ll eventually put detectives out of business. I’m guessing that was meant to be a meta moment, though the execution, like everything else this episode, kind of falls flat. That being said, he’s not entirely wrong; forensic based shows like CSI really have become the mystery stories of our day and age. So points for that, I guess…?

*While I said the little character bits of business were mostly good, there is one that’s inexplicable to me. Poirot serves Hastings a rabbit dish, and then stares at Hastings while he eats it, waiting for praise. The praise bit is in character (specifically the way he says “do not be unstinting in your praise”), but the rest of the scene seems off. Does Hastings actually like the dish, or is he making up compliments just to be polite? What purpose does this serve in the story, other than to help explain where and why Poirot is going to an art gallery in the next scene? It would have made way more sense to drop that information during a scene where Hastings is wrapped up in the cricket match, because at least we had some precedent for that. Instead, I’m left shrugging my shoulders and slotting the scene in with the rest of the mediocre parts to the episode.

Most Interesting Character: I’ve got barely anything to go on today; pretty much all of the characters just do what’s required of the role with very little zest. Which basically meant that the only character that made any sort of impression on me was the one that was only onscreen for about a minute;

The Lavatory Assistant (John Bardon)

He’s slightly snarky, the actor plays him with some energy, and he doesn’t seem too put out by the fact that he cleans toilets for a living. If only all of us could put up with our jobs the way he does.