Day 184: Poirot, Peril at End House

Show: Agatha Christie’s Poirot

Episode Particulars: S2EP1, “Peril at End House”, original airdate January 7^th, 1990.

 Summary: Poirot and Hastings are taking a vacation in Cornwall, and have a chance encounter with a young woman, “Nick” Buckley (Polly Walker). Nick owns a house nearby (the End House of the title), and mentions that she’s had a string of near-death experiences recently. She doesn’t take it seriously, but Poirot suspects foul play, and decides to keep an eye out for her. His concern is well founded, because one night, her cousin Maggie (Elizabeth Downes) is found murdered, though it’s obvious the bullet was meant for Nick. Poirot has Nick confined in a nursing home for her safety while he investigates, sure that the killer will strike again. In the meantime, there’s a lot of information to pick through, like the beneficiaries of several different wills, and oddly enough, the involvement of a pilot who’s recently disappeared in his attempt to fly around the world…

Standalone Thoughts: As I’d been hoping, the first full length Poirot is much more like the material I remembered. I’m guessing this is because it was based on a novel instead of a short story, which not only meant there was more material to work with, but both the text and the extra time allows for more room to breathe, so to speak. There’s more of a chance to get to know the characters and lay out the clues, and therefore less likely for things to come out of nowhere. Plus, we finally get a big “characters are gathered together and all is explained” reveal scene. It still has a few kinks to work out—there’s only one flashback, and Poirot doesn’t lay it all out bit by bit—but the format is definitely taking shape, and I will absolutely get behind that.

All that being said, I do have some problems with the episode. While the episode is generally good at giving us all the information we need, there are a few questions left unanswered, although you can probably figure them out on your own. Although all of the characters introduced have a part to play, some of them feel pointless right up until the big reveal scene, even when you know they’re important (Nick’s cousin/lawyer being a prime example). Poirot’s behavior at the end of the episode strikes me as a bit dark, and even though we’re given an explanation for it, it still doesn’t quite sit right with me (though perhaps this was a trope that 30’s audiences were absolutely fine with). Above all, though, I was kind of taken aback by the way Hastings was treated. I remembered that he was meant to be a bit of comic relief, sometimes by his actions and sometimes by jumping to the wrong conclusion, but up until now, the episodes just let his “wrongness” speak for itself, or maybe just left it at Poirot giving him a vaguely exasperated look. Today, though, Poirot actively insults his perception/intelligence twice, to the point where Hastings throws it back at him with genuine hurt in his voice. It feels very mean-spirited, especially when you also throw in the scene where Poirot basically orders Hastings to fact-check something in London without even asking him if he’s willing to do it. I’m not sure if that comes from the original novel or not, but I hope this isn’t going to become the norm. Gentle ribbing is one thing, but if the person being teased doesn’t like it, that makes it much harder to watch.

For all my complaints, though, this is a decent start to the “season”. Even if the rest of them turn out to be more like the first ten episodes (all the rest of the episodes this season are 50 minutes long and probably back to being based on short stories), this episode gives me hope that the writers and filmmakers are starting to get things together when it comes to presenting the mystery. If the shorter episodes don’t always work, then at least there’s a good chance that the longer episodes will. However, that’s something we’ll all have to discover together.

Number of Tropes Followed/Subverted: Surprisingly, it takes a while for the tropes on my list to start showing up; none of them pop up until the half-hour mark/the murder. But there are still tropes to be found, because we wind up with a respectable 5/15 tropes by the end, and no subversions. One of them is a spoiler (and while it doesn’t fit the direct parameters that I set out, I’m going to say it counts), but we’ve got a definite case of “An Affair to Forget”, and a blatant case of “Coincidental Comment”. I’m also going to count “Funhouse Manor”, although it’s more a secret compartment than a secret passage. It still plays a brief part in the story, so I think it should count. And the last, of course, is “Playing Fair”. It’s not perfect, and I may be basing it off the fact that I remember this episode for once, but I’d say the story gives us most of the clues we need. It’s certainly enough that there wasn’t any hesitation on my part for putting it in the “trope” category, unlike some of the prior episodes…

Other: *This episode is unusual in that, unlike all the other feature length Poirot’s, it was split into two parts. The first part even ends with a “To be continued…”. While I was slightly concerned that this would screw up my watching schedule (the point is to have 366 episodes, after all), apparently the two parts were aired back-to-back on the same day, like the three longer DS9 episodes. But if they were aired back-to-back, then I’m not entirely sure what the point of the “To be continued…” was, since it literally continued after the commercial break. Perhaps the second half airs separately in reruns, but since we all tend to think of the episode as feature length nowadays, it winds up feeling like a weird holdover.

*Please look at the drink on the table here;

That is a very unnatural shade of green. I cannot imagine what combination of ingredients could make a drink look that green, especially in the 1930’s. I don’t have the knowledge to say whether this is an anachronism or not, but I can definitely say it’s noticeable and slightly distracting.

*SPOILERS FOR THE EPISODE. Near the end of the episode, Poirot pretends to conduct a séance, in order to catch out the forgers of Nick’s will. On its own, it’s an interesting idea and certainly allows for some drama. After reading S.S. Van Dine’s “Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Fiction”, though, I wonder if the scene was added in as a reference to those rules (number eight in particular). The wikipedia summary for the original novel doesn’t say if there was a séance in that version, so I can’t tell if it’s Christie’s homage or the show’s, but either way, it adds a little extra something to the scene for me.

*I may not be doing the Best Line/Exchange for this series, but I have to acknowledge one particular exchange here, because it’s one of my favorites from this show;

(Miss Lemon and Hastings arrive with ice cream)

Lemon: There’s one for you, Chief Inspector.

Japp: Ah, thank you.

(Poirot holds his hand out for one, and Miss Lemon pulls it away)

Lemon: None for Mr. Poirot, because I read an article on the train how ice cream was extremely bad for the little grey cells.

Hastings: And two for me because mine are dead already.

It’s great banter because it shows how much Hastings, Poirot, and Lemon are familiar with each other, and unlike the other jibes about Hastings’ intelligence that I complained about, Hastings himself instigates the joke, so it feels much more light-hearted. It’s a great way to close out the episode, honestly.

Most Interesting Character: While we do have a good crop of supporting characters today, they actually aren’t that interesting, personality wise. So purely on aesthetics, I’m going for;

Frederica “Freddie” Rice (Alison Sterling)

While she doesn’t make the best first impression, in terms of outfit or personality, she does have a sharp fashion sense when she’s in more formal wear. Plus, her red hair makes her stand out from the rest of the supporting cast. It’s a bit of a disappointment that I didn’t have more to go on in the first feature length Poirot, but there’s not much I can do about that.