Day 192: Poirot, The Adventure of the Western Star

Show: Agatha Christie’s Poirot

Episode Particulars: S2EP9, “The Adventure of the Western Star”, original airdate March 4^th, 1990.

 Summary: Poirot is eager to visit with fellow Belgian Marie Marvelle (Rosalind Bennett), an actress, but instead of a pleasant social call, he winds up with a mystery on his hands. Marie has been getting threatening notes stating that someone (evidence suggests they’re Chinese) will be stealing the large and beautiful diamond she owns, which is known as the Western Star. It seems that the diamond was one of the eyes of a statue; the other one belongs to the Yardlys (Alister Cameron and Caroline Goodall). Poirot travels to the Yardly home to see the twin diamond (especially when it’s revealed that they’ve also been getting threatening notes), but it’s stolen that very evening, with Marie’s diamond being snatched the next morning. Japp suspects that known collector and all around shady person Henrik Van Braks (Struan Rodger) is involved, but while he may be right, Poirot is more focused on the location of the diamonds than who, exactly, is at fault.

Standalone Thoughts: While this episode isn’t too bad as far as mysteries go, it does do some odd things. Most notably, it solves the mystery and then spends an extra ten minutes retrieving the Western Star. Normally, the bad guy is caught very shortly after the reveal, allowing for a minute or two of cooldown as Poirot clears up a last few facts with Hastings and the supporting characters make plans for what to do next. Stretching that out to ten minutes leaves the episode feeling a bit off-kilter, although the material in that ten minutes is fine on its own.

The other odd thing it does is let Hastings take charge of talking with Lady Yardly when she comes to Poirot for help (although Poirot was out of the apartment at the time, so this was more Hastings acting on his own initiative rather than Poirot letting him do it). Unfortunately for Hastings, this is not a good thing. He may be good at tailing people or catching people who are trying to run away, but the writing (whether Christie’s or the showrunners) won’t let him do Poirot’s job without being punished for it. As soon as you see him approach Lady Yardly saying he knows why she’s here, you just sort of cringe and wait for the shoe to drop. It does take awhile to happen, though that makes it slightly worse instead of better, because while it could be a reassurance that he didn’t actually mess up, you can’t quite relax because the possibility is still on the table. About the only saving grace is that Poirot doesn’t directly berate Hastings for his actions, so Hastings is merely embarrassed instead of insulted. And I’d imagine he’d find that small comfort.

Anyway, the rest of the material is okay on the whole. The episode makes the mistake (assuming the intent was to keep the audience guessing) of tipping its hand twice, once with a lingering shot of a character looking nervous, and once with a piece of witness testimony that reveals that the criminal is kind of an idiot. That aside, though, the explanations are plausible, the varying pieces fit together pretty well, and the costuming, especially for the ladies, is in top form (although Poirot looks pretty good himself in the light grey suit he wears at the start of the episode). It’s still not on a par with what I remember the show being capable of, but we’re getting there. And since the next episode (and start of the next series) is another movie-length one, perhaps we’ll see another leap forward like we did this season.

Number of Tropes Followed/Subverted: By coincidence, the counts are the same as last time;  4/15 tropes and one subversion. For tropes, we’ve got “Ambiguous Foreigners” (two counts), “Playing Fair”, “Actors Insulting Themselves”, and “An Affair to Forget”. The subversion, as you can probably guess, is “There’s More to Life than Murder”, since death never even comes close to entering into the equation. Not too bad for a season closer.

Other: *Marie Marvelle says that her husband bought the Western Star at a tenth of its actual value from someone who “seemed terrified” and says no when Hastings asks if it was from “a reputable diamond merchant”. I’m kind of stunned that she’d admit to all that; sure, it’s for the sake of keeping the diamond safe, but admitting to buying suspicious goods seems like it could just get her into trouble (unless the statute of limitations has expired). But then, the 20’s and 30’s were a strange time.

*When Van Braks was heading to the Yardly’s house with Japp following carefully behind him, I made a joke that Japp was hiding in the bushes once he got to the house. Then Poirot and Hastings exit the house, and lo and behold, Japp’s standing behind a bush. Perhaps I’m getting too trope-savvy.

*Thoughts on the season: on the whole, I’d say Series Two is an improvement over Series One, but that may in part be because they moved from “not giving all the facts” to “make it pretty obvious what’s going on”. Both can be frustrating, but at least the second style can throw in some surprises or find other ways to maintain our interest. That being said, I still think “The Veiled Lady” was the best episode this season, and it’s all due to the character stuff rather than the mystery. Indeed, while there were some noticeable wobbles (Hastings’ treatment in “Peril at End House”, Poirot’s secrecy in “The Kidnapped Prime Minister”), overall the character stuff still remains great. It’s been suggested to me that I look at the show (especially these shorter episodes) as character pieces instead of mysteries—perhaps I’ll try that for Series Three.

Most Interesting Character: A good deal of the supporting characters get some development in this episode, but my choice this time around was made for entirely shallow reasons;

Lady Yardly (and her red dress)

There’s something stunning about the combination of red and black, and Lady Yardly knows just how to make it pop. Furthermore, that necklace may be a bit much of a muchness, but the gemstone does hang in just the right place to draw attention. Fortunately, I can also justify my choice by saying that Lady Yardly is quick-thinking and generally a sympathetic person, so it’s not just that she cuts a striking figure in this scene. It’s just eighty percent of the reason.