Day 196: Poirot, The Plymouth Express

Show: Agatha Christie’s Poirot

Episode Particulars: S3EP4, “The Plymouth Express”, original airdate January 20^th, 1991.

 Summary: Poirot is asked by wealthy miner Gordon Halliday (John Stone) to vet the latest suitor for his daughter, Florence Carrington (Shelagh McLeod). As she’ll eventually be inheriting all his money, most of the men in her life have been gold-diggers, including her soon to be ex-husband Rupert (Julian Wadham). Poirot sees nothing obviously wrong with the new man, a Frenchman named Rochefort (Alfredo Michelson), but before any of this can come to anything, Florence takes a trip on the Plymouth Express to visit some friends in the country, whereupon she’s promptly murdered and her jewel case stolen. Which just means that there are two major suspects right off the bat.

Standalone Thoughts: This episode’s biggest sin is that it’s boring. There’s very little extraneous padding or moments where the characters (regular or one-offs) interact with each other in ways that don’t relate to the case. Which means all we’ve really got is the murder and the investigation, and even that isn’t all that exciting. Our setup basically amounts to a tepid love triangle and a concerned father, the murder happens offscreen, and the investigation mostly consists of quiet discussions with various people, with a brief chase scene or a breaking down of the door to liven things up. It’s not entirely perfunctory, but there doesn’t seem to be a lot of passion on display.

Then there’s the resolution to the whole thing, which is the episode’s second biggest sin because it comes out of nowhere. There are a few tiny hints scattered throughout, but the biggest piece of the puzzle is a character who we hadn’t even heard of before, who just shows up maybe fifteen minutes from the end. Perhaps because of that, the explanation and motivation are barely explained and therefore don’t make a great deal of sense. It’s the worst sort of mystery solution at the best of times; having it in an episode where there’s nothing else to make up for it is even worse.

There are a grand total of three things that I enjoy about this episode. One is the music that officially opens the episode. It’s heavily piano based, and sounds both romantic and sinister. Unfortunately, it promises a plot it doesn’t quite deliver on. The second is some of the décor, especially in the Halliday’s house/apartments, because it’s got a very Art Deco/Art Nouveau vibe. And the third, and most important, is that Hastings actually gets a moment to shine, using his love of horseracing and general pleasant demeanor to get some information out of Rupert Carrington. He even pulls off a bit of deception. Granted, Carrington was drunk at the time, but given how often Hastings is the butt of the joke, I think we should allow him this small victory.

It’s too early to call this the worst episode of the season, but I know for certain that this one’s going to be low on the ranking list. At least the ones I got annoyed by generated some sort of reaction; this mostly just leaves me cold. The best I can suggest is that you skip it unless you’re a completionist…or get some friends and see if you can find some way to poke fun at it.

Number of Tropes Followed/Subverted: After some deliberation with myself, I decided there was only 1/15 tropes and 2/15 subversions. The trope is “Ambiguous Foreigners”, and the subversions contain one spoiler and, tragically, “Playing Fair”. Definitely not the strongest showing, although that’s appropriate given this particular episode.

Other: *Mr. Halliday and his daughter are later revealed to be Australian, but I found their accents to be all over the place. I wasn’t sure in their first scene if they were supposed to be Australian, American, or from a region of Britain I didn’t recognize the accent of. I’m honestly not sure if that’s my fault for not being familiar with Australian accents or the fault of the actors (one was Welsh, one was Canadian who moved to England at a young age) for not making it convincing.

*No Strychnine poisoning today, but bonds being involved carried over from the previous episode. Perhaps having a slight thematic connection will be a theme this series instead. I have my doubts, but it’s a fun thing to try to look out for.

*Poirot gets some information from a paperboy (Steven Mackintosh) who may have been the last person to see Florence alive. After pumping him for information, Poirot thanks him and then just…leaves. Given that he tipped Freddie in “Murder in the Mews”, I thought it was a little rude not to give the guy some coins for his help, especially since Poirot didn’t even bother to buy a paper. Or maybe I’m just too used to that being a trope in other mystery stories.

Most Interesting Character: Most of the characters didn’t do much for me today. In fact, I had to go back and rewatch a scene or two before I chose;

Mr. Halliday

The reason he beat out the newsboy (the only other contender) is mostly due to the fact that we see more of him. The newsboy has more spirit in his one appearance, but Halliday is smart (he has to be if he’s a self-made millionaire), has a hint of a sense of humor, and cares about his daughter, all of which are excellent traits in a character. It’s not much, but it’s the best I’ve got for today and I’m sticking with it.