This is the fourth episode I've watched since seeing most of them twenty or so years ago and, well, I'm tickled pink. I could actually follow the story -- most of the time. The previous three episodes reminded me of the Humphrey Bogart version of Raymond Chandler's "The Big Sleep." The plot of the movie was so complicated that at one point the director, Howard Hawks, realized that the screenplay couldn't account for one of the murders. Neither could the screenwriters, who included William Faulkner. So Hawks called the novelist, Chandler, and asked him -- and he didn't know who killed the chauffeur either.
In this episode, though, I kvelled when Morse explains everything at the end -- who killed whom, who stole what, and why -- except for the explanation for one murder, during which I must have blinked or had a second's microsleep. I still don't know why the paraplegic wife was found dead of an overdose.
But, look, I at least know why Theodore Kemp was found with his head bashed in. And I know how Mrs. Pointdexter died and what happened to her fabulous artifact, the eponymous tongue, and -- umm -- no, wait. I don't know why the luscious blond wife of Cedric Downes died in that phone booth either, or how or why she was killed. Caught napping once again. Still, I suppose understanding two deaths out of four isn't a bad average. Actually it's pretty good compared to my grasp of the crimes in the previous three episodes, which gave me a batting average of zero.
I don't think I'll give away the ending. I'm not sure I COULD give away the ending. Except, I hope it doesn't take me beyond the bounds of medical confidentiality if I say that one death is unrelated in any way to the other three, which constitute in themselves what logicians call a "set." I'd like to be able to give the episode a higher grade because I enjoy the characters as much as I do and I love the location. But, man, these plots are complicated, made up of narrative threads that have nothing to do with one another. Not that it's immoral to bootleg in a random subplot or even two, or to run a herring across the trail, but the anfractuous explanations of these plots and subplots and (here, at least) the subplot OF a subplot, are handled so casually that if you're not taking notes -- well, good luck.
In this episode, though, I kvelled when Morse explains everything at the end -- who killed whom, who stole what, and why -- except for the explanation for one murder, during which I must have blinked or had a second's microsleep. I still don't know why the paraplegic wife was found dead of an overdose.
But, look, I at least know why Theodore Kemp was found with his head bashed in. And I know how Mrs. Pointdexter died and what happened to her fabulous artifact, the eponymous tongue, and -- umm -- no, wait. I don't know why the luscious blond wife of Cedric Downes died in that phone booth either, or how or why she was killed. Caught napping once again. Still, I suppose understanding two deaths out of four isn't a bad average. Actually it's pretty good compared to my grasp of the crimes in the previous three episodes, which gave me a batting average of zero.
I don't think I'll give away the ending. I'm not sure I COULD give away the ending. Except, I hope it doesn't take me beyond the bounds of medical confidentiality if I say that one death is unrelated in any way to the other three, which constitute in themselves what logicians call a "set." I'd like to be able to give the episode a higher grade because I enjoy the characters as much as I do and I love the location. But, man, these plots are complicated, made up of narrative threads that have nothing to do with one another. Not that it's immoral to bootleg in a random subplot or even two, or to run a herring across the trail, but the anfractuous explanations of these plots and subplots and (here, at least) the subplot OF a subplot, are handled so casually that if you're not taking notes -- well, good luck.