Somebody appears to be terrorising Connie, the village schoolteacher, played wonderfully by the delightful Nancy Carroll, and then bodies start turning up in her summer house and garden, but why is somebody killing these people and why are they apparently trying to drive Connie mad?
And those questions are the reason for the big problem with this episode. There appears to be no reason for any of it. OK, I understand the producers don't want to give it away and keep people guessing, but this was taken to an extreme here. They gave virtually nothing away. The killer, when revealed, was a peripheral character at best, having had only a minute or two of screentime.
And the motive for the first killing in particular, seemed to be plucked out of thin air as there had been no evidence that the killer and victim had had any kind of interaction whatsoever. Likewise the motive for terrorising poor Connie came out of the blue and had not been hinted at before. All of this was revealed in a rushed exposition in the last few minutes. And how could Barnaby have possibly have known these motives? How did the police manage to get in the killer's house and access the computer at the end? And who knew DC Stephens was such an IT whizz? But having said all that, fine performances from the aforementioned Nancy Carroll and Paul Kaye and Suzanne Burden are the making of this episode.
And those questions are the reason for the big problem with this episode. There appears to be no reason for any of it. OK, I understand the producers don't want to give it away and keep people guessing, but this was taken to an extreme here. They gave virtually nothing away. The killer, when revealed, was a peripheral character at best, having had only a minute or two of screentime.
And the motive for the first killing in particular, seemed to be plucked out of thin air as there had been no evidence that the killer and victim had had any kind of interaction whatsoever. Likewise the motive for terrorising poor Connie came out of the blue and had not been hinted at before. All of this was revealed in a rushed exposition in the last few minutes. And how could Barnaby have possibly have known these motives? How did the police manage to get in the killer's house and access the computer at the end? And who knew DC Stephens was such an IT whizz? But having said all that, fine performances from the aforementioned Nancy Carroll and Paul Kaye and Suzanne Burden are the making of this episode.