OK. I like the show, I like silly, cosy mysteries where nothing is really taken seriously, even when the amateur sleuth is investigating the most gruesome murder. This is where this episode fails - unlike most episodes of "Father Brown", "The Cat of Mastigatus" plays it really seriously. It tries - and almost succeeds - to convey a rather important message, and the comedic moments are few and far in between.
There will be spoilers.
So, first, the good. Unlike many of the previous episodes of this show, this one has a believable villain. You know how often in "Father Brown" seemingly ordinary people all of a sudden plan and murder someone in cold blood, often in a calculated manner that a true psychopath will be proud of? Well, at the very least, the culprit here is an actual monster, a man who's used violence to punish kids from his position of authority as the Headmaster of a prestigious school for boys. Given his psychological profile, the way he committed his crimes wasn't that surprising, which was the only reason for me to be so generous with the rating here.
Because there are plot holes. Many plot holes. The Headmaster finds a secret letter to his grandson from his girlfriend, then goes in his stead to meet the girl and after she tells him she's pregnant, the old man reacts in anger and bashes her head with the boy's cricket bat. Here is the first problem - if he didn't plan on using the bat as a weapon, why did he take it to the meeting? And there is the second problem - the girl survived and he later tried to kill her again. Why didn't he just finish the job while she was unconscious in his feet, if he was willing to kill her anyway? Then comes the third problem - why did he put the bat back where he'd taken it from, without even cleaning it from the blood? He should have known the police would suspect his grandson as soon as someone found the bloody (pun intended) thing.
Then, while the girl was in the hospital, the old man tries to suffocate her with her pillow. Luckily, Jack, the girl's school's gardener and one of her few friends, comes to the rescue. Here is the fourth problem - why was the victim of an attempted murder left unprotected? Even if a suspect was arrested, why? And the fifth problem - why did this supposedly well educated man try to kill the girl where everyone would know it was him?
Then Father Brown, naturally, decides to talk to Jack. He goes to his shed, picks the padlock on the door using the skills he's shown many times to have, and he and the people with him find Jack's corpse inside. The police - and Father Brown - initially rule this as a suicide committed out of guilt. And here I was this close to yelling at the screen. How could he put the padlock on the door on the outside, if he killed himself inside the shed? I mean... How? Even if Campbellford's police was this stupid, Father Brown should have immediately guessed what had happened. He picked the padlock, after all. And why was the scene where he did that even included? It added absolutely nothing to the story, other than the biggest plot hole in the entire show so far.
I could go on. I won't, though. I'm getting tired and the review is getting long. I'll only, once again, express my disappointment. If this episode didn't take itself so seriously, I'd be more than willing to forgive all the problems I listed here. Sorry.
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