Plot: We open on Grace and Harry, a seemingly happy young couple. Grace works in a munitions plant, Harry works for a local mechanic. They have some sort of plan, but Grace is having doubts, and she's under the weather. Still, she goes to work, not the best idea when putting together fuses, and she suffers a catastrophic accident. But one of her co-workers, Hilda Greenwood, thinks there was something odd, and so she asks Foyle to look into it. Foyle was busy with a restaurant racketeer, someone selling turkeys that "fell off a truck", hopefully not the same truck that sheep fell off last week. The case landed the police a nice turkey, one Sam keeps hoping Foyle will let out of the evidence room. Or Constable Peters could let her in, after he recovers from the ass-chewing Milner gave him for eating evidence.
As for Milner, he has other problems. Edie wants him to spend Christmas with her family. That's not the problem. Jane Milner is back, and wants to be together with Paul again. And due to the Matrimonial Causes Act of 1937, as long as she wasn't away for more than three years, they can't be considered divorced simply because she walked out 2 years and 9 months ago. Paul is, not receptive, and tells Jane to stay away from him and Edie, 'or else'.
Yeah, I thought that was pretty stupid, too. It seems even more stupid when Jane turns up dead the next morning, her head bashed in with a brick. And it's even worse when Peters decides to start fucking with Milner by planting evidence linking him to the crime. Although it's interesting that Jane knew Grace and was.distraught over her death. What's also interesting is that when Sam, on Foyle's orders, attends Grace's funeral, she doesn't see Grace's mother, nor is she all that convinced by Harry's "grief-stricken" tirade at Grace's employer and foreman. Her perception turns out to be correct when she brings the car to have a radiator hose fixed, and just so happens to pick the garage Harry works at. Once he twigs she's with the cops, he tries to kill her, and things will escalate rapidly from there.
Quote of the Episode: Foyle - 'I do wonder why you felt it necessary to lie about the divorce.' Milner - 'I suppose it was just easier.'
Does Foyle go fishing? No, probably too cold in December anyway.
Things Sam can do: Be observant. Wheedle her way out of Foyle, some of the times. Fend off some crazy guy on his home turf.
Other: Foyle is really damn inconsistent about whether he and Sam discuss cases. He told her they wouldn't in the first episode, and he reiterates it her, but if so, he probably needs to stop letting her help If she's going to go to funerals and observe for him, then she should be able to discuss the cases she's helping with.
I really could not believe Milner would warn Jane like that in a public place, and even use the phrase 'or else.' Paul, you are a cop, you have to know better than that. At least when Mr. Baker warns one of his employees about blackmailing him, he does it when no one else is around. And he's a schmuck.
Foyle seems pretty steamed Milner lied about being divorced. Maybe he's just frustrated he has to investigate the murder at all. Or his opinions on marriage are showing. At one point, Edie comes to Foyle's house, essentially to him on blast for treating Milner like an actual suspect. Foyle brings up the fact Milner lied to her about being divorced, too. Her response is that Paul was lying to himself, but not to her. Foyle responds that he still lied. Which is not a particularly helpful thing to say. Edie's response is interesting, though. That Paul had convinced himself Jane was gone and out of his life isn't much of a shock. If he hadn't, I can't see him dating Edie. But if he believes it, to the point he isn't lying to himself, is he lying to her? I guess so, but Edie certainly doesn't seem terribly bothered by it. Because she knows Paul was done with Jane, to the point she tells him she'd understand if he had killed Jane. At least Paul had the decency to be horrified at the suggestion. Speaks well of him.
I can't figure Constable Peters. When Foyle burns him to the ground, he tries to explain it was just a joke, a way to get back at Milner, and then it got out of hand. Dumbass, you are implicating him in a murder, how do you think that's going to end? And he wonders why Milner continued up the ladder while he remained a constable.
Harry fancies himself a character Jimmy Cagney would play. Pity he's not the actor Cagney is, or people wouldn't see through him so easily. Not just Sam. Harry tries asking Mr. Johnson, his boss and Grace's lodger, to attend her funeral. Tries to play on the old man's sympathy, tell him how she thought of him as like a father. Johnson doesn't buy it for a moment. He tries reassuring his partner Eric, fails utterly. Tries intimidating Foyle, fails utterly, though he's hampered because Foyle knows something he doesn't. Harry's ultimately a strung out loser, just charming enough to skate by enough to get by.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
The most glaring thing about that episode is the fact that an unrefrigerated turkey is considered fit to eat after several days in their evidence room. I know England in 1942 did not have the same standards for food as we have in America today, but even so that turkey would surely have been spoiled and inedible after being kept that long at room temperature, uncovered, perhaps not even fully gutted and cleaned (it’s head was still attached and it still had feathers).
I’m amazed at the script writer and that no one said anything...
I don’t understand it either. It was winter & not the best central heating in Britain, but still…ugh.
Post a Comment