Foyle's War 5.3 - All Clear

Plot: Trigger warning for suicide, again.

The American Major Kiefer (see "Invasion") has returned to Hastings, but he's not doing well. He's haunted by a lot of dead G.I.s, deaths that were covered up. This has made him short-tempered with everyone, a stark contrast to most of the people in town, who are eagerly awaiting the announcement that the war (in Europe) is officially over.

Meanwhile, the Hastings constabulary office prepares to be closed down and transferred to a new location. Milner is waiting to hear on a promotion, and waiting for the birth of his and Edie's first child. Sam is trying to find a new job, and Foyle is preparing to return to retirement. But first he'll have to contend with a committee formed to prepare for the revelry that will follow the announcement of war's end. Also on the committee are Martin Longmate, local hotelier and prospective politician, is planning a big party, Dr. Ziegler (who seems sure he knows Longmate from someplace), Edie's doctor, Major Kiefer, and a Mark Griffiths, who seems very troubled, and who Kiefer seems to detest for some reason. Also present at the first meeting is Longmate's assistant, Janice Hilton, whose husband Edward is home at last. Edward won't speak much of his experiences, but he knows Janice isn't telling him everything, either. And Janice is soon to learn Longmate is looking for a new assistant, even interviewing Sam. over dinner, to see if they can 'get along.' Sam fortunately dodges that bullet.

Griffiths condition continues to worsen as someone starts leaving pictures of tigers pinned to his door, and mailing him sand. It's putting considerable strain on him, to the point Dr. Ziegler prescribes him some sleeping pills. Within a couple of days, Dr. Ziegler is stabbed after leaving another meeting of the committee. Within a day of that, Mark Griffiths has committed suicide. Kiefer might know something about what drove Griffiths to that, but he's not talking, and there's no sign he's connected to the death of Dr. Ziegler.

And in other news, Andrew comes home. He made it through alive, although a bout with sinusitis has wrecked his vision to the point he won't be flying anymore. And he's trying to patch things up with Sam.

Quote of the Episode: Andrew - 'You don't have a leaflet on love.' Sam - 'No, but I've quite a few on desertion.'

Does Foyle go fishing? Indeed he does!

Things Sam can do: Make tea, cut Andrew down to size (at least temporarily). She's not at home in the advertising world, though.

Other: Polly Maberly is playing Edie in this episode. Caroline Martin had the role previously. Edie wanted to name the child "Winston", but fortunately, they had a daughter. Who will be named "Clementine". I guess that's an improvement.

As it turns out, Kiefer was in charge of a group of American G.I.s preparing for D-Day off the coast of England one night that were jumped by German E-boats, and 700 soldiers died, with the whole thing hushed up for morale. Which is an actual thing that happened in reality. In-story, Griffiths is the major in the signal corps who didn't check to make sure the radio was set to the proper frequency, and so the warning about the E-boats was not received. Foyle can thank Miss Pierce for that information.

There's a point, after Andrew has come home, he and Foyle are sitting and talking, and Andrew brings up Sam. He discusses his poor decision-making, tries to excuse it with being miserable training pilots, admits things didn't work with the other young lady. Foyle is kind of looking at him out of the corner of his eye, even though they're seated facing each other, and then, very simply, quickly, and directly, says, 'You weren't very kind to her.' As much as I enjoy those scenes where Foyle will rattle off everything illegal or immoral a character has done, in this exasperated, sarcastic tone (he gets a good one on Longmate near the end of this episode), I've always liked that brief rebuke. It's simple, straightforward, and easily conveys his disappointment in Andrew.

At the same time, when Andrew first appears, as Foyle is fishing, Michael Kitchen manages a very obvious smile, without seemingly lifting the corners of his mouth. I don't know, he doesn't smile in a way I would normally categorize it based on his mouth, but it's still very obvious he's happy. I thought that was pretty impressive.

Also in this episode, we learn Foyle can drive, he simply prefers not to.

Not sure what will happen with Edward and Janice. Janice had a child with Longmate, Edward found out, there was an argument, he did strike her, so who knows. Edward is still trying to adjust to being out of the military, and it's not entirely clear he wants to adjust, that he wouldn't rather be back there. I don't know if he wants to stay with Janice, or if she should stay with him after that. Probably not, since she doesn't want to have the child adopted, and I'm not sure how great a dad Edward will be to a child not biologically his (or maybe even to one that is biologically his). He mentions at one point he's thinking about moving, it wasn't clear if he was going to do that solo or not.

Anyway, the war is over, but the show is not. Now we're going to explore England after the war, and eventually England in the midst of the Cold War.