Mystery Maniacs

🎙️ Episode: https://midsomermaniacs.transistor.fm/258
📓 Show Notes: https://share.transistor.fm/s/366a7619

Mystery Maniacs Episode! In Podcast 258, a killer uses a javelin, art and a knitting needle for no reason at all. Poor Jeremy!

Show Notes
Handforth Parish Council Meeting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l17UIwAFOyk
 
Vampires Vs My Gran

The Murder Board comparisons
S24

S25 E04

Jeremy is Weird


Mark's Mystery Novels: I'm launching two cozy mystery series this spring! Subscribe to my author newsletter at https://markbellauthor.substack.com/ to get free preview chapters in February before anyone else. Mystery Maniacs listeners get first access.

Thanks again for listening!
 
Mark & Sarah

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Upcoming Tentative  Schedule
  • February 9 - Brokenwood S10E01 - "Brokenwood-o-saurus" 
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Creators and Guests

Host
Mark Bell
Co-host of Mystery Maniacs
Host
Sarah Smith-Robbins
Co-host of Mystery Maniacs

What is Mystery Maniacs?

Mystery Maniacs Podcast is a comedy recap podcast dedicated to British Mystery Television. Formerly, Midsomer Maniacs podcast.

Sarah:

Hey, maniacs. Just a message before this week's episode. If you're in The US or really anywhere in the world, it's a bit crazy out there right now. And if you're in Minneapolis, especially, we're thinking about you. We're recording this on Saturday, January 24, and the news is especially crazy.

Sarah:

It can be really tough. And listening to something like this that's an hour of silly talk about a silly show can seem a bit frivolous in a time that is so serious. But we want to say, we think it's good for you, and it's good for us. We all need to smile. We all need to laugh.

Sarah:

We all need to have community. The world will still be out there when you're done listening, so we hope that this is a little break for you. It certainly is for us. Thanks.

Mark:

We love you, maniacs.

Sarah:

Hey, maniacs.

Mark:

Hey, Midsommar Maniacs. Midsommar Maniacs is a comedy recap podcast dedicated to mystery TV. Each week, we dig into an episode of the show including the murders, the mayhem, the loonies, and everything else we love. This week during snowmageddon It's coming. Midsummer Murders, top of the class, season twenty five, episode four.

Mark:

This is a spoiler podcast. My name is Mark.

Sarah:

We're gonna ruin it. We're gonna tell you who did it, why they did it, even though that reason is really stupid. Don't

Mark:

dumb reason.

Sarah:

We're gonna have fun with it. This is kinda bittersweet. I love doing Midsummer's, but this is the last one of the new series.

Mark:

I made a mistake,

Sarah:

so I must murder. Yeah. Over and over and over again. It's a classic Midsommar.

Mark:

Remember, if you let your children go to this school? Oh,

Sarah:

no. Don't don't let your children go to this school. It's bad. It's a bad place.

Mark:

They can listen to the podcast.

Sarah:

We get to talk about codes and knitting and trophies and knitting antique bookstores. So many things. So many things. Are you ready to get started? Yes.

Sarah:

I I have to say I on my rewatch, I started by just charting out

Mark:

who everybody is. There are too many people in this episode.

Sarah:

But they're all connected in some way. It's like a web of people. Right?

Mark:

And where is this taking place? A school. But it's It in

Sarah:

it is cost in grammar.

Mark:

Yeah. So I think this is cost in proper.

Sarah:

No. Everyone related to the school

Mark:

is somehow related to each other.

Sarah:

When we've been in cost in before, it's been like the city.

Mark:

Yes. I know.

Sarah:

I mean, like not high rise, but like the city.

Mark:

Yeah. It seems weird. So we've got

Sarah:

Let's just get characters squared. So we're on the same page. Yes. So we've got the school people. Right?

Sarah:

So we've got the head of the school who is Estelle Howells played by Mel Gedrich. Yes. She of

Mark:

Wow. She flew in for a day,

Sarah:

did her thing,

Mark:

and it was

Sarah:

out. I get to get stabbed in the back and I'm done. She didn't even have to get like pants as part of her costume.

Mark:

But her picture on the murder board. Perfect.

Sarah:

Boy, I

Mark:

have a lot to talk about.

Sarah:

We'll talk about it. Okay. She's married to a guy named Blake who is a former felon and a bike shop owner.

Mark:

Who we know all about, I guess.

Sarah:

Yes. And her daughter is Kara, who is the art teacher.

Mark:

Don't you mean an antique car shop?

Sarah:

No. It's a bike shop that

Mark:

he runs.

Mark:

Then why is there an antique car?

Sarah:

We'll get into that. We're talking about the

Mark:

people. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Focus.

Sarah:

Her daughter Kara is the art teacher at the school and the second victim. Yes. Estella's the first victim. Okay. So there's those people.

Sarah:

Then there's the deputy head Yes. Who is Tim Crawford.

Mark:

The killer.

Sarah:

Or should I say Tim Hillary Crawford Yes. Because that's his middle name Yes. The kids find out. And his wife, who is also a teacher, whose name is Felicity, played by Lorna Watson, otherwise known as Sister Boniface

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

The kleptomaniac.

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

That's the school, Okay? Then we have the PTA. Yes. Basically, it's Moira

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

Who runs half of a knitting antique bookshop where she is committing crimes, passing off fake old books. Her brother, Piers, who is a children's book author Yes. And her grandson, Dominic, the third victim, who has recently been kicked out of university. Yes. Moira's business partner is Reese.

Sarah:

He is the knitting side of the business.

Mark:

And secretly in love with Cara.

Sarah:

He is my favorite character in the episode. Think he's lovely.

Mark:

It's sad that he's dropped halfway through.

Sarah:

Yeah, there is that. Then there is one family, parents Josie and Paul, parents of Holly Useless characters. Dominic's girlfriend Yes. Who has also been expelled from this school, who does the graffiti spray paint of Hillary in

Mark:

the For school stealing an iPad, though it's never sure what sport she does.

Sarah:

It involves running? I guess. She also works for Estelle's husband, the former felon, Blake.

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

And is blackmailing Moira's brother, Pierce. Yes. That's everybody. Yes. That's everybody.

Sarah:

Who who aren't Winter and Barnaby.

Mark:

Yeah. That's it. That's it.

Sarah:

So everybody either is related to each other, works for each other, or has some relationship

Mark:

with Really? And the only two other people referenced in the episode are dead?

Sarah:

Yeah, pretty much. Bell, the former Vincent Bell. The former teacher

Mark:

No relation.

Sarah:

Who was really the first victim, but it happened before the episode. And then some math teacher who died a long time ago whose estate sells off a box of stuff. Yes. That's everybody.

Mark:

That's everyone. Way too many people.

Sarah:

We'll also talk about how to watch like a maniac. We'll address those questions that we came up with for the mini. So we'll cover those as we go through.

Mark:

Yes. So the beginning of this episode is a clear reference to an event that happened during the pandemic that was front page news in The UK, but also made it across the pond. Because it was hilarious. The Hadford Council Parish Council meeting.

Sarah:

Wow. The infamous Zoom meeting where a bunch of crotchety old people yelled at each other, kicked each other off the Zoom meeting. There are vicious.

Mark:

There are lines from that meeting that are in this Zoom beginning.

Sarah:

It is definitely a direct reference to it for sure. I will

Mark:

put a really nice rundown on YouTube of what happened in that, and you can watch it and see it and go, oh, yeah.

Sarah:

That's what

Mark:

they were doing.

Sarah:

For sure.

Mark:

Except for, did you notice that everyone has the best four k webcam Of course.

Mark:

In the

Sarah:

world. And best lighting and all that stuff. Yep. PTAs are notoriously, you know, kind of feisty. Yes.

Sarah:

I I have known many people, not myself, involved in PTAs where they're like, oh, I don't wanna go to the meeting. It's just always a fight.

Mark:

But Estelle is talking and she does not notice the door opening behind her and suddenly she is dead.

Sarah:

It, I think, is an ingenious murder. Because when you see it and it happens, like, right away, like, how the heck should she get impaled on live video

Mark:

Yep.

Sarah:

And nobody know how it happened? Yeah. It's it's almost like a locked room sort of situation.

Mark:

It is a great, great situation.

Sarah:

It's a great murder. I mean, and far more believable than a cuckoo clock, I have to say, which is, that's that's saying something.

Mark:

Meanwhile, food for 20. They're having winter. The

Sarah:

Barnabas are having two people over for dinner.

Mark:

Having two people for over for dinner, and they have 54 lamb skewers.

Sarah:

I guess Flor can eat.

Mark:

I

Sarah:

guess. May think she can anyway.

Mark:

Betty There there's a there's a couple of little lamb skewer jokes

Sarah:

that Betty actually has some personality here. She's a little feisty about cooking dinner. Yep. I imagine it's good. Yep.

Sarah:

It probably smells nice.

Mark:

Yep. And totally

Sarah:

But it it's the first thing about this episode that screams out, time means nothing anymore.

Mark:

Yes. Okay.

Sarah:

Is it dinner time when the episode starts?

Mark:

Okay. It's after school.

Sarah:

Yes. Okay. But they've already started making dinner. So let's say it's six.

Mark:

Six. Then why is he halfway through the episode taking kids home on the bus? Never mind.

Sarah:

I know. Hours later, Paul, Holly's dad, is driving people home. His daughter's been expelled from the school, but he's still driving the bus? Yeah. I And it's not his job.

Sarah:

It's it's like volunteer I don't know.

Mark:

No. And then he has Tourette's MS.

Sarah:

It's very confusing. It's very confusing. You just have to go, I don't know. Maybe it all happens in one day. So sun never sets.

Mark:

Estelle is a wonderful dead body.

Sarah:

Well, because Mel Gedrich is basically a comedian

Mark:

Yeah.

Sarah:

With her little rabbit teeth. She's so cute. Yep. And when she dies, she dies.

Mark:

Yes. She definitely does.

Sarah:

She's stuck in a chair, so she can't flail on the floor. But man, does she slump. She's a professional slumper.

Mark:

She does indeed. And the the picture of her on the murder board is fantastic.

Sarah:

Are we to assume that it's from the school's website? The photo they have of her?

Mark:

No. No. The picture on the murder board has

Sarah:

the javelin A corpse picture. Okay. Because I always wonder when they have photos of suspects, did they stop and ask them to take their picture? You're a suspect. We need to take your picture.

Sarah:

Because they're not driver's license photos usually. No. It's like, but they're smiling, so you must have gotten it from somewhere. But the pictures of the murder board will get to when it comes Okay.

Mark:

Very apparent. I want

Mark:

to talk about Javelins. Okay.

Sarah:

Because I went deep into I know nothing about javelins.

Mark:

Of javelins.

Sarah:

Except it's always seemed like the most dangerous track and field sport.

Mark:

Oh, boy. We'll get into that.

Sarah:

Tell me this isn't the first javelin death at a PTA meeting.

Mark:

No. But I do have an article

Mark:

from The Guardian, the title is I killed my classmate with a javelin. Anyway

Sarah:

Wow. First of all That's something. First of all Okay.

Mark:

The the javelin is stolen from a display of personal best at the school. Right. In 1990, Sophie's was 30 meters.

Mark:

I could throw a javelin 30 meters.

Sarah:

She's a child.

Mark:

Nice. She's in the twelfth form.

Sarah:

So she's like a senior. So then I made the mistake. I made a mistake.

Mark:

I said, I wonder how they're like, does Sophie actually throw for crap or is that a normal distance for javelin?

Sarah:

Or for a high school javelin.

Mark:

So I said,

Mark:

what is the under 28 score under 20 score world record for javelin throwing. And I was thrown into a world of Czechoslovakian and Finland athletes

Mark:

that I was not prepared for.

Sarah:

The problem is this. Welcome to rabbit hole's corner.

Mark:

The people who throw Javelin were getting too good at it. Oh. And throwing over 90 almost to a 100 meters.

Sarah:

So like past the end of the track so they could kill somebody in the audience.

Mark:

Which is why they have changed the shape and the weight of the javelin.

Sarah:

To slow them down.

Mark:

To slow them down. So now you have world records in the javelin that cannot be attained

Sarah:

now. Because they've handicapped everyone.

Mark:

They've handicapped everyone. But those pesky athletes.

Mark:

Oh, no. No. No. No.

Sarah:

They get better? They're better at throwing this javelin now.

Mark:

They've had to change it three times

Sarah:

Wow.

Mark:

And made special rules like you can't have things on it and it has to be a speck of weight and it has to be like they are in a lot of trouble because they're trying to cap it at a 100 or a little more than a 100 meters

Sarah:

Mhmm.

Mark:

Because most places in which they do track and field tournaments don't have any space that's that big. Right. And because of that, they're worried that officials and other

Sarah:

will get hurt. Because when I threw shot, we threw shot in the middle of the track while races were going on on the track. Like multiple events were going on at the same time. So if I was really good at throwing shot and I could hit a runner, I could have killed somebody. I mean, nobody could have thrown that far, but

Mark:

But the problem is the javelin is a weapon that is created, especially to be thrown far and accurate.

Sarah:

Yes. Well, it's like if, you know, the distance jumpers used to be able to wear jets on their back. Yes. And now they can't. Yeah.

Sarah:

But now they've got, you know, super bounce shoes Yep. Or something. They just keep finding new ways to to jump past the end

Mark:

of the javelin is improved sorry, is handicapped, they reach the level again, and it's happening quicker and quicker. The biggest thing they think that will happen is they will probably have to move Javelin to another location.

Sarah:

Maybe they should throw it off handed. Like, make them throw it left handed

Mark:

if they're

Sarah:

right handed. Throw it

Mark:

off handed some Finnish or Czech guy, because that's who does it, is gonna learn how to throw at a 100 meters.

Sarah:

They're gonna live their whole life faking being right handed when they're actually left handed just so they throw it

Mark:

really far. I watched a twenty minute documentary on this.

Sarah:

Okay. You did that to yourself. You can't blame anything else.

Mark:

So this is why the world records for

Mark:

Javelin as they stand right now, people believe can never be broken. So you create a world record that can't be broken and that to me and from the person doing this documentary and I agree with them, That's not a world record then.

Sarah:

No. It's a different sport

Mark:

or something then. Yeah. It's a different sport.

Sarah:

It's back when people used to wear flippers to swim. Yes. You can't compare it.

Mark:

No. You can't compare it.

Sarah:

Not that that ever happened. No. But you didn't answer the actual question.

Mark:

What?

Sarah:

Is Sophie's record actually, like, a good record?

Mark:

No. She's crap at throwing the javelin. Okay.

Sarah:

So compared to other kids her age

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

Her record is pretty

Mark:

seventy and fifty around that age.

Sarah:

Okay. So it's a pity trophy.

Mark:

It's a pity trophy for Sophie.

Sarah:

So then her javelin's probably a good one to use as a murder weapon because it wasn't used all that much by Sophie apparently.

Mark:

I guess so. Many people, many. Okay. At least three worldwide in the last fifty years have been killed by javelins at events. They are weapons.

Mark:

Yeah. I have no problem with him stuffing the javelin through her. I have him the problem is getting it through the chair.

Sarah:

My problem is the angle.

Mark:

Yeah. He has no leverage.

Sarah:

No. It's a long pole, and he doesn't have the height. He needs to do that little step step step step. Yeah.

Mark:

Throw a 100 meters.

Sarah:

The reason why it's deadly when you throw it is because you've thrown it. Yes. Not you haven't just, like, poked with it. Maybe you know, you've taught in a school. Yes.

Sarah:

Even in an expensive private school. Yes. They buy cheap furniture.

Mark:

They do.

Sarah:

There's no padding in the back of Estelle's chair. There's nothing to get through. Pleather and her sweater.

Mark:

I guess. And

Sarah:

she she at least has the desk to shove up against, unlike the cuckoo clock, which would have just knocked him backwards. There's leverage there against

Mark:

And Mel does a great job. And when I say Mel phoned it in, Mel's an incredibly busy person.

Sarah:

Okay? Mel Vedrich.

Mark:

Yeah. I think Mel was happy to do this, wanted to

Sarah:

Yeah.

Mark:

But could only give them a

Sarah:

And probably had another job later in the day. Yeah. So she's the first victim. During the PTA meeting, she dies.

Mark:

So then we go to the weirdest location that is in this school, which is something I obsessed over

Sarah:

Something else.

Mark:

Which was the front gates.

Sarah:

Well, whole place has been trashed because it is the end of school.

Mark:

I, for the day, for

Mark:

the year, forever, but nobody's leaving?

Sarah:

Okay. If they trash the school at the end of every school day, I pity the janitor. That's a lie.

Mark:

It's not doing a good enough job anyway. Did you see the rubbish pile?

Sarah:

I know. Okay. What's up with that tree by the gate that looks like a floating log?

Mark:

Oh my gosh.

Sarah:

There's weirdness.

Mark:

Then there's just a bulletin board by the guard shack? Why is there a guard shack?

Sarah:

If you have a gate, you have a guard shack. Okay. Though nobody's ever had

Mark:

a But that bulletin board is not weatherproof. No. So it one rain Yeah. And that bulletin board is done.

Sarah:

One good wind.

Mark:

Yes. And we see Pierce Mary Mayhew. Why does he do this? I don't understand why he does this. I don't know why he He shows up at the school, steals his poster

Sarah:

Yeah.

Mark:

And then leaves.

Sarah:

I don't know why he cares so much. He's like this world renowned children's author, and one talk at one school has been canceled and he's totally bereft. Now We learned and stomping around town pouting.

Mark:

We learned from this poster, two of his books, one I will cover later, but one is the fantastic book that is never mentioned. There's no things in his room about it. It's separate from his main series, but I think is his magnum opus.

Sarah:

Okay.

Mark:

Did you see the book that was on the flyer?

Sarah:

I guess not.

Mark:

The book that is on the flyer is Vampires versus My Gran.

Sarah:

I am not kidding. I wanna read that book so bad.

Mark:

I want to read that book so

Sarah:

You know Granny wins.

Mark:

Of course, Gran wins.

Sarah:

Probably with her knitting needles. Yep.

Mark:

Vampires versus my Gran.

Sarah:

She wins the vampires over and becomes friends.

Mark:

Possibly. But that there's nothing in this room about that book.

Sarah:

I wanna read that book. That that book Did you search online to see if there's like grandmas versus vampires?

Mark:

So much online for this episode.

Sarah:

We get graffiti that says always behind you. Well done, Hillary, and all kinds of other random things.

Mark:

Yes. And we learned that Estelle's daughter is at a yoga retreat in Snowdonia. Things not to do, Sarah. Search for yoga retreats in Snowdonia.

Sarah:

Did you have too much time on my hands or

Mark:

what? I had too much time on my hands because boy, there are a lot of them. I wouldn't think there would be. Snowdonia is a region region in Northern Wales.

Sarah:

It doesn't matter because she didn't go there. She's dead in a locker.

Mark:

She's dead in a locker in a rubbish pile.

Sarah:

Mhmm. Okay. And she wasn't going there anyway. She was gonna go to New York to flog a fake antique book.

Mark:

Can we talk about top yarns?

Sarah:

Sure.

Mark:

Okay. So top yarns

Sarah:

Knitting plus books equals happy.

Mark:

Yes. That's not mathematical.

Sarah:

I would gladly shop there.

Mark:

Yes. I I do that too. And now later on in the episode, the globe becomes important and it is primary in the very first interior shot.

Sarah:

Mhmm. The globe the trophy.

Mark:

And what I like is the woman who runs the shop, Moira, actually has a moment of reflection. I was shouting at her when it happened. She feels bad.

Sarah:

I don't think she's a bad person. No. She clearly cares about her grandson.

Mark:

She does indeed. Where are his parents?

Sarah:

You know what? He's got a good grandma.

Mark:

I guess he does.

Sarah:

Whose backyard has a wee fence?

Mark:

Yes. That's one of the the backyard has a wee fence that goes to a canal.

Sarah:

It's so short. Yes. It wouldn't stop a rabbit. No. It's like a foot?

Mark:

It it's there to trip over.

Sarah:

A third of a meter? Yes. It's just a tripping hazard.

Mark:

It's a tripping hazard.

Sarah:

But it's a wee fence.

Mark:

It's a wee fence. The knitting needles that are used later on to kill Dominic are also on display in this first scene. They give you a lot of they may not give you what's on the globe, but they give you a lot of the things that are gonna show up later.

Sarah:

Well, yeah. Aren't they part of like a like a it looks almost like taxidermy, but it's a ball of yarn with needles in it on the wall. Yes. Like a it's not a statue.

Mark:

It's not a statue.

Sarah:

Like a plaquey thing. Yes.

Mark:

Yeah. After this, and I I don't wanna go through scene by scene, but after this, Barnaby gets in the car and goes to see Holly and her parents. But before he gets in the car or while he gets in the car, Winter gets in the car and drives to see the husband. The same car? They look like they're facing each other, but they didn't have two cars.

Sarah:

Winter's car is self driving and came to pick him up.

Mark:

I guess. Whose car and who's driving is all mixed up?

Sarah:

My car is here. I must go.

Mark:

Through through this. Okay. So let's deal with the prime suspects as it like deal with each individual groups and then we'll we don't need to go through all the scenes, but we need to go through each of the the groups of suspects. So we have the husband, we have the deputy head

Sarah:

Blake, Tim.

Mark:

The the deputy and the klepto. Mhmm. We have the family. We

Sarah:

have Holly's family. Reese The knitter.

Mark:

And Dominic and Moira. Okay. Yes. We'll do

Sarah:

all those together. And peers. I mean, I guess

Mark:

Let's do Holly and her family first. Sarah?

Sarah:

They're pointless. How They really don't need to be there.

Mark:

How many bottles of alcohol do we have in the house?

Sarah:

Three. Do you And two those are hooch that my brother-in-law gave us?

Mark:

A drinks cabinet that is three levels high and at least eight or 10 across and maybe three deep?

Sarah:

No. That's way too much alcohol. You must need to have like lots of parties, maybe? Me? I certainly wouldn't have it with Holly in the house.

Sarah:

No. She's a delinquent already. No. She's bound to steal your booze. Yeah.

Sarah:

She's a track running graffiti artist who steals iPads She is a blackmailer.

Mark:

On the edge of of real bad stuff. She stole

Sarah:

that She's blackmailing someone.

Mark:

Well Yes. She stole that iPad. And the thing is, she in this first scene where Barnaby goes over, she admits it.

Sarah:

Oh, yeah. They didn't they wouldn't miss Yeah.

Mark:

Like I like that she takes responsibility for the things that she

Sarah:

But she's also not sorry.

Mark:

No. She's not sorry but she does take responsibility. Now her father drives the school bus which halfway through the episode is taking young children home. Okay? Why?

Sarah:

What's with the breathing?

Mark:

Well, I don't understand.

Sarah:

We we will also learn he's disabled, so he's he's unable to work. So it's a little job that he can do, and maybe he enjoys helping kids.

Mark:

But we are introduced to his disabledness with a horror movie scene.

Sarah:

Mhmm.

Mark:

Because he drops the children off and tells them to shut the door when they're done. And then he has a fight with his hand. Now he's supposed to have MS.

Sarah:

Right. Which is a debilitating disease. That he's hiding.

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

So that he can keep that little job Yes. Even though the reason why he can't have that little job is because it makes him a dangerous driver if he can't control his hands.

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

So he's willing to hide it and endanger children.

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

It's tough if you can't work. I sympathize with that. But is this really what we wanna be saying? I don't know.

Mark:

Maybe you should also not pound your hand on

Sarah:

Damn. Why are you out of control?

Mark:

He is

Mark:

needlessly full of rage instantaneously and then it goes away.

Sarah:

My tooth is messed up. Should I just bang it with a hammer or something until it gets in line?

Mark:

I guess so.

Mark:

Do you know why

Mark:

they need money so badly?

Sarah:

To buy booze? No. To pay for Holly's legal fees? No. I don't know.

Mark:

The the it's tiny. She says, we leveraged everything to get this house. Mhmm. Because they, like

Mark:

everyone in this episode, lives in multi million dollar estates.

Sarah:

They do have nice houses. Yes. Moira lives above the bookshop though.

Mark:

Moira and Reese live live Above their businesses. Above their businesses.

Sarah:

And Reese has a roommate. But Estelle? Like She's the head of a private school. Who knows?

Mark:

But her husband has a a bike shop big enough for

Sarah:

A car.

Mark:

Classic cars. Random classic cars. Okay. Okay. Now, next, let's do Piers.

Mark:

Okay.

Sarah:

Okay. The weird brother children's author. The most unlikable children's author.

Mark:

So he how did Piers start?

Sarah:

He stole ideas from a dead guy.

Mark:

No. He was on television first.

Sarah:

Oh, that's right.

Mark:

He was on two shows and won a writing award in 2017. So he hasn't done anything. The two shows he was on, because he has a little shrine to himself in his house.

Sarah:

He used to be a TV star. You think that Winter will have recognized him from one of the shows?

Mark:

Gunge Town or Crazy Carousel. I don't wanna know about Gunge Town. There's slime on the poster. Mhmm. I

Sarah:

Maybe it was like you can't do that on television where they slimed people. I guess. It's like a game.

Mark:

So he writes

Sarah:

He belongs in Gunge Town though.

Mark:

Yes. Yes. I can see how he probably does belong in Gungestown. So he writes books, right? He writes a series of books in which

Sarah:

A kid can turn into sea life.

Mark:

Yes. The series of books is called Billy McKelp. Okay? Now, there's another book on the there's a Billy McKelp book on the poster and then there's Vampires versus McGran, which has a fantastic cover too.

Sarah:

Whoever did the designs for Piers' books did a really good job, because the posters in his house are really cool too. All the book covers. Yes. There's Including mister Tricky Tricky's box of tricks. Yes.

Sarah:

We asked who has a house of tricks, but it's actually a box of tricks. We apologize. Yes.

Mark:

And he there's another book referenced on the flyer, which is Spencer and the Wicked Cuckoo, which is the last episode.

Sarah:

Okay? But like what's he going to do at the grammar school? He might read one of his books. Like that's what a children's author does. Unless he's going to talk to them about being a writer, or maybe he could talk to the older kids about that.

Sarah:

But this is not like a big prestigious money making opportunity for him. No. It's a local school. Yeah. He's going to do like an hour thing.

Sarah:

And And they cancel it.

Mark:

They cancel it because on ClickClick, our favorite new social network, he said that somebody challenged him that he shouldn't have used fat to describe a young person.

Sarah:

Click Click is so woke.

Mark:

Click Click is so woke. So these are the Billy McKealth books. Okay? Warrior of the Waves, The Mist on the Mirror, The Whale in the Storm, Kelpie Boy Saves the Dolphins, The Merwitch and the Kraken, that's the one I wanna read. And finally, Kelpie Boy and the Lost Trident.

Mark:

There are that many books

Sarah:

Okay.

Mark:

That he that are referenced.

Sarah:

I've secretly always thought kids books would be really easy to write, especially if you don't illustrate them. Like, you should be able to rip one off in an afternoon, but I'm probably wrong.

Mark:

The illustrations for all of these books look very much like the traditional illustrations for Roald Dahl books.

Sarah:

Yeah. It has But Pierce doesn't do them. No. He just writes them.

Mark:

He just writes Put

Sarah:

on his typewriter. He's very busy.

Mark:

He has a corona and a light green typewriter and a light blue one that aren't they don't show enough.

Sarah:

We're getting bogged down

Mark:

here, Okay.

Sarah:

Just saying. Blake throws his secret identities into the pond in the secret toolbox because he thinks they're coming after him. He doesn't grieve his wife at all.

Mark:

So where was he when

Sarah:

She dies in a PTA meeting after school, and in the same evening, he goes for a bike ride.

Mark:

Well, before that, why he just arrives is because he's been biking in the children's, which is this huge park. Yeah. Dude, you gotta run a business.

Sarah:

Apparently it's not

Mark:

You've got classic cars to deal with.

Sarah:

Speaking of classic cars, that's where the MM25 license plate is in this episode which is Two One of them watched like a maniac.

Mark:

Two episodes with license plates, the last one in this

Sarah:

one. Yeah. He he does not grieve.

Mark:

He doesn't grieve.

Sarah:

I do think he cares about Estelle. Later on when he's talking about her, it's clear that she gave him a chance when other people wouldn't and saw him for who he was and that she did matter a lot to him. But the day of the murder, they're like, dude, your wife's dead. And he's like, oh, okay. I'm gonna go for a bike ride.

Sarah:

Okay. Now I'm gonna worry about my my box of secrets.

Mark:

And all of this happens. Everything we've talked about. And then there's a scene of like Fleur finishing up her meal.

Sarah:

What? Well, somebody's gotta eat all that Indian. This all happened during dinner. I I guess. It was the longest meal ever.

Sarah:

Never mind. Blake finds out his stepdaughter has also been murdered, and he's like, well, time to go on another bike ride.

Mark:

Yeah. And like anyone would have seen him throwing that

Sarah:

in the In the pond? In the pond. Probably.

Mark:

I know if I saw that, I'd hide behind a tree

Mark:

and then go retrieve what was in the pond.

Sarah:

All this time, Reese, the very kind red herring.

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

Who runs the niche shop and would not hurt a fly. Yes. They do a very good job of making him look like a potential suspect, but not vilifying him for being different.

Mark:

No. No.

Sarah:

But I like him. I would hang out with him.

Mark:

I do too.

Sarah:

I wanna go to his shop.

Mark:

Comfy clothes. He runs classes.

Sarah:

There's way more crochet in his shop than knitting. I'll just say that. But

Mark:

We will we will

Sarah:

I'll let it go. And

Mark:

he made basically a love artifact

Sarah:

Mhmm.

Mark:

For Kara. Kara, and like put so much work into it that he put a secret code in it

Sarah:

Yep. For her. By the way, if you're at home with your maniacs bingo card

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

Add a square for times when Mark forgets a character's name and Sarah has to say it for him. I think that's on there. Put a dot on the square.

Mark:

Yes. He doesn't know where Kara is. He does? Well, no. He he thinks she's in Boston.

Mark:

Right. But she's not.

Sarah:

But he hides that she's gone Yes. To The US with the book for a while.

Mark:

Yes. Because they're running an illegal book ring

Sarah:

For Moira.

Mark:

For Moira.

Sarah:

Right. To sell first edition books that aren't.

Mark:

Sometimes that happens. That is the least of crimes in this episode.

Sarah:

Just imagine Moira in her backyard next to her wee fence. Yes. I have to say it like that every time.

Mark:

Don't fall over the wee fence.

Sarah:

Artificially aging books. You know, you have to like fox the edges, and you have to like age the pages, and you've got to like, you know, swap the covers and

Mark:

They were gonna get 70 k for this part.

Sarah:

She's out there on her garden table. So Spritzing tea on the edge of pages to make them look older than they are.

Mark:

But then they find poor Kara in the Rubber Sheep.

Sarah:

Kara got done wrong.

Mark:

Okay.

Sarah:

She got beat with an ugly sculpture and shoved in the trash. That is not

Mark:

in the closet for a weekend. Like, she's there several hours before he ditches her.

Sarah:

Oh, dead. Her body is yeah. When you said she was in the closet for a weekend, I'm like, no. No. It it it's Reese who was kind of in the closet.

Sarah:

He's bi.

Mark:

And he's bi. No.

Mark:

I meant she was in the art closet.

Sarah:

Corpse was in the art closet for a weekend

Mark:

before Because remember Jamie's like, oh, lit up like a firecracker.

Sarah:

Yeah. But she got killed with that ugly cube sculpture Yes. That's in her art room where there's also a giant paper mache Donald Duckhead watch like a

Mark:

maniac So she It's weird.

Sarah:

That And art room is weird. Art rooms in high schools are always weird.

Mark:

Always strange. So

Sarah:

Donald's on the table if you missed it.

Mark:

Yes. Okay. So we put all these people together on the board.

Sarah:

Mhmm.

Mark:

The murder board. Let me speak about this murder board. First of all, as mentioned, Estelle's picture on the murder board is rated r. The javelin is through her and there is blood on the javelin.

Mark:

Okay? That picture makes this episode rated r.

Sarah:

But it's so clearly not real.

Mark:

Second of all, all other pictures, everyone else's picture is shoulder height picture of them with a white background

Sarah:

Mhmm.

Mark:

Including our fugitive. Mhmm. Right? So our fugitive is what is Estelle's husband's name again?

Sarah:

Blake? Blake. The felon? Yes. He's not a fugitive, he's a felon.

Sarah:

He did his time. Yes. He's not wanted.

Mark:

So there is a newspaper that details his crimes. Mhmm. The picture on that newspaper is of a shoulder height with a white background.

Mark:

His shirt is changed. I They double

Sarah:

at least changed his shirt.

Mark:

But that's it. His hair

Sarah:

is exactly the same.

Mark:

It is.

Sarah:

At least they didn't use the actor's headshot or something because that would be worse. They do that sometimes.

Mark:

This is front page of the local newspaper. It mentions Midsommar on the front of the local newspaper. Everyone at that school who is older than 10 would go, wait a minute. That's my head teacher's husband.

Sarah:

You're not Blake. That's not your name. Yeah. Like They're not clear about that. When he explains himself, he doesn't say, I committed a crime right here in town.

Sarah:

Yeah.

Mark:

Well, it had to be.

Sarah:

And then came right here back. Town. Thinking that nobody would recognize me. It'd be funnier if in the photo on the paper, he had like a big bushy beard, you know?

Mark:

Or like one of those

Mark:

fake nose and glasses. Yeah.

Sarah:

It's like, that's what he used to look like. But now

Mark:

But, and I don't know if you noticed this Sarah because as mentioned, I went a little esoteric in this episode. I know for sure the order of filming of this episode compared to season number twenty four.

Sarah:

How do you know that?

Mark:

Because I kept noticing on the murder board that there was stuff underneath the other stuff. Like, it had been tried to be rubbed out, but it wasn't fully rubbed out.

Sarah:

Oh, I hate that about whiteboards. No. No. It's chalkboard. Oh, that's right.

Sarah:

So the old chalk is still there?

Mark:

Well, I went through every episode.

Sarah:

Oh my gosh. What is wrong with you?

Mark:

Oh, did 24.

Sarah:

Are you unhappy? Found

Mark:

the character that is referenced and know for sure

Sarah:

that You compared the murder boards to see if that I

Mark:

have proof that the murder board is exactly the same.

Sarah:

No. You know what you have proof of? You have proof that whoever's job it is didn't do a very good job of cleaning that chalkboard.

Mark:

The first time. The rest of season twenty five, it is clean murder board.

Sarah:

That's good.

Mark:

But that, they did not do a very

Mark:

good job.

Sarah:

So you think they recorded episode four, shots for episode four before they did one, two, and three? Yes. Okay. Way to go. Proving that.

Sarah:

Good job. That's an hour of your life. You'll have to get back. I hope it was only an hour.

Mark:

I will put in the show notes the exact pictures

Sarah:

that you need. People will appreciate it. I think maybe.

Mark:

It's funny this week on the subreddit, which is now 10,000 people. How is how

Sarah:

On the midsummer The midsummer mystery subreddit, not ours.

Mark:

Not ours. The midsummer mystery subreddit has 10,000 people which is amazing. Irma Cat, you're amazing. Okay? Second of all, somebody was talking about the writer lady who is in the writer episode and about how her books show up in other episodes.

Mark:

Mhmm. And I was like, you don't know the half of it,

Sarah:

bro. No. No. That happens many times.

Mark:

Because the greatest thing that involves that writer is the article that has the Microsoft manual of installation of Office in the body of the text of the article.

Sarah:

Yeah.

Mark:

I kid you not. New listeners, go back. Look at that episode.

Sarah:

Never mind that there was an episode where there was an author who wrote books, and then in a later season, there was a bookstore where that author's books were on

Mark:

multiple times.

Sarah:

Yep. They got the props. They're gonna

Mark:

use them. They got the props. They're gonna use them. But I thought the fact that I caught the murder board from the previous season is in this season was a pretty good catch. I'm impressed.

Mark:

Excellent.

Sarah:

Can we talk about knitting now?

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

Now that you've gone down your rabbit hole?

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

I went through I went down a very shallow kind of dip. It didn't involve Finnish chapel and throwers. No. It didn't. So Reese creates a wall hanging

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

That says, oh la la town. Tour. Oh la la tour. Sorry, I can't read my own handwriting. Yes.

Sarah:

And in that lettering, there are knots that are a code.

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

I'm going to put completely aside the fact that it's not really knitting Nope. That the close-up microscopic screenshots they have of the stitches are impossible. Yes. Definitely AI generated knitting stitches with some non knitting stitch added.

Mark:

We'll understand that.

Sarah:

We will suspend disbelief. Yes. Because they're making a reference to an actual thing that happened many times where women were useful in espionage because of handicrafts. Yes. And knitting is only part of

Mark:

it. Okay. This is prime maniac stuff here.

Sarah:

Absolutely. Yeah. We are crafty people. I proved that on the Reddit this week.

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

I want you to guess when the the first record of such a thing happening is.

Mark:

Well, I seem to remember, and because I was down an odyssey rabbit hole today, I think maybe in the odyssey, his wife does some craft that helps them at some point in time.

Sarah:

Okay. But that's not real. Okay. That's fiction.

Mark:

Sorry. Sorry.

Sarah:

Sorry. I mean, you could say the lady of Shalott if you wanted to, you know, go fiction. Yes. Yes. I'm talking about real, like history.

Mark:

History. Well, bet you have Betsy Ross who who makes the the Stars and Strike. Yeah.

Sarah:

But she didn't put a secret espionage code into it. No. She just sewed something.

Mark:

Well, just the Illuminati stuff. Okay.

Sarah:

Do you give up?

Mark:

Yes. I give up.

Sarah:

Because wow. I didn't expect you to be so far ranging. Okay. I'm sorry. I didn't know you would be so far ranging.

Sarah:

It's alright. Yes. Let me I'll rein you in a little bit. Okay. You are right to think about the revolutionary war, the American revolutionary War.

Mark:

Okay.

Sarah:

There's a couple of examples there that I think are inspiring.

Mark:

Okay.

Sarah:

One is an old woman named Molly Rinker

Mark:

Okay.

Sarah:

Who they called old mom. Old mom. Now, she's probably 30 or something. But back then

Mark:

Old colonist mom.

Sarah:

If you live to have, you know, two teeth in your mouth, you're

Mark:

an

Sarah:

old lady. Yep. She would sit on a rock or a cliff or any convenient like fence where she could oversee British troop movements and spin. So she's got a spindle and like a basket of wool, and she just stops as an old lady and just does some spinning. Yep.

Sarah:

But what she'd do is she would write a message about what the British were doing on a piece of paper.

Mark:

Okay.

Sarah:

Wrap that around a little rock, and then wrap her yarn around it.

Mark:

They'd have no idea.

Sarah:

And then on her way home, she just dropped that ball of yarn over a cliff where American spies were waiting down below to take There it from go. And anybody who's ever wound yarn knows the first part of winding a ball of yarn is the most annoying if you're doing it by hand. Yep. Having a rock would actually be nice in the middle.

Mark:

There you go.

Sarah:

So that's old mom rinker. They'd never know. No. They'd never know. Also during the Revolutionary War, speaking of women's activities that are overlooked but useful for espionage

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

A woman named Anna Strong used her underwear doing laundry. Like bloomer like? Let's call it a petticoat. A petticoat. We'll say it's a petticoat.

Sarah:

Okay. So hand washing clothes, hanging them out to dry on the drying line. If she put the black petticoat out, because racy black underwear. Woo hoo. Then the spies would know that she had some information.

Mark:

Yep.

Sarah:

And then she would hang handkerchiefs after it on the line, and the number of handkerchiefs indicated the drop spot where she had left the secret message.

Mark:

Red coats could look at that all day long and have no idea.

Sarah:

They'd they would just be like, that old lady's got black underwear.

Mark:

Strange colonial customs. She's crazy.

Sarah:

Yep. My favorite though are the ones, the spies that are sort of referenced in this episode, which are the women called the knitting grannies.

Mark:

Okay.

Sarah:

And during World War the end of World War one and the beginning of World War two, knitting patterns were banned

Mark:

Okay.

Sarah:

In a lot of places because, you know, men can't read them, so they must be full of espionage. Yeah. Well, they're sort of dots and dashes.

Mark:

I guess so. I can see that.

Sarah:

So that's either a really intricate cable diagram for knitting or where the tanks are. Hard to tell until you try to end it up and see that it's impossible. So the knitting patterns were outlawed. Nobody could have printed knitting patterns. So what these women did was they just knit, and they either knit Morse code or like a five digit binary that could be translated.

Sarah:

And it was just knits and purls. So they would do things like sit at a window and watch trains go by and record the trains in their knitting

Mark:

Yep.

Sarah:

To tell to tell the good guys Yeah. What the troop movements were, what like, oh, they've got two, you know, two coal cars in the tank and

Mark:

Yeah.

Sarah:

You know, people, soldiers on that one.

Mark:

Was this woman Latour an actual person? Yes. Okay.

Sarah:

Yeah. And did this similar kind of thing.

Mark:

Okay.

Sarah:

So then you've got a knitted garment. Well, all of the military were asking for people to knit socks, sweaters, hats, all that stuff. So you've got a perfectly valid reason to be knitting.

Mark:

Giving it away.

Sarah:

And giving it to a soldier. Yep. What do you know? It's very clever. But I will say again, the person who did the knitting stuff in this episode never looked at knitting.

Sarah:

It's not what it looks like. No. What about the And there

Mark:

was scarf at the end of

Sarah:

There's this moment where winter is like, I learned to knit once. My grandma told me. And then he's got some yarn, and you're like, wait a minute. Is winter actually going to knit?

Mark:

He's gonna

Sarah:

knit? Like, did somebody sit down and teach him enough to hold how to hold the knitting needles? Because women all over the world who were not moved by his toplessness in the episode would swoon Yes. Over the fact that this handsome man actually knows how to knit. Yes.

Sarah:

But no. No. We never see him actually knit, and the scarf that he makes is a double knit scarf that would take weeks

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

And a very skilled knitter Yes. To do.

Mark:

Now Reese knits, but what I saw with Reese's knitting was an amateur knitter.

Sarah:

I'm gonna defend Reese and say he's probably more of a crocheter. A lot of the things in his shop are actually crocheted, like granny square jackets and things like that that are very lovely. But crochet is different. But having watched him knit, he does know how.

Mark:

Yes, he does.

Sarah:

He at least did for the scene. Somebody taught him or he taught himself how to hold the needles, how to move the stitches. What he's doing is acceptable. But you're right, beginning knitter.

Mark:

And he is upset in that scene, so it's understandable. He he shows his upsetness through his knitting.

Sarah:

But he doesn't knit English style?

Mark:

No. He does not knit English style.

Sarah:

Do you know the difference? Isn't it

Mark:

needles up or needles down? No. What? Oh, I'm sorry.

Sarah:

You pretended you knew what you were talking about. That was so cute. Continental, you throw the yarn with your right. English, you throw the yarn with your left.

Mark:

Oh, okay. So you you use your right?

Sarah:

I use both. Okay. Because I'm always knitting two colors and I hold one in each hand. So I'm transatlantic, I guess. I don't know.

Sarah:

I guess. Intercontinental. But most British knitters throw with their left. Okay. So they hold the yarn in their left.

Sarah:

Whether they're right or left handed, it doesn't matter. Now you know.

Mark:

Now we

Sarah:

Next time you don't have to fake knowing the difference. Yes. Needles up or needles down. What the heck does that supposed to mean? I don't know.

Sarah:

You tried.

Mark:

I tried.

Sarah:

It's okay. It's that you tried. So we've got Estelle Javeland.

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

Then we've got Kara, who actually died before Yes. Shoved in a locker having been hit with a bad piece of sculpture.

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

Then Dominic, the grandson of Moira, gets killed in the knitting shop.

Mark:

By the way, I have to say this. Both Estelle and Dominic's murders would be much messier

Sarah:

than they Oh, yes. Dominic's especially, there would be spray. Yes. Unless he has very low blood pressure.

Mark:

And that's the point in which I looked at the episode and I said, I wonder what Reese is gonna think about this murder happening in his shop, but we never see Reese again.

Sarah:

We never find out. No. Doesn't matter.

Mark:

He admits he's bi and then disappears.

Sarah:

He has to he's upset.

Mark:

Okay. But then there's a murderer in his shop.

Sarah:

Yeah. I like the scene of him and Moira sitting out front on the bench.

Mark:

I do too. That's that's

Sarah:

They legitimately like each other?

Mark:

I think so.

Sarah:

Let's talk about the murderer now.

Mark:

Okay.

Sarah:

And his motive?

Mark:

Sorta. Okay. Last year's school trip involved

Sarah:

a death. Was it just last year?

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

Was it that recent?

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

Okay.

Mark:

Okay.

Sarah:

When they went to the zipline park.

Mark:

Now there are two deaths at the school this year.

Sarah:

Mhmm.

Mark:

Okay? And one of the teachers is meant to be the murderer.

Sarah:

Yes. No one is ever going to this school again.

Mark:

No. It's covered in rubbish. Bus driver

Mark:

the bus driver is having an argument with his hand, spray paint, iPads going missing and there is

Sarah:

fart graffiti on this on

Mark:

on one of the lockers. One of the lockers has an individual with a cloud coming out of

Sarah:

his butt and the word Jeremy beside it. Poor Jeremy.

Mark:

And I'll put the fart graffiti.

Sarah:

Is he the farter or is he the fart?

Mark:

He is the farter. Okay. Wow. No one is ever going to this school.

Sarah:

Jeremy is everyone.

Mark:

Now okay. Now let's get back to the murder. Right?

Sarah:

Can we? Has no focus.

Mark:

He's upset about he killed this teacher.

Sarah:

Okay. Let's go back. Okay. Tim

Mark:

grew up in bad school. I don't know if it's this school that he grew up in.

Sarah:

Tim is played by Kenny Doty, who is married to Ashley Jensen, aka Agatha Raisin

Mark:

Oh, okay.

Sarah:

In real life.

Mark:

Okay.

Sarah:

He's also the DC in Vera for like the first five

Mark:

He's in a million Vera's.

Sarah:

He's been in a lot of stuff. Paul, he who argues with his hand

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

Is in almost 300 episodes of Coronation Street. Wow. Like, dude's known. May Where he learned. We may not know him.

Mark:

Yeah.

Sarah:

But, yeah, he got his hand wrestling acting chops on Coronation Street where I'm sure that comes up

Mark:

all I the wanna make it clear, has nothing to do with his MS.

Sarah:

No, no, no. That's not what we're making fun of. Nope. We're making fun of one possessed hand while he's driving. Yes.

Sarah:

Okay. So so I think Tim did go to this school, hence why the trophy is at the school and

Mark:

No. No. He said it was it's not the school.

Sarah:

It's not this school?

Mark:

No. It it was in his his attic and his wife.

Sarah:

No. No. No. No. No.

Sarah:

No. No. I'm not talking about that. Okay. I think Tim's abuse at the hands of Belle, the evil teacher

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

Happened at this school.

Mark:

I don't think so.

Sarah:

Okay. Let's let's say it didn't. Okay. So a year ago, the school goes on a zip lining trip Yes. And Tim runs into Belle Yes.

Sarah:

The evil abusive teacher

Mark:

No relation.

Sarah:

Who ruined his life Yes. And he shoves him off of a tree.

Mark:

Yes. And Kara sees this.

Sarah:

He thinks Kara saw it. Yes. He assumes Kara saw it.

Mark:

Would you not, like, go down and go Kara, what did you see? Like, immediately.

Sarah:

Yeah. Right then. Like, if I can kill one person here, I can kill two people here. If you saw that, I'm get I'm taking you out. But no.

Sarah:

No. No. He waits a year. Yep. Okay?

Sarah:

Yep. Sees sees a text from Kara that makes him think she knows.

Mark:

Yes. No. No. He kills Kara.

Sarah:

Yeah. Because a year later, he realizes she knows?

Mark:

Yeah. Because she saw the globe.

Sarah:

Oh, okay. She saw the globe with Belle's name on it Yep. And Tim's name on it, and she put them each other. And she's like, oh, the guy who died on the zip lining trip was your teacher. You knew him.

Sarah:

You said you didn't know him, but you did. And he's like, hiya, with the sculpture. And shoves her in the art closet and then in the locker so that she can be taken out with the trash. Rubbish. Then Yep, he gets her phone and looks at it and sees that she has messaged her mom about Reese.

Sarah:

So he thinks Javelin. The reality is that Kara has learned that Reese secretly loves her and wants to talk to her mom about it, but Tim misinterprets the text and thinks that it's about him and says, Estelle knows. Now I gotta go take her out.

Mark:

So now he sets up an elaborate Zoom mechanism. That Zoom mechanism, I am not even gonna go there. Not how it works. Not how it would happen. Not laptops.

Mark:

Not Zoom.

Mark:

Not nothing.

Sarah:

My note says WTF is Tim's switch. Yes. Because he has a switch between the two monitors Yep. That he uses to change the feed. La la la.

Sarah:

During COVID, there were a lot of people goofing around with, what if I record myself sitting here and loop it? I can play it when I'm in a meeting that I don't wanna be in.

Mark:

The cords that are connected to the box are printer serial cords.

Sarah:

They are printer cords.

Mark:

Let's let that go. We're letting it go.

Sarah:

He's done a lot of work to plan for this murder. Junglin. He thinks

Mark:

Yeah.

Sarah:

If she gets murdered during the live meeting, and he's on screen too I I would clearly in another room, he has an alibi. Yep. There's no other way to do it, Mark.

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

This is the only way to kill The only way to kill Estelle. He has to do it during a PTA meeting where he and Estelle are the only two people in the building with a javelin from the school belly crawling on the floor. Well, luckily No other way would work.

Mark:

Luckily, he chose Sophie's crap

Sarah:

javelin because he didn't have to go far. I know. So Estella's dead. Then,

Mark:

yes. We haven't even got to the worst problem with him. Go on.

Sarah:

He has to kill again.

Mark:

He has to kill again.

Sarah:

And why does he have to kill Dominic?

Mark:

Because Dominic figures out the same thing with the globe.

Sarah:

When Kira sees the globe

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

It's the evidence, right? It is the connection. Yes. If anybody remembers Bell and him dying

Mark:

Dominik on the zipline would have been on this trip. Likely. Yep. He was headboard.

Sarah:

The trophy is the thing.

Mark:

Yep. Sarah?

Sarah:

What do you do? Mark, you've killed two people. What do you do with the piece of evidence? It's not the bad part. But I'm asking you.

Sarah:

There's one piece of evidence that definitively ties you to that murder.

Mark:

What do

Sarah:

you do with it?

Mark:

Leave it in a skip outside of the latest murder scene.

Sarah:

No. You put it in the attic where your wife might donate it to the junk shop.

Mark:

No. No. Okay. She donates it to the junk shop. Kara sees it there.

Sarah:

Yes. Why does he allow it to be donated to the junk shop?

Mark:

Because she and her crazy kleptomania

Sarah:

Why hasn't he destroyed it?

Mark:

I don't I don't

Sarah:

That's my question. Don't

Mark:

I don't know.

Sarah:

You get back from that zipline trip. The first thing you do is kill Kara. Destroy and kill Kara.

Mark:

The second thing you do

Sarah:

is destroy the one piece of evidence you know exists that ties you to that man. You go through all of your stuff. Is he in the yearbook? Did he sign my book? Did he give me a birthday card?

Sarah:

Did I give him a birthday card?

Mark:

You know,

Sarah:

any connection between us because I've said I don't know him. We do that right away. Not to

Mark:

Still, not my biggest

Mark:

problem with the globe. Even the skip thing. What is the globe?

Sarah:

It's a trophy.

Mark:

For what? School. It is a mathematics trophy.

Sarah:

Shouldn't it be geography?

Mark:

What does he teach? Phys Ed. Why is he a Phys Ed teacher?

Mark:

Why is he a Phys Ed teacher? There is no reason for him at all to be a Phys Ed teacher. It would be more likely if he was a math teacher.

Sarah:

No. I don't think so. I wanna It would

Mark:

be more likely if he was a technology teacher because then he would do that. Those are serials.

Sarah:

Not for printers. Dig it. Dig. Calm down. But no.

Sarah:

I think you're worked up about knitting. Much.

Mark:

He is a phys ed

Mark:

teacher.

Sarah:

What? Why? He's also the only man who teaches at the school, He's

Mark:

the only man who teaches at the school.

Sarah:

So he must teach Jim. Poor Jeremy. I don't have a problem with him not being a math teacher because I won awards in high school for stuff that I cannot do now.

Mark:

Okay.

Sarah:

Like, I I, you know, I got an honors diploma in math because I passed trig, but I couldn't do it now. Understand

Mark:

of that. I do. I do understand all of that. But that is real life

Mark:

and this is me some are murders.

Mark:

And it has to be connected and contained and and make sense. And it makes no sense.

Sarah:

It does make sense. About this? He became a phys ed teacher because his experience with phys ed was so horrible because Bell was so mean. And he decided, I'm gonna become a phys ed teacher, and I'm gonna be nicer. Well, before I kill people, but until I become a killer.

Mark:

Okay. That's what we're going with.

Sarah:

So he kills Dominic because Dominic has the trophy Yes. Which he bought at the junk shop. Yes. And then it's in a skip.

Mark:

Yes. At the bottom of the skip, where there are okay. I I hate to be pedant pedantic, but I'm a little concerned with procedural operations of how British police work.

Sarah:

But Barnaby has to have opportunities to make Winter look like he's a subordinate by making him do things he doesn't wanna do, like get into a dirty skip in his nice suit.

Mark:

Right.

Sarah:

It's a Midsummer trope.

Mark:

Sarah, I have another question. Mhmm. Why is the Midsummer Pizza Company scene in this For some reason, they dress an entire truck wagon thing that did you see how that thing gets around? Mhmm. There's a bike on the front of

Sarah:

it. Mhmm.

Mark:

They put they make a name. They make boxes. They do everything for a thirty second scene in which, once again, people get into vehicles that shouldn't be getting into vehicle.

Sarah:

Because Winter's buying pizza for the team.

Mark:

I I I'm glad he is.

Sarah:

It's a nice little business. Okay. I would buy pizza from that place. It's probably really good.

Mark:

I'm sure it is.

Sarah:

It looks a bit like Frodo's coffee truck.

Mark:

It is the Frodo's coffee truck. Like, if if only it had Frodo in it.

Sarah:

So Tim killed an abusive teacher Yes. In a dangerous place where only one person might have seen him do it.

Mark:

Which is an extreme trauma reaction, but I understand it.

Sarah:

He could have completely got away with it because maybe Kara didn't even see it. She hasn't said anything for a year.

Mark:

Yep.

Sarah:

And if she did, he could tell her he was awful. Listen to the kind of person he was. Yep. And he wouldn't have had to kill her or Estelle or Dominic or anybody.

Mark:

No. Then no. And and Barnaby's right. He's like, where does this end? Are you going to kill Holly next?

Sarah:

Yeah. Because other people know. What about the people who work at the charity shop? Do you have to go kill them? All the grannies that work at the charity shop?

Sarah:

What about the guy who does the skip pickup? Do you have to kill him? Are you gonna kill your wife because she looked at the trophy once and put it in the recycling or whatever? Like, by Tim's logic, most of Costin's dead.

Mark:

Lorna Watson also does a great job, but was there for a day.

Sarah:

Yeah. Maybe two days.

Mark:

Maybe two days. She showed, did her thing, and is out.

Sarah:

Now I'm expecting to see somebody from midsummer in a sister bonafice, like a trade.

Mark:

That would be good.

Sarah:

Like winter's gonna show up and Something like that. In Sister Boniface.

Mark:

I still think Frodo should have been in the pizza truck.

Sarah:

This is one of those domino murders though, like

Mark:

If I only could get my globe back.

Mark:

Oh, wait a minute. I'll leave it in a skip so somebody else could find it.

Sarah:

Like you did one bad thing, and so now you have to do another bad thing, and another bad thing, and another bad thing, and it's like, you didn't have to do the first one. No. He could have said to Belle, I have a good life now. I have a wife who cares about me and a good job, and you didn't break me. No.

Sarah:

Screw you, and ziplined away. Yep. But no, he just shoved him, which again, probably could have got away with even if he'd been caught because he had trauma. Yep. And he wouldn't be the only one who had stories about that man.

Mark:

I'm also gonna say, and I hate to be this way, old man Bell might have survived that.

Sarah:

Might have landed in the bush. Something. He's still out there, you know, It's

Mark:

not a bet. Like, it's Dropping in the lake. It's not a 100% way to die.

Sarah:

Tim did it. He had a helmet on.

Mark:

You also get, oh, you're here to catch me. Let me go to my room so I may tell you everything that happens.

Sarah:

Well, they always have to do that. Yeah. So

Mark:

so a couple of things. One, I have a new motto for the school.

Sarah:

Oh, yeah.

Mark:

So the motto of the school is in Latin. It's on the top of the Crest. The bus.

Sarah:

Yeah.

Mark:

Bus and it's one of those truth, know

Sarah:

Character Character Justice. Justice. Learning whatever.

Mark:

Things. But I have a different one. What's name? Mine is

Sarah:

I'm sorry for anyone who speaks Latin who had to suffer through that. No one speaks Latin. What does it mean?

Mark:

Trash lying murderers.

Sarah:

Viva Costing Grammar. Trash lying murderers. Their mascot would have to be a raccoon.

Mark:

We have the best part of the show, in my opinion, at the end, which is Barnaby's backstory about getting into trouble, the cop showing up because of his parents, and him going into a career of law enforcement. All of that

Sarah:

feels Because he drew a giant penis on the playing field.

Mark:

All that feels natural and good And the fact that he goes to see Holly is fantastic.

Sarah:

Yep. I think it's well done.

Mark:

I think that's completely and utterly well done. Yep. I think that them laughing at him at the end is fun. The fact that the the newspaper says 1975 inflation on the front of it is a bit on the nose. Okay?

Mark:

But

Sarah:

I just like knowing that Barnaby was in school the year I was born. It makes me feel young.

Mark:

Also, Holly really does the right thing here

Sarah:

Just she come in.

Mark:

She said she could say, I'll go away old man. But, you she says, come in. I'm not gonna push you off a pillar. That's not how I solve problems.

Sarah:

I'm not a zipline killer.

Mark:

But, throughout this entire episode, we don't know what day it is, we don't know what time it is, we don't know why people are doing what they're doing or why they're going to school at the times they're going to school. But luckily, at the end of the episode, we have a pub. And what is the name of the pub, Sarah?

Sarah:

It is called the Six Bells.

Mark:

And what do we hear?

Sarah:

As the camera pans up in a beautiful drone shot A beautiful drone shot. We hear the church bell ring.

Mark:

There's a bicycle bell and then the church bells.

Sarah:

Six times.

Mark:

Six times.

Sarah:

So they're at the six bells, and the chimes ring six times. Yep. And that was the last Watch Like A Midsummer Question. Why are there six bells twice? That's the answer.

Mark:

And this ends the episode. We know there will be another season.

Sarah:

Mhmm.

Mark:

We don't know when we're going to get that season. It was two years between seasons here. And the poor people in The UK are like, what? We're on season eight.

Sarah:

I don't even have to ask you which is the best corpse. You're gonna say Estelle because of that photo.

Mark:

I think because of the photo, Estelle is pretty good. But I would say Dominic has nice makeup on and doesn't breathe at all. He does a pretty good job.

Sarah:

I'm gonna break rank and give it to Kara because she has to look like she's tumbled out of an old locker into some garbage.

Mark:

Any school in which that stuff would be around, kids would get into it and cause trouble with it.

Sarah:

Mhmm. There'd be a kid's corpse in there.

Mark:

And

Sarah:

Oh, man. There's already a body in this It

Mark:

could only get worse for children at this school if they found one of the bodies.

Sarah:

I, they've just turned it into art.

Mark:

Okay. Boy, do we have some interesting stories now to talk about because what happens after the show for Moira and Reese? The art detective is gonna get called and put on his corduroy jacket.

Sarah:

I don't know how many books she's sold.

Mark:

I don't know either. But they are involved. They're at least going to have some tough questions to answer at the station.

Sarah:

Yes. There's a chance that they're going to get charged with larceny or

Mark:

Never mind. The love of Reese's life and Moira's grandson are dead.

Sarah:

I'm glad they have each other.

Mark:

I'm glad they have each other.

Sarah:

I hope that neither of them goes to prison, and they get to keep the shop and and be there for each other. I think Paul Dominic's parents show up and go, what happened?

Mark:

You failed out of school. Why?

Sarah:

We went on vacation, and while we were gone, he failed out of school and got murdered?

Mark:

No. Him and his girlfriend are going to Croatia

Sarah:

Yeah.

Mark:

For a concert.

Sarah:

For a concert.

Mark:

That's not the money she wanted

Sarah:

to. No.

Mark:

She wanted cash. Holly wanted some cash. So Holly's parents, Josie and Paul Randall. Josie, by the way, did we mention Josie in this episode other No.

Mark:

Because we didn't do

Mark:

Paulie's mom. Yeah. I think that he'll probably lose his job as the bus driver mostly because the school is going to close.

Sarah:

Yeah. Okay?

Mark:

It's not gonna go.

Sarah:

I hope he finds something to do.

Mark:

I hope And he finds

Sarah:

gets care. Holly's gonna be okay because she's talked to Barnaby, she's probably gonna be the next superintendent of Costin CID.

Mark:

Yes. Now what happens with Pierce? They know he has plagiarized those books, but that's not really a crime.

Sarah:

No. Since he plagiarized from some notes from a dead guy's junk.

Mark:

And who knows if the Vampire versus My Grand book was in there?

Sarah:

I I don't think he's in trouble.

Mark:

I read his obituary by

Sarah:

the way. Think it's just a matter of does it become widely known? Yeah. In which case he would, you know, be blacklisted for stealing the ideas. But maybe he should make a donation to the family of the mathematician or something.

Sarah:

Maybe. Or maybe he should just shut up and mind his own business. Not make a deal out of it.

Mark:

Okay. Finally, we come to Blake. What happens with him? His daughter and his wife are dead and he inherits a whole bunch

Sarah:

of them? Stepdaughter. Yeah. He's probably just gonna go on a bike ride.

Mark:

Oh. I think he might buy a few more classic cars too. Why is it?

Sarah:

We know you have a problem with the car being there. Yes. You've you've said that. Okay. Maybe he'll open a coffee shop or go work at the pizza joint.

Mark:

Maybe?

Sarah:

All in all, I would say this is a very solid season of Midsummer.

Mark:

I think it's returned to form. I think it's got great guest stars. I think it has great villains and great deaths.

Sarah:

I give it nine out of 10. Yeah. I think As a Midsummer season.

Mark:

I think it's good, but we're done, Sarah. We're done. So what's gonna happen now is a couple of things. One, we are going to return to Brokenwood. Yep.

Mark:

Because Brokenwood has been just puttering along for us, really good. We have a good relationship with people on the show. Yep. I think we should continue.

Sarah:

We're gonna take one week off. Yes. And then we're gonna be back with season ten episode one of Broken Wood, Broken Woodosaurus.

Mark:

Broken Woodosaurus. So that is our plan to move forward on season ten and then we'll do season eleven of Brokenwood. We did minis for season eleven.

Sarah:

Yeah. So we'll get to

Mark:

revisit So we'll revisit those minis because unlike the Midsommers, we never have done full episodes for those.

Sarah:

I think we're getting to, like, you know, those time travel movies where they they can't the the the past version of you and the future version of you can't be in the same place at the same time where you get like a paradox. We're kinda catching up with ourselves If

Mark:

we hit

Mark:

if we hit the same timeline as we did last year, we should be just ending season eleven when the season twelve episodes of

Sarah:

Broken Wood.

Mark:

Broken Wood come out.

Sarah:

And we'll do minis. And we'll do minis. But that is far

Mark:

in And the then we'll

Sarah:

do the episodes. Who knows what the world will look like then? No. We'll have teleporters and stuff.

Mark:

Who knows? Just a quick reminder, the newsletter is migrating. You will get a message on the January 30 describing everything. Remember, don't have to do anything. Nope.

Mark:

February 2, you will get an invite you will get added to Sub stack, you might get an email then that says, this is what I'm doing, you don't have to do anything. In February 4, you'll get your first newsletter like normal, but it'll come from sub stack and look and feel exactly the same to you. In the show notes, you can also join my Substack for the novels. The novel previews are coming out in February for Midsummer maniacs listeners only.

Sarah:

Mystery maniacs.

Mark:

Mystery maniacs. If you're a listener of the podcast and you join my substack, which is in the show notes, you will get the preview chapters a whole month before anyone else. Cool. So

Sarah:

What's in mister Tricky's box of tricks?

Mark:

Grand's vampire killing kit.

Sarah:

Is it a javelin? It's kind of like a steak?

Mark:

I guess so. Poor Jeremy. That poor kid. He's listed by name as being a farty pants.

Sarah:

There's always that kid.

Mark:

Thank you very much for taking this time and spending snow started? The snow has not even started yet.

Sarah:

Nope. But I bet there's still no milk, eggs, butter, bread at the store Yes. And there wasn't yesterday.

Mark:

Please be careful if you're in weather.

Sarah:

Stay warm.

Mark:

Stay warm.

Sarah:

Have a cup of tea.

Mark:

Lots of love to everyone, especially our there's a couple of listeners in Minneapolis that are near and dear to us.

Sarah:

We appreciate all of you. Yep. Bye, maniacs.

Mark:

Bye, maniacs. Thanks for joining us on the mystery maniacs podcast. If you enjoyed our crazy podcast today, don't miss out on future episodes. Follow us on social media for updates, beyond the scenes content, and exclusive sneak peeks. Subscribe, like, and share to spread the word.

Mark:

Bye, maniacs. You should have taken a picture of her with her butt hanging out from other than you did.

Sarah:

I was afraid she was gonna stand up and knock the whole entertainment center over or something.