Mystery Maniacs

🎙️ Episode:  https://share.transistor.fm/s/985015d6
📓 Show Notes: https://midsomermaniacs.transistor.fm/200

Mystery Maniacs Episode! In Podcast 200, everyone changes their clothes so many times, but still make bad belt and hat choices.  REMIXED!

Poirot and Miss Lyall Dressed the same


Thanks again for listening!
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Schedule for April
  •  April 8: Poirot - S01 E06 - "Triangle at Rhodes" - REMIXED! 200
  •  April 15: Poirot - S01 E07 - "Problem at Sea" - REMIXED! 201
  •  April 22: Poirot S01 E08 - "The Incredible Theft" 202
  •  April 28: Tea With The Maniacs 4:00 pm


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Creators & 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.

Mark:

Hey, mystery maniacs. Welcome to the 200th episode, which is a remix of episode 134, Poirot season 1 episode 6, Triangle at Rhodes. Hey,

Sarah:

y'all. It's a love triangle.

Mark:

I got my sun visor on. That's one of our best titles, I'd say.

Sarah:

Yeah. It's, I don't know. We got some good ones.

Mark:

We have some really good.

Sarah:

See last week.

Mark:

Yes. Okay? So last week, the title was Cole Troll's big night out, and Coltrill has taken on a life of his own.

Sarah:

Now I'm designing a T shirt as we speak. Yep. With Poirot standing next to cultural.

Mark:

We have had many, many individuals mention the cultural.

Sarah:

We have received images of cultural. Received images

Mark:

of the cultural.

Sarah:

Speaking of images, listener, did you see our little door?

Mark:

Yes. I post I posted the little door on all of the socials.

Sarah:

Somebody messaged me and said, we also have a strange door. They're like, but you haven't seen ours yet. You wait. We got a weird door.

Mark:

Our little door is quite strange.

Sarah:

We posted that picture. I'm I'm feeling, feisty today.

Mark:

Why are you feeling feisty? I know why you're

Sarah:

feeling No. First of all, I got to cancel a bunch of meetings for Monday with just due to the apocalypse.

Mark:

Yes. As the message known as the eclipse.

Sarah:

To cancel the meetings.

Mark:

But Indiana has declared a state of emergency now. Oh, it's gonna be crazy.

Sarah:

I'm also feeling feisty because, for this remix, you're gonna let me talk about that new official Midsummer Murders Mayhem podcast. Right? For I get to talk about I care about it.

Mark:

Talk about that.

Sarah:

Okay.

Mark:

We've gotta talk about tea with the mania.

Sarah:

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because that's really what we're gonna do for the 200th episode.

Mark:

That's really the 200th episode. And last week, we put out the newsletter and asked for questions for Tea with the Maniacs. And, boy, you guys are responding like crazy.

Sarah:

So Sunday, April 28th at 4 PM. Mark your calendars. Live on YouTube, tea with the maniacs. I will drink some tea. You won't.

Sarah:

You don't

Mark:

like tea. Drink tea. But but you will drink tea, and that'll be

Sarah:

your area. Tea as in, like, laying down some tea?

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

Like, the truth? Yep. Because we're gonna answer questions.

Mark:

Yes. We're gonna answer questions, and that'll stay up so you can watch it even if you can't attend it. You can still watch and see your questions being answered.

Sarah:

So if you send questions beforehand, we'll queue them up to answer them, but we'll also take questions live Yes. And if if they're not inappropriate.

Mark:

And I made a joke I made a joke that we'd have to make questions up. We're going an hour.

Sarah:

We we've got plenty of questions.

Mark:

That's how we're going. Yeah. And we'll do as many questions as we can in that hour, but we may not get to everybody. But if we don't get to

Sarah:

every we will.

Mark:

If we don't get to everybody, I'll make sure those questions get answered in the next newsletter.

Sarah:

As long as we don't go off on a cultural tangent.

Mark:

Oh, we will. We'll be fine. They've listened to us.

Sarah:

A cultural like tangent.

Mark:

Yes. They've listened to us.

Sarah:

Okay. One more thing before I get to talk about what I really wanna talk about.

Mark:

Okay. Okay.

Sarah:

And this is a downer.

Mark:

Yes. It's a Many

Sarah:

of you have probably heard that the World Central Kitchen, which is a charity that we have supported before with our merch sales, they lost 7 of their, employees this week.

Mark:

And these people go into war zones.

Sarah:

Voluntarily. Feed people.

Mark:

That is all they do.

Sarah:

Yep. They're saints.

Mark:

They are as close as we can get to actual saints.

Sarah:

So first of all, I I can't express how sad I am that that happened.

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

But they've had to pause their efforts there, but they're gonna start again. And so from now until the end of the year, all of our merch sales are gonna go to donations to the World Central Kitchen so they can get started again.

Mark:

Absolutely.

Sarah:

And we're gonna have some new designs up this summer for some new stuff, including a cultural t shirt with Poirot, and a sticker and stuff. So may there might be some fun stuff to buy. If there isn't anything you wanna buy, just make a donation to them directly. Like I said, they've Yep. They've they've delivered millions and millions of meals around the world.

Sarah:

They're just doing amazing stuff. Okay. Now can I talk about

Mark:

Next week, we're gonna have the next remix episode and then 2 new episodes after that, and we have Tea with the Maniacs coming up? Now you can do what you wanted to do all day.

Sarah:

Oh my gosh. I've been chopping at the bit to talk about this piece of crap all day. Hey, maniacs. Hey, maniacs. Welcome to Mystery Maniacs.

Sarah:

Mystery Hey,

Mark:

including the murders, the mayhem, the loonies, and everything else we love. This week, we're covering Poirot season 1 episode 6.

Sarah:

Triangle at Rhodes.

Mark:

I'm Mark.

Sarah:

I'm Sarah. We do spoil the episode. So if you haven't watched Triangle at Rhodes with David Suchet, go back and watch it and come back and join us.

Mark:

And also if your kids can take part in a fascist uprising in Greece

Sarah:

They can probably listen to this podcast. They can handle it.

Mark:

Yeah. Once again, intro for new people. First of all, thank you for coming back. If you listen to our first episode and then you're back you're you're a maniac now.

Sarah:

Oh, yeah. It's official.

Mark:

Yep. One of us.

Sarah:

Mhmm.

Mark:

We're calling this Poirot, not Agatha Christie's Poirot. We realized that that's all part of it. This was broadcast the 12th February 1989 directed by Renee Rye who did a ton of Midsommers.

Sarah:

Yeah. Yeah. And we've got a couple of actors in common here. Valentine, Valentine Chantry is played by Annie Lambert. She was in the axeman Cometh Yeah.

Sarah:

Midsummer. And Marjorie Gold played by Angela Down was in the creeper and in blue herrings. Yeah. She was in 2, Midsommers.

Mark:

In both of those. It's written by Stephen Wick Lamb.

Sarah:

Based on a short story, Agatha Christie.

Mark:

This is I was stunned how short Clapham Cook was, but Triangle Roads is about twice as long. But still, they're still very short. They're less than an hour to listen to.

Sarah:

It makes me appreciate the screenwriters more because they especially with this one, they stretch it out in a way that doesn't feel like filler.

Mark:

No. In in fact, they do a great job with Barnes.

Sarah:

Yeah. And they combine 2 characters in 1.

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

So in the short story, miss Lyle has a friend. There's 2 of them.

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

Miss Pamela and Sarah. Right? But Sarah, gone.

Mark:

Gone.

Sarah:

Thanks.

Mark:

We don't need another one.

Sarah:

I guess we don't need a Sarah. Appreciate

Mark:

it. We have you.

Sarah:

Aw. You're nice. Yes. So we just have miss Lyle, who is the concentrated gossip monger power of both of them together in one.

Mark:

When reading when listening to the story just lately, I didn't really know why Sarah was there either in this story.

Sarah:

You think, Agatha Christie would have done better just to have have miss Lyle too?

Mark:

Yeah. I think so. And and this is another example, and we'll get into a couple of these as we cover more Christie stuff. Agatha is like this is a test run.

Sarah:

Yeah. She liked to test out story ideas in short story form and then expand them. So evil under the sun is said to be kind of an expanded version of this story line. And I can see that. I can see how she was playing with ideas here and then said, I like some of those.

Sarah:

It's not an exact duplicate of the story by any means. They both have their own unique characters and plot lines, but they have a lot in common.

Mark:

The one with the, dead woman on the train is far closer.

Sarah:

Yeah. This this plot and again, we're talking about the plot of the TV show. Okay? That's what we're gonna talk about. There are lots of experts out there who know far more about Agatha Christie, and it's fine if you wanna talk more about how it compares to short story.

Sarah:

That's not what we're gonna do. We've done it. We're done with that. Done. Where was I going?

Sarah:

Oh, I know where I was going. This is kinda like a 5th sense Agatha Christie. Like, once you watch it and you know who the murderers are, you kinda wanna go back and watch it again and go, where did I miss the clues? That these 2 were up to something the whole time?

Mark:

But I would say there's not enough of those clues.

Sarah:

I disagree. I think they're there.

Mark:

Oh, they're there. But I wish And

Sarah:

I think there's enough of them once you know. Now, do I buy it? No. Do I think there's giant plot holes in this story? Yes.

Sarah:

I think they they were having fun with a plot idea. Agatha Christie was having fun with a plot idea. But it's a short story for a reason because stretched out, it wouldn't hold up, I don't think.

Mark:

Let's begin with the first thing that the writers do that is really good, which is the 2 guys at the Whitehall Whitehaven Mansion.

Sarah:

The the, the postman and the doorman?

Mark:

Yeah. Like, it's a great way to explain where everybody's gone.

Sarah:

Captain Hastings has gone off to shoot things. Yep. Miss Lemon's gone off to see her sister, who we'll see again later. Yes. And, Poirot's off to foreign parts.

Mark:

He sent me a postcard with goats on it.

Sarah:

There are a lot of goats in

Mark:

this episode. We get the musical cue of, okay, music guy. We want you to do the Poirot stuff, but make it Greek. Yeah. Okay.

Sarah:

Make it pluckier. No clarinet.

Mark:

And slow.

Sarah:

Slow and plucky and a little out of tune. Yeah. And Like this. Yeah. That's the music throughout the whole episode right there.

Mark:

It's it's a little much.

Sarah:

It's like, hey, we're in foreign parts, people. Don't forget.

Mark:

Greek foreign parts. So slow it down and make it twangy.

Sarah:

Twangy. Is Greek music twangy?

Mark:

I guess.

Sarah:

Because they're on Rhodes, which is a Greek island

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

But at this time, occupied and controlled by Italy.

Mark:

Yes. So this is most famously the location of a wonder of the ancient world, the Colossus of Rhodes Mhmm. Which supposedly there's lots of debate on this.

Sarah:

Yeah. It was so big that it had one foot on each side of the bay?

Mark:

Yes. No. No. It would have fallen down. But there was probably a big statue there.

Sarah:

I love that they're called the Dodecanese Islands.

Mark:

Yes. It

Sarah:

sounds like geometry class.

Mark:

Absolutely. So these are islands in the Mediterranean Mhmm. Which include everything from Sicily to Crete to Cyprus Yeah. That are, especially during this time, the thirties, in constant change of hands.

Sarah:

Yeah. I don't know that I would have chosen Rhodes as a vacation spot in the thirties.

Mark:

No. No. I don't know.

Sarah:

It seems a little

Mark:

sketchy. It seems incredibly sketchy.

Sarah:

Like, you don't know who's gonna control it once you get there.

Mark:

Considering they go to Italy first to go there.

Sarah:

Yeah. Because they all come via Brindisi. Yeah. So you can only guess they took trains to Brindisi, and then got a boat.

Mark:

Yeah. They took London to Rome to Brandisi and then ferry across to

Sarah:

do you wanna strangle Tony on the dock? He's talking to the cars from the hotel.

Mark:

He is the biggest bully ever at the beginning.

Sarah:

Oh, try not to run into anything.

Mark:

He's just horrible. And you immediately feel bad for Douglas.

Sarah:

Oh, yeah. Because he's like, wait a minute. We're going there too. He's like, well, then you'll just have to wait for the next car. Yep.

Mark:

Goodbye. Jerk.

Sarah:

Yeah. Tony's got quite the brow on him, doesn't he? He does. Like, it kinda like curls under his eyebrow. Like, chromag kinda definitely dominant male.

Mark:

I think one of the things that's implied

Sarah:

Until he puts on his swimsuit, and then he doesn't look so dominant anymore.

Mark:

It's one of the things that's implied is that Valentine Chantry is hard to live with.

Sarah:

Mhmm. Now because she's he's her 4th husband or 5th husband?

Mark:

This is her 5th marriage. Yeah. So it's his her 5th husband. Clearly and this could be said for anything that we talk about that's murder related. These people just sat down and talked to each other.

Mark:

Everything would be so much better.

Sarah:

Isn't that always the case?

Mark:

But it's kind of it kind of falls on traditional she's horrible, so I want out of the marriage. Like, she's demanding, but she's not horrible.

Sarah:

Oh, no. She's just bought into the whole helpless woman thing, and obviously attracts men who like to take care of women Yeah. Which I'm sure is appealing initially, and then gets old real fast.

Mark:

Well, that that's the only part I like about Marjorie is when she's talking about men.

Sarah:

Mhmm.

Mark:

Because she shows how little she likes men. Yeah. Everything every time she's alone with Poirot, she she gets to talk the truth.

Sarah:

Marjorie?

Mark:

Yeah. Yeah. But, anyway, let's get back to calf leather gloves because that's far more

Sarah:

They're not. Okay. Yeah. So I've seen this episode so many gazillion times, and I always think, oh, I love miss Lyle's red gloves. They're so beautiful.

Sarah:

And this time, I really paid attention, and they're not. They're like crocheted. Are they? They're like mesh.

Mark:

Oh, I didn't know that. I thought they were calf leather gloves.

Sarah:

No. They're 2 color.

Mark:

Yeah. They're 2 color.

Sarah:

I'm sorry I'm making such a big deal about this.

Mark:

This is mania.

Sarah:

They're really weird.

Mark:

Yeah.

Sarah:

Okay. So hold your hand in front of you. Alright? You're looking at your hand from the top. Now they're red and white.

Sarah:

Her thumb and her index finger and her pinky are red.

Mark:

And then they're white in the

Sarah:

and ring finger are white.

Mark:

They should have a little leaf in them, then they'd be Canadian gloves.

Sarah:

Like, they're they're meant for metal heads. It's basically

Mark:

the devil horse.

Sarah:

Yeah. If you fold your the white fingers down, you can make yeah. But they're they're, they're like open open work crocheted gloves. And so which makes perfect sense because though it was, you know, demure to wear gloves at this point, they'd be really hot.

Mark:

Yeah.

Sarah:

You know?

Mark:

They would be.

Sarah:

And so those would be better, but they're they're really funky.

Mark:

And the whole beginning thing of her in She's in the in distress.

Sarah:

She's in the marketplace, and she's bought a brass teapot of some sort or coffee pot. And Major Barnes is is hunting her.

Mark:

Yes. Major Barnes might be a great spy, but he's not so good at wooing the ladies.

Sarah:

He's not good with the ladies. Like, later, you actually kinda like him. You realize he's a good guy, but he is awkward to the max with miss Lyle. By the way, once I realized her gloves were different than I remembered, I went looking into women's gloves of the time and these kinds of 2 tone gloves in particular. These are super unusual.

Sarah:

What was typical for 2 tone gloves for women was that it was one color on the front and another color on the back. Right? Which is super weird. If you, like, turn your hand, like, do the queen wave, you're, like, red, white, red, white, red, white. It almost seems like they're signaling gloves.

Mark:

Maybe.

Sarah:

Because you can't, like, wear them on opposite hands to have different color on top. No. You can't do that because that would that would actually be kind of versatile. Right? Yeah.

Sarah:

But yeah. Just the idea. I'm sitting here wiggling my hands around as if people can see me. They're just weird.

Mark:

It's fantastic podcasting. Yes. Also, you notice the Poirot and her dressed almost exactly alike.

Sarah:

Yeah. We've got a shot of this. He he has a white linen suit on, which most men would have at the time because they're cool. They reflect the light. Never mind that it's a 3 piece suit.

Sarah:

He's always got it on. I'm hot just looking at him.

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

It's it's not quite as bad as when he's in Egypt wearing the 3 piece suit, but it's bad.

Mark:

Or when they're in, Mesopotamia

Sarah:

Yeah.

Mark:

Which is Iraq.

Sarah:

Yeah. All all the hot sandy places where most people wear layers but loose Yep. He's all buttoned up to his nose.

Mark:

He's got sunglasses.

Sarah:

Yeah. He's

Mark:

I we think this is the only time he wears sunglasses in the series.

Sarah:

That I can remember. But there again

Mark:

There may be more.

Sarah:

In those times when he's in the desert or on a boat, he might have them.

Mark:

But He puts them on really well in the in right at the end of, when they go start looking at the looking montage.

Sarah:

Yes. But he has on this white linen suit, and he has on a red tie, and, he has a red rose

Mark:

in his doesn't have the blue boutonniere.

Sarah:

No. It's a red rose

Mark:

Yeah.

Sarah:

A bud rosebud in his boutonniere. And she has on that white dress with the red polka dots, and she doesn't she? And she has a red turtle pin on her lapel.

Mark:

No. She she doesn't have the polka dots.

Sarah:

Oh, it's just a white.

Mark:

It's art it's easy to mistake because she changes her clothes

Sarah:

Everybody does.

Mark:

A 100 times in this

Sarah:

Anyway, they mirror each other. Yeah. They do. Look like they meant to coordinate

Mark:

Yeah.

Sarah:

Which is cool. When she grabs him, obviously, she recognizes him. She knows who he is, and then he's staying at the hotel. So he's a safe person. Poirot does that a lot.

Sarah:

He's the avuncular type. Young young women see him as being safe and nonthreatening.

Mark:

Yeah. Certainly in the blue train story. Yeah. She says you're like my uncle.

Sarah:

Yeah. Will you be avuncular with me and and teach me? They dress for dinner.

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

What do you think about that? Like, do

Mark:

So which dinner are we talking about? Because

Sarah:

The the first dinner in the hotel, we see Poirot putting on his tuxedo and tying his tie. And, of course, he knows how to tie a bow tie perfectly. Yep. But everybody has changed clothes for dinner. Are you are you kind of nostalgic for times when people did that and made dinner, especially on on vacation at a resort kind of an event?

Sarah:

Or are you glad that we're so much more casual now?

Mark:

I don't know. Like, I liked dressing up as a kid to go traveling, but now I don't do it.

Sarah:

So I'm kinda torn. Yeah. Because as a woman, on one hand, it's a lot of trouble.

Mark:

Mhmm.

Sarah:

Like men can hop in and out of the shower, change clothes, and they're ready. Yeah. It's not that simple for women, especially for evening wear.

Mark:

Well and Pamela Lyle, her skirt, I think in that scene is the shortest skirt I've seen on Mhmm. On Poirot. Yeah. It's very short.

Sarah:

But I I kind of but I sort of appreciate the opportunity to dress up and look very nice. But to do it every night while you're on vacation? Yeah. Give me some shorts and a t shirt.

Mark:

Depends what kind of resort it is.

Sarah:

That's what I mean. I don't think I'd wanna go to one of those resorts

Mark:

Yeah.

Sarah:

Where you have to dress up for dinner.

Mark:

By the way, there are black shirts in this episode.

Sarah:

Patouille. Wow. Fascist. Holy Patouille. Shoehorning in politics.

Sarah:

I like when they walk by the girl and she's like, black shirts, tooey. Yep. She speaks English for a second.

Mark:

Yep. Mister Barnes says the thing that I hate, little lady.

Sarah:

Oh, you don't like when men call women little lady?

Mark:

No. Because it's patronizing and condescending.

Sarah:

It's better than

Mark:

girl. And it's meant to be not girl, and it's it's like halfway there.

Sarah:

Yeah. So then we have the beach scene.

Mark:

I always say giant women, but instead of little lady.

Sarah:

Hey, giant women. Yes. I'm sure all the women you meet love that. The beach scene is so defining.

Mark:

Okay. Yeah. The whole scene at the beach is really most of the short story.

Sarah:

It is, but it is the defining moment in the episode. It's where everything is set up.

Mark:

I like to get good and hot it up. Poor Douglas. He's such an idiot.

Sarah:

The water's so warm, Douglas. Du come. Poor Marjorie. Before you know, she's, like, evil. You feel so bad for her because she's just an average woman.

Mark:

When

Sarah:

And she's constantly looking at Valentine going, okay. I am not that. As soon as she gets in the water, she looks like, you know, an idiot slapping around in her swimming cap. And he's up there.

Mark:

Says that she has unfortunate bathing costume.

Sarah:

Oh, she says that's an unfortunate bathing dress.

Mark:

Yes. To Marjorie.

Sarah:

But I don't know who she's talking about.

Mark:

Yeah. I don't know who

Sarah:

you are. Because Douglas is wearing a white terry cloth robe.

Mark:

My gosh.

Sarah:

They're all so horrific. But Tony's outfit isn't any better. No. He's got the blue woolen swimsuit, but then he's got that awful striped robe and that bad hat that he puts on with it. Just but I don't know.

Sarah:

I think Douglas' is the worst because he's got that dang white belt on.

Mark:

Oh, that the white belt is the word.

Sarah:

She wears it later too. I'm like, take off that dang white belt.

Mark:

And this is so chess. Right? Like, it is Marjorie and Douglas. Douglas. No.

Mark:

No. Marjorie and Tony? Tony moving the pawn that is

Sarah:

Douglas. Towards Valentine?

Mark:

Towards Valentine.

Sarah:

Yeah. So so we may as well start talking about this now, and we can just talk about it throughout. So the whole idea here, everybody knows this because we, you know, we spoil it, is that in actuality, Marjorie and Tony come to this island already being in love with one another.

Mark:

Yep.

Sarah:

And the whole idea is that they're gonna kill off one of the spouses and frame the other one for it so that they can be together.

Mark:

Douglas says it's her idea. And then later, she says it was his idea to come. Mhmm. Yeah. But it was her idea.

Sarah:

When they're walking up to the hotel the first time, having finally got a ride to the hotel yeah. He's like, I don't know why we had to come so far Yeah. To enjoy a beach. And we can only assume that Tony has somehow planted it in Valentine's head to that. They're going to go to Rhodes, So they're gonna meet at this hotel, and they have been plotting this.

Mark:

Which Pamela says it's weird that she's here.

Sarah:

That Valentine's there.

Mark:

Like, it's kind of a small place for her.

Sarah:

Yeah. It's like a step down. Yeah. And this is also the scene where we get to see Poirot and miss Lyle in full gossip, onlooker effect. And she's unabashedly curious about people.

Sarah:

She has no problem admitting that she enjoys watching other people have their drama.

Mark:

Now she draws the triangle here.

Sarah:

Yeah.

Mark:

And in the story, Poirot draws the triangle.

Sarah:

Yeah. Which I can understand.

Mark:

Which is totally brilliant. Then they draw that triangle and you imagine who the triangle is. Yeah. And Poirot from this point on is talking about another triangle.

Sarah:

Yeah. He knows exactly what's going on pretty early on and tries to prevent it and can't.

Mark:

Also, I'm kind of amazed at her ability to draw such a uniform triangle so well.

Sarah:

So in the morning, they're all at the beach. Yep. In the afternoon, part of the party goes to the ancient city, and part of the party goes to a dig.

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

And Poirot has changed into another suit.

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

So he had his beach suit?

Mark:

He had his beach suit.

Sarah:

And now he has his dig suit?

Mark:

Now he has his dig suit where they find fresh and saltwater fossils. Oh.

Sarah:

Never mind that, like, there's so much history on roads. I I doubt fossils are what are of interest there, but I I'm sure they're there. Yeah. There's a goof when Poirot is sitting reading the newspaper.

Mark:

Okay.

Sarah:

So the title says Abyssinia Italian threat. France fails to choose at Geneva. Right? So they're talking about politics. And we're supposed to see that.

Sarah:

We're supposed to see that there are tensions. Yeah. And he's pretending to be busy.

Mark:

And he makes reference to it with the major lighter.

Sarah:

Right. Because he knows Abyssinia is gonna be important. The wind blows and ruffles the paper. And did you notice something? No.

Sarah:

I can't believe you didn't notice this. The inside of the paper is completely blank. Oh. Totally blank. There's print on the front and the back of the outside page, and the rest of it is just blank.

Mark:

Now we gotta tell you folks that we love these.

Sarah:

If you're if you're new, if you're not a Midsummer Maniac, you're new to a mystery maniac, so you gotta know we kinda geek out over things in print, especially mistakes that are made.

Mark:

We found in the Midsummer episode a magazine article which had text from a Microsoft manual for Office.

Sarah:

Copied and pasted as the text in that article.

Mark:

Oops. We we were stunned to find it and that the paper's blank.

Sarah:

Do you know where Abyssinia is? No. What Abyssinia became? No. Today, Abyssinia is Ethiopia.

Mark:

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Sarah:

And I learned a fantastic fact when I looked that up. I thought it was Ethiopia, but I wasn't sure. Abyssinia is an exonym.

Mark:

What's an exonym?

Sarah:

It's the name for something given to it by people from the outside.

Mark:

Ah, okay.

Sarah:

So non Ethiopians called it Abyssinia.

Mark:

Okay.

Sarah:

Ethiopians called it Ethiopia.

Mark:

It's like India. When we say India, the country of India Mhmm. No one from India calls it India.

Sarah:

Not within their own country? No. So that's an exonym, and then an endonym is what the people who are native from that place call it.

Mark:

Okay.

Sarah:

I hadn't heard those terms before. Exonem and endonyms.

Mark:

Fascinating.

Sarah:

So you may call yourself Mark. Yeah. That's your endonym. But if everybody else calls you Aardvark, that's an exonym if you don't call yourself back.

Mark:

When Americans try to say Toronto. Let's have pink gin.

Sarah:

Oh, we have to have pink gin. Pink gin

Mark:

is pink.

Sarah:

Pink gin. Oh, pink gin, which is ruined for me now in my head. Before actually bothering to look it up, I always thought, oh, it's pink and it's gin.

Mark:

It's like pink and gin, so it's like

Sarah:

It must be like sweet

Mark:

or fruity. Lemony Yeah. That would be great. No.

Sarah:

No. It's bitter gin.

Mark:

It's bitter gin.

Sarah:

It's angostura bitters, which are citrusy and spicy. It's like clove and orange and not summer No. At all. To me, not summer. No.

Sarah:

And, you know, gin tastes like pine needle smell. Don't that's not good. I don't think I'd like that.

Mark:

I wouldn't like that drink at all. No.

Sarah:

I would like gin with a little pink lemonade.

Mark:

Little little pink lemonade? Gin, that's not bad at all.

Sarah:

It sounds good. A little gin and juice. I can go for that.

Mark:

Sidecar. Yeah. The orangeade. Maybe.

Sarah:

Sidecar, which is what Pamela orders

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

Is orange liqueur, lemon juice, cognac, and a sugared rim. Yep. Do you know where the name comes from? No. Oh, it's controversial.

Sarah:

Oh. French and English argue over who came up with it and where it comes from. It's either somebody came into a bar once and requested this drink having arrived in the sidecar of a motorcycle. Snore. Yeah.

Sarah:

Or since it's shaken, to cool it and shaken with ice, and you pour it into a martini glass. What's left, if there's extra in the shaker, you can pour it into a shot glass and give the person who ordered it both of them. And the shot glass is called the sidecar.

Mark:

Sidecar. Douglas's belt is horrendous. Always. His visor is worse.

Sarah:

Oh, his sun visor is so bad. And Valentine is like, hello, I have a flamboyant hat on. I'm so glamorous. And he's like, hey, y'all. I got my sun visor on.

Sarah:

Let's go see them their ruins. Like, just he looks so plebeian next to her in that hat. He's he's not sophisticated. No. No.

Sarah:

But neither is Marjorie. Marjorie is coming out the wazoo, which is why I don't understand how she and Tony are a pair. Like, how do they meet?

Mark:

Yeah. I'd I wish there was more there.

Sarah:

And why did why did he go, oh, I like ladies with no eyebrows. Hey.

Mark:

You're Yeah. Like, what does she offer?

Sarah:

Yeah. You hate people who get divorces. I like you. Yeah. I mean, like, what was appealing about her?

Mark:

Missus Lyle is going to cause some trouble. Pamela.

Sarah:

She's a disturber. I'm gonna call her miss Lyle.

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

I I don't Pamela doesn't suit her. I don't think. But Wait

Mark:

till you see the view. They go up to the ruined church, and the writers are like, oh, let us put in a metaphor that is the snake.

Sarah:

The snake.

Mark:

The quarry of the viper. If all the killers were clearly marked, my job would be useless.

Sarah:

He he has that little line every once in a while in stories where he's like, well, if that was the case, I'd be out of a job. Mhmm. Whatever it is. Yeah. And it's like, well, Marjorie is pretty common and plain looking.

Sarah:

She's not given anything away that she's a killer. She doesn't look like a killer.

Mark:

And then

Sarah:

They say, this is the island of snakes. And where is the island of snakes, actually? Do you know?

Mark:

Is it in the Mediterranean? Mm-mm. No. Okay.

Sarah:

There's 2. Okay. Yay.

Mark:

Yay. So you have to understand, dear listener. It's not that I don't like snakes, but snakes and water are no.

Sarah:

They're the worst for you. Right?

Mark:

They're the only like, snake on the ground, I'll pet it. Like, snakes are beautiful animals.

Sarah:

Put in the water and

Mark:

You put it in the water, I'm like, there's a mark shaped hole in the wall.

Sarah:

It's right out. Yeah. Mark shaped hole in the water. So there's 2 snake islands in reality. One of them is Ilha de Camida Grande, which is off of the coast of Brazil.

Sarah:

Okay. Snakes were trapped there in an ice age. Oh. And it is the only place where you can find a certain kind of pit viper. Oh.

Sarah:

But they don't call it snake island for nothing. It's estimated that there is one snake for every square meter. Wow. It's not tiny. No.

Sarah:

It's covered in snakes. Yeah. It's like Indiana Jones there.

Mark:

I'm not going there.

Sarah:

You're not allowed to go there.

Mark:

Well, yeah.

Sarah:

It's okay.

Mark:

I would hope so.

Sarah:

It's a refuge for snakes. These pit vipers eat birds, by the way.

Mark:

Okay.

Sarah:

Yeah. I hope it's

Mark:

far off the coast for snow.

Sarah:

The other snake island has been in the news much more recently. Remember when the Ukraine when Russia first invaded Ukraine and there were those 2 guys on the lighthouse

Mark:

Yes. That's a snake island.

Sarah:

Who who yelled at the Russians that they could f off. Yep. That island that they are on is called Snake Island. Okay. A little it's it's a rock with a lighthouse on it.

Mark:

Yeah.

Sarah:

Yeah. It's a. Yeah. Because it it kind of delineates Ukrainian waters. Right?

Sarah:

Yeah. So as soon as the Russians went past it, like, they were officially in Ukrainian water.

Mark:

That's so, like, so typical because, like, I grew up near a lake in Canada, and there was an island in it. And people were like, oh, that island's got so many snakes on it. It's a thing.

Sarah:

Yeah. There's but as far as I I can tell, there's no snakes on snake island in Ukraine.

Mark:

Where are they?

Sarah:

But that other one, stay far away.

Mark:

Yeah. The Brazilian one?

Sarah:

Any place that has one snake per meter, I'm not going.

Mark:

No. No. Let us move now to the worst restaurant ever.

Sarah:

Oh, boy. Are you talking about the dinner? Yes. Were these people voluntarily all sit down to eat dinner together?

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

How do you feel about wandering musicians in restaurants?

Mark:

Especially when they're playing bad porno.

Sarah:

Bong bong bong bong. Alright. And that's not an insult to Greek music. Nope. I think Greek music is much better than what they're playing.

Mark:

I think that music is the celebration of life. And if they wanna play music in the restaurant, that's cool.

Sarah:

Mhmm.

Mark:

But they should whenever I've done that or seen that, all of those musicians are well aware of how it works. And they move throughout the restaurant. And when everybody stops and pays attention to them, they stop and they play a little louder. But then they move on very quickly.

Sarah:

See, I've had the opposite experience

Mark:

Okay.

Sarah:

Where wandering musicians like that will play next to your table until you pay them attention and give them a tip, and then they'll go away. Oh, no. And it's really annoying.

Mark:

I can imagine.

Sarah:

It's loud.

Mark:

I think I've only been in one place, which was a Greek place in Toronto that had wandering musicians. So this is my Greek restaurant story.

Sarah:

Do tell.

Mark:

So we were there's a band and all that stuff, and we're there. And they do this thing

Sarah:

This is in Toronto?

Mark:

Yep. They do this thing with Greek restaurants where they have, like, fire.

Sarah:

They go, and they light the cheese on fire.

Mark:

They light the cheese on fire. And it caught some woman's poor woman's hair on fire. Oh my gosh. Get it out. Smoke everywhere.

Mark:

And the owner comes out and goes, everybody's food's for free.

Sarah:

Please don't sue us. Yeah. Woman whose hair is on fire. Do they all whoopah? Should they put her hair up?

Mark:

Everybody was like, whoop.

Sarah:

I don't think she was. No. Even if your hair only burns a little bit, it's not gonna be nice.

Mark:

Needless to say, it didn't smell.

Sarah:

The smell would be so bad. That would ruin your meal for sure. I don't care how free it is. Yep. Wow.

Sarah:

Did you ever go back to that restaurant? No. Hoopa. This this dinner is just awkward. Like, everybody's

Mark:

just wants his food.

Sarah:

He Poirot does not tolerate social awkwardness well. No. I think he's a firm believer that true manners are intended to help people around you feel comfortable. Yeah. That's the whole point of having manners.

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

And these people are not showing manners. They're arguing. They're critiquing everything, bickering. Marjorie's down there. I just I just don't understand why people can get

Mark:

divorce. Marriage. Easy divorce.

Sarah:

I hate people who get divorced, which she knows applies to Valentine. Yep. And So does she say it to alienate Valentine more to drive Valentine and Douglas together?

Mark:

Maybe, but Valentine's husband is so mean to Marjorie.

Sarah:

Yeah. They're playing. We don't know each other, and we don't like each other pretty well at this point. Yeah. And then Poirot orders bowels and spit.

Mark:

Bowels and spit, which is lamb, kidneys on a stick.

Sarah:

Yeah. So I did quite a bit of digging around for bowels and spit. It's kokoretsi.

Mark:

Okay.

Sarah:

It's typically what it's called in Greece.

Mark:

Oh, and they're so English travel. Like, this is a comment on English tourism too because they're like, oh, use this menu. It has a little bit of English in it.

Sarah:

Well, it's good to be able to read the menu. You can't always be fluent in the local language.

Mark:

I guess.

Sarah:

If it's a tourist place, they should have bilingual menus.

Mark:

Still.

Sarah:

If they wanna do business.

Mark:

Still, it's kind of English touristy.

Sarah:

Anyhow, yes. Kidneys on a stick, but it's more than that.

Mark:

Mhmm.

Sarah:

Cookaretsi is actually organ meat, awful. Yes. Sweet breads, hearts, lungs, and kidneys on a stick wrapped in intestine. Oh. That's what keeps it on the stick.

Sarah:

Okay. The intestines of suckling lambs are preferred. Oh. Which means a sheep that's still breast feeding from its mother.

Mark:

Yeah. Puarro is no, no vegetarian here.

Sarah:

No. It doesn't sound good. No. I'm sorry. No.

Sarah:

It's not. If you like Oregon meat, good for you. More for you because I'm not touching it.

Mark:

Marjorie takes off.

Sarah:

Oh, she's just, oh, I can't believe I offended someone.

Mark:

And in in the story here, it comes out later. De Poirot knows she's gonna kill at this point in time. He knows something's up with her, and he's warning her to leave. Not because she'll get hurt, but because if she kills somebody, they'll

Sarah:

catch her. The island if you value your life. The penalty the death penalty was suspended for a long time Mhmm. In Greece and in Italy. But for some reason, I know you're gonna think this is way crazy.

Sarah:

The fascists reinstated it. Isn't that nuts? Yeah. At this point in time, on Rhodes, the death penalty was by firing squad. Okay.

Sarah:

So it's not playing around.

Mark:

Poirot is telling her, don't do this.

Sarah:

Yeah.

Mark:

Now it doesn't look like that here.

Sarah:

Now why do you well, I know why. I'm gonna ask you anyway. Why do you think he doesn't say I know what you're thinking about? Don't do it. Because I think Because it would ruin it for us.

Mark:

It'd ruin it for us.

Sarah:

So he has to be subtle? Yes. But then everybody makes up.

Mark:

Yeah. The the biggest problem I have with this whole story is that everybody makes up for one night and then someone dies.

Sarah:

Well, they have to make up because otherwise, how are they gonna poison Valentine? Right? My my bigger problem is that Marjorie tells miss Lyle that Douglas wants a divorce after knowing Valentine for 2 days. Yeah. He doesn't seem like that kind of person.

Mark:

No. And plus, he's supposedly Catholic and doesn't do divorce.

Sarah:

Well, she's lying. Yeah. He hasn't said anything like that. But why would she think anybody would believe it?

Mark:

Yeah. I don't know.

Sarah:

We know he's Catholic because he crosses himself at the little chapel. And we know that Poirot is too because he does it too.

Mark:

Then we go we divide in 2 parts here. Mhmm. There's the border kerfuffle

Sarah:

and the murder. Poor Parro.

Mark:

And the biggest problem I have with all of this is that Valentine's has been placed snooker with gloves on.

Sarah:

You know why?

Mark:

Because he then he doesn't leave fingerprints on the

Sarah:

poison bottle. Yeah. But why does no one notice that?

Mark:

I did.

Sarah:

Why doesn't anybody in the scene notice it? Why doesn't Douglas go, old chap? Why are you wearing gloves? I would play pool. I double check.

Sarah:

A snooker or Billy or whatever. Pool. No one else. Snooker. No one else has gloves on.

Mark:

No one else has gloves on, and they're playing snooker.

Sarah:

Yep. None of the men have gloves on. Nope. It's just to avoid putting fingerprints on.

Mark:

Fine. I'll have a gin and ginger beer.

Sarah:

Oh, crazy.

Mark:

That that sounds better than pink gin.

Sarah:

It does. Though, I don't know. I think there are better liquors to go with ginger ale than gin. What's the I probably like gin so much. Is gin big in Greece?

Sarah:

Why is nobody drinking, the stuff that tastes like a niece that you pour water in? You know what I'm talking about? Oozoo. Oozoo.

Mark:

No. Yes? That's

Sarah:

Greek. Yeah. Why is nobody

Mark:

drinking that? Nobody's drinking. Well, because it's Itai now. Aitai. Aitai.

Sarah:

Because Alian is just too many more syllables to say. Okay. So let's talk about this murder scene. Okay. Because I've got another issue with it.

Sarah:

Okay. So the ladies have gone off to see the sunset Yes.

Mark:

At the Temple of Apollo.

Sarah:

Right? Who knows how long they'll be gone?

Mark:

Mhmm.

Sarah:

The men wrap up their game of snooker. Yep. Again, it's hard to guess how long the game of snooker is gonna take.

Mark:

Yep.

Sarah:

Right? It could have taken 10 minutes longer, 10 minutes less, at least. So 20 minute window to be conservative.

Mark:

Yep.

Sarah:

Right? They go to the bar. They order drinks. Now Tony cannot touch his drink. He's gotta order 1, but he can't drink it.

Sarah:

And he doesn't know when Valentine is gonna get there to give it to her.

Mark:

And he's gotten the poison from Marjorie? Okay. The worst thing that get these two people can do is be seen together. Right. So why doesn't he go get the poison?

Mark:

I

Sarah:

Maybe it's tough to get away from Valentine.

Mark:

Maybe.

Sarah:

So she snuck off in the afternoon Yep. Got the poison

Mark:

Yep.

Sarah:

From an old lady who doesn't, like, have a sign out front saying poisons. I saw poisons. Come and get it. Somehow, I don't know how she gets it. I don't buy that either.

Sarah:

Yep. But and it's such a rare poison too.

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

She gives him the poison before dinner at some point. Right?

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

So now he's got it. He must already have his gloves on.

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

He orders a drink. He drugs the drink.

Mark:

He lets it sit there.

Sarah:

And sets it down.

Mark:

I think he might wait to drug it until she gets there.

Sarah:

It doesn't matter. He still has to not drink that drink, which you could finish in, like, 2 gulps.

Mark:

Does he say the thing where I just ordered this?

Sarah:

Is that Yeah. Yeah. He says, I just ordered it. You can have that one, and I'll get another. Yeah.

Sarah:

And and he knows she's gonna want a pink gin. Yeah. That's easy. That's predictable. But she could have been 20 minutes late.

Sarah:

Yeah. He could have sat there in front of that drink. But you're right. If he doesn't poison it until he she gets there, then he could have drank it if he had to and ordered another one. He had to.

Sarah:

But then he's gotta slip the bottle into Douglas's pocket, which is easy enough to do in the kerfuffle of Valentine choking and everything.

Mark:

Yeah. She's a good dead body here.

Sarah:

Oh, man. Does she crumple or what?

Mark:

She crumples. The cough is real.

Sarah:

Miss Lyle, who knows what to do?

Mark:

Call a doctor.

Sarah:

And she's just kinda coughing and can't quite get her breath. It it's like 5050. She could drop dead or successfully clear her throat and be fine. Who knows? And then she's just dead.

Sarah:

They don't close her eyes. Nope. They don't layer out. Nope. They just leave her bent double in a chair

Mark:

with her neck. Fell over on the chair.

Sarah:

Her neck is, like, jammed into the arm.

Mark:

Her mouth is like

Sarah:

And her eyes are wide open.

Mark:

Good dead body.

Sarah:

Oh, yes. Very good dead body.

Mark:

So now the kerfuffle with the passport. Mhmm. So Poirot is trying to leave.

Sarah:

He's missed his boat though because they're like, you're a spy. He's like, I'm a Belgian citizen. You're a spy.

Mark:

So we need to talk about that because all over the Internet, it says he's an American citizen. He says he's an American citizen. That's what the subtitles say. It's not what he says. No.

Mark:

Don't mistake that. Watch it without the subtitles on that scene.

Sarah:

And you'll hear

Mark:

He clearly says clearly says Belgian. Miss Lyle here is upset, but she's so happy that he hasn't gone.

Sarah:

She's clearly extremely relieved. And before she even says what's happened, he knows something important has happened. Yeah. Because his tone changes completely. He stops arguing.

Mark:

And he has no time for the fascists.

Sarah:

You idiot. My boat has already left. Yep. Pamela, what's going on? Yeah.

Sarah:

Bring my luggage. Yep. And they're off. Yeah. Yeah.

Sarah:

I like that scene. I think it's well done. She shows up at the dock, and she's like, where is he? Oh, I can't see him.

Mark:

And then you can hear him, And it's really well. Uh-huh. The sound is really done very well.

Sarah:

Because he is Yeah. Super mad. Yeah. That's one theme between the Clapham Cook and triangle at Rhodes is we get to see Poirot super mad.

Mark:

Yep. I'll tell you one thing. If you have a teenager and they wanna grow some facial hair, you know what you need to tell them to do? Get accused of murder. Yeah.

Mark:

Because, man, Douglass has got a full beard there

Sarah:

all of a sudden. He's like, chia pet face. Oof. I got a beard. That's what Englishmen do when they get stressed.

Sarah:

Yeah. Their facial hair just shoots out. Why why does Poirot assure Marjorie that Douglas is innocent? Why does he bother?

Mark:

I don't know.

Sarah:

Is he teasing her?

Mark:

I think I think he doesn't want her to know that he knows.

Sarah:

Because she and Tony will take off all those sooner. Yeah. But then he talks to the Italian policeman

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

Whose Mussolini portrait is not big enough. No. It's only, like, 10 feet tall.

Mark:

But but the the fascist policeman is Hastings in this scene.

Sarah:

Yes. I just can't believe how big that painting is. Like

Mark:

But you would you would absolutely understand. This guy is in the outpost of Italy.

Sarah:

Yeah.

Mark:

He's not at home where the things are going on.

Sarah:

Right.

Mark:

He doesn't wanna be there. Everybody hates him. This woman died. I found the poison on this guy. Cut and dried.

Mark:

I'm out of here. Yeah. They're foreign people.

Sarah:

Let's not complicate this. Yes. We don't need any more trouble than we've already got. And Poirot is like, you're wrong.

Mark:

And then major Barnes becomes this is where he transitioned.

Sarah:

Yep.

Mark:

He goes from crazy guy with fish

Sarah:

Mhmm.

Mark:

To I know some people here.

Sarah:

Uh-huh.

Mark:

And Poirot is like, I know you know some people. Uh-huh. And the what the interaction between them there is so really good.

Sarah:

Yeah. Because Barnes has been pretending to fish when he's not stalking women. Yeah. Aggressively stalking women. When in reality, he's been looking at the English defenses Yeah.

Sarah:

In preparation for war. Yeah. And I don't quite know exactly how he's doing that off the coast of Rhodes, but whatever he's doing, it's patriotic. Yep. He's just kinda bad at covering for it.

Mark:

And Poirot. When he

Sarah:

comes up on the boat with the fish, he's like, it's 5 days old. I'm just impressed with the bribes he must be paying those boatmen

Mark:

But you know

Sarah:

to pretend they've been out fishing.

Mark:

You know Poirot knows what's up when he's watching Marjorie and Tony getting in the car. Yeah. He knows it's up then.

Sarah:

It's like, oh, they're they're gonna run. Yeah. Right away, he knows. The the Greek girl, it's awfully nice when she saves miss Lyle from Barnes at the beginning. But the second time, she's a plot convenience that is heavy handed.

Mark:

Yeah. I would agree.

Sarah:

She's a deus ex machina there. Because Pamela does not speak Greek. No. But she manages to get through to a blind woman by speaking very loud and very slow. Yep.

Sarah:

The the fact that her the girl's grandmother sells poison, I I just I don't get it. Yeah. And, again, why does Marjorie choose such a weird poison?

Mark:

Yeah. Only a herbalist or a quack.

Sarah:

She could have brought arsenic with her.

Mark:

She could have.

Sarah:

And and nobody would have noticed.

Mark:

It was Agatha Christie. It was freely available. You're oh, you're in Agatha Christie steer story? Here is your vial of arsenic.

Sarah:

You could get it at a pharmacy. Yep. You could get it at a hardware store. Yep. You might have signed a register, but that would have been back in England.

Mark:

Yeah.

Sarah:

Nobody would have connected it to her here. No

Mark:

one would have connected it to her.

Sarah:

But, no, she has to get horned pit viper venom. What? Let's talk about the forensic guy. You talk about Barnes having connections. His name is Skelton.

Sarah:

Yes. He is the oddest person in this episode.

Mark:

I just showed up and stayed forever.

Sarah:

What is up with his outfit?

Mark:

Yeah. He's like, I dress like a native now.

Sarah:

On top of my English clothes. Yes. I just put a shepherd outfit and a fez on on top of my clothes Yeah. And blend right in. What?

Sarah:

Yeah. And, oh, it's it's this viper is horned pit viper venom is very difficult to get. I I don't possibly I mean, if you have to get friends guy. And they say, where can we look for it? And he goes, try around here.

Sarah:

What?

Mark:

And the forensics guy would be an Italian. Like, the Italians are fascist.

Sarah:

Yeah.

Mark:

They're gonna have all their dudes

Sarah:

in They're not gonna let a Brit do the forensics. No. Now they might have had an Italian forensics guy who, being a scholar, made of made friends with a British guy who had the same knowledge. They're more scientists than they are fascist. Maybe.

Sarah:

But they wouldn't put the Brit in charge of the forensics.

Mark:

He should be Greek.

Sarah:

Yeah. He should be Greek. Yeah. And then he could wear that outfit.

Mark:

And then he could say no one likes the Italians.

Sarah:

Of course, I'll help you.

Mark:

Yeah. Boat chase.

Sarah:

It's more than a boat chase. Tony's got dynamite. Dynamite. Because, you know, they use it on the fish.

Mark:

And he kinda drops

Sarah:

it. Well, they shoot it out of his hand, I think.

Mark:

He doesn't throw it very far.

Sarah:

Because the Italian police are like, dun da da da. Out of nowhere. Like Yeah. How did they not see them coming?

Mark:

Yeah. They're the only ones Can't appear out of nowhere

Sarah:

in a boat. Not on the ocean. They're the only ones with a decent motor though. The other 2 boats are like and the poor guys who are running the boats are like, I didn't ask for any of this. Yeah.

Sarah:

I didn't. The the taxi only giving me £5.

Mark:

The the taxi drivers and the guys who run the boats in this episode are the most put upon people.

Sarah:

Oh my gosh. So, like, I I this is not what I signed up for. Yeah. They better give me 5 stars. That's all I gotta say.

Mark:

Yeah. Fascist cops arrive. I have fascist cops arrive in my notes, and it's a good thing. They are. They saved the day.

Mark:

The fascist cops saved the day.

Sarah:

You know, as a complete side note, I don't remember why I wondered it, but I think I was listening to history podcasts or something about fascists. And I was thinking, I I want I wonder if it's a slur because, of course, we think of it as a slur. To call somebody a fascist is never a compliment.

Mark:

Me a fascist.

Sarah:

But pleasantly, well, these cops were useful fascists. But then we ask a friend of ours who has a PhD in history and actually studies World War 2, and he said that they were proud to be fascist. They called themselves fascists.

Mark:

They didn't wanna be communist.

Sarah:

Yeah. But then the term Yeah. Got all the baggage, but I didn't know that they referred to themselves as fascist. Yeah. I thought it was always negative term.

Sarah:

Did you notice Paro's crazy binoculars?

Mark:

Oh, yeah.

Sarah:

They're, like, 2 feet long?

Mark:

They are.

Sarah:

Do you wanna know why? Why? They're marine binoculars.

Mark:

Marine binoculars. Mhmm. Mhmm.

Sarah:

They see further than regular binoculars. It's basically 2 telescopes stuck together.

Mark:

Maybe they should've seen the cops.

Sarah:

Well, he wasn't looking behind

Mark:

him. That's true.

Sarah:

He was He was looking at Tony Dynomite about to blow them up. What was he gonna do? Was he gonna throw it that far? They're, like, so far away from each other. Yeah.

Sarah:

I love Marjorie standing up in the boat. Oh, no. Here they come. Tony's, don't worry. I got dynamite.

Sarah:

What?

Mark:

Yeah. Like

Sarah:

They can't have a gun. They wouldn't have tried to get it through customs.

Mark:

If Marjorie is so hyper intelligent and devious, she would have thought of a better escape plan than this.

Sarah:

There'd be a I mean, they're on an island. They gotta get on a boat. I mean, that's you know? Yeah. They don't have a whole lot of they can't take a train off the island.

Sarah:

Yeah. They're going to Turkey, which is 11 miles away.

Mark:

Why do they steal their passport?

Sarah:

To get them back.

Mark:

Well, I realized that, but it makes it incredibly like, you notice right away They

Sarah:

shouldn't be traveling under their own passports after this. Right?

Mark:

Yeah. Like and you notice right away that since they stole the passports, they're obviously evil.

Sarah:

Right. Well, and they're clearly on the run. Yeah. So earlier, Tony is talking to the hotel manager and saying he wants his wife, Spotty, and he wants to be on a train that day. So we have to believe that the original plan was just to frame Douglas and get out of town.

Mark:

Yeah. Because Poirot

Sarah:

That's what they that's what they intended

Mark:

to do. Is the fly in the ointment.

Sarah:

Yeah. Well, of course, he is. That's that's his that's his, his MO. Right? He's always like, oh, drats that Belgian detective is staying here too.

Sarah:

Man, the hubris of pulling trying to pull something like this off after you find out Poirot staying at your hotel Marginally, it should have been like for it. Cancel. Nope. Mhmm. Abort.

Sarah:

Abort. Abort. We'll have to do this some other way.

Mark:

Yep. A much easier, safer way.

Sarah:

This is a bad plan. What I what I love are the criminals who think we'll just take out Poirot first, and then we'll pull off our plan. Like, that never goes well either. They say that Douglas is gonna stay till the end. Yep.

Sarah:

Does that mean he's gonna stay till the end of Marjorie's trial?

Mark:

I guess.

Sarah:

That's the impression I get. Yeah. Not to the end of his vacation.

Mark:

Or till she dies, because she's gone hurt.

Sarah:

To the end of her trial. Yeah. Yeah. I I think they're probably both gonna I don't know. That's a good question.

Sarah:

I hadn't thought about that. They're British citizens. So at this point, Italy is not trying to stir up too much trouble with anybody else, so they might extradite them.

Mark:

Yeah. There's no talk of embassy here, the word there is another embassy.

Sarah:

There's no embassy on roads at this time I looked it up. They'd have to go back to the mainland, which they probably will for the trial anyway. They have to go back to Italy.

Mark:

They have to go back to Italy even though Greece is closer. Yeah. Because it's not Greek.

Sarah:

No. They'd have to go back to Italy. Meanwhile, Burns is back to going to Ethiopia. Yes. He's gonna blend in real well there.

Sarah:

Yeah. Little bald, chubby English guy with a sunburn. Do you think miss Lyle is in love with Poiro?

Mark:

I think because we talked about last last episode of how how young they are here. They're they're in their forties. I think it might be that she's in love with him.

Sarah:

How old do you think she's supposed to be?

Mark:

Mid thirties. Really?

Sarah:

Yeah. Well, yeah. She has to be old enough to travel alone and it not be disreputable. Right? But she's not an old maid either.

Sarah:

No. She's not allowing herself to live like an old maid,

Mark:

I guess. Not the the girls of the next episode.

Sarah:

No. She's not a teenager. No. I think you're right. She might be 30.

Sarah:

Yeah. So he's, like, you know, 10 or 11 years older than her. I I know I said earlier that he's kind of a vancular to her, but I agree. I don't He,

Mark:

you know, I think he kinda blushes a little bit when she gets to him.

Sarah:

He's flattered by her attention, but she's not his type. No. When you compare her to the woman who he actually falls in love with.

Mark:

No. And if Hastings was here.

Sarah:

Oh, gosh. Hastings would be all over her.

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

And I think she would like Hastings.

Mark:

I think so too.

Sarah:

She's like your friends real smart, but I like you.

Mark:

Yeah. You you drive a fast car. Yeah. You know how to drink and have fun.

Sarah:

Yeah. I think they'd be okay together.

Mark:

So best corpse.

Sarah:

Nice corpse.

Mark:

Of course, is gonna be Valentine.

Sarah:

Well, yeah. She's the only corpse, but she's a good one.

Mark:

She's very good.

Sarah:

I'll give it to her. So Douglas is gonna stay so after the credits, Douglas is gonna stay on the island until Marjorie is sent back to Italy for trial, and I'm guessing she won't even be tried in Italy. She'll be sent she and Tony will go back to England Yeah. For trial.

Mark:

But they're going up the pokey.

Sarah:

Oh, they're definitely going to prison. Yep. If not, I England doesn't have a death penalty at this point. So that might save their lives.

Mark:

But Douglas, as a Catholic, can't divorce her even if she is convicted of trying to kill frame him for murder.

Sarah:

Unless he applies for some kind of exception.

Mark:

Annulment Yeah. Or something.

Sarah:

They don't have any kids.

Mark:

No. They don't.

Sarah:

Could apply for an exception.

Mark:

Yeah. The

Sarah:

church is pretty understanding of that kind of situation.

Mark:

Like much Agatha Christie, children are non present in the story.

Sarah:

Yeah. Oh, children come up in the next one that we're gonna cover.

Mark:

Yes.

Sarah:

Valentine's dead. Douglas yeah. I mean, he's gonna follow her. Is Pamela gonna go home soon? What what is her deal?

Sarah:

Why is she there forever?

Mark:

She does, and she appears in another episode. Doesn't she? No. I think she appears in one of the episodes he's in Cornwall. I thought maybe I was wrong.

Sarah:

I think so.

Mark:

Maybe I'm wrong. I'm sure someone will tell me if I'm wrong.

Sarah:

In the scene where she gives him a kiss and he gets in the car and goes off, there's a goof. Yeah. We see a reflection of the camera equipment in the side of the

Mark:

car. The camera.

Sarah:

Which is indicative of an early season because, wow, they do not let that stuff happen later. There's some episodes with so many mirrors you think the cameraman has gotta be invisible. Yeah. It's impressive.

Mark:

That is so incredibly hard to do. It's amazing that it all works out so well. Yeah. Now that would have been fixed in post. Mhmm.

Mark:

Right? You would never they you would notice it in post and somebody would fix it there.

Sarah:

Yeah. Yeah. You could, you know, Photoshop it, basically. You'd remove that reflection. You'd fix it.

Sarah:

I think it's kind of touching. It's kinda quaint to see little errors like that. Because there is an entire group of people making that show. Yeah. They never get to be on camera.

Sarah:

So I'm okay with that. That is Triangle at Rhodes season 1 episode 6 of Poirot. What are we doing next time? Trouble at sea?

Mark:

Yep. Trouble at sea, which is episode 7 of season 1. It's the next episode.

Sarah:

You've heard of my hospital, haven't you? Yep. Again, I know too many lines.

Mark:

And this will be August 22nd. You can find Mystery Maniacs on Facebook, Twitter,

Sarah:

t shirt or something like that.

Mark:

And we're beginning the promotion on all sorts of new groups and new people. So hopefully, if you're new, please continue and, tell us what you'd like to hear. We're doing father Brown next and then

Sarah:

Jonathan Creek.

Mark:

Halloween episodes and Jonathan Creek then Christmas episodes with our Christmas song. If you know anything about us, we do a Christmas song every year. This is

Sarah:

a doozy.

Mark:

This one will be a doozy.

Sarah:

And, when we announce the new swag is available, we'll also announce the new charity that we're gonna give money to at that point too.

Mark:

I'm gonna tell you that if you're listening on YouTube, please like and subscribe. We are almost at 850 subscribers.

Sarah:

We wanna get to a1000. I

Mark:

think we're almost we're even closer than that now.

Sarah:

If we get to a1000, we get our own little community space on YouTube, and that would be really fun. People who are Midsummer Maniacs have heard this a million times.

Mark:

But we're almost there. We and we've had a lot of subscriptions in the last little while. So keep it up. Get your kids all subscribed.

Sarah:

Okay. Is that it?

Mark:

Yep. Bye, maniacs.

Sarah:

Bye, maniacs.

Mark:

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 peek. Subscribe, like, and share to spread the word. Bye, maniacs.

Mark:

In the

Sarah:

first place. All they do is recap the episode after telling you to watch the episode, and then they just walk you through it like you haven't watched it or like you're too stupid to understand what happened.