“Death and Hysteria”
Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries Episode 3.5
Available on: Netflix
(DVDs will be released on October 27, 2015)
Rating: Five
Stars (out of five)
Okay, so this episode isn’t perfect, but it’s the best
episode of the season so far. It has
everything you’d expect from a Miss
Fisher mystery: a twisty turny plot, lots of witty banter, beautiful
clothes, and Phryne insisting on helping those cast aside by mainstream
society—in this case, “hysterical” women.
The episode opens with a group of women dancing the lawn at
Aunt Prudence’s estate. We then see Aunt
Prudence conversing with the head psychiatrist, Dr. Samuels, and learn that she
is letting the doctor use her house as a sanatorium because he has helped her
cope with her son Arthur’s death. When
one of the patients dies by electrocution, aunt Prudence summons both her niece
and the police, so Phryne and Jack are soon on the scene. We soon learn that all is not as it seems
with Dr. Samuels and his partner Dr. Perkins, and Phryne wonders if her aunt might
have been taken in by an unscrupulous practitioner intent on taking Prudence’s
money. The case takes numerous twists
and turns as we discover that Dr. Samuels is in disgrace with his medical
colleagues, in no small part because he tries to save women from unnecessary
hysterectomies. Dr. Perkins, too, is up
to something as is his sister Harriet, who serves as the doctors’ secretary
and assistant. The solution is
moderately shocking and the episode is well-plotted so that the reveal makes
sense.
I won’t reveal the murder weapon; let it suffice to say that
it leads to much witty banter and some understated hilarity when our heroes
discover it, and it allows for lots of innuendo between Phryne and Jack. Their relationship is at its finest; we see
the attraction but we’re not hit over the head with it and both characters
behave like the ones we’ve come to know and love. Hugh is completely absent, as he’s still on
the sulky fishing trip he embarked on after being refused a promotion in
Episode 3.4, causing this viewer to wonder whether the actor had another break,
or the show had a budget issue, or what, because pouty Hugh is a weird story
choice. His replacement is an extremely
sexist and irritating constable; as Mac remarks, “It’s men like that, that make
the rest of them look reasonable.”
Fortunately he’s not around enough to spoil the episode.
Overall, this was a fun, well-plotted episode, and I hope
the rest of the season continues in this vein.
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