Agatha Christie's Poirot: Elephants Can Remember

October 26, 2022 1:06 PM - Season 13, Episode 1

After the murder of an elderly psychiatrist, Poirot finds himself crossing cases with his old friend, the crime writer Ariadne Oliver. They both delve into the past to uncover the truth behind two mysterious deaths years ago which are inspiring the vengeful present-day killer whom Poirot is hunting.
posted by Carillon (3 comments total)

Final stretch!

Pretty good, revealing too that the past of psychiatry wasn't always great too. I loved the dynamic where Poirot didn't want to investigate and Ariadne went off to do a lot of this herself. The look though on Poirot's face when she calls him her assistant is just priceless. This also shows that the whole idea of keeping things under wraps, or trying to sweep things under the rug is in general not great. Very in keeping with the oh they're murderous or whatever but it's fine, we'll just keep everyone at home, oops someone ended up murdered. Mean of the wife to ask her husband to just let her sister off. Fascinating story all around, and definitely one that is I think the best of the last series.
posted by Carillon at 1:09 PM on October 26, 2022

I was dozing on and off through this so none of it made much sense. It had a weird, remote framework. These people that knew each other in school, in India, then in England, were supposedly friends but nobody really connected with each other. I missed why the dead wife was bald unless it was just a plot devise to bring in wigs but even using the wigs was a clumsy idea, that charade was never going to work. I also missed how the dead actress in California’s will played out, presumably the controlling adoptive mother got her comeuppance but that sideplot seemed unnecessary. It didn’t interest me enough to rewatch it, even with Ariadne Oliver’s character. The one strong reaction I had was the secretary at the clinic. I didn’t need to hear her say “zed”. That was never a Boston accent. It wasn’t even a convincing Canadian one.

I think I read this one long ago which is why the twin substitution was obvious from the get go but I dont know how closely the show follows the book. People say this is one of her worst books though to me, Passenger to Frankfurt is the worst.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 6:56 AM on October 27, 2022

I never can tell on the accents though, some of the 'American' ones are pretty bad, but we're expected to take them at face value. A bit inured to bad American accents from the show at this point, so was quite surprised when it became a plot point.
posted by Carillon at 9:18 AM on October 27, 2022