Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries: Death & Hysteria

October 17, 2015 11:19 AM - Season 3, Episode 5

When Phryne's Aunt Prudence opens her home to psychiatrist and natural healer, Dr. Hayden Samuels, to conduct his sanatorium for 'hysterical' women, Phryne takes on more than she bargained for.

*Patient Betsy Cohen is killed by an "electric massager" which has been deliberately sabotaged. The murderer is revealed to be Dr. Samuels' lawyer Eric Edwards - after some red herrings about bequests and patents, the motive is revealed to have been that Betsy was blackmailing Eric, after she discovered his incestuous relationship with his sister Harriet (who he poisons to death later in the episode, because she was ready to end the relationship and reveal him as Betsy's murderer).

*Aunt Prudence has been suffering from insomnia, in the aftermath of her son Arthur's death of natural causes 3 weeks ago (off-screen). Dr. Samuels has been trying to help her face her grief instead of suppressing it, and in the end, Bert & Cec organize a memorial ceremony at which she finally mourns openly.

There's A Long, Long Trail a Winding

posted by oh yeah! (3 comments total)

Oh, man. That memorial scene has wrecked me. I loved Cousin Arthur in his previous appearance, and I loved how clearly Aunt Prudence loved him. So, I was disappointed at the first mention of his death here since it meant we'd never see him again. But that was a beautiful send-off. Miriam Margolyes broke my heart -- I'm so used to thinking of her as a comedic actress, but, that last scene has put this episode into the "things to watch when I need a good cry" category.

The murder mystery plot makes me want to watch Hysteria again. (Also, I don't know why it never occurred to me that there were MFMM soundtrack albums. There are 4 of them on iTunes.)
posted by oh yeah! at 11:43 AM on October 17, 2015 [1 favorite]

I thought this was the best of the season. I agree that the Arthur memorial scene was a tearjerker, and all the scenes where characters realized what the massagers were cracked me up.
posted by chaiminda at 1:40 PM on October 18, 2015

I, for one, was surprised when Phryne lifted the percussor into frame, it seemed like they teased that for awhile before the reveal. And this may just be my American perspective but I was surprised to see a device like that shown on a broadcast tv show. But I was also surprised at the last episode that a Constable would go looking in the dark woods brandishing nothing more for protection than a billy club. And it made me acknowledge my bias.
posted by sweetmarie at 1:44 PM on May 13, 2016