Agatha Christie's Poirot: The Underdog

February 16, 2022 10:13 AM - Season 5, Episode 2

Poirot investigates when the cruel CEO of a chemical company is bludgeoned to death in his home after the company's formula for a revolutionary new synthetic rubber is targeted by a thief.
posted by Carillon (2 comments total)

I admit I had to go back and rewatch some of parts of this to remember this one. I feel the golf setting was in some ways more memorable to me than the murder! Solid, not one of the great ones. Definitely not the most sympathetic of victims either.
posted by Carillon at 10:16 AM on February 16, 2022

Precisely. The murderer probably deserved a medal for preventing the formula from being sold to the Germans. A good lawyer would’ve got him a light sentence, suspended because he’d be needed for the war effort.

I thought the blonde secretary was MI5 tasked with stealing the formula before it could be sold. Forging references is par for the course for them. But a mere individual matching the fountain pen ink to alter a name? no. Racing to beat a train to London? Ridiculous. Why not drive to the station ahead of the bus and catch the same train? Since the carriages are individual compartments, odds are she’d never see them, especially if they bought first class tickets. But then why didn’t drunk nephew call for help when he discovered the body in the first place.

My favorite part: the portrait of the victim that hid the wall safe. If I were that actor, I’d ask for that painting. It really captured him.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 4:06 PM on February 16, 2022