Agatha Christie's Poirot: Sad Cypress

June 15, 2022 10:09 AM - Season 9, Episode 2

Young Elinor Carlisle is tried in court for first murdering her aunt for money and then also doing away with Mary Gerrard, her aunt's protégée who stole the heart of Elinor's fiancé. In a race against time before she is hanged, Poirot, who suspects foul play, reopens the investigation.
posted by Carillon (2 comments total)

For whatever reason this episode really made me interested in trying sandwich paste. I haven't yet, but it's definitely something that I'd like to do, even if you can't tell the difference between crab/shrimp and salmon! Also I do like those stories where the killer poisons themselves as well as their target and then evades the poison. I think it's a clever twist, and one that I don't often see coming. Definitely a continued trend of rich people and their inheritance causing problems though. It's funny what that shows about elite concerns and how maybe broken the inheritance system is/was in England.
posted by Carillon at 10:11 AM on June 15, 2022 [1 favorite]

This ended differently than the usual-suspects-gathered-around to hear Poirot’s solution: two were in the drawing room, one in the bedroom, one in the kitchen; it was rather rushed still I was afraid they wouldn’t get to the prison in time. I’d decided the murderer was Nurse Mrs Hughes as soon as she said the word “natural” but I thought she was Mary’s real mother, natural being a synonym for illegitimate, and hadn’t worked it out any further than that. There were plenty of red herrings, Elinor didn’t put up much of a defense, was she trying to protect her ex-fiancé? who we know is a wrong ‘un because he admires the National Socialists. Then she sent the maids and housekeeper away but has the nurse help her pack her aunt’s things? Bursts into song or tears? It was all very confusing and I still don’t understand how the elevator (cue ominous music) fit into the plot.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 5:04 PM on June 15, 2022