Agatha Christie's Poirot: Cards on the Table

July 27, 2022 11:13 AM - Season 10, Episode 2

At a bridge party the host is murdered. Poirot soon discovers that four of the guests have murdered before as he uses psychology, and the bridge scores, to find the killer.
posted by Carillon (4 comments total)

Interesting plot, leans into the Orientalism angle a bit much for Shaitana. Fun to see Honeysuckle Weeks, I've seen her in Foyle's War a bunch, so nice to see her in a different role.
posted by Carillon at 12:04 PM on July 27, 2022

That was a LOT of plot. I think I read the book long ago because I remember the bit where Poirot compared the bridge scores but since I don't play bridge, it was meaningless. I wonder how much was changed because from the start I believed the police superintendent was guilty. Well he was guilty of something but I have a feeling it was the ol' dom/sub kink. The doctor? Can't kill a dead man (the post mortem should've shown that) and Mrs Craddock could never be proven. Mrs. Lorimar? Didn't look like she was being carted off in a police car after her confession. Again impossible to prove. Honeysuckle Weeks? That came out of the blue since we didn't even know she was there. So White Hunter and Kleptomaniac Ingenue ride off into the sunset. I don't remember if Christie wrote any exclusively Adriadne Oliver stories but I'd like a series with Zoe Wanamaker.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 6:17 PM on July 27, 2022

Apparently the photos that he had of the Superintendent were meant to show him with another man. This was from the Poirot fan wiki though so take that with a grain of salt.

And yes! More Zoë Wanamaker, she's really great in the role.
posted by Carillon at 7:38 PM on July 27, 2022

I say, that's really laying it on thick. A doctor murdering to hide his homosexual affair, an all-but-acknowledged lesbian murdering her aunt and trying to kill her friend, and now the police superintendent open to blackmail for his gay liaisons? I've just read the wiki synopsis of the book--very much changed from the show of course--and Christie doesn't fixate on this as a motive at all (unless it's the motive for the Craddock murder, wiki just says "improper activities").
posted by TWinbrook8 at 6:34 AM on July 28, 2022