Episode 199 - Poirot - "The Third Floor Flat" - Coal Troll’s Big Night Out!
Oh, look. We turned. I spun you. Oh, stop it. Hey,
Mark:Mystery Maniacs. Hey, Mystery Maniacs. Yes. Mystery Maniacs is a comedy recap podcast dedicated to mystery TV. Each week, we dig into an episode of the show including the murders, the madam, the murders, the mayhem, the loonies
Sarah:And everything else we love.
Mark:This week, the 3rd floor flat, which is hard to say, the 3rd floor flat.
Sarah:You end up saying turd floor flat.
Mark:Turd. It's the turd floor flat.
Sarah:Hey. That's the Canadian version of it.
Mark:I was watching the hockey game, and then this pry ride came on, and it just checked out to a 4 flat,
Sarah:Season 1 episode 5. I'm Mark. I'm Sarah. We're getting really close to our 200th episode. Yes.
Sarah:If you if you don't count remixes and stuff.
Mark:Who knows how to actually count it?
Sarah:We're gonna be doing it an official 200th episode sometime in April. We haven't chosen the official date, but we'll let you know way in advance. But it can't be way in advance. It's like, the next few weeks.
Mark:Oh, gosh. Time time time moves on.
Sarah:It goes so fast.
Mark:We have
Sarah:not fair.
Mark:3 children graduating 5 weeks.
Sarah:Yeah. Yeah. From college in 5 weeks. Oh, and we don't know what any of them are gonna do after graduation. Or even if they wanna party for graduation.
Sarah:They haven't even decided that. No. No. I who knows what lies in store for us?
Mark:What we're going to do this is how I envision it.
Sarah:For our 200th episode.
Mark:For 200th episode, we're going to do a live episode, and it's going to be like tea with Mark and Sarah where you get to ask questions. Yes. And I'm gonna put a form in the in the newsletter that you can send questions in. You can I'm gonna put as a note on the subreddit that you can put questions in. I'm going you can mail questions to our email address.
Sarah:Yep. Which is mystery maniacs podcast
Mark:You can tweet
Sarah:us atgmail.com.
Mark:Tweet us questions. You can send them via smoke signals, and we're gonna it'll be saved. So if you can't watch it live, you can still get your question answered.
Sarah:And questions could be anything from why the heck do you 2 do this to, you know, what is Poirot's middle name? I mean, you know, you can stump the nerds Yep. If you want to ask us difficult questions about mysteries, or you can ask us questions about us or the show or other fans. Ask me. Ask me anything.
Sarah:Maybe we'll dish some dirt. I don't know. We
Mark:we have very little dirt, but we do have some.
Sarah:It's good dirt that we have Yes. Anyway. Yes. It is. It'll be fun, I think.
Mark:Yes. So The
Sarah:worst thing is if we don't get any questions.
Mark:It's okay.
Sarah:Feel like nobody cares.
Mark:I can make up an hour worth of questions.
Sarah:You got a makeup question?
Mark:Mary from Maryland says
Sarah:What are Mark's favorite type of socks? Well, Mary.
Mark:I got makeup questions. And we'll have a live chat and all that's good stuff. And
Sarah:So start sending questions.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:There and, you know, there are no bad ones.
Mark:So the other thing that I did this week is I I made a little reel that I sent out on all the video reel services.
Sarah:Mhmm.
Mark:Though not on TikTok. We're not on the Tik Tok. No. Not on TikTok.
Sarah:We don't know if it'll be around.
Mark:Wow. That's true. Saying what we were currently watching. And Boy, did people respond.
Sarah:People liked peep a lot of people watched it, but even better, a lot of people replied to it with what they were watching. So if you're currently sort of stuck between things to watch or you want some recommendations from your fellow maniacs, the replies to that post are chockablock with good recommendations. Absolutely. Mhmm.
Mark:And lots of hockey fans, apparently. Yeah. So because I made a hockey joke in the real. Yeah. It's 11 games now, folks, till the postseason and the sadness begins.
Sarah:Yeah. Mark's tone will change quite a bit.
Mark:We're doing all in April, including 2 remix episodes on 8th 15th because we covered them already.
Sarah:Mhmm.
Mark:And then, we'll finish off season 1 on May 8th, and then we're we're moving forward in Poirot. Yeah.
Sarah:I think we'll just do season 2. Everybody seems to like it.
Mark:We like it. Seems to like Poirot, so we'll just keep going. But, we will be taking time off in May because I'll be going to Canada.
Sarah:And the kids will be graduating and
Mark:The children will be graduating in parties. And Rigamarole. Rigamarole. Originally.
Sarah:You ready to talk about the turd floor flat?
Mark:The turd floor flat was broadcast on the 5th February. I don't
Sarah:think we've ever said turd so many times in a podcast.
Mark:I I can't slip into my I
Sarah:don't think we should. I can't
Mark:I can't slip into my Canadian accent No. This early. No. It's bad enough when I come home.
Sarah:Yes.
Mark:So the 5th February 1989, directed by Edward Bennett and written by Michael Baker. I'm gonna say this is the best directed episode of season 1.
Sarah:It's very good.
Mark:There are some there are some very nice shots here. He does a very good job of using the stairway especially. Mhmm.
Sarah:So Yeah. Most of the episode takes place in the apartment building. They go to a play, and there's some shots on the street. But, otherwise, it's within 3 apartments and a stairway and a dumbwaiter.
Mark:Yeah. That's kinda bad.
Sarah:That's it. It's very claustrophobic, but good in
Mark:that way. I agree. Oh, Poirot. He has a cold. I I also know about this.
Sarah:Because, say, the way he's feeling is the way you and I were feeling 2 weeks ago.
Mark:Oh, gosh.
Sarah:This head over the bowl, just for us, it would be some Vicks in there and some hot water.
Mark:We figured out that I had the worst sinus infection I may have ever had in my life.
Sarah:Your head was basically rotting from the
Mark:inside out. Not good.
Sarah:Now you got some antibiotics. You're better.
Mark:I'm still on these antibiotics that are like horse pills.
Sarah:They are. I am jealous though that they have a a tea trolley out on the street.
Mark:So I
Sarah:would love to be able to walk out of the building where I work or live and get a good cup of tea.
Mark:This episode, I I love the writing of it too because this is really the story of the tea trolley.
Sarah:They are the real victims. The husband and wife that own that tea trolley are the real victims of this episode.
Mark:And after the play, there's a fancy man at the tea trolley. What are you doing drinking tea at 10:30 at night?
Sarah:Why not?
Mark:You never go to sleep.
Sarah:You get a cup of tea, though. It'd be so great. Not some oat milk matcha lavender almond concoction. Just a good cup of tea. It'd be so nice.
Sarah:Oh my god. You she serves bacon buddies too.
Mark:Oh, I bet you she serves bacon
Sarah:buddies. Breakfast sandwich.
Mark:Bacon buddy.
Sarah:You're hungry. Is there no tradesman interests at Whitehall Mansions?
Mark:No. So Bishop's Moving Truck I'm sorry.
Sarah:Is it Whitehaven or Whitehall?
Mark:It's Whitehaven. Thank you. Whitehall is where the government is.
Sarah:No. Yeah. And, the comedian, Jack Whitehall.
Mark:Yes. Bishop's moving trucks are up front. They're from 12 Belgravia Road, London SW 1. So they're local movers.
Sarah:Mhmm.
Mark:And this is an actual building called Florin Court. You can go there. Yeah. And we'd if you've been to Florin Court, because you're.
Sarah:If you have, if
Mark:you have a picture of Houston
Sarah:in front of that building, we want it.
Mark:That that would be brilliant. It's a gorgeous building. But I there I noticed that there is 6 dash 9 in metal letters and these beautiful art deco font
Sarah:On both sides of the stairs. Yeah.
Mark:Both sides of the stairs. And I wondered if they added that, but I looked on Google Maps and that 6 and 9 is still there. Okay. So
Sarah:it's number 6 through 9. Is that the address of the building?
Mark:Yes. It's absolutely still a gorgeous building.
Sarah:That doorman is about to get into fisticuffs with the removal men now.
Mark:Can you imagine? Paint. Yeah. Can you imagine how much money it it costs to stay there in flooring court?
Sarah:Oh. I wanna know how Pat and Ernestine have enough money to have an apartment there. I understand why Poirot can afford it.
Mark:So in the space of a week while covering this episode, we, Sarah and I, have got this episode mixed up with the 3rd floor flat, the cheap flat, and the 3 girls. The 3rd girl. Yeah. Because they're all the kind of that same.
Sarah:They all have to do with an apartment in a complex of apartments that maybe has a second entrance, like a backdoor.
Mark:With young women who are Yes. You know? It's certainly also that between thirties sixties, British young women living alone, for the first time
Sarah:Mhmm.
Mark:Vibe to it.
Sarah:Pat and Mildred giggle way too much.
Mark:I think they're drunk at first. They might be on some
Sarah:Dancing is not that funny.
Mark:They're having a time.
Sarah:If these 2 were in my house giggling like that, we'd have a talk. Be like, you 2 are annoying. Stop it. Oh, look. We turned.
Sarah:I spun you. Oh, stop it.
Mark:So they're in 36 b. Right. The girl, the new lady Ernest
Sarah:Poirot's at the
Mark:top. Okay. Okay.
Sarah:Yes. That's why their music bothers her.
Mark:But but that's not really why
Sarah:she But she can hear their music because they're above her. So it should bother Poirot too Yeah. Because he's above them. Yes. Did you notice among Pat's luxurious furniture that she has a robot butler?
Mark:You pointed it out to me, and then you showed me a picture of it. And I'm still kinda stunned that there's robo butler
Sarah:There is a robot butler in
Mark:the living room. There a lot of like, robo butler's carrying a lot of fruit.
Sarah:He's carrying a tray of fruit. He has metal hands.
Mark:And it looks like real fruit.
Sarah:Yes.
Mark:Like, it's not waxy fruit.
Sarah:Who does that? He keeps fruit on a tray like that. Like, that's a lot of fruit for anybody to eat before it goes bad. Yeah. Wouldn't you have, like, fruit flies around it?
Sarah:And then Wow. Bananas grazed.
Mark:People have staff.
Sarah:I don't know. When I saw they don't all snore like Trotter does. When I when I saw her robo butler and the fruit, I was like, I'm gonna pause the show and go get some grapes. There's no robot butler to bring them to me.
Mark:No. We have no robot butler.
Sarah:The reason why I noticed it is there's a shot of Pat and Mildred dancing, and I saw this silver hand. Like, what the heck is that? Yeah. And then I backed up, like, 10 seconds and said, woah. There's a robot butler.
Mark:He has a metal head. He has metal hands.
Sarah:And a big tray of fruit.
Mark:And a big tray of fruit that he's laboring under.
Sarah:Yes. Well, he's he's like 3 feet tall. We're nerds. Yep. Poirot leaves Whitehaven Mansions to go put some letters in the mail, and he's so bundled up that he looks like in a cartoon where 3 kids stack up on top of each other and put a trench coat on to look like an adult.
Sarah:That's what he looks like.
Mark:Poirot is doing the mister sick. He's doing the
Sarah:Oh.
Mark:The end is near.
Sarah:It's only been 3 weeks since your last case.
Mark:He does the sneezing really well.
Sarah:He's a David Suchet is a very good sneezer.
Mark:He's a good sneezer.
Sarah:Even this the one where before he leaves the apartment to go to the play, he's in the mirror, and he's like, doesn't sneeze. Yep. And then he walks out of shot. A joke. Yes.
Mark:So mister Brown shoes arrives Mhmm. And we get, oh, it's you,
Sarah:the killer. Yes. Of course, it's the killer. So then we know at least it's a man Ernestine
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:Played.
Mark:I didn't know this. I was not aware of this, but everybody in London must go to the same play every night.
Sarah:Well, wait a minute. Ernestine's played by Josie Lawrence AKA cat lady Yes. For midsummer.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:Recent midsummer.
Mark:Recent midsummer cat lady.
Sarah:Not only is she in Midsummer, but so is Pat. Pat is in played by Suzanne Burden, is in 2 Midsummers.
Mark:She's in
Sarah:Talent For Life and The Great and the Good. Yeah. Donovan, AKA the killer. We should have said, this is a spoiler podcast if you're new.
Mark:Oh, yes.
Sarah:We're gonna ruin it. Donovan did it.
Mark:Donovan did it.
Sarah:Donovan played by Nicholas Pritchard is in 2 Midsommers. He's in Birds of Prey and Death and Dust. And Trotter, the maid, played by Susan Porritt, is in Death and Dreams.
Mark:Oh, wow.
Sarah:So there's a ton of overlap with Midsommers.
Mark:It's kinda in the weirdness that is our life, this week, I did a collaboration search for task master task master
Sarah:And Midsummer.
Mark:And Midsummer to see that there had been 4 people from Midsummer on Taskmaster.
Sarah:Yeah. Okay. So, yes, they all go to the same theater. My impression is that this theater is within walking distance of Whitehaven Mansion.
Mark:They go to see the deadly shroud at Wyndham's Theatre. Hastings is awesome. Yes.
Sarah:Poirot is his friend. He's depressed. He's sick. And Hastings knows how to fix it. I've got a solution, something that will make you happy.
Sarah:I've got 2 tickets to the deadly shroud. Poirot's like, oh, I don't know. I'm too sick. I'm going to die. He's like, bet you can't figure out who did it.
Sarah:Yeah. £10. Yep. All of a sudden, he perks up. Well, you know, it's not the money.
Sarah:It's not the money.
Mark:His disease is almost gone right away after
Sarah:that. He's, like, instantly healed.
Mark:Hastings says something here about the birds running, and Poirot is like, birds do not run. You should have paid more attention in your biology lesson.
Sarah:Oh, Hastings says his car is running like a bird.
Mark:Running like a bird. Yeah. How fast do birds run?
Sarah:It depends what kind of bird. An emu can run really fast.
Mark:An ostrich can get up to. Can can you guess how much an ostrich can get up to?
Sarah:40 miles an hour.
Mark:It can sprint at 43 miles an hour. Oh, I was close. Yeah. Is that is
Sarah:that faster than Hastings car can go?
Mark:I think it's pretty darn good.
Sarah:Remember because a couple
Mark:episodes ago, he went 90 on the Hogsback.
Sarah:Going out to the Waverly's, he is going real fast. So, Bird could in fact not beat Hastings in his home.
Mark:But pretty close. I was impressed.
Sarah:This play is something else.
Mark:This this is Christy making fun of Christy Mhmm. Which is fantastic.
Sarah:It's like the mouse trap.
Mark:You know?
Sarah:I just love, help her someone. She's dead. Like, it's your mother, and she just dropped dead, and you're and you just stand back and go, help her, someone.
Mark:And Poirot is like, oh, clearly, it was the Sherry that killed her. And this is my guess. He he makes his little guess, and he gives it to to Hastings.
Sarah:It must be so weird for the actors playing the characters in the play to be actors in a play in a show. Yeah. It's very, like, meta Russian doll deep.
Mark:Again, there is so much production in this first season. Yeah. It's impressive.
Sarah:Yeah. I wonder if there was a similar kind of drawing room play that they could just use the set of and Yeah. But when when the detective
Mark:Arrives.
Sarah:Inspector Flint. Yes. He's got the the trench coat on, and he's like, I brought you all here
Mark:today. It must be her. Yeah.
Sarah:But he
Mark:Burrow's like, what?
Sarah:But he walks through his old well, at first, I thought this person did it. But then, you know, he has to give the complete explanation
Mark:of his logic. Said, if Poirot's gathering everyone in the library, shit's about to go down. Exactly.
Sarah:And you're the killer? Don't go. No. That means run. While they're meeting in the library, you run.
Sarah:Poirot is mad. And, again, this is Christie making fun of herself and making fun of other kind of golden age writers. He says, well, we weren't given all the facts. Yes. Right?
Sarah:Which is one of those rules that the, mystery writers of her time agreed And this story has to have an equal chance of solving the mystery as the detective.
Mark:And this story is an example of that. We find out that Ernestine is a missus, not a miss.
Sarah:Mhmm.
Mark:Early on, we we the only thing we don't find out is that Donovan has another name. Yeah. And I think they do a great job. The other thing that happens here is something that Christie does where she takes a scene from a short story and then uses it again in novels or other short stories. And this scene is Poirot and Hastings are out and about in town, and they see a beautiful woman.
Mark:They say, oh, look at that beautiful woman.
Sarah:I know her.
Mark:Yes. Mhmm. It happens in the 3rd floor flat. It happens in the 3rd girl. It happens in the cheap flat.
Sarah:Well, it happens even in
Mark:Lord Edgewater dies.
Sarah:Edgeware. It even happens in storage
Mark:Tupperware dies.
Sarah:Where Poirot is traveling. He'll see somebody who he knows, right, at the same resort or whatever. Couple of things. Can can we talk about the coal lift So the dumbwaiter?
Mark:So this
Sarah:is
Mark:this is a thing that I wish we
Sarah:had. Where would it go?
Mark:I don't know. But you're supposed to move your trash and or your coal in this dumbwaiter thing.
Sarah:Built in to the kitchen of every unit
Mark:Yep.
Sarah:In Whitehaven Mansions is door access to a dumbwaiter that is used to deliver coal to the apartments.
Mark:Yeah.
Sarah:And to take the dustbin away, the trash can away.
Mark:But okay. So I have a question. So Poirot's dust many questions about it. Dust bin is full.
Sarah:Mhmm.
Mark:Does miss lemon then put it in this thing and squeak it down? Squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak. And then take the elevator downstairs. Mhmm. Take it out.
Sarah:And dump it into the bigger can.
Mark:Dump it into the bigger can, and then put the empty can back in.
Sarah:I don't think it would be in miss Lemon's duties to take care of his trash.
Mark:You said miss Lemon's duties.
Sarah:You got turned 4 flat on the brain now. I mean, she's kind enough to take care of him when he's sick, but within limit. Right?
Mark:Is Poirot gonna do this?
Sarah:Yeah. I think he would.
Mark:No.
Sarah:He cooks for himself.
Mark:I bet he has Hastings.
Sarah:I don't know. I think Poirot might be a little bit too proud to have other people handling his trash.
Mark:I don't know.
Sarah:And who who can have a bucket as a trash can? Yeah. Like, we we recycle and we have more trash than that.
Mark:So the other thing
Sarah:But who's yeah. But you're right. There should be a guy who basically lives in the basement.
Mark:The troll in Poirot's
Sarah:basement. The garbage troll who lives in the basement.
Mark:The coal troll.
Sarah:Whose job it is to dump the buckets out whenever they happen to arrive. Oh, mister Poirot.
Mark:You got some cold.
Sarah:Wait a minute. What accent is that? I have
Mark:no idea.
Sarah:Because next to the dumbwaiter in the basement later is the nastiest can of trash. It's
Mark:bad, and there's, like, that
Sarah:There's, like, banana Hell. There's, like, banana peels hanging up.
Mark:There's, like
Sarah:Like, it would wreak.
Mark:And there are, like, 5 of those doors, and it would reek and it would reek into your apartment.
Sarah:Yeah. It would go right up the stink would go right up the shaft.
Mark:And and okay.
Sarah:Which tells me that tenants don't go to the basement to empty the bins.
Mark:No. Then okay. So I'm 2 dudes, and I realized police save work. Okay. But we're pulling, like let's be honest.
Mark:It's £300 that
Sarah:Up four floors.
Mark:Up 4 floors. And you have to hold it.
Sarah:Plus the basement. Yeah. Because it wants to go down.
Mark:Yeah. So, like, oh, let me open the door. You hold it there, dude.
Sarah:Tight to support both of our wings.
Mark:Girl, but I'll do it anyway.
Sarah:We're heavier than a dustbin. Yeah. And, like, how do you know your call is about to be delivered? The CULTRA calls up. Like, do you, like, yank the rope and go, CULTRA, I need some coal.
Sarah:And then he's like, okay. He puts it on the bucket and sends it up.
Mark:Okay. It is 1939. They have a telephone. They might telephone.
Sarah:Oh, no. The troll's not allowed to use the phone. Come on. He he probably taps on the wall, and the concierge interprets his taps and then calls.
Mark:Your cowards,
Sarah:Remy. It's Quasimodo living down there. It's not a tenant friendly basement. Poirot does not go down there.
Mark:That other man hid in the other stuff. If the cold troll was there, he would solve the crime instantly.
Sarah:He would be the best witness. So when I was researching for this episode, I thought, I wonder if anybody's ever used a dumbwaiter like this to break into an apartment. Yeah. You know, like, has there been crimes using dumbwaiters? And, unfortunately, all the ones I could find were of people being killed by dumbwaiters and accidentally.
Sarah:Right? Like any other kind of elevator accident.
Mark:Like £300 coming down on your head.
Sarah:I know we've jumped way to the end here. We'll go back. Don't worry. We know. We haven't talked about the murder yet, but we're talking about the getaway.
Mark:We'll get there.
Sarah:But when Donovan is in that shaft, all I can think about is, what if somebody has trash? He's in trouble because it's coming down. Because it's not under it's not below him.
Mark:Well, you gotta pull it up.
Sarah:It's gotta be above him.
Mark:Yeah. I don't know.
Sarah:Can they have something that's sophisticated, that convenient, and not have it mechanized in some way?
Mark:They should have a button where you press and the dumb waiter shows up.
Sarah:Yeah. And for all we know, there is a button, right, in the in the apartments, but that's not what they're trying to do because they're like but if I if there was though, they couldn't override it like that by pulling it.
Mark:Control doesn't need no button. Well,
Sarah:I know what the cold This
Mark:is like the 5th accent
Sarah:for the whole What co what Cold Troll uses what garbage monster in the basement uses is that giant chain and pulley just hanging in the middle of the basement.
Mark:Giant chain and pulley. Is that, like, where Poirot peeps and interrogates subjects?
Sarah:No. It's what the garbage troll has to use to pick up that giant nasty bin of grossness.
Mark:It's called banana peel addict.
Sarah:It's filled with a 1,000 tiny buckets of garbage. Okay. Let's go back because we haven't even found the body yet. We are so screwed up here. Yes.
Sarah:So they make the bet about the play. Yeah. And we looked into it, the £10 that they bet in today's money would be over $800.
Mark:Which is a lot to bet on something.
Sarah:It's a considerable bet. And I think it has to be a considerable amount or Poirot would have dismissed it.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:Because it's not that he's greedy for money or that he's tight. It's that Hastings has that much confidence in his bet that he's going to bet that much.
Mark:Later episode where he's $40, £40 overdrawn, I'm like, dude, you need a loan. You just need a loan.
Sarah:Yeah. Just chill out. That would be, like, $25100 difference
Mark:in his account. No wonder he's pissed.
Sarah:So Pat doesn't have her key. No. So the boys decide to go ride the dumbwaiter because scaling the outside of the apartment seems a little crazy.
Mark:I guess in the story, there's a whole discussion that the building is actually only 5 stories high, and it's weird that there's no fire escape on a 5 story high building and all this weirdness.
Sarah:Well, why do you need a fire escape when you have the dumbwaiter? Boom. You just hop in and ride down.
Mark:Come on, I'll I'll save you.
Sarah:The garbage man will keep you safe. He'd have to be down there 247. Right?
Mark:Got a little bad in effort.
Sarah:Otherwise, he's got, what, 4 dumb waiters to monitor. When you when you call the dumb waiter, it would have all those other people's trash in it. It would. It'd be nasty.
Mark:He's gotta be working.
Sarah:He's gotta be working down there all the time. That's the real mystery of this episode. The t people are the real victims. Yep. And the real mystery is who empties the dumbwaiter.
Mark:Well, we know who empties it, but why are we not showing the troll?
Sarah:Is he?
Mark:Where is this?
Sarah:Because he he has a night off.
Mark:Where is the troll? The coal troll. Wow. It's hard to say.
Sarah:So the boys get in the dumbwaiter to sneak into the back door of of the dumbwaiter door And the of Pat's apartment.
Mark:The ladies sing a song.
Sarah:Which is such an earworm. It is. I prepared myself. I knew it I was gonna be humming, life is just a bowl of cherries for
Mark:a week. Released in 1931, so totally would be It's contemporary. Yep.
Sarah:But they just sit. They they have no care for how many people they annoy with their noise. Those 2.
Mark:That is the squeakiest thing. Can you imagine? So it's, like, 10:30 at night. There's gotta be people in this building in bed. Yes.
Mark:Well, like the maid.
Sarah:Yes. And somebody needs some coal, and the coal troll loads it up and and it would go by everybody's house, by everybody's kitchen.
Mark:But the shots, like, the cameraman worked hard in this episode because he's he's gotta shoot down the stairs and get the 2nd floor and the 3rd floor.
Sarah:Never mind the shaft work.
Mark:Yeah. The shaft work and
Sarah:The big elevator, the dumbwaiter, up, down. Yeah. And the shot we'll talk about in a little bit where Pat is definitely going to die.
Mark:Yes. So so there's a lot of a lot of that kind of work that happens, but I love Poirot and Hastings sticking their head in the coal shoot.
Sarah:Yeah. Because they could be beheaded. I just I read a story about a woman who was beheaded by a dumb waiter just 5 years ago. So they're taking their lives into their own hands.
Mark:So they can't Though
Sarah:they probably would hear it coming.
Mark:They can't turn on the light in the kitchen, so they have to go in the rest of the apartment, and then they recognize they're in the wrong apartment.
Sarah:Okay.
Mark:Which is a total?
Sarah:No. Look. No. Back up. Jimmy's a moron.
Mark:Okay. Well, yes. Jimmy is
Sarah:a moron. Donovan is purposely taking them to the 3rd floor instead of the 4th floor. Yes. Right?
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:And Jimmy's too dumb to know that they've only gone up 3 floors. Yeah. Wouldn't you be counting the doors to make sure that you got the right one? And I would think if you design this building well, no. I was gonna say that there'd be, like, numbers next
Mark:to the doors and everything
Sarah:else shut.
Mark:Is riding this thing except for the cult troll.
Sarah:For that matter, how does the cult troll know when he's got the lift up to the right floor?
Mark:You would the the the actual way this would happen is you would mark the rope.
Sarah:And hope that it didn't rub off in some way? I
Mark:we have spent a lot of time on this dumpway.
Sarah:Because it's the whole crux
Mark:of the episode. Crux.
Sarah:If you take it away, it can't happen. None of it can happen.
Mark:The other episode, which I think is the cheap flat, which has the back stairs where they put out their trash
Sarah:and the little door. The smelly stairs.
Mark:The smelly stairs
Sarah:Yeah.
Mark:Makes more sense than this crazy dumb way.
Sarah:Yes. It's so convenient, but so mysterious. It's there's so many details about the the way that it would work that I just can't wrap my brain around.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:I mean, I know how a dumbwaiter works. I just don't know the logistics of how this thing is how it provides its service,
Mark:I guess. Yeah.
Sarah:Do you tip the trash man?
Mark:Do you Troll troll likes tip.
Sarah:Like, what is he like? Garbage? Like, stinky garbage make troll No.
Mark:He goes outside to the tea truck and get
Sarah:some tea. He's the fancy guy.
Mark:No.
Sarah:The fancy guy you see late at night getting tea. That's why he's not in the basement.
Mark:Boy, is he fancy. He's got the whole 9 yards and the top hat.
Sarah:I know.
Mark:Wow. Control
Sarah:is having a night out. Control, please. That explains now we know where he is. He's on his night off. He cleans up good.
Mark:Oh, the name of the episode is Coltrill's big night off.
Sarah:Do you think he ever gets in the dumbwaiter and just put himself up to listen in on people? Does. Just to listen in on what's going on?
Mark:Of course, he does.
Sarah:Does miss Lemon send him cookies, maybe?
Mark:I'm sure she does. Wow.
Sarah:He cleans up.
Mark:That's what we're missing. She comes in Monday morning to give Poirot his his liquid medicine, and she goes, did you see the cold troll?
Sarah:He was we went out on Friday night, him and I. Poirot hasn't even been to bed yet. Oh. Okay. Trotter sure can sleep.
Sarah:So Trotter is The maid.
Mark:The maid, and she is sleeping through this entire process. I love that the boys laugh at that before. Yeah. And, like, that's like, it makes them feel like they're like, oh, we were in the wrong place.
Sarah:But they're also toughs. Right? So they're not actually scared about being in the wrong apartment.
Mark:No. No. No.
Sarah:They know if they get caught, they'll just be, like, oh. We have lots of money. We don't get in trouble. We'll just get back in the garbage waiter and leave. Sorry.
Sarah:Bye. You know?
Mark:No. They just go out the front door. Yep.
Sarah:That's true. They just do what they want.
Mark:So and they find the dead body. Mhmm. Now the killer is acting here.
Sarah:Yes. And he almost actor acting like he's acting.
Mark:He's almost leaves. Mhmm. And Jimmy notices it. What if Jimmy doesn't notice her?
Sarah:It doesn't matter. That's not why they're there. They're there because Donovan wants to get the letter.
Mark:That's right.
Sarah:He doesn't care if they ever find the body.
Mark:That's right.
Sarah:If he was if if the letter wasn't being delivered by the last post, they wouldn't he wouldn't have gone into the apartment, and they wouldn't have found her until the next day.
Mark:I also got this episode mixed up with some other detective show that we've watched where the body is moved to be closer to the window so the time of death is wrong, but that doesn't happen in this episode. No. But my notes are full of, well, they moved the body to change the no. No. They didn't.
Sarah:Never mind that Ernestine has just moved in today.
Mark:Okay. And
Sarah:she's getting mail.
Mark:Okay.
Sarah:How does that
Mark:work? She has phone service.
Sarah:Several mail
Mark:deliveries a day.
Sarah:She's got a No. No. Phone service phone service I get. Okay? Because phone service at this time is by address.
Sarah:So you'd say like White Havens 36 b. And so then so when you moved, you didn't take your number with you. They just kept the phone service on.
Mark:She's got post twice. Yeah. She's got telephone service. She's got Wi Fi. She's got, like she's all set up already.
Sarah:Garbage troll already knows how to deliver
Mark:her call. Takes 15 weeks normally.
Sarah:Yes. So she's already getting mail. We've already talked about how does several post deliveries a day work. Yes. She gets post all the way to 9 PM at night.
Mark:Of course, we get Amazon packages that late.
Sarah:Sometimes. So he doesn't care if they find her or not. He just wants to get the letter off the table Yes. Which luckily, Trotter has put on the table. Because when they talk to her, she says she picks up the post as she's going out.
Sarah:Yeah. And when she comes back, she puts it on the table. She is So she could have very much have been out with that letter on her person.
Mark:She is the most unobservant maid ever. There's been a murder in this apartment, and her mistress is dead. And she needs to like, she went out with the cold troll to the show. Come back, and she's gotta get to bed and get snoring right away.
Sarah:She doesn't she doesn't go in the kitchen and try to turn on the light because she would have found that it didn't work. No. I give her not noticing the blood on the table since Ernestine has the worst taste and has a blood red table cloth on her table.
Mark:Well, she's wiping that one glass. Why are you not unpackaged?
Sarah:She's getting the drinks trolley rally ready. It's priority. And we're supposed to believe that the only thing she could have seen was maybe Ernestine's feet.
Mark:Me.
Sarah:And she would have had to turn on all the lights to see.
Mark:Still, she's the world's most unobservant maid.
Sarah:Who gives their maid the night off on the day that you move in? Like, that's the day I need you.
Mark:You have unpacking to do, lady.
Sarah:Yeah. That's because she she knows her. Oh, it's you who's coming by. Yes. I love that Jap says to Poirot, you'll be having murders in your back bedroom next.
Mark:So they find the dead body. Poirot goes, yep. That's a dead body. Calls JAP, and JAP shows up.
Sarah:This is one of those where they have good rapport, where JAP isn't threatened by Poirot, though Donovan has put down fake clues. Right? Yeah. The letter, the handkerchief. Yeah.
Sarah:You know, the fact that we don't have monogrammed handkerchiefs anymore must really fury infuriate the police because they were so convenient. I mean, DNA, schmoey, embroidered handkerchiefs.
Mark:It also infuriates me that they refer to the letter being signed at least twice by Jack Frazier
Sarah:Mhmm.
Mark:When it's just signed by Frazier.
Sarah:John Frazier is what Jap assumes, doesn't he?
Mark:No. He he assumes
Sarah:It's just the most common j name.
Mark:Yeah. But it's just Frasier on the letter.
Sarah:Yeah. But it's j f on the handkerchief.
Mark:Yeah. But they say it was signed by fray Jack Fraser, John Fraser, or whatever. Yeah. I'm like, no. It wasn't.
Mark:I looked.
Sarah:It was signed by Offrazier. The j f could be Jingleheimer Frodinger.
Mark:Poirot opens the door. It could
Sarah:be the garbage troll's handkerchief.
Mark:Poirot opens the door and shines the light right in the face of the man.
Sarah:And then says, we'll let her sleep. Like, may maybe you should shut the door and then knock on it. Yeah. And wake her up. Maybe.
Sarah:Because otherwise, she's gonna be awoken to an apartment full of men.
Mark:And saying there's been a murder.
Sarah:Yeah. I think he could've gently knocked and woke her up. I love So I love his smoking jacket, by the way.
Mark:I have a question for you here. Mhmm. Yes. It's important that Poirot changes his clothes, like, 6 times.
Sarah:No. Just his jacket. Yep. He still has his shirt and tie on.
Mark:Poirot figures this out long before anybody.
Sarah:Oh, yeah.
Mark:And long before he says he's figured it out. Yeah. And he's told Hastings. Some something. Because
Sarah:Or Hastings is kinda smart in this episode and picks up on something.
Mark:When when he puts the the so he puts he puts the blue bottle up to his nose and says, I can't smell this because I have a cold. Mhmm. And the other guy just takes off the lid. Yeah. He knows it.
Mark:What did they do? They search, oh, they search him for the key.
Sarah:And the letter.
Mark:And the letter. And Hastings would have seen that.
Sarah:Yes. He would have seen Poirot take something out of Donovan's pocket.
Mark:So they both know then. Mhmm. But I think Poirot figures it out while he's getting fed.
Sarah:Yeah. I do too. While Pat's making him an egg. Yeah. The most egg ever.
Sarah:And He eats toast. It's a whole piece of bread. He doesn't do that. He eats little squares.
Mark:He eats little squares of toast. And put her apron on, lady. Like, I know you're nice and everything, but She's got an
Sarah:evening gown.
Mark:She's cooking in her evening gown on
Sarah:the cobra. Satin, a little grease ruined. Just ruined.
Mark:Right away.
Sarah:When when Jap is leaving and Poirot wants to go back into the apartment, Jap kind of dismisses it. Like, well, we we yeah. We know who did it. It's fine. We just gotta find him whatever.
Sarah:And Poirot does those little puppy dog eyes, like, well, if you say so. Okay.
Mark:Yep. And Jeff's like
Sarah:do what you want.
Mark:Jeff because Jeff knows then Jeff knows, like,
Sarah:he's onto something. Yeah.
Mark:Whatever. I'm wrong. Crap.
Sarah:Then we have okay. I need to tell people about this. Yes. I really hate heights. Like, even in movies or TV shows, if they pan the camera over the ledge, I feel like I'm gonna throw up.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:Like, it just I can't handle it. Yep. And Pat is sitting in the window. The top pane of the window is open. We know she's on the 4th floor.
Mark:No. She's not actually in the 4th floor here.
Sarah:I know. Because there's
Mark:a camera.
Sarah:Yes. Unless they've got it on a crane. Yeah. Never mind that this window doesn't look anything like the windows on the front of the building where her apartment must face. Anyway, she's sitting on the window ledge on the sill, top window open, her arm is almost out of the window Yes.
Sarah:And and the the bars of the window that separate the glass look like you could just push them and break them.
Mark:Well, the
Sarah:Like, they're pencil thin.
Mark:They're like the balsa wood.
Sarah:And she's putting her weight on it. And I'm like, dude is the killer. You're falling out a wind. Like Yeah. You're on the 4th you're you're gonna die.
Mark:You're having such a lovely evening, and then you killed your wife.
Sarah:Push. Yeah. Exactly. Like, it would take no effort. It made me so uptight.
Sarah:I'm like, I'm gonna look away until I hear them stop talking because I can't handle the fact that she's about to fall out that window, and it's so stupid to be sitting there. Okay. It's over. Alright.
Mark:We have to make a cultural t shirt.
Sarah:See, you're you're really limiting him to only one part of his duties.
Mark:Oh, I know. He's also very busy. Dude.
Sarah:He's coal and dust troll. Yes. Jeez. The tea lady is shocked. She just moved in today.
Sarah:She's got her husband there. They're packing up the tea caddy, tea shed Yep. Trolley.
Mark:The the the tea trolley The tea shack items. The tea trolley is the chorus.
Sarah:Right? Yeah.
Mark:It's the chorus of
Sarah:the song. Background. Yeah. Yeah. Filling in the gaps.
Sarah:What a shame. She just moved in today. How shocking. Yeah. They've got a little lantern.
Sarah:There's just
Mark:a few maid is like, can I go stay at my sister's place?
Sarah:Can I get out of here now? I just woke up from a really deep sleep to find a bunch of strangers in the apartment that I just moved into, and my employer is dead. Get me out of here. Who care? Where does Poirot get this bottle of ether?
Mark:He carries around ether all the time.
Sarah:Does he just keep it in the smoking jacket, do you think?
Mark:He does.
Sarah:Maybe that's his ether jacket.
Mark:Every once in a while,
Sarah:you know? His other smoking jacket is his strickening jacket. This is my dagger jacket.
Mark:This is my
Sarah:I surmised correctly that I would need my ether jacket tonight.
Mark:Bust. Yeah.
Sarah:That's a that's like a robe. Yeah. You need a longer coat for blender bust.
Mark:And that's pretty potent stuff that he uncorks it And goes. And goes. Like Donovan takes a big whiff. The look the look on Hastings face is like, woah.
Sarah:I love Poirot goes, no. No. No. No. Why did you take the lid off stupid?
Sarah:That is stupid. Speaking of the kitchen scene where Pat is gonna ruin her dress, he says that Pat reminds him of a an English girl he was in love with.
Mark:Yeah. I had to stop at that point in time.
Sarah:We've never heard of that person.
Mark:Never heard of anybody.
Sarah:And when he sees her in the bar at the play, he does get kind of a little wistful look in his eyes, like like, she is something to him.
Mark:And there is no mention of this woman anymore.
Sarah:No. No. I didn't look in the book to see if he says that in the book. But Hastings isn't in the story in the book. So I don't know who he would have said to.
Sarah:But, like, as far as I know, the only love he ever had was the Baroness.
Mark:The Baroness.
Sarah:Yeah. Who's a jewel thief?
Mark:Oh, we'll get there.
Sarah:So Donovan stole the key from Pat's purse
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:So that she wouldn't be able to get into the apartment. So they'd have to get in the dumbwaiter, go to the wrong apartment, and he could steal the letter.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:I think he's kinda hoping that they don't find the body, that Jimmy doesn't see the body.
Mark:Yeah. I think so.
Sarah:That's the only reason why he has to even bother. Otherwise, it'd be smarter for him to not go there at all.
Mark:So there's the whole blue bottle scene, and then there's the chase.
Sarah:Oh, the drama of the is he on the elevator? Is he not on the if he got on that elevator as his getaway, he is the dumbest criminal in the universe. It is the slowest elevator.
Mark:They do a great reveal of his hand, so he sets the elevator to go down Mhmm. And then climbs the stairs.
Sarah:Which is a total trope of let me start the elevator off, and they'll chase the elevator.
Mark:But he's not stupid. There are a lot of people in detective shows who when they get chased, they get stupid. Mhmm. So then he goes down the, the dumbwaiter, but he's forgotten that it's the squeakiest dumbwaiter. Yes.
Sarah:They all hear him coming.
Mark:They all hear him in
Sarah:the To
Mark:the basement. To the basement.
Sarah:But he gets out of 1 dumbwaiter and sneaks into the other one because the cultural has the night off.
Mark:Yes. And Poirot isn't there. I think Poirot might know he's there.
Sarah:Mhmm.
Mark:He knows something's up.
Sarah:So which proves something else. Okay? So Poirot at first, I thought Poirot has let the other 2 leave the basement, and he's standing there. Because now that it's quiet, Donovan might think that he's gone too. Yeah.
Sarah:And come out.
Mark:I thought so too.
Sarah:But Donovan isn't that stupid. No. So Parro leaves. But that means there's no other way out of this basement. No.
Sarah:So the cultural has to carry that foul garbage can up those stairs.
Mark:To get out of the building? Yes. Through the lobby. Watch the paint.
Sarah:Because if there was a workman's entrance, they would've delivered her furniture that way.
Mark:There has to be a workman's entrance. There has to be. Okay. So then he runs outside. He hides from Hastings.
Sarah:On the the most abandoned street in all of London.
Mark:Well, everybody's gone to tea trolleys after the play.
Sarah:No. The tea trolley's all packed up.
Mark:Oh, that's right.
Sarah:Right? Yeah. It is late.
Mark:It is.
Sarah:So if you think they get home from the play at, like, 10
Mark:Yeah. Right? This is, like, around midnight.
Sarah:Gotta be 1 o'clock in the morning, probably.
Mark:O'clock. Yep.
Sarah:But I'm sorry. London has some people.
Mark:Yeah. There are millions of people.
Sarah:And who parks their car that doesn't need a key to start and is a convertible just on the street? Hastings is begging somebody to take his car.
Mark:So he steals Hastings' car.
Sarah:Because it just has a push button start apparently.
Mark:And Hastings jumps out in front and says No. No.
Sarah:But what's he saying no to? No. Don't get away, murderer, or no. Don't take my car.
Mark:Stop her. I'll say no again.
Sarah:Please don't take my baby girl away. Please don't crash her into the tea truck. Oh, no. My baby bird. Poor hasty.
Sarah:I feel so bad for him. He says hanging's too good for some people.
Mark:Oh, the axle's broke.
Sarah:How hard did he hit the t how sturdy is the trolley that it can break the front axle on your car? If it can do that, either your axle's made out of aluminum foil or that or that trolley is made out of some stern stuff.
Mark:Some stern stuff. Absolutely.
Sarah:Plus, the poor t couple, that's their business. Yep. It's just gone. Yep. Hastings gets some sympathy, but when they come to work in the next morning, they're gonna find
Mark:They're gonna be like,
Sarah:what the heck happened? Their livelihood gone.
Mark:This troll. He'll tell you.
Sarah:The troll is secretly a millionaire and will pay for a new trolley because he likes you. So he He's been picking money out of people's trash for years. They catch
Mark:him, and they take him upstairs. They don't take him to Scotland Yard, which they should. They take him upstairs, and he confesses. But he's like, she made me do it. Dude, just because you got married in Switzerland doesn't mean nothing counts.
Sarah:Ernestine is awful.
Mark:She is.
Sarah:But they deserve each other.
Mark:Moved into the apartment, okay, to purposely screw with his life. Now she doesn't deserve to die for that. No. No. No.
Mark:No.
Sarah:But she didn't have to move in. She could've lived anywhere and just she knows where Pat lives. She could've just come by
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:And said, I'm his wife. Yes. I can prove it.
Mark:Yes.
Sarah:She didn't have to move in. No. How can she afford to move in?
Mark:I don't know. Maybe other things went on in Switzerland that we don't know about.
Sarah:What? Like a bank robbery
Mark:or something? Maybe.
Sarah:Maybe Ernestine is independently wealthy. Maybe. Pat's independently wealthy, apparently. She doesn't have a job. She ain't
Mark:got no job. So the other guy, not the killer.
Sarah:Jimmy. Jimmy. His friend.
Mark:Oh, I love the law there, woman. Poirot was like, use your advantage now. That she's emotionally unstable to take advantage of the situation.
Sarah:She needs you. Go to her.
Mark:Yeah. That that I didn't like that.
Sarah:He should've said when Jimmy said, she doesn't want me. She wanted him. Yeah. Plaro should have said, but right now, what she wants is a friend. Yes.
Sarah:That's what he should have said, And then he could have gone and comfort her as a friend.
Mark:Never mind her girlfriend.
Sarah:But instead, it's like, no. I'm gonna go over there and touch her bare skin as much as I can while I try to get her back
Mark:to the apartment. Girlfriend is completely forgotten about.
Sarah:Mildred disappears. Disappears. She's kinda useless anyway.
Mark:Maybe she was in the tea trolley when it got hit.
Sarah:Maybe she ran off with the cultural.
Mark:Maybe. Hastings gets his £10, which as you know now is $843, which £43
Sarah:Which would help out with the repairs.
Mark:Bit of money would help out with the repairs, and Poirot gets his Friars balsam.
Sarah:Which is a benzoin tincture.
Mark:Is it like Vicks?
Sarah:No. It's more like, it would smell more like cedar. Okay. Benzoyne is made from a resin from a tree. Okay.
Sarah:It's a family of trees called the styrax, which is not from doctor Seuss. No. It's a real thing. Yep. This stuff is freaking amazing, though.
Sarah:Okay? Let me tell you about Friars Balsam.
Mark:Okay.
Sarah:Yes. You can put a few drops of it into steaming water like this, and it helps loosen congestion. It's actually very effective at that.
Mark:You did that week.
Sarah:People also use it in their mouth to heal canker sores Oh. And, like, mouth injuries. It's also used as an antiseptic on injuries.
Mark:Oh, nice.
Sarah:But it's sticky. Okay? Like, because it's a resin.
Mark:Yeah.
Sarah:So in the military, like, in in the world wars, they used benzoin tincture to close wounds on battlefields.
Mark:Oh, that makes sense.
Sarah:Because it would stick them together like super glue.
Mark:It's like the super glue
Sarah:they will put this tincture on your skin first and then put the bandage on, and it helps it stick and protects you from the adhesive. Nice.
Mark:Like We should get some.
Sarah:It's good stuff. The most amazing use of it is still to this day, they use it in the military when you get a you get a big blister, they drain it, you know, the the fluid comes out of it, and then that's when it starts to really hurt, you know. They put this stuff between the skin of the blister and your base skin.
Mark:Oh, and
Sarah:it It sticks it down.
Mark:And probably make sure it's moisturized too.
Sarah:And it heals instantly, basically. Wow. It just sticks it down.
Mark:Need to get some of this stuff. Can we order some on the Amazons?
Sarah:And you can use it when you have a cold. Yeah. It's crazy.
Mark:Yeah. Yesterday was yesterday, and today is my t sun.
Sarah:Because all you need to get over a virus is a mystery.
Mark:That was my problem last week. I had no mystery.
Sarah:I should've just murdered somebody
Mark:and said,
Sarah:look. It's a mystery.
Mark:Why do we have a dumbwaiter now?
Sarah:Yeah. You said you wish we had one. Like, we do have a 2 story house, but, like, our basement is, like, a half basement crawl space. Like, I No. We could dump trash down there, but there'd be a problem after a while, I think.
Mark:I'd end up cleaning it. So don't We
Sarah:do have something that's we've never mentioned this. Our house is so weird.
Mark:We have a weird house.
Sarah:When we bought our house, the people who lived here before had a good amount of money and did some renovations and got custom cabinets throughout the whole house. So they're they're they're very dated. They're very nineties, but they're beautiful cabinets.
Mark:Yeah.
Sarah:And in the kitchen, like, you go around the kitchen island, and then there's a laundry room. Right?
Mark:So there's a toaster box on the island. Right. And beside the toaster box is a little door.
Sarah:Is a wee door. Like a cabinet door.
Mark:That you'd open up and see a cold troll.
Sarah:No. You see the washing machine. Like, the laundry room is there.
Mark:I think they had, like, a basket in there that you came down for breakfast and you threw your laundry in there.
Sarah:Which would save you 10 steps
Mark:Yes. At most. Yes. But our kitchen is annoying to move through. People are like, can we take some pictures of this kitchen?
Mark:I don't understand. I will take a picture of the door and put it in the show notes.
Sarah:So now so since we moved in, what, 15 years ago Yeah. Because this little door because anybody who comes to our house for the first time sees it and opens it. Intuitively, you open it because you need to know where it leads. And so for the longest time, we would put little pictures in there.
Mark:Like memes.
Sarah:Yeah. Like a little funny memes.
Mark:What's in there now?
Sarah:I don't think there's any in there now. So that if you were nosy enough to open it, you'd see something that was like, well, you're nosy, aren't you?
Mark:I will take a picture of said door and put it in the show notes.
Sarah:I'll take a picture of you with your head in the door from the other side.
Mark:Know if I could get my head.
Sarah:But that's our dumbwaiter right there. That's where our Our personal dumbwaiter. Cold troll would have to live on the other side of the door in the laundry room. Wow. You wouldn't be very mysterious.
Mark:Have we said cultural? Way more than
Sarah:I thought we would when we started. Wow. So best corpse is obviously Ernestine. She's the only one.
Mark:Does a good job getting shot too.
Sarah:She does.
Mark:And she little pop gun is the quietest gun eater.
Sarah:Yep. So after the credits, do Pat and Jimmy get together?
Mark:I want him to get together with the other girl.
Sarah:Mildred?
Mark:Yeah. I think she's I think Pat's gonna have, like, lots of suitors.
Sarah:Okay. But Mildred flaked out. Yeah. We don't even know where she went. She's not much of a friend.
Mark:I have two questions. What happens to the t trolley people, and what happens to the coal troll?
Sarah:That's all you wanna know.
Mark:That's all I wanna know.
Sarah:The coal troll to me now is like Phantom of the Opera. Yes. Like, he puts on his beautiful tux and goes out for the night. And on his one night a month when he's allowed to be handsome. And then he goes back to the basement and becomes Quasimodo again.
Sarah:Like, his fairy godmother gives him 1 new month.
Mark:Tuned in to some fine podcasting.
Sarah:Remember, this is about Poirot that we're talking about. Okay. So the t couple, do you think they have insurance on their truck?
Mark:I hope so.
Sarah:If not, the people around there should all donate and kick in a little bit.
Mark:He just thinks gets his car fixed because he has money from somewhere. Which? He has it. He loses it, and then he has it.
Sarah:Yeah. We don't worry about where Hastings' money comes from. Yep. I don't think Parro pays him. Do you think Parro pays him?
Mark:I think he's
Sarah:Independently wealthy from being a captain.
Mark:I guess. But he knows a lot of rich people.
Sarah:He's commissioned.
Mark:Maybe the family is rich.
Sarah:Maybe. Do you think Hastings is, like, the youngest son?
Mark:Maybe. And
Sarah:that's why he doesn't have any responsibilities.
Mark:Like, in the very first time that they meet, that episode, Hastings is visiting rich people in the country, and they all know him.
Sarah:Oh, yes. So Oh, and he was an officer.
Mark:Yep. So
Sarah:back then, you didn't become an officer unless you could afford it. It wasn't
Mark:episode is out on 1st April. And the 8th April, we will have triangle at Rhodes remixed. Remixed.
Sarah:Pink gin.
Mark:Yeah. Pink gin. And then on 15th April, tax day, we will have problem at c remixed
Sarah:Mhmm.
Mark:With the little doll.
Sarah:My hospital.
Mark:Sometime after that, I would say, we will have our live episode. Yeah.
Sarah:So send us questions. Yes. And About whatever.
Mark:The the 8th is also the day that the sun goes away. If you experience the, eclipse, I hope you have as much fun as we are planning on having.
Sarah:Yes. Yep. Hopefully, it's not cloudy where you are. Yep. I'm hoping it's not cloudy here because there will be half a 1000000 people really upset.
Mark:After that, we have the incredible theft. Those British people.
Sarah:They're also very British.
Mark:They're so very British.
Sarah:Every Poirot, I know at least three lines by heart.
Mark:The king the king of clubs, which is, the film industry and the weird neighbors Mhmm. And Jap spends the entire episode looking for a tramp
Sarah:Yes.
Mark:With the shoe with the one shoe.
Sarah:Yes.
Mark:And then, after that, we will have the dream.
Sarah:Every episode is good.
Mark:Yep. So that that'll take us to the end of the first season, and then I'll go to Canada.
Sarah:So much fun. Yep. So much fun.
Mark:Yep. Thank you all for listening. You all are amazing. You make us so amazed every single week.
Sarah:Absolutely.
Mark:Keep putting recommendations on that reel. Yep. Keep looking at them.
Sarah:And we'll post another reel like that in 2 weeks or so. Yeah. And we have some new stuff to say that we're watching. Yep. And, we hope you enjoy them.
Sarah:Yes. And if you have a cultural in your basement, do let us know.
Mark:Do let
Sarah:us know. Or maybe you are 1 and listen to this podcast Wow. While you're in the basement. Bye, maniacs.
Mark:Bye, maniacs.
Sarah:He just gets one day a month to be handsome. Just one.
Mark:Thanks for joining us on the Mystery Maniacs podcast. If you enjoyed our crazy podcast today, don't miss out on future episodes. Follow us on social media for updates, beyond the scenes content, and exclusive sneak peeks. Subscribe, like, and share to spread the word. Bye, maniacs.
Mark:Oh, it was Tig Notaro. I was on, Tig?
