I love storms with lightening that makes the night look like day time and thunder that shakes the house, but last night's storm really threw a kink into my Sunday night date with Inspector Lynley.Every Sunday night I glue myself to the telly to watch Mystery! or Masterpiece Theatre (depending on which one is enjoying a run) on PBS...
I developed a love for Mystery! during the snowy winter of 1992 while living in a basement flat in Denver. It was the Lovejoy Mysteries that hooked me, actually, and I have been a devout viewer ever since. Some sleuths I take to and some I don't. I'm not terribly fond of Poirot or Miss Marple for instance, but I do like Rumpole of the Bailey, the aforementioned Lovejoy, and of course the immortal Sherlock Holmes, regardless of who's portraying him (my personal favorite, however, is Jeremy Brett.
Last night was the finale of the season, and I settled down to watch it, accompanied by the added effects of thunder and lightening outside. It was perfect. Even the title, "In the Blink of an Eye" promised great satisfaction.
Don't talk to me when I'm into my mysteries. I like to become completely immersed in the story and the characters, and carefully following the clues presented to me. It took me a while to get into the Lynley mysteries, I admit. I don't usually like urbane, suave lookers in the role of detective, but Nathaniel Parker as Inspector Thomas Lynley was different. He was flawed, vulnerable and sometimes caught up in his own issues. I also liked the way author Elizabeth George brought her hero's personal life into each case, even going so far as to spotlight the death of Mr. and Mrs. Lynley's unborn child and their subsequent breakup due to his inability to place his home life above his work. A real lack of commitment there. But in season 6 there was a change. Thomas wanted Helen back and began courting her, showing signs of his sincere wish to change. And all this while tracking women who had "snapped" and, in the case of last night, a young Bosnian woman who had witnessed the murder of her entire family by Serbian gangsters, and was secreted away to London by a photographic journalist who took her in under his protection. Until the leader of the gang appeared in London and killed the photographer.
It was down to the final scene. The full disclosure. That golden moment in mysteries when you find out if your own sleuthiness is spot on or completely off. Outside the police station, just as proof of the Serb's guilt is received and the inspector and his team run out to arrest him before he is set free, the girl takes a pistol out of her purse and levels it at the monster who killed her family. He looks at her and with a cool and disturbing confusion asks, "Who are you?" and...
The cable goes out. A few minutes later it flickers on just long enough for me catch a brief glimpse of a casket at a funeral.
What happened? Why is the inspector at the funeral!? Who died!? ARG!!!!!!!!!!
Fortunately, PBS replays the shows around midnight, so I waited. The ending was worth it, too. I never react physically to anything on TV (unless I'm belly-laughing at Whose Line is it Anyway?), but when I saw the ending, an audible gasp escaped me. I was actually unable to shake the feeling it left me for about 30 minutes.
Now I have to wait for the next season, and who knows how long that will take?
