‘Agatha Raisin: A Spoonful of Poison’ Recap

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode 403 of ‘Agatha Raisin’. To revisit the previous episode, click here.
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One particular lesson we are taught when we enter the workplace, is to never mix business with emotions and it makes sense as to why. Because when we make everyday business personal and inject that bias that only emotion can bring to the table, we’ve done ourselves a great disservice. For now, we cannot properly look at the business side of things objectively, for everything is clouded by emotion. But what is truly fascinating about this lesson, is that despite being taught it, we really don’t abide by it, until we indulge in that very mistake. If anything, this particular lesson is top of mind today, simply because it is one that Agatha Raisin was forced to learn in her latest Acorn TV adventure, Agatha Raisin: A Spoonful of Poison.

Now, in this particular tale, the team and their newest addition, Harry… drop by a local Jam fest to see exactly whose delicious confection is going to win the day. Which seems like a fairly innocuous and fun event. That is until the judges suddenly come down with a case of the weird when it appears as though they’ve been drugged and well… it doesn’t take long for their wild behavior to end in a sour manner. Wherein a Doctor Stevens plummets from the roof of the community center to her death. Which of course puts Agatha and her team on the case and well… once they start to dive into whether or not Stevens’ death was accidental or intentional, is when the story begins to teach her and Charles that all important lesson about keeping business and emotion separate.

Because two of the suspects; a Mister George Selby and a Miss Gilda Brenson, catch the fancy of Agatha and Charles. In fact, those two fall hard for the suspects and it isn’t long before they are completely and utterly in puppy love with each of them and that uh, that leads to a lot of problems. Because it heavily clouds both of their judgments and motivates them to be quick to defend their potential long-term loves, which in turn, leads to infighting and the like and of course, keeps them away from the important clues before them. Which slows down the investigative process and emboldens the killer to finish their plans. Leaving all of us to wonder if Team Agatha would ever properly find focus again or would instead disband.

But when the truth is revealed about George and Gilda, specifically how they basically played everyone with their charm and wiles… Agatha and Charles learn their valuable lesson about keeping things professional and once they re-focus their efforts… the team comes to learn quite the surprise. In that, the local priest’s wife, a woman known as Patricia to most and Trixie to a select few… is the one behind all of this and was banking on chaos to exact revenge for a lost love, George’s late wife Chloe. But now that the chaos was out of reach, Agatha and her crackpot team of investigators are able to finally bring her, and everyone involved in an illegal act to justice. Bringing peace once again and a lesson that Agatha and Charles will never forget.

For now, they know, that mixing business and emotion is the worst idea possible since it brings nothing but trouble and strife and keeps people away from their goals and well, that made for one impactful episode. Since we can all take away from Agatha and Charles’ missteps in this tale and stick to business ourselves when the opportunity to pollute it with emotion presents itself. But while it was nice to walk away from this one with some fine advice… there was more wonder to be found in this tale. Since it was as charming and funny as the rest of the stories in this saga and of course, the case was utterly engaging. For we really didn’t have a clue who might be behind this one and it genuinely kept us guessing and it was filled with surprises galore and well, now that this wild and entertaining ride has come to an end… we can shift our focus to next week’s case, and all the wonderful moments it will undoubtedly send our way. Until next time.

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