The Pale Horse

[unique1986]

BBC 1 9pm

Enjoy

If I hadn’t seen the ITV version I wouldn’t have had a clue why the witches were involved or what was going on, I didn’t understand the ending at all.

I love the ITV Poirot and Marples and sometimes I really think ITV do period dramas a lot better than the BBC. They seem to tell the story whereas with the BBC they always try and be a bit too clever and you’re left wondering what happened?

I assumed he died in the fire he started. Isn't that what the newspaper headline said?

No. The newspaper said he was found dead in his apartment and there was no obvious cause of death.

Definitely a case of style over substance. Made no sense whatsoever.

I’ve said it before (and I’ll say it again), if Sarah Phelps is going to take such liberties with the original plot then she should write her own scripts and create her own characters. It was nothing remotely like the book.

The three 'witches' just got the names of people who others wanted dealt with. They passed on the names to the strange guy who cut all the keys and had all the plans. He poisoned them by putting the rat poison into their water tanks when pretending to be a handy man.
But as for Rufus' character, no idea where or when he died. But he killed his first wife in a rage.
When did the mass orgy/party happen?

Big thank you to all who have answered my Poirot question. AC obvioulsy did plan out not only crime plots but contingencies (spelling?!) in real life.

And on the actual topic I have looked at the wiki entry for Pale Horse and seem to remember it being fairly faithfully adapted some time ago. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pale_Horse (I hadn't realised that AC families had been interested in / believed in the occult. I also thought the character Ariadne Oliver who seems to appear in both Poirot and Marple, including the Pale Horse, was meant as a send up, but again this maybe how tv series present her. On no, according to wiki she is a send up of AC herself!!)

This version of the Pale Horse is more an "inspired" by than an actual.

Was the orgy real?

Oh and why did he throw his suit away in episode one?

The witches were nothing to do with the murders. They were stooges essentially. The murderer contacted people he thought might want someone bumped off. If they were interested they were sent to see the witches at the Pale Horse and told to ask the witches to read the fortune of the person they wanted to get rid of.

The witches weren't in on it at all. The murderer then poisoned the victims and the client who wanted the murder thought the witches had done it. They eventually got suspicious when so many people they had read fortunes for started dying.

Very disappointed with the ending.
Total letdown
Didnt understand it at all

I don't think I've ever seen such a unanimous response to a TV programme before. Twitter, MN, TV critics - all united in bafflement.

I'm usually fairly forgiving of adaptations of books, I don't expect them to be the same. But what the heck was that?

So he was actually dead, and was reliving the worst moment of his life where he killed in a fit of jealous rage the woman he lusted after.

But when? Usually when you have the 'actually dead but didn't realise it' plot the writing has been made so that it's clever enough for the viewer to look back in hindsight and note the point where they died, as well as bits that didn't actually happen because they were dead and imagining it.

Was it actually him that was found dead not the second wife? Was the orgy in his head, and then he realised it was the shopkeeper. But then did the shopkeeper actually die? What was the point ig the witches? Why did we see them at the hospital or even the burial of the aunt ? (When they apparently did leave their house or not leave the that's-not-Surrey-village.)

What was the point of the girlfriend of the usless money grappling nephew flicking ash everywhere? (Possibly to show how unappreciated the second wife was?)

Also what was the point emphasising the total opposite ness of the two wives? (First one he adored/lusted for but he angered at her not adoring him (so he perceived) and she didn't do anything like cook or sort out thier apartment. Second wife he didn't love but didn't everything '50s wife' correctly.

It's possible he did at the end I guess. We know he was already poisoned because his hair was falling out. We know he died in his apartment because of the newspaper article.

I now can't recall the scence before he picked up the newspaper.was there anything that suggested he was alone in the apartment when he might have died?

You saw him kill Osbourne and set the fire. Then he was walking outside his flat and then he was in the communal area of the flats and then let himself in having picked up the paper from the doorstep. Nothing obvious to suggest he was already dead?

Perhaps the paper was a premonition if what was going to happen as part of the "curse"?

Please forgive my post about how I enjoyed episode 1!
What a slapdash awful ending! How on earth do these writers get away with this shit?
Imagine handing episode two into your English teacher at school to mark; mine would have thrown it in the bin (late 80s/early90s).

I wonder if the actors ever ask what is going on after they have read the script?

Two hours of my life I won't get back. Dame Agatha must be turning in her grave. What a load of tosh. I woudn't have gone back for episode 2 had it not been for Rufus Sewell (yes, I am that shallow) but even he couldn't save this. It was utterly dire. I hope the BBC takes heed and tells Sarah Phelps to go off and write original material from now on, not pretend her own stuff is actually an adaptation of a book by a popular author whose name will pull the audience in.

I think he was in purgatory at the end.

The witches did in fact have special powers so when they met Hermia in hospital they agreed to get revenge on him and then in purgatory he re-lived Delphine's death forever more. They knew from his visit to them that he just wished to sleep soundly so they cursed him to have nightmares in perpetuity.

Can't see how the witches were at the funeral or the hospital, that didn't makes sense. Obviously Mark killed first wife in fit of jealous rage because of finding ticket to Much Deeping with "Oscar" written on it, but who was Oscar, what did I miss?

Obviously Mark killed first wife in fit of jealous rage because of finding ticket to Much Deeping with "Oscar" written on it, but who was Oscar, what did I miss?

We found out in the first episode that Oscar was Venables, the white haired older man with a walking stick. He gave her a lift to the station because she seemed upset after visiting the witches, and gave her his number in case there were any problems with the train.

Shite from start to whenever it was that I stopped watching.

I think the newspaper was a premonition if his death — a hallucination causing a heart attack. Because he felt guilt at what he had done.

I admit that the ending was hard to unravel. But wasn't it pretty to look at? I loved the sets and props and clothes - never mind making sense, it was pretty to look at.

The witches are innocent. They had nothing to do with the deaths. When they realised they were being blamed for the murders they exacted revenge.

Easterbrook murdered Osborne, then died (cursed by the witches). He is now in purgatory reliving his murder of his first wife.

The witches aren't very pleasant if they are cursing people etc😊