Agatha Christie's Poirot Episode Guide - inaf iasf bologna

Agatha Christie’s Poirot Episode Guide
a ”chance” encounter with Linnet and dupe her into signing legal documents that would
exculpate him; he abandoned the plan when he found that Linnet was a shrewd woman
who read anything she was asked to sign in detail; in desperation, he tried to kill her by
dropping the boulder on her, but that is as far as he went, and he swears that he did not
murder her;
• Fanthorp is revealed to be a young attorney with Linnet’s British solicitors, who sent him
to Egypt to spy on Pennington, suspicious of his intentions;
• Tim is exposed as a society jewel thief, working in partnership with his cousin, a downon-her-luck
socialite. Tim stole the pearls from Linnet’s cabin that night and substituted
the fake string for them, but, likewise, swears he didn’t kill her; he does not know if Linnet
was already dead when he entered her cabin; Rosalie admits that she saw Tim enter and
leave Linnet’s cabin, but she has come to love Tim, and was trying to protect him; Poirot
clears Tim of the murder and agrees not to report his thievery to the police; Tim promises
to reform and happily asks Rosalie to marry him, to the delight of his mother.
• Signor Richetti is exposed as the foreign agent and criminal Race is after, after Race hears
of a telegram Richetti received, using a code that Race recognizes;
Poirot finally explains the real mystery to Race, Miss Robson, and Dr. Bessner. Their first
idea, that the murder was conceived on the spur of the moment after the scene in the lounge,
was mistaken; in fact, the murder was planned months in advance — by Jacqueline and Simon.
Jacqueline used Cornelia Robson as a witness and pretended to shoot Simon in the leg. Simon
faked being wounded with red ink, hidden in Linnet’s nail polish bottle. While Cornelia Robson
left to get Jacqueline back to her cabin and Jim Fanthorp called Dr. Bessner, Simon picked up
the gun, ran to Linnet’s cabin, shot her, and then came back to the lounge and shot himself in
the leg, throwing the gun overboard before anyone came back. Dr. Bessner then examined him
and confirmed that his wound left him unable to have left the lounge.
Before the murder, Jacqueline or Simon drugged Poirot’s usual bottle of wine, ensuring that
he would sleep through the night so he will not participate in the event.
All is not well, for Louise Bourget, the maid, saw Simon enter and leave Linnet’s cabin. She
blackmailed Simon and demanded money for hushing her up. But Simon told Jacqueline about
it privately. Jacqueline entered Louise’s cabin and stabbed her. However, Mrs. Otterbourne saw
Jacqueline entering the maid’s door. She came to Simon and Poirot to tell what she saw, but
Simon yelled at Mrs. Otterbourne in a voice loud enough for Jacqueline to hear it — who acted
quickly and shot Mrs. Otterbourne.
Confronted, Simon and Jacqueline confess to the plot. Jacqueline says that she and Simon
have always been in love, and Simon never cared for Linnet, even when she tried to steal him
away from Jacqueline. Jacqueline tells Poirot that the idea of murdering Linnet for her money
was Simon’s, but she planned it, knowing Simon was not smart enough to pull it off by himself.
As the passengers are disembarking, Jacqueline reveals a second pistol, which she hid in
Rosalie Otterbourne’s cabin, and kills both Simon and herself, sparing them both from more
gruesome and humiliating deaths. Poirot confesses that he knew about the second pistol, and
wanted to give Jacqueline the chance to take a more humane way out.
In addition to Tim and Rosalie, there is another unexpected love match: Cornelia Robson
accepts Dr. Bessner’s proposal, to the stupefaction of Mr. Ferguson, who had been courting her,
in his own uncouth way, during the whole trip.
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