3x03, "Always Crashing In The Same Car"

[hawkwing_lb]

I'm personally a little more frightened of her twin, Mrs. Hettie Wainthropp http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0127376/). Not only is she the sweet little old lady who can make you do anything she wants you to, but she knows everything!

...Even more terrifying.

(I'd never heard of that. I can see I should take a closer look at Mrs. Wainthropp.)

[Korvar]

There is of course the common notion that these gentlewoman sleuths are in fact causing the deaths happening all around them.  There's a Gamma for you.

[DavidG]

There is of course the common notion that these gentlewoman sleuths are in fact causing the deaths happening all around them.  There's a Gamma for you.

We don't expect the Anomaly to be subtle. That's a downright sneaky mythology.

[AndrewJ]

There is of course the common notion that these gentlewoman sleuths are in fact causing the deaths happening all around them.  There's a Gamma for you.

We don't expect the Anomaly to be subtle. That's a downright sneaky mythology.

As good an explanation for the outrageous homicide rates in St. Mary Mead and Crabapple Cove as any.

[ebony14]

There is of course the common notion that these gentlewoman sleuths are in fact causing the deaths happening all around them.  There's a Gamma for you.

We don't expect the Anomaly to be subtle. That's a downright sneaky mythology.

As good an explanation for the outrageous homicide rates in St. Mary Mead and Crabapple Cove as any.

Is the murder rate high in St. Mary Mead? I'm not as much of a fan of Miss Marple as I could be, but most of the mysteries seem to be away from St. Mary Mead in my experience. Not necessarily far away, but nonetheless not always in that little village.

And as for Crabapple Cove, well there was a reason why it's been referred to as "Murder, She Caused."

And then, of course, is this learned man's opinion:

"Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these dear old homesteads?"
     "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside."
     "You horrify me!"
     "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser."

Dr. John Watson and Sherlock Holmes, "The Copper Beeches"

[MadGastronomer]

I thought it was Cabot Cove.

[DavidG]

Is the murder rate high in St. Mary Mead? I'm not as much of a fan of Miss Marple as I could be, but most of the mysteries seem to be away from St. Mary Mead in my experience. Not necessarily far away, but nonetheless not always in that little village.

A fair point, but for a truly horrific murder rate, there's always Midsomer....

('Midsomer Murders' is set in countryside much like St Mary Mead even today, and it often seems like there's never less than five deaths in an episode) )

[Edmund Schweppe]

I thought it was Cabot Cove.

Crabapple Cove was the hometown of M*A*S*H's Hawkeye Pierce.

[Felicia1066]

Is the murder rate high in St. Mary Mead? I'm not as much of a fan of Miss Marple as I could be, but most of the mysteries seem to be away from St. Mary Mead in my experience. Not necessarily far away, but nonetheless not always in that little village.

A fair point, but for a truly horrific murder rate, there's always Midsomer....

('Midsomer Murders' is set in countryside much like St Mary Mead even today, and it often seems like there's never less than five deaths in an episode) )

And they're all solved by the same man! Or his wife solves them, by making some domestic comment that makes his brain click. Or their daughter stumbles across the solution while doing something completely unrelated. Seriously, is there a more predictably repetitive series anywhere?

[glinda_w]

A fair point, but for a truly horrific murder rate, there's always Midsomer....

('Midsomer Murders' is set in countryside much like St Mary Mead even today, and it often seems like there's never less than five deaths in an episode) )

Another horrific murder rate is that in Oxford, while Inspector Morse is involved.

[Korvar]

A fair point, but for a truly horrific murder rate, there's always Midsomer....

('Midsomer Murders' is set in countryside much like St Mary Mead even today, and it often seems like there's never less than five deaths in an episode) )

Another horrific murder rate is that in Oxford, while Inspector Morse is involved.

Given that the murder rate hasn't declined with his death, either his partner, Lewis, was the Gamma all along, or the Anomaly can be passed on... 

According to actual Oxford residents, Morse had the ability to teleport randomly around Oxford*, so clearly there were some Anomalous shenanigans afoot...

*not because the production company just picked the sites that looked good without regard to how they were or were not connected, nope

[ebony14]

Is the murder rate high in St. Mary Mead? I'm not as much of a fan of Miss Marple as I could be, but most of the mysteries seem to be away from St. Mary Mead in my experience. Not necessarily far away, but nonetheless not always in that little village.

A fair point, but for a truly horrific murder rate, there's always Midsomer....

('Midsomer Murders' is set in countryside much like St Mary Mead even today, and it often seems like there's never less than five deaths in an episode) )

Or Morse and Lewis' Oxford, which apparently has a higher crime rate than London, proving that a high concentration of tenured academics in any one place is probably dangerous.

[eschatonic]

Is the murder rate high in St. Mary Mead? I'm not as much of a fan of Miss Marple as I could be, but most of the mysteries seem to be away from St. Mary Mead in my experience. Not necessarily far away, but nonetheless not always in that little village.

A fair point, but for a truly horrific murder rate, there's always Midsomer....

('Midsomer Murders' is set in countryside much like St Mary Mead even today, and it often seems like there's never less than five deaths in an episode) )

Or Morse and Lewis' Oxford, which apparently has a higher crime rate than London, proving that a high concentration of tenured academics in any one place is probably dangerous.

I was going to say something snarky about tenured academics and libraries and L-space but instead I got to thinking ... has anybody run the statistics on this? It seems like Our Heroes get more cases in rural and small-town areas than a strict random distribution through the population should imply. The vast majority of serial killers, after all, live in urban areas. Because most Americans live in urban areas. Academics don't seem to deter the Anomaly (we've had two on college campuses) but maybe very large concentrations of people act as a deterrent?

[DavidG]

It seems like Our Heroes get more cases in rural and small-town areas than a strict random distribution through the population should imply.

The Anomaly is rarely subtle, and conventional cops can take down a Gamma, if possibly at a cost. Big cities have big police departments, small towns have smaller, less capable ones. Maybe it's the same thing we see in TV representations of the guys down the hall and the WTF get a non-representative sample of cases because it's more often the small-town forces that need their help rather than the big cities.

Or maybe Holmes is right, and the countryside gives the Anomaly the space and privacy it needs to flourish and ultimately offers a more fruitful hunting ground than the city. And of course a murder in a small, closely knit community causes more grief and anguish than one in the anonymity of the big city, and the Anomaly appears to have a liking for suffering.

[joeln]

So I liked this one a bunch since it was very creepy and the gamma's POV? wow wierd!
Then I decided to read it to my wife and daughter cause - SU is cool, and it's not super gory so my daughter could handle it.
Well as I'm maybe 1/4 the way in my wife says "Is this written by a man?"
And having not paid attention, but thinking - 'most of SU is written by women' I say "no."
then a while later she says "are you sure, I think it's written by a man who has issues with controlling women"
Finally at the end I check and say "Oh, sorry I was wrong, it was written by a man."

Then she goes into this thing about "That's why you chose this one, because you're subtly reminded of how you see me as controlling..."
The whole deal was funny, finally she gets it that I really just wanted to turn them on to SU with an episode that my daughter could handle.

Anyway  - thanks Will!