He then poisoned Mark, Mark's second wife Hermia and Inspector Sean Pertwee with varying degrees of success (and varying degrees of plausible motive, tbh). Osborne killed Jessie to cover his tracks, and because she thought he was doing jobs on the side without her. Jessie thought Osborne had sent her to the Pale Horse without telling her. So why was Mark Easterbrook on Jessie's list? Because his first wife, Delphine, had visited the fortune tellers and spoken of her troubles – hence the question mark next to his name. Osborne would then poison the victims indetectably with thallium and collect the cash. His associate Jessie attended the Pale Horse and listened out for hints as to the obstacles in question. If they replied, he instructed them to go to the Pale Horse in Much Deeping and talk to the fortune tellers there (who were, initially, oblivious to the scheme, being merely harmless fortune tellers). He read about people in the newspaper who seemed likely candidates to want 'obstacles' removed, and wrote to them offering his services. Osborne had hit upon a scheme whereby he could make money from killing (which we get the impression he'd quite happily pursue as a hobby even if he weren't getting paid). This is key to the rest of the mystery, which was finally solved when Mark confronted supposed fellow-victim, the handyman Osborne. He wanted her money and someone had offered to 'remove the obstacle' in his way. Not just the murder solutions, but an apparently supernatural twist at the very end, too.įirst, we found out that Aunt Clemency was killed by Mark's godson, David Ardingly. Many viewers were confused by the ending. Like Phelps' other BBC adaptations, including The ABC Murders and And Then There Were None, it was a dark, grown-up look at the murder business.īut it wasn't without its problems. The Pale Horse was another triumphant bit of revisionist Agatha Christie from Sarah Phelps, bringing a level of sinister, eldritch paranoia to what could have been a dusty old whodunnit.

The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie