Aspiring magician Neville Griffin (Reece Shearsmith) lures Willy Wondo (Steve Pemberton) to his storage container in hopes of buying his latest trick, a "levitating chair" act. When Willy reveals that he is planning to go on cruise ships with the act, Neville murders Willy. A decade later, journalist and aspiring magician Gabriel (Fionn Whitehead) meets with Neville, now wealthy and famous on the back of the act, in the storage locker to discuss his career. But watch carefully — because as with all good magic tricks, nothing here is as it seems...
This episode contains examples of:
- Advertised Extra: Steve Pemberton is in one scene, and Tom Goodman Hill is also in just one scene. Pemberton was advertised as a protagonist of this episode.
- Alliterative Name: Willy Wondo.
- Batman Gambit: Gabriel's plan relies on Neville being so keen to "school" Gabriel on his magic tricks that he misses the bigger picture (as well as tricking him into handling the real razor blade), then being curious enough to find out what he was writing down earlier, then becoming sufficiently obsessed with the idea of there being a Mountweazel in Willy's trick to open the safe (and that he'd turn off the CCTV before doing so), and finally his being unwilling to admit the truth to the police officer because doing so would require him to admit killing Willy and stealing his work.
- Bedsheet Ghost: Parodied. There are no actual ghosts, but Neville murders Willy by forcing the sheet over his head so that he stumbles around, resembling one very closely, before being beheaded, and Neville wears a bedsheet when the police come to arrest him for his wife's murder to represent their role reversal.
- Better Manhandle the Murder Weapon: Neville is tricked into handling the murder weapon before the murder has taken place, and it is later discovered in his safe which only he knows the combination to, still covered with his wife's blood and his own fingerprints.
- Cannot Spit It Out: Neville falls victim to a particularly dark example of this at the end, when being questioned by the police over his wife's murder. He initially goes to defend himself and his whereabouts by pointing out his security cameras, only to realise a split-second too late that he not only turned them off but had the footage deleted, and furthermore that he cannot explain why he did so without revealing his meeting with Gabriel and, by extension, his role in Willy's death. His stammering, off-guard performance only serves to deepen the detective's suspicions towards him.
- Chekhov's Classroom: Inverted. When Gabriel, acting loosely as a "student", shows Neville his trick, Neville is extremely smug about laying out exactly how Gabriel's plan failed...which is exactly what Gabriel was counting on, so that in his hurry to "school" Gabriel, Neville would completely miss the implications of what his real plan was.
- Chekhov's Gun: The ring and the razor.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Willy mentions in the prologue that he has a grandson and performs tricks at his birthday parties. This ties in with the Foreshadowing of Gabriel mentioning his granddad being a guiding figure for him.
- Compartment Shot: The final shot of the episode, shot from inside the safe, revealing the bloody razor blade as Neville is escorted off in the background.
- Delayed Reaction: When the police detective informs Neville of his wife's murder, it doesn't fully sink in at first, and Neville responds in a slightly distracted fashion at first until it hits, at which point he blurts out "Wait, what?!" Though it's genuine shock, the detective clearly notes his initial lack of response and finds it suspicious.
- Distant Prologue: The opening scene takes place nine years before the rest of the episode.
- Double Meaning: Neville's last words in the episode: "Yes, of course. I see now." The detective thinks he's accepting his arrest quietly, but he's actually talking to himself / Gabriel, revealing that he's realised just how successfully Gabriel has set him up and how screwed he is.
- Evil vs. Evil: Neville cold-bloodedly killed Willy so he could steal his trick. Gabriel is motivated by love, as he knows Neville killed Willy, his grandfather, but he still killed an innocent woman just so he could frame Neville for it.
- Exact Words: When Gabriel asks Neville if anybody else knew of the trick, the latter replies with "not a living soul".
- Fiery Cover Up: Neville burns Willy's old notes after Gabriel boasts that he is onto him.
- Flashback-Montage Realization: When Neville finally realises Gabriel's true gambit when opening his safe for the police detective.
- Framing the Guilty Party: The version where Gabriel frames Neville, who killed his grandfather, for another crime (the murder of his wife). Invoked also in that Neville gets framed because he thought Gabriel was framing him for the crime that he actually did commit.
- Have You Told Anyone Else?: In the prologue, Neville asks Willy if anyone else knew of the chair raising trick which the latter denies. It's his death sentence. What Willy didn't tell Neville was that his will makes a mention of the chair trick which ten years down the line is going to bite Neville in the ass.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Neville shuts down his security camera in order to avoid being recorded destroying the evidence of his plagiarism, which also prevents it from recording his interview with Gabriel and thus deprives him of his alibi for his wife's murder.
- Hollywood Satanism: Jennie thinks Neville's outfit makes him look like "a devil-worshipper" and tells him he should dress more casually for his interview, which he refuses to do.
- Homage: The episode is mostly one to Sleuth. It also references Columbo, and specifically an episode which involved a conflict between two magicians, one of whom killed the other with a rigged guillotine as Neville eventually does to Willy (a Shout-Out to the latter is included in-episode).
- Humble Goal: Despite being told that his "Chair-Raising Experience" could make him world-famous, Willy simply wants to be able to perform for Gabriel and get hired to work cruise ships for part of the year. Neville isn't impressed.
- Impossibly Awesome Magic Trick:
Word of God confirmed that the chair trick that Neville steals from Willy is, as far as they know, impossible. However, the way Willy talks about it (and the fact Neville is able to replicate it) confirms it is a trick. - I Never Said It Was Poison: When Gabriel mentions that his grandfather disappeared, Neville says that Willy must have "taken his secrets to the grave." Gabriel instantly replies that he never said his grandfather was dead. (Which is a little disingenuous, as he replied to a question about whether he was still alive with a story about being visited by his lawyers with a bequest... but it's ominous enough to make Neville paranoid.)
- Kansas City Shuffle: Neville knew he was being scammed by Gabriel but was misled about the true scam.
- Karma Houdini: Gabriel succeeds in framing Neville for murder and gets away with it.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Neville murders Willy to steal his act, effectively covers it up, and becomes famous off the back of it. He ends the story under arrest having been framed for the murder of his own wife, in such a way that he can't prove himself innocent without revealing his murder of Willy.
- Magician Detective: Gabriel is revealed to be one...kind of. He came to Neville because he'd figured out that Neville stole from Willy, and he plays one in his meeting with Neville. However, played with in that Gabriel never planned nor expected that he'd be able to reveal that Neville killed Willy - his plan was to frame Neville for another murder, that Gabriel himself committed.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: While Neville's tarot card trick that he performs for Gabriel is explicitly just a trick, its prophecy does appear to come true; Gabriel says the Hierophant card could refer to his grandfather, which is revealed to be why he's there, the Scales of Justice card presumably refers to his plan to avenge his grandfather's murder, Neville's remark that "we all know they can't be trusted" in explanation of the Magician card is strangely prescient given the circumstances, and the Death card never said it would be Gabriel's death in the future...
- Minimalist Cast: Five speaking characters, three of whom only appear for one or two scenes, making much of the episode a two-hander between Neville and Gabriel.
- Morton's Fork: Neville is presented with the choice of wrongly being charged with (and presumably convicted of) murdering his wife, or admitting to murdering Willy and stealing his trick, and thus being convicted of that crime on top of his public reputation being destroyed. He's already admitted that he considers being exposed as a plagiarist to be "worse than murder".
- Necro Cam: Neville reviews Gabriel's trick via swift flashbacks announced with a woosh sound and an overexposure effect.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: "Stupidity" might be a bit far, but Gabriel pretends to be much brasher and more obvious in seeking justice for Willy, his grandfather, so that he can deceive Neville with his real plan.
- Off with His Head!: When Neville's initial attempts to kill Willy fail, he finishes the job with a guillotine (presumably used in his magic act).
- Oh, Crap!: A very subtle example, but Neville spends much of the final scene being progressively thrown off guard by the various revelations concerning his wife's murder and becoming increasingly shaken until he realises, seconds too late as he's already entering in the combination, exactly what he's going to find planted in his safe.
- Out-Gambitted: Gabriel out-tricks Neville.
- Out of Focus: Steve Pemberton's character is a relatively small part (at least in terms of screentime), only appearing in the first scene.
- Palm Bloodletting: Gabriel does it as part of his trick. Though it's fake and the blood is actually released from inside the knife blade.
- Paranoia Gambit: Gabriel gets Neville to open his safe and burn his notes by feeding him the mountweazel clue.
- Passing the Torch: Willy seemingly planned to do this, having made an arrangement with his lawyer to pass on his book of tricks to Gabriel as an adult.
- Phoneaholic Teenager: Parodied and invoked. Gabriel pretends to be one, but it's only because the phone is part of his act - and not in the way Neville expects, either.
- Plot-Triggering Death: Willy's death triggers the plot which unfolds ten years after.
- Punny Name: Willy Wondo sounds a lot like Willy Wonka.
- Rasputinian Death: Willy initially survived being repeatedly battered, strangled, and choked until Neville finished him off with the guillotine.
- Riddle for the Ages: It's never made clear if Willy really did hide a catch in the plan of his trick so that nobody could steal it, or if this was just a lie from Gabriel that he knew would tip Neville over into paranoia.
- Romance on the Set: Neville and Jennie met while she was working as his assistant.
- Saw a Woman in Half: Neville is seen rehearsing this with Jennie.
- Shout-Out: Columbo is referenced when Jennie explains the idea of a Mountweazel to Neville; one of these was the centre of a real-world lawsuit between the writers of an encyclopedia who used an entry with a fake first name for the detective, and the makers of Trivial Pursuit, who used the entry as an answer. The episode partly homages an episode of the series where a stage magician kills a rival using a rigged guillotine.
- Stage Magician: Both Neville and Willy qualify, although Neville is infuriated that Willy only wants to perform magic on cruise ships rather than becoming famous.
- Tarot Motifs: Used when Neville gives Gabriel a tarot card reading.
- Villain Protagonist: The episode follows Neville Griffin, a murderer and plagiarist.
- Whole-Plot Reference: The episode is a homage to Sleuth, being about two men — one an arrogant and manipulative creative professional working in a medium involving tricks, misdirections and suspense, the other a younger man with a relationship to someone from the older man's past — engaging in a cat-and-mouse game of wits and manipulation with each other where nothing is as it seems, presented largely as a two-hander.
- Writing Indentation Clue: Neville reveals Gabriel's "mountweazel" clue via this trick.
- You Do Not Have to Say Anything: At the end, the detective reads Neville the rights while cuffing him up.
- You Killed My Father: A version; Neville killed Gabriel's grandfather.
- Your Door Was Open: The detective's excuse for intruding.
