The Eye of Apollo is the fifth episode of the first season of Father Brown.
When the Church of Apollo comes to Kembleford, Susie is drawn to their charismatic leader, Kalon. After Kalon's wife is murdered, Father Brown must break his spell over Susie or risk losing her forever.
Tropes:
- Adaptation Deviation: Has very little resemblance to the original story's plot aside from Kalon and a woman falling to her death.
- Adaptational Dumbass: Kalon's scheme is rather less clever than the original story.
- Cold Reading: Father Brown accurately pegs this as part of the methodology of Kalon, the leader of the cult-like Church of Apollo. Unfortunately, it manages to work on Suzie, who has been feeling particularly vulnerable, prompting Father Brown and Sid to try and extract her from Kalon's clutches.
- Evil Counterpart / Fundamentalist: Kalon is this for Father Brown. Both are devout men of faith, but where Father Brown believes in reason, is kind-hearted and sincere, puts the well-being of his parishioners first and cares only about Suzie's well-being throughout the episode, Kalon is a blind fanatic, is smug and duplicitous, is devoted to his church to the point where he is willing to sacrifice others to protect it, and lusts after Suzie and wants her for himself.
- If Jesus, Then Aliens: Members of the sun-and-astral-spirit worshipping Church of Apollo challenge Father Brown that, as a Catholic priest, he should be open-minded towards the possibility of otherworldly phenomenon of the type they preach. Father Brown points out that there is a distinction between what is possible and what is probable.
- Light Is Not Good / Dark Is Not Evil: Kalon, the sinister cult-leader, wears beautiful and pristine white robes, in contrast to Father Brown's scruffy black cassock.
- Locked Room Mystery: The leader's wife is killed after being thrown out of the window of a locked room. In reality, the room was not locked at all. That was just a ruse the leader came up with so he could send Father Brown away to fetch the key, giving him enough time to get in the room, throw the victim to her death, and leave the room in time for Father Brown to return.
- Murder the Hypotenuse: Kalon's motive; he offed his 'astral partner' so that he could run off into the sunset with Suzie.
- Stepping Out for a Quick Cup of Coffee: Done verbatim by Inspector Valentine to let Father Brown look at Kalon's police file.
- Touché: A silent one during the verbal duel between Father Brown and Kalon. After Father Brown insists the falsehood of a central tenet of Kalon's religion, the cult leader's immediate comeback causes Brown to adopt a facial expression that could only suggest this.Father Brown: There are no astral spirits!!
Kalon: Says the man who believes in virgin births.
Father Brown: [lengthy pause, with a touché look on his face] ...sorry.- There is a double meaning to this example, however, since Father Brown also says this before delivering Kalon with conclusive proof that his religion actually is based on nothing more than the delusions of a fevered and damaged mind. Kalon's religious symbol, which be believes to have been delivered to him by the aforementioned astral spirits, is in fact based on nothing more than his confused reaction to a doctor's stethoscope while under medical treatment for a wartime head injury.
- Wham Episode: This episode is a great deal more intense and darker than most of the other episodes in the series.
