The Prize of Colonel Gerard is the eighth episode of the second season of Father Brown.
Father Brown is unconvinced when a recently returned prisoner of war is suspected of killing his tyrannical uncle, and it seems that someone will stop at nothing to keep the priest from the truth.
Tropes:
- Cassandra Truth: Edward is convinced that his uncle, the titular Colonel, delibrately engineered the climbing accident which claimed his father's life. The Colonel uses his final words to confess that he did push his brother, and
enjoyed his dying screams. - The Exiles: Edward and Jia-Li become these after Jia-Li murders Gerard rather than submitting to being his mistress. She and Edward, who had fallen in love with each other, flee Britain with forged passports. Father Brown, satisfied that Jia-Li was truly repentant for killing Gerard, turns a blind eye to their escape.
- Let Off by the Detective: Edward and Jia-Li flee Britain with forged passports after Jia-Li murders Gerard rather than submitting to being his mistress. Father Brown, satisfied that Jia-Li was truly repentant for killing Gerard, turns a blind eye to their escape.
- Not Blood Siblings: Jia-Li and Edward. Jia-Li is Gerard's adopted daughter and Edward is his nephew and stepson: Gerard having married his brother's widow. The pair fall in love and run off after Jia-Lai murders Gerard.
- Obfuscating Insanity: Father Brown compares Edward to Hamlet, suggesting that like the Melancholy Dane, Edward was pretending to be insane as part of his plan to avenge his father. Edward believed that his uncle Gerard killed his father and seduced his mother. Turns out he was right.
- Shout-Out to Shakespeare: Father Brown compares Edward to Hamlet, suggesting that like the Melancholy Dane, Edward was pretending to be insane as part of his plan to avenge his father. Edward believed that his uncle Gerard killed his father and seduced his mother. Turns out he was right.
- Tampering with Food and Drink: Colonel is Edward is arrested after Gerard dies from exotic poisoning, with the whiskers of his own trophy tiger, having openly threatened during another bitter row. Later, Father Brown is seemingly poisoned by the same method, with the tiger whiskers being added to his soup.
- Whodunnit to Me?: Father Brown was evidently poisoned by cut-up tiger whiskers in his fish soup, and insisted on finishing the murder investigation, declaring that he was beyond hope and at least he can could function until he died. Turns out he didn't eat the soup; he was faking because he reasoned that the killer was a person of conscience as he (or as it turned out, she) had researched a possible cure for the poison and even offered it to Father Brown.
- Wife Husbandry: Gerard made it clear to Jia-Li, his Chinese-born adopted daughter, that he only brought her to England so that, once she was old enough, she would become his mistress, and even planned to have his nephew Edward committed to an asylum when he found out the truth. Jia-Li and Edward, by this time, were in love with each other, and Jia-Li murdered Gerard rather than submit to his desires.
