For Death Prepare is the fifth episode of the twenty-second series of Midsomer Murders.
When a body is found in the prop treasure chest during a rehearsal of The Pirates of Penzance with the Midsomer Mummers Amateur Opera Society, Barnaby and Winter are called in. As the body count rises, can they find the killer before the final curtain drops.
Tropes:
- AB Negative: A suspect at the playhouse certifies another singer is his biological daughter because her presumed father has the AB Negative blood type and she is O.
- Affably Evil: The killer is an otherwise kind man who cares for birds and volunteers for his local theater group. When Sarah Barnaby accidentally comes face to face with him when he's on the run from Barnaby and Winter, he just politely asks her to step aside so he can say goodbye to his mother.
- The Dog Bites Back:
- The killer's entire motive for his murders. Having learned that he's dying, he decides to exact revenge on all the people who ruined his life. This includes his former boss whose deliberate disregard for safety is the reason the killer is dying, the landlady who worked his mother to death then evicted her, his lifelong bully, and finally his former teacher who refused to give him the help he needed to overcome his dyslexia.
- He also torments his abusive father who's been stricken by a stroke, although he doesn't actually kill his father.
- Hidden Depths: The killer turns out be an excellent singer, which nobody knew about because no one bothered to get to know him.
- Karmic Death: The killer specifically suffocates his former boss in his revenge, as the condition he's developed due to his boss' negligence means he will eventually die the same way. The killer refers to it as "poetic".
- Shout-Out: The name of the character Dr. Simon Charteris is a reference to the character "The Saint," Simon Templar, and his creator, novelist Leslie Charteris.
- Surprise Incest: Phoebe Whittingdale and Luke Dunlow become attracted to each other and plan to leave their village to travel the world. But one of the problems they face is Luke's father, Marcus, acting like he's creepily attracted to Phoebe while also trying to prevent Luke from leaving with her. At the end, Marcus explains what's really going on: he once had an affair with Phoebe's mother nine months before she was born and he always wondered if he was her biological father. Once Luke became attracted to her, Marcus broke into the local medical clinic to learn her blood type which ultimately confirmed his suspicions that he is indeed. Hence why he'd being trying to break up their relationship and also get to know her.
