The Witches of Angel Ridge is the sixth episode of the twenty-second series of Midsomer Murders and first aired 3rd October 2021.
Barnaby and Winter have to step into the world of spirituality, when the body of Tilly Mulroney is found surrounded by ritual symbols on the first night of the Angel’s Rise Psychic Fayre. Simeon Dagley soon falls under suspicion when it turns out that one of his Tarot cards was found beside Tilly’s body, but a while later, Simeon is as well found murdered, hanging upside down from a tree in the woodland. It transpires that Simeon may have figured out the identity of Tilly’s murderer, by looking at his Tarot cards. DCI Barnaby soon learns the truth about the previous death of Bea Saint-Stephens, and he realises that her passing may be the key to the murder case.
Tropes:
- Audible Sharpness: When Tilly is killed the sacrificial knife makes the usual *ping* when the killer unsheathes it.
- Eating the Eye Candy: Suspect Sally-Ann accidentally throws a bucket of water on DCI Winter and his white dress shirt is immediately soaked through, Sally stands and takes in his visible chest and ab muscles. In the next scene Sally-Ann's business partner Sarah does not hide it either as she also stares at Winter's visible chest making him uncomfortable.
- Foreshadowing: When Hattie Bainbridge first meets Barnaby, she stuns him by casually talking about how he is anxious about Paddy's health (which he had never mentioned) before admitting that she knew because she'd already spoken to Sarah. Later on, it comes out that for some time at least she's been using information gathered from gossip and spying to keep up the illusion of her psychic gift.
- Magical Seventh Son: Invoked but then subverted. Medical examiner Fleur Perkins reveals she is the seventh child of a seventh child, but she doesn't have "the gift" so she became a doctor.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Hattie Bainbridge is able to tell the killer has Fleur captive without seeing it but it's not clear if it's from her psychic power or not. The episode seems to suggest she is channeling a spirit. Also Barnaby is able to figure out the murderer's identity from a Tarot reading.
- Phony Psychic: Hattie Bainbridge admits that she has resorted to information gathered by moles due to, in her words, her gift no longer coming through for her. This plays into the Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane situation at the end where she is able to talk down the murderer with the use of his dead lover's pet name for him: did she genuinely make contact with the dead lover or was this another titbit picked up from her moles?
- Tarot Motifs: The first Victim of the Week has her cards drawn for her at the start of the episode. She is found with The Devil card on her body. The Tower card also figures into the episode as a tall tower is the scene of her death. The second murder victim is hanged upside down to match the "The Hanged Man" card.
