Channel 4’s latest thriller drama series, Patience, may seem like a seasonal mystery at first, but halfway into the show, the case gets solved, and from there on, detective Bea Metcalfe and police archivist Patience Evans solve four more cases. That, of course, makes it a procedural—one of those mismatched partners detective shows. The show is, of course, a remake of the popular French show Astrid et Raphaelle, about an autistic archivist solving cases with a police detective. One thing Patience got very much right, though, is the casting of autistic actress Ella Maisy Purvis in the title role. In this article, we’re going to look into each of the cases solved in the first season of Patience.
Spoilers Ahead
Who killed Dr. Chopra?
Patience begins with an anxious-looking middle-aged man withdrawing eight thousand pounds out of his bank. He then dumps the money in a trash can before going to a parking lot and setting himself on fire—which obviously kills him.
The man is later recognized as psychiatrist Aadesh Chopra, who was not exactly a happy-go-lucky person but didn’t have much reason to do himself in, as his wife describes. Soon we have detective Bea Metcalfe looking into the case. She is only doing it because her boss, Baxter, has requested her to do so; otherwise, she believes the death was a suicide. However, thanks to archivist Patience Evans, Bea realizes that Dr. Chopra might not be the only person who has committed suicide inexplicably. Two other doctors, Neil Jamieson and Brendan Clarke, also killed themselves without any apparent reason. Both of them were also psychiatrists, just like Dr. Chopra, and all three of them killed themselves on Friday the fourth, without any apparent reason. Jamieson, in fact, killed himself in a hotel right after his child was born, and according to his wife, he was quite ecstatic about the baby. Clarke, on the other hand, happened to be the psychiatrist who’d once misdiagnosed Patience. When the police discover that Patience has visited the parking lot where Dr. Chopra died, they bring her in for questioning. That doesn’t hold up as they (and us) soon realize she’s just a true crime enthusiast person on the spectrum. The show doesn’t do much when it comes to the aspect of its lead being autistic. I mean, other than her being neurodivergent and fidgety, there isn’t anything substantial. This is not a criticism, but an observation, by the way.
Anyway, Patience does have the skill of analyzing things, and she has a penchant for solving puzzles. It doesn’t take long for Bea and her to find the link between the three deaths—a cigar that might have been laced with scopolamine, a substance that make you very open to suggestion (basically puts you under a spell) once you inhale it. And it’s often not traceable, as you can’t detect it inside a dead body once seventy-two hours have gone by.
What really happened, though? Well, it’s quite unimaginable. The three doctors went to a medical conference in Belize, arranged by this guy James Cooper—real name Jamie Copre—who was also there. The four of them picked up an underage waitress, Violetta, to serve them drinks at a yacht, but they clearly had other things in mind. It is never revealed whether the murder of Violetta was intentional or not, but considering these were rich and powerful men, they had no problems getting away with it. Violetta’s identical twin sister, Yemaya, however, found blood on the boat (don’t ask me how sloppy these doctors were to not clean up properly), and that put her on a path of revenge. Violetta was planning to go to the UK to study before the tragedy. Yemaya came instead of her, took the job at the hotel—which Jamieson frequented—and all she had to do was make sure he lit the cigar. She also happens to be a worshipper of this Spanish deity of fire called Chango—whose special day is Friday and special number is four. We don’t get to know how Yemaya killed the other two doctors, but considering the method, it didn’t seem to be hard. Although her attempt at murdering Cooper turns out to be rushed—it is not even on a Friday the fourth, she only does that because her plan now is to flee the country after getting done with the revenge. That also becomes her reason for getting caught by the police. Of course, without Patience, Yemaya would have gotten away without anyone knowing anything.
Murder at the Museum
Museum worker Emily Barrett’s body is discovered at her workplace by a colleague. The police are called to the scene, and thanks to Patience, it is soon established that Emily drowned. The only problem is that she was found dead at the museum, and her clothes are not at all wet – so how does everything add up?
In the general course of the investigation, it is found out that Emily had a fossil trafficker ex-boyfriend, Peter, who visited the museum on the day of her death. Patience also stumbles upon a fossil in Emily’s apartment, which further leads to the theory that Peter might have killed his ex because he once allegedly went to prison for her. But things are usually never how they look in a show like this. It is always the person who you suspect the least, or don’t suspect at all. In this case, that happens to be the museum curator himself—Raymond Star. The man appears to be nice and cooperative from the very beginning. Patience finds out he has a speeding ticket on the day of Emily’s death, but that obviously doesn’t prove that he did it. Well, the man himself admits that he got the speeding ticket after having a scuffle with Emily near a waterbuoy, where he ended up pushing her into the water. Emily returned to the museum, but the water she inhaled became the cause of her death. Raymond’s motive behind killing his employee was nothing but jealousy—she made a groundbreaking discovery and took it to him in good faith. But the man couldn’t accept that his female employee had managed to do something that he couldn’t in all these years. So he went on to take the credit by arranging an interview for himself. Quite naturally, Emily was not happy with it, and in the end, she paid the price.
Does Patience manage to solve the locked room mystery?
Harry Franklin, who’s Patience’s favorite writer, died in his room, bolted shut from the inside. There was nobody in the flat and no way anyone could have entered. Patience is elated upon finding a locked room mystery, and in no time, she deduces how Harry Franklin died—he was poisoned through an ice cube. Obviously somebody made sure the ice got inside Harry’s home, which practically guaranteed his death—he was going to make a drink at some point.
The reason behind Harry’s death is quite preposterous. I’m going to try breaking it down as simply as possible. The Fortnum novels, which made Harry popular, are actually written by his writer friend, Edmund Lenox. But Lenox was not doing Harry any favors. Years ago, he killed a girl, Lisa, because he couldn’t take rejection. The same girl was into Harry, and the attraction was mutual. She was also a writer, and all of them were at a retreat along with another writer, Aldus Tate. To cover up the murder, Lenox burnt the cabin down, and Harry suffered permanent burn scars—which was also the reason for him remaining reclusive. Whatever Lenox did for Harry was out of guilt. But when Harry signed with a new publisher about writing a memoir, Lenox got scared as he thought Harry now knew the truth and he was going to out him. The reason behind his suspicion was Aldus Tate meeting Harry. In reality, Harry believed it was Tate who was responsible for Lisa’s death, and all he was going to reveal was that he never wrote the Fortnum novels. Basically, Lenox killed his friend for no reason, and that’s that.
Dead Man Walking
Paul Thompson is dead; his body lies in the morgue, ready to be embalmed. He was a young man who used to work at AFT, a food product company. There hasn’t been an autopsy yet because the pathologist Charlie Di Marco has broken his hand. Charlie is a friend of Bea’s boss, Baxter. Paul, on the other hand, is the elder brother of Patience’s friend, Billy—who’s also on the spectrum. They met at an AA meeting. This story really kicks in when the mortician, Frank, takes a break, and upon returning, he discovers Paul’s body is missing.
Does that mean Paul is alive? Very much so. He’s also lucky to have survived after eating a fish that had the poisonous tetrodotoxin (people do survive if it’s cooked right, though in this case it was purposefully undercooked). Thankfully for Paul, drunkard mortician Frank doesn’t sew up his eyes and mouth, and during the embalming process, puts quite a bit of activated charcoal in his system. That revives him—I am not quite sure about the science here, so I cannot tell how authentic the show is. Anyway, Paul is now in hiding, and a man has been found in his flat by Patience and Billy. The man, Davidson, is also an employee of AFT. The pathologist’s daughter, Anita, is on the board of the company, by the way. AFT has just won a case where they were being blamed for putting certain toxic additives in their food products. The event where Paul ate the fish was actually a celebration.
The police go through the footage of the event, and we realize that Paul was not quite happy. He was, in fact, very much against how the company won the case wrongfully. Quite naturally, company CEO Bethan Porter was not happy about it. So she had chef Mason Janer take care of the matter. Despite being a celebrated chef, Mason had a criminal record. In fact that’s the reason he gets caught while trying to kill Paul and Patience. The case turns out to be quite the traumatizing experience for Patience, by the way.
What happened on the bus?
Did they save the best for last? Not quite, I would say. But the final case turns out to be very challenging for Bea and Patience, and quite complicated for the viewers. So, I’m just going to simplify what we saw here. A man suddenly drops dead on a bus. The cause of death is anthrax, and he contracted it through a vaping device he was carrying. DI Bea also gets infected after getting on the bus during the investigation. For the most part of the episode, we see DS Jake and Patience investigating. The two of them have been quite uncomfortable with each other, but that changes from here.
What really happened here? The man who died may be identified as Roland Mitchell, but he’s actually Tyler Rose. Guy was deep undercover for the Counter Terrorist Force. Zara Blackwood, head of CTF, constantly tries to stop the investigation. Bea even gets suspended. That only makes sense in the end, given Blackwood herself is behind the murder of Tyler. The twist here is Tyler is her husband, and while being deep undercover with the group called CDF—whose main agenda is to put an end to threats to the environment by doing erratic things like destroying a whole slaughterhouse. Tyler, during his assignment, fell in love with Jean Crick, who worked for CDF. He got married and had a kid with Jean. When Zara found out, she reacted in a terrible manner. She is the one who sent him the vape, by the way. A lot of it doesn’t make sense; I blame bad writing for that.
Patience ends with a bit of ambiguity, though. Our lead girl opens a box that might solve a puzzle for her—why her mother left when she was a child. The box, however, is empty, but on the underside of it, Patience finds something and smiles. We never get to know what it is, though. Unless there’s a second season, we are not going to know either. But as long as Patience Evans is okay, we’re okay, I suppose.
Final Thoughts
The problem with Patience is that most of the stories it handles are better suited for a whole season than one episode. They try to pack too much into each one and ultimately stumble. The runtime of forty-five minutes—other than the first two episodes, which focus on Dr. Chopra’s case—doesn’t help further. The result is a show that has some potential but is ultimately quite underwhelming. It is still a decent watch if you don’t have much expectation, mainly because of Laura Fraser’s performance as Bea Metcalfe.