The Lions of Causton is the fourth episode of the twentieth series of Midsomer Murders and was first aired through Acorn TV streaming service to the U.S. on 3rd May 2018. It was later transmitted in the UK, on 26th May 2019.
DCI Barnaby gets to relive his former days of sporting glory when a death at the local Rugby Club sends Barnaby and DS Winter into a muddle of rucks, grudges, romance… and artisanal chocolates?
Tropes:
- Artistic License – Chemistry: A room full of 100% oxygen cannot explode. Oxygen does not burn by itself. It helps other stuff burn, but then you have to have something that catches fire. Most well-known is a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen, which will certainly explode.
- Better to Die than Be Killed: The killer chooses to blow himself up rather than be arrested and sent to prison.
- Blackmail Backfire: Dominic Braun, the second Victim of the Week, is a blackmailer who has a photograph proving the killer was at the scene of the crime at the time of the murder. He makes the mistake of trying to blackmail the killer, and instead becomes their next victim.
- Camera Sniper: Throughout the episode, a mysterious figure is seen taking long distance photographs of various people connected to the Causton Lions rugby club. The figure is eventually revealed to be Dominic Braun, who is running a blackmail scheme with his grandmother.
- Career-Ending Injury: Bill Viner's professional rugby career was ended when someone dove cleats first in the scrum and broke his ankle. It is later revealed that the person responsible was the Victim of the Week Mark Adler; giving Viner a motive for the crime.
- *Crack!* "Oh, My Back!": After a squash game against Winter, Barnaby puts his back out reaching for the coat rack above his head. This becomes a Running Joke for the rest of the episode.
- Crippling the Competition: Bill Viner's professional rugby career was ended when someone dove cleats first in the scrum and broke his ankle. It is later revealed that the person responsible was the Victim of the Week Mark Adler; giving Viner a motive for the crime.
- Force Feeding: Dominic Braun is stunned, and then the killer pours molten chocolate down his throat until till he drowns.
- Kill It with Ice: Mark Adler had sleeping pills given to him and was then looked inside a Cryogenic treatment chamber where the temperature was set to minus 150 degrees, freezing him to death.
- Locked in a Freezer: Mark Adler is shut in a cryo room intended to treat soft tissue injuries. Patients are usually subjected to -60 degrees for 5 minutes. The killer sets the temperature to -150 degrees and leaves Mark in there overnight.
- Obfuscating Disability: Guy Bevan is wearing a neck brace as part of insurance scam against the Causton Lions rugby club. However, Dominic Braun has photos of him moving around without the brace and is using them to blackmail him.