Hamish Macbeth episode reviews: series 2 episode 1
A Perfectly Simple Explanation
It's now going to be impossible to avoid spoilers, because the plotline of the second series was entirely determined by the answer to the question left hanging in the air at the end of series 1. So… if you want to avoid knowing this, don't read these reviews until you've seen series 1.
At the end of series 1, Hamish and Isobel had come back down from the mountain knowing they were in love - but no sooner were they in the pub than a tensed-up Alex threw herself on Hamish and asked her to marry him, having come back to Lochdubh with that intent.
Now, it would have been hard enough in all conscience to say "no" in front of a roomful of people, but in fairness to Alex, she had every reason to believe he still wanted her. Hamish had originally asked her to do this very thing, come back and marry him, and she had no way of knowing everything had changed up the mountain. Hamish, it turns out, has a Bertie Wooster attitude; he feels that having originally asked her, he can't go back on it if she now wants him. Hence we find him, at the start of series 2, living with Alex in the police house but putting off the actual wedding on the ground that they need to save money and "do it right". Difficult as it might have been to admit that his feelings had changed, he has now put himself and Alex in a false position and caused Isobel immense pain.
Meanwhile, odd things are going on with a local fundamentalist Christian sect run by Malachi McBean and his wife Bethsheba. Though themselves living by strict rules, they have never before interfered with others, but now Malachi is ranting outside the police house about the extra-marital sex going on inside. He seems to be getting more and more irrational; his wife and son can't think what is amiss and the local minister Alan Snow, himself clearly a deeply worried man, wonders aloud to Hamish if Malachi is insane. Isobel, chasing a story at the sect's premises, is accidentally injured by Malachi's truck and Hamish's fury makes his feelings clear to all present, including Alex, though he manages to convince her all is well. On the fringes of this tangle is Zoot, an ageing hippy who drives a BMW and is not short of a few bob (not such an unlikely character as one might think, since several ex-hippie pop stars did at one time own land in the Highlands, Donovan for one).
The key to the mystery is that four people are being dishonest with each other about their feelings in much the same way as Hamish, and in the process causing physical and mental harm to themselves and others. When they manage to come to the "simple explanation" of the title, all is well. And this episode has a lot of humour, like the scene where Hamish calls on Esme in the evening and interrupts her game of strip Scrabble with Rory, and the practical joke TV John plays on the superstitious Barney and Lachlan. But essentially it is a warning to Hamish, if he would see it, about the possible consequences of not extricating himself from the false position he is in.
It's now going to be impossible to avoid spoilers, because the plotline of the second series was entirely determined by the answer to the question left hanging in the air at the end of series 1. So… if you want to avoid knowing this, don't read these reviews until you've seen series 1.
At the end of series 1, Hamish and Isobel had come back down from the mountain knowing they were in love - but no sooner were they in the pub than a tensed-up Alex threw herself on Hamish and asked her to marry him, having come back to Lochdubh with that intent.
Now, it would have been hard enough in all conscience to say "no" in front of a roomful of people, but in fairness to Alex, she had every reason to believe he still wanted her. Hamish had originally asked her to do this very thing, come back and marry him, and she had no way of knowing everything had changed up the mountain. Hamish, it turns out, has a Bertie Wooster attitude; he feels that having originally asked her, he can't go back on it if she now wants him. Hence we find him, at the start of series 2, living with Alex in the police house but putting off the actual wedding on the ground that they need to save money and "do it right". Difficult as it might have been to admit that his feelings had changed, he has now put himself and Alex in a false position and caused Isobel immense pain.
Meanwhile, odd things are going on with a local fundamentalist Christian sect run by Malachi McBean and his wife Bethsheba. Though themselves living by strict rules, they have never before interfered with others, but now Malachi is ranting outside the police house about the extra-marital sex going on inside. He seems to be getting more and more irrational; his wife and son can't think what is amiss and the local minister Alan Snow, himself clearly a deeply worried man, wonders aloud to Hamish if Malachi is insane. Isobel, chasing a story at the sect's premises, is accidentally injured by Malachi's truck and Hamish's fury makes his feelings clear to all present, including Alex, though he manages to convince her all is well. On the fringes of this tangle is Zoot, an ageing hippy who drives a BMW and is not short of a few bob (not such an unlikely character as one might think, since several ex-hippie pop stars did at one time own land in the Highlands, Donovan for one).
The key to the mystery is that four people are being dishonest with each other about their feelings in much the same way as Hamish, and in the process causing physical and mental harm to themselves and others. When they manage to come to the "simple explanation" of the title, all is well. And this episode has a lot of humour, like the scene where Hamish calls on Esme in the evening and interrupts her game of strip Scrabble with Rory, and the practical joke TV John plays on the superstitious Barney and Lachlan. But essentially it is a warning to Hamish, if he would see it, about the possible consequences of not extricating himself from the false position he is in.