The Hunt For Jessie September
RECIPES FOR LOVE AND MURDER – Season 1 – Episodes 9 & 10 – SPOILERS ⁓
Tannie Maria hides from the killer
Jessie (Kylie Fisher) has been kidnapped, probably by the same person who killed Martine. In the course of her investigations, Tannie Maria (Maria Doyle Kennedy) figures out who the killer is when she comes across a handwritten copy of the curry recipe she published in response to murder victim Martine’s letters in Episode One. The murderer catches Maria before she can catch him, and takes her to his cabin where he first imprisons her in a shed containing several dead animal carcasses, then forces her to cook him a steak. He tells Maria: “You see all those carcasses out there in the shed? I did that. I killed everything here. That’s how I knew I could do it. That’s how I knew I could kill a human.” (Those dead animals are being stored in the shed at room temperature, and if the killer has been eating that meat, a parasitic infection might well be responsible for his violent behaviour.) Using a frying pan as a weapon, Maria escapes and flees into the surrounding hills.
Both Martine and Maria had abusive husbands, and both of those men complained about the quality of the food prepared by their wives. This brings to mind the scene in THE GRUDGE 2 in which Jennifer Beals responds to a similar situation by whacking her abusive hubby with a cast iron skillet (after first pouring bacon grease over his head).
Lucille (Loren Loubser)
The engagingly exasperating Koop clerk Lucille (Loren Loubser) provides information that leads the police to a remote hunting cabin. They find evidence that Jessie had once been there, and catch up to Maria who is running away from the killer. Lucille, who has clearly been watching too much American television, did not tell Maria that she saw Jessie meet with her cousin Jared (Marlon Swarts) at the Koop just before she disappeared. She waited till Deputy Detective Piet Kasin (Elton Landrew) asked her about it to say anything, and explains why: “I didn’t tell her that I saw Jessie last night. I thought that’s a police investigation…not something that you tell the public.” She then mentions casually that she heard Jared tell Jessie about the pomegranate juice. (Martine was drugged using pomegranate juice.)
Christiaan Olwagen, who directed these two episodes. | Olwagen also directed POPPIE NONGENA, a film adaptation of the novel by Elsa Joubert
While pursuing the killer, Detective Meyer (Tony Kgoroge) is shot with a crossbow. His wound is not serious, and while searchers to find Jessie, we learn that Meyer’s wife was murdered some years previously. “She went out with her friends for a weekend,” he tells Maria. “There was a moment she was in the wrong place at the wrong time and somebody decided that her life was worth less than a cell phone.”
Heading into a (yet to be confirmed) second season, Anna Pretorius (Daneel Van Der Walt) is in jail, but is no longer a murder suspect. (Deputy Piet tells her that she might be charged with a number of things, including assaulting an officer and possession of an unlicensed firearm.) We never found out if Martine’s father, Peter Joubert, survived his allergic reaction to nutmeg in Episode Six. If he is still alive, Candace (Rolanda Marais) might remain in Eden to take care of Martine’s daughter Jamie. Mr. Rabie (Grant Swanby) was pressuring Martine about a property of some sort before she died. It seems likely that he will continue to pursue that matter.
Detective Meyer and Maria seem to be at the beginning of a relationship
Detective Meyer (who is almost never referred to by his first name) seems to be at the start of a relationship with Tannie Maria. At the same time, Jessie and Warrant Officer Regardt (Arno Greeff) seem almost certain to become engaged, but Helen (Jennifer Steyn) has tasked Jessie with writing an exposé about the murders for the national papers, and the piece will likely be critical of how the local police handled things. Will that put a strain on her relationship with Regardt? Might it cause Detective Meyer to look for another job, perhaps somewhere closer to his daughter?
In Scotland at the start of Episode Nine, Aileen (Robyn Scott), who is reading a mystery novel in bed, has this conversation with her husband Gordon (Richard Wright-Firth):
GORDON: “We’re agreed?”
AILEEN: “Aye. I don’t see what any other options we have. And if you’re right about the…”
GORDON: “I’m right. Her mother died two months before Mickey did.”
AILEEN: “Then we have to do what’s right. For Mickey.”
Khazi Meyer (Mwake Ngambi)
The Mickey they’re talking about is Tannie Maria’s aforementioned abusive husband (played by Ashley Dowds), who died in late 2008 of a heart attack. (This was not totally unexpected. His doctor warned him about his cholesterol levels, and he smoked while he ate.) Maria was in the process of making soup at the time and may have been a bit slow to call the paramedics, but Aileen quite convincingly seems to be missing her friend, and the McClintocks don’t seem to wish Maria harm, so they might not suspect this. It could be more of a property dispute than anything else. Maria inherited the house where she currently lives from her mother, who had previously inherited it from Maria’s great aunt.
After Jessie is rescued, Detective Meyer takes Tannie Maria home. Maria might have been put off meat by her recent experiences because the next morning, she makes vegetable soup (her mother’s recipe, which she had recited aloud while waiting for the search party to find Jessie). Then Aileen and Gordon McClintock arrive from Scotland. Maria invites them in, and offers them “a lovely bowl of soup.”
Sally Andrew has published her first cookbook, RECIPES TO DIE LIVE FOR, which features recipes from each of the Tannie Maria Mysteries.
* Last Updated 2 months ago