History Recap / PoirotS10E02CardsOnTheTable

** Major Despard still shoots Mr Luxmore, but in this case it's because Luxmore was researching psychotropic drugs and after going amok during an experiment Despard shot him to protect Luxmore's wife from his berserk rage.

* SeriesContinuityError: The episode includes a reference from the book to a dagger in Poirot's collection, one used as a murder weapon on the [[Literature/MurderOnTheOrientExpress Orient Express]], even though that novel wasn't adapted until several years after this episode.

'''Directed by:''' Maurice Philips \\

* AdaptationInducedPlotHole: A woman who had just threatened her doctor to expose him for seducing her husband would ''definitely'' not want him putting his hands on her to give her an inoculation for overseas travel. Why didn't Mrs. Craddock go to a different doctor?

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: The murder was committed in part to cover up a gay love affair, which could have ruined the killer's career. When Poirot reveals this at the end, everyone in the room shift around uncomfortably.

* RelatedInTheAdaptation: Mrs. Lorrimer is revealed to be the mother of Anne Meredith in this version, in order to explain why she is covering for her.

** In the original novel, Mrs Craddock was Dr Robert's lover and Mr Craddock the angry spouse who was murdered by Dr Roberts after threatening to expose him. This adaptation swaps Mr and Mrs Craddock's roles in this respect.

* SparedByTheAdaptation: Mr. Craddock, Mrs. Lorrimer and her daughter Anne Meredith all live in this version.
* SuicideByCop: In this version of the story, Shaitana ''deliberately'' tempted four potential murderers to off him and then drugged himself.

** Rhoda Dawes was in love with Major Despard and married him at the end of the novel. Here she DoesNotLikeMen and it is Anne who ends up with the Major -- which drives a jealous Rhoda into [[IFICantHaveYou trying to kill Anne]].

* AdaptationalKarma: Inverted with Mrs Lorrimer. She was killed in the novel, but in the adaptation she is allowed to live, and is never prosecuted for murdering her first husband in order to be able to marry another man whom she loved, but he also died within a year and she seems to have become world-weary as a result.

* AdaptationInducedPlotHole: Why would Mrs. Craddock get her overseas travel inoculation from the same doctor who seduced her husband and whom she had threatened to expose? There are other doctors she could have gone to.

* AdaptationalVillainy: The episode turns Rhoda Dawes from a sweet little girl into an implied lesbian who killed Anne Meredith's employer, Mrs. Benson, and attempts to do the same to {{A|daptationalHeroism}}nne, rather than the other way around.

** In the original novel, Mrs Craddock was Dr Robert's lover and Mr Craddock the angry spouse who was murdered by Dr Robert's after threatening to expose him. This adaptation swaps Mr and Mrs Craddock's roles in this respect.

* RoleSwapAU: The episode switches the roles of Anne Meredith and Rhoda Dawes, and gives the respective characters an AdaptationalHeroism and AdaptationalVillainy by making Rhoda the true culprit of the murder Anne was suspected of. The innocent one ends up as the winner of their LoveTriangle with Major Despard, while the murderer gets a LaserGuidedKarma and drowns while trying to do [[HoistByTheirOwnPetard the exact same thing]] to their supposed "best friend".

** Dr Roberts and the offscreen Mr Craddock are in a sexual relationship, whereas in the novel it was Mrs Craddock with whom Dr Roberts had a relationship.

'''Recurring cast:''' Ariadne Oliver

* AdaptationalNameChange: Superintendent Battle is renamed Superintendent Wheeler, while Colonel Race becomes Colonel Hughes.

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: The murder was committed in part to cover up a gay love affair, which could have ruined the killer's career. When Poirot reveals this at the end, everyone in the room shifts around uncomfortably.

* AdaptationalHeroism: Anne Meredith is innocent of the murder that Shaitana believes her to have committed.

* AdaptationalSexuality: The adaptation makes at least two, and an implied ''four'', characters gay: Rhoda Dawes, Superintendent Jim Wheeler, Dr Roberts and the offscreen Mr Craddock, the latter two of whom are in a sexual relationship, whereas in the novel it was Mrs Craddock with whom Dr Roberts had a relationship. Shaitana is also given an AmbiguouslyGay flamboyance, although YMMV on whether that was present in the book or not.