The Scarecrow Murders is the fourth episode of the twenty-second series of Midsomer Murders and first aired 3rd October 2021
Naomi Ashworth is found murdered at the start of the annual scarecrow festival in Midsomer, sitting by one of the festival’s straw creations. Naomi was well liked, but appears to have had a secret that few people really knew about. Later on, Reverend Oscar Hayden and Thea Stannard are found murdered, next to some of the festival’s straw creations, just like Naomi Ashworth was found. It turns out that the scarecrow festival only is a diversion.
Tropes:
- Attack of the Town Festival: Namely, the village's annual scarecrow festival.
- Everybody Did It: Instead of the usual one murderer, there were three working in concert. They had met in an online support group for gamblers and, on discovering they had all had their lives ruined by one particular online gambling company, moved to the village where it was based to extract revenge. Each of them killed one of the principals involved in the company, and teamed up in an attempt to kill the last but were arrested by Barnaby and Winter. They attempted to dress the murders up as the work of serial killer, but the methods of killing were so different that Barnaby was convinced there had to be more than one killer.
- Intrepid Reporter: DCI Winter's ex-girlfriend Caitlyn is one of these. Her help and a past set of stories helps Winters and Barnaby solve the case.
- Nobody Here but Us Statues: A killer sneaks on to the grounds of The Vicar's mansion and hides by posing as one of the scarecrows set for the festival. When the vicar goes out to check the gate that night, the killer ambushes him.
- Off the Wagon: One of the murderers is a gambling addict who, thanks to the machinations of her victim, "lost three months salary in one hour". While initially reluctant to go through with the plan, her rage at the victim and herself for relapsing makes her commit the most violent murder of the three.
- Scary Scarecrows: The bodies of the Victims of the Week are dressed up and posed as scarecrows and placed among the scarecrows on display the village's scarecrow festival. One of the murderers dresses up as a scarecrow, directly invoking this trope as they kill the victim. Dr. Fleur Perkins reveals she has a phobia of scarecrows.
- Serial Killings, Specific Target: The idea of a Serial Killer is floated, but Barnaby points out there are too many inconsistencies, including that serial killers refine their technique as they progress, but all three murder methods in this case were radically different. It turns out to be three different killers working together to take revenge on an online gambling company that ruined their lives, and used the scarecrow motif in the hope it would taken as the work of serial killer targeting people randomly.
- Stripping the Scarecrow: A killer takes the clothing and hessian bag head from a scarecrow, and uses them to pose as a scarecrow to ambush and murder The Vicar.
- Worth It: At the end the two more hardened killers make it clear that killing the people who ruined their lives was absolutely worth it and they're only sorry they didn't manage to kill their last target. The third murderer, however, is horrified at herself for her personal murder and the overall deaths the three of them caused.
