Death's Shadow is the first episode of the second series of Midsomer Murders and was originally aired 20th January 1999.
Barnaby and Troy return to Badger's Drift, to investigate the murder of Richard Bayly who is found in his home, hacked to death. Bayly had recently received bad news from his doctor who informed him that he had a brain tumour. There are many possible suspects, including villagers who oppose Bayly's plan to redevelop a major property, Tye House, into a golf course and residential housing estate, and his childhood friend, Ian Eastman, who lost out on an opportunity to develop the new property. Barnaby and Troy also meet a familiar face from their last investigation in the village.
Meanwhile, Barnaby's daughter Cully gets an opportunity to work with Simon Fletcher, a one-time resident of Badger's Drift who is now a well-known director and also happens to be a childhood friend to Eastman and Bayly. When a second murder is committed, the detectives must find a motive that is linked to events some 30 years earlier.
Tropes:
- Back for the Dead: A character from the first ever episode, no less!, David Whitely
- Book Ends: Lampshaded by Rev. Wentworth in his eulogy for Richard Bayly: "Richard spent his whole life here in Badger's Drift. He was a boy here and he has died here."
- Deadly Prank: Decades ago, a group of schoolboys decides to haze an unpopular boy, Felix Bryce, who wanted to join their gang by making him undergo an initiation. They make him stand on a rickety chair, blindfolded, with his hands tied behind his back and a noose around his neck. They then leave him for hours, planning to make him think they had abandoned him and panic. However, when they return, they discover Felix has fallen off the chair and slowly strangled. They remove the blindfold and untie his hands so it looks like he committed suicide. Why the murders, then? Felix was the murderer's illegitimate son.
- Everyone Went to School Together: The key plot point of the entire story. David Whitely, Simon Fletcher, Ian Eastman, Richard Bayly and Felix Bryce all went to Badger's Drift Primary School as kids, also justified in that the boys grew up in the village and would likely attend the village school together.
- Kill It with Fire: The fate of David Whitely, Troy is visibly shaken by it.
- Off with His Head!: The first Victim of the Week, Richard Bayly, is decapitated by a single blow from an Indian sword.
- "Only in Badger's Drift": Dr. Bullard's comment on the fact Richard Bayly was beheaded with an Indian sword.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: The motive for the murderer, who wanted to avenge the accidental death of his illegitimate son by killing the boys who had accidentally killed him 30 years earlier.
- Sequel Episode: To 'The Killings at Badger's Drift', with one returning character and direct references to the events of that episode
- Sinister Minister: The murderer is the local priest, responsible for three murders. The reason for this is that (unbeknownst to his wife and the rest of the village) he'd had a kid some 20 years earlier with an unmarried woman, and said kid had died in a Deadly Prank (in order to join a "club", the members made him stand tiptoe on a chair with a noose around his neck while they went off for a smoke). When one of the victims thought he was dying, he confessed to the priest, who decapitated one, burned another alive, and arrowed the last through the back. Quite a normal Backstory for a resident of Midsomer County.
- The Vicar: Reverend Stephen Wentworth. He did it.
- We Meet Again: Barnaby and Troy are reunited with David Whitely, a suspect in the pilot episode of the series. His return has a major impact, in the form of his brutal death.
