Blood Will Out is the fourth episode of the second series of Midsomer Murders and originally aired 19th September 1999.
Barnaby and Troy must deal with upset villagers when two groups of itinerant travellers arrive in the village. One group is related to one of the village landowners while the other is the Smith clan, well known to police as thieves and grifters. Things become far more serious when one of the villagers, a local magistrate and somewhat of a bully, is murdered in his study. There are no end of suspects as both villagers and visitors apparently had motives to rid themselves of him. Slowly, Barnaby and Troy peel away at various village secrets, eventually leading to the murderer.
Tropes:
- Artistic License – Military: Hector Bridges wears the regimental tie of the Royal Irish Fusiliers. It would be a question as to whether he served in that unit, because it was amalgamated in 1968 (with the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers and the Royal Ulster Rifles) and thenceforth was known as the Royal Irish Rangers.
- Asshole Victim: Very few people are sorry that Hector Bridges is dead, to put it lightly.
- Brandishment Bluff: A larger scale variant: Barnaby deters Hector Bridges from having his army colleagues force the travellers out of the village by threatening to call in an armed response unit to stop them, only to later tell Troy that Midsomer doesn't have an armed response unit.
- Brick Joke: Troy at one point warns Barnaby not to think he hasn't noticed the Mars bar stashed in the car's glove compartment (Barnaby is supposed to be on a diet). Later on, Troy is posted on a stakeout and Barnaby takes the opportunity to rifle through the glove compartment, only to cut to Troy smugly eating the Mars bar.
- Diet Episode: Tom Barnaby is trying to lose weight so Joyce recruits Troy into making sure that he sticks to his diet while they are out investigating the latest murders.
- Don't Make Me Take My Belt Off!: Hector Bridges, the first Victim of the Week, is a bully who thrashes his stepdaughter with belt. Of all his transgressions, this is ultimately what gets him murdered.
- Glory Hound: Hector Bridges in the Falklands, to the point of underplaying enemy strengths to get his men to perform nigh-suicidal attacks in the hopes that he'd get all the glory.
- Too Dumb to Live / You Wouldn't Shoot Me: Hector Bridges is threatening to thrash the killer with his belt. The killer grabs the loaded shotgun that was laying on the desk to defend herself. The victim makes his final mistake by goading her that she doesn't have the guts to pull the trigger. Wrong.
