A Christmas Episode with a plot that is equal parts The Mousetrap and And Then There Were None
Tropes
- Bullet Dancing: The killer shoots at Miss Fisher's feet to make her the "dancing lady" in his Twelve Days of Christmas themed set of murders.
- The Cameo: John Noble appears in flashbacks as Edward Stanley, Aunt Prudence's late husband.
- Christmas Episode: It's set during Miss Fisher's holiday for "Christmas in July"
- Closed Circle: The characters get trapped in an isolated manor in the mountains. A snowstorm leaves the chalet Snowed-In, with roads too icy to drive on, and engines of all the vehicles frozen. Cut Phone Lines complete the isolation.
- Contrived Coincidence: Lampshaded.Jack: Who was that?Hugh: Miss Fisher, sir. She's on holiday.Jack: Anyone dead yet?Hugh: Just one so far, sir.
- Dramatic Irony: The killer arranged for miners to keep working in a fundamentally dangerous mine because he wanted the gold in it. The mine inevitably collapsed, and the miners sent up a kid who had gone with them to tell everyone the miners were still alive. The killer suffocates the kid and blows up the mine, killing the surviving miners. This results in the closure of the mine.
- Goth: The teenage stepdaughter of the mine owner, Isobel wears black and fits the personality associated with them, moody and looks grimly at everything. She's fittingly an Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette living in a gothic house, and her surname is even Mortimer (but don't call her that, it's her stepfather's).
- Geeky Turn-On: When Jane is trying to convince Phryne and Jack to kiss Under the Mistletoe, Phryne appears to be when Jack reels off the genus and species name of the plant and corrects her that it is hemi-parasitic.
- Genre Savvy: The killer's "9 ladies dancing" assault initially fails because, as Miss Fisher points out, the gun he's firing has only six bullets. He anticipated this and quickly produces a second gun.
- Handbag of Hurt: Phryne uses her handbag to disarm and then knock down the killer in their final confrontation.
- High-Voltage Death: The first victim dies due to electrocution from Christmas lights that have been tampered with.
- Kid Has a Point: Most people assume Isobel just hates her stepfather because of the Parent with New Paramour situation; it turns out that he's a Serial Killer.
- Ten Little Murder Victims: After the chalet is snowed in, people begin to drop dead.
- Theme Serial Killer: The victims are being picked off in a series of murders themed on the gifts from the Twelve Days of Christmas.
- Under the Mistletoe: At the end of the episode, in a Title Drop, Jane tries to coax various pairs to kiss under the mistletoe.
- Unseen No More: There's a flashback that finally gives a look at Prudence's beloved husband. There's no doubt that they were Happily Married.
