User blog:Officer Candy Apple/Pure Evil Proposal - Michael Garfield

Time for my next PE proposal, probably the fifth in all, and the first one in Agatha Christie's mystery novel works, particularly Hercule Poirot.

Here is the proposal of Michael Garfield, the main antagonist in Hallowe'en Party (published in 1969, fifty years ago) and thus its 2010 TV episode adaptation in Agatha Christie's Poirot, Episode 3, Season 12. The two versions actually shares very little in contrast so I put them in the same page.

NOTE: SINCE THE ORIGINAL NOVEL IS 50 YEARS OLD, BEWARE OF THE SPOILERS FROM IT AND THE TV SERIES!

What is the work?
Hallowe'en Party is a 1969 Poirot novel by Agatha Christie, dedicated to P.G.Woodhouse. The story mainly focus on the murder of Joyce Reynolds, a 13-year-old loudmouth girl from the villiage of Woodleigh Common, who was drowned in an apple-bobbing bucket during a Halloween party. Curiously, before her death, she self-proclaimed that she witnessed once a murder. Mrs. Oliver, who was presented at the scene, rushed to invite her friend Poirot for the case. Poirot had to look for records in the past to seek out what "murder" Joyce claimed herself had saw.

Dame Christie's original story is actually plain and having loose ends, so it didn't stand out in Poirot novels, but the culprit(s) in the novel is one of the darkest and most cold-blooded culprit(s) in the story. Its adaptation in Agatha Christie's Poirot, written by Mark Gatiss, actually simplified the story and tied up loose ends, making the story even more chilling. Now, let's see about the culprit... or at least the main one.

Yes, there's more culprits in the case. We'll talk about them later.

Who is this guy? What Have he Done?
Before we explain this guy's identity, I'll give a list to people that are related to his acts: Michael Garfield is a young and handsome gardener from Woodleigh Common, who is obssessed with the term of beauty. He worked under the Mrs. Llewellyn-Smythe to create a perfect garden, two years before the story, but he soon had a love affair with Mrs. Rowena Drake, planning to use this as a chance to gain profits from his ill employer and buy a Greek island to create a garden.
 * Mrs. Rowena Drake, the rich widow of Woodleigh Common
 * Mr. Hugo Drake (deceased), Mrs. Drake's deceased husband in a vehicle hit-and-run
 * Mrs. Llewellyn-Smythe (deceased), Mrs. Drake's aunt and Michael Garfield's employer; one of the possible deaths that Joyce Reynolds might saw
 * Olga Seminoff (missing), Mrs. Llewely Smythe's au-pair who was suspected to behind a forged codicil from her late employer's last will and testement, that gave everything to Olga
 * Leslie Ferrier (deceased), a local solicitor's clerk stabbed to death; one of the possible deaths that Joyce Reynolds might saw
 * Mrs. Judith Butler, a neighbor of Mrs. Drake
 * Miranda Butler, Mrs. Butler's daughter and Joyce Reynold's best friend
 * Joyce Reynolds (victim)
 * Leopold Reynolds, Joyce's brother

However, during the time when Mr. Drake was killed in a proclaimed car accident, Mrs. Llewellyn-Smythe discovered their love affair and wrote a codicil, thus disinheritage Mrs. Drake and gave all of her estate and fortune to the aforementioned au-pair, Olga Seminoff, who was genuiuely kind to her employer. Nevertheless, with the help of the aforementioned Leslie Ferrier, who was infamous for a three-month sentence in prison for forgery, Michael and Mrs. Drake forged a obviously fake codicil and made it substitute to the original, framing Olga as a liar and gold-digger before killing her good.

Then, the mystery of Joyce witnessing the murder finally solved. It was revealed that Miranda Butler, the daughter of Mrs. Judith Butler, who witnessed them hiding Olga's corpse in the garden's well. Michael discovered this and fooled Miranda into believing it was a sacrifice. Miranda only shared it to Judith, her best friend, but without telling her the person who was involved within the story. After killing Olga, Michael killed Ferrier to shut him up as well.

Two years later, Joyce, being a loudmouth who loves telling tall tales, appropriates the experience of Miranda and also proclaims to be hers in the party. Michael Garfield wasn't at the scene, but Mrs. Drake was, so she lured Joyce into the library and drowned her inside the apple-bobbing tub, though Mrs. Drake soaked herself in her dress and had to fake an accident of breaking a vase in front of one of her guests (Mrs. Oliver in the TV series). Even though Michael Garfield wasn't directly involved in the death of Joyce, it was implied that he had no ill feeling over it since he already knew that Joyce wasn't the one who saw Olga's murder.

In the meantime, Joyce's brother Leopold discovered that Mrs. Drake killed his sister and kept blackmailing her for money. As a result of this, Michael helped Mrs. Drake to drown Leopold, before he went to London and lure Miranda outside, planning to poison her, but was stopped by Poirot and his allies once Olga's corpse was discovered.

P.S. By the end of story, it was revealed that Michael was actually Miranda's true biological father (though she was unawared of the fact), who once seduced Judith into a love affair. Nevertheless, Judith began to afraid of Michael's obssession over nature and beauty, so she left him alongside her daughter, while faking that her husband was a pilot who was killed in an accident. Michael was all awared of the fact but still planned to murder his daughter only to save himself.

Moral Event Horizons
The novel had left ambiguous over how far his past action will go, since there was no explaination if he murdered Mr. Drake in the original novels. However, the novel still contains one of his Moral Even Horizon crossing in the novel, in the form of seducing Olga before killing her.

In the novel, Michael was in a romantic relationship with Olga, who fell in love with him and believed he was the one who could help her leave Woodleigh Common and make things right, especially when she was a desperate state. Of course, it must be heartbreaking for her when Michael killed her.

In the TV series adaptation, Michael has no romantic relationship with Olga, but his action is even more heinous and detailed than that in the novel. In the TV series, Michael was directly responsible for the death of Mr. Hugo Drake, running the former over with his car, and Olga was the one who warned Mrs. Llewellyn-Smythe about the love affair between Michael and Mrs. Drake. However, Michael, Ferrier and Mrs. Drake framed Olga to be a gold-digger, forged the codicil and 'poisoned Mrs. Llewellyn-Smythe'. Mrs. Drake was shown to be directly responsible for Olga's death, and Michael was shown to be Ferrier's killer.

However, probably his most cold-hearted action is the attempt murder of Miranda, while convincing her that it was merely a ritual sacrifice, saying Miranda had to die so that others might live, so that beauty can live. It was utterly noteworthy that Michael already knew that Miranda was his own daughter, but he chose to "sacrifice" his very own child only trying to save his skin.

Heinous Standard
Like other novels of Agatha Christie, the culprit is not the only unlikeable fiend in human skin. Some eye-witnesses and even victims can be criminals themselves as well. However, in Hallowe'en Party, only Michael Garfield stands out as a murderous and cold-blooded psychopath.

Most of the named victims (except Olga Seminoff and several unexplained deaths) are unlikeable, with Ferrier being a crook and associate to the scheme, Joyce Reynolds being a loudmouth who brought everything on herself, and Leopold being a potential sociopath who would overhear others speaking and blackmailing them for profit, but they were too minor and generic. The other culprit, Rowena Drake, is implied to be genuiuely in love with Michael, which was shown on-screen.

However, Michael Garfield doesn't love either Judith, Olga or Rowena Drake back, and he should be one of the evilest and most cold-hearted killers in Agatha Christie's shared universe of novels.

Mitigating Factor?
In the novel, it was shown in Michael and Poirot's final meeting that Michael was drawing Miranda's facial sketch and said he would never forget her. However, Poirot believed that it didn't stop him from killing her, since he discovered that Michael compared Miranda to Iphigenia, the daughter of Agamemnon whom her father nearly sacrificed her to Artemis. It is a clear sign that Michael plans to dispose of his daughter ever since the beginning. Poirot said the two had a natural bond, but Michael didn't take it as a chance of redemption for himself.

In the past, Mrs. Judith Butler once fell for him and they shared a romantic relationship, but it didn't last long. She soon became horrified by his delusions as well as obssessions, which seemed all too insane and psychologically abusive for her, so much that she left him while in pregnancy. Years later, she discovered that he returned to Woodleigh Common. To amplify his egocentric nature, the TV series changed his ending to show us how Agatha attemped to intepret the beast in a man's skin.

In the original novel, Michael committed suicide by drinking the poison he reserved for his daughter, in order to escape punisment just before Poirot could arrest him, and it was Poirot who discovered and told Mrs. Oliver about Michael's true narcissism, something that Mrs. Oliver found it hard to believe since someone would kill so many people (one of the highest body counts in the culprits introduced in a work by Dame Christie) just for a Greek island.

His relationship with Rowena Drake was also dim, since Mrs. Drake was implied to be disapproval towards his plan of buying a Greek island, something she was awared of his overall arrangement. It was implied that Michael would one day kill Mrs. Drake, too, if he was fed up with her, and fake it as just another accident.

In the TV series, Michael survived and was arrested by the police. Much to everyone's shock and Poirot's disgust, Michael confessed that Poirot was telling the truth all along. He taunted Mrs. Drake and claimed he did it all for money and the garden of Mrs. Llewellyn-Smythe and the family of Drake, even confessing that one day he planned to buy a Greek island and start afresh. While he confessed that he once was fond of Judith, Michael soon revealed that he no longer love her merely because she was losing her look. He even coldly question Poirot, "It is an awful shame, do you not think, monseiur, that we must all wither and die?" Much to Poirot's disgust, of course.

Above all, in both novel and TV series, Michael's general personality is that of a selfish, hypocritical and egocentric psychopath who, like Poirot said, loved nobody but himself.

Verdict?
Poirot doesn't compare him to Narcissus or Lucifer for no reason. Yes.