Patience’s “Music in the Minster” Strikes a Better Chord

All the York Minster scenes from Patience’s second episode, “Music in the Minster,” were shot on location, and boy does it show: From the opening drone footage of the gorgeous Gothic exterior to the sweeping shots of the cathedral’s columns, the camera professes its love for this stunning locale. They also make sure to showcase the organ prominently, with the haunting sounds of Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor reverberating through the church and featured in this week’s untimely deaths. 

This second episode is so much better and more enjoyable than the premiere. With the focus on the extreme pressure of music conservatory students and their toxic teacher, it’s a relief when the tone of DI Monroe’s character is turned down a bit. She’s still rude and annoying, but is much less of a bully towards Patience and even seeks out her help on the case. By the episode’s end, although Patience isn’t fully on the team, Monroe has realized her usefulness in solving crimes.

Meanwhile, Patience is expanding her horizons. When this week’s first death sidelines her lunch date with Elliot, Patience takes advice from Hunter to surprise Elliot by showing up to his band’s gig at a pub. But the sensory experience is too overwhelming for her, and she has to flee.

(There’s some focus on Patience having hyperacusis, which the writers use to mean “super hearing,” but whose definition seems to refer to the periods when sufferers experience sounds painfully or too loudly. The show definitely plays it as a kind of autistic superpower, with Patience hearing evidence the neurotypicals can’t perceive.)