‘Professor T’s Season 5 Pursues Romance in “Natural Causes”
Murder doesn’t take a holiday, at least not when Professor T is around.
Murder doesn’t take a holiday, at least not when Professor Jasper Tempest (Ben Miller) is around. In the Season 5 premiere of Professor T, Jasper’s penchant for puzzle-solving successfully cracks the case, but nearly derails his burgeoning relationship with Dr. Helena Goldberg (Juliet Stevenson), with whom he’s taking an exploratory weekend away.
In my Season 4 finale recap, I wondered what romance would look like for Jasper. The premiere puts that question front and center from the word go, and the answer is: awkward but earnest, sweet and just a bit naïve, honest, but also very challenged. In some ways, watching Jasper date is like watching a teenager navigate matters of the heart. Jasper’s limited experience and social discomfort are tempered by his real effort to grow and change.
The professor isn’t the only one opening his heart this week. DS Dan Winters (Barney White) meets a potential new love interest, and although he turns her down at first, he decides by the end of the episode to meet her for a drink after all. His hesitation is understandable as he only just acknowledged his crippling grief over Donckers at the end of last season. It’s nice to see both leading men in this series take gentle, healthy steps toward new relationships.
The Case Of The Week
A weekend getaway at a fancy resort becomes a test of more than just compatibility for Jasper and Helena when two deaths happen in the hotel’s dining room on two consecutive nights. The first man, Clive, dies as the professor and his former therapist check in. Dr. Naomi Ascherson (Eve Ponsonby) and her husband Kit (Ashley Emerson) race in to help, but it’s too late. Busybodies Simon and Paula (Finlay Robertson and Annette McLaughlin) sidle up to offer their opinions that the man died of a heart attack. The next day it’s established Clive died of a stroke, his fourth and final.
At dinner that night, Naomi and Kit are seated with Helena and Jasper. We learn the hotel’s owner, Finley Crawford (Benjamin Noble), is Naomi’s ex-husband. He called her for help with Clive because her surgery practice is very close. He then invited them to dinner as a thank-you.
A surprise birthday cake from Paula to Simon interrupts dinner, complete with trick candles. Paula films her husband’s reaction as Kit suddenly begins to convulse and collapses to the floor. Naomi sprays nitroglycerine into his mouth and begins performing CPR, but Kit doesn’t survive.
It’s Not A Coincidence
DCI Maiya Goswami (Sunetra Sarker) assigns Winters and DC Chloe Highsmith (Rhian Blundell) to lead the investigation simply because Jasper is there and she expects his interference. True to form, when they try to take Jasper’s statement, he opines rather than give them facts, unwilling to entertain the idea that these deaths are coincidental.
He’s right, of course. Kit died of cyanide poisoning, and further tests are in the works. When Naomi learns this from the police, she blames herself for not recognizing the symptoms. Although Kit’s business was in bankruptcy, she can’t think of anyone who’d want to harm her husband and is shocked at the implication that Crawford, whom she separated from amicably, could have plotted jealously. Crawford presents a different version of their marriage, claiming Naomi left him at his lowest point, and even took their dog, Charlie.
Rocky Romantic Beginnings
Winters kindly suggests that Jasper should deprioritize work and focus on Helena. So far, Jasper and Helena haven’t really spent time together in this test-drive period. She is visibly disappointed when Jasper tells her he’s gotten the case details, and Jasper, learning a bit quicker this time, tries to course-correct. But Helena knows what case solving means to him. In return for allowing him to read the police reports over their lunch, Helena makes Jasper promise he’ll let it go if the police think the deaths are accidental.
Meanwhile, Winters steps in when fellow bar patron Leonie’s (Poppy Drayton) date gets belligerent and violent. A few days later, they meet-cute while shopping at the same grocery store and trade flirty banter, but Dan declines when she asks him out for a drink. Leonie gives him her number in case he changes his mind, and he does after the case closes.
The Cassava Connection
Further tests reveal Kit died from ingesting pieces of raw cassava (which naturally contain cyanide). It now looks like kitchen negligence, so Winters and Highsmith interview the head chef, Julian (Adrian Christopher). Things don’t look great for Julian, who’s already under suspicion for losing the food from Kit’s plate that had been saved as evidence. But things go awry when Julian panics, and Highsmith deploys tear gas, landing him in the hospital.
With Julian being investigated in connection with Kit’s accidental death, Helena believes that’s case closed, but Jasper wants to keep digging. Frustrated he won’t relax with her, she indulges in all the hotel’s amenities alone. Jasper knows he’s made a mistake, but he can’t give up when he thinks he’s right, especially when it comes to murder.
Goswami confirms that Clive also had a piece of cassava in his throat. Meanwhile, Highsmith posits that Crawford poisoned Kit and framed Julian. As far as Jasper and Helena know, however, the police are still considering the two deaths accidental. Helena presses him to let it go as he promised, but Jasper insists this is homicide.
Helena throws in the towel on the weekend and declares she’s leaving. But during checkout she runs into Simon and Paula and asks for a key piece of evidence: the video capturing Kit’s death. She decides to share it with Jasper, which helps crack the case.
An Insufficient Ending
The footage shows Naomi clearly reaching over Kit’s plate, and the police imply that’s when she planted cassava in his salad. Naomi claims she was stealing food from his plate, then asks about Clive. It has to be staff negligence; that must be how Clive died too. Did anyone test him for cassava?
Jasper knew she’d mention Clive because she planted the cassava in his throat while “checking his airways” as the first medical professional on the scene. She used a natural death to mask her murder plot.
Goswami dispatches a team to Naomi’s house to search for traces of cassava. They’re almost out of luck until Jasper presses them to test the remains of the family dog they accidentally unearthed, which also has cassava in its stomach. Faced with the evidence, Naomi doesn’t confess, but she must be guilty because that’s where the story ends.
Unwanted Thoughts
- The conclusion felt incomplete without the murderer’s own explanation of motives. All we got was Jasper’s theories on why Naomi killed her husband.
- We finally get Frances de la Tour back, but distressingly, it’s when Adelaide is rushed to the hospital with a mysterious illness. Please don’t kill off Adelaide to replace her with Zelda! There’s room for two eccentric older ladies.
- Jasper’s literal compatibility checklist is beyond adorable. Despite a near-disaster of a weekend, Helena decides to continue their romantic sidequest.
Professor T Season 5 airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on most PBS stations and the PBS app and will air and stream weekly through the end of November. All six episodes are now available for PBS Passport members and on the PBS Masterpiece Prime Video Channel. As always, check your local streaming service/listings.
