cloudsinvenice | Jonathan Creek S2 ep2: Time Waits For Norman (Reply)

It's entirely my fault that the Grand Jonathan Creek Rewatchathon has proceded glacially slowly. Thanks to

teylaminh for her patience, and you can check out her half of the recap here.

This episode opens with serene music as an ordinary looking businessman navigates an airport arrivals lounge in a state of apparent delight that has been rendered implausible by subsequent airport security measures. His passport identifies him as Mr. Norman Stangerson. NOTHING TO SEE HERE, CLEARLY.

We segue to Maddy's lunch with her agent and publisher, who's perturbed when reality gets in the way of her mocked-up covers for Maddy's book. They feature unfeasibly hot people. And remember, this is a show where people actually look like ordinary human beings. "You're saying there is actually a real person called Jonathan Creek? He's not just a narrative conceit for storytelling purposes?"

I'm sure Jonathan sometimes wonders that himself...

Meanwhile, Maddy's romantically unsatisfied and bending her agent's ear about it. "It's a stupid situation of us never actually doing anything, but still not feeling single. I just don't think it's fair on Jonathan, to be feeling he has to keep saving his body for me." Jonathan, however, is not saving his body for Maddy. Jonathan has given his body to the tax inspector who's come round to audit him. Also, she turns out to be bald, because Renwick. "Life's full of surprises," says Jonathan, with a world-weary lugubriousness that may ensure this is the last time he has sex for a while.

Sometimes, Jonathan, you just don't know when you're well off.

The thing that became overwhelmingly, frustratingly clear in this episode was that often, Jonathan and Maddy are downright nasty to each other. And of course, it's a vicious circle, with one resentment piling on another so that I daresay even they've lost track of what grievance they're exercising this time. And yet, there is a spark. There's a reason this is one of those fandoms that's just made for ignoring inconvenient aspects of canon and shipping away. Thank for for

teylaminh and her fic, seriously.

Norman Stangerson returns home to find his wife, Maddy's publisher (that's almost a meme) in tears, occasioned by a helpful burger bar assistant having returned his wallet - which Norman supposedly lost in Bishop's Stortford (not one of the boroughs of New York) yesterday. Awkward. Naturally, she assumes he's lying to cover up some sort of double life, but contradictory evidence keeps popping up for Norman's having been in both locations. It defies the laws of time and space - and have I mentioned that Norman's so phobic about time passing that his wife has had to alterher entire collection of clocks? CLOCKS, guys, CLOCKS. She's had the hands taken off.

By the end of the episode, she'll be wanting to remove more than just hands, from more than just those clocks.

To say more would be a dead giveaway, but I'd like to take a moment here to share with you the unique challenges that come with recapping this show. Specifically, I have rarely googled with such trepidation as I did just now. And I never did find the image I was hoping for, despite dutifully putting in the phrase "Jonathan Creek Bull Semen".