Glass Houses

On the village green, a large man named Marchand, a member of a local road crew, threatens the cobrador with a fireplace poker. The crowd eggs him on. As Gamache tries to de-escalate, Lea steps between Marchand and the figure. Gamache joins her, and Anton, Clara, Myrna, Gabri, Olivier, and Ruth form a human shield. Lea argues that the cobrador has done no harm and that they are teaching their children to be afraid. Gamache calmly holds out his hand for the weapon. Marchand hesitates but then lowers the poker, which Gamache takes.

As the mob disperses, Gamache stops Marchand. Sûreté agents arrive, initially focusing on the cobrador until Gamache redirects them to Marchand. Gamache searches him and finds a pouch containing two fentanyl pills. He instructs the agents to hold Marchand overnight and send the pills to the lab. Back home, Gamache tells Reine-Marie he spoke to the cobrador, asked whom it was there for, and told it to leave. They agree it will not leave yet. Following the figure’s gaze, Gamache sees it staring into the bakery where Jacqueline is visible before she turns back to her work.

At the trial, Zalmanowitz aggressively questions Gamache about not acting after the death threat against the cobrador. Gamache suspects Marchand was manipulated to scare the figure away, not kill it, and links the fentanyl to the cobrador’s purpose. Judge Corriveau reprimands the Crown, noting that Gamache is not on trial. The Crown asks about Lea Roux’s intervention, suggesting a political stunt. Gamache counters that a populist would have sided with the mob, not the outsider. He says Lea has a reputation for principle, though he notes that appearances can deceive.

The narrative flashes back to the evening of the confrontation with the cobrador, when Reine-Marie invites Lea and Matheo for dinner. They learn village visitors Katie and Patrick Evans missed the event, having dined in Knowlton. Over the meal, they discover that the delicious stew, brought by Olivier, was made by Anton the dishwasher with foraged ingredients. Gamache asks Lea about her first bill in the National Assembly. She incorrectly recalls it as concerning emergency wards; Gamache corrects her that it was an anti-drug initiative. He explains that it failed partly because she named it after Edouard, making it seem personal. Matheo reveals that Edouard was their university roommate who died by suicide, jumping from a residence roof while high. Gamache offers to work with Lea to reintroduce the bill but notes her polite yet uninterested response, causing him to wonder why she would forget her priority bill.

The next morning, the cobrador is gone from the village green. Gamache watches his dogs, Henri and Gracie, play. Myrna joins him, and they express relief, speculating that Paul Marchand scared the figure off. Gamache reasons it must have achieved its goal or would not have left. They discuss T. S. Eliot’s poem “Little Gidding,” with its refrain that all shall be well; Myrna notes that peace comes only after a dreadful cleansing and thinks of the villagers as people who came to Three Pines to heal.

Gamache recalls his granddaughters playing Ring Around the Rosie where the figure stood. Reine-Marie had told him the rhyme originated during the Black Death. His mind links the rhyme, the plague, and the fentanyl from Marchand’s pocket. Ruth appears with Rosa, saying she went to the church to escape the Archangel Michael. She tells them she prayed for her enemies, for world peace, and for Lucifer, explaining that the fallen angel was once luminous and most in need of prayer. Ruth posits that conscience can be warped to justify appalling acts. As she leaves, she adds that sometimes all is not well.

Gamache returns to Sûreté headquarters in Montréal and has lunch with Superintendent Madeleine Toussaint, the new head of serious crimes and the first woman and first Haitian to lead a Sûreté department. When Toussaint says her department needs more resources, Gamache urges using existing ones better and encourages her to reinvent the unit, reminding her he chose her for her integrity. Toussaint reflects on her husband, André’s, cynicism; he believes that she was appointed as an expendable scapegoat. Gamache acknowledges that the situation is untenable and says the war on drugs is lost. He challenges her to think of a solution, and she replies that the force must change.

When he agrees, Toussaint, surprised, nearly calls him old guard; he replies that someone has to be “expendable.” She realizes Gamache has positioned himself as the scapegoat, not her. Their predecessors’ corruption, he says, provides an opportunity to reinvent everything while appearing to change nothing. He admits he lacks a plan and needs ideas. Gamache recalls accepting the chief superintendent job after Reine-Marie told him the story of Odysseus’s retirement, which Gamache him to realize his own battle was not over. Toussaint says they must commit fully and burn their ships. The phrase strikes a chord with Gamache, who scribbles on a napkin and declares they will burn the ship rather than repair it. Toussaint leaves reenergized, though with concern about Gamache’s hint of “madness.”

Gamache meets with Inspector Jean-Guy Beauvoir to discuss a Sûreté ceremonial drill team for community outreach, which Gamache approves. Beauvoir complains about his new glasses, which his son bent; Gamache adjusts them. A lab email confirms the drugs found on Paul Marchand are fentanyl just as Reine-Marie calls, telling Gamache she has found the cobrador dead in the church basement. There is blood, and she touched the body to check for a pulse. Gamache asks her not to wash her hands so as to preserve evidence. Jean-Guy immediately calls Chief Inspector Isabelle Lacoste. They race to Three Pines with sirens on, and Jean-Guy observes he has rarely seen Gamache so desperate and enraged. At the trial in the present day, the Crown snidely praises Gamache for putting his job before his wife’s comfort.

Back in the past, Gamache arrives at Three Pines and finds Reine-Marie with Clara and Myrna. He avoids touching her until Jean-Guy has taken samples and photos of the blood on her hands. Afterward, Gamache embraces his wife and helps her wash. He notices blood caught in her wedding ring, and she gives him the bloody church key. Gamache learns Paul Marchand was released at 10 o’clock that morning and tells an agent the pills Marchand had were fentanyl. Gabri intercepts them asking for information, but Gamache cannot provide any. Gabri heads off other approaching villagers.

Chief Inspector Isabelle Lacoste and the scene of crime team arrive at St. Thomas’s Church. A forensics agent processes the bloody church key, which Gamache then gives to Lacoste to unlock the church. He briefs her that Reine-Marie found the cobrador’s body in the basement at approximately 1:45 pm. Lacoste and her team enter. Gamache pauses, watching the villagers clustered outside the bistro as sleet begins to fall. They enter the dated church basement and find the root cellar, a small windowless room where the body lies motionless and hulking in the black robes. The coroner arrives and notes the victim is wearing a mask.

At the trial in the present day, video of the crime scene is played after a warning about its graphic nature. The footage shows the team in the root cellar. The camera closes in on the cracked mask as Lacoste announces she is removing it. Most spectators look away. Judge Corriveau forces herself to watch, and a defense lawyer looks at the defendant with revulsion. In the video, Lacoste removes the mask, revealing the victim is not a man but a woman. Gamache, surprised, identifies her as Katie Evans, who was staying at the bed-and-breakfast. A bloody bat, the apparent cause of death, is propped against a shelf. The video captures Gamache’s bewilderment as he looks back into the root cellar.