Jasper Exhibits His Compassionate Side in 'Professor T's “September Gardens”

The second episode of Professor T’s fourth season, “September Gardens,” opens with Adelaide (Frances de la Tour), making the briefest of appearances as Jasper’s mother via FaceTime, to pressure him into complying with a request that will propel him into this week’s case. He is begrudgingly convinced to vet his Aunt Zelda’s new romantic interest, Peter (Nicholas Jones). However, what was a chore turns interesting when he discovers proximity to a new murder and an excuse to play detective.

Clearly only in attendance due to his mother's insistence, the professor tags along for an uncomfortable "meet-and-greet" at September Gardens, the euphemistically named, expensive retirement community where Peter lives, to chaperone their date. Things get slightly more complicated when he introduces his daughter, Ingrid, also there for the very same purpose – our very own Ms. Snares! 

Neither Jasper nor Ms. Snares seems happy about their worlds colliding, but Zelda calls it synchronicity. Meanwhile, Ms. Snares is “picking up vibes” about Jasper’s thrice-married aunt and wants to protect her father from relationship woes. But Professor T doesn't have time to worry about defending his aunt's honor, or ever being potentially related to Ms. Snares. There's apparently a dead body here as well.

Abbey (Aude Ruyter), who visits her father Lucien (Martin Turner) like clockwork each week, is found bludgeoned to death with a hammer by the potentially senile Eddy (John O’Toole). Most of the community was at the tennis court; Abbey entered Eddy’s room by mistake, unaware that her father had changed rooms. Although Eddy is holding the bloody hammer when Abbey is found, his mental faculties immediately cast doubt on his guilt. Eddy came to September Gardens after he was brutally beaten, so it could have been dementia fueled PTSD, or that he was framed.

Jasper begins interviewing suspects while claiming to be a police consultant (a position he doesn’t return to until later in the episode). When Winters gets there, he outright dismisses Professor T, who refuses to leave. Couple this with last week’s vigilante stunt, and Jasper reaches new heights of audacity, compelled to investigate independently while side-stepping Winters. Meanwhile, Lucien tells Jasper that his daughter controlled his accounts; she had changed his room to save money as she was going through a messy divorce/custody battle with her ex, Bruno (James Anderson). She was using Lucien's money to pay the lawyers. He wants them to investigate Bruno, but he comes off as a potential suspect.

DC Highsmith thinks Eddy says Lucien gave him the hammer. Even though he’s clearly not a reliable witness, the police arrest Lucien, who is absolutely livid. Not surprisingly, he is soon released since Eddy’s capacities are in question. But the evidence leads Winters to deduce that someone locked the door while Abbey was being attacked, then unlocked it after she was dead. So Eddy both killed Abbey and was set up.

Ms. Snares builds her own evidence tree of main suspects, which she proudly shows Jasper. In addition to Lucien and Bruno, she includes:

• Kate (Mika Simmons): The manager of September Gardens, who affirms Eddy has dementia and insists he stole the hammer from a contractor.
• Julie (Rebecca Night): The nurse who stepped away from the front desk during the murder, who may be sleeping with Bruno.

The police bring in Julie and Bruno, working the angle of their possible affair. Julie is jumpy and won’t answer questions without a lawyer (rightfully so). Bruno is more forthcoming, admitting feelings for Julie but swearing they aren’t involved. The police show Bruno a photo of him near Eddy’s window, but he explains he was simply hiding from Abbey to avoid more custody confrontations over their daughter, Poppy (Sam Michiels).

Jasper declares Julie and Bruno are not guilty of murder, but he doesn’t have enough evidence yet to discover the true culprit. Winters looks like he’s going to grind his teeth to dust. He calls Jasper out on his 6-month absence and the near disaster he caused on the last case. Then comes the kicker: “You didn’t even come to the funeral.”

For the health of the team, Goswami orders the two men to a counseling session with Dr. Goldberg. Neither of them wants to be there, but Dr. Goldberg expertly steers the conversation and helps explain the crippling effect the intrusive memories of Donckers’ death had on Jasper. She gets Winters to open up about Donckers and brings the two men to an understanding.

Credit to the writers on this episode: Jasper notices details that others don’t, which builds to him solving the case from an unexpected angle. Jasper has a realization and declares they shouldn’t release Bruno yet. Winters is annoyed but allows Jasper to question Bruno off the record, and they learn that Poppy was not dealing well with her parents’ divorce. She was accused of cyberbullying and physical altercations at school, but her mother, Abbey, took her side.

What does this have to do with anything? Surprisingly, it’s the key to unlocking the case. The target of Poppy’s aggression was Marie (Madelief Sannen), manager Kate’s daughter, who has been on the edges of this episode doing homework in Kate’s office rather than attending school. Poppy’s bullying drove Marie to attempt suicide.

With Marie’s school taking a light-touch approach to the bullying, Kate confronted Abbey about her daughter. Abbey claimed that Marie needed to toughen up, which lit a fire of fierce protective rage in Kate. She wanted Abbey to feel the fear Marie did, and so she trapped her in a room with a frightened, volatile man. Kate swears to the police she didn’t know Eddy had the hammer, and that she didn’t hear Abbey’s cries for help over the cheers at the tennis court.

With a confession in hand, the case wraps up, and the police decide to recommend Kate be charged with manslaughter instead of murder, especially because she’s Marie’s only parent. However, we are shown definitively that Kate murdered Abbey. In a flashback, Kate clearly hears Abbey screaming after she locks the door from the outside, then doesn’t unlock it until Abbey is dead. In the juxtaposed classroom lecture, Jasper speaks about how suppressed anger can lead to “volcanic rage” and that empathy can have a dark side. Seeing injustice can cause “empathic reactivity” and sometimes, apparently, murder.

Ms. Snares confronts Jasper about letting Kate get off lightly. She and Jasper were at the tennis court; there were no cheers. Jasper won’t confirm or deny, but he flashes back to Marie. He shared what seemed like weird, unsolicited advice when they first met, but now we realize he had noticed her wrist bandages. Jasper was offering compassion and understanding. Keeping Marie’s mother out of jail so she wouldn’t be abandoned was a genuinely good deed on his part.

• When Ms. Snares tells the Dean that her father is dating Aunt Zelda, you can see the arrow go right through his heart.
• Later, we learn that the Dean was going to propose to Zelda. He’s still got the ring.
• Paging Frances de la Tour, please return for more than a cameo; we miss you!

Professor T Season 4 continues with new episodes on Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on PBS, the PBS App, and the PBS Masterpiece Prime Video Channel. All six episodes are available for members to stream on PBS Passport, as are Seasons 1 through 3. Season 5 has already been greenlit. Check your local listings.