'Professor T's “You Can’t Kill Me” Is Tonally Inconsistent Fun

The title of this week’s Professor T episode, “You Can’t Kill Me,” along with Aunt Zelda opening things with a tarot card reading, suggests a more playful story. The unraveling of this week’s murder is far sadder than what the expectations set. Yet it also manages to be fresh and entertaining, and we’re slowly getting character growth from Jasper again.

Regrettably, the show is leaning harder into its preferred trope of Jasper always being smarter than the police. Yes, he’s supposed to be a genius in criminology. But it’s getting near catchphrase level when the police announce who they’re arresting, only for Jasper to proclaim, “There’s just one problem…” and pronounce their lead suspect is definitely not the killer. Even the other characters are openly rolling their eyes.

Our poor green Highsmith is tripping all over herself and not demonstrating critical thinking. She really steps in it when she takes over guard duty for a vulnerable witness without proper authorization, falls asleep on the job, and tackles the witness’ father after mistaking him for an intruder. She’s lucky not to have charges pressed against her, and that the worst she gets is a stern lecture from Goswami.

Winters kindly commiserates, sharing tales from his rookie days to make Highsmith laugh. Separately, he’s still completely shut down about Lisa’s death, refusing to process it and getting triggered when his father broaches the topic. (You can’t run forever, Dan.)

It’s another instance where our main cast has a personal connection to the case. Dr. Goldberg was the family therapist to a pair of married actors, Phoebe (Emily Taaffe) and Bradley (Jonathan Wrather), and their 14-year-old daughter, Francesca (Kiki May). To up the ante, Dr. Goldberg is even in the audience when the murder occurs onstage during the couple’s play: Phoebe stabs her co-star Tanya Loomis (Sinay Bavurhe) with what is supposed to be a prop knife, killing her. Backstage at nearly the same time, another actor, Georgina (Keturah Chambers), finds Francesca bleeding from the head, knocked unconscious by a Shakespeare bust.

Our key suspects in Tanya’s murder include:

• Georgina: The actress who canceled due to a supposed migraine, leading to Phoebe filling in as understudy and delivering the death blow. She returned to the theater with enough time to swap the knives.
• Fabian: Tanya’s violent-tempered boyfriend and Georgina’s ex, who was overheard having a heated fight with Tanya.
• Phoebe: Was it an accident? Phoebe was up for a major movie role, which instead went to Tanya, giving her motive, means, and opportunity. Her history also includes threatening a director and a stint in a psych hospital for clinical depression.

Winters treats everyone as suspicious, grilling Bradley on who would have been responsible for putting out the props. It turns out Bradley set the knife block on stage, but Winters points out that Phoebe should have tested the knife before the performance as well.

Meanwhile, Francesca is recovering in the hospital but has amnesia. It seems strange that neither of her parents is there when Highsmith asks her questions, but Francesca has no memory of the attack. Highsmith theorizes that the teen saw the killer swap the knives and intended to kill Francesca as a witness. Further, she may still be in danger if the killer comes back to finish the job. Highsmith recommends a protective detail be assigned to Francesca’s hospital room. 

(And as mentioned above, relieves the guard without Goswami’s knowledge, falls asleep in his place, and in a half-awake state tackles Bradley, who’s come to visit his daughter.)

It's not looking great for Georgina when CCTV puts her at a nearby pub instead of at home like she claimed. She admits to drinking and falling prey to jealousy. Instead of killing Tanya, she stole her phone, debit card, and cash while Tanya was onstage. She points the finger at Fabian – his violent behavior during their relationship convinced her he was capable of killing Tanya.

Things get stickier for Fabian (Ruben Francq) when he’s caught choking Bradley and demanding to know where Phoebe is. Winters intervenes and gets thrown against the wall for his efforts. Under questioning, Fabian seems a different person: calm, collected, thoughtful. He responds with a definitive “no” when asked point-blank about switching the knives.

To keep Francesca from harm, the police ask Jasper to approach Dr. Goldberg for any relevant information she might have about the family from their sessions. She’s reluctant to break confidentiality but quickly gives in. We learn that during her mother’s breakdown, Francesca was shipped to a boarding school she hated.

With suspicion that she’s lying about her amnesia, Jasper conducts a memory test on Francesca. She throws the test, “failing” to remember each time. Even without memory, Jasper points out that statistically, she should have guessed correctly at least half the time.

The investigation has led the police to conclude Phoebe is the killer, despite Jasper’s disagreement. He’s pretty sure he’s correct even as Phoebe turns herself in and confesses. Goswami and Winters are patting themselves on the back, but Jasper continues to insist Phoebe’s not the killer.

Without any hard evidence to support his claim, the police trust Jasper’s word based on his track record. To instigate a confession out of Francesca, they parade her mother in handcuffs. Phoebe tells her daughter she’s handled the situation. Francesca freaks out, not realizing her mother took the fall.

The wrap-up and motive are a little weak, but it’s still really sad. Francesca swapped the knives so Phoebe could have the movie role once Tanya was out of the picture. Then she toppled the bust so it would knock her out and deflect suspicion. She was trying to prevent her mother’s breakdown and the possibility of being sent away. Naïve Francesca sobs that she doesn’t want to go to jail.

In “September Gardens,” Jasper helped keep a family together by knowingly allowing a murderer to walk free. But this week, he ensures a teenager will go to jail. Warranted, but sad for everyone. Discussing the case over dinner, Jasper offers insights to Dr. Goldberg that Francesca was fantasy-prone. Her reality may have been skewed by watching people “die and come back to life” nightly since childhood. It feels flimsy at best, but Dr. Goldberg is going to use that angle to plead leniency for Francesca in the courts.

• Ms. Snares ropes in an old colleague, Lyndon (Silas Carson), to test her stolen DNA for a match between Jasper and the Dean. It’s unclear whether she targeted Lyndon or randomly bumped into him.
• Zelda and Wilfred are taking a photo in the dark room. Not the answer to Clue, but a great bit where Zelda gets the Dean to have fun modeling for her as amends for standing her up. Things almost get steamy, but Wilfred stops short of kissing Zelda.
• Speaking of heating up, there’s now the suggestion that Jasper and Dr. Goldberg are gearing up for a romantic entanglement. Professionally inappropriate? Definitely. But it would go a long way towards explaining the doctor’s jealousy.    

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.