#These theories are the reason I passed hs lit

[eurydice-pleasedontlookatme]

Jason Todd and Touya Todoroki are the same person.

That’s it. That’s the post.

I may or may not attempt a fic of this.

No, I will not be taking any further comments.

[readingraebow]

Murder on the Orient Express Section Three

Part 2: Chapter 15 - Part 3: Chapter 9

1. What happens when Mary's luggage is searched? Poirot sends Greta away under the pretense of taking care of Mrs. Hubbard. But Mary notices and asks him why he wanted to see her alone. He asks her about what he overhead on the previous train and she's quite flustered and says that she can't answer him. But it has nothing to do with the murder. It's something that she must take care of. But when he asks if it's already over, she asks him what he means. He says that on the last train, she was distraught when they stopped because she couldn't be delayed. The Orient Express leaves every day. If she were delayed meeting her connection, it would've been only 24 hours. They are now caught in a snow drift and she doesn't seem to be upset at all. So Poirot reasons that she must've already done what she referring to on the last train. But to this she has no answer. Only that she can't tell him.

2. Where are the missing articles of clothing found? The Wagon Lit uniform is, indeed, found in Hildegarde's luggage. Poirot explains that when the conductor saw her, he tried to get rid of the uniform quickly but all the compartments were occupied: except Hildegarde's because she was attending to her mistress. Therefore he stowed the uniform in her luggage so that it wouldn't be found right away. The scarlet kimono isn't found during the search through the luggage of the passengers. It's only when Poirot returns to his own cabin to retrieve cigarettes that he finds it neatly folded in his own bag.

3. What does Poirot reveal they have learned from comments made by MacQueen? Ratchett spoke no French. MacQueen had said on multiple occasions that he was really there to translate for Ratchett because he didn't speak any other languages. Therefore, the voice that came from Ratchett's cabin when the assumed he was last heard alive could not have been Ratchett. The French phrases were not those that would've been chosen by a beginning but they were spoken by someone who was fluent in French. Therefore, they were probably spoken by the murderer meaning Ratchett was already dead at that point or was just about to be killed. But the person Poirot heard moving about in Ratchett's cabin was not Ratchett.

4. What does Poirot come to believe about the Countess? How does he reach this conclusion? He realizes that the Countess is actually Mrs. Armstrong's younger sister. He found the grease spot on her passport to be quite strange especially since it looked fresh. And it's covering part of her first name which means it might not have been an accident. He reasons that if they were trying to cover up her real name, this could be easily enough done. If her real name is, in fact, Helena then all they would need do is cover the H and make the E a capital and they could pass her off as Elena. Poirot also remembers that when they searched the passenger's luggage he noticed that her name tag was wet. That could've been when it was steamed off, her name changed, and then reapplied. Poirot also remembers that Mrs. Armstrong's mother was an actress and Linda Arden wasn't he real name. Therefore, Helena Goldenberg is the true identity of the Countess. When he puts this theory to her, she confirms it.

5. Who is the owner of the handkerchief? So what led Poirot to discovering the Countess's real identity was his trying to figure out who owned the handkerchief. And even though her initial is H, it still didn't belong to her. But as soon as she left, the Princess paid them a visit and said they had one of her handkerchiefs. Even though her initial is an N, she said she always has her handkerchiefs monogrammed in the Russian characters and in Russian, Ns are Hs. This explains why Hildegarde hesitated when Poirot showed her the handkerchief. And the Princess says she didn't tell him it was hers that morning because he never asked her.

6. Which passengers turn out to be associated with the Armstrong case and how? How does Poirot discover this? Basically everyone. Poirot discovered this because of an observation made by M. Bouc. He'd commented that there were so many different nationalities present on the train and Poirot realized that was unusual for this time of year and especially with the rest of the train being relatively empty. He then realized that the type of place you would find such a collection of nationalities would be in an American household. He then began to cast everyone on the train as part of the Armstrong household. When he presented all of his guesses to everyone, he proved correct. They're basically all the servants from the Armstrong household. The cook, the nanny, the chauffeur. Of the twelve passengers on the train, nine of them have connections to the Armstrong household.

7. Who is the murderer? All of them except the Countess did it. When Ratchett walked away free, the twelve of them devised the plan to bring him down. Because he was clearly guilty they became the jury to carry out his sentence. Michel, the conductor was also in on it. His daughter was the French maid who was also killed in connection to the kidnapping. And Mrs. Hubbard is actually Linda Arden, Mrs. Armstrong's mother. They got MacQueen and Masterman into Ratchett's employ and because Susanne's father worked on the Orient Express, they waited for a time when he would travel by train. The twelve of them, therefore, assembled onto the train and each of them stabbed the man, the Count taking the place of his wife. Ratchett was heavily drugged and was actually killed close to 2am. The train wasn't supposed to get stuck in a snow drift and it was supposed to look like an outsider and come aboard, killed Ratchett, and then left. But when they got stuck in the snow, Poirot figured the whole thing out. And they all admitted to it freely. Though Mrs. Hubbard asks that if someone is to take the fall for the whole thing, that it be her. She, after all, is the one most likely to have committed the crime in the first place.

8. How does the novel end? What did you think of this novel? Do you plan to see the movie? Poirot presents two possible solutions to the crime: the one that they intended of the extra conductor killing Poirot and getting away and the real solution, with all of them killing Ratchett. Poirot, Bouc and Constantine decide to go with the first one and present that to the police. That someone came aboard and killed Ratchett and got away. And honestly this book seriously made me cry. Because Poirot is an amazing man. I seriously love this whole book and the way it's written. It's an absolutely genius mystery. It's definitely one of my favorites. I can't wait to see the movie!!! I'm already counting the days until it's out. And I'm so glad I got to reread the book before I see the movie. I just hope they keep the ending the same. If not, I will be wildly upset O.O It's perfect. Please don't change it. *crosses fingers*

  Section Two Reading Journal

I LOVE THIS BOOK SO MUCH. It's seriously just as good as I remember. That ending is seriously never one you forget??? I just didn't remember quite ~how everyone was connected to the Armstrong family. I remembered they were all connected though. AND MY DARLING MRS. HUBBARD. I seriously love her most because she's so over the top and hilarious but she's really this cool commanding broken hearted mother. Argh I want to give her all the hugs. But I think that's why she bugged me so much in the original movie??? Because they made it fairly easy to tell who she really was??? (And in the new movie it seems like they're making her super paranoid and crazy and I'm kind of not a fan???)

Anyway, SUPER EXCITED FOR THE MOVIE!!! I'd heard they might try to change things like the victim and I'm like O.O Please don't????? This book is amazing you should leave it the same?? But I have high hopes and I can't wait to see it!! I'm just not totally on board with Kenneth Branagh as Poirot??? I'd kind of always pictured Poirot as a mustached Humpty Dumpty and, well, Kenneth Branagh is permanently Lockhart in my brain and you can see how those two images don't coincide, haha. So I guess we'll see.

But I'm so glad to have reread this and I hope ya'll liked it!!! I always love reading Agatha and I can't wait to read more. Especially more Poirot because he's my fav. Thankfully I still have about 30 of his books to go, haha. Good times.