It’s the festive season on Sainte Marie, and once again, the island’s residents are plagued by a gruesome murder.

This time around, DI Mervin Wilson (Don Gilet) and the team at the Honoré police department have a tricky case that has gone international. Investigating a body found at a work retreat, they are left stumped when the murder weapon is found in a locked box back in Britain.

DI Mervin Wilson and the team must solve one of their most challenging cases yet when a man is found shot dead after a raucous office Christmas party.

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Death in Paradise has always been known for its far-out solutions to its whodunit mysteries, but this latest Christmas special truly does stretch the boundaries between clever crime drama and silly parody. While the case’s usual beats are nothing to write home about, the problem comes from the solution to the problem of how a gun found halfway across the world could’ve possibly been used to commit a murder back on the island.

Unfortunately, the writers really dug themselves a deep hole with this one. Their solution to this problem finds our would-be murderer taking two 20-hour flights and creating a catfish scheme all within the space of a weekend. It’s a solution that goes well beyond far-fetched and straight into the realm of impossibility. It takes what should be an ordinary person and makes them into a mastermind the likes of which would make even Moriarty blush. These issues are left unaddressed by the end of the episode, and the story finds itself a world away from the more tightly plotted mysteries of earlier series.

Fortunately, the latest Christmas episode doesn’t just rely on its mystery, and there are plenty of interesting character moments scattered throughout the story. With more than just the case weighing on his mind, this episode continues Mervin’s family story arc from the previous series, as he struggles to make contact with his long-lost brother in Antigua. Dealing with the possibility that the search for his roots may come to nothing, it sees a full-force return of Mervin’s grinchly side, and there isn’t a single member of the team that escapes its wrath. While this will do nothing for his character’s popularity, his lashing out makes sense and is in keeping with how his character would react, given his usual prickly yet vulnerable nature. It all works out in the end, however, as his brother finally answers his calls by the episode’s climax, opening plenty of options for continuation in the series to come.

Commissioner Patterson (Don Warrington), too, has some great moments throughout the story. Helping out on the British side of things, his visit to the UK sees him face a whole host of interesting challenges (hooray for the British rail system!). Stranded, he finds himself spending Christmas with a stranger connected to, and ultimately, found guilty of the murder on Sainte Marie. Though their time together was brief, the conversations they had laid the groundwork for Selwyn to reflect and reach a decision to rescind his retirement. While I enjoyed these character moments immensely, I do wonder to what degree this will shade the long and torturous goodbye we were given throughout the last series.