The Green Man

A sad episode, "The Green Man" marks the end of Sergeant Troy as Barnaby's partner, as he becomes an Inspector in his own right and is promoted. He had that little flirtation with Barnaby's daughter Cully for a while, and I was hoping...that's a couple of seasons away.

To give Troy the hang of working without him, Barnaby works on one case, and Troy another. Barnaby investigates some old bones walled up in a cave where Joyce and Cully are volunteering. Except one of the skulls appears to have had National Health, given the state of his teeth, so he's not as ancient as the others. Who was he, and what was he doing dead in the cave? Troy's case involved a homeless man, protected by the local Lord, who is being attacked and harassed by teen boys out in the woods shooting for fun. The man, Tom, takes the gun away from one of the boys and throws it in the bushes. Later it's used in a murder. Troy has to find Tom, learn what happened to the gun, and if he saw anything. While he's at it, there are a couple of other murders.

The plot has some interesting twists, one of which is Barnaby's actions when learning the identity of the man in the cave. I actually don't agree here with the other reviewers. Rather than give a spoiler, I'll just say that given the circumstances, I think Barnaby did the right thing. It's true he took two people to task for doing basically the same thing, but I think he also saw ahead that nothing was going to come of doing anything about it now.

Tom, the hermit, has a fascinating interaction with the wildlife around him, and this is one of the best things about the episode. It's an unusual one, and a melancholy one, as Troy moves on.