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Spoilers Ahead!
October 1940
Night in Hailsham - Leonard Holmes, Dan Parker and Matthew Farley are robbing the food depot. Two members of the Home Guard challenge them and they jump into their van, but a guard fires his rifle and hits Farley. The van takes off at speed, Parker hauling his injured mate inside.
That same night, there is an air raid over London. The fire of burning buildings lights up the sky and reveals the huge barrage balloons floating above.
In one air-raid shelter the terrified people are not helped by a man who moans about the madness, and the deaths, claiming that Churchill and the rest of them don't care. "We're not going to win this war. Nobody can stop them. If we don't have a negotiated peace, we'll be crushed." Some women remonstrate with him. "What do you know about it, anyway?"
"I do know! I'm with the police, I know what's happening… The Gerries have won and we might as well pack up!"
Early morning and Sam is searching for something in the police station. Milner enters and gives her the distributor cap she is looking for; he had found it in a biscuit tin in the kitchen. In the meantime, Foyle has arrived back from a trip to London on the bus. Just as the bus is about to stop, he sees the Wolseley drive past and pull up. Sam hops out of the car and stands as though she has been waiting for the bus to come along. Foyle climbs out and walks towards her.
"Been here long?""A few minutes, sir."
Sam's boss gives her a look that says 'yeah, right' and a little smile tugs at the corner of his mouth as he puts his gas mask bag and a small suitcase into the boot of the car. Sam sheepishly explains that, following regulations, she had immobilised the vehicle, but she had forgotten where she had hidden the distributor cap. Foyle smiles. "At least you got here."
As Sam drives him to the station, she asks what it is like in London. "Well, a quarter of a million homeless, civil administration almost non-existent..." He says that the voluntary services can do little with up to five hundred tons of bombs being dropped a night. "There's too many dead and dying."
At the station, Milner welcomes Foyle back and reports that there is not a lot going on. "Bomb fell on a cemetery in Upperton. Nobody killed but a lot of dead bodies!" He tells of the break-in at the food depot . As they walk to the office, three men pass. Milner explains that they were bird-watchers who had been looking for rare birds. When Sam asks why they had been arrested, he replies, "They were selling them as meat!"
Foyle interviews Kate Farley who has reported her son Matthew as missing, saying she is worried because he has been keeping the wrong kind of company. He and Dan Parker - "a bit of no good" - do odd jobs together at Brookfield Court, a guest house. She speaks disparagingly of the place.
Sam drives Milner to Brookfield Court. "I hope you're not going to leave me by the car. Mr Foyle always does!" As Milner looks for Mrs Powell, the proprietor, Sam enjoys her freedom to snoop and comes across a woman sitting typing in the summer house. Miss Reece explains that she is a journalist who writes for magazines.
Milner finds Mrs Powell in the kitchen. She has not seen Parker or Farley for a couple of days. Her husband, who is blind, calls from the sitting-room and she takes Milner to meet him. Mrs Powell says there are six guests: Mr and Mrs Joseph, Mr and Mrs Hardiman, Amanda Reece and Frank Vaudrey.
Sam approaches a gardener working in the grounds. The man stops abruptly when she tells him they are looking for a missing person. When she gives Farley's name he says he doesn't know him. Sam points out that the gardener is pulling up a flower in mistake for a weed, but he ignores her.
Hardiman tells his wife that he has advised a visiting policeman to check out Frank Vaudrey and comments on items that have been stolen from Brookfield Court since Vaudrey arrived.
In Foyle's office, Milner tells his boss that he thinks the guest house is a funk hole. Sam requests an explanation and Foyle obliges. "It's a sort of hiding place for people with more money than conscience who want to buy their way out of the war. There are hotels and guest houses just like Brookfield Court tucked away all over the country."
Milner reports that, following a tip, he has sent a routine inquiry to Scotland Yard regarding Vaudrey. Sam suggests that they ask about the gardener, too. Foyle asks why. "Well, he knew nothing about gardening, I can tell you that." The phone rings and Foyle makes to answer it, but pauses to give his driver a look that indicates he has just realised that she had been playing detective when he wasn't there to prevent her. As Milner leaves to further the inquiry, Foyle answers the phone. The message alarms him. Summoning Sam to follow, he walks quickly from his office.
Sam drives Foyle to the hospital and on their arrival he dives out of the Wolseley and runs up the steps of the building two at a time. He finds his injured son sitting in a wheelchair with his right arm in a sling and an angry red injury on one side of his face. Andrew explains that he crashed in the Channel, but is okay, apart from a broken arm and cuts and bruises. Foyle is greatly relieved. With a week's crash leave, his son can come home.
In police HQ in London, Chief Inspector James Collier reports to Assistant Commissioner Rose that a man had made seditious comments while taking cover in a shelter during the recent bombing. Witness descriptions matched that of DCS Foyle and one person actually named him. Rose exclaims, "Foyle is a first-class detective who's more or less running the entire south coast." However, spreading alarm and despondency is a very serious breach of defence regulations and he instructs that Foyle is to be suspended while an immediate inquiry is held.
In a barn where the stolen food has been stored and the wounded Farley taken, Parker has brought something for his friend, but finds that the man has died.
Next morning, at home, Foyle offers to help his son spread margarine on a slice of toast. The crash has severely shaken Andrew; he is despondent and says he's not hungry anyway. Foyle tells him that sitting around moping will not do him any good and suggests he asks a friend over, "that Douglas fellow?" Andrew replies that Douglas is dead. Foyle says softly, "Sorry." He rubs his brow in thought, then suggests he take the day off to keep his son company."You haven't taken a day off in twenty years."
"There's always a first time."
"No. It'll be all right. I'll be fine."
Foyle is lost in thought as Sam drives him to work. She notices his look of concern and inquires if everything is alright. He replies, "Yes, thanks" but, after a pause, continues, "No, not really. I'm just wondering if, em…" - he purses his lips as he wrestles with whether or not he should speak his thoughts - "… you doing anything this evening?"
Sam smiles. "Are you asking me out, sir?"
"Steady on, Miss Stewart. Certainly not! No, er, I was just thinking about, em, Andrew, er…" He is obviously uncomfortable."Is he alright?"
"No, um, well, I don't know. I'm just a bit worried about him. He's not himself at the moment because of this accident and I thought… maybe, em… it would do him a bit of good to… get out a bit."
"You mean… with me?"
"Well, no, no, no, well, no, er, er, er…"
Sam rescues him. "A drive in the countryside, something like that?"
A relieved Foyle says, "Perfect! Yes."
Sam says she will be pleased to give Andrew a breath of fresh air and a change of scenery. Her boss smiles.
Collier arrives in Hastings to begin his investigation. In his hotel room, he places a photograph of two women on his beside table.
Foyle is in his office with Milner. Looking at the reports of the shooting of a man during the food robbery and the missing man who works less than a mile from the depot, at Brookfield court, he considers the possibility of a link between the two. Farley's co-worker, Parker, rooms with Leonard Holmes who runs the village shop local to Brookfield Court - a perfect place to distribute stolen food.
In the shop, Mrs Farley complains bitterly when Holmes sells the last piece of meat to Mrs Powell, saying that the local villagers have to go without while the cowards at her guest house eat their food. Mrs Powell protests that the guests are entitled to their rations.
The Home Guardsman who shot Farley gives his report to Foyle and Milner, saying that the man he shot shouted something that he thought was "Damn!" Milner wonders if it could have been a man's name. Dan, perhaps?
At Brookfield Court, Mrs Powell finds Parker cleaning the stove. She tells him that the police wanted to talk to him.
He insists that she back up his story that he was there on Wednesday night and she has to agree because she has a secret and he knows of it.
Sam calls at Foyle's house and Andrew answers the door. She says that his dad had mentioned him being on his own at home and, as she was just on her way to have tea, she wondered if he wanted to join her. He is reluctant but she persuades, saying that she's more likely to get a decent portion if she's eating with an airman.
At a tea pavilion on the seafront, Andrew doesn't eat, but Sam tucks in with gusto. She tries to make conversation but he is not very talkative. One thing she does get out of him is that he has broken up with Violet. She tells him that they are all proud of what he is doing in the RAF.
"Is that why you invited me out to tea?"
"No. I just didn't like the idea of you moping in the house on your own."
Andrew's ears prick up; the word "moping" is the one his father used. He is not pleased. "Did he put you up to this?"
"No… not exactly."
"He's worried about me so he sends a girl along to cheer me up!"
"I'm not a girl… well, I am, but not just a girl."
"You're a police driver doing what she's been told to do… I can't believe my father! Treating me like a child!" He continues his angry outburst, saying that no one needs to feel proud, he's just doing what has to be done. "The simple fact is that, right now, I just want to be left on my own, and if Dad thinks he can just use you like some sort of nanny, you can tell him to forget it!"
Sam tells him that is a horrid thing to say, but he is unrepentant. He stands, throws money onto the table - "Here, let me pay for tea!" - and telling her that he will make his own way home, walks off.
The young gardener enters the kitchen of Brookfield Court as Mrs Powell is preparing a meal. She is horrified and tells him that he shouldn't be there. He says he had to see her, he can't just work out there, pretending. She is worried because Parker once saw them together and has threatened to tell, but doesn't want him to leave the premises. "I can't bear to lose you." They embrace just as Mr Powell comes into the room. He thinks he has heard voices, but his wife assures him that she is alone.
Jane Hardiman takes her dog Charlie for a walk in the woods around the guest house. She collects a cloth bag of something hidden in a tree. Charlie investigates a freshly turned patch of earth and exposes a man's hand.
As Foyle and Milner are preparing to leave the station, Foyle tells of the discovery of a man's body and says he was shot in the back. Collier stops them and Foyle explains that he is just about to go out. "I'm afraid not, Mr Foyle. I'm suspending you from duty pending investigation under Section 39A of The Defence and Regulations Act. It's causing disaffection or influencing public opinion." Foyle is stunned. Collier wants to talk to him in private, but he insists that he speaks in front of others standing in the corridor. Collier says the offence took place in a public air-raid shelter. Foyle denies being there. Milner protests the accusation. Foyle asks, "Can't this wait?" Collier says no, so he and Foyle continue to talk in the interview room.
Collier tells Foyle that he is to be confined to Hastings and have no further communication with the station. When Foyle asks what is to happen with the present inquiries, Collier replies that Milner can handle those and, although it is unorthodox, he has persuaded the Assistant Commissioner to allow him (Collier) to stand in for the DCS. Foyle is not pleased, but can only comply.
As Sam drives Milner to the place where Farley's body has been found, she clucks about Foyle's suspension. "Spreading sedition in London! I've never heard anything so ridiculous." A long pause. Turning her face to Milner she asks, "What exactly is sedition?" Mrs Farley is at the site and she tells Milner that she believes that Parker is the one who got her son into trouble.
Afterwards, Milner questions Holmes in his shop and is told that Farley used to visit Parker in his room above. Milner is curious as to why Holmes talks about the man in the past tense. From there, he goes to Brookfield Court where he finds Parker chopping wood. Parker says he last saw Farley two weeks previously, but Milner knows he is lying from what Farley's mother had told him. When Parker turns to walk away, Milner roughly grabs his shirt front and warns him that it was a Ministry of Food warehouse he broke into, so he could well be hanged. "Think about it!"
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