| NOTE: This page is only about his Agatha Christie's Poirot incarnation as the original book incarnation of Michael Garfield was not voted Pure Evil. |
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"Mature Content Warning!" |
| “ | Now, you and I will drink to the past and future, and... Ahh... to beauty. (- Miranda: That will be nice. What does it taste of?) It'll taste of whatever you want it to. It's magical, you see. It's quite magical. You remember what I said, Miranda, about returning to nature? Look at the Moon... and you will be there soon. Up there, amongst the cold stars... Immortal. | „ |
| ~ Michael Garfield convincing Miranda to poison herself (TV series). |
| “ | Garfield: Don't make a fuss, you silly creature. It's... so undignified. It's true. I did it all for the money - Of course, I did... and... for the garden. Actually, I was thinkining about buying a little Greek island, start afresh... Mrs. Rowena Drake: NOOOOOO! NOOOOOOOOO! [dropped on her knees and cried] Garfield: I just like pretty things, you see. it's that so wrong? Mrs. Drake: NO! Garfield: And one must have money to get pretty things. I was very fond of you, Judith. Once. But even you're losing your looks now. Poirot: *shocked* Hmm? Garfield: It is an awful shame, do you not think, Monsieur, that we all must wither and die? [Poirot stared at Garfield angrily.] |
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| ~ Michael revealing his true nature to Mrs. Drake and Poirot (TV series). |
Michael Garfield is the main antagonist of Hallowe'en Party, a 1969 detective novel written Agatha Christie, which is one of her later books of Hercule Poroit series, as well as its 2010 TV episode adaptation of Agatha Christie's Poirot.
He was introduced as a talented gardener of Mrs. Louise Llewellyn-Smythe, but had an affair with Mrs. Rowena Drake, and they planned a murder to take the rich old woman's legacy, ending up killing at least three people (six in the TV series).
In Agatha Christie's Poirot, he was portrayed by Julian Rhind-Tutt, who also portrayed Dr. Arthur Calgary in Agatha Christie's Marple.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
- He was originally in love with Judith Butler, but that feeling lacked any honesty. Furthermore, his unhinged nature and obsession scared Judith and she broke up with him, though Garfield already impregnated her at the time and she later gave birth to Miranda.
- Two years later, he arrived in Woodleigh Common (where Judith also resided alongside Miranda) and became Mrs. Louise Llewellyn-Smythe's gardener, but he seduced Rowena Drake and make her his accomplice in order to gain enough fortune, only to benefit himself for buying a Greek island.
- He had ran over Hugo Drake (husband of Mrs. Drake) with his car and faked it to be a traffic accident.
- After discovering Olga Seminoff had discovered his plans and actions, as well as the fact that Mrs. Llewellyn-Smythe disinheriting Mrs. Drake and her children (of neither whom Mrs. Llewellyn-Smythe was fond) and writing a codicil to leave everything to as a result, Garfield conspired with Mrs. Drake and Leslie Ferrier to substitute an obviously fake codicil and conceal the real one, framing Olga for forging the codicil.
- After that, Garfield helped Mrs. Drake to murder Mrs. Llewellyn-Smythe and Olga, before burying Olga's body into Mrs. Drake's garden. When discovered by Miranda, he convinced her that it was a necessary sacrifice.
- After Joyce's demise, Garfield convinced Miranda that she was responsible for Joyce's death, since she told Joyce about the murder in Mrs. Drake's garden (without letting the killer out), but Joyce stole the credit to herself and boast it on Mrs. Drake's Halloween party, leading to her death. Even though he discovered Miranda was his daughter, Garfield ultimately decided to kill her to save himself.
- Later, Garfield killed Leopold Reynolds for exploiting his sister's murder and blackmailing Mrs. Drake to gain pocket money.
- He made his last attempt to escape by trying to murder Miranda, but he was ultimately stopped by Poirot, Judith and Mrs. Oliver.
- Though Mrs. Drake genuinely loved him, Garfield never cared about her. After Mrs. Drake was revealed as his accomplice and Miranda was revealed to be Garfield's child, Mrs. Drake desperately tried to ask Michael to tell everyone she was his only ever lover, but he coldly rejected her and confirmed that Poirot was telling the truth about his past with Judith, before expressing his true feelings to her and revealing himself to be an egotistical person who only used Mrs. Drake to gain his own profits and goals.
Trivia[]
- Michael Garfield is one of the few Pure Evil villains in a work related to Agatha Christie, alongside Nevile Strange, Yahmose and Dr. James Kennedy. However, he is the only one that is Adaptational Pure Evil, whilst the rest are already PE in Dame Christie's original novels.
- He is also the only Hercule Poirot Pure Evil that had this status exclusively in an adaptation (like Agatha Christie's Poirot), not in the original novel.
- Whilst Rowena Drake is the killer of Joyce Reynolds, she is actually the story's secondary antagonist. Garfield should be considered as the main antagonist of Hallowe'en Party because he had much bigger plans and was manipulating Mrs. Drake's love towards him all along, only to serve his own biddings.
- The novel counterpart of Garfield, whilst already being one of the most depraved culprits in Agatha Christie novels, was not considered as Pure Evil because of having lower confirmed kill counts.
- In the novel series, Garfield failed the heinous standards for only sharing four comfirmed murder victims with Mrs. Drake (Olga, Ferrier, more indirectly Joyce, and Leopold). He also killed himself before more of his inner thoughts and depravity was explored beyond the results of Poirot's deduction. Moreover, most of the deaths in the novel, including the deaths of Mr. Drake and Mrs. Llewellyn-Smythe, ultimately went ambiguous and was never confirmed or disproved to be murder.
- However, the adaptation in Agatha Christie's Poirot had him responsible for six people's demise, direct and indirect, way beyond most of the culprit's body count. There, the deaths of Mr. Drake and Mrs. Llewellyn-Smythe was comfirmed to be murder, and he was confirmed to be responsible for drowning Leopold. Furthermore, unlike his novel counterpart, this incarnation didn't commit suicide, which gave him a chance to express his true feeling to everyone and sealed the fact he was a selfish and greedy psychopath who only cared about money and his own gain.
- In the original version, Michael Garfield was the lover of Olga Seminoff, who was in a unrequited romance with him, around the same time he and Rowena Drake had a love affair. However, while being aware of Olga's feeling for him, Michael merely saw Olga as his scapegoat and murdered her when she was accused of forgery. In the adaptation, however, he never had any romantic relationship with Olga.
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 Pure Evils
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Hercule Poirot Adaptations Miss Marple Other Works | |