Sammo

Stupidity: Mercusio is looking through FBI files on his computer. The FBI has a horrible database then, since the agents' postings are listed all in random order (otherwise Ben would be working at the White House and not at the school - which is also suspiciously listed without any hint about its location). (01:11:30)

Sammo ★

Revealing mistake: Cross is between the first two steps of his tour de force following the instructions for the diamond delivery. McArthur says "Unit six, take "K" Street and double back", and we are shown Jezzie in her vehicle. She moves cutting through a traffic island with a forbidden maneuver, and yet you can see on the asphalt wet marks of 'someone' doing the exact same thing before her recently (obvious residual of the previous take). (01:06:30)

Sammo ★

Continuity mistake: After receiving instructions from Mercusio (when Cross is told to go to the Watergate), agent Ollie McArthur says "okay people, let's move." He says that across two shots; in the first, Monica Potter is distinctly shifting her eyes from looking in front of her to looking to her right, but in the second she is looking straight again, making the lack of continuity quite obvious over such a small detail. (01:03:50)

Sammo ★

Plot hole: From a logistic and tactical point of view, the whole police/FBI operation revolving around the diamonds does not make any sense. The agents are supposedly spread around and in great numbers, but everyone is simply chasing him, while Cross is speaking freely through the radio and shares the addresses and instructions so they should be -ahead - of him, they know where he is going! Although, during the action, Cross tends to speaks directly with Jezzie all the time, as if all the other dozens of agents did not exist. Jezzie's presence itself is completely illogical, too, since Soneji ordered that nobody would follow Cross or he will kill the girl, and Jezzie is the one agent that he knows (she's been the kid's bodyguard for 2 years!) and is sure to recognize. She should be nowhere near the chase, but nobody objects at all.

Sammo ★

Continuity mistake: Jezzie's computer that she used for all her operations has the screen seemingly turned on, always of a bright blue even before Cross actually switches it on. When he looks at the password screen with just 'Administrator' as username, the screen is black, like it is not in any other part of the scene. (01:27:40)

Sammo ★

Continuity mistake: Cross just boarded the train. At the entrance, featured prominently, there's a woman with headphones. To the other side, there's an old pudgy man with a beret, and a black guy in a dark brown suit, looking all serious. Morgan Freeman is between these two guys, but in the POV that follows they are both on the same side, in front of him. (01:09:25)

Sammo ★

Continuity mistake: Dimitri calls Jezzie from the gates of the embassy, and she leaves Cross and the guy talking in Russian to go to him. During the transition, the soldier moving across the gates walks through the same steps he already walked, and the bodyguard in a trenchcoat is in a different position. (00:59:25)

Sammo ★

Plot hole: There is a massive problem in the timeline of the movie, starting when the 'running game' is set. It is dawn when the kidnapper contacts the family and the police. He says, that he will call back in 9 hours, and even says "4 PM sharp." The events unfold, and Cross is on the metro train during rush hour, firing his gun. But at the press conference that follows, agent Ollie McArthur declines to comment on the "incident on the MTA train this morning." (01:03:05 - 01:10:00)

Sammo ★

Plot hole: In her plot convenient computer content, Cross finds the address of the house for lease Jezzie has. The house is located in Lovettsville, Virginia. That means it's over one hour away from the apartment in Washington. If we take at face value what happens in the movie, with Cross breaking into the house once Jezzie has killed Devine, then it's impossible he made it in time to catch her and save Megan. One wonders what took Cross so long anyway to get to the house considering he visited the school that tipped him off about Jezzie when students were still around, and why he does not warn the authorities (which is kinda hilarious since what tips Megan off about Jezzie, is that she came alone, exactly what the hero does!). The timer on the computer screen when Cross finds out is 00:00:00, which is a bit unlikely and not much help. (01:29:00)

Sammo ★

Plot hole: Cross says that the best strategy to keep the kid alive is to pamper Soneji, stroke his ego and make him a living legend as he wants to be. What Soneji did though, was guide them to his real identity and name, since Soneji is just a front he used to be employed at Cathedral School, and in the first conversation with Cross he said about the Soneji name "That'll do for now." It's obvious to anyone then that he wants his real name and self to emerge from obscurity and drop the alias, and if Cross really wanted to please the kidnapper, he should have used his real name, Jonathan Mercusio. Despite these clear elements, that name is never used or referenced in the movie again.

Sammo ★

The Double Clue - S3-E7

Plot hole: Since the Countess was the only person to be at every dinner when the jewelry thief was in action, it takes a very special kind of idiot to not identify her as the culprit. Japp here did not need at all Poirot's acumen, but simple due diligence cross-checking the guest lists, something there is absolutely no reason he wouldn't do, and yet she is never treated as a special suspect. Also, Japp's job is described as being in jeopardy after the first 3 thefts, a 4th happens, he does not quite solve it (but retrieves at least the necklace), but he's off the hook despite the thief being unidentified, at large and with still the jewelry stolen from the first 3.

Sammo ★

The Tragedy at Marsdon Manor - S3-E6

Factual error: It is well established that the episode takes place in 1935 (Nairobi Daily Press dated Saturday July 27 1935, the poster in town advertises the meeting for "Today, Wednesday September 4th", day of the week consistent with the year), but Poirot and Hastings are stopped on their way to the train station by a Wolseley Series II - 14/56, a model that entered production in mid 1936. (00:17:00)

Sammo ★

The Double Clue - S3-E7

Factual error: At the party, Marcus Hardman tells Bernard that the Countess recently arrived from Russia, and she describes herself as being in exile. Which made sense in the source material, set right after the Russian Revolution, but less sense in this adaptation, set in the mid 1930s. If she stayed in Russia that long, she would have spent 15-20 years with zero privileges from her rank at that point, and nothing from her old wealth, seized by the communist government.

Sammo ★

The Tragedy at Marsdon Manor - S3-E6

Plot hole: The murderer is in possession of chloroform from the doctor's cabinet, but there's no realistic timeframe when they could have done it, nor any explanation why the doctor notices it completely at random when Poirot visits, just approaching the medicine cabinet, something he routinely opens and looks through during the day.

Sammo ★

The Tragedy at Marsdon Manor - S3-E6

Other mistake: Investigating Poirot's investigation, the clumsy constable crushes a tiny egg under his foot. Poirot crawls to him and points with his cane at the other eggs in the bush. But he points practically at his shoe, and the eggs are in a different spot to the left. (00:20:10)

Sammo ★

The Tragedy at Marsdon Manor - S3-E6

Plot hole: The murderer planned everything making it seems accidental. They perfectly managed to fool the coroner and need only to be alone at the mansion to get rid of the murder weapon. So what they do is...they go through great risks to make everyone know someone tried to murder the wife too, making it obvious that there is a killer at large, which only makes the investigation more stringent and most importantly, keeps the police on the premises for surveillance preventing them from disposing of the weapon (like almost everything in this episode's plot it is not a flaw of the original story, but of the dramatization, who added practically every minor character).

Sammo ★

The Double Clue - S3-E7

Continuity mistake: The Countess arrives at the hotel at the beginning of the episode. In the overhead shot she reaches the top of the stairs with nobody close to her, just the porters behind her, but in the next shot there are other people in the lobby, who at the next cut are even closer to her to fit in frame. (00:02:10)

Sammo ★

The Mystery of the Spanish Chest - S3-E8

Continuity mistake: When Poirot pulls out of the drill hidden in the handle, he holds it triumphantly in his right hand. In the next shot he mounts it on the handle starting the motion with the drill already in the left hand and the rest of the gimlet in the right. (00:40:00)

Sammo ★

The Double Clue - S3-E7

Continuity mistake: At the end of the 'lovely day' with the Countess, Poirot stops a cab and opens the door for her. Just before the cut, notice a woman with a white dress and a brown hat crossing the street in front of the taxi. The extra crosses the street again in the same direction when he says "Oui" in the following shot. (00:28:50)

Sammo ★

The Double Clue - S3-E7

Continuity mistake: During the exhibition of the much acclaimed contralto, at one point it is shown that Lady Runcorn is going upstairs and is looking at the smoking person. Back to the host who is on his own at his table. At the first cut, suddenly there are more people standing in attendance in the background (pretty much everyone was seated earlier) and his glass has also refilled. (00:10:15)

Sammo ★