The episode focuses on a series of mysteries surrounding housekeeper Emily Somerton (Natalie Walter), including a vanishing house and the murder of her employer Harriet Dore (Sasha Behar).
Davies' fee for the episode was reduced by 25 per cent, and the production's design budget was also subject to a significant reduction, as the BBC attempted to achieve efficiencies with the show.
David Brown of the Radio Times and Vicky Frost of The Guardian both praised the plot and Davies' performance, however Paul Whitelaw of The Scotsman felt that the series ought to be retired.
In the present day, Emily begins working as a housekeeper at Green Lanterns house, owned by crime novelist Hugo Dore (Paul McGann) and his wife Harriet.
He deduces that Selima had a pocket-watch constructed for Dr Northcote containing lethal hydrogen cyanide, beneath a thin sheet of glass which could be shattered by a high-pitched noise at a specific tone.
At the predicted time of his death, Dr Northcote took out his pocket-watch, and a nearby Selima screamed at the required frequency to break the glass, releasing the hydrogen cyanide which killed the doctor on the spot.
Still determined to solve the case, Jonathan and Joey return to Green Lanterns and follow Hugo to the Judas Tree in the grounds, where they are surprised to find Harriet alive.
She then switched places with her for long enough to implicate Emily in the attack, taking advantage of the fact that Harriet spent so little time in the village that nobody who knew her was likely to see her body after her 'death'.
[6][needs update] The episode sees the return of Alan Davies as the series' titular sleuth Jonathan Creek, Sheridan Smith as his crime-solving partner Joey Ross and Stuart Milligan as his boss, magician Adam Klaus.
Behar had auditioned for and been offered a role in the series before, but ultimately turned it down in favour of playing Maya Sharma in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street.
[4] Series takes five months to film, which Davies described as a "hefty commitment" and "quite hard-going",[9] and that it is difficult to create the number of mysteries required and present them in a 50–60 minute format.
David Brown of the Radio Times likened the episode to a Sherlock Holmes mystery, commenting that it has "the definite feel of a Baker Street consulting room about it."
He praised the "hoodwinking and sleight of hand" involved in the plot, as well as Davies' "extremely likeable" performance, however felt that the Adam Klaus sub-plot "detracts from an otherwise well-burnished brainteaser of an episode.
[12] The Scotsman's Paul Whitelaw criticised the episode, deeming it "an unsatisfying tale, overindulgent and padded with a superfluous 'comedy' sub-plot" which: "sprints across that delicate line between ingenious folderol and implausible, convoluted rubbish."