Cadfael: The Raven in the Foregate

The Set-up: Father Radolfus (Terrence Hudman) is riding with another, a priest by the name of Father Ailnoff who has come to replace Father Adam. As they ride by the body of a traitor to King Stephen being feasted upon by crows, Radolfus stops to bless the departed man, while Ailnoff comments that it is a waste of time as the man was clearly a traitor to Stephen, to which Radolfus responds, that during a civil war all men are traitors.
While Cadfael (Derek Jacobi) talks with a pair of sisters who are saddened at the passing of Father Adam and arguing with one another, Radolfus and Ailnoff continue to ride to the Abbey, when a hunt breaks out of the woods. Radolfus thinks they are hunting game and puts himself in their path. He discovers they are hunting a man who has been mauled by some of the dogs. When Radolfus tries to tend to the man, the lord puts a quarrel through the man's eye. Father Ailnoff assures Radolfus that this lord is a loyal servant of King Stephen, to which Radolfus responds that they will all be damned. When the lord mentions an accomplice, Ailnoff's man-servant sends the party off in the wrong direction.

The Rest: Ailnoff sets the tone for his time as priest of Shrewsbury by kicking the peasants off of church lands that they have just finished plowing, caring not if they will starve to death. Cadfael is there tending an injured man and tries to convince Ailnoff to allow them the land, but is denied. When Cadfael tells Father Radolfus, the Abbott along with Prior Robert (Michael Culver) and Brother Jerome (Julian Firth) all take Ailnoff's side, Radolfus because he knows Ailnoff is the King's man and that he should be given a chance to show himself, but Robert and Jerome agree with Ailnoff, and Robert even says that the peasants starving to death will "serve them right".
One of the sisters turns up dead, floating in the mill pond. She had gone to Ailnoff for confession, admitting to him that she was pregnant out of wedlock, but when she would not name the father of the child, he cast her out of the church as a whore. He and many others believe that she committed suicide out of shame, but Cadfael notes that she had been handled roughly, and since he saw her right before she went to the church, he knows that she did not have the marks then. The townsfolk nearly rioted, driving Ailnoff before them to the Abbey, chanting his name. The next day, Ailnoff is found dead in the water wheel at the mill pond.
Ailnoff's man servant turns out to be a spy for Maude, and the lord who had hunted down the man at the start of the show, stays to "oversee" Beringar's (Eoin McCarthy) search for him.
There is lots of misdirection, but in the end, it turns out exactly as it was set-up at the beginning - the girl committed suicide and the spy, while not exactly killing the priest, beat him bad enough that when Ailnoff finally fell in the water, he was too weak to get out and drowned.

Commentary: And speaking of drowning, it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. This priest had been pre-referred to as Father Evil. And quite the bald bastard he turned out to be. That's the last of the nicknames I've been given so perhaps I am caught up at the end of season three - with Brother Jack-ass, Prior Jack-ass, Brother Dumb-ass, Sheriff Hugh the True, Hugh the False and Hugh the third, and now Father Evil.
Beringar really didn't do much this episode, but neither did Cadfael. This whole episode seemed amiss. We have been so long since the whole political intrigue card has been played, that when it is here in episode 10, there is too much going on to explore anything in the proper depth.

The Proof: no proof; it's just one person's word against another's as Cadfael has to deal with really happened versus what he wished happened.