Cadfael: St. Peter's Fair

The Set-up: Traveling merchants have come to the grounds of the Abbey at Shrewesbury to set up for the annual three day St. Peter's Fair. They must pay a fee to the Abbey to attend. Also during this time the local merchant's shops must be closed - only those on the Abbey's grounds may do business. The local men are none too happy about this situation and band together to confront Father Radolfus (Terrence Hudman) and demand part of the tribute, one merchant's son even going so far as to threaten the Father. Cadfael (Derek Jacobi) tries to persuade Radolfus that the Abbey could do without all the funds, but is shouted down by Prior Robert (Michael Culver) and Brother Jerome (Julian Firth),
The unhappy merchants leave the Abbey and go to the traveling merchants to demand payment from them. When they decline to pay, the hot-headed young man who threatened the Father starts slitting open bags of wine and a brawl breaks out, which is later joined by a well-to-do gentleman and his men-at-arms. It is not broken up until Cadfael arrives, very closely followed by Hugh Beringar (Eoin McCarthy) and his men.

The Rest: The wine merchant is murdered and the next day the strong box from his booth is stolen and later his caravan was burgled. But it turns out that nothing was taken from the caravan, but that a glove was left, letting the niece know that she must seek out the glover for some mysterious reason that Cadfael cannot at first figure out. Eventually Cadfael reasons out after the glover's death that there were multiple murderer's, both serving the same goal. The murderer's are discovered as the men serving the nobleman who has come to the fair, but in a twist they're king's men seeking a letter from the Empress Maude to be delivered to the Baron of Chester - a list of all the English lords loyal to Maude.
Beringar is forced to choose between his duty to the king and his friendship with Cadfael and because of this finally empathizes with the girl who was carrying the letter out of a love for her uncle and never knew it's contents.

Commentary: By far the best bit of this episode is when Cadfael and Hugh and his men are in route to save the girl and come up Brother Jerome bung upside-down by his feet from a tree branch, his robes hanging down around his face. I doubt that the monks of that period really wore all the undergarments he was wearing, but alas I can think of anyone in this series more fitting of this entrapment than Brother Jackass.
Deputy Poofy-hair was a little less poofy in this episode than in the last one, and was quite a bit more cranky - thus proving the law Medieval English Deputy Sheriffs - the poofier the hair, the happier the man.
This si the first episode since the first episode where Hugh and Cadfael have been so at odds. The Hugh of the first season, the one who serves justice first and king second has been replaced by a man that is more concerned with pleasing the king, and in this episode more than any other is ready to condemn a man to hanging based on first glimpses, rather than on carefully gathered proof.
Oh, and lest I forget - I don't know what the rules are for the shaving of the circle of hair for Benedictine monks, but for some reason in this episode, Oswin doesn't have one - he has a full head of hair.

The Proof: a mis-sized glove, and a spilled elixir that makes Cadfael realize that a drunk man was only pretending to be drunk.