The WORST episodes of The Brokenwood Mysteries
Every episode of The Brokenwood Mysteries ever, ranked from worst to best by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The worst episodes of The Brokenwood Mysteries!
The Brokenwood Mysteries comprises four two-hour murder mystery stories set in a seemingly quiet country town where the town's newest resident, Detective Inspector Mike Shepherd, finds that murder lurks in even the most homely location.
#1 - To Die Or Not To Die
Season 2 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/4/2015
When a young cast member of The Brokenwood Theatre Society collapses and dies at the end of a performance of Hamlet, the initial belief is that it was from natural causes. However, Mike detects there is ‘something rotten in the state of Brokenwood’ when he gets a whiff of a lethal poison. In doing so he uncovers a complex web of ego driven dissention amongst the troupe. Was Ben Faulkner expended to create opportunity for another young rising star? Or can his death be linked to the words of the Bard himself? And how did Jared end up playing the lead role? As Mike and his team investigate the hidden secrets of this curious group of thespians ‘To be or not to be’ takes on a whole new meaning.
#2 - Scared To Death
Season 5 - Episode 1 - Aired 10/28/2018
It’s the annual Brokenwood A&P show. Time for that special kind of Kiwi carnival. Amidst the shearing displays, the ‘Calf Day’ competition and wood chopping, is the usual assortment of fun rides and fairground attractions. The sun is shining on happy family entertainment and ever popular this year is the shonky old Ghost Train. But when the surly A&P boss Harold Wilbury takes the minute-long ride as a safety check he gets the fright of his life. Shunted in his carriage through the final curtain, Harold greets daylight wide- eyed and dead. He is quite literally gone in 60 seconds. When a man dies of fright surely there is no question of murder - it’s just a case of bad luck. Then again how scary was the Ghost Train ride really? Curiously, Madame Magdalena in the Fortune Teller’s tent predicted the tragedy. Was that co- incidence or a way of adding credence to her credibility? The Ghost Train operator, Johnny Oades swears it’s nothing to do with him, but there is a question over falsified Health and Safety checks. And why is Daisy Rose the fairy princess so unhappy?
#5 - Blood and Water
Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/28/2014
When two fishermen find the body of a local farmer in the river, Detective Inspector Mike Shepherd is sent to the small rural town of Brokenwood to investigate the death. Is this the suicide of a man guilty of his own wife’s murder or is he the victim of foul play? As Mike uncovers a family’s tragedies and secrets he also learns that Brokenwood is a place where shadows lurk just beneath the surface.
#6 - Tontine
Season 5 - Episode 3 - Aired 11/11/2018
Cycling is very de rigour around the globe and no less in Brokenwood. When one such MAMIL (Middle Aged Man In Lycra) Lester Nyman reaches the top of a local mountain after a gruelling ride and suffers a massive coronary it doesn’t seem suspicious. But then Gina reveals his toxicology showed astronomical levels of caffeine in his system and Mike starts to look more closely. It transpires Lester was one of ten people inheriting shares in a substantial local farm. The will, left by Lester’s father Karl, is legally known as a Tontine. Curiously four members of this Tontine have recently died from natural causes or unfortunate accidents and as such their shares are absorbed by the remaining members. Lester’s brother Trevor is helpful in their enquiries but not so much his lawyer Madison Mathers. She sees her professional responsibility to execute the will to the best of her ability making sure everyone gets their fair share. And why is Reverend Greene part of the tontine? It was no secret Karl didn’t believe in the church. Was it simply that he wanted to goad the good Reverend into putting capitalist values above his service to the Lord? The further Mike and his team delve it appears this was all a grand and malevolent plan by Karl Nyman to let his friends and family tear themselves apart in a feeding frenzy of greed and avarice.
#7 - Catch of the Day
Season 2 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/11/2015
The bucolic coastal waters off Brokenwood support a thriving fishing industry. But when Jared discovers a severed human hand in a crayfish pot it appears to be harbouring something far more sinister. Who does the hand belong to and are they still alive?
#8 - Blood Pink
Season 2 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/18/2015
Holly Collins is not only DSS Mike Shepherd's favourite country musician she's also playing in Brokenwood. Unfortunately it turns out to be her final gig. When she is found electrocuted it appears to be a rock'n'roll suicide. But then again it could have been a drunken accident - or, as Mike suspects, it is perhaps something less obvious. With a careless note scrawled in lipstick the only clue, Mike has to set aside his personal interest in the victim and strike the right note with Holly's dysfunctional band members: Slim Fingers, Waylon Strings and Jesse James. But the more he finds out, the more he needs to know and the less he likes what he learns.
#10 - The Black Widower
Season 3 - Episode 1 - Aired 10/30/2016
The Frog and Cheetah’s publican, Ray Neilson, has branched into tourism with his ‘Lord of the Ringz Tours’ tailored to non-English speaking tourists. But when Ray’s wife Debbie is discovered dead under a giant foam spider in a supposed film location of Mirklewood things get ‘mirky’. Especially when Debbie’s cause of death is revealed to be from New Zealand’s only native venomous spider – the Katipo. But if it was, how did one spider administer ten times the lethal dose?
#11 - Leather & Lace
Season 2 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/27/2015
The Brokenwood Cheetahs are a local rugby team of legendary status. Their losing streak of 50 straight games has broken national records. So when their hapless coach, Arnie Langstone, is found dead - stripped naked and strapped to a goalpost - some think it might be blessing in disguise – perhaps now they might start winning again. But amidst this DSS Mike Shepherd is perplexed by several other issues. Firstly, why was a pair of women’s underwear stuffed down Arnie’s throat? And what do the neatly embroidered initials ‘G.G.’ signify? But then a second body is discovered and Mike and his team are stretched to the limit. Is this the work of a serial killer or merely a puzzling co-incidence?
#13 - The Killing Machine
Season 3 - Episode 3 - Aired 11/13/2016
The annual Riverstone Beach Hop is a colorful festival that brings classic car enthusiasts together from far and wide to celebrate everything petrol powered and chrome plated. But on the morning of the event Charlie Baxter, the Chairman of the Classic Car Restoration Society, is found dead next to his beloved El Dorado with a lungful of gasoline. Was this a petrol siphoning accident or something more deliberate? And does it have anything to do with the unidentified dead body found in Charlie’s garage the day before?
#14 - Spark to a Flame
Season 8 - Episode 3 - Aired 8/21/2022
In the remote community of beaches at Pateke Point, a local resident ends up bludgeoned to death by an unknown blunt object and locked inside a house not her own.
#16 - Sour Grapes
Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/5/2014
With Brokenwood touted for its burgeoning merlot, the annual wine show is a major event. Having bought a 10-acre block with maturing grapes, no one is looking forward to it more than DI Mike Shepherd. But when a guest judge and wine critic is found dead, drowned inside a fermenting vat, the show takes second place to the murder investigation.
#17 - The Garotte and the Vinklebraun
Season 7 - Episode 1 - Aired 6/13/2021
Mike and his team are thrust into a world of antiquities when a TV crew from the hit series All Things Old and Beautiful comes to town, and one of the hosts is murdered.
#18 - Fall From Grace
Season 4 - Episode 1 - Aired 10/29/2017
When Kristin, Breen, and Gina celebrate Mike’s birthday with a picnic in Brokenwood Domain, they are witness to a fatal skydiving accident. To make matters worse, Kristin knows the victim – entrepreneur Andre Barrington, an ex-boyfriend who moved onto another woman – Grace Turner, an adrenalin junkie and fellow skydiver. As the investigation unfolds, an unsettling truth is revealed. Andre’s parachute was never going to open as the cords were severed. Was it an elaborate suicide or was Grace having second thoughts about Andre? Then again – Andre’s older brother Felix was tired of living in his shadow, and his mother Lorraine’s maternal love verged on the side of sinister. Both of them were jumping with Andre too. And what about Andre’s business partner Dean Young, who was less than impressed by Andre’s work ethic? Mike and his team are forced to confront the old adage: ‘what goes up must come down’ – but not always in the way you want.
#19 - Four Fires and a Funeral
Season 8 - Episode 6 - Aired 9/11/2022
The charred remains of a body are discovered in the burned-out remnants of a rural shed, but no one lived there, and no one was meant to be there at all; this is the third in a run of accidental deaths, all attended by the Brokenwood Fire Brigade.
#20 - The Dark Angel
Season 5 - Episode 4 - Aired 11/18/2018
On the edge of Brokenwood sits an abandoned mental health facility, an asylum named Brokenwood Downes. Now derelict, the spooky buildings provide a great hideout for local teenagers. But one young couple freak-out when they stumble upon the body of an elderly man in the old hospital wing strapped to a gurney with electrodes connected to his temples. It would seem he was the victim of electrocution by Electroconvulsive Therapy. The victim is Jakob Deschler who used to be the Superintendent of the asylum when it closed in 2011. Recently released from jail for charges of torture it appears that his murder was a revenge for his past cruelty. Mike and the team focus on a group of ex-patients of Brokenwood Downes. The few that have remained in the area are an eclectic bunch of misfits still struggling to reintegrate into the mainstream of society. However, several of them are under the care of local psychotherapist, Amy Curnow whose expertise enables Mike to get a greater insight into the minds of these unique characters. She is also has a knack to get Mike to open up about some more personal things about himself. Could it be that our hero is taking a shine to Amy? Mike’s interrogation skills will be pitted against the smarts of a crack psychologist. Will it be a case of Mike finally meeting his match – in more ways than one
#21 - From the Cradle to the Grave
Season 8 - Episode 1 - Aired 8/7/2022
Mike Shepherd and the team get a lesson in local history when the Brokenwood museum uncovers a dead body in the most unlikely of places.
#22 - Playing the Lie
Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/12/2014
A group of erstwhile members of the Brokenwood Golf Club, committee members no less, have gathered for their regular Wednesday morning round. They are playing their approaches to the first green when a zombie-like figure lurches from the early-morning gloom, coming towards them. It takes the golfers a moment or two (apparently) to realise this is actually Adele Stone, the Club owner - her face red and blistering; gasping desperately for breath. Then she falls from sight, into a greenside bunker. By the time the guys get to her, Ms Stone is very much dead. And so Mike and Kristin are called to investigate what appears to be homicide by poisoning.
#23 - Exposed to the Light
Season 7 - Episode 5 - Aired 7/11/2021
A fundraising evening at the historic Brokenwood Empire Cinema turns deadly when a fire breaks out, and when the smoke clears, a local businessman is found strangled.
#24 - Hunting the Stag
Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/19/2014
Four close friends go hunting in the bush on a stag trip. But the groom-to-be never comes back – he was shot through the head. Initially this would seem to be just another tragic hunting accident amidst picturesque New Zealand bush. The only problem is none of the remaining three friends own up to pulling the trigger that fired the lethal bullet - yet all three had discharged their rifles – with no deer to prove it. The question is – who shot Hayden Renner? Was he mistaken for a real stag or was there something more sinister at play?
