In Beyond Paradise season 2 episode 5, there's a peculiar case for DI Humphrey Goodman (Kris Marshall) and DS Esther Williams (Zahra Ahmadi) to solve when a woman is shot in the back with an arrow in a wide open space — but there's no apparent place for her would-be assassin to have concealed themselves.
Meanwhile, Martha Lloyd (Sally Bretton) is worried that her mum Anne (Barbara Flynn) is sublimating her feelings about her recent break-up by throwing herself into planning Martha and Humphrey's upcoming wedding.
Here's what happened in Beyond Paradise season 2 episode 5...
We open on the slightly misty moors (although not all that misty compared to the last episode) which seem to be entirely deserted... until a scream rings out. Rebecca Thompson (Carolyn Pickles) runs in the direction of the scream (as fast as one can while carrying a heavy rucksack) and finds Niamh Kirby (Seeta Indrani) slumped on the ground with an arrow sticking out of her back.
In Anne's cottage, currently occupied by Humphrey and Martha (who are living there temporarily to make themselves more appealing as foster carers, remember), Humphrey and Martha are making breakfast and talking about Anne's humiliation at the hands of adulterous Richard last week. Anne interrupts them and tells them that she doesn't have time for breakfast: they've got a wedding to plan and there's only a week to go. Martha assures her that they don't want anything too grand, but Anne insists they won't have anything at all if she doesn't get going, so she heads into the living room with her folder and makes a start.
Over at Esther's house, Esther is enjoying her morning coffee when her daughter Zoe (Melina Sinadinou) comes into the kitchen with a big grin on her face. Esther asks her what's got her so cheerful, and Zoe asks her to promise she won't get mad: she rolls up her sleeve and shows off a tattoo on her wrist. Esther is appalled, but Zoe explains that the tattoo shows three little birds, just like the song that her father sang to her when she was born (as she told Martha in last week's episode). Esther wants to know who did the tattoo, given that Zoe is 16 and tattooing a minor is a criminal offence, and Zoe admits that she lied about her age. Esther tells her she has to get the tattoo removed, but Zoe refuses and storms out. Esther's phone rings and she answers it rather tersely — it's Margo Martins (Felicity Montagu), informing her of this week's major incident.
Humphrey, Esther and PC Kelby Hartford (Dylan Llewellyn) make their way to the crime scene, where Humphrey observes a billboard for an upcoming development: Abbott Moor, a hotel, spa and activity centre (which someone has spray painted "peregrines before profits!" over). Esther briefs him that Niamh was found unconscious with a possible head injury and a wound to the shoulder, she's being rushed to hospital now to have the arrow surgically removed. Humphrey notices the rather clipped way she's delivering this information and asks if she wants to talk about whatever's bothering her: "not right now" is the equally clipped answer. Esther says that Niamh was found with her binoculars and bird book, so it seems likely she was out on the moors birdwatching.
They go over to speak to Rebecca, who explains that she was out walking when she heard a scream, so she ran towards it and found this woman lying on the ground. Humphrey asks if Niamh is someone she knows, and Rebecca says she's never seen her before. He follows up by asking when Rebecca found her, and Rebecca checks her phone: she called the ambulance at 8:32am. She didn't see anyone or anything unusual in the area, which Humphrey thinks is rather strange. He tells Rebecca that will be all for now, but to get in touch if she thinks of anything else. Kelby, meanwhile, is surveying the scene and has found an eggshell. After Rebecca leaves, Humphrey says to Esther that Rebecca struck him as a little off, like she was hiding something. Esther is still silently fuming, and the pair stand in silence for a little while until she tells Humphrey that Zoe got a tattoo. Humphrey tries to make her feel better by saying that you can apply for a passport, join the army and fly a glider at 16, and admits it's a tricky parenting problem. Esther: "You don't know the half of it."
Niamh is rushed into hospital, where one of the nurses on duty is Lucy (Eva Feiler), who you may remember as one of the non-burglary victims from last year's Christmas special. As Niamh is rushed into the operating theatre, she murmurs "where's Lewis?"
Back up on the moors, Humphrey reasons that they can't be sure which direction Niamh was shot from — but the thing that's troubling him is that even if the culprit was an Olympic-standard archer who could fire an arrow from 100 metres away with pinpoint accuracy, Niamh was still shot in broad daylight on open, unobscured land — so how come Rebecca didn't see anyone fleeing the scene? Esther points out that there's a solitary tree for cover, but Humphrey thinks that doesn't explain everything. Humphrey asks Kelby to sweep the whole area in case the shooter dropped anything, and he and Esther head off to the hospital, leaving poor Kelby in a large windswept field on his own to scour every single square centimetre for evidence. Hope he remembered to bring a packed lunch.
At Ten Mile Kitchen, Zoe arrives for work in a mood not much better than Esther's. She shows Martha the tattoo, and says that she was inspired by Martha's comment the other week to take whatever she could of her father and find a way to remember it. Martha, a little taken aback, says that she wasn't exactly recommending that Zoe get a tattoo, and Zoe says that she thought her mum would understand, but she just flew off the handle. Martha, truly a born diplomat, tells Zoe that people don't always react in an ideal way in the spur of the moment, but that doesn't mean Esther doesn't love her or isn't proud of her, and assures her that her mum will come around. Zoe says it isn't about Esther anyway: she did this for her dad. Zoe heads into the kitchen and Anne arrives with her folder, somehow already twice the size it was this morning, asking Martha to send her over a pot of tea while she gets on with making some calls.
Humphrey and Esther arrive at the hospital, where Lucy tells them that Niamh is still in surgery and the procedure may take some time. She explains that Niamh doesn't seem to have any known next of kin, but she was asking for someone called Lewis when they brought her in.
Back at Ten Mile Kitchen, Martha suggests to Anne that they have a talk, and Anne agrees — but she wants to talk wedding planning. She's already booked Heathfield House for the reception and is busy trying to organise canapes and champagne. Martha tells Anne that she's worried about her, but Anne isn't really listening, and tells Martha that she and Humphrey need to be on time for a cake tasting at 6pm.
Over at the police station, Margo has obtained a map of Abbott Moor and details of the local archery club, and Esther apologises for being so short with her on the phone earlier. Humphrey asks Margo to try and find out who this "Lewis" is who Niamh was talking about, and Margo thinks those two names ring a bell. Esther's been on the internet, and has discovered that the land that Niamh was shot on belongs to her brother-in-law, Patrick Kirby, who's owned it for 10 years and is trying to push through the hotel development.
Margo realises what seemed so familiar to her about all this: 10 years ago there was a case where Niamh's husband Lewis Kirby went missing and Niamh accused Patrick of murdering him, even making an official complaint to the police, but she had no proof. Patrick's side of the story was that Lewis was unhappy in his marriage, and had left to study flora in a national park in Montana. Patrick claimed to have a few text messages from Lewis confirming his safe arrival, but said that after that he'd gone entirely off-grid — and the DI at the time closed the case. Apparently, Lewis signed over his land to Patrick before he left, so Humphrey suggests they go and speak to Patrick. Esther suggests they stop at the archery club on the way to get a list of members, and Margo says it looks like they can kill two birds with one stone: Patrick owns the archery club. Esther does a bit more internet digging, and finds out that a wildlife activist group have been fighting the Abbott Moor development, claiming it is a protected nesting site for peregrine falcons — and the leader of the group is Rebecca Thompson. Humphrey asks Margo to check for any possible connection between Niamh and Rebecca while he and Esther go to speak to Patrick Kirby.
Patrick (played by Mark Frost, who you might remember as Coronation Street's villainous Ray Crosby) is sitting at the archery club with his feet up on the desk counting his money when he hears Humphrey and Esther arrive, just in case you were wondering what sort of person he is. They tell him that Niamh was shot on his land with an arrow. Patrick insists that there's no bad blood between him and Niamh, apart from the "misunderstanding" years ago, but he assures them that's all water under the bridge now. They head into his office, where Humphrey spots a certificate on the wall confirming that the club belongs to Patrick and Lewis Kirby, and Esther asks Patrick about his whereabouts that morning: Patrick says he was seeing his solicitor, so Esther takes the solicitor's details to confirm his story. He adds that normally in the morning he'd be taking a walk around the development site — as a visualisation technique that he likes to make part of his daily routine — but he had an urgent call from his solicitor informing him that the peregrine protesters had run out of money and could not longer afford their solicitor, and since they still had no evidence to prove that Abbott Moor is a peregrine nesting site, it means he's able to proceed with his plans. Humphrey takes a look at the plans, and notices that a section in the top-right corner has a fairly conspicuous big red cross through it; Patrick claims the surveyor's report turned up a risk of subsidence there, so he's going to keep it as a beauty spot for guests to enjoy nature. Humphrey wonders under his breath why they can't do that as it currently is.
Humphrey finds a picture of Patrick with his brother Lewis, and Patrick says that Lewis is in California studying flora, but has been off-grid for a long time. Which is interesting, because according to Margo's account of the case from 10 years ago, Patrick said that Lewis went off-grid shortly after confirming his arrival... in Montana. Obviously it's not impossible that Lewis has moved around a bit in the past decade and might well be in California by now, but if he is: how would Patrick know? Looks very much like someone has forgotten to keep his story straight. Anyway: Humphrey notices that a bow is missing from a rack on the wall, and Esther — having just placed a call to Patrick's solicitor — confirms that his alibi for the time that Niamh was shot holds up. Humphrey asks Patrick about the missing bow, and Patrick claims not to have noticed until now, saying that it must have been stolen — but he admits there was no sign of a break-in, and nobody else has keys to the club apart from him. As Humphrey and Esther are leaving, Lucy calls to inform them that Niamh is out of surgery, and Patrick wails in the background about needing a police report for his insurance claim. Esther shouts back to him that if he can prove it was stolen, they'll be happy to oblige. (We hope he has to ring Margo to get a crime number, she'd run rings around him.)
Poor Kelby is still up on Abbott Moor, but at least he's had a breakthrough: while on his bike back to the police station, he spots a discarded bow in a bush by the side of the road.
At the hospital, Humphrey goes to see Niamh, who is still feeling a bit groggy ("like I've been shot with an arrow, I suppose"). He asks if she can remember what happened, but she doesn't have much of a recollection other than feeling a sharp pain in her shoulder and passing out not long afterwards. She doesn't remember seeing anyone suspicious, and can't think of anyone who would want to hurt her — she's a Pilates teacher, so she's not really in the business of making enemies. (Unless there's someone in Shipton Abbott who really hates Pilates.) She remembers having a bird book in her bag, and Humphrey goes to look for it, saying that it might help him identify the reddish-brown eggshell they found nearby. He goes to hand the book — which has a sticky note on the cover with "binoculars" written on it — to Niamh but it slips through her fingers, and as he picks it up a piece of paper falls out of it. Niamh doesn't recognise it, and tells him that it's probably rubbish he can throw away. Humphrey calls Lucy in to check on her, and says he'll leave her to rest. As he's leaving, Niamh calls out that she thinks the eggshell sounds like a peregrine falcon — and mentions that they mate for life, which she thinks is "very romantic".
Outside of Niamh's room, Humphrey shows Esther the piece of paper that fell out of Niamh's book. It's a letter which says: "the land doesn't belong to Lewis any more, and if you don't stop writing letters to the council and defaming my name, I'll be forced to take matters further. P." Both of them think it's likely to be from Patrick, which means he now has a motive for firing the arrow at her. Esther has just spoken to Niamh's surgeon, who told her that Niamh is "as strong as an ox" and should make a full recovery. They did a CT scan on her and found no evidence of a head injury, so she'll be discharged later today, but Niamh's medical records do show that she was recently diagnosed with young-onset dementia.
At the police station, Margo fields a call from Anne, and after hanging up tells Kelby that they've been given a task of great importance. Kelby: "Say no more!" Then: "Actually, maybe some details might be useful." (Bless his adorable little heart, may he never change.) Humphrey and Esther return and Humphrey checks the bow with a UV light to discover that it's marked "PROPERTY OF P.K.". Kelby thinks that seems conclusive, but Humphrey thinks this is all just a little bit too easy — and, as Esther points out, Patrick has an airtight alibi for the time of the incident. The only person they know who definitely was there when Niamh was shot was their witness, Rebecca, who has no motive for attacking Niamh and no evidence to implicate her. Humphrey is sure they're missing something — but what? Kelby takes the bow off to forensics, and Humphrey decides to call it a day. Esther rushes out...
...and arrives at Ten Mile Kitchen looking for Zoe, only to be told by Martha that Zoe left early. Esther's about to leave again, but Martha tells her that Zoe showed her the tattoo. Martha tells Esther that she thinks she owes her an apology: she admits that she and Zoe been talking about Zoe's dad, and Martha had suggested that she find a way to keep him with her, but hadn't expected Zoe to interpret her words in that specific way. Esther assures Martha that this isn't her fault, and says that it's about more than the tattoo — she thinks it's all her fault. She asks Martha for her assurance that what she's about to say won't leave this room, which Martha readily gives her. They sit down, and Esther admits that she lied to Zoe — the story about her dad singing "Three Little Birds" to her when she was born isn't true. Esther had told Zoe that her dad died on the way home from hospital when she was born, but he actually died on his way there: he never got to meet her. Esther knew Zoe was struggling with having no memories of her dad, so on the spur of the moment she made something up to give Zoe some comfort. Martha assures Esther that she was just doing what any mother would do — giving her child something that she truly needed — but Esther feels bad about the lie, especially as it's led to Zoe getting a permanent tattoo. Esther wonders how she can tell her daughter the truth after all of this.
Back at the cottage, Humphrey, Anne and a selection of cake samples are waiting for Martha to get home. Humphrey takes this opportunity to gently tell Anne that he's been worried about her, and she insists there's no need. Martha arrives home, apologising for being late, and Anne breezily informs her that Humphrey's already decided he likes the cherry and apricot cake best, so they're going with that one. Anne swoops off to ring the baker, and Martha tells Humphrey that so far Anne won't even let her mention Richard's name, let alone discuss what happened. She thinks Anne is using the wedding planning to take her mind off what happened, and says they need to do something. Humphrey doesn't agree — he thinks it's good for Anne to have something to focus on. At this moment, Anne makes a whirlwind return brandishing a plastic swan, one of apparently 12 that she's ordered and is planning to hang from the ceiling as though they're in flight.
Esther returns home and finds a note from Zoe saying she's gone to a friend's. Esther sits in the dark and plays a cover of "Three Little Birds" on her phone in quiet reflection.
The next day, Kelby arrives at the police station looking rather pleased with himself, having sourced a job lot of "on it till we vomit!" t-shirts for Humphrey's stag do. When he shows one to Margo, she's decidedly unimpressed and Kelby's forced to admit that it's "probably not the right vibe". He asks Margo what she did for her hen do. "Which one?" she asks. Kelby enquires how many she's had, and Margo informs him you should never ask a woman how many time she's been married. Kelby points out that technically he only asked how many hen dos she's had, which isn't quite the same question.
Humphrey and Esther arrive, and Kelby offers his theory: Patrick hired someone to shoot Niamh while he was at the solicitors, because he'd have an alibi. Problems with this idea as identified by Margo and Humphrey: it doesn't explain why nobody saw the shooter, and Patrick's meeting with the solicitor was a last-minute arrangement so it's unlikely he'd have had time to hire a hit-person, let alone one who's a proficient archer. Margo reckons Rebecca did it and framed Patrick, but Humphrey can't figure out why Rebecca would shoot an innocent woman with an arrow just to set Patrick up, or how she'd get her hands on Patrick's bow in the first place without a key to the archery club. Esther points out that Humphrey did say it looked like Rebecca was hiding something, so he decides that they should go and pay her a visit. On the way out, Esther quietly asks Margo if she regrets getting her tattoos. Margo: "Only one, for reasons I will never divulge. For the rest, it's all part of my journey. Part of who I am." Margo's rich inner life continues to enthrall and amaze us.
Humphrey and Esther find Rebecca and a friend popping open a bottle of champagne, and Rebecca starts looking shifty as soon as she realises they're there. Humphrey asks her what she's celebrating, and Rebecca says that as of this morning the council have officially rejected Patrick's development plans. Esther asks what made them change their minds, and Rebecca says they finally found proof of the nesting site. Humphrey looks at the photos on Rebecca's board and notes they show eggs of the same variety as the shell they found at the scene: he asks when the picture was taken and Rebecca — shiftily, again — is very slow to answer, so Esther checks her digital camera, at which point Rebecca admits she took it yesterday morning. She wasn't just up on Abbott Moor for a walk, she was going up there to plant evidence to stop the development. Esther notes that the picture was taken at 8:27am, and notes that it's convenient timing that she took it right before she heard the scream. Humphrey tells Rebecca that he doubts it would sit well on her conscience if Niamh's attacker got away with it because she gave them the wrong time of the attack. Under pressure, Rebecca admits that she really heard the scream at around 8:10am, and she thought it was probably nothing, so she carried on getting the photos before she went over to see what had happened. Esther tells her that she'll need to come into the station to revise her statement, and Rebecca says she feels terrible — but sometimes you have to take drastic action for the greater good.
As Humphrey and Esther drive back, they mull over the new timeline: Patrick's solicitor says he got there at 8:30am, and it's an 18-minute drive away from the moor, so if Rebecca heard Niamh screaming at 8:10am, it's theoretically possible for Patrick to have fired the arrow and made it to his appointment for 8:30am. Esther says that they've definitely got grounds to bring Patrick in for questioning at this point, and Humphrey asks her to go and pick him up while he speaks to Niamh. As Esther arrives, Patrick is in his office, ripping up papers in a rage and scowling at the picture of Lewis, saying "I suppose you think this is funny?"
As Humphrey pulls up outside Niamh's house, Kelby calls him with the forensic results: there were no fingerprints on the bow, which mean that the killer either wiped it clean or wore gloves. Humphrey wonders why you'd bother to wear gloves if the bow has your name written on it, which is a very good point. They did find traces of wood fibres on the nock of the arrow, but not on any other part.
Niamh invites Humphrey in and shows him the home video she was watching when he arrived: Lewis used to make films of the moor, documenting the wildlife as the seasons changed. She says that she watches them to make sure she doesn't forget him: Humphrey's caught her on a good day, she says. Humphrey tells her his Aunt Mary has dementia, so he understands on some level what it must be like for her. Niamh tells him that it's not true that Lewis went to Montana as Patrick claimed: he hated flying, because he always got airsick and the metal plate in his leg would set off the alarms on the scanners at airport security. She says she knows Lewis loved her and the moors: he was happy there and he wouldn't have just left. Humphrey offers to make tea, and he notices that there are sticky notes on most surfaces and cupboards in Niamh's kitchen, to help her remember things. As he looks for the sugar, he finds a note inside one cupboard that says "ARCHERY CLUB". Humphrey sits back down for tea with Niamh, but he's clearly distracted by what he's just seen and soon makes his excuses, getting up to leave. As he's going to the door, Niamh asks why he came in the first place, and Humphrey tells her that they've arrested Patrick. A clearly relieved Niamh thanks him for telling her, but Humphrey tells her not to thank him yet.
As Humphrey is walking to his car, he makes a quick call to Esther: he needs her to meet him on the moor and bring an arrow. When she gets there, he explains to her that they've been looking at the case from the wrong angle: if someone is shot with an arrow, but there's nobody there to shoot it, then they probably weren't shot at all. He tells her that she was right to flag the lone tree in the vicinity, but not as a possible hiding place for the shooter. He explains that Niamh has been adamant all along that Patrick killed her husband, but nobody believed her — and when she was diagnosed with dementia, she realised she was going to forget everything soon, and she'd lose her chance to get justice for Lewis.
Here's what happened: in Patrick's office, Humphrey noticed that both Lewis and Patrick used to be joint owners of the archery club, according to the certificate on the wall, so Lewis would have had a set of keys. When Patrick said that nobody else had keys to the club, it was because as far as he was concerned Lewis was out of the picture. When Humphrey visited Niamh, he saw that she had a box of Lewis's belongings, so he believes that she found a set of keys for the archery club and came up with a plan: the night before the incident, she went to the club and took Patrick's bow and arrow, wearing gloves to avoid leaving prints. The following morning, she planted the bow in the bush, knowing it would easily be found if anyone searched the area. She rested the arrow against the tree and pressed the arrowhead into her shoulder, using her body weight to impale her own shoulder on it — not an easy feat, but as the surgeon said to Esther, Niamh is very strong. She then deliberately moved away from the tree to avoid drawing attention to it, but passed out from the pain before she got very far — and she would have known that this was the time of day that Patrick took his daily walk on the moor, making him an obvious suspect, so she just needed to leave enough evidence to point to him — like the letter in the book that she deliberately let Humphrey find. Unfortunately, a few unforeseen elements got in the way of Niamh's plan: Rebecca lying about when she heard the scream, and Patrick breaking his usual routine to go and meet with his solicitor. Esther says the whole thing sounds tragic: Patrick is innocent, and Niamh did all of that for nothing. Humphrey points out that they should go and release Patrick, and Esther says she was so sure that he'd done it — she thinks he's got "that air about him", and Humphrey agrees.
Back at the police station, Esther goes to release Patrick — but Humphrey asks if they can hold him a little longer. There's something on his mind: what if Niamh was right about Patrick killing Lewis? He asks Margo to find out who Patrick's surveyor is and get a copy of the report for the hotel development, because if Niamh's suspicion is right, Humphrey thinks he knows where Lewis is — buried in the area marked with the big red cross that Patrick claimed was being left as-is because of a subsidence risk. Having seen the videos of Lewis at Niamh's house, he believes what she said about how Lewis loved the moors and wouldn't have left of his own free will. Esther wonders what would have driven Patrick to kill Lewis, and Humphrey suggests it was simply a matter of greed: Lewis would never have given up the land to his brother and allowed the development to go ahead, so they fought over it, and whether deliberately or accidentally, Patrick killed Lewis and buried him. Margo hands Humphrey the report from Patrick's surveyor: she can't find any suggestion of a subsidence risk. Humphrey begs Esther for one hour to investigate further, and Esther agrees: but once the hour is up, she'll have to release him. Margo asks how Humphrey hopes to find a body in all that amount of land in an hour, and Humphrey suggests they check again for any clues that might tip them off as to precisely where Lewis is buried.
The others start scanning through the evidence again as Humphrey starts throwing out ideas: maybe Patrick planted something at Lewis's burial site as a memorial? Kelby wonders if Lewis really did fly to Montana, which reminds Humphrey of Niamh's comment about the metal plate in Lewis's leg that set off the scanners at airport security — he gets Margo to call a local detectorists' club to find someone who can meet him on the moor with a metal detector. As he darts out the door, Esther shouts after him that he's got 53 minutes left.
A short while later, Humphrey is up on the moor with a detectorist, whose metal detector eventually starts beeping. Humphrey grabs a spade and starts digging: a little while after that, the area is cordoned off with police tape and Lewis's remains are being recovered, ready to be taken for forensic examination.
Humphrey speaks to Niamh at the location where Lewis's body was found, and tells her that he promises they will uncover the truth. Niamh apologises for the trouble that she's caused, but she felt she had no other choice: her diagnosis made her desperate, because when her memory went, Lewis would be gone too. Humphrey apologises for the fact that it took so long for her to get justice. Humphrey goes back to his car, and Niamh lays a small bunch of flowers on a stone near where Lewis was found.
At the police station, Esther tells Margo that Patrick's version of the story is that Lewis's death was accidental: they were fighting and he slipped, cracking his head on a rock. He panicked and buried Lewis's body, then falsified the land ownership documents. Margo asks if Esther is coming to Humphrey's stag party, and Esther says she'll meet her there: there's something she has to do first.
Esther goes home to find Zoe on the sofa with her laptop. Zoe pretends to be working on something so that she can ignore her mother, but Esther points out that the laptop isn't actually switched on. She apologises for getting mad at Zoe over the tattoo, saying she was just a bit shocked. She adds that her angry reaction stopped her seeing what the tattoo really meant to Zoe, and she tells her that the tattoo was really pretty. She asks to see it again, and Zoe shows her. Esther then shows Zoe her own wrist: she now has a tattoo to match. Zoe says the birds represent her, her and Esther, and she apologises to Esther, and they hug.
Humphrey and Martha meet each other at the pub (him looking rather dishevelled and dirty from all the digging): they were invited there separately by Kelby and Anne respectively, so they quickly realise they've been set up. Inside, everyone's waiting to surprise them with a Caribbean-themed joint hen and stag do (a "hag do", as Kelby and Margo rather unflatteringly call it). Humphrey admits he would have liked a bit of warning so he could have got changed, and Kelby offers him one of the "on it till we vomit!!" t-shirts, which Humphrey accepts.
As Anne vents her Richard frustrations on the dartboard, Humphrey tells Martha that this case has hit him harder than some of the others, and made him realise how lucky they are to have each other and be surrounded by people who love them. He says that if Anne needs to channel her anger and frustration into planning their wedding, then so be it. Martha thinks they should still talk to Anne, and Humphrey agrees — but suggests it can wait until after the party.
