Patience Season 1 Episode 6 Review Review: Pandora’s Box

An anthrax attack takes center stage on Patience Season 1 Episode 6, “Pandora’s Box.” It gives us the kind of life-or-death stakes appropriate for a season finale.

A man on a bus collapses of what is eventually proved to be anthrax poisoning. Following a lead that the ecoterrorism group involved was targeting meat through slaughterhouses, the team initially believes there’s no threat of transmission through air.

An initial conversation with the group’s leader, Jean, points suspicions onto her husband—or at least the man posing as him. The real Rolland died in a fire set by Tyler, who then took up an affair with Jean. As stakes rise, Bea is quickly forbidden from investigating.

She defies the orders, of course, both risking her career and her life. The anthrax came from a vape and is very airborne indeed. She collapses in her apartment as others fall ill, too. Patience notices the trend in time to break in and call for help.

The shared panic helps Patience mend fences with Jake, who earlier offers a half-hearted apology for his behavior at Bea’s party. Encouraged to bend the rules as much as she ever has, Patience persuades the medical examiner to give her access to a classified file.

The killer is Zara, Tyler’s ex who kills him in a jealous rage and may look familiar because she’s also Flora, the chief of police(!) She’s arrested, Bea recovers, and at dinner with her and Alfie, Patience opens her mother’s puzzle box, finding  a mysterious number taped to it.

Anthrax attacks have (thankfully) not been in the news for several years, but this episode recalls a time many of us remember where they seemed a constant threat. The anxiety is high even before the characters recognize the true threat.

I admit I very briefly wondered whether we were actually being set up to see Bea die and for Patience to eventually resume work with Jake, given both the detective’s dire condition and the effort to mend fences under emotional circumstances.

I’m glad these fears are quickly dashed. Though the second half of the season leans a bit more into the cases, this is still ultimately a show about the relationship between the two female protagonists, highlighting both them and neurodivergent acceptance.

Still, the scenes between Patience and Jake were nice to see, both effectively redeeming him for his earlier behavior and implying he might have more a central role when the show returns. As Bea’s partner, it would be nice to see him as part of the team.

Potential terrorism and twisty killer reveals aside, the case is actually kind of mundane– pointedly so. After all the talk of noble environmental causes, multiple lives were nearly lost due to a person in power acting on personal vengeance.

I’m glad we don’t leave off with the kind of cliffhanger that leaves you wondering if someone might not survive. What we get with the puzzle box is more intriguing anyway, and it sounds like both Bea and Alfie could get involved in the follow-up.

We only get a glimpse of the numbers before cutting to black, and at this point, they could mean anything. Will we meet Patience’s mother? Will she have a worthy explanation for leaving her daughter? Or could this be about something else entirely?

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Patience airs Sundays at 8/7c on PBS.

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