//In Market for Murder, Barnaby and Troy’s conversation about the comic book, especially Barnaby’s causal “You think you know someone…” line while he is skimming The Hawk, is so interesting. On one hand, it’s a bit of Andrew Payne being cheeky, giving a fun little interval that riffs on the age and priority differences between Barnaby and Troy. Barnaby’s fretting about his pension while Troy is thinking about his comic book, a theme further underlined when Barnaby asks Troy about if he’s got his pension sorted, and Troy insists he’s too young to worry about that.
On the other hand, it is such an interesting nod to Barnaby’s character because, so often, we see that he doesn’t know people as well as he thinks he does. Multiple Midsomer episodes, like Death and Dreams, Destroying Angel, Sins of Commission, the Axeman Cometh, The Chocolate Box, The Noble Art, Sauce for the Goose, and Down Among the Dead Men all feature plots where Barnaby befriends/is soft upon the character who later proves to be the killer. He gets to know the persona they present to him and, because he is fond of that persona, he is reluctant to dig deeper until he absolutely has too.
In Troy’s case, it’s pretty harmless. Troy is just much more private then Scott or Jones, and wants to hide the fact he has a nerdy side because it clashes with his perception of masculinity and professionalism. In a lot of the other causes, it is much, much more serious because Barnaby is blissfully taking advice from, and discussing the current case with the murder themselves. And yet, Barnaby still tends to hold the opinion that he can read people well—temporarily being proven wrong in that area does not deter him for long.
