Where episode 3 featured a wide array of characters, opening up possibilities for interesting, and pointlessly witty at times, dialogue, episode 4 sees Bodkin going back to its core trio. While the dynamic between these three is becoming stale, the insertion of them seemingly going their different paths more and more adds some, not many, layers to the story told. Specifically, the Gilbert and Seamus arc of the episode is the most enjoyable part of this episode. Not to say Dove and Emmy do unremarkable things, as namely the latter enjoys some well-deserved depth to their persona.
If it wasn't for David Wilmot's portrayal of Seamus, the episode would lose its little interest. The unfortunate trend I see forming is that the main characters, Gilbert, Emmy and Dove, carry too little substance to them to grasp attention and keep it there. Sadly, Dove's character arc is an uninteresting one, where her continued lack of proper humane morals becomes excruciatingly cliché and bland. Emmy finally shows her bark but has yet to truly reveal her bite. Gilbert is once again put on the back end of character development, as even now, it's Seamus that is most deserving of your attention. Bodkin tries to steadily move itself forward, but truly suffers from a slow pace in storytelling.
Although slow and steady usually wins the race, the main goal for Bodkin should rest on the advancing of its mystery. The show painfully juggles storylines that raise questions on the meaning of those storylines related to its main murder case. Every episode, we get a few minutes, and sometimes not even that, of alternate arcs that provide little information to our characters' personal matters. It takes away attention that could sometimes better go towards its main story, seeing how seemingly little influence those alternate arcs have on our murder mystery.
Bodkin seems destined to want to stretch itself out, with little to no acknowledgement of its relationship to the story told. While our trio slowly and steadily delve deeper and retrieve more and more answers, one can't help but wonder why. "Poison or Something" gets a 7 out of 10, but it is dangerously close to being at the lower end brackets of scores if it continues to sacrifice quality for quantity.