I was watching Father Brown again because insomnia and I ended up on the episode The Curse of Amenhotep (03x02)
You know what I caught with my sleep deprived brain that I never before had with my normal awake brain?
Inspector Sullivan's whole issue with the pond.
Okay hear me out but that whole scene when the murderer gets in the boat and flees leaving Sullivan on the bank always felt odd the first couple of times seeing it but my unfiltered brain went:
'Oh that's the reaction of someone reliving a trauma!'
To which I had an argument with myself about it and thus replayed the scene to make sure I wasn't just too tired to process media correctly but nope sleepy brain was correct.
Don't believe me? Look at his reaction to the murderer going off in a boat onto the pond and leaving the Inspector on the bank.
That isn't your usual murder mystery show 'he got away' reaction no that is a man having horrible memories violently brought forth and being paralyzed with fear by them.
Then when said murderer struggles with the boat the camera switches to a closeup of Sullivan still frozen on the bank making these faces
Look at him being torn! Look at him try to contemplate what to do next but fail because he's too scared to properly react.
Not to mention when said murderer then rocks the boat, falls in the pond and cries for help. The Inspector only reacts when Sargent Goodfellow shows up to shake him out of himself and force his hand to jump in after them.
Does this man look like he wants to go into the water? No! You know why? Because he's traumatized!
When they cut to the aftermath of the whole ordeal
He's not only numb from the cold but the experience. He barely registers the women fussing over him and just sits in utter shock the rest of the scene. Barely holding onto the blanket that's supposed to warm him back up and just looking like he's far off somewhere terrible.
Now you want to hear my theory on where that somewhere was? I think he went back to the war but more specifically to the Navy vessel he served on that violently went down.
Could have been trapped in the bowls of a sinking ship with debris hindering him as he had to make the hardest call of his life: saving himself or die trying to save others. Though he couldn't save them despite his best efforts to do so he tried to the very last second and was forced to choose and he chose himself. Surfacing somewhat safe the survivors listened to their comrades pleas for help till everything went silent and that forever stuck with him. Like with everything he repressed it and carried on till moments like this drag it to the surface.
I believe this is what gave him the paralyzing fear of deep water and it is just another reason he is uncomfortable with the countryside.
But ya know none of this is canon just my sleepy observations. Thank you for reading my 2am rambles about Father Brown and feel free to add your own hcs or knowledge on.
