Puzzled

Students in Forensics spend class trying to get out of class.

In the first scene of Glass Onion, the standalone sequel to Director Rian Johnson’s smash hit Knives Out, five friends each receive identical wooden puzzle boxes. The first puzzle unlocks a second, which unlocks a third, and so on, until the entire box finally opens, unfolding like a flower, to reveal an invitation.

“My dear friends, my beautiful disruptors, my closest inner circle,” the card reads. "We could all use a moment of normalcy. And so, you are cordially invited for a long weekend on my private island, where we will celebrate the bonds that connect us. I hope your puzzle-solving skills are whetted because you will also be competing to solve the mystery of — my murder."

So begins a wild whodunnit that follows eccentric billionaire tech bro Miles Bron, owner of the eponymous Glass Onion mansion, and odd-man-out Benoit Blanc, the brilliant detective at the center of the Knives Out mysteries. If you have seen the movie, or have read any Agatha Christie, then you already know what happens next. What starts as a fun weekend away soon turns into something much darker and more nefarious. And that's just the first hour!

At Pomfret, something similar has been afoot in Dr. Sandy Chase's Forensics. During one recent class, students received this unexpected note from Dr. Chase, our very own Benoit Blanc:

"You are the awesome Pomfret School Forensics Team and you have been solving crimes all over campus this year and putting bad guys behind bars. There has been yet another murder and when class meets the lights go off unexpectedly and you find that you are locked in a lab. You have 70 minutes to escape so you can go catch the murderer."

It took everything the team knew about forensics, including analysis of botanicals, fiber, blood spatter, blood typing, and dendrochronology, to escape — but escape they did, solving all ten puzzles.

“This was the final class of the term,” said Dr. Chase. “They’ve completed their end-of-term assessments, and today’s activity was a fun and engaging way for them to use everything they had learned.”