An unusual episode of Montalbano, very thought-provoking, and with lots of loose ends.
The central characters are absolutely on their usual form. Mimi is after any female under about the age of 60, Fazio is full of the usual wearisomely encyclopaedic explanations, and Catarella still can't handle that office door, and gets people's names wrong. For one of those, the subtitles fail to explain that the name Catarella gave, as a result of getting the initial letter wrong, is in fact rude Italian slang for two particular items of the male anatomy. That's why Montalbano looked quizzically at him and said with a laugh "You don't have someone named that???" But Catarella nodded and said "Si". Yes, he did.
And of course Montalbano and Livia - does anything ever change?
But the Pyramid of Mud is so obviously Montalbano's metaphor for the mafia. Through series after series he has been attacking their power, and we have been seeing how the ordinary citizens of 21st century Sicily have reached the point where they have had enough of their constricting mediaeval grip on every facet of life on the island. This no doubt reflects the success of anti-mafia forces over the last couple of decades. Maybe the rain is at last washing down that huge pyramid of mud!
Lots of elements in this, as it draws to its conclusion, make it look like it was planned to be the final Montalbano, the final episode of the final series, and maybe that is why he expostulates this metaphorical summary.
But that didn't happen, and there still remain 9 episodes over 5 future series. For Montalbano addicts, that can only be a good thing!
8/10.