Jess is on the road to Denver, Colorado to visit her old friend Jayne, whom she hasn’t seen in 7 years, so that she can give a TV interview at a station that her friend’s husband works at. This is yet another example of Jess’s superhero ability to keep in touch with people.
Just the facts ma’am:
Spoilers are in white font, so highlight the text below to reveal the answers.
- The victim was… the TV show host of consumer affairs show, The Bottom Line!
- killed by… the station manager!
- in… a desk chair in someone else’s office at the KBLR Denver TV station!
- with… a gun shot through the back of the chair!
- because… he was in the wrong place at the wrong time! and the killer was crazy about his best friend’s wife!
- vital clues: the coffee stain on the chair and the cigar ash in the ashtray !
Big names
George Takei! makes an appearance as a janitor who keeps a collection of celebrity trash in his office. He also provides two crucial clues for Jess to be able to solve the crime.
Repeat offenders
There are a few actors who’ve made multiple appearances on the show, but nobody made more than a handful of appearances.
- Adrienne Barbeau (as producer, Lynette Bryant) — this is her second and last appearance.
- Judith Chapman (as Dr. Jayne Honig, Jessica’s friend) — her first of three appearances.
- Joe Santos (as toy producer, Joe Rinaldi) — his first of two appearances. If you’re a fan of Magnum, P.I., you might recognize him because he was in 5 episodes of Magnum as Police Lieutenant Nolan Page.
- Morgan Stevens (as Robert Warren, the station manager) — his third and last appearance.
- Mark C Phelan — his first of two appearances as a cop.
Conclusions
I really like the puzzle and the clues behind the murder mystery in this episode. But aside from George Takei’s appearance, there’s nothing particularly special about it. Otherwise, there’s the usual confrontation with the murderer at the end of the episode (where Jess is about to get choked by a tie), and a fun moment early in the episode where Jess gets involved (“to observe a real homicide detective at work”) by appealing to the police detective’s vanity.
Murder, She Watched 