Murder, She Watched

Now that I’ve posted a summary of the Season 3 finale episode, I thought it would be good to do a recap of Season 3 trivia.  Murder, She Wrote is known for certain recurring themes/motifs/imagery, and one of the things I was most curious about when I embarked on this project to document each episode is: just how frequently these themes/motifs/imagery recur.

Note that the following is based only on episode 14 through episode 22, as those were the episodes I’ve written about so far.  My plan is to update this post once I come full-circle and watch the show from the beginning.

People & Places

Number of “dear old friends” = 4

Jessica is constantly paying visits to old friends she hasn’t seen in a while, and whom she usually doesn’t see again for the rest of the series.  This season she visited:

• Jayne Honig in Denver, Colorado
• Harry McGraw in Boston, Massachusetts
• Linda Stevens in Comstock, Idaho
• Murray Gruen in Cooperville, New York

Number of nieces/nephews/cousins etc. = 1

In the last 9 episodes of the season, Jessica only spends one episode with a family member: Grady Fletcher, in New York City.

Number of Cabot Cove deaths = 1

In the last 9 episodes of the season, there was only one Cabot Cove murder.  Even so, a big deal was made about the fact that the people involved in the murder were only “Summer Covers” rather than permanent residents.

J. B. Fletcher, Globetrotter

Each episode featured Jess in a different city/town.  In addition to Denver, Boston, Comstock (Idaho), Cooperville (New York), and New York City already mentioned, Jessica also paid a visit to Santa Monica (California), and Green Hills (possibly Nashville, Tennessee).

Jessie’s men

Jessica is known for attracting the attention of various men she meets.  In the last 9 episodes of the season, she has one potential love interest: Lt. Timothy Hanratty of the NYPD.

Season’s Awards

Most popular murder weapon

A gun was the murder weapon in 3 of the last 9 episodes of the season.

Most unusual murder weapon

A tuning fork was used as the murder weapon in the bookend episode based on a J.B. Fletcher novel.

Most popular place to die

Six of the murders take place in an office (or workplace) after dark.  Four of these specifically took place in an office chair.  Remember this next time your boss asks you to put in overtime.  Apparently, if you want to avoid being murdered, don’t stay at work after hours.

Other themes…

Number of times Jessica works out = 2

We see Jess don her workout clothes in “Death Takes a Dive” and “Murder, She Spoke“.

Matchmaker Jess

Apparently, a good murder makes people feel romantic.  Three out of the 9 episodes at the end of Season 3 ended with a marriage proposal or romance.

• There was mention of two characters eloping at the very end of “Death Takes a Dive“.
• The (sort-of) adoptive single mother of a boy and his biological father get together at the end of “Simon Says Color Me Dead“.
• There is an on-screen marriage proposal at the end of “No Laughing Murder“.

Jessica’s loosening moral compass

As much as the show is about Jessica catching the bad guys and making sure that justice is served, there are some moments on the show where we get a glimpse of how Jessica defines justice.

• In “Simon Says Color Me Dead”, Jessica tells Amos Tupper to put some things into his “amnesia file” — essentially, to forget that a woman in town in raising a child she has no legal claim to.
• In “No Accounting for Murder”, Jessica does not report to the police that there’s a homeless man living in the walls of the office building and stealing some of the office workers’ things.

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