Jessica is in New York City and she’s having some trouble with her computer — she can save but she can’t print! So of course she calls her favorite computer expert for help. When her computer expert ends up in hospital and her cop date is found dead, Jessica gets drawn into an internal affairs investigation into a high-jacking operation.
Just the facts:
Click on the text below to reveal spoilers.
Click to reveal the victim
It was John Bondy, the rookie assigned to work undercover on the high-jacking investigation!Click to reveal the killer
It was Jimmy Haynes — a cop’s father-in-law!Click to reveal the weapon
It was a gunshot!Click to reveal the location
It was in the front seat of his car in a parking lot near a diner (although it was later staged to look like he died in a car accident)!Click to reveal the motive
It was to hide his identity as the person running the warehouse high-jacking operation!Click to reveal the major clue
Paula remembered she saw a lot of red when she found John’s body; and we later see find out that the killer has a red car. Other clues include the killer yelling about having to leave the barbecue to change his pants after spilling ice cream, and the fact that he had a commercial real estate business and so had access to warehouses.Cast of characters (in order of appearance):
- James E. Hurd Jr. as a Highjacker at the warehouse that gets a call to warn them about the cops coming. This is Hurd’s first of two appearances on MSW.
- Stephen Mendel as Det. Marv Goldman, the first cop that jumps out of his car at the failed warehouse sting.
- James Pickens Jr. as Sonny Greene, another cop that is part of the warehouse sting. It later turns out he has some history with Jessica’s computer expert.
- Nigel Gibbs as Len Thomas, yet another cop at the warehouse sting. This is Gibbs’ second and final appearance on MSW; he previously appeared in “How to Make a Killing Without Really Trying“.
- Stan Shaw as Det. Sgt. Vince Lofton (a.k.a. “Sarge”), the cop in charge of the warehouse sting and the high-jacking investigation. This is Shaw’s second of three appearances on MSW; he will go on to reprise the character of Det. Sgt. Lofton in the season 10.
- Ed O’Ross as Det. Alex Maggio, the last cop to show up at the warehouse sting operation. He later hosts a barbecue at his house and it’s revealed he works part time for his father-in-law’s commercial real estate business.
- Ned Bellamy as Capt. Elgin Meyers — the man who meets Sgt. Lofton and assigns a rookie to his sting operation.
- Wolfgang Bodison as John Andrew Bondy, the rookie assigned to work undercover on the high-jacking investigation.
- Kasi Lemmons as Paula Raynor, Jessica Fletcher’s computer repair expert and dating John Bondy.
- Don Calfa as Vinnie, a dockworker who knows who the police snitch is and might be convinced to reveal his identity to John Bondy. This is Calfa’s second and final appearance on MSW; he previously appeared in “Mr. Penroy’s Vacation“.
- Monte Markham as Jimmy Haynes, a rich commercial real estate agent and the father-in-law of Det. Alex Maggio. This is Markham’s fourth and final appearance on MSW; he previously appeared in “Family Doctor” and “Doom with a View“.
- Nancy Sorel as Jill Walker Maggio, Det. Alex Maggio’s wife.
- Elayn Taylor as Alice, a woman at Det. Alex Maggio’s barbecue — likely the wife of Len Thomas.
- Julio Oscar Mechoso as Dr. Ramon Perez, the physician taking care of Paula when she ends up in the hospital.
- Ann Noel (now Anika Marinelli) as a Young Nurse that finds Jessica in the hospital waiting room to let her know that Paula is awake.
- Glenn Taranto as “Al” the Mechanic at the police vehicle impound lot. This is Taranto’s first of two appearances on MSW.
- Evan Millar as Buddy, Det. Alex Maggio’s son.
- Ken Kerman as the Dock Boss where Vinnie works. Kerman also had a role in the MSW movie “South by Southwest”.
Final thoughts and other trivia:
One thing I found interesting about this episode — in relation to the characters — is that at one point Jessica gets a phone call from her doorman, Richie, letting her know she has someone coming to see her. Since we had only ever seen Richie once before (in “Threshold of Fear“), it’s interesting that the writers have chosen to recall his character.
And finally, unlike many other episodes of the show, we know exactly when this one takes place as we see in Paula’s appointment book that she visits Jessica to fix her computer on Friday May 7th 1993. The episode first aired on Sunday May 9th, so the events of the episode were set to take place right when the episode aired.
Murder, She Watched 