This episode briefly starts in Cabot Cove before the action quickly jumps to Silicon Valley in California and the headquarters of Marathon Images Inc. — a company owned by the son of one of Jessica’s friends from Kennebunk. As Jessica has written the script for their latest (Virtual Reality) video game “A Killing at Hastings Rock”, she is there to help with putting the finishing touches ahead of its release. But when someone is found dead in one of the company’s VR booths, Jessica helps with the investigation.
Just the facts:
Click on the text below to reveal spoilers.
Click to reveal the victim
It was James Lindstrom – the programmer in charge of the game’s source code!Click to reveal the killer
It was Kate Walden, another programmer at Marathon Images Inc.!Click to reveal the weapon
It was a gunshot to the head with the victim’s own gun!Click to reveal the location
It was in one of the VR booths at the game company!Click to reveal the motive
It was love — the killer was in love with the owner of Marathon Images Inc. and wanted to prevent the victim from ruining her love’s business!Click to reveal the major clue
It revolved around the pager system that sends an audible message specifically to the intended recipient. The killer should not have been able to hear a message sent to the victim!Cast of characters (in order of appearance):
The real-world characters we meet in this episode are:
- William Windom as Seth Hazlitt, Jessica’s Cabot Cove friend.
- Kevin Sorbo as Michael Burke, the owner of Marathon Images Inc., and the son of Jessica’s friend from Kennebunk, Maine.
- Shawn Phelan as Alex (also called Al), a young prodigy and a junior coder at Marathon Images Inc. This happens to be Phelan’s final on-screen appearance; just a few months after this episode aired, he was in a tragic car accident that left him comatose for 4 years until his death.
- Phil Morris as David Salt, the “money guy” at Marathon Images Inc.
- Ramy Zada as James Lindstrom, the programmer who wrote the source code for Jessica’s game.
- Julia Campbell as Sharon Baskin, another programmer at Marathon Images Inc.
- Kate McNeil as Kate Walden, who appears to be second in command at the company and/or in charge of marketing the game to investors. This is McNeil’s second and final appearance on MSW; she previously appeared in “Harbinger of Death” as one of Jessica Fletcher’s nieces.
- Thomas Ryan as Dan Porter, P.I., a private investigator spying on Marathon Images Inc.
- Allan Miller as John Crowley/Charles Crowe, the owner of a rival company called Redwood Concepts. This is Miller’s third of five appearances on MSW.
- Richard Yniguez as Sgt. Ignacio Delcanto, the police detective in charge of the murder investigation. Yniguez briefly had a recurring role in Ohara, another 80s detective show.
- Sherman Augustus as Officer Rossi, another policeman involved in the investigation.
The remaining cast that appeared in this episode portrayed characters in the video game “A Killing at Hastings Rock”:
- Arthur Cohan as Jeremy Hastings.
- Shoshana Henri as Carrie Brandeis.
- Heaven Brooke as the glitchy Servant Girl.
- Danny Woodburn as Mr. Townsend. This is Woodburn’s second and final appearance on MSW; he previously appeared in “The Sound of Murder“.
- Wayne Bolton as Colonel Fleming.
Final thoughts and other trivia:
I always get a little excited when I see this episode because, as someone who played a lot of computer games while growing up in the 90s, I just love the little glimpses we get of the game. Although, it must be said that the premise of doing last minute changes and rewrites is very unrealistic given that this is clearly a full-motion video game with live actors that must have pre-recorded their lines.
One thing that stood out to me re-watching the episode this time around is that I recognized “Hastings Rock”. The house on a cliff that is seen during the video game’s title screen appears to be an altered version of an establishing shot that was used in “The Wind Around the Tower” to stand in for the Irish home that Jessica was staying at.
And finally, I found it funny that at one point in this episode Sgt. Delcanto refers to Silicon Valley as the “Valley of the Klingons”. For the non-Star-Trek-fans out there, Klingons are a race of aliens in the Star Trek franchise, and there are other ways that the episode ties into the Star Trek universe. For instance, the use of the pager system in the episode reminded me a lot of the Comm Badges that are used in the series. And to top everything off, the filming location used to stand in for Marathon Images Inc. is the Donald C. Tillman Water Plant in the San Fernando Valley. Together with its adjacent Japanese Garden, this location was frequently used on Star Trek to stand in for Starfleet Academy.
Murder, She Watched 