We’re back in Cabot Cove for this episode and Jessica Fletcher is in the midst of planning a surprise birthday party for Seth! But things get complicated after Seth is involved in a fender bender and we learn that Jessica’s acquaintance Charlie Garrett is on a case investigating industrial espionage in Cabot Cove.
Episode facts:
Click on the text below to reveal spoilers.
Click to reveal the victim
It was Oscar, the button man for the Kempinsky organization!Click to reveal the killer
It was Harvey Terhune, the son of a local antique dealer!Click to reveal the weapon
It was a hammer!Click to reveal the location
It was at night in the town’s records office, which was in the process of being moved!Click to reveal the motive
The killer had found a bag of money and had gone back to retrieve it. He then killed in self defense when the gangster also showed up to grab the money!Click to reveal the major clue
It was the paper cutter, which used to be in a filing cabinet in the town records office and was later seen in the Terhune antique store!Cast of characters:
As it’s a Cabot Cove episode, we have the usual regulars:
- William Windom as Dr. Seth Hazlitt. This episode reveals that Seth’s birthday is on the 21st, but we don’t really know what month the events of the episode are meant to take place.
- Ron Masak as Sheriff Mort Metzger.
- Louis Herthum as Deputy Andy Broom.
We also get a bit of a cross-over from Jessica’s “away” episodes:
- Wayne Rogers plays Charlie Garrett, a private investigator from Chicago who was called over by Lomax to investigate industrial espionage. This is Rogers’ second of five appearances on MSW, always playing the same character; he previously appeared in “Dead Eye“.
Other characters include:
- Millie Slavin as Celia Terhune, the owner of an antique shop.
- Rebecca Cross as Libby Terhune, Celia’s daughter and employee at the town records office.
- Eamonn Roche as Harvey Terhune, Celia’s son and employee of Lomax Sheet Metal Co.
- Frederick Coffin as Sanford Lomax, the owner of Lomax Sheet Metal Co. in Cabot Cove. This is Coffin’s third of four total appearances on MSW; he previously appeared in “The Sins of Castle Cove” and “Night of the Coyote“.
- R.D. Call as Joseph Kempinsky, a gangster from Chicago working with Lomax.
- Anthony Mangano as Oscar James Gandile, button man for the Kempinsky organization.
- Matt Mulhern as Walter Perry, Libby Terhune’s fiance who steals money from Lomax.
Final thoughts and other trivia:
There are quite a few names in this episode that are reused from previous episodes. For instance, the Terhune family name was previously featured in the Cabot Cove episode “Fire Burn, Cauldron Bubble“. Additionally, the name of the Kempinsky organization is quite similar to the name of Jessica’s NYC doorman Richie Kanpinski seen in “Threshold of Fear“. And finally, at the beginning of the episode when we see Charlie Garrett listening to the horse races on the radio in his office in Chicago, we hear the names Swift Prince and Victor Way — which were the names of the two horses featured in “Bloodlines” earlier this season.
One bit of visual trivia that I noticed in the episode is that a publication titled the “Cabot Cove Cookbook” is on display in the antique store. The cover appears to feature a sketch of the Jaws Lake set at Universal Studios, as it was used when it stood in for Cabot Cove during the filming of Murder, She Wrote. It turns out that the cover illustration was created by Hub Braden (MSW production designer), and was used for the first edition of the Murder, She Wrote Cookbook by Tom Culver — which was published in 1995, one year after this episode aired.
One final mystery I wanted to mention has to do with the filming locations. I was able to pinpoint that the town scenes used in this episode were filmed on the Colonial Street set at the Universal Studios back lots. However, there is one location that I haven’t been able to identify — the location of the docks. This same location was used in “The Big Kill“, and I know that it’s not the Jaws Lake set nor the Noyo Harbor in Fort Bragg (which had been used to stand in for the Cabot Cove harbor in earlier seasons). If you have any ideas or clues as to the real-world identity of this filming location, I’d be very interested to find out so please let me know in the comments!
Murder, She Watched 