The episode starts off with a flashback to Boston 1974 (20 years prior to the “present day” events of the episode), where a robbery is taking place that results in a security guard getting shot and an innocent bystander who was waiting in his car nearby getting charged with the crime.
Flash forward to “present day” Cabot Cove and there are two visitors to the town who are suspiciously interested in the owner of the local computer repair shop–and just when Jessica is in the market for a new computer!
When Jessica’s friend Dr. Seth Hazlitt leaves a message on her machine which gets suspiciously cut off and they subsequently discover blood on the carpet of his consulting room with Seth nowhere to be found, Jessica and Sheriff Mort Metzger investigate his whereabouts.
Episode facts:
Click on the text below to reveal spoilers.
Click to reveal the victim
It was the visitor to Cabot Cove who had multiple aliases and had just gotten out of jail after serving 20 years!Click to reveal the killer
It was Connie Anderson, an employee of the computer store!Click to reveal the weapon
The victim was stabbed in the back with Seth’s World’s Fair souvenir letter opener!Click to reveal the location
The victim was killed in Seth’s consulting room but then dragged to the woods!Click to reveal the motive
The victim was attacking the man that the killer was in love with!Click to reveal the major clue
It was the fact that Olson was among the names of the clients who called the computer shop!Cast of characters (in order of appearance):
- The actors in the 1974 flashback were not credited.
- William Windom as Dr. Seth Hazlitt.
- Paul Mantee as Leo David Fender / Ronald Olson / Jack Landis, a visitor to Cabot Cove who just got out of jail after serving 20 years.
- Kim Johnston Ulrich as Julia Harris, a visitor from Boston who is gathering background information about the local computer store owner, under the guise of wanting to do business on behalf of Back Bay Development. This is Johnston Ulrich’s second and final appearance on MSW; she previously appeared in “Sugar & Spice, Malice & Vice“.
- Ethan Embry (at the time credited as Ethan Randall) as Jimmy Taylor, a bus boy at the coffee shop. This is Embry’s first of two appearances on MSW.
- Jay Underwood as Will Rafferty, a wanna-be owner of a boat repair business and the son of Evan Rafferty. This is Underwood’s first of two appearances on MSW.
- Tony Fasce as Dan Castino, the current owner of a boat repair business of the Will Rafferty wants to buy.
- Ben Masters as Evan Rafferty / Stanley Barton, the owner of a computer store. This is Master’s third and final appearance on MSW; he previously appeared in “Trials and Tribulations” and “Dead Eye“.
- Katherine Cannon as Marion Taylor, Evan Rafferty’s fiancee and Jimmy Taylor’s mom. This is Cannon’s third of four appearances on MSW; she previously appeared in “The Error of Her Ways“.
- Tim McLaughlin as Dave Archer, a representative from a credit bureau who gives Evan Rafferty information about someone who requested a credit report on him.
- Ann Hearn as Connie Anderson, a saleswoman at the computer store. This is Hearn’s first of two appearances on MSW.
- Steve Nevil as Neal Kraus, a salesman at the computer store.
- Ron Masak as Sheriff Mort Metzger.
- An uncredited actress played Grace, the waitress at the coffee shop.
- Louis Herthum as Deputy Andy Broom.
Final thoughts and other trivia:
One thing I found a bit funny about the filming locations used in this episode is the way that the Jaw’s Lake set at Universal Studios was reused this time around. I’ve mentioned in previous posts that buildings that stand in for one thing in one episode become something else in another episode. But what makes this episode’s use of the set unusual is that the building that had been consistently used for several seasons as the exterior of the coffee shop was now redressed to stand in for the exterior of the computer store. This in and of itself would not be that notable if it weren’t for the fact that several major scenes in this episode also take place in the coffee shop!
Another little Easter Egg that intrepid MSW fans may have spotted is that, in the scene where Jessica is helping Seth move boxes of his files, we can see that several of his “patients” share names with members of the film crew! For instance we see:
- Sharpless, D. >> which is likely a reference to sound mixer Don Sharpless.
- Swofford, S. >> which is likely a reference to post-production supervisor Stephen Swofford.
- Shaw, P. >> which is likely a reference to Angela Lansbury’s husband Peter Shaw.
Murder, She Watched 