Jessica is visiting NASA headquarters in Houston in order to do research for a book she’s writing. As long as she’s in the area, she decides to visit and stay with the family of an old friend who own a trucking company in the fictional town of San Dimas, Texas.
When one of Platte Trucking vehicles gets highjacked on the way to delivering computer parts to NASA, and subsequently when it looks like one of their trucks was used to kill a person, Jessica investigates.
Episode facts:
Click on the text below to reveal spoilers.
Click to reveal the victim
It was Randy Jinks, the truck highjacker!Click to reveal the killer
It was Sam Mercer, the owner of the computer parts manufacturing company!Click to reveal the weapon
The victim was run over by a truck!Click to reveal the location
It happened on the road outside of town; time of death midnight to 2am!Click to reveal the motive
It was because killer had shipped faulty electronics and the victim was blackmailing him about it!Click to reveal the major clue
It was the fact that the highjacked computer parts were deemed worthless; and the fact that there was an exposed spring on the seat of the truck!Cast of characters (in order of appearance):
- Reni Santoni as Juan Ramos, a project manager at NASA who is helping Jessica with her research. This is Santoni’s second and final appearance on MSW; he previously appeared in “Three Strikes, You’re Out“.
- Gary Lockwood as Sam Mercer, the owner of Mercer Computer Industries who had been contracted to send computer parts to NASA. This is Lockwood’s fourth and final appearance on MSW; he previously appeared in “Tainted Lady“, “Indian Giver“, and “Sudden Death”.
- Earl Holliman as Wayne Platte, the owner of Platte Trucking who was delivering computer parts to NASA. This is Holliman’s second and final appearance on MSW; he previously appeared in “Who Killed J.B. Fletcher?“. Holliman is best known to detective show fans for his recurring role on Police Woman.
- Whip Hubley as Randy Jinks, a highjacker who works as a bartender at Willie’s Roadhouse. This is Hubley’s first of two appearances on MSW.
- Patrick Cassidy as Rob Platte, Wayne Platte’s son and an aspiring country singer. Cassidy is the son of Shirley Jones and brother of The Hardy Boys star Shaun Cassidy.
- Joanna Cassidy as Willie Greenwood, the owner of Willie’s Roadhouse bar. Fans of detective shows might recognize her for her recurring role as the hospital administrator in the later seasons of Diagnosis: Murder.
- Melora Hardin as Cindy Warrick, a waitress at Willie’s Roadhouse and Rob Platte’s girlfriend. Fans of detective shows will recognize Hardin for her recurring role as Adrian Monk’s wife Trudy on MONK.
- Ron Leath as the Doctor at the scene following the truck highjacking.
- Dirk Blocker as Sheriff Jim Monday, local law enforcement. Nowadays Blocker is best known for his recurring role on Brooklyn 99.
- Beth Grant as Meg Thomas, the secretary at Platte Trucking. Grant will go on to appear in the MSW movie “The Last Free Man”.
- Robert O’Reilly as A. J. Grodin, the owner of a local electronics repair shop. This is O’Reilly’s second and final appearance on MSW; he previously appeared in “A Very Good Year for Murder“. O’Reilly is best known for portraying the Klingon Gowron in the Star Trek series.
- Brett Porter as Lance Taggart, a visitor to Willie’s Roadhouse who recently got out of jail.
- Heath Kizzier as Deputy Sutton, who gives a summary of information to the sheriff at the murder scene.
Final thoughts and other trivia:
As can be seen in the character summary above, this episode is notable for featuring many faces familiar to fans of detective shows.
Aside from that, knowing the events that would go on to happen in later seasons, I found it interesting to see that Jessica is seen here doing research at NASA for an upcoming book. Early in the following season, in S11E5 “Dear Deadly”, it is mentioned that Jessica is about to publish a book titled “The Launch Pad Murders”. Thus, this seems to be another bit of continuity in the show.
Edit August 5, 2024: Upon recently rewatching this episode, I was able to identify that, although the episode is meant to take place in San Dimas Texas, the outdoor street scenes for this episode were actually filmed on West Bonita Avenue in San Dimas California.
Murder, She Watched 