Inspired by a connection she made with some zoo keepers/veterinarians, Jessica has decided to set her next novel at an animal park. So of course she makes a visit to the Los Angeles animal park that her friends work at in order to do some preliminary research. After a body turns up, supposedly killed by a black mamba snake, Jessica helps investigate.
Just the facts:
Click on the text below to reveal spoilers.
Click to reveal the victim
It was Mark Atwater, the anti-zoo activist!Click to reveal the killer
It was Joyce Hacker, the TV journalist!Click to reveal the weapon
It was an apparent death by snake bite, but actually the venom was injected via syringe by the real killer!Click to reveal the location
It was in the veterinary clinic at the Animal Park at night!Click to reveal the motive
The victim was blackmailing the killer because the killer had been secretly working to try to shut down the Animal Park!Click to reveal the major clue
It was the fact that the killer mentioned being a nurse for her big game hunter husband; and also revealed knowing details about the death that were not made public!Cast of characters (in order of appearance):
- Glenn Taranto as Jilly Russell, a newspaper journalist at The Chronicle who has a secret informant feeding him information about shady dealings at the Animal Park. This is Taranto’s second and final appearance on MSW; he previously appeared in “The Survivor“.
- Lisa Darr as Kelly Michaels, an operations assistant who gives Jessica a tour of the Animal Park. This is Darr’s second of three appearances on MSW; she previously appeared in “Murder on the Thirtieth Floor“.
- Dion Anderson as city councillor Joe Gandolph.
- Corinne Bohrer as Bea Huffington, secretary to the Animal Park administrator. This is Bohrer’s second of three appearances on MSW; she previously appeared in “A Christmas Secret“.
- Jerry Hardin as Norman Gilford, Animal Park administrator who’s job is being threatened. This is Hardin’s second of three appearances on MSW; he previously appeared in “Northern Explosion“.
- Taylor Nichols as Ted Fraley, a caretaker at the Animal Park who is helping Jessica with her research and Bea Huffington’s boyfriend. This is Nichols’ third of four appearances on MSW; he previously appeared in “Portrait of Death” and “Petrified Florist“.
- John Dye as Dr. Ray Stinson, Animal Park veterinarian. This is Dye’s second and final appearance on MSW; he previously appeared in “A Little Night Work“.
- David Beecroft as Mark Atwater, boyfriend of Kelly Michaels and an activist working for an organization that wants to close all zoos.
- Susan Blakely as Joyce Hacker, a TV journalist who interviewed Joe Gandolph about his plans for the Animal Park. This is Blakely’s fourth and final appearance on MSW; she previously appeared in “Murder in Milan“, “Suspicion of Murder“, and “The Error of Her Ways“.
- Meadow Williams as “Chris”, a Docent at the Animal Park seen talking to Bea Huffington. This is Williams’ second and final appearance on MSW; she previously appeared in “The Sound of Murder“.
- Gregory Sierra as Lieutenant Gabriel Caceras, investigating the death at the Animal Park. This is Sierra’s fifth of six appearances on MSW and his second time appearing as this character; he previously appeared in “Petrified Florist“.
- Billy Mayo as Sergeant Nutley, assisting Lt. Caceras with the investigation.
Final thoughts and other trivia:
According to an anonymous IMDb contributor, Animal Park scenes were filmed at the San Diego Zoo (although I haven’t been able to independently verify this, so if you’re familiar with that location and recognized it in the episode, I’d love if you’d comment on this post to confirm). Thanks to some fans familiar with the Los Angeles area, I was able to confirm that the outdoor scenes at the Animal Park were filmed at the Los Angeles Zoo.
A small thing of note about this episode is that it is the source of the scene in which Jessica is seen working on a laptop, which was included in the final version of the opening montage, used in season 12.
The episode also provides us with some background about Jessica’s novels. At one point, she mentions that unlike some of her other novels, this new one will not feature Inspector Jellico but rather will have a veterinarian named Claire Foster as a protagonist. We also learn from Gandolph that one of Jessica’s previous novels was titled “Endangered”.
Although I did already mention in the “Cast” section above that this episode marks the second time that Gregory Sierra appeared at Lt. Caceras, after thinking more about this character it made me realize that maybe this is actually the third time that we see Lt. Caceras appear on the show. In his previous appearance in Season 9’s “Petrified Florist”, he is introduced as someone that Jessica had worked with three years prior. Looking back through the character credits for the show, I realized that there was a Lt. Caceras that appeared in Season 5’s “Three Strikes You’re Out” — this time played by Reni Santoni. Notably, both “Three Strikes You’re Out” and “Petrified Florist” were written by Donald Ross (who also went on to write Season 11’s “Film Flam” — another episode that Lt. Caceras appeared in). The only thing against this theory is that in “Three Strikes You’re Out” Lt. Caceras works for the police department in Scottsdale, Arizona; whereas in “Petrified Florist” Lt. Caceras says he’s “of the Beverly Hills PD”. However, it’s also possible that Lt. Caceras moved cities and changed departments — after all, in his subsequent appearance in Season 11’s “Film Flam”, he says he works for the LAPD (as opposed to Beverly Hills PD).
What do you think? Could the Lt. Caceras played by Reni Santoni and the one played by Gregory Sierra be one and the same?
Murder, She Watched 