Jessica Fletcher’s nephew Grady has just gotten a job with a company called Columbus Ventures, who is coming to Cabot Cove with a proposal to build a new development between it and the neighboring town of Craggy Neck.
When it comes to light that Columbus Ventures is not what they seem after an apparent car accident claims a victim, Jessica and her crew investigate the possibility that it was murder.
Just the facts:
Click on the text below to reveal spoilers.
Click to reveal the victim
It was Lorna Buffum, the wife of one of the members of Columbus Ventures!Click to reveal the killer
It was Noah Farmer, the proprietor of the Hill House Hotel!Click to reveal the weapon
It was a bump on the head that knocked out the victim before she was left to drown!Click to reveal the location
It was in the victim’s car, which was pushed into Cabot Cove harbor!Click to reveal the motive
It was money! The killer had been buying properties in Cabot Cove with the hope that he’d make a profit when real estate prices went up as a result of the Columbus Ventures development. The victim was about to blow the whistle on Columbus Ventures, which would render the killer’s properties less valuable.Click to reveal the major clue
It was the pen cap that was found in the victim’s car — which corresponded to ink smudges on the killer’s blazer!Cast of characters:
- Mary Gordon Murray as Pauline Higgins, a Cabot Cove real estate agent.
- Richardson Morse as Travis Lawder, a local who is vocally against the new construction. This is Morse’s fifth of six appearance on MSW; he previously appeared in “Wheel of Death“.
- Ron Masak as Sheriff Mort Metzger.
- Michael Horton as Grady Flecher, Jessica’s nephew. This is Horton’s twelfth and final appearance on MSW, each time playing Grady.
- William Windom as Dr. Seth Hazlitt.
- John D’Aquino as J. Peter “Pete” Carmody, a main member of Columbus Ventures. This is D’Aquino’s second of three appearances on MSW; he previously appeared in “The Classic Murder“.
- Jay Patterson as Noah Farmer, proprietor of Hill House Hotel who is also hoping to purchase more properties.
- Yvette Nipar as Toni Shaw, another main member of Columbus Ventures. This is Nipar’s second and final appearance on MSW; she previously appeared in “Trevor Hudson’s Legacy“.
- Frank Converse as Everett Buffum, the third member of Columbus Ventures who also happens to be a former Cabot Cover.
- Katherine Cannon as Lorna Buffum, the soon-to-be-former wife of Everett Buffum. This is Cannon’s fourth and final appearance on MSW; she previously appeared in “Deadline for Murder”, “The Error of Her Ways“, and “The Trouble With Seth“.
- Charles Napier as Denver Martin, a visitor from Tuscon who is keeping an eye on Columbus Ventures and has accused them of swindling his mother out of her life savings. This is Napier’s second and final appearance on MSW; he previously appeared in the two-part episode “Death Stalks the Big Top”.
- Pat Stewart as an On-Looker at the Columbus Ventures announcement.
- Louis Herthum as Deputy Andy Broom
Final thoughts and other trivia:
There are a few odd things about the set that I noticed while watching this episode:
- First, in scenes that take place in Jessica’s living room, you might notice that the mirror above the fire-place is no longer a reflective surface.
- I additionally found it notable that at the Cabot Cove harbor set, the entrance to the Columbus Ventures office is in the same place where the Coffee Shop (which became such a prominent location in earlier seasons) used to be.
There are also a few things mentioned about Cabot Cove that I noticed:
- We learn that Craggy Neck is the name of a neighboring town.
- We also learn that The Beacon, the old Cabot Cove lighthouse, is at risk of being torn down — which is somewhat inconsistent to Season 2’s “Sticks and Stones” which mentions the local old lighthouse was lost to a fire.
- At the end of the episode, Seth is hurrying Grady along to say that they’re heading to the train station. This is notable because there were so many significant scenes in previous episodes that revolved around people coming to Cabot Cove by bus — never by train.
- And finally, there’s a mention of one of the characters having been at Sal’s Roadhouse on Route 17, Maine. This could potentially be a clue to the real-world location of Cabot Cove.
As this is Grady’s final episode, and his first episode in several years, there are a few attempts at continuity:
- Gady mentions that his old boss was a broadway producer — which is a reference to the Season 1 episode “Broadway Malady”.
- Although we don’t actually see or hear her, there is mention of Grady’s wife Donna calling to check in on him.
- And we also see mention of Grady’s son “Frankie” a.k.a. Frank Jr. (whose existence we knew of due to Donna being pregnant in “The Szechuan Dragon“). The picture of Frankie that we see being shown is apparently actually a picture of Angela Lansbury’s gradson Ian, who would later appear in Season 12’s “Something Foul in Flappieville”.
Murder, She Watched 