Hey everyone, PushingUpRoses here and welcome back to That Time on Murder, She Wrote.
If you’re new to this series, then hi!
I hope you like murder mysteries starring Angela Lansbury because that’s what I discuss.
I’ve covered an interesting selection of Murder, She Wrote episodes, everything ranging
from the bizarre, to the intense, to the SALACIOUS, and then back again to the bizarre.
Today’s choice comes from a Twitter suggestion that I found very intriguing.
It read, “Hey!
Can you do an episode on the Murder, She Wrote called, “Unfinished Business”?
Season 3, episode 3.
The episode makes absolutely no sense and I’m wondering if I am just missing the point!
Also I want someone to rage with my wife and I.”
I clearly had to know what was up with this episode, so I watched it and can no longer
remember it.
It was so unmemorable that I forgot all of the details in the story and had to rewatch
it.
After my second viewing I have decided that this episode is weird and slightly boring,
but I am going to attempt to dissect it for the lovely viewer who suggested it, so hold
on!
It’s time for some MEDIOCRITY, She Wrote!
Cynthia: “You know what it all is?
Garbage.”
Because we’re hopping back to season 3, we get to see the amazing Tom Bosley in his
role as the laid back Sheriff Tupper, as well as pretty interesting cast for this episode
- Lots of television and movie stars here; right away I spotted Haley Mills, most known
for her roles in early live acted Disney flicks, and Erin Moran from Happy Days and Joanie
Loves Chachi.
Don’t worry, she DOESN’T love Chachi in this one and for the better because Scott
Baio is a piece of- So you’ll likely recognize some of the others as well, like Pat Hingle
who had an extensive career - it’s interesting to see so many stars show up in this series,
especially when it was still fairly new.
The recap states that Jessica’s friend, recurring character Seth Hazlitt, was a suspect
in a murder 10 years ago, but the case had since went cold.
Well now I am REALLY into this episode: Seth is a fantastic character and I love how he
and Sheriff Tupper interact.
As we begin the episode we witness a homicide detective being honored for his good work,
and as a retirement gift, he is given a trip around the world.
Gosh he looks thrilled.
As he accepts his award, he says he has no intention to go on vacation and wants to take
his new time off to solve a 10 year old case he wasn’t able to close.
His name is Barney Kale (wait, his name is KALE?) and he is a retired cop....with a vengeance.
Word gets around to the suspects in the case, who are all in a panic.
Kale goes out of his way to call one of them: Cynthia Tate, featuring a million bead necklaces.
He tries to lure her to the lodge where the 10 year old murder took place for interrogation
as he is intent on finding his colleague’s killer.
He implies she was a part of some kind of scheme that went wrong, but she denies it
and says she was just a secretary at the time.
“Miss Tate.
We both know what you were.”
An elementary school teacher for a bunch of rapscallions.
Everyone heads for Juniper lake resort, which is less like a resort and more like a log
cabin you’d see in a retro video game.
There’s already a couple there checking in, one of whom is giving the lodge owner
a lot of grief for no good reason.
Gary: “What’s the matter pop, you don’t take cash?”
Maggie: “Robert, please.”
My hair.
He has such a bad attitude; making his wife pay for the entire trip though it was his
idea and ragging on this poor guy just for asking how long he’ll be staying.
“One day, pop.
It only takes one day to catch a fish.”
Huh, one day to catch a fish.
You learn something new every day.
Meanwhile, back at Cabot Cove, Jessica stops by Seth’s doctor’s office because they
had plans, but he seems totally preoccupied.
He tells her about the cold case and shows her the newspaper clipping, which Kale had
sent him.
Seth: “And I was a murder, suspect.”
Jessica: “Hah!
That’s ridiculous.”
You’re way too clumsy for that.
Seth was involved in what is implied to be a bad investment with 3 other people.
They were planning it at the Juniper Lakehouse, where Lowell Dixon, victim of the cold case
murder and personal friend of Lietenient Kale, found them and threatened to expose the whole
deal.
Dixon was found dead in the lake, and the 4 involved in the BS plan were considered
suspects.
Jess flat out tells Seth to NOT take the invitation to go to the lake house, and he agrees, but
we all know Seth is way too stubborn to ever listen to Jess.
Kale arrives at the lodge and my god that’s a lot of plaid.
He promptly kicks the couple out of their cabin cause he wants it, and I don’t feel
too bad because this guy was a dickwaffle anyway.
Later that night Jess receives a call from Sheriff Tupper.
Seems Seth has gone missing, but Jess has an inkling of where he might have gone, so
they go out to the deserted lakehouse to find him.
“Looks like you were wrong about Seth.
This isn’t Seth’s car.”
Oh Tupper, I just love your completely unhelpful commentary.
What else would you like to point out, the fact that it’s dark out?
The color of the grass?
The moon?
So… this guy is dead.
Yep, Dickwaffle Gary is found dead in Lietenient Kale’s cabin.
Tupper and Jessica arrive just in time to find him.
Seth is still nowhere to be found.
Tupper notices Maggie grieving the loss of her husband and since women frighten him,
he asks Jess to try and talk to her.
“I’d talk to her myself but…”
I’m really bad at this.
Me as Jess: “True.”
Jess, being the compassionate, intelligent woman she is, comforts Maggie in her time
of grief.
While slyly interrogating her.
Jess is very, very clever, even when she’s sympathizing with someone.
A shot is heard and Jess runs to go see what happened.
I love how unafraid she is; most people would try to find cover, but she just heads right
in the direction of the shots.
When I am in my 60s I hope I too dive head first into the face danger.
Either that or I hope to have the sexual prowess of Blanche Deveroux.
Maybe a little of both.
I can dive sexily into the face of danger, mrrrroooooowl.
So it was the lieutenant - he claims someone had tried to kill him and was firing off shots
so someone would find him.
When he gets back to the lodge, he finds three of the previous suspects of the cold case
there, Cynthia Tate, Dr. Mayhew, Sanford the lodge owner.
Jessica is suspicious of Kale...wow that’s a weird sentence, and asks him what he was
doing down by the lake.
Kale: “Since I assume your question is no more than feminine curiosity, I’m even going
to answer it.”
Feminine curiosity?
Ew.
Cynthia: “Garbage.”
I assume his attitude is the result of masculine stupidity.
He gives a fairly BS excuse, saying he was just scouting out the area where Dixon was
murdered 10 years prior.
Tupper decides to leave cause fuck it, but Jessica stays behind, just in case Seth turns
up.
In the meantime, she engages in some snooping.
Jessica is the ultimate snooper.
Maggie, the victim’s wife, tells Jess that he was in Kale’s cabin because he had left
a pair of sneakers there; Jess quickly speculates that the shotgun blast was meant for Kale
and Gary just happened to be there at the wrong time.
Kale: “Ma’am, you catch on quick.”
Oh you know, feminine curiosity and all that.
So Seth is under arrest…?
Jessica: “Seeeth!”
Wow, Seth is looking ROUGH.
Seth Hazlitt?
More like Seth HASBEEN...heh.
Okay, I guess he’s not actually under arrest - the Sheriff found him meandering about and
had heard Jess was looking for him, so he just brought him back up to the cabin.
So where in the hell has Seth been?
Well, he of course didn’t listen to Jessica, headed up to the cabin, got completely lost,
then drove into a ditch.
Jessica: “Oh Seth.”
Seth: “Jessica….?”
Does this beard work for me?
Seems we now have a reunion of all the cold case murder suspects, how nice.
This episode IS frustrating - so far there’s a lot of characters, one cold case murder,
one new murder of a person who doesn’t seem connected to anything, and a lietenient with
the last name of a disgusting leafy vegetable.
Since the Sheriff is back in town, no one is allowed to leave the premises.
The murder weapon, a shot gun that belonged to doctor Mayhew, was found in the woods.
Not gonna lie, at first I thought it was a large stick and I was like “Why did they
bring in a muddy tree branch?”
Jess presses Maggie to tell her the REAL reason Gary was staying at the resort - he claimed
it was to go fishing but there was no gear, and he had just gotten out of prison, so there
must be another reason.
She said she didn’t really know his true intentions, but she didn’t press it because
she was planning on breaking up with him during the trip.
Tupper finally does something useful and researches the suspects back in Cabot Cove, but Jess
is like no no no, look up the victim!
I wanna know about him!
Still, props to Amos for doing a thing!
She pulls out a map and states that the victim clearly went out of his way to come to this
resort without a fishing pole, meaning he had another reason for being here.
How many miles more, Sheriff?
Sheriff: “Sixty-Nine.”
Noice.
Everyone decides it’d be best to check Gary’s cabin, but the Sheriff is being really stingy
and keeping private citizens cooped up against their will, and Jess loses her patience and
lays down the law.
Jessica: “Far be it from be to drop names but ONE call to the Governor of this state…”
Sheriff: “Ms. Fletcher.
Since you put it SO nicely, we’ll just go take a look.”
Damn right.
Sheriff: “Just so we understand each other Ms. Fletcher, I don’t care doodah about
the governor or anybody else.”
Doodah?
DOODAH?
Catchin’ killers all day long, all the doodah daaay…
Everyone heads into the cabin.
Ooo, free lightbulb!
Jess has an epiphany and begins setting up a lamp that was knocked over, much to the
Sheriff’s dismay who doesn’t want anything touched.
Jess: “Sheriff, do you REALLY want to solve this crime or was that just talk?”
Ooo, savage!
Jess: “Lieutenant…” ladies and gentlemen…
ELECTRICITY.
Turning on this lamp is supposed to prove that the lights were ON during the murder,
meaning that the bullet WAS intended for him Gary and NOT Kale, since the killer could
see but...really?
In the murder scene we can clearly see a lightbulb was in the lamp, broken during the kerfuffle,
but we can’t actually prove that that it was turned on or plugged in.
I suppose if the lamp turns on immediately after plugging it in, it means the switch
was flipped and maybe the plug got knocked out of the wall, but it really feels like
a loose deduction.
It makes sense I guess, I just feel like there’s a chance it could have been unplugged already.
Suddenly, Kale passes out.
Wow, that is one powerful light bulb.
Turns out Kale had been poisoned, so he’ll be recovering for a bit.
In the meantime, a new piece of evidence is presented - a phone number that was found
next to Gary’s body.
They call it, and it’s Cynthia Tate’s.
She has NO idea why he could have had her number, as they didn’t know each other.
Hot damn this episode is full of dead ends.
It isn’t until the last five minutes of the episode where we actually learn something
useful; Gary’s prison cellmate, Joe Cabrini, used to work for the lodge, and witnessed
the cold case.
So the idea is: He told Gary about the situation, and Gary planned to blackmail one of the suspects
staying at the lodge.
Or...something like that.
This is getting a little convoluted.
Jess seems to have it all figured out.
Everyone meets in the lodge to talk it out and holy shit, COOL LAMP.
...Anyway, people start taking potshots at each other.
Seth asks Dr. Mayhew where he was during the murder, and he is all like well where were
YOU?
Mayhew: “Wandering around the backwoods somewhere?
Who’s your alibi, Bambi?”
Hey, leave Bambi out of this, he’s had a rough life.
This is kind of where everything explodes - Jess figures the entire case out with 3
minutes left in the episode.
She figures out the phone number was planted because it was written on one of the lodges
notepads.
Cynthia had mentioned earlier that she moved and got a new phone number, still unlisted.
The only person who could have had her number in the first place is….LIEUTENANT KALE.
He’s the person who CALLED her up to the cabin in the first place.
Kale: “Yeah… that WAS a mistake, wasn’t it…”
YA THINK?
He also faked both injuries as a diversion.
Yes, he poisoned himself.
It turns out that he was a corrupt cop; the victim that drowned ten years ago, a colleague
of Kale’s, found out he was doing unethical things and threatened to expose him.
So he killed him.
Then he announced he was going to find the killer, but Gary Roberts already knew it was
him and planned to blackmail him, but Kale also killed him, and he’s like…
“Yeah.
I did it.
So there.
Right, final thoughts.
This is an oddly serious episode of Murder, She Wrote.
Seth especially is not his more humorous self, and there’s really no cheesiness to be had
overall.
The acting is surprisingly good, but it was still somewhat complicated to follow due to
how many characters were involved, everyone’s motives, and the timeline of events.
I was happy to see a cold case scenario, but that case took the backseat for the new murder,
and the solution came about so abruptly, then ENDED just as abruptly, that I was like...huh?
Who?
What?
Joe Cabrini?
Kale?
I can’t say I’m not impressed that Murder, She Wrote took on a more complex story line
- it CERTAINLY took a weird turn that I didn’t see coming, but the only reason I didn’t
see it coming is because I didn’t have all the information I needed to figure this out
until the last part of the episode.
Literally within the last 5-7 minutes.
I can see why the person who suggested this one to me was frustrated, especially with
that sudden ending.
After Kale confesses he crosses his arms and is all like HRMPH, then it freeze frames and
we get credits.
Really?
Do we have to end on this asshole’s smug face?
Let’s end on Jessica’s lovely face instead.
*ding!* There we go.
I would say if you like more intricately written mysteries, then you might like this episode.
Just know it’s missing some of the usual campiness you’re used to seeing in Murder,
She Wrote.
At the very least, you get to see some awesome guest stars, AND Seth Hazlitt with a five
o clock shadow that looks like it could be soot.
If there’s an episode of Murder, She Wrote you are just DYING to see me cover, please
leave a comment!
As you can see I am very open to suggestions.
Until then, happy sleuthing!
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