Hey everyone, PushingUpRoses here and welcome back to another gripping episode of That Time,
On Murder, She Wrote.
Today, we’re looking at an episode from season 2 called Menace, Anyone?
You see, the story is about tennis, so instead of Tennis, Anyone, it’s called MENACE, cause
you see instead of TENNIS anyone, it’s MENACE…
DO YOU GET IT?
It was brought to my attention after someone tweeted out this wholesome screen shot of
Linda Hamilton and a baby-faced Bryan Cranston from the episode, as they are two of the main
characters.
I’ve watched every episode of Murder, She Wrote, some a few times over, but the picture
wasn’t ringing any bells for me, so I felt compelled to rewatch it.
Everything then came FLOODING back; this episode is… a lot.
And I know what you’re thinking.
“But Roses you say that about EVERY episode jhgdkjhsljdg” Yes, I know.
I hook my audience with hyperbolic descriptions of this old ass television show, I want people
to watch my videos.
But you’re going to have to believe me when I say that I have NEVER had such a reaction
to an episode, particularly the ending.
These were my notes.
This is how my notes concluded.
I had no other words.
So strap in, we’re going to dive into one of the most off-the-rails episodes of Murder,
She Wrote I’ve ever seen, and we’re gonna talk about how the structure strayed so far
from the show’s original format that it ended up massively failing to have a cohesive
revolution.
As we begin the episode, we see a tennis tournament in progress.
And why, look!
Our lovely protagonist is hosting it as the JB Fletcher All-Star Tennis Tournament as
a charity event - the proceeds go to a children’s fund.
Van Johnson and Linda Hamilton square off in some of the weakest volleys I’ve ever
seen, and Bryan Cranston watches from the sidelines.
Aaaand she’s down.
Awww, I just love watching my girlfriend fall on her bum, god I love her!
Hamilton plays a Tennis star named Carol McDermott, and Johnson plays Elliot Robinson, head of
the Tennis Club.
Jess so happens to be friends with Carol, because as we all know, she just so happens
to be friends with every single person.
“I can’t believe I fell on my fanny in front of all those people!”
That’s English for Vagina you know!
Carol is greeted by her boyfriend, Brian East.
Yes, Bryan is playing Brian.
Brian: “What have you ladies got planned?”
Wanna make some meth?
There, there is your obligatory Breaking Bad reference, I hope you’re happy.
Weird Al: “CAUSE I SURE WANT YOU TO BE HAPPY.”
Meanwhile, another well known Tennis star named Sissy is demanding more money.
Carol calls her out for her money grubbing attitude and shots are fired.
Sissy: “I almost mistook you for a tennis player.
And then you started to play.”
Well I almost took your head as a cotton ball.
Oooo, nice lamp!!
...Anyway.
Elliot and his daughter Doris, whose actress you may recognize from the Saw series, tell
Carol not to worry about the extra expenses, and Doris expresses concern about Carol being
trouble for the club.
See, she once dated Brian and is also gunning for Carol’s job.
It wouldn’t be a tennis episode without a reference to John McEnroe - in the 80s he
was a tennis player known for his outbursts on the court.
This player, named Donnie continually berates the umpire, saying his call was unfair, and
Carol goes out on the court to give him an attitude check.
Donnie’s manager yells at her, saying the fans want him to go ballistic on the court.
Mitch:“What are you trying to do, make a monkey out of my top client in front of his
fans?”
You don’t need any help from me, sir.
Jess stands up for Carol, and he also yells at her.
“You I could do without altogether.”
She’s literally the guest of honor you ding-dong.
Later that night, a party! (horrible music).
Wow, this is the worst band I’ve ever seen.
What kind of music do they THINK they’re playin?
They look like their rockin’, but no one’s a knockin’.
Meanwhile, Jess admires a photo of Elliot, his wife and daughter, and in the background
she clocks Carol and her sister Barbra, who also used to be a tennis player.
Who took this photo, the composition is horrible.
Sissy walks in wearing… this.
Not everything about the 80s was great.
Meanwhile Jess is busy being a fashion ICON.
Sissy quits because she doesn’t like Carol.
You dressed up like this only to leave?
Fine, now sissy that walk.
Elliot is upset and asks to see Sissy’s agreement.
Brain goes to pick up the files, but needs to use Carol’s car because it’s blocking
his.
Sooooooo… this guy is dead.
(explosion) BRYAN CRANSTON Oh NOOOOO.
That is NOT who I wanted to die.
I’ve seen a lot of characters get off’d throughout this series but this was by far
one of the most upsetting.
A detective is assigned the case, and in a complete contrast to the previous detectives
Jess has had to work with, he is thrilled to meet her, went to her seminars on murder
mystery in fiction, and even asks for advice.
How nice.
Detective: “So tell me, what was I doing wrong in there?”
They discuss the fact that Carol was obviously the intended victim as no one could have known
Brian would borrow her car, then Detective Travis continues his interrogation.
Carol is visibly distressed by what happened.
Because Jess is so sweet, she offers to stay with her the night, then says she will call
her sister, Barbra, to see if she can stay the rest of the week.
Carol has a visceral reaction to this, and says it’s not possible.
The press hounds a few of the players the next day, and Elliot offers some thoughts
and prayers and dedicates the rest of the games to Brian.
Elliot: “And we can only serve his memory by paying the homage he deserves.”
Heh, serve.
I get it.
Why does this guy have a picture of himself behind him?
Jess asks Elliot about Barbra, and he says that she had died years ago in a plane crash,
contradictory to what Carol said about her sister being back.
Okay, so she’s dead.
Got it.
Elliot tells Jess the last time anyone saw Barbra alive was three years ago, when that
horribly composed photo was taken.
Jess tries to confront Carol, and she tells her that Elliot is mistaken.
She hadn’t died, she had seen her just a few days ago.
Okay, so… she’s NOT dead, gotcha.
The episode is now starting to plant lil seeds, making the viewer question Carol’s mental
stability.
Jess confirms there was a plane crash, and her ID had been recovered; she also finds
her grave, but it is unmarked.
The men she inquires about the crash seem pretty certain that there could not have been
an error, and that the grave and ID prove it.
Okay so… she IS dead.
Gotcha.
Now, here’s where this episode truly, truly jumps the shark.
I’ve not seen anything like this in a Murder, She Wrote episode.
Detective Travis visits Carol’s home, perhaps for some more interrogation, and in a scene
I was not expecting, HE is murdered.
I was absolutely shocked by this; I’ve never seen the detective character Jess works alongside
get murdered by the killer - it certainly brought a new tone to this episode, that’s
for sure.
Jess checks on the body - Oh no, he’s medium well.
She also finds Carol shaking in a corner; when Jess asks who killed Travis, she says
it was Barbra, her sister.
Okay so she’s not dead.
….What the fuck.
Travis’s partner is beside himself, furious that this could have happened.
He speculates that he had to have gone to Carol’s house for SOME reason.
He also blames Carol, accusing her of the murder then pretending to appear unstable
so she could get away with the murder, which is honestly ludacris but this is the detective
work I’ve come to expect from this show.
Don’t worry, Jess will fix it.
Jess looks for Elliot but finds his daughter in his chair.
She was wrapping up some business with Donnie’s agent.
“See you later doll baby.”
Doll baby?
Okay Man Muffin.
Jess asks Doris if she knew anything about Barbra, and she says she’s never met her,
but she heard her once having an argument with Carol at her house.
Doris goes on to say that she peeked into the kitchen where it was happening, and she
saw a red head smashing things, but she didn’t see Carol there.
Jess says she has a good memory to remember something that happened three years ago, before
her alleged death, and she says this happened only two months ago.
Once again leading the viewer and Jessica to think that this is some kind of Psycho
situation, where Barbra is dead, and Carol is just pretending to be here.
It’s super weird and mildly uncomfortable.
The episode pushes this narrative even further when Jess asks Elliot for more information
on Barbra - he says she was a mentally unstable woman and spent a lot of time at a psychiatric
facility.
Jess visits the place for more information and she is told by a patient that there was
never a Barbara Mcdermott admitted, just a Carol McDermitt.
She knows because she just gave this piece of information to a detective that stopped
by the day before - Lietentient Travis.
Now the episode is really pushing this psycho inspired story - Carol was admitted, her sister
is dead, she is having hallucinations and delusions and killing people as her sister,
Barbra.
Jess goes to tell Detective Berger that she knows where Travis went last night, and before
she can say much else, she is introduced to someone.
“I’m Barbra McDermott, Carol’s sister.”
Oh my god, okay.
So… for real this time… she’s not dead.
GOT IT.
Lemme lay this absurdity out with you real quick - Barbra was a drug addict and she became
estranged from Carol and her family.
Carol kicked out of her the house, and Barbra took her car and headed as far away as she
could.
She picked up a hitchhiker about her age on the way, and that hitchhiker robbed Barbra,
took her wallet which included her ID, and ran.
That hitchhiker was the one who died on the plane, with Barbra’s ID.
Barbra figured this out and rolled with it because she figured it’d be better that
way.
WHAT?
WHY?
WHY IS THIS BETTER??
After Barbra started sobering up, she contacted Carol to make amends, even though everyone
thought she was dead.
This is SO weird - where can this POSSIBLY go?
Is Carol unstable?
Is she not?
Don’t worry, detective cranky has the answer.
“CASEBOOK SCHIZOPHRENIA.”
Okay, first of all, what??
Second of all, did you say CASEBOOK?
Did he mean TEXTBOOK?
They are interrupted by a call - Carol had previously been held under sedation at the
hospital, but she slipped out.
Everyone heads to her house, which is totally ransacked with.
“She’s finally snapped.”
Nobody is buying this, right?
This is all so clearly planted - and look at this busted ass wig!
No, Carol would not wear this wig.
This is sus.
The detective thinks Carol is dangerous, but Jess is determined to prove otherwise.
Jess confronts Elliot, and asks him why he removed a photograph from the trophy case,
something that happens off screen - the picture of him and his family, with Barbra and Carol
in the background.
She says that Doris had lied to her.
She clearly HAD met Barbra 3 years ago, even though she told Jess she had never even seen
her, just the back of her head, when her and Carol were in a fight.
Elliot knew his daughter lied about Carol and Barbra, she wanted Jess to believe Carol
was crazy, that she put the bomb in her own car, killed the detective, and was a threat
to everyone.
Elliot wanted to protect his stupid-ass daughter so he hid the photo, and helped her with her
“Carol is nuts” story.
He planted the wig, the dynamite, and also picked up Carol from the hospital.
Jess finds Carol passed out on pills.
Probably barbiturates.
Barbitols.
BARB-I-TOLS, GET IT?
BARBRACIDE- Elliot confesses to all of his daughter’s murders - the bomb, the murder
of the lietenient, her extreme hatred for Carol and at first, I am not buying it.
Where is Doris?
Why is someone ELSE confessing for her?
There must be at least 10 minutes left of this, right?
Surely ELLIOT is the real murder, Jess ALWAYS confronts the real murderer.
She checks on Carol, she’s doing better, and she wants to reconnect with her sister.
“I have a feeling you’ll be seeing each other for a long long time to come.”
...What?
WHAT?
WHAT WAS THAT???
Okay then, final thoughts.
This was not your typical Murder, She Wrote episode - it strayed so far from the show’s
paradigm that I was left super confused at the end.
The first thing that I talked about earlier was the murder of the detective, that never
happens.
I can’t think of another episode where this happens.
But okay, sure.
Maybe they wanna mix it up a bit - formulaic series can get tiring so you gotta expect
some change ups every now and then.
But this episode is a LOT - not only does the detective eat it, Jess is never shown
confronting the actual murderer.
The murderer, Doris, hardly showed up at all.
There IS a motive set up, and it’s not a flimsy one - it actually makes the most sense.
Brian used to date Doris, Carol came in and got Brian AND a high end job that Doris wanted.
That was established early in the episode, but after that Doris is not a key player.
I can’t believe she doesn’t even get cornered by Jess in the end, which is one of the most
satisfying things about murder mystery, and especially in this show.
Why am I not seeing the bad guy get their comeuppance?
And where in the world did Carol get those pills?
It’s not clear; at the end, she feels better, Jess reassures her, and nothing is explained.
I thought that Elliot was the murderer and was using his daughter as a shield, and tried
to murder Carol and stage it as a suicide attempt, but I guess not, I guess it’s all
fine.
I don’t mind a plot in the style of a thriller, but this entire “is Carol just bonkers”
thing is strangely uncomfortable.
I don’t know if it just hit too close to home for me, being someone who had her sanity
questioned, or if Linda Hamilton acted the shit out of this part SO HARD that I genuinely
felt tense.
It’s certainly one of the more creative stories with more twists and turns than Escher
painting, but on the other hand, it does just regurgitate plot points from other stories,
like aforementioned Hitchcock film Psycho, so I guess creative is a bit of a stretch;
there was an attempt made to make this episode more serious, heartbreaking, and more complex,
and then right as the episode got to the finish line it tripped splattered all over the ground.
The ending is so terse, it’s like the writers either ran out of time, or they just had no
idea where to take the script so they just kinda ended it.
That all being said, it was so confusing that I definitely got some enjoyment out of it.
It was entertaining, I’ll give it that.
I just wish there had been a little more thought given to the ending and the role of the murderer,
because the resolution really did feel shoehorned in.
Still worth it to see young Brian Cranston and Linda Hamilton, just be ready to be a
little frustrated.
If you have an episode of Murder, She Wrote you are DYING to see me cover, leave a suggestion
in the comments, and until then… happy sleuthing.
Hey everyone, thanks for watching me talk about this ridiculous episode of Murder, She
Wrote.
I have many more breakdowns like this one but first I want to thank my patrons for allowing
me to follow my dream of becoming the internets best Murder, She Wrote reviewer.
If you want to enable me, please consider donating to my campaign.
And if not… you know.
It’s cool.
We’re cool.
If you want to watch some other videos that are in the same vein as this one, I have a
couple suggestions on the screen.
On the left is the very first episode of Murder, She Wrote I covered and it’s one of my personal
favorites, and on the right is the previous episode I covered.
Thanks again and as always, I’ll see you in the next one.