I want you all to look at this dog.
Pretty cute, huh?
His name is Teddy and he is a beagle, a small hound with an impressive loyalty to humans
and large capacity to love.
But what if I were to tell you that this dog is also capable of MURDER?
Yeah, you’re intrigued now aren’t ya?
Today I’m talking about “It’s A Dog’s Life”, episode 6 from season 1 of Murder,
She Wrote.
I’m excited to talk about this one because it has a very classic, Agatha Christie-eque
story line, complete with a variety of characters, a DOUBLE murder, and family conflicts about
an old man’s will.
It heavily reminds me of The Colonel’s Bequest, in which a group of bitter and selfish relatives
become obsessed with inheriting a dying man’s will, because of course I have to relate everything
back to a weird adventure game from the 1980s.
As we begin this mystery, the audience is greeted to an ominous scene taking place at
a horse stable - because what better what to start an episode called “It’s A Dog’s
Life” than with some horses.
We then see someone with some serious galoshes feeding a strange looking pill to one them.
Meanwhile, there’s a wild equestrian party goin’ on.
Let’s cut right to the chase and learn more about this family; We have Trish - a so called
wild woman who enjoys irresponsible drinking and flirtation, her brother Spencer, who’s
basically just a dick for no reason, and Echo, Trish’s musically inclined niece.
For unknown reasons, this family loathes each other.
Trish: My little niece here’s into electronic music.
Tweeters, woofers, heavy metal; still sounds like cats in heat.”
Echo: “And so do you aunt Trish.”
Oo Girl.
We also have Morgana, another relative who denounces psychiatry in placement of crystals
and astrology.
Morgana: “My astro projectionist puts all these phony psychiatrists to shame.”
Right, so far so good.
While everyone else is bickering, Jessica seems to be having a conversation about horses
with one Denton Langley, the Patriarch of the family.
What other good natured things are they talking about?”
Denton: Look at those withers!
Not that I spend a lot of time eyeing horses…”
Oh no.
As the the Fox Hunt breakfast goes on we’re introduced to a few more characters, but the
most important one is Abby, the estate’s animal trainer, Denton’s love interest and
Jessica’s cousin.
It should be noted that Jessica has a long list of family members that I cannot keep
up with so I’m just taking the episode’s word for it.
We also meet Teddy, the dog.
He’s a good boy.
The next day, everyone is prepping for the hunt.
Geezus, the episode REALLY wants us to know that Trish drinks a lot.
As everyone mounts their horses and prepares to blind themselves ethically to the horrific
custom of hunting foxes, we get a very specific scene where our attention is drawn to a large,
iron gate.
It’s either foreshadowing or pandering to all of you gate enthusiasts out there.
Everyone gets started, including the entire Langley family, but not long after they get
on the trail, Denton’s horse freaks out and starts running away wildly.
This man is most definitely not riding that horse and he’s also not doing a good job
of faking it.
As the horse approaches a rather large jump over a bench, Denton is not able to tame him
and it attempts the leap.
Hey, that’s a pretty good jump.
Oh no.
At least his last words were… tally… ho.
Denton: “Tally hoooooooooo!!!!”
Hm.
The detective in this episode is played by Roger Miller, a country singer songwriter
who you may remember as the rooster in Disney’s Robin Hood - huh.
Robin Hood is a fox in that version.
And Denton Langley died hunting foxes.
And Roger MILLER plays the detective on the case.
I’m... trying to stretch this into some kind weird connection and I’m not sure if
it’s working but in my head this is definitely by design.
Jessica believes that Denton did not intend to take that jump and that perhaps someone
messed with his horse.
She convinces the detective to look into it, though the tests on the horse come back negative.
Jessica: “I was so certain there was something wrong with that horse, I feel so foolish.
But tests don’t lie.”
Abby: “Don’t they?”
Abby isn’t convinced and tells Jessica that Denton’s relatives are all horrible people
who most likely plotted to murder him to get his money.
Soon after, Denton’s attorney shows up for the will reading, though he doesn’t have
to do much because Denton was nice enough to leave it in video form.
Turns out that Denton was a bit of a dick.
Denton: “Hellooooooo Echoooo!
Is there something stirring under that unique haircut of yours?” after a verbally slaying
of each individual relative, he announces that his shotgun go to his best friend Tom,
the staff gets a cash gift, and the rest of the estate, all 15 million dollars worth,
goes to Teddy the Beagle!
As you can imagine, people are not happy.
Echo: “This is insane, Teddy’s a DOG.”
This is DEFINITELY how I want my will to be, seems totally legal.
Me: “Hello everyone, I hereby decree that all of my big box PC games and skull collection
goes to my needlessly aggressive conure, Needles.”
(Audience boos) If the dog dies of anything besides natural causes, the money goes to
the SPCA.
Which is nice but maybe if you wanted to be a good person you should’ve donated straight
to them instead of your dog.
“Sir, are you sure you don’t want to just contribute your money to charity?”
“NOPE GIVE IT ALL TO TEDDY MUAHAHAHAHA.
ALSO FUCK FOXES AMIRITE?”
Denton: “TALLY HOOOOOOOO.”
The family immediately places blame on Abigail for Denton’s possible murder.
Morgana warns her about Trish and kind of goes into some strange Log Lady speak.
Morgana: “And last night, three owls were seen in a black oak tree…”
Before she can continue her speil on the zodiac, a kerfuffle is heard in the barn.
Teddy is show being uncharacteristically aggressive towards Spencer.
He insists that the dog be put down, but after a vet does a test on him it’s determined
he was given drugs to cause erratic behavior.
That’s right.
Teddy was framed.
On top of that, some weirdo neighbor busts onto the scene and accuses Teddy of biting
him and tries to SUE.
Even though that basically goes nowhere and Teddy is released from the sheriff's office
the next day, Jess and Abigail visit the attorney for some reassurance about the security of
the will.
Boswell: “Well a good will can stand up to famine, fire, pestilence…” was this
will blessed or something?
Geezus.
Regardless of the magical ability of this will, the family is attempting to challenge
it and find loopholes, including accusing Teddy of being mentally incompetent.
That evening, as the security guard is on duty, Teddy comes in for a visit.
As they are watching the monitors, Trish’s car pulls up, and she stumbles out to hit
the buzzer.
The guard makes a quip that she is intoxicated, and as the gate opens she collapses in the
middle of it.
Wow, there’s foreshadowing and then there’s predicting what will happen in about 5 seconds.
The guard goes out to help her, and as he does the gate starts to close.
The guard can’t reach her in time, and it crushes her neck - this is actually one of
the more gruesome deaths in the series, it kind of gives me the heebie jeebies.
It’s no porcupine death but it’s up there.
Of course Teddy is the only one who could have closed the gate, and after taking fingerprints,
it turns out that the gate’s button does in fact have a paw print on it.
Everyone takes a moment to go bonkers.
Trish: “OH MY GOD THERE GOES THE WILL.”
Boswell: “OVER MY DEAD BODY IT DOES.”
Morgana says she saw Trish’s spirit rise from her body and then casually mentions that
her aura thrives on the moonlight.
As everyone starts fussing about what will happen to the will, including the family’s
attorney and the sheriff, jessica decides to get the hell out of that mess and examine
the crime scene, as ya do.
On the way she runs into Tom.
Tom: “How’s the family taking it?”
Jess: About what you’d expect I’m afraid.”
Me: Like a bunch of tools.
You know what I love about Murder, She Wrote?
Every time there is a horrific Murder, Jessica always handles it SO well.
Here she is helping pick up evidence with one of the cops on the case and they’re
being all light-hearted and smiley, it’s so bizarre and wonderful, I love it.
Jessica, being the brilliant lady she is, discovers Trish’s coat is split down the
seams, despite it being new.
After sweet talking Will, the cop, she convinces him to let her poke around the gate.
Let’s see, if I just put my neck here…”
The next day, while Jessica and Abby share some tea, Marcus Boswell, the family’s attorney,
stops by to join them.
Jessica notices a weird stain on his pants.
Jessica: “You have a nasty grease make on your trousers.”
Boswell: “Well now, isn’t that wonderful.”
Don’t worry, it’s just poop.
He explains that he had a flat tire not far from the house and got a grease stain when
he stopped to fix it, but Jessica is suspiciously immediately and starts questioning him further.
They come to the conclusion that the killer must be in the house, and Jess posits that
someone could have trained Teddy to push the button using a whistle.
It’s a solid theory, unfortunately the whistle they found on the scene belongs to Abby, once
again making her the main suspect.
She AND Teddy get tossed in the slammer.
It’s a dog-eat-dog world, sweetheart.
Jess, of course, won’t stand for this; she begins to piece together what happened, and
starts searching the road that Boswell claimed to get a flat on; sweet hearted Will, the
cop she befriended earlier, stops by to help.
She tells him to keep an eye out for a bicycle clip.
Will: “Bicycle clip?”
Jessica: “Don’t worry Will, you’ll know it when you see it.
I...don’t think he will.
Jessica stops by that weirdo neighbor’s house and spots the fake bandage he used when
he accused Teddy of biting him and...this is honestly the BEST part of this episode.
Jess just runs up, yoinks it, then runs away.
I was laughing SO hard at this scene, it’s brilliant.
Go Jessica, go!
A weird confrontation happens and whatever who cares this neighbor sucks anyway, let’s
go straight to the court scene.
Jess starts the inquest as amicus curiae - which means friend of the court.
She proves that Abby’s whistle couldn’t have been the one used to Train Teddy because
it couldn’t be heard over the intercom.
She then HARD on this case, saying that Boswell needed money to pay off some major debt, so
he convinced Trish to kill her father, promising that there was something in the will for her
since he was the one who had access to it.
When she found out there was nothing for her, she got mad, made threats, so Boswell murdered
her as well.
This explains why Trish’s neck was so perfectly positioned between the gates, she was placed
there.
Jessica also found his bike clip, which he used to get to the estate, and also how he
got the patterned grease stain on his trousers.
Jessica: “The mark I saw on your cuff the night of the murder.”
Boswell: “I TOLD YOU…”
IT WAS POOP.
The guard said he heard a night bird on the night of Trish’s death, a mockingbird.
Jess has will use bird call whistle that mimics one, and behold!
(Bird chirping) Awwww, what a good boy!
Who’s a good boy, YOU ARE.
Jess: “Why don’t you give him his treat, like you did when you trained him to help
you murder Trish.”
BOOM.
My god, I love this woman.
Everything is sorted out thanks to Jessica and everyone is happy.
Abby decides to move back to Kent because screw this ridiculous family and their moon
auras, and Teddy gets a job touring places as a millionaire canine.
Which… kind of seems unfair, if I had that much money I’d retire.
Anyway, awkward screencap! (musical sting)
Right, so final thoughts on this episode.
It was one of the first ones I can remember seeing and I think it’s pretty good.
I honestly didn’t remember the dramatic tally ho thing, which is admittedly really
corny and weird, but it does have one of the most squeamish murders, and this episode is
well thought out in terms of presenting the evidence and allowing the audience to piece
things together too; it’s not as obscure as other later episodes where the solution
is only revealed by a piece of evidence found last minute; I could surmise that Boswell
was the murderer about halfway through because the clues are presented so well throughout
the episode.
The court presentation was good, Jessica kicks ass, and I loved to hate the money hungry
family members.
The best part about this episode is Teddy, the Beagle.
Because of this, I give it a 10/10, 5 stars, and 98% fresh rating.
Denton: TALLY HOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Hey everyone, thanks for watching my Murder, She Wrote video; if you can’t get enough,
I’ve linked a couple episodes on the screen.
If you want to talk about Beagles, hit me up on social media, and if you wanna show
some support, like and share this video or just give me some money.
Yeah.
As always, see you guys in the next one!