Hey everyone, PushingUpRoses here and welcome back to another gripping episode of That Time
on Murder, She Wrote. Today’s episode is brought to you by the hellscape that is
Twitter - a lovely viewer came to me and recommended Fatal Paradise, and aw yeah,
we’ve got a season eleven episode, let’s go! I say that because the later the seasons,
the more bonkers Murder, She Wrote gets. I must warn you, this is a Frankenstein episode. And by
that I mean Frankenstein’s monster, and by that I mean this story consists of 5
or 6 plots all haphazardly stitched together to create one giant abomination. It has more
twists and turns than Justin Timberlake’s ramen noodle hair from the late 90s.
I do love a complicated story, so let’s get right into Fatal Paradise. We begin our story
in my kind of town, Chicago! Look at that skyline, there’s the vagina building.bI cannot wait to hear
these accents. Charlie: “Look pal, in exactly 45 minutes there’s a plane that goes to Chigawgo.”
A man named Phil is currently being broken up with via tape recorder;
and you thought being sent a text was bad. “I hope you find it in your heart to” to… to what? Find
it in your heart to what?? Needless to say, Phil is not happy about this.
He calls someone and asks for a bird dog that won’t ask too many questions.
With the fastest zoom ever, we transition from Chicago to Martinique, where the wonderful JB
Fletcher is on holiday. At this point in the show Jess is a very well known
writer and despite wanting some down time, she is still being accosted by fans - like
Melanie Veneble who wants to know if her son has any skill in writing. Veneble,
is that a name or an adjective? Jess’s friend interrupts, and how is it that they ALL have
the same hairstyle? This era is certainly something for fashion, or should I say HERA???
We learn that this is the owner of the hotel, Lauren,
and that her husband Maurice has a gambling problem. Her son Jeff does maintenance around
the hotel and could double as an emo character from a John Hughs’ film. I
respect that about MSW, it gives us years worth of exposition in about 2 minutes.
Staying at the hotel is our Bird Dog, Charlie. He’s also from “Chicagawgo.” Phil here,
who has this amazing bisexual sphere doodad in his office, has sent Gerry to find his wife Dorrie,
who’s hair is so white it looks green. Gotta love those mall glamor shots.
Now we’re in DC for some reason where a woman is getting a very important call on
her VERY old cell phone. Phil tells her to go to Martinique. I love that we’re
only about 5 minutes in but have been in 3 different locations already, how thrilling.
Back in Martinique we witness a tense poker game.
Though you wouldn’t know it by the upbeat music, feels like we’re in a Mario game.
Maurice here is out of money and needs to make a bet. Here we go… little stick figure for the pot…
Unfortunately he loses his money to Graham Ferrow, the guy who is alledgy running away with Phil
Sparling’s wife. You getting all this? We’re still only 7 minutes in, folks so try to stay with me.
Who DEBBIE HARRY?? This is Dorie; we get a brief scene of her and Lauren being extremely catty to
one another. Dorie: “I threaten you, cause I actually left my husband instead of just
thinking about it.” Murder She Wrote walked so Mean Girls could fly. …why
is Jess here exactly? She seems SO uncomfortable.
Maurice stops by and casually mentions he lost half the hotel in the poker game. Lauren:
“Maurice no.” Hahaha, girl your husband just LOST half of your hotel and this is your
reaction? Maurice no. If it were me I’d be like “MAURICE WHAT THE FUCK, HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?”
This means that he is now business partners with Graham, and everyone is just thrilled.
You know what I think this episode needs? Another character! The DC woman from earlier shows up at
the hotel looking like my 4th grade reading teacher and has caught the eye of Hilton,
no relation to the hotel. His mom comes up to reign him in because as you all know a boy’s
best friend is his mother. (yoink) As Jessica is having dinner, she hears a familiar voice - it’s
her old friend Charlie Garrett, who has been in a handful of MSW episodes so this connection does
make sense. I am so used to Jessica knowing completely random characters that you see one
time and never again so I am glad we have some consistency with this relationship.
Charlie is interrupted by some sea captain who questions his visit to Martinique, and Jessica
also knows him?? Why does she know EVERYONE? Jessica: “room 208, Charlie.” Ooo, booty call.
Remember when salmon was an acceptable color to wear?
Jess: “Charlie I think the closest thing you’ve got to scuba diving is a McFish.” So I had to stop
the episode here because I was wondering if the Filet-O-Fish was ever called a McFish. It wasn’t,
but it IS called that in France, and Martinique is a region of France, so well done, Murder,
She Wrote! I am not sure why Jessica is calling it one as she is a tourist, but still! Also of note:
The McFish has ketchup on it instead of tartar sauce and that makes me want to die.
While catching up, Charlie tells Jess he is looking for Dorie Sparling,
he is under the impression she was kidnapped. Jessica says no, that she had seen her earlier
and she appeared fine. Charlie goes through all these silly scenarios about what Dorie
might be putting on an act. Jess: “Charlie, is it possible that” you don’t know anything?
Later that night, on a ship Dorie and Graham are staying on,
she pokes through some towels, as ya do. She finds a trap door, and wow,
look at all those levers! I wonder what kind of adventure game puzzle this will turn out to be.
Well heading to the hotel the next day, Dorie runs smack dab into Charlie. (jab)
He introduces himself and sparks start flying.
As Jess and Lauren are talking about their Cabot Cove days, we get a special appearance
from Jorts! No, not the cat, actual jorts with the stringies hanging off
of them and everything. I myself had an amazing selection of jorts when I was in my teens.
Dorie and Charlie connect on their little lunch date, they just have so much in common.
“White Sox, Onion rings” They both like sports and fried food, amazing, so unique.
Hilton keeps making passes at Norma, the lady from DC who is actually
posing as a school teacher. I mean, obviously. Circle glasses = teacher.
Because Jess is so sweet, she took a look at Hilton’s writing and gave him some notes and
words of encouragement. His mother steals him away and tries to sway him away from being a writer and
tells him to stay away from Norma. “Hilton, don’t argue.” And later he wears her hair as a wig.
Charlie gushes to Jessica about Dorie and insists she is trapped in a weird situation. Are they on
their way to dig up Dinosaurs, it looks like they are on the set of Jurassic Park. He sees
her leaving with Graham and his bodyguard, who threatens him and tells him to stay away from
Dorie. (punch) Hah, Jessica’s reaction, I have never seen such a blatant look of surprise. I
also want to point out that I love this sign that looks like it’s a graphic design is my
passion meme, it looks like someone just slapped some red paint on this arch and called it a day.
Later that night in a scene that looks way to much like the Room,
Dorie calls Charlie and asks if Phil Sparling sent him to get back all the
money Graham stole and he’s like Yeeeeah sure, that’s definitely why I’m here…”
She doesn’t want to go back to her husband OR Graham so she asks for
Charlie's help. He sneaks onto the boat she is staying at to rescue her,
while Jessica distracts Graham. Jess: “So when you are steering into the wind,
it’s jibing.” Graham: “No, that's called tacking.” Okay but when do we start vibing.
Honestly, I love a “distracting Jessica” moment. She is the queen of this tactic,
she is so charming even when she is wasting people’s time.
Sooooooooo this woman’s dead. As Charles and Dorie are pulling up to some dock away from the hotel,
she is shot, and Charlie is heartbroken because now he will never get laid. Oh
hey money. He and Jess are brought into the station for questioning the next day,
Charlie being the number 1 suspect as his pistol was found at the crime scene when he
tried to shoot at the murderer. Jess asks if they had found the bullet that killed Dorie.
Captain: “Unfortunately it has passed through the victim and is lost in the
sands of the inlet.” Aw how poeting, tell me more about the sifting sands.
While during some maintenance we run into Maurice and Jeff. Jeff:
“Can we talk?” Maurice: “Maybe later.” And the cats in the cradle and the silver spoon…
Jess finds out that the Hotel is in trouble because Graham isn’t going to
put up any money to fix it, even though he won half of it in that poker game.
Time for some good old classic JB Fletcher SNOOPING; her and Lauren look for the bullet
while Jessica says a few things about Charlie. JEss: “He’s got a code which
consists of looking out for #1.” and secretly #2.
Luckily, Jess finds the evidence she was looking for: The furious ascent of this
projectile finds its resting place here, amongst the birch’s bark, never thinking it should
be unearthed in such ignominious a fashion to serve as witness to such foul misdeeds.
See Captain, I can be poetic about bullets too.
Graham ends up talking to Sparling,
blaming him for the death of his new gal. Sparling says he wants his money back,
and hired someone to take out Dorie to send a message. Unfortunately the money is now missing.
Jess: “Yes, that is what I am looking for.” A large pizza.” Dave, I have to go.” Oh,
secret #2? Jess follows the comical punching sound effects and finds him being beat up by
Graham’s henchman. Jess: “Good Heavens, stop that.” I love how annoyed she sounds at this
situation, STAHP THAT.”
Jess tells Charlie she talked to someone named Dave Kowlaski from the Chicago sun times,
and wow can we GET more Chicagoan? DAVE KOWALSKI, I feel like I’m watching a Superfans sketch.
Apparently this whole situation was written about in the paper, Sparling was in financial
debt after Dorie and Graham wiped his bank accounts. Jess KNOWS Charlie hid the money
at this point and asks how much is at stake. Charlie: “Six million bucks.” (tim allen groan?)
Charlie tries to show Jess where he hid it, but it’s gone! Awww,
but wait, look what we have here, a shoe print!
Well well well, turns out this woman isn’t a school teacher after all,
she is the hitwoman sparling hired to take our Dorie, and she has taken the money for herself.
As she is trying to leave, they are confronted by Jess and Charlie; Jess says she recognized
her shoe print and- (record scratch) I am sorry WHAT? HOW did Jessica know this was her shoe
print? HOW? They’ve never had a single scene together, what in the heck is going on!? Or is
this pattern the calling card of the assassin? Okay - after another viewing I found the scene
where Jessica meets this character. It’s about a 30 second scene and Norma is wearing her shoes
around her neck. You can barely see them, so I still don’t buy that Jessica committed that
pattern to memory. Charlie is now figuring out that he was hired to find Dorie so the assassin
could eliminate her, poor guy. And they had so much in common, too. “White sox, onion rings.”
There is a twist though - though she was hired to kill Dorie, this woman is NOT the
killer. She claims she followed Charlie and Dorie and saw someone else shoot,
and also saw the opportunity to steal the money Charlie hid nearby. Dude,
can this wait? “Excuse me, I must water my plants, zey are like ze living jewels of the soil.”
While the Captain is playing with his water can, which is not innuendo,
Jessica has her epiphany. Jess: “I believe I know who killed Mrs. Sparling.
Jess meets with Lauren and Maurice to talk about how hard Charlie took Dorie’s death,
so hard that he went off to be alone for the night.
This lures the actual killer into Charlie's room to search for the money that is still
missing to the public. It’s this guy, Maurice! The maintenance man with the gambling problem
who we see for maybe 3 minutes total! So how did Jess figure this out? Well,
she noticed he could listen in on people’s phone calls, and since he is the maintenance guy,
he could have easily overheard Dorie and Charlie discuss their plans to escape with the money.
Jess also says this wasn’t the first time he had searched Charlie's room - earlier she
noticed him come out of his room claiming it needed maintenance on the shower,
even though Jeff had already fixed it. Apparently seeing the captain try to
unclog his watercan reminded Jess that Maurice did this. Kiiiind of
a stretch but who I am to question the methods of the brilliant JB Fletcher.
Jess also says she found his lighter on the shore and that places him at the crime
scene. Maurice says that he had gotten word that Charlie was a PI from Chicago,
and wanted to get back at Graham who was also from Chicago - he assumed they were
connected and listened in on all of the phone calls. So he shot Dorie to
get back at Graham for taking the hotel, then tried to find the money afterwards.
The best thing about this ending is that he didn’t actually lose his lighter,
Jess bought a new one and said she found it there on the chance she was right about him. Daaaaaaamn.
Charlie takes a moment to be sad before taking off. “I guess I should put a lid on that
stuff huh?” Wow he sounds so cavalier for just witnessing the murder of someone he bonded with.
Then Jess is like, hey it’s not too late, let’s go Scuba Diving and that’s the end. (The End)
Okay, final thoughts. Well that was certainly a whirlwind of an episode - I must say the first
time I watched it, I was in a perpetual state of confusion because so many things happen so fast,
and there are a lot of characters and red herrings. My second viewing was much better;
I connected the dots and enjoyed the attempt at a noir style murder mystery,
and every time someone pronounced Chicago. “Chicawgo.” This was definitely a classic
tale of downtrodden PI starts to fall for the femme fatale. Money and assassins are involved,
and don’t forget about all that sexy sax.
Murder, She Wrote is more of a cozy style mystery but that being said, the noir format worked for
this episode… for the most part. I do think there were way too many characters here; I understand
that there need to be diversions, something to challenge the viewer, but what purpose did Hilton
and his mom play? Or the relationship between Jess and the receptionist, which I didn’t even
mention because it’s so much nothing, yet the writers definitely put some emphasis on it.
I do enjoy when I see a recurring character on Murder, She Wrote, and in the nicest way possible,
Charlie is not my favorite. I definitely have a softer spot in my heart for Harry McGraw,
another PI that Jess befriended, and I am not the biggest fan of this setting
either but I definitely know that there can only be so many murders in Cabot Cove,
the show absolutely needed to expand and have Jess travel more as she became more well known,
otherwise the show would be even more unbelievable than it already is, but this just wasn’t one of
my favorites. Jess didn’t shine, the setting didn’t shine, and there wasn’t enough Chicago
so I will now hold a grudge. That all being said, I still enjoyed it for its absurdity,
in fact I think a lot of people might like this one because it has a more serious story,
versus some of the cheese that came out of the later seasons. If you’ve seen this one
let me know what you think, and if there is an episode of Murder, She Wrote you are DYING
to see me cover, please leave a suggestion in the comments. Until next time, happy sleuthing.
Hey everyone, thanks again for watching this episode of That Time on Murder, She Wrote:
Fatal Paradise. I hope you enjoyed my snark and insights about the McFish. If you want to see
more from me I have plenty on offer, but first I would like to thank my wonderful patrons for
sponsoring this channel because if not for them, I wouldn’t be ordering a Filet o fish
right at this moment. If you wanna support me and my videos, consider donating a few bucks,
and if not, likes, comments, and shares are completely free and they make me blush.
If you want to see more from me, I have a few suggestions up on the screen. On the right
is the last episode of That Time on Murder She Wrote, where we get Spooky and Witchy,
and on the left is my holiday special on a xmas/horror movie called Angel of
Christmas. Oh hallmark, you silly. Thanks again and I will see you in the next one.