Hey everyone, PushingUpRoses here and welcome to a very blood thirsty episode of That Time on Murder,
She Wrote. By popular request, I am covering The Legacy of Borbey house.
Yes, BORBEY, which I kept imagining is the alternate reality version of Barbie. I found
this episode particularly unique but instead of babbling on too much about it right now,
I’d like to just dive in and let my commentary speak for itself. Get ready…for vampires.
We begin our episode with two horny teenagers on a date at the cemetery.
The girl is a little apprehensive when she starts hearing creatures of the night sing the songs of
their people. Boy: “It's just an old hoot owl.” He assures her that everything is fine and nothing
is wrong. Boy: “Would I let anything happen to you.” I think we both know the answer to that.
They see a hand pop out of an open grave, and they run away before they have a chance to see
that it’s just SIGMUND FRUED COME BACK FROM THE DEAD AND READY TO TELL YOU ABOUT YOUR DREEEEAMS.
The next day at Jessica’s place, we see she has hired a handy man named
Charles to do some electrical work. He finds a note in his tool box from his
late fiance. Charles: “This is from Laurel, she used to do things like that.” Laurel,
or Yanni? Surely that joke isn’t dated and will land with everyone.
Much to Jessica’s annoyance, Charles is called away by another client named Lawrence Baker,
despite not being finished with his work. He laments taking the job on fixing the Borbey House,
an old mansion, and I am trying to listen but can’t help but be distracted by this pencil,
which isn’t so much behind his ear as much as it is being held by his hair.
As he’s leaving Seth stops by - Jess tells him both her electricity AND plumbing is
obsolete and it’s been one thing after another and he’s like, welp,
that’s life! Where’s the pie? Stay classy, Seth.
He goes on to tell her about one of the teens who got scared in the
cemetery. Jess: “What was she doin’ there?” I think we both know the answer to that.
Seth: “Kept rambling on about someone risin’ from the dead.” Jess: “Ahh,
I remember when my husband rose from the dead.”
Meanwhile, a woman named Molly, who works for a wallpaper business owned by her father, shows
up at the Borbey house to show Lawrence Baker some samples. Wow, what a great hidden object
setting. Hang on a second… why are there SO many ladders? I just counted five in this one room.
She begins to show him her book o’ rugs then notices the table.
Molly: “Oh I’m sorry, am I interrupting your dinner?” Baker: “Oh this is our dinner.” Okay,
but there’s just a rose and a bottle of wine.
Also, the butler just lurking in the doorway is creepy and has a particularly menacing look
about him. It’s like someone took Niles and Frasier and merged them into a freak.
Mr. Baker is smitten with Molly, and it seems to be reciprocated. She returns home late,
where her father is waiting for her. Molly: “Daddy,
aren’t you working awfully late? ” Dad: “Aren’t you?” Good one, Dad.
He’s mad at her for seeing Mr. Baker and neglecting her own boyfriend and promptly shames
her for staying at Borbey House so late. “It’s a good thing I don’t pay you by the hour.” He
then goes back to the angriest sanding ever.
Jessica and Seth head to the library, as you can see Seth has some books to return.
Meanwhile, Leon Trotsky lurks behind the books.
Jean: “What’s it going to be today, Jessica? Poison? Man eating snakes?”
Jessica: “No No, I’ve found enough ways to murder someone to last me for the next 8
books!” Ah yes, way to not sound like a serial killer, Jess.
So I want to pause here because I have an interesting tidbit to share - this is Madlyn Rhue,
an extremely prolific actress and friend of Angela Lansbury - Lansbury got word
that Rhue was in danger of losing her medical insurance through the Screen
Actor’s Guild because she wasn’t working often enough, so she created the role of
Jean the librarian so she could bring her back for two episodes every year.
Jessica and Seth run into Dr. Sorensen, an author who is researching the Borbey house
and its inhabitants, rumored to be vampires. Sorensen believes these tales, and Seth does not,
and thus they begin debating. Ah yes, two old white men arguing, my favorite. (Goat scream?)
We get a quick scene of Dave Perrin, the local mechanic and Charles’s son, putting up posters
of his missing sister. His fiance, Molly is like “We need to move on with our lives because this
is about MEEEEEEE” and she storms off. Dave Grohl: “Celebrate MEEEEE!” Imagine having the
audacity to tell someone to stop looking for their missing sister because it’s annoying.
Dave then pays a visit to Mr. Baker to invoice him for some car repair,
and he is one smooth motherfucker with those deep red glasses. Dave makes a threat to Baker,
telling him not to hurt Molly; he’s promptly thrown out by NilesFrasier as
Molly is coming in, and she is *enamored.* God I just love a man in blue blockers.
The horny teens are back and they’re about to be even more traumatized! (Teen screams.)
Need a hand? (wah waaaah)
Fortunately, this was a false alarm and the hand was a part of a department store mannequin.
These poor kids though, they’re gonna be conditioned to NOT make out. Dave and Charles
also show up on the scene thinking it could have been Laurel, and Metzger tells Dave to try
and space out the false alarms on her appearance because it’s eating into the station’s resources.
Meanwhile, Charles and Dr. Baker fight about his
work on the Borbey house. Baker: “I made myself very clear when you bid the job.”
Charles: And I am telling you for the umpteenth time…” I am OUT of ladders.
Baker wants Charles to remove a bearing wall to open up a room, and Charles is making a
huge fuss about it. Apparently the wall wasn’t in the original drawings and Charles insists the
wall had to be there since the beginning, otherwise the property would collapse. He
demands a LOT of money for its removal, and Mr. Baker is like I wear my sunglaaasses at night…
Once again, Charles ditches the work he promised Jessica for the Borbey house,
AND his work on the sheriff's office. She is not happy. Isn’t it just like law enforcement
to have enough money for revamping their office and not for finding a missing person?
A local named Ms. Higgins stops by the haphazard office to inform Metzger that
she saw and heard someone digging up graves, and then he just shuffles off - this episode is SO
weird in that there’s a lot of short scenes that cut very abruptly. This cuts directly
to Metzger telling Dave there’s been a burn victim admitted to the hospital and it could be Laurel
and then THAT cuts to Metzger investigating the cemetery. This episode is just GO GO GO.
Mmm, quartz! Don’t eat it don’t eat it don’t eat it…
Yes, this is the resting place of William Borbey, supposed vampire.
A bulb of garlic has been left at his grave, as if someone was trying to ward him off.
As Jess is picking out new wallpaper, Mr. Baker wanders in,
wanting to talk about buying some real estate from Mr. Holt. He is not interested,
as he is still angry about him coming on to Molly. Holt: “you’re old enough to be her
father.” Baker: “Judging from your behavior, I’m not sure YOU are.” Oooooooo (reaction)
Once again Jessica has to watch these two men duke it out, and once again,
she’s not impressed. Jess: “Quite frankly, I am getting annoyed!”
Mr. Holt says he’s concerned for reasons other than the age gap and Molly’s engagement;
he ran a credit check on Baker and there was no record on him.
Later that night, Dr. Sorensen outright breaks into Baker’s house for “research.”
He finds a blacked out mirror, which sure, maybe if you subscribe to the idea that vampires can’t
see themselves in a reflection this would make sense, but I just thought it was a cool scrying
mirror. He finds a bottle of an unknown red substance with this wolf logo on it,
Baker: “You must be joking.” Coco Montrese: “I’m not joking bitch!”
Luckily Baker won’t have to kill him because he’s doing a pretty good job choking himself.
Soooooo this guy is dead. Metgzer is informed there was a murder at the borbey house,
Crane squared escorts everyone in, and they discover Baker with a large wooden
stake through his heart. Well this is just baffling, we have no suspects…
By some miracle, Metzger actually starts putting together an MO without any help
from Jessica. He says that even though he personally doesn’t believe in vampires,
someone who murdered him does, and then shows Seth and Jess the garlic
he found. We also learn that Naiser didn’t especially like Mr. Baker.
This was such a weird murder because if you think about it, Baker hasn’t really done anything
wrong - yeah he was hording all of the contractors for his house and as annoying as that is,
it’s not a motive for murder. People don’t like him because of their preconceived notions about
who he might be. Eh, on second thought that doesn’t sound weird at all, carry on.
Sorensen is alive and lying about his wearabouts for the night of Baker’s murder. Look, I didn’t
do it, I was busy committing 8 other crimes! Jess does a LOT of research and discovers that vampires
can only be killed with a stake made from ash wood, but the stake used on Baker was fir, meaning
that the murderer either tried to stage a death that looked like it came from a vampire but wasn’t
knowledgable enough on the lore and fucked up, or the murderer wants people to THINK they don’t know
their lore so it could just be some average joe. Soresen also says he dug up William Borbey’s grave
and found it was empty. Dude, stop digging up graves, what is wrong with you?! Despite his weird
tendencies, Soresen provides some interesting information. He says Borbey translates to Baker
from Hungarian, and that weird unexplained deaths had happened at the house; corpses were found with
little to no blood with puncture marks on their neck. Metzger is looking uuuuuncomfortable.
We also find out the woman discussed earlier, in the burn unit,
was not Laurel, and I know these two story lines seem SO unrelated right now,
but I promise all of these loose ends will get tied up. The knot ain’t pretty, but it works.
They run into Dave who is now putting up extra posters, explaining that Laurel had
been on a boat before she went missing. This sparks the classic JB Fletcher epiphany.
She and Metzger meet with the department of building and safety at the sheriff’s office,
and the head is kind of stressed out. “GOD I HATE THIS.” (BONK) Whoa, whoa guy… you okay? (BONK!!)
He’s upset because one of the files, the building permit for the Borbey house, is missing.
We also find out that Peter, you know, the Niles Frasier hybrid, had entered the
country illegally and possibly had a motive if Baker had found out and wanted to deport him,
but he says that was just not true, and that he heard the confrontation between Sorensen and Baker
the night of his murder, even though the doc said he hadn’t even MET Baker. “Stop fuckin’ lyin!”
Jess finds some bills nearby typed in the largest font I’ve ever seen on an invoice,
and she realizes who the killer is.
She stages a itty bitty sting, making sure to loudly state that another company will be
helping to restore the Borbey house right away… in front of Charles.
She finds him later that night, breaking into the bearing wall. This episode actually takes a pretty
dark turn. Remember how I said the storyline with Laurel would tie into that somehow?
Years ago, Laurel and Charles got into a fight, and she asked for a divorce.
Charles saw red and killed her in a rage, then built a wall around her.
That is why the wall wasn’t in the original drawings of the house, it was built 18 months
prior when Charles was working on it for a previous owner. He then stole the permit so
nobody could prove it. (BONK) Baker insisted the wall get removed, so Charles just outright killed
him. Charles: “You can’t prove any of this.” What do you mean?? Let’s tear down the wall and see!
Charles eventually fesses up to the murder, saying he tried to make it seem as though
Sorensen did it by adding little vampiric touches, like the garlic and the stake.
He had been there the night of that confrontation. These transactions Jess
found also date back 18 months and proved he was the contractor for the previous owners.
I was surprised to see that after Charles was caught, we get a scene of him confessing,
which is uncharacteristic of Murder, She Wrote to me. More often than not, the murderer confesses
to Jess during the confrontation, but this time we get a confession after the fact. He also admits to
abandoning Laurel’s boat so it looked like she had an accident. But what actually tipped Jess off to
know it was Charles? Jess: “It was Laurel’s boat. An experienced Sailor like Laurel would never coil
it counter clockwise.” ….Really. REALLY. ….REALLY? Jess: “And the word hollow? It sparked my memory,
so I followed a hunch.” The word HOLLOW helped you solve the case? Baker: “You must be joking.”
Well that’s some bullshit, but still. The killer is caught. But what about Baker? Was he a vampire?
Metzger is very into the notion, having bought Dr. Sorensen’s book. Seth tells him he wore sunglasses
and didn’t go out into the daytime because he had photophobia, making him extremely sensitive to
light and reflections from mirrors. He’s a goth. However, this does not explain the missing body
from the Borbey grave, and then they find this portrait in an old history book from the library.
Seth: “Don’t say it. Don’t even think it.” Best ending ever. (ta da!)
I don’t think I can recall many episodes from this series that end on a more ambiguous note - this
show is very grounded in reality. If there’s a case that hints at paranormal interference,
there’s usually a very logical explanation for it. Really, there’s a lot of things that seem
like a pretty blatant departure from an average episode, but what it doesn’t stray from is the
absolute BONKERS CITY this plot was born in. This is one of my favorite episodes because I
just love the characters, it’s very reminiscent of Dracula and other vampire related stories,
though I will say that I feel like the murder of Baker was SO unnecessary. I mean, most murder is,
but this one takes the cake. Keep in mind that Baker didn’t know about Laurel, that’s not why
Charlie killed him. He PREEMPTIVELY got rid of him because he was commissioned to take down the wall.
Why wouldn’t he just hide the body elsewhere while he was working? He was able to hide Laurel while
he was working for the other owners, why couldn’t he just take down the wall and hide it again?
I don’t know, I think this guy got a bad deal, even if he was drinking people’s blood.
If you have an episode of Murder, She Wrote you are just
DYING to see me review, please leave a suggestion in the comments;
they are how I go about choosing them. Until next time, happy sleuthing.
Hey everyone, thanks again for watching my video on the Legacy of Borbey house - if you’re
interested in more MSW content, I have a LOT, but first I’d like to thank my patrons for their
continued support, kind words, and CASH MONEY. If you want to support me in the monetary way,
please consider joining my campaign, and if not, comments help me immensely.
If you want to see Jessica Fletcher own more fools, check out those suggestions on the screen!
On the right I have the very last episode of Murder, She Wrote I covered, and on the left
I have another BONKERS TOWN episode where Jess plays an Irish singer named Emma; they are good
episodes, so check be sure to check them BOTH out. Thanks again and I’ll see you in the next one.