Original Airdate: October 7, 1984
During a particularly grueling storm, Jessica Fletcher hears about a yacht out at sea, which Ethan Cragg (a friend of Jessica's who happens to be a captain) will be unable to reach until the next day. The morning next, after a jog, she meets a man named Ralph, weeding her gardens. Hungry, but not comfortable with handouts, he offers to work around her place as long as she can provide him food. After he claims he's been "hoboing around" for most of his life, Jessica deduces he's lying, partly because his clothes look quite tailored along with the fact there is an imprint of a watch still on his wrist, an expensive watch at that. Ralph admits that his excursions of being a hobo are recent, as his company retired him recently, but is still all-the-willing to help around the house.
Before details can be ironed out, Sheriff Amos Tupper calls Jessica and let's her know that the yacht has come back in, but she may want to get down there due to the possibility of murder. Jessica does so, and meets four women, the daughters of one Stephen Earl: Nan, Maggie, Lisa Earl Shelby, and Grace Earl Lamont. They tell Jessica that the night before, their father got thrown overboard during the storm, and they were unable to do anything about it. Clear-cut, they insist, though Sheriff Tupper is holding off on the Coroner's Inquest for the time being, due to the fact that the estate is worth 100 million dollars to be split among the four daughters. Tupper first wants to find the body of Stephen Earl before moving forward. He is convinced foul play is involved, while Ethan feels it's clear what happened, and believes the girls. Grace lets Jessica know that there was little love lost between Stephen Earl and his daughters, for he broke up Grace's own marriage along with meddled in Nan's private affairs, ending her conversation by saying "There's not a one of us sorry to see him dead."
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Jessica shaking Maggie's hand
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| Grace Earl and Lisa Earl Shelby |
Jessica returns home, and bonds briefly with Ralph over her deceased husband (Ralph's wife had died years prior) and lightly chides him for calling Paris, Kentucky. Jessica gives him her husband's old pipe, insisting it's better to be used as opposed to gathering dust in her house. Meanwhile, Lisa's husband Brian flies in, and demands an immediate Coroner's Inquest to speed the release of the money.
It is after Ralph leaves for the night that Jessica realizes something important: at the location and time in which the girls claim their father was thrown overboard, their vessel would have been in the eye of the hurricane - the weather would have been dead calm, and certainly not strong enough to throw a man off the ship. She confronts the girls (Nan is absent, though Brian is there), and Maggie admits to killing her father not the night before, but two nights ago. Maggie claims she shot him twice in the chest after an argument, and she is then taken into custody. A preview of the next morning paper reveals another shock - the picture of deceased Stephen Earl looks exactly like Ralph. She confides this to Ethan, but going back home, she is unable to find Ralph, and leaves Ethan thinking Jessica dotty.
The next morning, the body of Stephen Earl is found, and as Jessica suspected, is the same individual who called himself Ralph. Lisa and Nan identify the body as their father. More so, just as Maggie said, there are two bullet wounds in the chest. To Lisa's disbelief, Terry Jones (formerly engaged to Nan, but walked out on her) comes back to comfort Nan. Lisa personally feels his arrival is suspicious. Brian and Lisa bicker over her father's death, Brian more concerned with Lisa getting a larger chunk of the estate's money.
At the police station, they inform Maggie that her father's body has washed up on the beach, which shocks her, as she reveals that she did not actually kill him - the whole thing was a ruse between Maggie and her father to unmask Terry Jones as a fortune hunter to Nan (whom her father was very suspicious of), and that her father left the yacht on a raft, alive the last time she saw him. Maggie is then released and cleared of the charges. The only thing left, in Jessica's mind, is to determine who murdered Stephen Earl.
Jessica speaks to Terry Jones, and lets him know that he heard of Earl's death not that morning, but the day before, when Stephen Earl called him from her house, claiming to be a reporter. He flew in the previous night after hearing that, and met Nan in Portland (explaining why she had been absent the previous day when Maggie gave her confession), who was told by Maggie about the plot to reveal him. Terry adamantly insists he loves Nan, and did not murder Earl.
On the beach, Jessica locates pink heeled-shoes partially exposed, and believes them to be owned by Nan. Sheriff Tupper and Jessica check in with Nan, and she says the shoes are her's, and tries them on, confirming the fact. Tupper wants to take her in, though Jessica believes her not to be guilty, and tells the both of them to keep the evidence confidential, so she can smoke out the killer.
Maggie, celebrating with Grace, Lisa, and Brian, run into Jessica at the hotel, who reveals that Nan has been arrested for the murder of their father. She suggests that one of the girls lost the aforementioned shoes there, which Lisa in particular takes offense to. Grace allows her to search her room, as does Maggie, but insists she doesn't wear pink, so the shoes weren't her's. Jessica speaks to Maggie and lets her know that she is off to sleep, and hands her a baggie for her to give to the sheriff the next day.
That night, a figure breaks into Jessica's house - Jessica is waiting, though, and catches the individual, who happens to be Maggie. Maggie slipped, mentioning she didn't wear pink, while Jessica never mentioned the shoes were pink. More so, the framing of Nan was obvious to Jessica - when Nan tried on the shoes, Jessica took noticed of her unvarnished feet, extremely unlikely if Nan had to walk half a mile across a rocky beach. Maggie makes to kill Jessica, but Jessica reveals that her confession was caught on phone, and Sheriff Tupper heard it all.
Jessica sees off Nan, and goes deep sea angling Ethan afterwards.
This was a very fine episode.
The plot, especially the four daughters, all of whom could equally be behind the death of their father, was good fun, the conclusion as unexpected as one might hope (though not handled quite as well as the pilot, though I suspect few will be). That said, the final confrontation between Maggie and Jessica, in Jessica's dark living room, was a fantastic scene, and the first in which Jessica has been in any real danger (at least based on what we've seen - Giles in the first episode had no intention to cause Jessica harm).
Sheriff Tupper and Ethan Cragg seem good characters, and while we don't know much about either one yet, I find it interesting that Tupper stated he's asked for Jessica's help before, which we've not seen, meaning that the undetermined time between this episode and the previous one is longer than one might initially think). I am guessing that as both of these individuals live in Cabot Cove along with Jessica, this will not be the last time we see them.
We also get a glimpse of Jessica's deceased husband, Frank, during her conversation with Ralph/Stephen Earl, and it's clear that Jessica still harbors feelings for him, and try as she might, appears to have great difficulty talking about him. Whether or not we learn much more about Frank, I don't know, but I wanted to note it.
Lastly, while Lansbury was as fine an actress as ever (and I suspect she will continue being the fantastic actress she is as this series progresses), I was also impressed by Anne Lockhart, who played Grace. Most of the time, actors and actresses don't catch my eye if they've a solo appearance in a series, but she was quite memorable to me, and reminded me of an almost Velma-ish character (from Scooby-Doo) - those glasses looked pretty good on her also, which didn't hurt anything.
Deadly Lady is a fine second episode, and going back to Maine is a nice change of scenery when compared to New York City. I don't know if she's in Cabot Cove to stay, but time will tell. A very solid story, well-acted all around, and good conclusion, leaving this a positive rating in my eyes.
Rating: Above Average
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