Lovers and Other Killers

Season 1, Episode 6
Nov. 18, 1984

My whole premise of this blog is in danger. In the first 6 episodes half do not feature a freeze frame at the end with our heroine in them. The one for this episode features a puppy-eyed pretty boy who I will get to in a minute.

J. B. Fletcher: Stealing babies since 1984

And the 5th episode features a dog in a truck. The second episode was of a truck pulling away from the camera. Clearly I need to refocus on trucks.

So in this episode we have Jessica flying off to Seattle. Where she meets Peter Graves. When she arrives, she is mysteriously holding an Asian baby. Which Peter notes and raises an eyebrow over.

Then some Chinese nuns arrive and like ALL retired highs school teachers from Maine Jessica converses in perfect Mandarin. Like perfect perfect. Because Jessica is 100% perfect. All the damn time.

Peter Graves is impressed. But not enough to not shout "sayonara" after the Chinese nuns. To which Jessica points out his racism and they laugh so much. Oh Peter graves!

Seattle

So Seattle. Which is pointed out about 100 times in the episode. You have to wonder if the Seattle tourism board didn't somehow fund this thing. First off, this is the first episode clearly shot on location in the city it references. Space Needle and all.

There's a murder at the open that ends up being a red herring to point fingers all over the place and reveal the true plot of the episode: Sluts.

Jessica arrives and needs a secretary. She's going to be doing a series of lectures and needs to also get some writing done. So this guy David shows up in the middle of the night and calls Jessica sexist for wanting an older, female secretary instead of his handsome visage. She caves because Jessica is totes not sexist how dare you. She pays him $5.60 an hour.

It turns out David was dating the woman who died at the open. And also another woman. And also is trying to get it on with Jessica. The 80s loved them some male gigolo nonsense. It turns out the old woman was killed in a normal uninteresting break in for cash/jewels by a random man. Nope! Nothing to solve there! Moving on!

David is also dating/friendly with Lila. Who is married. But not old. And Lila is also sexting with another professor who looks kinda like James Spader and is also sleeping with Peter Graves. Because you would also sleep with Peter Graves if you could.

Box maze!

Lila dies in a box maze at 10:00 PM in front of Jessica. Because when you are in Seattle you just must see the docks at night. It is to DIE.

Waka! Waka!

Lila dies mainly so everyone can admit to sleeping with her and we can all feel ok with her death because SLUT!

Jessica's lectures seem to be based around her speaking in odd accents and pointing guns at her students. In her second one she confronts the non Peter Graves professor who is sleeping with Lila in a strange way that would get anyone fired/sent to a mental institution.

Stop. Drop. MURDER!

Then Jessica is pushed down a flight of stairs by a person in black. Then Peter Graves accuses her of clouded judgement because David is so gosh darn cute she must have a thing for him. Which is very projectionist of Peter Graves since his own May/December thing went so well.

Jessica realizes that the killer might not have been a man. This happens when she catches David in her hotel room for the 3rd time without her permission. But it gets ignored because sleuthing is afoot.

The killer was a jealous WOMAN, naturally.

Seattle

Peter Graves' secretary was in love with him. Jessica tricks her into confessing. It was because he ignored her. Jessica kinda called this in the opening scenes. She turns to Peter Graves and tells him his secretary is in love with him but he says that couldn't possibly be true. Because she's older and not young and slutty like Lila.

David follows Jessica to the airport and is still creepy. He says he loves her with a puppet. She says he'll be a character in her book. But she doesn't know if he's a victim, a suspect, or a bystander. Freeze frame on his face as a smile fades into that weird slightly menacing look up there at the top. MOST AMBIGUOUS ENDING EVER!!!

Also: Jessica seems to be stealing the puppet David handed her.

Also Also: The title is a riff on the 1970 film Love and Other Strangers. It was nominated for three Oscars and featured Diane Keaton in her first role. Bea Arthur and Cloris Leachman were in it. It won the Oscar for best original song.

Deadly Lady

Season 1, Episode 2

Oct 7, 1984

Jessica Fletcher types as a storm rages outside. There is a knock at the door. A murderous thief? A vigilante from justice? It's Ethan, the friendly fisherman here to check in on Jessica. To make sure she's OK since she's alone in her house. Which is shown to be in the middle of the block in a well populated town. Eye roll. It is so hard being a lady! Taking care of yourself. SO. HARD.

In the pilot Jessica had two female friends, they have been replaced with Ethan and Sheriff Amos Tupper. Both men.

Howard Cunningham or Father Dowling
or the Glad Sandwich Bag guy

She sort of flirts with Ethan. The flirting is strange in a Moonlighting kinda way. The episode ends with an odd freeze frame of them driving away as they discuss "fishing". It is one of the few times the freeze is not of Jessica's face:

Ethan - "You'll want me to bait your hook won't you?"

Jessica - "You always do, don't you?"

That weird double entendre is very much in line with the almost farcical comedy that gets shoe-horned into the drama of a murder investigation. But is an outlier. After this point very little of the comedy is so overtly sexual. And never directed at Jessica.

Re-watching this episode I was struck by how much they point out Jessica's dead husband. This topic is addressed all the time but it is usually in passing. Here we are treated to a long scene where Jessica and her would-be gardener Ralph discuss their spouses. The conversation ends with her giving the gardener her husband's pipe.

Jessica Fletcher as a zombie.

Over the course of the conversation about dead spouses we see Jessica become vulnerable. And for the second time in as many episodes we see her fall for a guy. Preston Giles ended up being a killer, and Ralph will be murdered by his own daughter.

From here on Jessica has no true romantic leads that we see. There are certainly moments of flirting, but it is always implied to be in jest. She becomes the embodiment of the sexless elder. The crone. Atropos manipulating the world about her and deciding the fates of men.

It isn't much of a stretch considering that Jessica is a writer or murder mysteries. A woman who finds herself endlessly surrounded by dead bodies that she must untangle the stories of. This week the Earl sisters are the main suspects:

Nancy - Hair by Paul Mitchell

Maggie - Shirt by LL Bean

Nancy is the youth. The youngest. She hopes to be a fashion designer. Her ex-fiance shows up magically as her father is killed. When meeting Jessica for the first time he refuses to tell as story saying, "You're a lady so I won't repeat it."

Maggie, the overly prim middle daughter. She falsely admits to killing the father but then actually kills him. The whole thing is very Jan Brady. She wanted more love. She apparently helped with the father's business and lived with him, cleaned, cooked, etc. A sort of justification for the murder.

Lisa is the socialite. Her husband wears a suit and tie the entire episode. For no reason. She has a fur coat. He is VERY condescending. He says his wife has a "fevered little mind" and calls Jessica a "sweet old gal".

Grace seems to be the eldest. She looks like a librarian. We are given nothing else of her character except that her husband ran off with another woman.

Lisa - Coat and Hat by Falcon Crest

Grace - Glasses by Annie Hall Collection

These 4 sisters represent variations on female stereotypes in media. Youth, Prim, Socialite, Librarian. They are portrayed as a tight circle who cover for each other and equally hated their father. When a pair of pink shoes show up on the beach it is implied any of the sisters could have worn them, they share clothes. Even though they are clearly costumed VERY differently.

To return to the fate analogy. Nancy is key to unmasking the true killer. They pretend to arrest her to unmask her ex-fiance as a con artist and to lure her sister Maggie into revealing too much. She is spinning thread, as it were.

There isn't really an analogous Lachesis in this episode, though it is of note that Lisa wears only white the whole episode and is seen plotting with her husband over the fate of her father's fortune. Which would, in turn, decide the fate of her sisters. Lachesis was always shown in all white.

Also of note: This is the only time a woman is shown in the Cabot Cove police office. And she is shown cleaning a gun in an incredibly sexual way.