Murder, She Watched: Deadly Lady (Season 1, Ep:3)

The episode introduces two of my favorite reoccurring characters and residents of Cabot Cove, Sherriff Amos Tucker (Tom Bosley) and Captain Ethan Cragg (Claude Akins), they are close friends of our favorite mystery writer the latter of which sadly disappears without a trace after a couple seasons.

We open with Jessica typing away at her typewriter in the middle of a bad storm and hoping the power holds long enough for her to finish. Enter Ethan who had come to check up on her and make sure she is okay and prepared for the hurricane. During the conversation we learn that there are some rich folks trapped out on their yacht. The morning after the storm Jessica is going for her morning run and after talking to some of the other locals learns that Ethan had gone out to retrieve the girls from their yacht. After thanking the fishermen for the information she hurries on home where she finds a strange man, Ralph (Howard Duff), in her garden pruning the garden.

Needless to say Jessica is confused as hell as to why this man is in her garden.

But can I also point out that I am very confused has to WHERE he found the pruners. So, I of course have questions, many questions. Does Jessica leave her gardening tools out? Did he borrow them from someone else who didn’t think it was odd a stranger started to care for her garden and not their’s? Did he break into Jessica’s shed looking for them? Did he bring them with him? Does he have a hammer space where he keeps gardening equipment? So many questions and they aren’t answered or asked!

Anyways, ONWARD, Jessica who is as I said before is understandably confused to see a stranger caring for her garden just up and offers to make him breakfast for his troubles. Because of course she does. But this is in keep with her character has she is A) a kind and compassionate woman and B) very curious as to what the hell exactly is going on here with him. I know I would be!

Fast forward a few minutes later and over what looks to be a hearty breakfast Jessica manages to figure out that Ralph isn’t being entirely truthful about being a hobo on account of his clothing and the tan lines around where a watch used to be. Plus he tells her he had enjoyed reading a book she wrote that hasn’t been officially released to the public yet. Which brings up more questions, on how he got the book. Does Ralph write book reviews for papers in his spare time? Is he friends with someone in the publishing house that employs Jessica?

Speaking of which, what the hell happened to the publishing company that signed on Jessica? Is it still in business? Did it get brought out? I would like answers but I know I want get them.

But once again I digress, he tells her that after being forced into retirement by his company he decided it would be a good time to see America from the ground up and he does some work around the country in exchange for food and a bed. While they are talking Jessica get a call from Sheriff Tucker about the yacht folks and he believes there is a murder. Because of course he does so off Jessica rides to figure out what is going on, leaving the stranger to work outside until she gets back.

Once she gets there Ethan is displeased that she was called by this because unlike Amos he doesn’t believe the sisters killed their father. Although I almost wonder if part of the reason Ethan believes them is that Amos doesn’t and the girls look to well bred to be murderers. But one of the things you will learn about Tucker and Ethan has the series goes on is that they get on about has well as cats and dogs and that the only thing they agree on is that they like Jessica.

This is when Jessica, as well as the audience, met the four sisters Lisa (Cassie Yates) who keeps reminding Amos her last name is Shelby and says her husband is on his way, Nancy or Nan (Doran Clark), Maggie (Marilyn Hasset), and Grace (Anne Lockhart) who is also married but her husband went bye bye a few years agao. The girls join the other three in what is a boat shed or whatever the boat equivalent of a garage is, go on to explain how they got caught up in the hurricane and their father was swept overboard by the large waves because he had remained on deck when the weather turned violent. Amos says he won’t do an inquest into the death until the body shows up. While the girls are getting their stuff together from the boat Jessica and her friends discuss whether or not they killed him.

Ethan accuses Tucker of coming up with the idea because he read too many of Jessica’s books, much to Jessica’s amusement, Tucker fires back that he hasn’t read any of the books, Jessica is no longer amused by their bickering.

She goes to offer the girls a room in her house but Lisa says that they already have reservations at a nearby hotel. Once her sisters leave Grace admits that there was no love lost between them and their father because of various reasons. He ruined her marriage, meddled in Nan’s love life, and turned Maggie into a house mouse.

It’s all rather sad and has Grace is telling Jessica this she looks heartbroken by the fact.

When Jessica returns home she learns that Ralph made a call to Paris and when she confronts him she finds him listening to music on a walkman, an Ipod that uses a cassette tape, in a hammock. She grills him about the call and he says it was Paris, Texas but he promises to pay for the charges from the phone company. When they retire back into the house Ralph brings up some more work that needed to be done around the house and offers to run down to the hardware store to pick up the supplies. Come on dude you have a hammer space for gardening tools but no space for the lumber to plug up some holes to stop drafts. Anywho, Jessica agrees and as she is getting the money for the supplies Ralph starts to admire a pipe that used to belong to Frank, Jessica’s late husband. While the scene plays out there is soft, melancholic music playing in the background and she tells him to have it since she won’t be using it and she doesn’t want it to gather dust.

It’s obvious that she still misses her husband. A loss I don’t think she ever really moves on from.

Lisa’s husband, Brian Shelby (Dack Rambo), shows up and he’s a real piece of work as he starts demanding Amos start a coroner’s inquest so that leadership can pass down to Lisa.

Raise your hand if you, like me and mom, want someone to punch him.

Meanwhile Jessica and Ralph have a heart to heart about their late spouses. He asks if she has kids and she says that, “Me and Frank were never blessed like that”, he chuckles softly at the idea of them being a blessing. After which he heads out to get the supplies to do the repairs and while Jessica is draining the sink she realizes that the girls lied about being in the middle of the hurricane as she watches the water drain down the sink. She, along with Ethan and Tucker, goes to confront the sisters, Nan is surprisingly absent for this scene, and at first they stick to their guns and try to cover up their blunder. But Maggie puts her foot down in order to admit she shot him on accident. Maggie goes on to explain that her father was drunk and they were fighting as usual she fired the gun twice when he came towards her. The sisters continue to defend her because of how their father treated her.

The guy who runs the local newspaper shows Jessica and Ethan the paper for tomorrow and upon seeing Stephen Earl’s photo, along with one of the sister’s mentioning his pipe, that she realizes Stephen and Ralph are the same person. The very next morning two kids stumble across his dead body. Nan and Lisa go to identify the body and the mortician starts a sales pitch, much to Tucker’s displeasure. Jessica shows up and gives the girls her condolences and Nan’s old boyfriend shows up much to Lisa’s displeasure who views him has a gold digger.

He is. But her husband is no better. Granted their father wasn’t exactly a great man in their life so I have a feeling that’s where their bad taste in men comes from.

Speaking of which the twat continues to be a piece of crap by yelling at Lisa for lying about Maggie, because money, he then goes on to rant about how Nan won’t be an issue when it comes to the inheritance and all that’s left is to deal with Grace. Lisa starts to worry about what her husband is capable of but he just laughs off her worry and foul mind. Honestly she needs to drop his gaslighting ass before he murders her sisters. She might not be a nice person but she does appear to love her sisters so I will give her that much.

Back at the Sherriff’s office he and Jessica tell Maggie about finding his dead body which she admits was a lie. Because her father had left the yacht alive on an inflatable raft in order to see what Terry Jones (Richard Hatch), Nan’s old boyfriend would do. Since when he first showed up in her life Stephen paid him to get lost and not tell Nan. But after a heart attack he became convinced that Terry would show up the moment he died for Nan’s money. Jessica finds Terry and Nan walking through the cemetery talking with Terry trying to convince Nan they should be discussing marriage. She is thankfully unsure and wants to be alone for the moment.

Terry Jones is someone else who should be punched repeatedly. Based on Lisa’s expression when she saw him I would think she would be more than happy to provide the fist.

Jessica joins Terry after Nan leaves and points out that he had to have come into town before Nan’s father really died and he admits he flew into Portland the night before so he could be with Nan after the shooting on the yacht. Maggie told Nan about what had happened and he and Nan spent the night in the hotel, which explains where Nan was while Maggie was being arrested. Later Jessica hunts down Sheriff Tucker after eavesdropping on the deputy. She joins Amos and Ethan, along with a small search party, on the beach looking for clues for the murder. One of them finds a pair of light pink shoes, one of which is missing a heel. The missing heel is found by Jessica near where the body was discovered. Jessica believes they are Nan’s and she tells them that she designed the shoes and had them made up.

Despite her protestations, Jessica had her try them on and Nan is arrested. But Jessica doesn’t believe she is guilty though she does agree Tucker should arrest her.

Terry Jones shows up at the station to defend Nan because they were together. Amos Tucker points out that if they were together and Nan did kill him he could be tried as an accessory even if he wasn’t there to kill the man but knew about it. To the shock of no one Terry promptly throws Nan under the bus and turns down the chance to see her. Because of course he does. Amos reveals that Nan had been listening in the whole time and is of course, heartbroken.

Poor Nan. Lisa needs to punch him.

Nan’s siblings and brother-in-law drive up to their hotel tipsy where Jessica is waiting for them. They are surprised to learn that Nan has been arrested. But that leads me to wonder where the hell they thought she was this entire time? They probably think she is with the mistake known as Terry Jones. Jessica says she wants to search the girl’s rooms because she knows sisters tend to share clothes. Lisa forbids it without a search warrant but Maggie and Grace say she can search their room. But Maggie points out that that she and Nan don’t have the same size and she doesn’t wear pink.

Jessica thanks her and later on that night she hands Maggie a paper bag asking her to give it to Tucker when he arrives.

Later that night Maggie breaks into Jessica house, how is of course waiting up for her, and they discuss how Jessica figured it all out. Maggie admits she framed Nan because she was the only one her father loved. She goes on to apology for having to kill Jessica, only for her to admit that ever since Maggie broke the window she called the Sheriff and he’s been listening to the call. She also tells Maggie that even if she hadn’t called the Sheriff her story wouldn’t hold up since they have no burglars in Cabot Cove.

They just have a crap ton of murders.

After Jessica escorts Nan to her taxi, who admits that her father might not have been a good dad to her sisters but he was a decent human being which Jessica admits is true because she knew him, Ethan shows up, having just delivered the others to their yacht, the two then head out on his boat to go fishing.

The relationship between Stephen Earl and his daughters is a pretty depressing one. Maggie obviously resented her father for giving him everything but not getting the love that Nan got. Whether or not this is true is another story. Because even Nan seems to admit that her father showed her favoritism which means he probably wasn’t very subtle about showing it. It’s sad to think that someone who is such a decent man was a lousy father to his four daughters which resulted in such heartbreak. One sister, Maggie, who seems to have at some point had a breakdown and the other three seem just has miserable. It’s easy in this case to feel sorry for both the murderer, an unloved and underappreciated daughter, and her victim, a man who was a lousy father but a great human being who could have prevented so much heartbreak if he had cared about his offspring. Based on how controlling and meddling he seems to be in their lives, especially their romantic ones, you almost get the impression that he wanted to be the only man in their life and that Brian only stuck around because he was greedy has hell and realized he could get more money playing the long game then a onetime pay out.

Jessica herself in the end looks sad at how far things have come between the father and daughters. She even admits that he wasn’t a great father even if he was a good human being.

My personal head cannon for the epilogue of this episode is that Maggie, who I think is the baby sister, manages to get the help she needs. Lisa drops the husband who believes money is more important than family and let’s face he totally would have done something to get his sister-in-laws kicked from the will. Lisa, who I believe is the oldest sister based on how she is protective over the others and tends to be the one to take charge, and Grace, who probably was born after Lisa based on how she seems to be her sister’s lancer, join forces with Nan to take over the fashion and make up industry and rule them both has queens while getting family therapy to help with whatever issues have resulted in their relationship with their father because they do seem to care for each other so hopefully they can be each other’s support system.

But seriously all four of them are in desperate need of therapy.

In the next episode we are introduced to another relative of Jessica’s, a niece who is getting married to a secret drag queen. #MurderSheWrote #MurderSheWatched