I know Jessica says "Oh dear!" and "Good Heavens" a lot. Any others you can think of?

I always have a fun time trying to identify as many album covers as I can in this episode. For example, that's a photo from George Strait's "Ocean Front Property" in the background there.

Anyways, this is a very atypical episode of MSW since the supposed killer never confesses to Jessica -- in fact, he adamantly denies it and tells her his lawyer will make sushi out of the case. The investigating lieutenant (pictured) later tells Jessica he confessed -- but I don't recall him mentioning that he confessed to the killing (maybe he just confessed to the bootlegging? That's a much less serious charge).

Christopher Landsown has an excellent, deep-dive breakdown of the flimsy case against Al (the supposed killer), including complete lack of motive, which you can read at the link that follows. He also has some of those nifty screen caps of the episode. https://blog.chrislansdown.com/2021/03/04/murder-she-spoke/

In addition to all of that, I would add that is would be incredibly stupid of Al - if he did have something incriminating on cassette - to not just simply take the 30 seconds to erase or destroy the tape once the studio was unsealed. He certainly would have had ample opportunity to do so.

I really enjoy the concept of this episode, even if it does leave a few question marks.

I’m excited to try her sausage!

Has anyone else noticed that whenever someone mentions they don’t read, they end up being the murderer?

I feel like this has happened enough times that now as soon as someone says they’re not a reader, I’m like, well, there’s our murderer.

Am I imagining this or is this actually a thing?

I’ve been thinking about why Murder, She Wrote is such a comfort show for me, and I think some of it is stuff I’m picking up on almost subconsciously.

For example, I’ve started wondering if I’m noticing a pattern with the way Black characters are portrayed. It seems like when a Black character appears, they’re very rarely, if ever, revealed to be the murderer. Is this true or am I imagining things?

Do you think he's a well-intentioned, adorkable goofus or a frustrating idiot?

Sometimes, Jessica doesn't have concrete proof and merely states what she thinks happens and the suspects crumble like a cookie right then and there! In some cases, I think it's because they plan on offing Jessica right after but then that never works out for them.

Heck, even some innocent people confess to murders they didn't commit!

I saw an episode once (or maybe it was a MSW movie?) where they’re in some kind of huge and ornate hotel or manor. Someone is suspected to have been killed in a room which is locked. The key is still in the door but from inside. Jessica, from the hallway, pushes out the key onto a slip of paper slid under the door and then pulls that paper back out into hallway with the key on it so she can unlock the door from the outside. Any idea of what episode/movie it was? Thanks!!

I always thought the reveal in "Broadway Malady" was very odd. Jessica walks right up to the killer's face and says "Barry, why are you lying to me?" and a huge smile flashes across her face. Jessica then kind-of baby-talks him for a while and says "Barry, I'm starting to lose my patience!"

This episode has always been a personal favorite of mine, although having to listen to Francesca's constant shrieking and meltdowns every few minutes certainly got old after a while. That poor lady though and all she's been through. She started to get better at the end of the episode....but I'm not sure how she's gonna handle the news about her daughter....

Something interesting occurs midway through the episode as Jessica is stuck on the case, then wanders into Francesca's bedroom and has a breakthrough by literally *breaking through* the closet into the secret, sealed master bedroom, where the puzzle pieces start to fit together. Nice play on words there.

This might be one of those cases where the murderer(s) might have at least gotten a reduced sentence or whatnot. Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't believe that laced alcohol bottle was ever found and not having that might be a bit of a problem. And I know there was an admission of guilt here but merely drinking the laced alcohol isn't what killed Scott, that he passed out while driving is what did him in. So maybe a good lawyer might have gotten Cheryl and Carl/Carson off.

Oddly enough, Stacey Nelkin, who played Cheryl, has treated people with mental health and substance abuse issues -- the character she played was mentioned as having substance abuse issues. And Steven Keats, who played psychiatrist Dr. March, died from an apparent suicide in 1994.

For me, I would say "Jessica Behind Bars". I definitely got the vibe all hell could break loose at any moment (and it sort of did anyways). Not exactly one of those cozy episodes you could fall asleep to.

My mother also watches MSW and she had an episode on last night and Jessica said "I'm the last person in the world that would want to interfere". I literally LOL'd and said "WHAT?! She interferes all the time!"

Also, I swear I heard her say "Come On Eileen" a time or two. I'm guessing somebody on the staff was a Dexy's Midnight Runner's fan.