A professor and ex-cop challenges Jessica to a race to solve a series of campus muggings.A professor and ex-cop challenges Jessica to a race to solve a series of campus muggings.A professor and ex-cop challenges Jessica to a race to solve a series of campus muggings.
Photos
- Busboy
- (as Tony Darren)
- Another Student
- (as Leesa Bryte)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaWhen Jessica is looking at the screen of who checked out the criminology textbook, one of the names is "Chester Gould." Chester Gould was the creator of Dick Tracy.
- GoofsJessica's chat with the librarian doesn't sound quite believable. Faculty enjoy considerable privileges when it comes to checking out books from the school library. At a minimum, the librarian should have offered to place a hold on the item Jessica was searching for.
- Quotes
[first lines]
Jessica Fletcher: [on phone] Yes, Harold, I got the galleys and I finished going over them last night.
[pause]
Jessica Fletcher: No, overall, it looks fine. Just a couple of typos I'll give to Kathryn later.
[pause]
Jessica Fletcher: Oh, yeah, I forgot. At the bottom of page 270, there are three paragraphs that are really interior monologue, and they should be italicized.
[pause]
Jessica Fletcher: Well, I'm looking forward very much to seeing the gook when it's done.
[pause]
Jessica Fletcher: Well, I'd love to have lunch, Harold, but I can't. Well, you see, the reason I came to New York was to teach a class in criminology, and today happens to be my first day.
- ConnectionsFeatured in The 44th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards (1992)
- SoundtracksMurder She Wrote Theme
Written by John Addison
One faculty member she meets is the man who taught her course last year, Wallace Evans, who clearly resents her taking his place, although he still has other courses he teaches. In her introductory course, one student challenges her ability to teach them anything since she is a fiction-writer trying to teach a roomful of people, many of whom are actual police officers with experience in the real world of criminals. She does a Sherlock Holmes-type of observational deductions about this young man that convinces him, and the others who may have silently wondered the same thing, that her amateur talents which let her figure out several facts about the man may just be useful to others.
Another student in her class approaches her in the cafeteria to tell her how excited he is to be in her class because he's a big fan of her novels. Here we saw a very surprising reaction from Jessica. She figured that he might struggle in her class simply because he let her know he wasn't a cop or someone following a career in the subject, and that was fine. But instead of being the friendly lady she normally is, even with people who are kind-of rude to her, Jessica practically kicked him out of her class, harshly telling him that he will slow down the others in the class because he isn't serious about the subject.
College students (as Jessica would know) going for their bachelor's degrees have to take many classes that aren't in their intended field of study. Part of the discipline of college is learning to work hard to pass classes even when the subject isn't your favorite. My school had us all take a "basic intensive"-three semesters in one area, such as math, a foreign language, or other choices. My plans involved nothing where I would need these subjects-I took French, but didn't learn enough to converse with someone on a trip to Quebec because I never lived there long enough to truly be fluent.
It would have made more sense for her to be more friendly to a big fan, and nicely caution him that she hopes he knows that he will have to spend a lot of time in order to succeed in her class. Instead, she practically insisted that he drop her course right away-thus making an enemy her first day on campus. Totally not the usual Jessica to us viewers.
The main story deals with the campus being plagued by muggers accosting the female population, particularly at night-hence the title. Of course, someone gets killed and Jessica works to solve the case, helped by a young police officer who is in her class, who violates procedure by letting a civilian have full access to the case paperwork. If I am not mistaken, since this officer wasn't assigned to the case at all, he himself should not have had access to those papers. Anyhow he faces a warning from the captain about how he is not to violate protocol again.
This leads us to a derailment of sorts-leaving the investigation of the murder, while Jessica tries to find out what is troubling her young student by dropping in on him at home, where she meets his mother and learns much about the young man's father, also a police officer, and sees that his mother really doesn't want him to be a police officer at all.
Jessica also has one other altercation with that young student she was so nasty to earlier, as he approaches her in the library and lets her know he is still most upset at the way she treated him. I believe we viewers are supposed to wonder if this unusual person might be the mugger, or if he is a red herring.
As a personal note, there is a scene later when the college librarian violates policy by letting Jessica not only learn who has checked out a book she wants, but see a list of the last 5-6 people who checked it out. It's always interesting when a character has either my first or last name on a show. In fact, there is another episode this season where the killer's first name matched mine. In this case, one of the people on that list has the identical first AND last name of a former colleague of mine. I note that Jessica saw this list in a college library and that is the type of building where I worked with this lady.
I do agree with others who say the "bad guy" was rather obvious. He was tripped up in the usual MSW manner.
My final thoughts here delve into the vast energy Jessica Fletcher displays. She went from being a retired school teacher to a mystery writer, who spends most of her time meeting with publishers, traveling all around the country for book signings, radio and TV appearances and newspaper interviews. When at home, almost anytime a visitor comes over, she tells them she doesn't have time to do X because she has a deadline for her next novel and the publisher won't wait.
Without dropping any of those activities, she now has time to spend half of each week in New York City, where even teaching just one class will surely fill up many hours of her time, planning each class, grading papers, etc.
You would think she would never embark on such a time-consuming new adventure unless she was retiring from writing novels.
If Angela Lansbury had as much energy as J. B. Fletcher, she would never had wanted to do those "bookend" shows the past two seasons. I am NOT criticizing the actress at all, simply observing how hard-working Jessica never seems to tire of her busy schedule.
As for this episode, a 6.
- FlushingCaps
- Mar 14, 2023
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Filming locations
- 582 S Grand Ave, Los Angeles, California, USA(exterior: as Jessica's NYC apartment building, PacMutual Building)
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro