murder | Lasers, monsters and barbarians oh, my!

We only have this one scene so let’s laugh it up.

Steele Crazy after all these years

1983

Murphy goes to his college reunion and runs right into some nasty business. One of his classmates Dan is found dead and hanging from a flag pole. I’ve heard of hanging around but well anyways a former hippie girl Annie (a pre-Ghostbusters Annie Potts) tells Murphy that the dude was hung from the same pole where this other classmate was killed ten years ago. She also said she saw Dan from a distance running and screaming that someone was after him, but she saw no one. Murphy calls in Laura Holt, but Remington Steele comes along as well. Annie tells the story about the dude Tom and how he died ten years ago. He died from an explosion, but Annie doesn’t know all the details because she was outside on watch while the others broke into a building. They were just supposed to vandalize the offices and set off fireworks because they were anti-war or pro-fireworks or something, but some part of the plan went wrong. Later Murphy, Annie and Laura meet with Hector who was also with this group ten years ago. He is scared and tells them his story from ten years ago which is similar to Annie’s. Then they see a figure watching them that they believe is the ghost of Tom so they follow him, they lose him then run back to find that Hector has been killed by a falling or pushed bookshelf- so two down. Not long after this somehow the killer get’s Hector’s body and hangs him from the same flag pole. Wow what a popular hang out-get it oh nevermind. Meanwhile Remington goes to investigate Dan’s room and doors close on him, blood fills the tub and a mirror explodes. Guess he just wasn’t meant to use the bathroom. The others don’t believe him and when they all go they discover wires and devices used to cause the effects that Remington saw-oh man punked. Soon they run into Nat another member of the group who shares a little more of the story from 1973, but doesn’t know exactly how Tom died. They run around, chasing and finally get Lynette the last member of the group. She reveals that Tom went over the edge and was going to blow up the building with a bomb and make martyrs of the others. She whopped him on the head and ran to get the others out so Tom died from his own bomb ten years ago. However Lynette said she didn’t kill Dan and Hector so case not yet solved. Remington, Laura and Murphy are stumped, but they keep searching. Laura finds a picture and realizes the homecoming queen Jillian (Sharon Stone) is Tom’s younger sister and she must be the one who killed the others because she blamed them for Tom’s death. At about the same time Remington is looking at an earring they found at one of the crime scenes and he sees a picture of Jillian wearing those earring and knows shes the one. Laura, Remington and Murphy race to get her and they arrive at the same time to knock her into a pile of balloons. Case solved, maniac stopped. It’s also revealed that the ghostly Tom that was seen was Jillian wearing a mask, wig and his old jacket.

I don’t anything about this mystery business so just go ahead and confess.

The negatives-I loved this show, but there were times when the mystery part wasn’t as great as the character development. This one had some holes for me. Maybe it’s possible that Remington was fooled by the room tricks because he was still learning the PI business at this time. The ghostly Tom sure didn’t look like a woman in a mask so maybe I’ll stretch my imagination and say she moved fast enough that they only got glimpses and thought it was Tom. Could she have escaped Murphy, Laura and Annie in the library and doubled back to push the shelf and kill Hector? Seems like a stretch, but maybe she knew the room better than they did and pulled it off. At the beginning of the show when Dan is running outside in fear it could be assumed that Jillian was chasing him in her Tom the ghost costume. It doesn’t show or tell how Dan died. Could she have surprised and killed him? Possibly because he was spooked and she could have gotten the jump on him. Now I’ll stretch my skeptical nature and grant them the parts above. However the parts I have real trouble buying are how did Jillian get Dan and Hector hung on the flag pole on an upper floor? She had no accomplice, no machinery and she would have had to haul the bodies up there and get them tied up out on the pole. I particularly have problems with the death of Dan because he went from running outside to hanging dead on the pole in a short amount of time. I don’t see how she could have done that part and that bothers me.

The positives-Any time we get to see Annie Potts is a plus. Murphy was only in the first season, but I liked him and was glad to see a story showing a little of his past. I liked the horror/ghost elements of the episode.