Murder, She Wrote Season 3, Episode 4
"One White Rose for Death"
Original Airdate: October 19, 1986
Writer: Peter S. Fischer
Director: Peter Crane
Cast: Angela Lansbury, Len Cariou, Jenny Agutter, Michael Anderson Jr., Tony Bonner, Eric Braeden, Bernard Fox, John Glover, Maria Mayenzet, Warwick Sims
Tonight on Murder, She Wrote, we're covering one of the thrilling Michael Hagarty capers, featuring Dame Angela's Sweeney Todd co-star Len Cariou as the charming MI5 agent. This is the second of his seven appearances. The Canadian actor has a wonderful boyish charm as the Irish-born spy and you can tell Jessica is uniquely delighted whenever she gets to join in one of his adventures. If, like me, you're more of a George Hearn Sweeney fan, that old rogue turns up as a different Irishman, Sean Cullane, in a pair of episodes later in the series.
My mother would never forgive me if I didn't highlight Eric Braeden of The Young and the Restless as tonight's heavy, Gerhardt Brunner. Guy's been playing the dastardly Victor Newman for 45 years and well over 4000 episodes. He's also in an absolutely bonkers 80s slasher called The Ambulance with Eric Roberts and Stan Lee. You have to check it out. I always thought he'd make a crackerjack Sinestro.
Defecter? I Hardly Know Her!
Jessica arrives in Washington D.C. to attend a concert at the behest of world class violinist Greta Mueller. A pretty big deal, as political luminaries like an unnamed male UK Prime Minister–so, not Margaret Thatcher here in the Fletcherverse–will also be in attendance. A man named Andrew Wyckham (Bernard Fox of Bewitched and Hogan's Heroes) greets her as a representative of her publisher, explaining that her usual contact, Geoffrey, was summoned to the west coast on emergency business. Fox and his splendid mustache would later appear with Eric Braedan in a little film called Titanic.
Speak of the devil; here comes Colonel Brunner now to escort them to the concert hall for a private audience with Fräulein Mueller. Wyckham identifies Brunner as Volkspolizei, East German police. We're about three years out from the Berlin Wall's eventual fall, and it's pretty clear this episode represents the first real blow.
We meet Greta (Mayenzet of…gosh, did everybody do an episode of Airwolf?) and her brother Franz (John "Lionel Luthor" Glover) accompanying her on piano. I adore John Glover. The voice of Edward Nygma in Batman: The Animated Series? Those wild eyes! Anyways, Franz is a bit of a stick-in-the-mud, scolding his sister for being so effusive with Jessica. Greta reveres her though, crediting Jessica's lurid crime novels for helping her to learn English. Jessica is grateful, but the vibes are less than immaculate with all the secret police around.
Then Jessica recognizes her friend Michael Hagarty skulking about in his guise as a journalist named McKelvie. They have to contrive a backstory, something they'll have to stumble through again and again over the coming years. Adorable!
By the end of the evening's festivities, Michael sustains a bullet to the arm–in a shootout drowned out by the "1812 Overture" as luck would have it–and pulls Jessica and Wyckham into a waiting car, tailed by Brunner and his men. The extraction of Franz Mueller went sideways, so we're going to have to crash the UK embassy with the musical siblings stashed in the trunk. That's fine. Michael specializes in ops going sideways. His longtime partner, Jack Kendall (Sims), is handy at the wheel.
At the embassy we meet First Secretary Claymore (Bonner, Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, Quigley Down Under) and his wife Margo (Jenny Agutter of Logan's Run and An American Werewolf in London) along with a physician named Doctor Lynch (Anderson, also of Logan's Run), who tends to Michael's arm. They're not thrilled about the intrigue, but remain remarkably calm.
Greta, however, is not taking any of this well. She's always seen her brother as "patriotic" and not the type to provide intel for the west, so this all comes as a surprise. As for herself, she's a musician, she insists, not political.
Oh, honey.
Earlier, Franz referred to his sister as being "about as political as a chocolate bar." Which strikes me as pretty clever. Maybe chocolate itself isn't politically-minded, but literally everything around chocolate? Well.
Out of Africa
The Prime Minister, we learn, is whisked back to England. Amidst the chaos, Claymore and Michael tend to their contacts. As Jessica comforts the distraught Greta, they literally stumble on Jack's dead body in the embassy garden. Greta immediately clocks the white rose clutched in his hand, pulled from a nearby hedge. Dr. Lynch says the man was stabbed with a very thin, sharp object like an ice pick. Jessica later does her own examination, recognizing the hallmark signs of poison in his eyes and fingernails.
Michael is deeply wounded by Jack's death. He recruited the man at a young age, drawing him away from a lucrative trade to become a spy. Jessica wonders if the white rose in Jack's hand was a message from the dead man intended to help them solve his murder. Michael recalls an operation Jack was involved in in South Africa, protection detail for an Anti-Apartheid leader who was ultimately killed by an assailant who escaped capture.
Operation White Rose.
Dr. Lynch was also in Africa. He has a number of photos on display with Anti-Apartheid leaders. Margo compliments Jessica on a necklace she recognizes as being made in Cameroon. We learn she is the daughter of a light-skinned Black woman from Rhodesia and an unidentified rapist, perhaps a laborer on an estate where she worked; perhaps the owner. Though inter-racial marriages were never illegal in the UK, the Claymore's have kept Margo's background a secret, fearing damage to Henry's political career. They're not so much a red herring in this mystery, but a reminder that Apartheid isn't just an "Africa problem." Racial violence sows hostility and fear everywhere.
Greta's Gambit and the Sticky Wyckham
As it turns out, Wyckham is our killer, though he was originally aiming much higher. He was the assassin who killed the Anti-Apartheid leader during Operation White Rose. He also killed Jessica's intended escort, Geoffrey, taking his place in order to attend the concert by her side. That should've given him access to kill the Prime Minister, but he never got the chance. He recognized Jack from South Africa when he and Michael loaded them into the car. Fearing Jack would identify him, he killed him in the garden using the same weapon he would've used on the P.M., a poisoned barb concealed in his tobacco pipe.
That takes care of the killer, but what of our East German friends?
Brunner calls the embassy and warns them that the Muellers' parents have been taken into custody back in Germany. If the embassy doesn't surrender the siblings, there's no telling what will happen to their family. Initially frightened, Greta wants Franz to give in. But when Brunner arrives to take them away, Greta persuades him to let Franz go, promising to return to East Germany willingly. I'm not entirely sure why he agrees to this, even if Greta is the celebrity with more cultural cache than her brother. We're told Franz was actively passing along state secrets. I suppose the argument is that Greta is more valuable as a cooperative asset and not a vocal opponent to the regime? Regardless, she's taking a page from Jessica's independent characters and doing the right thing.
As Brunner escorts Greta back to Berlin, Jessica prods Michael to make sure the young woman and her family are protected. He assures her that a rescue mission is already in motion.
Next week, we return to Cabot Cove in search of riches beneath the sea!
