Murder, She Wrote Season 2, Episode 10
"Sticks and Stones"
Original airdate: Dec. 15, 1985
Story by : Jackson Gillis and Linda Shank & Mark Giles
Teleplay by : Linda Shank & Mark Giles
Director: Seymour Robbie
Cast: Angela Lansbury, John Astin, Tom Bosley, William Windom, Parker Stevenson, Paul Benedict, Joseph Campanella, John David Carson, Marsha Hunt, Evelyn Keyes, Denny Miller, Betsy Palmer, Parker Stevenson, Christopher Stone, Howard Witt, Philip Brown, Ken Sansom, Bob Tzudiker, Garnett Smith
This one's momentous for Cabot Heads. Not only is "Sticks and Stones" the dramatic conclusion to John Astin's Harry Pierce Saga; it's also one where the citizens of Cabot Cove eat each other alive over salacious gossip and baseless rumors. That means, without fail, someone's going to accuse Jessica of sleeping with their husband or large adult son, and nothing befuddles her more. Buckle up.
A New Sheriff in Town
Though the series has its bevy of recurring characters, very few episodes reference previous events. This one's a rare sequel, alluding directly to the luxury apartments nearly erected on the cove's southern banks in "Joshua Peabody Died Here … Possibly" from earlier in Season 2. You'll recall that affair as the beginning of the Harry Pierce Saga. That land only became available after a Coast Guard lighthouse burned down and ownership reverted to Beverly Gareth (Syverson), who's about to die.
Beverly's enjoying suds and a soap opera from her tub when the picture on her adorable CRT goes out. Annoyed, she slinks from the bath to try the dial, but it's no good. She then jiggles the cord at the power outlet. In the basement directly below, a gloved hand restores power at the fuse box. Beverly is electrocuted.
Amos Tupper and Harry Pierce arrive just as the body is brought out on a stretcher. Talk about throwing out the Beverly with the bathwater. We learn that this is Amos's last day before retirement and Harry will take over as sheriff. I'd scrutinize the real estate agent's law enforcement credentials given the town's alarming (though only to us) murder rate, but Amos is essentially Pooh Bear with a badge, so ...
Amos and Harry determine that Beverly's death was purely accidental, a clear case of maritime misadventure. Harry bemoans the TV's frayed cord, something he warned the young woman about not long ago. Add in the locked door and not even Jessica Fletcher could turn this one into a homicide, they muse. Satisfied, Amos heads home to get his fishing gear out of storage and prepares to make the Boston Red Sox his entire personality. It's retirement time!
Rumours by Fleetwood Mac
It's not long before Jessica's attempting to reverse-engineer the murder with a bit of electrical cable. This is why we love her. Seth does too, busy at work repairing her medieval toaster at the kitchen table. He nearly loses a finger probing into the mechanism. If the scene didn't cut where it does we'd likely see his face covered in soot like an exploded Yosemite Sam.
Jessica is surprised to find a young dweeb named Michael Digby (Stevenson) at her door, eager to move in. Michael is a travel writer here to scout a book on Cabot Cove. Unfortunately their mutual publisher failed to tell Jess he was coming. Michael is disturbingly pleasant with very little self awareness. He's keen to put Cabot Cove on the map as he did with other small towns. Jessica greets this prospect with some trepidation, ever proud of her town, but wary of external forces encroaching on the quiet community.
Get your jokes out now. She doesn't want anyone spoiling her little murder sanctuary. I've heard them all and I won't have it!
Part of me wonders whether, in some earlier draft, Michael's role was fulfilled by Grady. Perhaps Michael Horton was unavailable? We do unfortunately see Grady later in the season. Michael mostly serves to ferret information out of Lila Norris, played by Betsy Palmer (a panelist on I've Got a Secret and, in one of Hollywood's coolest second chapters, Jason's mom in the Friday the 13th movies). I could easily see a hapless Grady feigning drunk to fish intel from a raspy cougar.
Jessica's toaster ends up down at the wharf with local repairman Larry Burns (Carson). Larry seemingly operates in the open air right on the docks next to a guy scaling fish. This is mostly so we can cover much of what's about to open with a wide shot. Beverly's broken-hearted boyfriend, Adam (Carson) confronts Larry, insistent that she'd still be alive if it weren't for his shoddy work on the TV set. Nils (Miller) — a crusty fisherman replacement for last season's crusty fisherman Ethan — steps in and hurls Adam into the cove for a cooling off.
The casting here is wild to me. The actors playing Adam and Nils are nearly identical, same dirty-blonde hair and mustache. They could be brothers. Nils is just taller.
It's around this time that neighbors start chewing out neighbors. Literally. Two locals in adjacent gardens hiss allegations. A town busybody nearly shoves Jessica off a cliff with accusations she's been carousing with her husband.
Harry's inundated with complaints. He's got a basket full of anonymous letters filled with wild innuendo. It seems like everyone in town's received one and it's got them at each other's throats.
A woman named Elvira Trees visits the sheriff's office to make a similar complaint, but is alarmed when she discovers there are so many letters in circulation. She essentially implicates herself before changing her mind and making a quick exit. Soon enough, Jessica and Michael find her hanging from a tree in her front yard.
While they wait for the police to arrive, Jessica waltzes into the woman's house and finds a supposed suicide note implicating Elvira in the gossip-mongering, the makings of those anonymous letters, and evidence that she suffered from severe arthritis. Could someone with such an affliction compose all those letters? Could she tie a hangman's knot?
Goddamnit, Harry
Jessica disturbs two crime scenes in this one, pretty egregiously. It's just as well because the man responsible for investigating is the same man who committed the murders.
Well, there's a reason this is the end of the Harry Pierce Saga. Not only is Harry responsible for Beverly's murder, but he also killed Elvira and staged it as a suicide (which is horrifying to think about). He even burned down the old lighthouse, which ultimately paved the way to the murder in that episode (though we can't pin that one on him directly).
Yes, he and Beverly were in on the arson together, though it was Harry who did the deed and made sure the deal could go through for the apartment complex. After that fell through, Beverly attempted to cut Harry from the payout. She arranged for Elvira to mail an anonymous letter from out of town, implicating Harry for the arson. Elvira was routinely traveling away for medical treatment anyway, intent on hiding the fact from her daughter. Oddly, Harry was aware of this scheme all save for the intended recipient of the letter, Sherif. And like, why wouldn't it be the sheriff? Anyway, Harry decided to counter this by flooding the mailboxes of Cabot Cove with his own anonymous letters filled with hairbrained rumours, thereby calling the legitimacy of Beverly's letter into question. Agatha Christie played with a similar idea in one of her Miss Marple novels, The Moving Finger. Beverly and Elvira were loose ends, and he killed them.
Jessica confronts Harry in Beverly's basement, pointing to the shavings from the peephole he'd drilled through the ceiling into the bathroom. He also messed up by mentioning the "frayed" electrical cable, which had actually been fixed. We can also surmise that Mrs. Voorhees ratted him out to Michael. Harry plays to Jessica's sentimentality, pointing out he sold Jessica her house and had been lodge brothers with Frank. Jessica's clearly heartbroken, but doesn't waver. Thankfully when the weasel raises his weapon, Amos and Seth are there to stop him. Cutting it a little close, gang!
That's it for Harry Pierce and his time on the show. This one hurts, not just because John Astin is such a delightful presence, even as a crook. This is such a betrayal. A Cabot Cove local we've watched across multiple episodes actually turned out to be the killer! That never happens. It's always someone we're meeting for the first time. Harry's the heartbreaking exception.
In the end, Michael Digby agrees not to write about Cabot Cove. He tells Jessica he doesn't want its tranquility disturbed by outside attention, but it's probably out of fear. This town's not for the faint of heart. Thankfully, though, they've got Amos Tupper back behind the badge — at least for a couple more seasons.
Next week, someone drowns in an arid region!
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