Congresswoman J. B. Fletcher

I probably first really started liking mysteries while watching Murder, She Wrote, Sunday nights, growing up. For some reason my parents let me watch this show, even though I distinctly remember having nightmares (especially after one episode with a hung man, which was somehow more disturbing than the blood, knives, guns, and poison.) This was also ironic as, at different points, I was not allowed to watch the Simpson’s or Roseanne. I think they figured anything with Angela Lansbury had to be ok.

Netflix Watch Instantly, being the great invention that it is, has allowed me to revisit these episodes, a couple of decades wiser, with a few more mysteries under my belt.

I'll start with the first one that takes place in D.C. Of course, this is where Jessica plays a congresswoman. Yes, this makes sense so far….

We start in a shady room in the Watergate with politicians and lobbyists discussing a cannery bill. There is yelling about making reports to committees and then Congressman Joyner from Maine gets too excited, has a heart attack and dies! A young, blond woman, stands behind a door and takes pictures with a spy-like small camera. There is a decision not to call an ambulance.

Fade out and then we see a landscape view of beautiful Cabot Cove, Maine! Jessica is in her house having a friendly conversation on the phone about voter registration (she is very popular) when she is interrupted by a politico type. He says the governor has asked her to serve as an interim congresswoman while they figure out who runs next or something. J.B. is cool and all, but no, this doesn't make much sense.

Joe, her PR rep, picks her up in D.C. (I’m guessing she flew to National, I like that airport better than Dulles), and they drive by the White House--oohh, awww. He's friendly, but I guess a bit dismissive, and she firmly lets him know that actually, she is not his aunt for East Nowhere, and he better start treating her with some freaking respect! But she says it in such a nice way, they laugh together about it. (I sort of love J.B.)

On the way to her office she meets a man on one of her committees, Dan Kemptner. He was also in the hotel room! The plot thickens.

Jessica then see’s her office and meets her administrative assistant, who tries to resign, since a new congressperson is supposed to appoint his or her people (except she'll only be there for a few weeks, people). Jessica will have none of this poppycock, insisting Congressman Joyner's staff will suit her just fine. A sleazy man comes in to give her flowers and ask her out to dinner. When he leaves, we find out he's a lobbyist (Harry Parnell) for Pendrick food, dun dun dun!
At the hotel, a large bearded man in the foreground looks like he's unusually interested in J.B. as she checks-in in the background.

Then we see Dan Kemptner at a bar while he calls J.B. from a phone book. He has to talk to her; they agree to meet for breakfast. When he walks out of the bar, the blond girl from the Watergate party, Marta Craig, stops him and shows him the pictures she took.
Back at Jess's hotel, the large bearded man follows Jessica around, until she tricks him, sneaks up behind him and asks assertively who he is and why is he following her! She's so good! He looks a little embarrassed and admits he needs her help in figuring out who "killed" congressman Joyner.

Next they are sitting and he is massaging his feet and telling her he's a Police Lieutenant. He says that Joyner's body was definitely moved. And while the coroner says it was a heart attack, he still thinks something is up. He then complains about his back pain. (He has physical issues the whole episode, back pain, stomach aches, cramps, while he also talks about how his brothers are Rabbis, and his Cousin runs a deli and makes lox, and, spoiler, in the end they fade out to fiddler on the roof…So I guess the writers enjoy Jewish stereotypes and clichés or something? Bleh, I guess MSW can't be completely perfect.)

Cut to Dan in a "D.C." alley. He comes to and realizes he doesn’t have his wallet. As he disoriently (I made that word up) looks for it, the police pick him up.
The Lieutenant finds Marta Craig's key in Dan's pocket. Marta, the blond girl that confronted him, was found murdered last night and they found Dan’s jacket on the scene.
Back at Congress, J.B., trying to sniff out the first mystery, asks Diana where Joyner was supposed to be the night he died. Harry Parnell, the lobbyist, invited him to a party, but Joyner turned him down.

As J.B. and Diana rush to a committee meeting, Thor Danzanger, with an ecological organization, stops Jessica to ask if she’ll look over stuff on the Canary bill. Diana shoos him away and J.B. is concerned that they were rude. (oh J.B.)

At the committee meeting, J.B. remembers that Dan never met her for breakfast like they were supposed to. He's not at the committee meeting either! J.B. also doesn't like how the Pendrick food guy, Dickinson, who was also at the Watergate party, reads his testifying from a script. "If it’s all written out, why are we wasting each other’s time!?" The AA just says that's how we do things in D.C. Heh.

The lieutenant visits Jessica to let her know they are holding Dan for Marta Craig's murder, but he doesn't feel right about it and wants her help. (How do police in the real world do their work without J.B.?)

At the police station, Dan explains it was dumb to move Joyner’s body. (I think they did it because they weren't all supposed to be at the Watergate?) He was going to tell J.B. at breakfast. He recounts the Marta ordeal, except he can't remember what bar he was coming out of. (As a kid, this is the kind of thing I'd buy. But now it’s hard to swallow, I mean, don't you at least know what part of town you were in and can deduce where you might have been?) He swears he didn't kill her, so of course we know he didn't.

They go to see the corpse. (J.B. shields us from the image though) Marta was beat. :-/ However, Jess deduces that the blood and makeup on Dan’s shirt, and the blood on his hands, show he DIDN'T beat Marta. He would have makeup on his hands and more blood on his shirt. She demonstrated that if the killer, who would have had blood and makeup on his hands, grabbed Dan from behind to move him to the alley, the marks would be right where they are.

The lieutenant is impressed and says she should have been a cop, she says she is, when she's at the typewriter. He says solemnly "you're not at the typewriter now." I know this is the first season, but she's already solved like 8 murders before this episode. You’d think she'd realize she's good at it (or that a Cabot Cove serial killer follows her on all her trips, kills someone around her, and successfully frames someone else for the job…)

JB, now convinced that Dan was framed, sends PR Joe to find out all he can about this Marta girl.
At a politico D.C. bar, Harry confronts Dickinson, (these are the Pendrick Food Company guys from the Watergate party…I know, it’s hard to remember all these character, but we must as one of them is the killer!) Harry insinuates that Dickinson might have killed Marta.
Oh, and now we see Diana and Thor have a thing going’ on. In Diana's apartment, they talk about Marta, and he shows her pictures he got, of him in bed, passed out, with Marta leaning over him seductively. He says they were faked, and Diana believes him. They came with a note that says something like, ‘stay away from J.B. or else….’

The lieutenant and J.B. look around Marta's lavish 80s apartment. She has a rap sheet: extortion, etc. J.B. notices that Diana is in a Brighton University cheerleading picture with Marta!!!

To get more clues, she has lunch with Miss Shepherd, a gossip journalist I guess, who brings her cat to lunch (I love cats, but really?). She teaches Jess about “this town” and says everyone responds to clout and that back scratching is a must. (Yeah, those things only happen in D.C.) She also has info; at the Watergate, the night Marta died, she saw Marta run outside, upset, and that Dickson ran out to bring her back in. She says she saw this in her car about a block away. That confusing intersection by the stone gas station probably!!!

Later, in J.B.’s office, Joe says meetings with Kay Shepherd don’t go unnoticed in this town. (I've never heard of this lady and I was born in D.C., so obviously she's not that cool…or she's fictional, which is probably more likely.) Joe then gives a cursory break down of Marta and says Diana called in sick.

Dan comes in after Joe leaves, he was released from jail. He tells her he’s not going to seek reelection, except then J.B. talks him out of it! Or into it? Anyway, decided to run. (She is so influential with people she has just met). Then they hug. :)

Jessica goes to Diana’s apartment, even though she's "sick" but really she knows that Thor, from the environmental group, is there. She admits it was a guess though (I don’t think J.B. every really ‘guesses’). He wore a Brighton University symbol on his tie, so she looked up an old yearbook at the library of congress and found out Diana, Marta, and Thor, all went to school together. Since they made such a production of not liking each other (remember the rudeness), she figured they must be having sex…ok, well she didn't put it quite that bluntly. They explain they used to be friends with Marta, but that she got in with the wrong crowd…like lobbyists….
They didn't reveal their connection to her because of the fake photo.

By the way, when people in the 80s say a photo is fake, they mean Marta tricked Thor into coming to her apartment, then drugged him, then had someone take pictures while he was unconscious and in bed with her. That’s not really “fake.” I meant, it did happen, the photo itself is real?

Later, Joe has more research on Marta and he tells Jessica what Marta did that night that she picked Dan up outside of Stockhom’s Bar.

After talking to Dickinson, she calls Joe in. She suspects Dickinson murdered Marta and probably took the pictures Marta had too. They have just got to get inside Dickinson's penthouse to find out more! Well, right after this important congress committee meeting.

Dan is semi-filibustering until Jess can get there. She rushes in and kicks some ass while voting against the mean old corporate people who want to build a new cannery in an environmentally sensitive area, even though they've already abandoned two canneries in Maine…stupid corporations. She gets cheers from the people in the committee room and the bill doesn’t pass.

At the Watergate, we see Joe going into a penthouse. He rushes to a desk and tries to plant an envelope in Dickinson’s desk, which is a little obvious. But then the lieutenant and J.B. get him!
She explains that she was pretty sure Marta was murdered by the person she was working for. She says Joe was no longer wearing his fancy suede driving gloves, so he probably was wearing them when he beat her. That will never hold up in court. Luckily, Jessica has more. Joe slipped and said that Marta picked up Dan at Stockohms Bar, since Dan forgot what bar he was at, Joe could only have known this by talking to Marta that night.

Joe angrily says he's no different than anyone else in D.C! She says that she still thinks that many people in D.C. are good. The lieutenant then offers to take her to a deli that makes great lox, and, as I said, they close to fiddler on the roof. Oy.