Hello, and welcome to Part 2 of my Lovers and Other Killers episode guide. If you haven’t already seen it, I recommend starting with Part 1.
There are four parts to this episode guide:
- Part 1 is a introduction, including the setting, characters, and context of the episode.
- This is Part 2, a detailed timeline of the episode’s events.
- Part 3 is my analysis of the episode.
- Part 4 is a collection of fun extras that I like to call Bonus Features.
The Timeline
With the exception of the opening and closing scenes, the events of this episode take place over a five day period.
One Fateful Night a Week or So Beforehand
Allison Brevard, a woman of wealth and maturity, is strangled by a masked intruder in her Seattle townhouse. This opening scene sets an unusually dark and menacing tone for the episode. The scenario is more realistic, and therefore scarier, than a typical MSW murder, although the acting puts it a little over the top.
Meanwhile, and not shown, Edmund and Lila spend the evening together at the Lumberjack Inn. Shortly before midnight, on their way back to town, they encounter a dark colored car driving erratically.
Day 1 – Sunday
Sunday Morning
Instead of her editor, Marilyn Dean, Jessica arrives with the most adorable baby (and two nearly as adorable nuns). Jessica’s just one of those people you’d immediately trust with a baby, I guess.
After old friend and Dean of Students Edmund Gerard begins to worry, Jessica deplanes from Boston flight 507.
Fun Fact 1
Elizabeth Taylor exists in the MSW universe.
Fun Fact 2
Angela Lansbury and Elizabeth Taylor were lifelong friends, beginning with National Velvet (1944).
Sunday Afternoon
It’s a lively Sunday afternoon on campus. Amelia must have come in specially to give Jessica the VIP treatment.
The sun is still shining on Drumheller Fountain later that afternoon, when Jessica turns down Edmund’s offer to stay at his place. They reminisce about Saturday nights at Kappa Gamma Chi with Frank Fletcher, before Jessica and Frank were married.
Sunday EVening
David Tolliver uses his charm and skills in a very calculated way to persuade Jessica to hire him as her secretary, something I discuss further in Part 3.
In this scene with David, Jessica is in her hotel room, wearing a robe, which conveys vulnerability and intimacy.
I invite you to compare it with another scene in a hotel room with a robe and a younger man, from S1 E4: Hooray for Hollywood, in which Angela uses a robe to convey a sense of intimacy, but also one of ease, rather than vulnerability.
Day 2 – Monday
Monday Morning
Not shown: David returns to Jessica’s hotel suite to begin his work as her secretary, presumably at the agreed upon 10 am.
Monday Afternoon
Jessica’s series of guest lectures begins with a bang. We learn that Professor Lowery’s wife, Emily, is very tough to fool. Edmund has to bail on his dinner plans with Jessica to attend a faculty meeting.
Monday Evening
At nearly 7 pm, David persuades Jessica to join him for a fancy schmancy Chateaubriand dinner. Afterwards, Lt. Andrews requests David accompany him to Seattle PD HQ for some “routine” questioning about the murder of Allison Brevard.
Monday Night
After two hours’ questioning at PD HQ in the historic and picturesque Yesler Building, David is finally able to return Jessica to her hotel in his shiny red 1984 Alfa Romeo Spider Convertible. Jessica notices they are being tailed by an unmarked car.
Incidentally, the Sacred Circle Gallery is still a going concern, although it’s no longer located in Pioneer Square.
Day 3 – Tuesday
Tuesday Morning
Early the next day, Jessica returns to Pioneer Square ISO Lt. Andrews. We get a brief glimpse of his humanity (Bagel! Coffee! Sports Page!).
Jessica volunteers some pert observations and Andrews offers some unsolicited advice. Jessica says she’s been in town for two days, which tracks. Neither party enjoys the exchange, but both seem to agree that David doesn’t seem like a killer.
Jessica cabs back to her hotel, where she is unpleasantly surprised to find David availing himself of the amenities.
Did he rifle through her briefcase, and then leave it unlatched and colorfully askew? We’ll never know for sure, but it’s definitely time for Jessica to set some important boundaries.
Tuesday Afternoon
Back on campus for her afternoon lecture, Jessica’s attitude about David seems to do a 180 in the face of Edmund’s suspicions and admonitions. Maybe she realizes she’s rushing to judgement just like Edmund, or maybe she’s piqued that for the second time that day, another man is misconstruing her relationship with David. Whatever the reason, she decides to continue to employ him as her secretary, despite his murky connections to a murdered woman.
Tuesday Evening
At a very dated stock footage dive bar, Lila uses the payphone to plan a meetup with Jessica, and we get to see how much of a jerk her estranged husband is. Jack is jealous of another man, but he doesn’t say who.
Incidentally, this is Jessica’s second trip to the west coast for which she packed multiple robes. She wears the same travel outfit coming and going (see Plot Devices: Bookends in Part 4). So, the necessity of travel wardrobe economies is not unknown to her. She just prioritizes loungewear. And this robe seems to be a favorite, since she also wears it in S1 E4: Hooray for Homicide.
Tuesday NIght
At 10 pm, down by the docks, Jessica warily enters abandoned warehouse 33. In a world before cell phones, she has the sense to ask the cab driver to wait. A dark car drives off, and poor Lila dies before she can tell Jessica anything.
After learning the reason for Jessica and Lila’s assignation, Lt. Andrews immediately suspects David of Lila’s murder. However, David was under police surveillance all night, and he’s in the clear. Back at PD HQ, David claims that he was with Lila the night Allison Brevard was killed, and that jealous husband Jack must have killed Lila.
Bell Street Pier 66 (the actual location of the fictitious “Warehouse 33”) was reconstructed in the 1990’s and is now a glam tourist spot and cruise ship depot.
Day 4 – Wednesday
Wednesday Morning
Not shown: After yet another long night at PD HQ, David resumes his work as Jessica’s secretary, presumably at the previously agreed upon 10 am.
Wednesday Afternoon
Back on campus for another lecture, Jessica first stops by Dean Gerard’s office, and has a cringey heart to heart with Amelia about Edmund. They also talk about David, and crucially, that Jessica still thinks he’s innocent.
Jessica’s next stop is what appears to be the Sequoia University men’s gym. Whatever Jack felt for Lila while she lived, he’s not exactly prostrate with grief the day after her murder. Instead of asking Jack about his alibi for the previous night, Jessica is more interested in finding out who Lila was seeing. According to Jack, David was just a friend. And Todd Lowery? Jessica seems to just be fishing at this point, and Jack declines to answer.
Jessica’s interview with Jack makes her late for class. Her lecture devolves into a combative, intense and utterly unprofessional repartee with Professor Lowery. It takes poor Todd a hot minute to realize that Jessica suspects him in Lila’s murder. The audience might also need that time to catch up. Until this point, the only indication that there was anything between Todd and Lila was a very friendly wave and the suggestion that they left Jessica’s lecture on Monday arm in arm.
Wednesday Night
Jessica returns to her hotel to find a note from David. Professor Lowery wants to meet her at his office at 9 pm. Mysterious nighttime assignations are irresistible to our lady. What could go wrong?
Of course, in a scene worthy of the opening credits, as she ascends to the dimly lit third floor of the Sequoia University English building, Jessica is pushed down a flight of stairs by a shadowy figure. Fortunately, and suspiciously, David is on the spot to help Jessica get medical attention.
In a hospital room scene worthy of the frothiest soap opera, Edmund confronts David over Jessica’s sick bed. It was Edmund, and not David, who spent the night of Allison Brevard’s murder with the ravishing and unfortunate Lila.
Day 5 – Thursday
Thursday Morning
In the shadow of the Space Needle‘s midcentury optimism, we learn that David has confessed to asking Lila to lie to Jessica and provide him an alibi for the night of Allison’s murder. It is implied that he remains in police custody, although we don’t know if he is formally arrested.
Jessica and Edmund confer over an open air brunch. Although Jessica does her best to telegraph a quiet disdain for the cold coffee, I mean, the vulgar details, Edmund insists on telling her about his relationship with Lila.
And Jessica’s quiet disdain is the very least Edmund deserves. By his own telling, when a teaching assistant appealed to him, the Dean of Students, for help extricating herself from a nonconsensual affair with a faculty member, he instead pursued a sexual relationship with her. Even in 1984, before third wave feminism, this abuse of his authority and the fallout would have been a career ending scandal.
After his morning lecture, Jessica makes amends with Professor Lowery. All’s well that ends well with Todd. He’s patching things up with his wife, who’s a great gal.
On the quad, Lt. Andrews meets Jessica to tell her David has been released from police custody. A burglar has confessed to killing Allison Brevard.
Creepy David has once again invited himself into Jessica’s suite; and this time its definitely trespassing. Jessica is done giving David the benefit of the doubt, except maybe he’s telling the truth about that suspicious phone call.
Thursday Afternoon
Edmund doesn’t have an alibi for the time of Lila’s murder. Jessica baits her longshoreman’s hook accordingly, and catches a killer.
Some Days Later
Jessica departs from the Seattle airport, but not before one last unwanted and intense exchange with David.
Part 3: Analysis
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