Fair Warning
This episode guide is a deep dive into the details of Murder She Wrote S1 E2, “Deadly Lady.” There will be spoilers. There will be what passes for comparative literature here at MSWSW. I recommend you grab a bite and watch the episode before continuing.
“Rage, Blow, You Cataracts and Hurricanoes”
Welcome to the first Cabot Cove episode of MSW! It opens dramatically, on a dark and stormy night. The MSW writers are still fresh and full of ambition. After taking on Sir Conan Doyle in the series premiere, they move right on to Shakespeare in the second episode. “Deadly Lady” doesn’t quite merit being called a modern retelling of King Lear; it’s a very standard MSW episode with a heaping measure of Lear flavor in the mix. The very first notable Lear element is the hurricane, which Ethan calls a “deadly lady.”
Where in the World is… Cabot Cove?
We get a few indirect clues about Cabot Cove’s geographic location in this episode. Check out this post for more details. Or, take a stroll around town.
When are We?
My work on a canon MSW timeline continues this episode.
Air Date
In the absence of in-episode information to the contrary, I assume that the events in question occur prior, but as close as possible to, the initial air date of the episode. “Deadly Lady” first aired on October 7, 1984.
Hurricane Season
The episode opens with a hurricane. Atlantic hurricane season is June 1st – November 30th.
Sunset
After dinner with Ralph on the evening of the murder, Jessica’s kitchen clock reads 7:10, and there’s still enough daylight left for Jessica to make it to Ethan’s boat before dark. Using sunset times for Portland, Maine, this narrows the possible time period further, to June – August.
Sunrise
Terry Jones states that Nan was with him in Portland until 4 a.m., just before dawn. This piece of information doesn’t help us any further, however, as the earliest the sun rises in Portland is 4:58 a.m., in mid-June. How long before dawn is “just before dawn”? I don’t know, but someone should tell poor Nan that’s when it’s always darkest.
The Oeuvre of J.B. Fletcher
In this episode, we learn that one of Jessica’s novels, Dirge for a Dead Dachshund, is in pre-publication. In S1 E8 – “We’re Off to Kill the Wizard,” Dirge has been published. The MSWSW timeframe for “We’re Off to Kill the Wizard” is July 21 – 26, 1984, so “Deadly Lady” must have taken place before then.
The Days of the Week
We’ll do a deep dive into the timeline shortly, but for our purposes here, it suffices that the events of “Deadly Lady” begin on a Wednesday and end on a Sunday. This gives us a window beginning with the first Wednesday of hurricane season, June 6th, 1984, and ending with July 15th, 1984, the last Sunday before the events of “We’re Off to Kill the Wizard.”
The Players
In the order we meet them:
Jessica Fletcher
The local celebrity and an unofficial police consultant, Jessica is at home and hard at work on her next bestseller.
Captain Ethan Cragg
A local man with a boat, and a good friend to have in a storm. Is he a fisherman by profession? Or does he make a living engaging in other boating endeavors? Perhaps time will tell.
Ralph a.k.a. Stephen Earl
Taking another page from Lear, the Stephen Earl assumes the guise of an ordinary drifter, “Ralph,” to avoid being recognized. His true name, Earl, is, of course, an anagram of Lear. Also, the name Stephen means “crown.” If only it had been Steven rather than Stephen; we could have anagrammed Lear Events. Stephen is the patriarch of the Earl family and has strained relationships with most of his daughters. He is lately, and possibly regretfully, retired from his cosmetics empire.
Sheriff Amos Tupper
Amos is the lawman of Cabot Cove. He begrudgingly accepts Jessica’s assistance when the case becomes more complicated than he’d like it to be.
Nancy “Nan” Earl
Nan is the youngest Earl sister and an aspiring fashion designer.
Maggie Earl
Maggie has read and enjoyed Jessica’s latest book. She’s described as a frumpy hausfrau, but the actor (Marilyn Hassett) is so young and beautiful that it’s a hard sell.
Lisa Earl Shelby
Loyal to her sisters, Lisa is also quite brusque, and nearly deserves her husband, Brian.
Grace Earl Lamont
Sad Grace will not stop talking about her long-gone husband, so much so that one begins to wonder if he’ll appear with a smoking gun. Spoiler, he does not.
Brian Shelby
Dack Rambo has a lot of fun baring his teeth as the ruthlessly ambitious Mr. Shelby.
Terry Jones
Nan’s former fiancé is just as self-interested as Brian, but more spineless than ruthless.
Repeat Offenders
If you’re a MSW fan (and if you’ve read this far, you are) I’m sure you’ve recognized a few actors who appear multiple times throughout the series, but in different roles. Check out The Rogues’ Gallery for more details. In addition to several of the secondary characters, above, the following supporting characters are played by actors who we’ll see again, in future episodes:
The Timeline
The events of “Deadly Lady” take place over the course of a five-day period.
Wednesday
Aboard the Earl family yacht, Stephen and Maggie stage Stephen’s fake death. Stephen Earl goes to shore on a raft.
Thursday
A hurricane blows through Cabot Cove. Nearby, the Earls’ yacht sends distress signals to the Coast Guard.
Friday
Morning
On her early morning run, Jessica learns that Ethan is out rescuing the distressed yacht. Hobo Ralph does yardwork and has eggs with Jessica.
At 8:15 a.m., Jessica and Ralph’s breakfast is interrupted by a phone call. Amos summons Jessica with the best line of the episode.
Jessica meets the Earl sisters. They claim that shortly after midnight, three miles due east of Monhegan Island, their father was swept overboard by the hurricane.
Midday
Around noon, Ralph uses Jessica’s line to make a phone call to Terry Jones in Paris, Kentucky. The charge is $9.97, which would be $27.22 in 2022.
Afternoon
Ralph and Jessica discuss classical music, long distance phone calls, and home repairs. Jessica’s grief over the loss of Frank is palpable as she gifts Ralph his pipe.
Brian copters into Cabot Cove and is greeted by Lisa.
Evening
Jessica makes a “boiled scrod” dinner for two. I think this may be a west coast mistranslation of traditional New England broiled scrod. Ralph smokes Frank’s pipe. Regarding children, Ralph says “blessed, ha,” by which he means “how sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have an ungrateful child.” Ralph departs.
Soon after, at 7:10 p.m., Jessica stares at the soapy vortex in her kitchen sink and realizes the Earl sisters couldn’t possibly have known their exact location in the middle of the hurricane. Jessica meets Ethan on his boat to do map and compass stuff to confirm her suspicions.
At some point between 7:10 and 10:45 p.m., Stephen Earl is killed by two shots to the chest.
Nan meets Terry Jones at the Portland airport at 7:30 p.m. They check into an airport motel at 9 p.m. Thoroughly modern Jessica clutches no pearls over this.
Night
At the Hill House hotel, the clock reads 10:45. Maggie confesses to killing her father the night before the storm (Wednesday). Maggie is taken into custody. In a continuity error that is fortunately immaterial to the plot, the same clock then reads 10:40.
Jessica sees an early edition of the Cabot Cove Tribune and realizes Ralph is Stephen Earl. He is not at her house when she and Ethan return there. Comedic music plays during the search, because lol, Jessica’s got a man in her house, but also, we’ll soon learn he was murdered, so the tone feels off to me.
Saturday
Morning
At 4 a.m. Nan leaves Portland to return to Cabot Cove.
The show briefly takes a very Stephen King turn, when, at 7 a.m., children discover Stephen Earl’s body on Cotter’s Beach. Leave the traumatized children out of my cozy, please. If I want to see children find a body, I’ll watch Stand By Me. Why 7 a.m.? Because the coroner later concludes that the body could not have been in the water more than 12 hours and places the earliest possible time of death as 7 p.m. Friday.
At 11 a.m. Terry hears about the actual death of Stephen Earl on the local television news in his Portland motel room.
Afternoon
Nan and Lisa identify their father’s (still blinking) body. (Where is Grace?) Jessica also identifies the body.
Outside the mortuary, Terry arrives and tells Nan that he flew in from Kentucky that morning, which is bullshit, and she knows it, even though the audience doesn’t yet. Continuity, people. Suggested alternative line: “As soon as I heard the news this morning, I had to come see you.” Less bogus as far as Nan is concerned, but enough of a dissemblance that Jessica can still nail his ass later.
Happy Hour
Back at Hill House, Brian and Lisa have a drink and a scene about Lisa’s family loyalty versus maximizing the Shelby portion of the estate.
Meanwhile, at the Cabot Cove Sheriff Station, Maggie explains the fake death scheme she and Stephen planned to expose Terry Jones as a fortune hunter. Jessica says she gave Frank’s pipe to Stephen Earl the night before last, but continuity again, please, it was simply the night before.
Exonerated by the coroner’s evidence about the gun and time of death, Maggie is released from custody and returns to Hill House with Lisa and Brian. (Again, where is Grace?)
Nan and Terry have a romantic walk through the cemetery, but Nan still has her doubts. Agreed. While I wouldn’t necessarily call romantic interludes at airport motels, mortuaries, and cemeteries red flags, they are certainly sad, gray flags.
Jessica then has a comparatively less romantic walk through the cemetery with Terry, during which they discuss Anglo Saxon words, and that Terry is a liar liar pants on fire.
Jessica follows Amos to Cotter’s Beach so she can read the suspicious anonymous note left for the Sheriff. At the beach, they find Stephen’s raft, and a pair of pink shoes, plus a broken heel, in the rocks by the hotel. Jessica says that the shoes belong to Nan.
Night
Back at Hill House, Nan agrees that the pink shoes are hers. In an inverted Cinderella moment, Nan puts one of the shoes on her lovely foot to prove it fits, and, at Jessica’s suggestion, agrees to be taken into custody, even though she is innocent.
Later, at the Sheriff’s station, Terry and Amos discuss possible timelines for the murder, but, to my frustration, do not come to any meaningful conclusions. Worried he, too, may fall under suspicion, Terry abandons Nan.
Later that night, Maggie, Lisa, Bart, oops, I mean Brian, and Grace return to Hill House after celebrating Maggie’s exoneration. In another mistranslation of New England culture, Brian seems to think Nathan Hale has something to do with Maine. Clearly, Mr. Shelby is not a Yalie.
Jessica is waiting in the lobby with a rather sinister looking paper bag and bad news about Nan’s arrest, which puts an end to the Earl family’s Saturday night fun.
Grace and Maggie agree to allow Jessica to search their rooms for suspicious heelless shoes. Maggie makes what I’m going to call a pink slip, and Jessica goes home for the night.
A shadowy figure breaks and enters through Jessica’s backdoor. Eek, oh no, it’s the killer!
Sunday
Jessica and Nan concur that Stephen Earl was “a man more sinn’d against than sinning.” True, since he was murdered. However, if you have poor relationships with three out of four children, I think that rests with you. Jessica puts Nan in a cab, and she sets off to, presumably, pursue her fashion career dreams.
Show Your Work
Fair Play Pause Point
The audience does not know that Jessica has solved the crime until she is sitting calmly in her darkened parlor, waiting for the intruder to reveal herself. Because of this, we get one more clue than Jessica said she needed to solve the case. Jessica actually solved the crime earlier, at the point when they find the shoes on Cotter’s Beach. And, in this case, the writers have played very fair with us. We can choose either point, on the beach or in the parlor, and solve the crime with the evidence presented to us. The only trick is that we need to figure out which suspect had motive, means, and opportunity to both (1) murder Stephen Earl and (2) attempt to frame Nan Earl.
Suspects
We begin with all members of the main cast under suspicion:
- Jessica Fletcher
- Captain Ethan Cragg
- Stephen Earl
- Sheriff Amos Tupper
- Nancy Earl
- Maggie Earl
- Lisa Earl Shelby
- Grace Earl Lamont
- Brian Shelby
- Terry Jones
Motive
Murder of Stephen Earl
None of the Cabot Cove townsfolk, Jessica, Ethan, and Amos, have motives. The four Earl sisters, Brian Shelby, and Terry Jones all stand to potentially benefit financially from Stephen’s death. Additionally, Stephen Earl’s daughters may have had personal motives to kill their father.
One could debate Stephen Earl’s frame of mind during his time in Cabot Cove. He was willing to fake his own death, after all, and seems dissatisfied in retirement. He also discusses his grief as a widower, and has strained relationships with his children.
Framing of Nan Earl
The murderer also attempted to frame Nan for the crime. Neither Nan herself nor Terry would have a reason to do this, so we can eliminate them. While Stephen could arguably have been in a suicidal mindset, he would have had no desire to frame the child he loved best, so we can eliminate him, as well.
We can also eliminate Brian Shelby here. Brian is strictly motivated by power and greed. He tells Lisa that he does not see Nan as an obstacle to his designs on the Earl cosmetics company, because Nan is planning a design career in New York. If anything, he sees Grace, and presumably, an exonerated Maggie, as threats.
Remaining Suspects
Therefore, the only suspects who may have motives for both aspects of the crime are the three older Earl sisters: Maggie, Lisa and Grace.
Opportunity
Murder of Stephen Earl
Maggie, Lisa, and Grace all had opportunity to commit the murder, based on the coroner’s timeframe: as early as 7 p.m. on Friday until the body was found at 7 a.m. Saturday morning. Even though the anonymous note implied the murder occurred at 10 p.m., the note doesn’t prove anything, nor does it matter, since none of the three have alibis until the Friday night meeting at Hill House, at about 10:45 p.m.
Framing of Nan Earl
Framing Nan for the murder was a two-step process: (1) tell Nan to go to Portland to meet Terry on Friday night, so she won’t have an alibi for the murder and (2) plant Nan’s shoes at the crime scene. Maggie, Lisa, and Grace all had time to tell Nan about Terry’s flight to Portland on Friday. The shoes could have been planted on the beach at the same time as the murder was committed.
Remaining Suspects
We can’t use opportunity to eliminate any of the remaining three suspects, because all of them had opportunity to both kill Stephen and frame Nan.
Means
Murder of Stephen Earl
The means to kill Stephen is a straightforward matter: a .32 caliber gun. It’s never found, nor is the owner identified. So, to our knowledge, all the suspects had means in terms of access to the weapon used.
Framing of Nan Earl
The means to frame Nan is two-part. First, a pair of Nan’s shoes, which would be a simple matter for anyone on the yacht or at the hotel, including all three remaining suspects. Second, knowledge of Terry’s flight to Portland on Friday evening, which is more crucial.
Based on their individual conversations with Jessica, it seems likely that Lisa did not know much about Nan and Terry’s relationship, but that Grace may have known more about Stephen’s interference. Either way, tough to eliminate either Lisa or Grace on this point. Also, Grace is, to my mind, conspicuously absent throughout the day on Saturday, which, if intentional to the plot, turns out to be a red herring.
According to Terry, Maggie told Nan about his arrival in Portland. Terry isn’t very trustworthy, but he had no reason to lie about this. In isolation, the fact that Maggie told Nan about Terry’s flight is not incriminating, because at this point in the story, we don’t know that it’s part of a larger plan to frame Nan. (It is suspicious that Maggie omitted this fact from her confession of the fake death scheme to Amos, however.)
The matter of the flight to Portland becomes more significant once Jessica discovers the shoes left conspicuously half uncovered on the beach. At that point, it’s clear that Nan was intentionally framed, and we know that Maggie is responsible.
J’accuse!
In terms of fair play, this episode delivers. We have all the information we need to solve the crime at the same time as Jessica does. And, in case we’re a little slow, this episode gives us a last extra clue before the killer is revealed, Maggie’s pink slip.
What is the point of the blue heel trap? Jessica already knew Maggie did it. Was the evidence too weak to arrest and/or convict her? As I often wonder after watching Jessica coax out a confession, if Maggie had just kept her mouth shut, would she have gotten away with it?
Although it was a tidy way to tie up the episode, I’m glad Maggie’s guilt didn’t hang on the fact that she knew Nan’s shoes were pink. Why? Well, there’s this thing about Nan’s shoes. They’re all pink, every pair.
Episode Rating
I give “Deadly Lady” 3 out of 4 stars. Not perfect, but quite good and definitely worth a watch.
Bonus Features
Do Crimes.
Murder!
- Motive: Daddy issues (revenge)
- Weapon: .32 caliber gun
- Done Deed: Murder happens offscreen.
- Body: All washed up on Cotter’s Beach
- Discovery: 23 minutes, 48% through
- Murderer(s): Maggie Earl
Other Crimes
- Pseudocide*: Stephen Earl, Maggie Earl
- Filing a false report: Maggie Earl, Lisa Earl Shelby, Grace Earl Lamont
- Breaking and entering: Maggie Earl
*Pseudocide is not technically a crime, but it’s almost impossible to fake your own death without also committing fraud, etc.
Psycho Killer
What if Jessica is a very accomplished serial killer? This time, it’s easy to see how she might have done it. Ralph unwittingly stirs up Jessica’s deep feelings of grief over the loss of her husband, Frank. Jessica’s emotions get the better of her, and she follows Ralph to the beach and shoots him. Maggie, who had planned to meet her father at the beach, witnesses his murder. Maggie’s shock and grief cause her to confuse her role in the fake death scheme with culpability for her father’s actual murder, and so it is a simple matter for Jessica to lure Maggie into a confession.
Tropes, Plot Devices, and Other Conventions
Mystery Tropes
“Deadly Lady” uses one of the most common cozy mystery tropes; a wealthy and disliked patriarch gives all his adult children reason to commit patricide. Cozy mysteries with this premise abound, but they don’t all aspire to King Lear.
Plot Devices
MSW Tropes
This is the second episode, so all the MSW tropes and conventions still seem fresh and new, even the ones that will quickly become cliché. I’ve given them all names, and I’ll tag the ones that aren’t so ubiquitous as to happen almost every episode. Yep, I’ve given them Shakespearean names, because I’m pretentious. Take me as I am.
Bait of Falsehood
Often, Jessica will (falsely) claim to have a piece of evidence to lure the murderer into making a confession. This first time, there’s a little bit of a variation, because Jessica intentionally plants a piece of evidence that she knows the murderer will find to be false.
Confess Thyself
“Deadly Lady” is the first episode in which Jessica intentionally poses as alone and defenseless, to lure the murderer into a confession. This ploy will become so frequent that it will be more remarkable when it’s not used to wrap up an episode.
Door of Truth
Many times, the one thing Jessica needs to put it all together is a seemingly unrelated comment or occurrence. This time, it’s a soapy sink vortex that makes her think of the eye of a hurricane.
I Play the Villain
There’s a stock character that turns up in many MSW episodes, and I’ll call him (it’s usually a man) the Jerk Who Isn’t The Murderer. In “Deadly Lady” that jerk is Brian Shelby, although I’ll admit I’d take Brian over Terry any day.
Smile and Smile
Speaking of remarkable when it’s not used, the final freezeframe of this episode is Ethan’s pickup truck, rather than Jessica mugging for a final laugh.
Le Mot Juste
We get some classic Jessica pushbacks this episode:
- After Brian suggests she’s being nosy about the murder: “And as for my nose, it’s right where it belongs.”
- In rejection of Terry’s benevolent sexism: “I am familiar with most Anglo-Saxon words, Mr. Jones.”
A great way to make sure you have the last word is to have a bicycle ready for a quick getaway, like Jessica. Otherwise, I feel like her exchange with Brian might have escalated in an undesirable way. By contrast, Terry, a coward, was well and truly under her thumb.
The English Teacher
I would have loved, loved, loved a Shakespearean reference from Mrs. Fletcher the English teacher this episode. Well, what’s done is done. As good luck would have it, it’s more than cold comfort to see Shakespeare himself making an appearance in her parlor.
Owning and displaying a portrait of Shakespeare might be the most English teacher-y thing ever. I wonder what The Bard thought of this episode.
Lear vs. Earl
As I’ve noted already, “Deadly Lady” makes many clear allusions to King Lear. In that vein, the writers make one very notable departure from Lear by giving Stephen Earl four daughters instead of three. I’m still pondering whether this choice makes the episode work more effectively.
We can pretty easily match three of the Earl sisters with their Lear counterparts. Nan is Cordelia, the youngest daughter with the only good relationship with her father. Lisa and Grace, the two married sisters, are Goneril and Regan. That singles out Maggie from the start, which I can’t think was the writers’ intention.
Assuming they weren’t wedded to the title “Deadly Lady,” if the writers felt the need for an additional suspect to add complexity to the narrative, why didn’t they simply include Grace’s husband, Mr. Lamont? In case you’re foggy about Lear, both Goneril and Regan’s husbands strut and fret their hour upon the stage. Further, Grace has precious little to do in “Deadly Lady.” It almost feels as if there are more daughters than the writers know what to do with.
Dear readers, it would be absolute heaven if you weighed in on this. Do four daughters make a better episode than three?
What She Wore
We’re back home in Cabot Cove, and Jessica is a bit more dressed down than she will be in later episodes. Still, she gives us a little L.L.Bean chic a couple of times.
The whale sweater is my favorite thing she wears this episode.
best look
Nan lives up to her fashion designer aspirations with her white blazer over blue and lavender here, and I love a good cuff bracelet. It’s very Miami Vice, but refined and timeless enough that it could be worn today.
Least Best Look
Grace wears competing plaids and a taupe sweater vest. I think her body language says what we’re all thinking about this look.
Interior Motives
The Hill House is in the midst of an identity crisis; the wallpaper says “aggressively beige lobby” but the drapes say “Madame Alexander boudoir.”
The Rest of the Story
In the final scene, we watch Nan get into a cab to embark on the next chapter of her life. It’s a very long cab ride, all the way to Manhattan and Nan’s dreams of a career in fashion design.
While Nan is a skilled and talented designer, it’s her father’s reputation and wealth that open doors for her. Whenever she experiences some success in her career, she can never be sure if it’s because of her talent and hard work, or her status and privilege.
Nan is overwhelmed and disheartened by the notoriety surrounding her family and the scandal of her father’s murder. She feels isolated by her wealth and unsought celebrity. Understandably, Nan also feels alienated from her sisters. She never fully recovers from Terry’s betrayal, and struggles with trust issues in her romantic relationships.
After a few years of trying to numb her pain with excess, partying, and substance abuse, Nan decides to make some changes in her life. She finds a good therapist. She gets sober. She meets someone in group, Linda, who can relate to the pain and isolation that come from belonging to an extremely wealthy and dysfunctional family. That Linda is also independently wealthy greatly eases the dynamic of their relationship, and Nan learns to trust again.
Seeking a quieter, more intentional lifestyle, Nan and Linda eventually leave the city for a very comfortable few acres in the Hamptons. In an effort to become more authentic as an artist, Nan learns knitting, sewing, and leatherworking, so she can make the physical objects she designs, and fully appreciate the craftsmanship and skill required. Neither Nan nor Linda feels equipped for parenthood, but they adopt what eventually grows into a small menagerie of rescue animals.
When Lisa and Brian’s marriage ends in a very acrimonious divorce, Nan and Linda’s home becomes a haven for Nan’s nephew, Brian Jr. Much to his parents’ dismay, Brian Jr. does not go into the family business, but instead studies theology and becomes an ordained minister. One of the highlights of the Reverend Brian Shelby Jr.’s life is the day he marries his Aunt Nancy and Auntie Linda. It’s a small, casual ceremony on a Montauk beach at sunrise. Nan and Linda’s dear friend, Ina, hosts the wedding brunch.
The Mark of the Earl Cosmetics Company is eventually bought by Unilever.
Extra Credit
Loved “Deadly Lady” so much you’re craving more? Here are my recommendations:
- Slings and Arrows: Season 3 is a thoughtful and thorough modern take on King Lear.
- Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot’s Christmas: A wealthy and disliked patriarch is done to death. There’s even a hint of pseudocide.
Murder, She Wrote, She Wrote 