In the first episode of the series, “The Murder of Sherlock Holmes,” one of Jessica’s television interviewers reveals that in The Corpse Danced at Midnight the killer is a pregnant ballerina.
It’s also implied that Corpse was about 200 pages long. This might seem a bit short, but actually would make it similar in length to typical works by Agatha Christie and Rex Stout.
Hello, and welcome to one of my favorite episodes of Murder, She Wrote. We’ll dive into all the details and identify the killers, although we won’t solve every mystery this episode presents. I recommend watching the entire episode first, preferably after sating your appetite with some fine food and drink.
There are four parts to this episode guide:
This is Part 1, an introduction that includes the setting, characters, and context within the MSW universe
Part 2 is a detailed timeline of the episode’s events
Part 4 is a collection of fun extras that I like to call Bonus Features
Seminar: Murder for Profit
Bestselling author J.B. Fletcher, at the request of an old friend, Edmund Gerard, makes her first appearance as a guest lecturer at a major university. Flattered by the invitation, she nevertheless must balance her enthusiasm for teaching with the demands of her publishing schedule. As always, things quickly turn a bit murder-y.
Port of Seattle Welcomes You
Welcome to Seattle, WA, another beautiful west coast city to add to our MSW atlas. This episode is a great study in the paradox of locational specificity when the setting is a real place (Seattle!) but not too real (Sequoia University?). On one hand, the episode is awash in Seattle landmarks and skyline views. On the other hand, look too closely and you’ll see that the fine details are obscured by a thin, somewhat absurd, veneer of fiction.
We’re in Seattle!
Fantastic skyline views!Historic Bell Street Pier 66!The Space Needle!
We’re in… a place that looks like Seattle?
Pioneer Square’s Yesler Building as PD HQThis is not, I repeat, not UW Smith Hall
Did you say Sequoia University?
Yep. The major university featured in this episode is not the University of Washington. It just bears a striking resemblance to the UW Seattle campus. While there are no direct in-episode references to the name of the university, many of the extras portraying students are wearing Sequoia University apparel.
And just to make sure there’s no mistaking this fictious major university in Seattle for UW, Professor Lowery’s final exam is going to be held in Miller Hall, and not in the previously-pictured Smith Hall.
When Are We?
The Original Airdate
In the absence of evidence to the contrary, the first guiding principal I use in my work on the MSWSW canon timeline is to place an episode’s events before, but as close as possible to, the initial airdate. This episode first aired on November 18, 1984.
Our lady has been invited as a guest lecturer specifically because she is a bestselling author. However, the only work that receives mention this episode is The Corpse Danced at Midnight, which was published in April 1984.
David Tolliver reads J.B. Fletcher’s first novel in S1 E6: “Lovers and Other Killers”
The Arts
One of the interior shots taken in Seattle’s Pioneer Square includes posters for two different cultural events.
These two events suggest a timeframe of late spring or early summer 1984, which fits within the initial post-Corpse pre-airdate timeframe of April – November 1984.
The Final Exam
Let’s return to Professor Lowery’s chalkboard:
He’s just given his class some information about their (upcoming) final exam, as follows:
English Lit. 386 Final Miller Hall, THURS. Jun 21, 2:00 Type: True/False with choice of two of three essay questions
The handwriting isn’t especially clear – it could be “Jan” instead of “Jun”, but I’m comfortable with “Jun” because it’s in keeping with the other information we have about the time of year. That includes the posters discussed above, of course. Additionally, the flora and foliage in the outdoor scenes, the way the characters are dressed throughout the episode, and Jessica and Edmund’s al fresco breakfast all suggest a warmer time of year.
That “21” could also easily be a “26”, however, it very clearly says “THURS”, and June 21, 1984 was a Thursday.
The Days of the Week
I’ll dive more deeply into the timeline in Part 2 of this episode guide, but for now I will focus on just one detail. The way the days of the week play out this episode, Lowery chalks his board on a Thursday. Since the final exam is still in the future, the latest possible day this scene could have taken place is one week before the scheduled final, or June 14, 1984.
That’s not to say it must be June 14, it could be earlier. Until and unless we get more information, I feel comfortable assigning the events of this episode to a timeframe of May to mid-June 1984.
The Lovers and the Killers
This episode’s cast of characters is remarkably compact; more so because you don’t even notice that it is so small in size, which I think is an indication of some really good writing. There are really only eight players, but I’ve also included Ms. Brevard (an uncredited role if you can believe it) because her murder is important to the episode’s plot, and because it lends symmetry to my little tableau, below.
All the lovers, et cetera, in the order we meet them:
Murder, She Wrote, She Wrote 