Episode 7 - "A Lady in the Lake"
This is a pretty good one - Jessica takes a retreat at a remote inn to do research for a new novel, and joins an eccentric cast of characters that includes two couples, a bird watcher, a nature lover, a womanizing boat guy, and more. Meanwhile, the inn owner is pressured by Harry Pierce (Cabot Cove realtor) into buying (?) the property; I guess the implication is she's renting now? That subplot was never very clear.
Anyway, this pastoral idyll goes to hell in a picnic basket when one of the wives is seemingly murdered right before Jessica's eyes, pushed from a boat in the middle of a lake. But when it's quickly revealed that she was a champion swimmer, and her body doesn't turn up right away, Jessica starts having second thoughts, and no one is immune from her scrutiny.
Harry Pierce is, again, played by John Astin, although his character arc will soon come to an end. Birdwatcher Burton is played by William Christopher, who many will recognize as Father Mulcahy on M*A*S*H. Other guests include TV veteran Lee Meriwether, Susan Blanchard (They Live, Prince of Darkness), her real-life husband Charles Frank (The Right Stuff), and Lee Purcell (Valley Girl).
Episode 8 - "Dead Heat"
The obligatory race track mystery; I don't know why, but every detective seems bound to end up investigating a murder involving horses at some point. Famously, Sherlock Holmes and the Silver Blaze case; or the novels of Dick Francis. Here, Jessica comes to the "Hybiscus Park" race track to visit yet another niece, Tracy, who is a jockey.
When one of the regular jockeys, Carlos, comes down with a severe stomach ailment, Tracy is tapped to race her first big race - and she wins! But soon there is a murder in the stalls, and Jessica must sort out a cast of characters including a (very) low-level mobster, a shady veterinarian, and a menacing track security chief.
The (very) low-level mobster is played by Norman Fells, aka Mr Roper on Three's Company. He's joined by the lovely Priscilla Barnes, aka Terri on Three's Company. Seeing them together is kind of ... trippy (sorry, bad Three's Company pun). Rounding out the cast is Bert Rosario (maybe best known as the Panamanian bank president in the movie Blow), and the great Clu Gulager, who makes his second appearance on Murder, She Wrote and is still active making low-budget horror films.
Episode 9 - "Jessica Behind Bars"
This is an oddball, and I couldn't decide if I liked it or hated it. Jessica visits a women's prison to teach a class on writing. but things go south REAL quick when the prison doctor is found dead by morphine overdose. The prison riots, Jessica is trapped in their midst, and one of the prisoners is hell-bent on breaking out. Jessica has to very quickly conduct an entire investigation and convince the other prisoners not to attempt an escape which would surely get them all slaughtered.
The pacing here is really poor, the show can't decide if there is real danger present or not, and the prisoners are annoyingly one-note. Too bad, because the setting is unique and some of the actors are quite good. Perhaps most notable is the stupendous Adrienne Barbeau as the meanest prisoner - she has a large and memorable part in the action classic Escape From New York. The other big player here is Vera Miles, the famous beauty known for the leading role in Psycho (1960). Also present is Eve Plumb, popularly known as Jan Brady from The Brady Bunch.
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