DIAGNOSIS MURDER: MURDER TWO {PART 2 OF 2} (TV)
Summary
One in this series of mystery programs about Dr. Mark Sloan, a physician at Community General Hospital who enjoys solving murder cases with the help of his son, Steve, a homicide detective.
Continued from B:54710. Debbie is distraught over accidentally killing her husband. Matlock thanks her and thinks that Jack killed Spindler, but doesn’t know why. The next day Dr. Sloan comes to see Matlock, who reveals what he found in the envelope: the newspaper clippings and a video tape of news footage showing Barry McCarthy, Paula’s husband, being arrested for her murder as Jack looks on. He theorizes that Jack stole the tape back from Spindler and posits a connection between the McCarthy and Spindler murders.
Matlock and Dr. Sloan see Barry in prison, asking him about the night of Paula’s murder. He recounts what he remembers: he was out at a bar with Paula, Jack, and Debbie when he saw Paula flirting with another man. He became enraged and physically dragged her out of the bar. They got into a fistfight in the parking lot. He recounts taking her back to their motel and hitting her again before leaving to drink. He says that when he returned, Paula was dead and the police were waiting for him.
Amanda and Steve investigate the McCarthy case further, and find that the evidence implicating Barry appears to have been manufactured, specifically the presence of his blood and hair at the scene of Paula’s murder. Dr. Sloan finds out that Spindler assisted in surgery that Barry had at Community General Hospital, and could have obtained blood and hair samples from him then, allowing Jack to frame Barry. Still, they cannot discern a possible motive for the crime.
Matlock meets with Debbie and tells her he believes Jack broke into Spindler’s house to steal the newspaper clippings and video tape. He shows her a photograph of Jack taken by the hospital security cameras on the day that Barry was operated on and tells her of his suspicions that Jack cooperated with Spindler in stealing Barry’s hair and blood samples. Matlock and Debbie ask the district attorney to re-open the McCarthy murder case. Debbie tells reporters that she believes her sister was murdered over money; Matlock and Dr. Sloan have doubts about this statement.
Amanda comforts Jesse, who doubts that Matlock will be able to free him. Jeri claims that she doesn’t recognize Paula, Debbie, or Jack. At Jesse’s murder trial, Matlock does not cross-examine Captain Bryant, much to Jesse’s discomfort. Debbie goes to the stand and Matlock questions her about Paula’s murder. Matlock raises suspicions about Debbie’s motives for introducing the man who flirted with Paula to her on the night of her death, given that Barry was known to have a history of being jealous. He accuses her of collaborating with Jack in the framing of Barry.
When Matlock points out the call made from Debbie’s phone to Spindler, she claims it was Jack who made the call. Matlock brings out a receipt for a hotel stay in Vancouver credited to Jack on the day the call was made, thus invalidating him as the caller. Furthermore, Matlock believes Debbie told Jack to kill him so she could “accidentally” kill Jack under the pretense of saving Matlock’s life, and thus frame Jack for Spindler’s murder. She claims that she did not make the call to Spindler because she was on a plane to Mexico at the time. Matlock ceases questioning and privately admits to Jesse that he thinks she’s telling the truth.
Steve, Matlock, Amanda, and Dr. Sloan investigate Debbie’s history. Amanda realizes that Jack’s hometown sounds familiar. They go to investigate Jesse’s apartment and discover a broken wicker chair on his patio, suggesting someone used it to climb through his window. In court, Jeri is called to the stand and Matlock questions her. She recounts how she found Spindler’s dead body and her status as the now-discounted prime suspect in his murder. It turns out that Jeri is not only from the same hometown as Jack, but that they were in the same Spanish class in high school, making her previous claim that she didn’t know him false. Matlock accuses her of being the insider at the hospital who obtained Barry’s hair and blood samples.
He goes on to hypothesize that Spindler saw her talking to Jack at the hospital and got suspicious, and that she killed him to prevent him from discovering the truth. Jeri intentionally made it seem that she had arrived hours after his death, when she actually more quietly killed him hours before she elaborately staged her loud, violent encounter with his dead body. She denies everything, but Matlock produces records showing that she was in Santa Barbara on the day the call was made to Spindler, and he supposes that she was waiting for Debbie to return from Mexico, the only place where she could obtain monocaine, the poison used to kill Spindler. Furthermore, he accuses her of breaking into Jesse’s apartment to frame him for the murder; the broken chair is presented as evidence and blood of her type is discovered on it.
Matlock’s skill in the courtroom convicts Jeri and frees Jesse. Dr. Sloan throws a party at his house where Jesse celebrates his freedom. Matlock arrives late and reveals that years ago Dr. Sloan convinced Matlock to invest his life savings in 8-track tapes, which failed miserably. Matlock has hung this slight over Dr. Sloan’s head for years, but they are quick to forgive each other. The episode ends as Matlock and Dr. Sloan spend time entertaining sick children. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: CBS
- DATE: February 6, 1997 8:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:44:44
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:54711
- GENRE: Drama, medical; Drama, mystery/suspense; Drama, police/private detective
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, medical; Drama, mystery; Drama, police/private detective
- SERIES RUN: CBS - TV series, 1993-2001
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Dean Hargrove … Executive Producer
- Fred Silverman … Executive Producer
- Tom Chehak … Executive Producer
- Dick Van Dyke … Executive Producer
- Gerald Sanoff … Executive Producer, Writer
- Joel Steiger … Executive Producer, Writer
- Steve Hattman … Co-Executive Producer
- Barry Steinberg … Producer
- Robin Madden … Co-Producer
- Lee Goldberg … Supervising Producer
- William Rabkin … Supervising Producer
- Christopher Hibler … Director
- Peter Myers … Music by
- Dick DeBenedictis … Theme Music by
- Dick Van Dyke … Cast, Dr. Mark Sloan
- Victoria Rowell … Cast, Amanda Bentley-Livingston
- Charlie Schlatter … Cast, Dr. Jesse Travis
- Michael Tucci … Cast, Norman Briggs
- Barry Van Dyke … Cast, Steve Sloan
- Andy Griffith … Cast, Ben Matlock
- Thom Barry … Cast, Captain Phil Bryant
- Kevin Cooney … Cast, Edward Price
- Susan Diol … Cast, Jeri Murdico
- H. Richard Greene … Cast, D. A.
- Mark Kiely … Cast, Dr. Eric Spindler
- Michael C. Mahon … Cast, Barry McCarthy
- Jennifer Sommerfield … Cast, Debbie Gardner
- Paula Coburn … Cast, Press
- Jim Jansen … Cast, Judge Douglas Karp
- Joe Ochman … Cast, Press
- Richard Ruyle … Cast, Detective Gifford
- Spike Silver … Cast, Jack Gardner
- Gregory White … Cast, Charlie