No fashion notes; nothing new in terms of wardrobe. Vicki looks dowdy. Liz looks elegant. Sam looks scary. We've been here before.
Lela and Ron are responsible for these two episodes.
Frank Garner is totally smitten with Vicki. If we didn't know that before, we sure know it now. Despite that fact that his client is in the poky, his first and really only concern are the attempts on Vicki's life. This seems to amuse and worry Garner Pere. It's not that Richard disapproves of Vicki per se, it's that Frank's priorities really should be with the guy who's paying them money to keep him out of prison. Also, really, how kosher is it for a lawyer to declare his belief in his client's guilt out loud in the police station?
Apparently everyone believes Roger is guilty because who else could it be? Forced by his alibi (he filled up the tank at a service station) to discard Roger, everyone's next favorite suspect is Sam. Their reason seems specious to me and they're all focusing on the car incident, but he gets called in. I was actually pretty impressed with David Ford for these scenes. He's not my favorite actor, but once again he did a nice job. Plotwise it appears that Sam knows jack about what's going on with Vicki. All he'll cop to is curiosity about the manner in which Bill Malloy died. After his meeting with Vicki at the Blue Whale he took off in the car and drove down to the beach. Bear in mind he'd been drinking so I think we can all be grateful nobody was around. Ford does a nice job with the outrage. He's a lot more palatable when he's not being mealy mouthed and drunk. In the middle of this, Frank takes off.
This would seem an opportune time to remind you all that when last the sheriff spoke with Vicki, he asked her to stay at Collinwood and to have someone with her. It should therefore come as no surprise that Miss Winters is totally unaccompanied. In fact she's looking pretty darn nervous and is turning on all the lights she can find. When someone knocks at the door, she looks totally panicked. But it's the intrepid Frank and she practically drags him into the house. They talk and she says that she can't imagine who could want to hurt her. Self awareness and Vicki are really strangers to one another.
They give it the old college try to fit Sam into this picture. Vicki mentions the manslaughter, but is inclined to discount him because of attack #1 (bedroom). Frank theorizes that Roger and Sam are acting together. Frank disappoints me a little here, but I suppose it's inevitable. Anyhow, he takes off and then there's Elizabeth, who is, as always, searching for David. Vicki volunteers to go looking for him at the Old House. Now mind you this is the same woman who has no trouble traipsing off into town at the drop of a hat, but she can't say, "I think he might be at the Old House, Mrs. Stoddard. I'd go and look for him myself, but with the attempts on my life and all, I'd feel more comfortable if someone else did that."
Nope, Our Miss Winters grabs a flashlight and heads on out to search a deserted decrepit mansion in the dark just as Elizabeth calls Matthew to a) inform him of Vicki's whereabouts and b) asks him to search by the cliffs.
Sheriff Patterson really does not care for Richard Garner. They're holding out on releasing Roger until they can confirm his alibi, which George does not seem to be in any hurry to do. In rushes Frank and wants Sam brought back in. He brings up his theory and as soon as the hit and run is mentioned, Richard quietly freaks out (yeah, he knows where the bodies are buried, alright).
So they bring Sam back in. I'm curious. Is he being brought in? Are they asking him to come in? It's all very unclear and vaguely unconstitutional. One would have thought that they would have questioned Roger about his alibi before arresting him. And are they charging him with anything? Because if they are, wouldn't Mr. Garner be able to request a bail hearing? There's some fairly ludicrous dialogue. For some reason the sheriff finds it incomprehensible that no one saw Sam on the beach. Okay, I'm never been to Maine, but correct me if I'm wrong: beach in late November after dark in Maine=pretty darn cold and pretty darn deserted, yes?
Up on the estate, we see Matthew and his lantern heading to the Old House at the same time Vicki and her flashlight are making the trip. For some reason Vicki pauses at the edge of the house (this is the film footage) and we see Matthew push an enormous stone urn which falls just shy of her feet.
I think we have an answer to Vicki's question: if it wasn't Roger than who was it?
Not realizing that it was Matthew doing an Edward Gorey on her, where does Vicki rush to? Not the house, no, that would make so much sense. She runs to Matthew's cottage. Matthew needs to do dishes in a really big way. Just thought I'd share. Matthew comes in and stops her from using the phone. He looks like a serial killer. This is one of those times where you realize how limited a performer Alexandra Moltke could be. Now granted she's hampered by the dialogue, but still. Thayer David's playing Matthew like one those husbands on a Lifetime movie just as the heroine realize how totally insane they really are. I mean, I would cross a street if I saw this man coming. Yet Vicki is still insistent that Roger must have tried to kill her. In between looking murderous and worrying that Mrs. Stoddard has been bothered, it comes out that Matthew is very much out of the communication loop. He had no idea Roger was arrested. When Vicki tries to leave, still not really reading the situation, Matthew physically stops her.
David comes on back and Elizabeth frets about Vicki. Since she had no problem sending Vicki out into the dark to look for the kid, it leads me to believe that she thinks Roger was the one behind the attacks.
Matthew tries to get up to speed. It seems to escape Vicki how utterly disturbed the man is and also that he's inordinately interested in what everybody knows about Bill Malloy. She catches him up.
The intrepid and devoted Frank has returned to take Vicki out. He and Liz are totally worried right away. They go looking for her; they come back having seen the broken urn. Frank wants to get the sheriff, but Elizabeth gets the brainstorm to call Matthew first.
As Matthew outright lies to Elizabeth on the phone, Vicki gradually begins to grasp the reality of her situation. Matthew implicates himself in the second attempt on her life and stupid Vicki forces him to admit it.
Frank and Elizabeth call the sheriff. Why, I do not know. As was once said about Commissioner Gordon of Batman fame, "the man couldn't ticket a parked car," so I'm at a loss as to how George is going to find Vicki.
Matthew decides to go whole hog. He confesses to having murdered Bill Malloy and then tells Vicki he'll have to kill her too.
