Recap / Columbo S 05 E 04

Khan's patience runs thin.

Episode: Season 5, Episode 4
Title:"A Matter of Honor"
Directed by: Ted Post
Written by: Brad Radnitz
Air Date: February 1, 1976
Previous: Identity Crisis
Next: Now You See Him...
Guest Starring: Ricardo Montalbán, A Martinez

"A Matter of Honor" is the fourth episode of the fifth season of Columbo.

Luis Montoya (Ricardo Montalbán) is a former bullfighter who now breeds bulls at his ranch in Mexico. As the episode opens, his right-hand man Hector Rangel is packing up to leave the ranch, the day after his son Curro was non-fatally gored in Montoya's bullfighting ring, by a bull named Marinaro. For reasons that are not spelled out, Luis lures Hector into the bullfighting ring, shoots him with a tranquilizer dart, and then lets the same bull that gored Curro loose. The bull kills him.

Montoya spins a story suggesting that Hector attempted to kill the bull, because he knew that Curro's sense of honor would impel him to kill the bull, and Hector couldn't risk that. The cover story might have worked if not for Lt. Columbo, who is in Mexico on a vacation with his wife. Columbo gets in a fender-bender which brings him to the attention of Commandante Sanchez of the local police. Sanchez, who heard of Columbo's escapades in the murder on the cruise ship, enlists Columbo's help in the case.

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Tropes:

• Absence of Evidence: The clincher, as far as Columbo's concerned. It was windy, and on windy days a matador always soaks his cape with water to stop it from blowing around. But there was no water stain on the cape and no can of water in the ring, so Hector could not have been going into the ring to fight a bull.
• Animal Assassin: Montoya tricks Hector into the bullfighting ring and arranges for him to be gored by a bull in what will look like a death by misadventure.
• Batman Gambit: Actually, Columbo proves that Hector was murdered but doesn't prove that Montoya did it—he never places Montoya in the ring. So what does he do? He stages another confrontation in which Montoya has to face the bull again. Montoya shows his fear a second time, this time in front of everybody. Since hiding his fear was the reason he committed murder in the first place, he goes away quietly.
• Beastly Bloodsports: Bullfighting, which made Montoya famous.
• "Blackmail" Is Such an Ugly Word: Columbo didn't get Mexican insurance, which means he's going to have a tough time getting his car back. Sanchez offers to expedite the return of the car if Columbo helps with the Montoya case. When Columbo casually says "That sounds like blackmail," Sanchez playfully parries with "Lieutenant, would I do such a thing to a fellow police officer?"
• Busman's Holiday: Columbo, on vacation in Mexico, winds up solving a murder.
• Call-Back: Columbo's first scene has him meet a local sheriff, who is familiar with his exploits from "Troubled Waters". Columbo himself has vivid memories of the events of that episode.
• Career-Ending Injury: At one point during the investigation, Montoya shares his backstory with Columbo concerning his injured leg. Years ago, he was watching a bullfighting tournament, and the matador who froze up in the ring was gored to death by the bull. When Montoya jumped into the ring to intervene, he too was gored in the leg. It would be his last bull fight, but he went out with a bang by slaying the bull with one swipe, earning uproarious applause from the onlookers.
• Catapult Nightmare: The first scene is Curro having a nightmare of being gored by the bull. He wakes up in classic Catapult Nightmare style.
• Continuity Nod: Sanchez has heard the story of how Lt. Columbo solved a murder aboard a cruise ship, which was the plot of Season 4 episode "Troubled Waters". This Continuity Nod is pretty plot-relevant as it's how Sanchez knows Columbo's name and why he asks for Columbo's help.
• Culture Clash: Downplayed; When Columbo is aghast as the fact that bulls can be brutally killed for spectacle in Mexico, Montoya points out to him how it's no less different than Americans enjoying men beating each other at boxing, hunting a harmless deer, or catching a fish.
• Double-Meaning Title: "A Matter of Honor" comes across as being about Curro trying to slay the bull in order to make up for his injury and failure to slay him. It's also invoked as Montoya's cover up for why Hector was killed by the bull, claiming he probably wanted to avenge his son's honor. But ultimately, it also alludes to how Montoya had Hector murdered because he wanted the only man who witnessed him freeze up before the bull, and wanted to protect his honor. Ergo, the murder was a matter of honor.
• Drives Like Crazy: A Running Gag on Columbo, here the reason why he gets involved in the case as he has a fender-bender, attracting the attention of Mexican police.
• Establishing Character Moment: Montoya's first scene shows him admiring a film reel of his bullfighting days, back when he was a young, skilled and fearless bullfighter. This sets up how Montoya is very proud of his reputation as a matador. It also serves as a hint of how he killed Hector because he was too proud to allow him to live with the knowledge he froze up in front of his own bull.
• Graceful Loser: Following Columbo exposing Montoya's cowardice to those closest to him, ultimately making Hector's death pointless, Montoya begins to advance on Columbo angrily before stopping and handing his gear off to the lieutenant. Though neither exchange words, Montoya gives Columbo a sincere, admiring smile, while Columbo can only look on guiltily as a result of using a man's fear to expose him. From there, Montoya goes quietly.
• Instant Sedation: Subverted. Montoya shoots Hector with a tranquilizer dart, but takes care to only put enough tranquilizer in the dart to leave Hector woozy and stumbling. If he shot him with enough tranquilizer for Instant Sedation, the bull wouldn't kill Hector, as a bull won't gore an unmoving, unconscious target.
• Irony: When Montoya was younger, he witnessed another matador gored to death by a bull because he froze up, allowing him to step up and kill the bull rather gloriously. In the present, he nearly died a similar death when he froze up, and had to be saved by Hector, souring his glory.
• Language Barrier: After he accidentally causes a fender-bender, Columbo has trouble explaining himself to the civilians and the Mexican police, who don't speak English. Luckily, this matter gets resolved once he meets Sanchez, who is bilingual.
• Match Cut: From the bull crashing into Hector to Columbo rear-ending the car ahead of him in a traffic circle.
• No Name Given: This is one of a couple of episodes in which Columbo shows his badge, which seemingly reveals his first name to be "Frank". Creators Richard Levinson and William Link insisted that this was not canon and officially, Columbo's first name was not known.
• Pride: At the end of the day, Montoya's motive for killing Hector comes down to this trope. Not only did he feel humiliated that he froze up in front of his prized bull and had to be rescued by his bookkeeper Hector, but he couldn't stand that he alone witnessed his fear. So he had to murder him. This also is his undoing as Columbo (unable to prove Montoya specifically killed Hector) sets it up for everyone to witness him freeze up before the bull again. Unable to live with the shame of being ousted as a 'coward', he turns himself in on principle.
• Satellite Character: About halfway through, Montoya's daughter Nina shows up. She has a thing going with Curro and it seems like that will have something to do with the mystery. It doesn't, and she does not affect the story at all.
• The Scapegoat:
  • In a rare non-sapient case, this is done with Marinaro, a bull. Hector's death was deliberately set up to make it look like he tried to slay Marinaro himself so that Curro wouldn't, and failed when the bull killed him. Of course, Columbo believes that Marinaro was used as a murder weapon, and therefore doesn't see him as the actual culprit.
  • Played straighter with Columbo himself, interestingly enough. Since Montoya is considered to be a bullfighting legend and an overall celebrity within Mexico, suspecting him as Hector's murderer would most likely put the local police in a bad light. To this end, Sanchez persuades Columbo to lead the investigation himself, with the rationale that he is a stranger who could take the heat if Montoya is proven innocent.
• Serious Business: The fact that Luis froze in the ring when faced with the charging bull, and that Hector saw him freeze. Hector seeing Luis's fear is Serious Business enough for Luis to murder him to make sure he can't tell anybody. And apparently it was Serious Business for Hector too, as he was packing up to leave the ranch at the start of the episode.
• Stock Footage: The home movie clip of young Luis fighting a bull is actually a clip from an old Ricardo Montalbán movie called Santa.