Recap / Columbo S 10 E 08

Captain Kirk turns evil again!

Episode: Season 10, Episode 8
Title: Butterfly in Shades of Grey
Directed by: Dennis Dugan
Written by: Peter S. Fischer
Air Date: January 10, 1994
Previous: It's All in the Game
Next: Undercover
Guest Starring: William Shatner, Molly Hagan, Jack Laufer, Richard Kline

"Butterfly in Shades of Grey" is a 1994 Columbo TV movie.

Fielding Chase (William Shatner) is a political radio talk show host. Chase is an arrogant sneering jerk who delights in insulting and belittling his callers. Chase also runs a newsletter in which he doesn't hesitate to run fabricated, slanderous stories to damage his enemies. His investigator Gerry Winters has grown weary of sliming people, and a confrontation between Gerry and Chase over Gerry's dissatisfaction leads to Chase firing Gerry.

Meanwhile, there's Victoria (Molly Hagan), who is Chase's foster daughter. At the age of 25 Victoria is still part of her father's orbit, living in Chase's house and working in his radio show. Victoria, as it turns out, has literary ambitions and has written a novel. Gerry helps her out by submitting the manuscript to an agent—but Fielding Chase knows the publisher, and he wants to keep his daughter at home with him, so he gets the publisher to reject Victoria's book.

Gerry finds out about this, and in a second, nastier confrontation with Chase, vows to free Victoria from his clutches. Gerry, who knows a lot about Chase's skullduggery, promises to ruin Chase professionally as well. So Chase decides on murder. He tells Gerry to call him at 4 pm. At the appointed time, Chase is sneaking into Gerry's house as Gerry is dialing the number. Gerry picks up the phone and gets Chase's answering machine—and Chase picks up an extension in Gerry's house, while pretending to be answering from his own home. Then Chase shoots Gerry In the Back, with the answering machine still going, thus recording an audio message that seems to place him at his own home at the time Gerry was killed.

Enter Lt. Columbo of the LAPD, who notices the usual niggling details, like how there was no forced entry to Gerry's house, how Chase knew without being told that Gerry had been shot in the back. Columbo also wonders why there was such a long delay between Fielding allegedly hearing gunshots over the phone and finally dialing "911".

Second appearance of William Shatner as a Columbo killer, Shatner having previously starred in Season Six episode "Fade in to Murder".

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Tropes:

• Acoustic License: Gerry, with the phone to his ear, does not hear Chase no more than 10 feet behind him, on Gerry's extension phone.
• The Alleged Car: Columbo's battered old Peugeot is having a particularly rough time of it in this episode, backfiring repeatedly as the detective follows Fielding Chase from location to location.
• All for Nothing: Chase murdered Gerry so that Victoria wouldn't leave him. Ultimately, she's still chased off by his lack of morals. So in the grand scheme of things, all the murder accomplished was delaying Victoria's fateful departure by only a few days.
• And Another Thing...: This is one of the episodes that likes to lampshade Columbo's catchphrase.
  Fielding: With you Lieutenant, there’s always just one more thing. Do you have a problem with short term memory? Perhaps you should consult a physician.
• Applied Phlebotinum: An undercover officer on a bicycle plants a device on Fielding's Mercedes that uses an unknown means to disable starting the car. This was after Fielding, with Columbo in tow, pulled over to assist for a staged injury scene with multiple cyclists who are all undercover. The disabler device is used so Fielding gets out his phone to try calling for roadside service to no avail. This demonstrates that Fielding could not have called from where he claimed he was due to lack of mobile phone infrastructure in the region.
• Broken Pedestal: As she remarks at one point, the only reason Victoria didn't leave Chase sooner after so many self-serving actions was because of either fear, loyalty, or simple blindness to her foster father's glaring ego. But as the story progresses and she sees more of Chase's selfishness, she becomes less sure of his integrity. But the straw that breaks the camel's back is when she witnesses him publicly smear an innocent senator with a sensationalized rumor that he had an illegitimate child with an underage actress. This is what prompts her to leave Chase for good.
• Calling the Old Man Out: Towards the end, before she leaves, Victoria voices to Chase how he's ultimately a selfish man she listened to for far too long.
• Chekhov's Gun: The comment about how Fielding Chase gets crappy TV reception in the mountains of Malibu, so he has to use a satellite. That's how Columbo punches the last hole in Chase's story, by demonstrating that the mountain road he supposedly took from his house and called the 911 on gets no cellphone reception.
• Does Not Like Guns: Chase notes that Columbo, despite being an LAPD cop, does not carry a gun. At the end when Columbo drops the bomb on Chase about the cell phone, Chase is about to shoot him with a rifle stashed in the trunk of his car, when the rest of the Lieutenant's squad comes cycling around the corner.
• Ethnic Menial Labor: Fielding Chase has a Japanese-American maid, Martha (played by Denice Kumagai, Quon Le on Night Court).
• Everybody Has Standards: Although Victoria's loyalty to Chase is 15 years strong, what sets her apart from a yes-man is that she draws the line at using unscrupulous tactics to shame anybody with false information, even to bump up ratings. When Chase does just that, she holes herself up in her room out of disgust, and leaves him the very next morning. Never mind that her father figure actively tried to sabotage her book being published anywhere too far from home, she can look past that. But she cannot forgive that he ruined an innocent Senator's life by making him look guilty of having an illegitimate child with an underage young woman.
• Face Palm: Victoria has an argument with her father early in the episode when Chase tries to publish a scurrilous article that Victoria knows is false. When Chase has Sen. Madison on his show and ambushes him with the rumor about a love child, Victoria, who knows the story is bullshit, does a face palm in the control booth. The next morning she packs her bags and leaves her father forever.
• Fantasy-Forbidding Father: Chase is a far more malicious variation of this. It's less to do with how he doesn't believe in Victoria's dream to be a writer, and more he doesn't want her to follow her dream, all driven by a selfish motive to keep her close to him. He even says as much, voicing how he plans to have as many publishers turn down her novel until she grows discouraged and gives up on being a writer.
• Foreshadowing: When Chase voices his worry that Victoria is leaving for New York, she tries to console that it's not like she's running away from home. Later, her flying to New York with Cayton amounts to just that, running away from her father and leaving her home forever.
• Frameup: Chase uses a handkerchief with some pancake makeup on it to wipe his prints, in order to cast suspicion on Gerry's boyfriend, an actor. This backfires as the actor has a rock-solid alibi (he was signing autographs).
• Good Hair, Evil Hair: Fielding Chase's nasty little pencil mustache screams "villain".
• I Never Said It Was Poison: Columbo notes that Chase knew Gerry was shot In the Back without being told. Chase plays this off as him assuming that Gerry would have said something on the phone if his killer had approached from the front.
• Kick the Dog: Towards the later part of the episode, Chase adopts such an attitude towards Columbo and his usual bumbling ways. When Columbo visits his studio and tries to offer the olive branch (if only because Chase pulled some strings), Chase shoots down the detective's attempt at making peace. (Victoria has to accept it on his behalf). Later, when Chase accuses that Columbo is guilty of "police harassment" on their way to headquarters, again, Columbo tries to say there's no malice behind what he does. And again, Chase is snippy with him. One gets the feeling Chase is being primed for when his arrest is made all so satisfying.
• Laser-Guided Karma: For smearing Senator Madison's good name, Chase not only loses Victoria, but it sets off the domino effect where Columbo solves the case and later has him arrested for attempted murder.
• Manipulative Bastard: Fielding Chase will do anything to keep his foster daughter Victoria in his clutches. He sabotages her attempt to contact one publisher, convinces another publisher to turn her novel down, voices how he hopes enough discouragement will keep her from leaving, and even had Gerry killed to not only lower Victoria's morale with grief, but generally kill off the only person trying to encourage his foster daughter to leave him. And it doesn't stop there either. He's willing to manipulate people for his career as well, like when he gives Senator Madison rigged phone calls in order to falsely paint him as a womanizer who seduced and impregnated an underage young lady.
• My Beloved Smother: Chase is a male variation of this. He wants Victoria to stay his little girl, always by his side, and working at his business. And he'll even do it to her detriment, from sabotaging her prospects as a writer, to murdering Gerry just to bring her closer.
• Never My Fault: When Victoria leaves him, Chase blames Cayton for "poisoning" her. He'd rather blame somebody else than accept that he's driven his foster daughter away with his manipulation and dishonesty.
• Never Trust a Title: According to writer Peter Fischer, the butterfly of the title is Victoria, her needing to break out of her cocoon (like a butterfly) and how her flight to New York is interrupted by Gerry's murder to keep her from leaving Fielding. Where the shades of gray come in is anyone's guess...
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Chase was possibly in the clear when Columbo couldn't figure out how he was connected to Gerry's death or how he committed it. Had Chase not used his satellite-radio method to smear the Senator, he might've been in the home clear. Instead, it provides the proper clue to let him know how he committed it.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Fielding Chase is a very obvious take on Rush Limbaugh.
• No Party Given: Like the previous two episodes dealing with politics, Chase's party affiliation is never given. Despite being a take on Republican Rush Limbaugh, actually paying attention to what he says in his radio show, such as being in favor of a line-item veto during the Bill Clinton years and viciously attacking a senator noted to be against the ERA while also being a climate change denialist, indicates he may actually be an independent with very strong beliefs.
• Not That There's Anything Wrong with That: Gerry was gay. Chase insists that he had no problem with Gerry's orientation, but he's a wingnut and he's trying to frame Gerry's boyfriend, so he has to say "Those people do have a reputation for unusual behavior."
• Phoney Call: Chase comes up with a clever ruse to get his voice on the answering machine at his house at the moment of the murder.
• Pyrrhic Victory: So Chase was able to smear of Senator's good name with engineered phone calls and boost the ratings on his radio show. Goody for him. Unfortunately, this costs him Victoria's respect, and she leaves the subsequent morning for New York.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Downplayed. Victoria recognizes it wouldn't do to exchange words one of them will regret later, demonstrating a measured response towards Chase by only saying the bare minimum. Nonetheless, she does air out her grievances:
  Victoria: You know, I finally realized Gerry was right, but I was too frightened or loyal or maybe even too stupid to listen to him. If I don't leave now, I'm never gonna get away.
  Chase: Victoria, wait! Don't leave me. I need you.
  Victoria: Oh no, Dad, you don't need me. You don't need anybody except yourself. Never mind how you hurt me, what you did to Senator Madison last night was unforgivable. You smeared an innocent man with a despicable lie.
• Replacement Goldfish: Implied with Victoria. Chase states that she is the daughter of a woman he once loved, and Chase adopted Victoria after his old girlfriend died. This combined with the Wife Husbandry seed Gerry planted earlier in the episode suggests that Chase wanted Victoria to be the replacement.
• Secretly Selfish: By his own admission, Chase frames his adopting Victoria as this. On paper, spontaneously adopting and raising a child sounds selfless. But in reality, Chase only took her in because she was related to the woman he had a crush on, a woman who walked out of his life.
• Sore Loser: A rare example of a villain who ponders killing Columbo when his jig is up. He's fooled into believing that Columbo is alone.
• Smug Snake: Chase really is smug and arrogant.
• This Is Unforgivable!: Of all the things Chase has done in the past, Victoria will never forgive her foster father for smearing Senator Madison's name with false information. If anything, she forgives this vile act far less than any previous slights he's done to her, including sabotaging her attempts to get her book published.
• Verbal Backpedaling: When Victoria is about to leave for New York, Chase vehemently declares that he will not "permit" her to go. Victoria is very much put off by the idea he still treats her like a child who still needs his permission. Chase, realizing his poor choice of words, tries to apologize. Not that it stops her from leaving.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: So Chase has smeared Senator Madison with a nasty rumor that he committed statutory rape on Deidre Ross when she was younger. Speaking of which, the audience never sees what becomes of her reputation or how she reacts to Chase breaking his promise not to mention her. There's only the implication that her life has been ruined just as badly as Senator Madison's.
• Wife Husbandry: Gerry points out Chase's possessive, controlling nature when it comes to Victoria, further notes that Chase isn't her biological father, and angrily accuses Chase of having some un-fatherly instincts towards his foster daughter. A couple of moments, like the way Chase touches Victoria's cheek when she's leaving, imply that Gerry was right.
• You Just Ruined the Shot: Columbo wanders onto the set of Gerry's boyfriend's soap opera, right in the middle of a scene where some extras are playing homeless bums. Columbo is yanked onto the set because he looks like a homeless guy, and he proceeds to ruin the shot by showing his LAPD badge as the cameras roll.