Written By: Peter S. Fischer
Directed By: John Llewellyn Moxey
Jessica is assigned to fill the empty seat of a deceased Congressman for a brief period of time and finds a great deal of political game-playing in Washington...and murder.
Tropes
- The Alcoholic: Congressman Keppner's trying to get sober, but it's a struggle.
- Artistic License – Politics: Jessica was appointed to replace a deceased member of the House of Representatives. Under the U.S. Constitution, if a Representative dies in office, their replacement must be chosen through a special election. Only Senators may be appointed to serve out an unfinished term.
- Batman Gambit: Jessica pulls one on Joe to catch him in the act and reveal his murder of the Victim of the Week.
- Blackmail:
- Marta was trying to blackmail Keppner, which made him a suspect in her murder, but Jessica cleared him.
- Joe Blinn killed Marta because she started demanding too much money to keep quiet about his illicit financial and political dealings.
- Blunt Metaphors Trauma: Lt. Avery Mendelsohn keeps mangling certain expressions, for example combining "Like a fox guarding the henhouse" and "like a bull in a china shop" to make "Like a fox in a china shop".
- I'm a Doctor, Not a Placeholder: Jess sends Joe out to get information on several people of interest, to which he protests that he's only a press agent, but she brings up how he said he was young, capable and eager to show his stuff and sends him out. He does indeed manage to get the info she wanted.
- Jewish Complaining: Lt. Mendelsohn spends every scene complaining about his health.
- Kicked Upstairs: Of a sort for Jessica. She was asked to fill an empty Congress seat. She intends to work hard but is repeatedly saddled by intrigue and lobbyists.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: This is how Martha was killed.
- Saying Too Much: This is what gives Joe away as Martha's murderer.
- Slap-Slap-Kiss: Diana Simms and Thor Danziger hide their relationship by pretending to hate each other. Jessica saw right through it thanks to her Sherlock Scan.
