When Sheriff Tupper takes her and Dr. Hazlitt to a new restaurant, the Joshua Peabody Inn, Jessica finds herself in the middle of another hot pot of intrigue. Several people take sick from some kind of bad food, with one afflicted lady dying on the spot. An inspector thinks it's an Open-and-Shut Case of food poisoning, but Jessica smells a murder cooking.
This episode includes examples of the following tropes:
- All for Nothing: Wilhelmina hoped that by removing Betty from the picture, she could reconcile with her husband Harrison, who she loved deeply. However, Harrison is too preoccupied with grieving over Betty's death to pay much attention to his wife, and after learning she killed Betty, he is disgusted and completely unsympathetic towards her motives, wanting nothing to do with her. Even if Wilhelmina had gotten away with her crime, it's unlikely her marriage would've survived in the long run.
- Blame the Paramour: After discovering her husband was having an affair with her best friend, Wilhelmina decided to poison her friend rather than divorce her husband. It doesn't end well for anyone.
- Bluff the Imposter: Jessica proves the cook isn't an expert chef like his father by misdescribing a fancy dish she and her dead husband enjoyed on a trip to France and noticing he doesn't correct her.
- Challenge Seeker: Margo the health inspector states she's pleased when she encounters a strange, potentially-fatal disease which acts like botulism but had an onset time of less than an hour. As she says, half the time they never even find out what's wrong with their subjects, so finding something new is interesting. When it turns out to be a plain old ordinary mass poisoning incident instead of a fascinating new kind of food poisoning, she's not at all interested.
- Chekhov's Gun: More like Chekov's Purse. At the start of the episode, Jessica points out how Betty and Wilhemina have gorgeous Italian suede purses. When when confronting Wilhemina in the hospital, Jessica points out that the purse Wilhemina had been using that morning is missing, and she is now using Betty's shoulder bag. This is the evidence Jessica uses to deduce that Wilhemina stuck the lidless poisoned jam jar in her purse. When the jam spilled, she had to swap purses with Betty because it's hard to remove stains from suede.
- Commander Contrarian: Margo Perry is condescending towards Dr. Hazlit, Sherrif Tupper, and Jessica. She's also a Punch-Clock Villain when she leaves after concluding that there's no poisoning epidemic, stating that her job involves bad food and not murder.
- Common Knowledge: Invoked by Sheriff Tupper. He thinks that he drew the customers of Dixon's Diner away to the Joshua Peabody Inn because, as he claims, "So goes Sheriff Tupper, so goes Cabot Cove." Jessica and Seth concur that nobody says that.
- Continuity Nod: Joshua Peabody, the supposed Revolutionary War hero of Cabot Cove, appears again, as does Dr. Hazlitt's skepticism about his existence and annoyance with his hero status.
- Conviction by Contradiction: Jessica realizes who poisoned the preserves when the inspector mentions the commonness of leaving tips on credit cards. She checks the receipt to be sure and finds that Mrs. Fraser had left a tip on the credit card, yet she said that she had to go back to leave the waitress a tip. Actually, she went back to retrieve the preserves.
- A Deadly Affair: Betty Fiddler's affair with Harrison Fraser led to her own death and the poisoning of several others. Wilhelmina hadn't intended to make anyone else sick, but she hadn't been able to recover the jar of preserves fast enough to keep others from putting it on their toast.
- Didn't Think This Through: After being found out, Willie says she didn't intend to poison anyone else at the inn. All she could think about was killing Betty.
- Evil Chef: Downplayed. The chef at the Joshua Peabody Inn is deliberately trying to get fired and therefore free from his contract, so he's screwing up meals on purpose. Not that he can cook too well even when he's trying.Jessica: Floyd, do you have any enemies?
Floyd: (frankly) Just my chef, who doesn't want to cook.
Jessica: No, I mean someone who is capable of doing something like this...(indicates empty restaurant) ...to destroy you.
Floyd: (wryly) Only my chef, who doesn't want to cook. - Gone Horribly Right: Wilhemina's plan was to poison Betty with her favorite preservative, eat a little herself, then dispose of the evidence, making it look they had been served some bad food that had a fatal reaction in Betty's case. Instead, the preservatives got taken away from the table and passed around while she stepped away, leading to four other people being exposed and nearly killed and the case getting national attention. It also meant Jessica could zero in on the common factor that each victim ate, making it impossible to hide the existence of the poison, but that just made Wilhelmina look like the victim of a near-spree killing until Jessica puts the pieces together. After being caught, Wilhelmina insists she never meant for anyone else to get hurt, but the damage was already done.
- Hurricane of Puns: The menu at the Joshua Peabody Inn is one of these, with the meals puns on the names of famed Revolutionary War heroes and phrases (e.g. the "Life, Liberty, and the Prosciutto Happiness" meal).
- Indentured Servitude: A French chef is forced to work at a small-time diner near Cabot Cove because the business' owner had paid for his work visa and ticket to the US. He is unhappy with his job so he intentionally botches his work. He isn't French - he's an American who went to France to go to culinary school but flunked out so he faked his identity to get back home on a work job. He can't quit because otherwise he'd have to pay the entirety of his ticket and face fraud charges.
- Is There a Doctor in the House?: The teenage boy (who had a bite of the preserves before he and his parents got up) fell sick in the parking lot as the family was leaving. His father runs back into the restaurant and shouts this trope. Luckily, Seth was there and ran right out to help.
- Jerkass: Harrison Fraser. He cheats on his wife, shows more concern for his lover's condition than hers after the poisoning incident, and after learning his wife was the perpetrator, doesn't even have the decency to feel a shred of remorse that his own actions were indirectly responsible.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: How Cornelia describes Mr. Dixon, as she says to Jessica that the second Dixon saw people getting sick in the parking lot, he ran out to see if he could help, even leaving his jacket behind. She also says that he was willing to hire Cornelia back that same day (despite earlier calling her a traitor for taking a job with the Joshua Peabody). She admits that she thought he was just a jerk, but he can sometimes be a nice person. Right after she finishes praising him, though, he starts barking orders at her.Cornelia: (deadpan) I did say sometimes.
- Kinda Busy Here: Dr. Hazlitt tries to invoke this when Health Inspector Margo Perry arrives in the hospital where the poisoned patients are being treated.
- Kitschy Themed Restaurant: The Joshua Peabody Inn carries food items named after Revolutionary War people and events (like Eggs Benedict Arnold) and requires its waitresses to dress up in period-style clothing.
- Middle-of-Nowhere Street: Margo Perry treats Cabot Cove as such. She is surprised that there are no local TV stations (and thus no local reporters). She even initially forgets what the name of the town was. And she is shocked that the strawberry preserves were homemade by one old lady instead of manufactured at a factory.
- Mood Whiplash: The first part of the episode mainly shows various parties at their tables in the restaurant, simply enjoying their food and each other's company (except the politicians, who are mad at each other but still sit together to have breakfast). That ends when the teenage boy collapses in the parking lot.
- Muggle Born of Mages: Henry Dupree, the chef at the Joshua Peabody Inn is the latest in a long line of chefs! His grandfather ran the Vin Rouge in Cannes! His father practically invented nouvelle cuisine! He... flunked out of cooking school and got fired from his father and grandfather's restaurants, only agreeing to work at the Inn so Floyd would pay to get him out of France and back to the States.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Cornelia Montique was ridiculed by Dr. Hazlitt for her attire. Jessica points out that Seth's fashion sense isn't any better.
- Red Herring: Bo Dixon, the owner of a diner that is losing customers, falls under suspicion. He isn't guilty.
- Self-Poisoning Gambit: Wilhelmina eats a small amount of the poisoned preserves herself so that she will look like an innocent victim and avoid suspicion of having been responsible.
- Serial Killings, Specific Target: Only averted thanks to Seth figuring out what the poison was. In order to make her friend's Betty's poisoning seem like a case of food poisoning, Wilhemina snuck atropine (which causes symptoms similar to botulism) into the jar of strawberry preserves making rounds about the inn. It was somewhat accidental, in that Wilhemina only intended to poison Betty then get rid of the evidence, but the preservatives got taken away while she was away from the table (see Gone Horribly Right). Luckily, no one ate as much as Betty did or Willie would've been charged a serial killer.
- Sweet Tooth: Wilhemina was counting on Betty's love for sweet preserves.
- Tampering with Food and Drink:
- Wilhemina fatally poisoned her friend (and non-fatally poisoned several other people) by putting atropine into the communal jar of strawberry preserves.
- A probably less murderous example. After being wrongfully arrested, Bo Dixon darkly warns the Sheriff that he'd better be careful next time he gets a burger at Dixon's diner.
- Terse Talker: Margo Perry isn't one for chit-chat... or politeness. Wastes time.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Wilhemina's plot hinged on Betty's fondness for preserves, particularly strawberry-flavored, and inability to resist them. When we get a look at her plate, we can see she has indeed spread them on quite a few things.
- Two-Timing with the Bestie: Harrison Fraser was cheating on his wife with her best friend, Betty Fiddler. This was the catalyst for the murder, as Wilhelmina wanted to prevent her husband from leaving her for Betty.
- Your Mind Makes It Real: Downplayed. As Margo and her underling start listing all the food in the inn in preparation of seeing which caused widespread illness, Amos realizes that he ate practically everything on the menu at some point (and a great number that morning) and starts feeling a bit sick himself. Turns out the one adulterated item was strawberry preserves, which he passed on as they give him a rash.
