Written by: J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by: Anthony Pullen Shaw
Jessica's visit to a Universal studios set for a new movie in pre-production based on one of her books takes a dark turn when a real murder takes place in the iconic Bates House and Bates motel from Psycho.
Tropes:
- Chekhov's Gun:
- Jessica insists on investigating the Bates House after hearing a witness say it moaned at him, and she spends a fair amount of time checking the faucets. She figured out that the "moaning" was the sound of unused pipes and that the killer must have been trying to wash something off.
- When Willy goes to lie down after hearing the news of Darryl's murder, the camera shows that the sole of one of his leather shoes is lighter than the other, indicating one of them is wet. He slipped in Darryl's blood while leaving the scene and had to wash it off before going anywhere.
- Continuity Nod: The movie in pre-production is based on Jessica's novel "Messengers of Midnight", which Jessica repeatedly states is based on a "true story", that is, that it happened to her only a few episodes ago. Incidentally, both episodes have the same writer. The novel had also previously featured in "The List of Yuri Lermentov".
- The End... Or Is It?: Played as an ending joke. After Jessica finishes her speech about how the Bates set isn't evil, one of the curtains moves, even though no one is supposed to be in the house.
- Evil Tainted the Place: Ben Miller and many of the studio lot employees believe that the Bates House, despite just being a set, has become evil by itself because all the years and billions of dollars that the studio has spent making people associate it with evil. One of the suspects even claims the house moaned at him. Jessica doesn't believe it, considering the incident just another chapter in the pain and violence that plague mankind.
- Horrible Hollywood: Jessica encounters all of the horrible aspects of Hollywood when one of her books is being adapted into a movie in this episode. The scriptwriter, John Cavershaw, plans to alter her book to include car chases, racy romance, and a different killer. The producer, Darryl Heyward, is an adulterous opportunist with no sense of loyalty to the people who helped him during his rise to fame.
- I Didn't Mean to Kill Him: The killer, Heyward's agent Willy Montego, tells Jessica he didn't intend to murder him. He just went to the Bates set to try to convince Heyward to reconsider firing him and struck out in anger when Heyward refused. As Willy tells her, he'd stuck with Heyward for the long time it took for his career to take off, and then Heyward wanted to dump him the instant he wasn't necessary.
- Newspaper-Thin Disguise: In this episode, a suspect eavesdropping on Jessica's conversation in the studio canteen hides behind a menu.
- Loony Fan: Oliver Thissle sneaks into the Universal studios lot and appears to stalk Jessica. Then he breaks into Darryl Heyward office and points a gun at Jessica and the actress that will be playing her, Leonora Holt. Turns out, it's a fake gun from one of Leonora's old works and he's just returning it to her.
- Shot-for-Shot Remake:
- At one point, Jessica watches a scene from Psycho where Detective Arbogast enters the Bate's house, slowly ascends the stairs, and is then stabbed as he reaches the top. Later, when Jessica enters the house, the angle of the shots, from her entry to her ascent of the stairs, is nearly identical. Good thing she went down the stairs halfway through...
- There's another recreation of a shot from Psycho with Jessica pulling away a shower curtain, and a POV shot of the infamous shower murder.
- Shout-Out: In the opening credits, there is a burst of the theme tune from Alfred Hitchcock Presents and a man that looks like Alfred Hitchcock crosses the street. This is a nod to the cameos that Hitchcock made in most of his films.
- Woman Scorned: After Heyward breaks off their romance, considering it an unnecessary complication, Monica Chase confronts him, threatening to tell his wife what he's been doing. When he retorts, "over my dead body", she says that she wouldn't mind that at all. However, she isn't the killer of the week.
- Wrench Whack: Willy kills Daryl by striking him in the back of the head with a wrench.
