Written by: J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by: Jerry Jameson
Jessica is the first woman to speak at a function in an all-male club... then a member is murdered.
Tropes:
- Actor Allusion: The
open garden auditorium where Jessica did an afternoon reading to a roomful of attendees is a Recycled Set used in the The Manchurian Candidate film which also starred Angela Lansbury. - Beware the Nice Ones: Phillip Arkham is a genial conversationalist who knew Ernest Hemingway and is trying to integrate the club. He's also a major proponent of the committee and not afraid to call in favors to make the police back off.
- Business Trip Adultery: Implied; when Dusany tells Lawrence to stay away from his wife, Lawrence mentions all the time he's spent working on his vineyard business and the rumors that it isn't just grapes he's been pressing.
- Chekhov's Gun: When Lisa Sutton is introduced to Jessica, she nearly trips because of a broken heel and because it's wet from the rain outside. This becomes a clue later on.
- When Theodore offers to drive Jessica, Jessica notes that he adjusts his car seat (even though it's his own car), suggesting that someone else had recently drove it.
- Continuity Nod: In the opening scene, a fan mentions Jessica's frequently mentioned (and very first in-universe) novel, The Corpse Danced at Midnight, which began her whole writing (and amateur sleuthing) career.
- The Faceless: Lawrence Cayle's killer is seen, but his face and attire is bathed in shadow. Lawrence appears to know him, however.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: In the excerpt Jessica reads, a man poisons a woman with something in her wine and then confuses her glass with his own. He consumes enough poison to kill himself.
- Insistent Terminology: When Jessica mentions the committee voting to punish Lawrence, one of the members immediately corrects her that they voted to "sanction" him.
- Kangaroo Court: The Committee's meeting about whether or not to sanction Lawrence has shades of this. Two of the people voting on whether or not to take action against Lawrence are the very people that Lawrence wronged.
- Lost in a Crowd: After the victim was shot at a posh country club, the detective suggests testing everyone for gun residue. However, the club is in the middle of a skeet-shooting competition, so almost everyone there had fired a gun in the last 24 hours.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: After the murder, Harcourt Fenton stopps by Theodore Cayle's house to console him about his brother Lawrence's death, bringing his white marble to prove he voted innocent. Theodore kills him to prevent anyone from realizing that the vote had been rigged.
- Properly Paranoid: Fenton is constantly upset about the committee's power and purpose, refusing to have anything to do with their vote and showing concern for Lawrence. The murder proved him right to be concerned that someone hated Lawrence a little too much and the committee's way of operating gave him too much freedom.
- The Resenter: Theo, Lawrence's brother, turns out to be the killer. He hated being in the background and being forced to smooth over the ruffled feathers Lawrence left everywhere.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: When Lt. Howard Tartarus goes to question Philip Arkham, Arkham tries to invoke this by calling the Police Commissioner. It convinces the lieutenant not to arrest the entire committee on the spot, but he keeps investigating along with Jessica.
- Shout-Out:
- The last names of characters Edward Dunsany, Gerald Innsmouth and Philip Arkham all refer to works by H. P. Lovecraft
- The name of Harcourt Fenton derives from the character Harcourt Fenton Mudd from Star Trek: The Original Series.
- The names of Lieutenant Tartarus and the Avernus Club both refer to mythological hells.
- Jessica compares the Avernus Club to a "Bohemian Club out west, a gentleman's club", which is a reference to the Bohemian Grove
, a real-life conclave where some of the world's most powerful men meet for two weeks a year, supposedly conducting secret planning meetings and perform pagan rituals, including mock sacrifices to Moloch, as well as recreational events.
- Smoky Gentlemen's Club: The setting of this episode's murder is the fictional Avernus Club, comprised of sharply dressed, rich and powerful men.
- Too Dumb to Live: Lawrence Cayle was an all-around asshole to nearly everyone. It's no surprise, then, that he gets murdered. He even taunts his killer, with predictable results.
- Unwitting Pawn: The murderer bribes Lisa the secretary to rig the drawing to see who would punish Lawrence while lying that it was a prank. Already frightened and concerned about what happened, she's quick to confess in the climax, with a My God, What Have I Done? reaction to finding out Theo murdered Harcourt too.
- Vehicular Sabotage: Winston Devermore and Harcourt Fenton suffer a car crash after the brake lines to Fenton's car were cut. Winston survives; Harcourt doesn't.
- We Need a Distraction: At a party, Winston excuses himself from Jessica just as Theodore Cayle comes in to talk to her. Jessica then notices Lawrence, Theodore's brother, talking to Winston. Jessica points out the timing (and Theodore's initial denial of knowing Winston) of Theodore's arrival as a means of distracting her. Jessica congratulates Theodore for the effort though.
