Title: Death Shows the Way
Air date: December 3, 1939
Plot summary: Lamont and Margo go off to spend the weekend at the home of Lamont's old friend, Henry and Helen Barton. Henry has three things that he didn't have the last time he saw Lamont: a big dog named Major, a whiny little adopted son named Skippy, and the Great Harvey Diamond. That latter, an enormous and world-famous diamond, has just been personally delivered by Mr. Knight, the representative of the jewelry dealer. Knight hands over the diamond, he and Henry have a celebratory drink—and Knight topples over dead! And the Great Harvey Diamond is missing!
Who did it? Count Santo, the suspicious foreigner who is also a guest of the Bartons? Henry Barton himself, as part of an insurance scam maybe? Surely, surely it can't be little Skippy.
Tropes:
- As You Know: Henry has to tell Helen not just that they're expecting a visitor, but that they're expecting Mr. Knight from the jewelry dealer's.
- Busman's Holiday: Lampshaded. After Mr. Knight is murdered, Margo makes a sarcastic comment about how she wishes that just once they could go on a vacation somewhere and not have a murder or other crime happen. Lamont tells her that she'd be bored. Later in the episode Margo admits that he's right.
- Chekhov's Gun: The fact that Skippy is the adopted son of the Bartons is very important.
- Evil-Detecting Dog: The dog is strangely hostile towards little Skippy, even before Skippy kicks him. Skippy is then revealed to be the killer.
- Exit, Pursued by a Bear: "Skippy", aka Mike, pulls a gun and makes his escape, only to be attacked and killed by the Angry Guard Dog.
- Faking the Dead: Lamont goes into a suspended animation state, a trick that he has played before, and makes everyone think that he is also dead. Then The Shadow reveals Skippy as the killer.
- His Name Is...: "Count Santo", who is an impostor, saw the real killer take the diamond, but a shot rings out and he dies before he can tell Lamont who.
- Murder Is the Best Solution: Why on earth did Skippy kill Barton, and attract all that immediate attention? He didn't need to in order to steal the diamond: Count Santo, who also wanted to steal the diamond, says he had no intention of killing anybody.
- Plot Hole: Skippy is actually a little person and a criminal who pretended to be a child, and got himself arrested, in order to steal the Great Harvey Diamond. How did that even work? How did Skippy find out that Barton was adopting a child, much less make sure that he was the "child" that Barton adopted?
- The Reveal: Skippy is not a child at all. He is an adult, and a little person. He killed Knight and stole the diamond.
