History Recap / ColumboS01E02

He thinks he's in the clear, but he forgets about one thing: Lt. Columbo of the LAPD. Columbo notices that Lenore has a wound on her face from being punched suggesting a killer with a bad temper and that the killer was wearing a diamond ring on their hand. Columbo zeros in on Brimmer especially after noticing that hw has a ring on one hand and later from his trouble with angry outbursts.

Guest Starring: Robert Culp, Creator/RayMilland, Patricia Crowley]

* UnwittingPawn: Leo Gentry, the detective at Brimmer's Agency who followed Lenore and got the blackmail information seems to be a law-abiding family man who wasn't aware of what his boss was gogin to use the information for, judging by how quick Brimemr is to send him out of town on a pretext to avoid him talking to Columbo.
* YourCheatingHeart: It turns out that Lenore ''was'' cheating on Arthur, with a golf pro at the country club.

He thinks he's in the clear, but he forgets about one thing: Lt. Columbo of the LAPD. Columbo notices that Lenore has a wound on her face from being punched suggesting a killer with a bad temper and that the killer was wearing a diamond ring on their hand. Columbo zeros in on Brimmer especially after noticing that he's prone to angry outbursts and a ring on a hand.

He thinks he's in the clear, but he forgets about one thing: Lt. Columbo of the LAPD. Columbo notices that Lenore has a diamond ring wound on her face from being punched suggesting a killer with a bad temper and that the killer was wearing something on their hand. Columbo zeros in on Brimmer especially after noticing that he's prone to angry outbursts.

He thinks he's in the clear, but he forgets about one thing: Lt. Columbo of the LAPD. Columbo notices that Lenore has a wound on her face from being punched suggesting a killer with a bad temper and that the killer was wearing something on their hand. Columbo zeros in on Brimmer especially after noticing that he's prone to angry outbursts.

Brimmer's motivations soon become clear: he wants to use Lenore as a spy on her husband, who is a newspaper magnate with a lot of enemies. Lenore refuses, says she'll confess her infidelity, and also says that she'll tell Kennicutt that Brimmer lied to him and is running a blackmail racket. Brimmer panics, punches her in the face due to rage, and she falls down and dies from head trauma. Brimmer dumps her body in the middle of nowhere after cleaning up the crime scene.

* TheExitIsThatWay: One scene where Columbo is quizzing Brimmer and Kennicutt ends with the lieutenant attempting to leave and realizing he is walking into a closet.

* HiredToHuntYourself: Sort of. The LAPD has the case but Brimmer's private detective agency is assisting.

* RiddleForTheAges: The key to catching Brimmer is set up when his car conks out and has to be taken to the mechanic's. Columbo casually comments to Kennicutt that when he was a boy, he and his buddies used to cause car failures by stuffing potatoes up car exhaust pipes. At the end, Kennicutt nearly looks at the exhaust pipe of Brimmer's car, before turning to follow Columbo.

* AndStarring: Ray Milland, who was an A-list movie star back in the day (he won an Oscar for ''Film/TheLostWeekend''!), gets a "Special Guest Star" credit.

* {{Blackmail}}: Brimmer attempts this with Lenore, demanding that she spy on her husband. It backfires spectacularly and she even says she'll admit the affair herself to Arthur.

* AccidentalMurder: Brimmer didn't mean to do it. He hit Lenore, and she fell down and hit her head.

* {{Blackmail}}: Brimmer attempts this with Lenore, demanding that she spy on her husband. It backfires spectacularly.

Brimmer's motivations soon become clear: he wants to use Lenore as a spy on her husband, who is a newspaper magnate with a lot of enemies. Lenore refuses, says she'll confess her infidelity, and also says that she'll tell Kennicutt that Brimmer lied to him and is running a blackmail racket. Brimmer panics, kills her, and dumps her body in the middle of nowhere. He thinks he's in the clear, but he forgets about one thing: Lt. Columbo of the LAPD.

* HairTriggerTemper: Brimmer has this big time, as it ultimately resulted in him accidentally killing Lenore. This shows up again later on when Brimmer [[NoIndoorVoice loudly chews out one of his employees]] for revealing some confidential client information to Columbo, something he [Columbo] takee note of.

* HairTriggeringTemper: Brimmer has this big time, as it ultimately resulted in him accidentally killing Lenore. This shows up again later on when Brimmer [[NoIndoorVoice loudly chews out one of his employees]] for revealing some confidential client information to Columbo, something he [Columbo] takee note of.

* GracefulLoser: When Brimmer falls for Columbo's [[BluffingTheMurderer bluff]] about Lenore's missing contact lens and springs the trap, he tries to walk away but is searched and found with the contact lens. Brimmer surrenders and apologizes to Arthur with a hint of sadness.

* GracefulLoser: When Brimmer falls for Columbo's [[BluffingTheMurderer bluff]] about Lenore's missing contact lens and springs the trap, he surrenders and apologizes to Arthur with a hint of sadness.

* GracefulLoser: When Brimmer falls for Columbo's [[BluffingTheMurder bluff]] about Lenore's missing contact lens and springs the trap, he surrenders and apologizes to Arthur with a hint of sadness.

First of four ''Columbo'' episodes in which Robert Culp played the murderer. First of two appearances for Ray Milland, who would play the murderer in Season Two's "The Greenhouse Jungle".

First of four ''Columbo'' episodes in which Robert Culp played the murderer.

* BluffTheMurderer: Columbo reveals that one of Lenore's contact lenses was missing. When Brimmer breaks into the auto mechanic's shop to ransack his car, looking for the contact lens, Columbo has him. Afterwards Columbo tells Arthur that actually, both of Lenore's lenses were still on her eyes when they found her.