Sergeant Joe Friday and Officer Bill Gannon are working in the Homicide Division. Friday and Gannon are called to the apartment of Steve Deal, a reformed criminal. Steve placed an ad in a local paper about wanting to do anything for money as he is currently broke. In response, he got an unusual letter about earning $1,000note and would get more to "make a killing." They suspect the sender of the letter is trying to hire Steve in order to perform a hit on someone.
Just the Tropes, ma'am:
- Drowning My Sorrows: While Forrester says that his wife is a drunk, Friday contends that she is drinking because of who she is married too. It's left up to the audience if Friday or Forrester is accurate as Forrester's wife is asleep the whole time she is on screen due to Forrester knocking her out with sleeping pills.
- Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Harvey Forrester tells Friday that his wife is a drunk who has caused him nothing but pain in his life. As everyone points out in the episode, that doesn't give him the right to kill her.
- The Infiltration: Friday is going undercover to get Harvey Forrester to hire him as a hit man to kill his wife.
- Info Dump: Friday and Gannon go into great detail with Deal about how they have to get enough evidence to arrest the person who answered Deal's ad without crossing the line into entrapment. It's not enough that he offered to pay for a hitman, because he can say it wasn't serious or was misunderstood.
- Leave No Witnesses: Forrester was lying in wait for "Deal", intending to kill him after "Deal" killed his wife and then telling the cops he came home and surprised a burglar.
- Newhart Phonecall: A woman calls Friday, who at this time is pretending to be Steve, wanting to marry him. Even when Friday says he is married it doesn't deter her. (He was undercover.)
- Professional Killer: Friday, who is undercover as Steve Deal, is being hired as an hit man.
- Reformed Criminal: Steve Deal, who has a record, has been clean for 4 years. He also no longer has to check in with his parole officer but did call him when he got the letter.
- Ripped from the Phone Book: Harvey Forrester uses pages from a ripped out phone book and leaves the pages on Steve's car in order to let Friday know where to meet him. This is also how the police are able to figure out who Harvey is as one time he is spotted by an undercover officer and followed.
- Undercover Cop Reveal: Just before Forrester can shoot Friday, Friday tells him he's a police officer and that there are three more officers right outside the door. Forrester decides to surrender instead.
