Jessica comes with two old friends, Bonnie and Cliff Phelps, to see what's going on when Cliff receives a summons after an old plane on which he served, the Dixie Damsel, finally turns up. She receives a rude shock when it turns out that the army wants to investigate the apparent murder of a missing crew member. Even worse, her late husband quickly becomes the primary suspect. Determined to clear Frank's name, Jessica delves into the extremely cold case.
This episode includes examples of the following tropes:
- Absence of Evidence: Jessica points out an oddity in a posthumous photo of Gagliano — he hadn't gotten his parachute on, even though the whole crew was about to abandon the plane. This suggests to her that someone had hidden on the Dixie Damsel killed Gagliano, and stolen his parachute.
- Clear Their Name: Jessica's entire motivation for taking up the case revolves around preventing the army from putting even a suspicion that Frank killed Gagliano in his file.
- Kissing the Ground: Frank kisses the earth in a newsreel after the rescued crew returns home.
- Punk in the Trunk: The final solution involves a criminal crony of Gagliano's hiding in the the trunk of the Cadillac being shipped back to the States in the Dixie Damsel.
- Reasonable Authority Figure:
- Despite having given orders to wrap up the case ASAP, General Havermeyer listens to Jessica's theory when she points out the oddity the missing parachute and tells the investigating major to cooperate with her.
- The major, while not initially very cooperative, listens to Jessica's warning against letting Rossi leave with the duffel bag and searches it for anything that he might have tried to escape with. He apologizes for being so harsh at the end, saying he was only trying to do his job, and Jessica, having solved the case and had a chance to cool down, admits she might have come to the same conclusion in his position.
- Southern-Fried Private: Sgt. Ray Dressler — a racist, redneck Cigar Chomper from Texas who does not appreciate being investigated by an African-American officer (played by Clifton James, who specialized in this type of role).
- Unseen No More: This episode provides the viewers' first and only glimpse of Frank Fletcher's appearance.
