Jessica and Harry McGraw are pulled back together again when Jessica receives a manuscript from old friend Nick Cullhane, a mystery writer long gone to seed. Though Jessica initially takes the work as an engaging novel, events convince her more and more that it's too true to life, and that someone will do anything to retrieve it.
This episode includes examples of the following tropes:
- And I'm the Queen of Sheba: When Jessica puts forward some alternate theories about what is worrying Nick (like a girlfriend or legal troubles), Harry answers that he's Sam Spade.
- Aside Glance: The ending shot has Harry, Jessica, and Sheriff Metzger all looking into the camera.
- Better Manhandle the Murder Weapon: While Harry is looking for the manuscript in the newspaper office, he gets punched and knocked to his knees. He puts his hand on a gun and proceeds to pick it up and hold it as if to fire it. Nick Culhane was also murdered in the office, so naturally, the late-arriving Sheriff Metzger thinks Harry did it.
- Faked Kidnapping: Nick is murdered because he wrote a manuscript blowing the whistle on a fake kidnapping scam. Sgt. Mannix, who had told him while drunk, couldn't afford for anyone to know he leaked the information.
- Gratuitous Foreign Language: Sgt. Mannix drops a bit of Yiddish into his conversation.
- He Knows Too Much: Much of the episode focuses on the danger to anyone who knows what's contained in the book. While Forbes is more ambiguous, Mannix is definitely willing to kill to keep the secret. Harry explicitly warns Jessica that she and anyone else who read the manuscript are in peril. Jessica initially thinks he's being melodramatic, but she finds out that he's right.
- Implied Death Threat: When Mr. Gordon comes to her house at night, refusing to be chased away, Jessica tells him that if she screams, it'll carry to the neighbors' houses, and some of them have firearms.
- Instantly Proven Wrong: When Vikki sticks him with the job of tracking down their link to the manuscript from a voice on an answering machine, Harry rants that the job is too hard for the sum; there are millions of people it could be. Then he hears the recording and recognizes Jessica's voice.
- In Vino Veritas: It turns out that Sgt. Mannix was Nick's main source for the book. Drunk and exasperated with his employers, he started ranting to his bar buddy Nick about how the kidnapping was faked. Nick promised not to tell anyone, but eventually he grew desperate enough to write a book on it.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The final line is by Jerry Orbach as Harry McGraw, who says, "That's all she wrote." Cue Harry, Sheriff Metzger, and Jessica all looking directly into the camera and smiling/smirking for the final shot. In the seventh season box set extra "The Price of Success", this was explained as a deliberate choice. Lansbury's contract was up, and she was seriously considering not renewing it, because of the grueling schedule (also the reason for the Poorly Disguised Pilot; it was the only way of giving her a break). At the time of shooting, there was a good chance this would be the series finale as well, so the writers wanted something a little special. Luckily for the network, in the end Lansbury loved Jessica too much to quit.
- Mistaken for Romance: Jessica initially thinks Vikki is Harry's girlfriend when they turn up at the door together. Harry quickly explains that she's a client, not anyone he's seeing.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Trying to smooth over Sheriff Metzger's perspective of Harry, Jessica tells him that while Harry is flawed, both he and the sheriff are good, industrious men.
- Speak in Unison: Harry and Jessica both start to explain to Metzger at the same time.
- Stealth Insult:
- Vikki's jealous boyfriend/enforcer doesn't like her going along with Harry to find the manuscript and warns him to keep his hands to himself. Harry retorts that he wishes everything were so easy.
- Later, when they're talking about her former husband Lou, Vikki says that he made himself vulnerable by needing people to like him. Harry snarks back that she'll never have that problem.
- Trouble Entendre: When telling Harry to pay up, Vikki (his bookie) tells him to give her the money or he'll have to have a conversation with her enforcer/boyfriend (implicitly one involving fists).
- Work Off the Debt: When Harry can't pay her, Vikki assigns him the job of tracking down Nick's manuscript
