Written by: Donald Ross
Directed by: Anthony Pullen Shaw
Jessica must unravel the reason behind the murder of a popular florist.
Tropes:
- Content Leak: In-Universe, competing magazine "Starscene" keeps beating Frances Hunt's "A-List Magazine" on supposedly exclusive stories, suggesting that they have a mole in their midst.
- Mistaken Identity: When Jessica visits Davey Wells in the hospital, the nurse at the reception mistakes Jessica for a groupie trying to get into the athlete's private room. Once inside, Davey mistakes Jessica for a hospital volunteer.
- Noodle Incident: Lt. Caceres and Jessica had apparently worked together on a case before (though this is the first actual appearance of the character).
- Plot Induced Stupidity: The only reason why Betty O'Hara would step out of the Starscene office and display the wad of cash she got from them, was so Jessica can catch her and reveal her identity as The Mole.
- Shear Menace: The episode's Victim of the Week was killed with a pair of pruning shears.
- Shout-Out: The title is a spoof of The Petrified Forest.
- Theme Naming: Several characters are named after Jazz musicians, ie Billy Kyle, pianist from Louis Armstrong 's band, trumpeter Johnny Windhurst, Big Band singer Frances Hunt, Arnett and Junie Cobb (two unrelated musicians, the former a saxophonist, the latter a multi-instrumentalist), and the last names of Caceres (from saxophonist Ernie Caceres), Wells (from trombonist Dickie Wells), and Hendricks (from singer/songwriter Jon Hendricks).
- Third-Act Misunderstanding: Jessica sets a trap for the killer by feeding a mole information that ends up being overheard by the Arnett Cobb, who then proceeds to confess to the crime to protect his wife. Junie denies being the murderer and they reconcile...only for Junie to be revealed to be the actual murderer.
- Twist Ending: After being outed as the killer, Junie Cobb was about to be arrested by the police, but then she pulls out a gun and then shoots Jessica.... then a plate shatters on the floor, and Jessica awakens from the quick snooze she had at the party near the beginning of the episode. Turns out, the entire murder scenario was all a dream.
