Day 263: Columbo, Butterfly in Shades of Grey

Show: Columbo

Episode Particulars: S10EP8, “Butterfly in Shades of Grey”, original airdate January 10^th, 1994.

 Summary: Fielding Chase (William Shatner) is a call-in radio host who’s fairly popular, despite or perhaps because of his abrasive personality. He’s got a foster daughter, Victoria (Molly Hagan) who he’s very possessive of, something that hasn’t escaped the notice of her friend Gerry (Jack Laufer), who also works for Chase. When Victoria writes a novel and Chase starts pulling strings to prevent her from getting published, Gerry declares that he’s going to help Victoria achieve her dream and tear Chase down to boot. Chase, not about to relinquish control, sets up a phone call with Gerry, then sneaks into his house, uses Gerry’s second phone to make it sound like Chase is on the phone in his office, and shoots him, knowing the answering machine in the office will provide him with an alibi. Of course, if there’s one person who knows how to poke holes in an alibi, it’s Columbo.

Standalone Thoughts: While I did have fun watching this episode, it’s honestly kind of meh if you look at it objectively. Which is odd, because a lot of the elements are pretty good. The hook of having the murder recorded on the answering machine is interesting, Columbo has a lot of knowing questions that noticeably get under Chase’s skin, and there are several moments that would have been right at home in earlier episodes. Plus, William Shatner is always fun to watch (especially if you’re a Star Trek fan), and the fact that he’s playing an egotistical radio host works perfectly, given Shatner’s reputation as a ham. And despite that reputation, he still manages to convey enough dark undertones to land Chase in my list of “Nastiest Columbo murderers”, which means he had to be doing some actual acting in there. I know that sounds like a backhanded compliment, but I do actually admire the balance Shatner was walking there.

Anyway, despite all these good bits, somehow they don’t quite cohere together into a completely satisfying whole. It may be that it goes on a little too long, or that the relationship between Victoria and Chase is uncomfortably close to relationships you’d see in the real world, or that it takes us awhile to get to the actual murder, which can throw the pacing off. All I know is that it’s entertaining enough, but ultimately fits in with the blah nature of most of what I’m calling Season Ten. Though at least it’s upper tier rather than lower tier.

Number of “Columbo-isms”: 5/6. The car shows up several times, Mrs. Columbo is mentioned here and there, “This Old Man” is both whistled by Columbo and appears on the soundtrack, and Columbo does both on and offscreen fumbling. The absolute champion, however, is “Just one more thing”, which is said literally at least twice and in several other variations besides. Apparently the writer was in a catchphrase sort of mood when he wrote the script.

Other: *This episode gets the award for “Most Baffling Episode Title”. Pretty much every other episode title has something related to the case, or at the very least talks about death. Even “It’s All in the Game” can be interpreted as the game of cat and mouse. But what on earth does “Butterfly in Shades of Grey” mean? There’s nothing about butterflies in the plot, nor do I think you can interpret Chase’s actions as “shades of grey”. Unless that was the title of Victoria’s novel (we never do find out what it was about), I’m out of ideas. That being said, the title did wind up inspiring the title of one of my own works, so I can’t be too mad at it.

*I will give the episode credit for mostly doing a good job with Gerry’s sexuality, especially since I’m pretty sure he’s the first openly gay character on the show. He’s not stereotypically flamboyant, most people seem accepting of it, and it doesn’t completely define his character. There are a few awkward moments, but I don’t think it’s a coincidence that all those moments are when Chase is the one talking about the subject. In which case, I have to chalk that up to clever writing.

*I do have to wonder why Gerry didn’t notice that Chase was talking to him on the phone in the other room. Wouldn’t he have heard an echo effect? Or is this one of those things I shouldn’t think about too much?

*In a small but noticeable deviation from formula, Columbo does not immediately recognize Chase’s name. Normally (if the murderer is famous in some way) he knows who they are as soon as he hears the name. I actually like that he didn’t know this time; it shows that there are some things even the lieutenant doesn’t know.

*We get more technological time capsules in this episode, both with discussions of cell phones that are now in the transition period between bricks and flip phones (and cost $800, apparently), and the newish satellite dishes that can get up to two hundred channels. One can only imagine the sort of conversations Columbo would have had about streaming and smartphones had the show made it to the 2010’s.

*I’m a little baffled by the fact that the gondola/lift system that Chase uses to get to different areas of his house (which is way too big for two people, no matter how rich they are) has “ABBA” written so obviously across the side. I have to assume that was the name of the company that installed it, but all I can think about is the band of the same name. Which admittedly puts some very interesting ideas in my head…

Would This Hold Up in Court?: No. The way Columbo caught Chase was a setup on multiple levels. It’s fairly logical evidence, but the method by which it was obtained is going to really annoy the lawyers.