The second season of Murder, She Wrote began airing on September 29, 1985 and completed on May 18, 1986 with twenty-two episodes.
Summary[]
Jessica's second year as a published author is just as hectic as her first, as she finds herself investigating another chilling series of murders.
Jessica begins by travelling to Jamaica to investigate the murder of a very dear friend of hers. While investigating her friends death she is introduced to Michael Hagarty, a retired MI6 agent, with whom Jessica would establish a strong friendship. Jessica then moves on to an investigation into the death of a John Doe who may very well have be Cabot Cove's own revolutionary war hero; Joshua Peabody. Whom was supposedly killed by a British redcoat during the battle of Cabot Cove.
Jessica also manages to solve a murder while seving as foreperson on a jury, which was convened pn the same case to judge the innocence or guilt of another suspect. She also has another run in with PI Harry McGraw, The pair find themselves bidding against each other to get their hands on the diary of a sex symbol, however when the friend whom hired Jessica winds up dead, Harry must come to her rescue and the two pair up to solve the case.
Starring[]
Regular Cast[]
- Angela Lansbury as Jessica Fletcher
- Tom Bosley as Sheriff Amos Tupper
- William Windom as Dr. Seth Hazlitt
Recurring Cast[]
- Michael Horton as Grady Fletcher
- Jerry Orbach as Harry McGraw
- Len Cariou as Michael Hagarty
- John Astin as Harry Pierce
- Angela Lansbury as Emma MacGill
Episodes[]
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Prod. code | Original airdate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 | 1 | "Widow, Weep for Me" | 60309 | September 29, 1985 |
| Jessica's trip to a Caribbean resort is filled with sun, sand and a murder investigation. | ||||
| 24 | 2 | "Joshua Peabody Died Here... Possibly" | 60305 | October 6, 1985 |
| Plans for a new hotel in Cabot Cove must be put on hold when a skeleton is discovered at the construction site. Amos and Jessica visit the site to look for clues but instead find a second body. | ||||
| 25 | 3 | "Murder in the Afternoon" | 60302 | October 13, 1985 |
| Jessica's niece worries about her job security when the character she plays turns out to be the serial killer. Before long Jessica herself needs to worry when her niece's boss ends up dead and her niece looks like the prime suspect. | ||||
| 26 | 4 | "School for Scandal" | 60314 | October 20, 1985 |
| Following her acceptance of an honorary degree from a university, Jessica must look between the lines to discover the truth and the murderer. | ||||
| 27 | 5 | "Sing a Song of Murder" | 60306 | October 27, 1985 |
| Jessica is devastated to be informed of her cousin Emma's untimely passing, but when she arrives in London she learns that Emma isn't dead after all, but has been in hiding after threats on her life. Jessica goes along with the ruse in the hopes of flushing out the would-be killer. | ||||
| 28 | 6 | "Reflections of the Mind" | 60304 | November 3, 1985 |
| Jessica visits an old friend who claims to be haunted by the ghost of her late husband. But when the woman's second spouse is murdered and she becomes the prime suspect, Jessica is determined to help clear her name. | ||||
| 29 | 7 | "A Lady in the Lake" | 60307 | November 10, 1985 |
| Jessica spends a little time at a lakeside inn where she witnesses what appears to be a struggle and a woman falling into the lake. Everyone is convinced that the husband did it, but Jessica isn't quite so sure. | ||||
| 30 | 8 | "Dead Heat" | 60303 | November 24, 1985 |
| Jessica goes to the races to watch her niece ride the winning horse but then the horse's disagreeable owner is murdered after a dispute. | ||||
| 31 | 9 | "Jessica Behind Bars" | 60316 | December 1, 1985 |
| Jessica agrees to teach an English class at a women's prison for her friend Margaret and soon finds herself being held hostage after Dr. Matthews is murdered and the prisoners are convinced that the warden is responsible | ||||
| 32 | 10 | "Sticks and Stones" | 60301 | December 15, 1985 |
| Cabot Cove is flooded with poison pen letters which proves hard for the town to handle as Amos prepares to hand the reins over to a new sheriff, Harry Pierce. | ||||
| 33 | 11 | "Murder Digs Deep" | 60315 | December 29, 1985 |
| An archaeological dig at the site of Coronado's City of Gold does not please everyone as a new corpse is dug up. | ||||
| 34 | 12 | "Murder by Appointment Only" | 60310 | January 5, 1986 |
| One of Jessica's former students is murdered and she takes a personal interest in the investigation and finds herself at the heart of a family feud while taking a look into the company that Grady is working for now. | ||||
| 35 | 13 | "Trial by Error" | 60317 | January 12, 1986 |
| It's a bad day for the jurors when Jessica is the foreperson of the jury hearing the case of a man claiming self-defense in the death of an enraged husband. The jury alternates between wanting to convict him and wanting to set him free, but Jessica realises there's more than just one murder going on here. | ||||
| 36 | 14 | "Keep the Home Fries Burning" | 60320 | January 19, 1986 |
| Jessica, Seth and Amos try out a new tourist-oriented restaurant, but after a number of the guests fall ill eating strawberry preserves, one of the women dies. Jessica investigates the murder while everyone in town tries to point the finger at someone else. | ||||
| 37 | 15 | "Powder Keg" | 60326 | February 9, 1986 |
| The justice system is tested when a group of angry Southerners form a lynch party and plan to hang a murder suspect. | ||||
| 38 | 16 | "Murder in the Electric Cathedral" | 60312 | February 16, 1986 |
| Jessica must find the murderer of her close friend whose will is in contention between family and a popular evangelist and soon finds herself in the middle of a feud between different members of the evangelist's family. | ||||
| 39 | 17 | "One Good Bid Deserves a Murder" | 60318 | February 23, 1986 |
| Jessica finds herself in a tough spot when one of the auctioneers of a diary is found murdered and she has to rely on Harry McGraw to help her out. | ||||
| 40 | 18 | "If a Body Meet a Body" | 60321 | March 9, 1986 |
| What begins as a routine murder investigation leads the police to discover that a coffin contains the wrong body. | ||||
| 41 | 19 | "Christopher Bundy - Died on Sunday" | 60311 | March 30, 1986 |
| The writing's on the wall when a reputable magazine is acquired by a mercenary publisher who quickly changes it into a gossip rag. | ||||
| 42 | 20 | "Menace, Anyone?" | 60319 | April 6, 1986 |
| Jessica struggles to protect her former student Carol, a tennis star, when her boyfriend is blown up in her car and Carol is the only suspect. | ||||
| 43 | 21 | "The Perfect Foil" | 60329 | April 13, 1986 |
| Jessica travels to New Orleans, but the good times can't roll when her cousin suspected of murder. | ||||
| 44 | 22 | "If the Frame Fits" | 60331 | May 18, 1986 |
| The picture's not pretty when an heiress is killed and her art-thief husband is the suspect. | ||||
Background Information[]
- This season features the first appearance of Michael Hagarty, whom would go on to become a recurring character.
- This season also sees William Windom added to the main cast in the role of Dr. Seth Hazlitt, Cabot Cove's resident doctor and the best friend of Jessica Fletcher.
- Famous longtime Actress Betsy Palmer appears the the 10th episode called “Sticks and Stones” as a minor role called Lila Norris. She would later return to appear again in “Something Borrowed, Someone Blue”, the 9th episode of the 5th Season as Valerie or Mrs. Parker, a not surprisingly killer (for the fans of the Friday the 13th movie know her as the female killer and psycho mother, Pamela Voorhees).