3.10 "Show Me the Monkey"

Aired Jan 23, 2007

Speculation

grim squeaker: Ahoy, sweetie!
Inigo: Hello there.
grim squeaker: How are ya?
Inigo: Good, thanks. Just got up.
grim squeaker: Ah. I've been up for a while. *stretches*
Inigo: Show off.
grim squeaker: Hee. Didn't the divine misskiwi want to spec with you?
Inigo: She's away at a wedding, I believe.
grim squeaker: Ah, that's a bitch! Er, not misskiwi of course.
Inigo: Indeed.
grim squeaker: I mean, that sucks.
Inigo: Indeedy.
grim squeaker: So, I have this theory, do you want to hear it?
Inigo: Of course.
grim squeaker: So, when Landry said he wouldn't have killed Dean O'Dell for Mindy he was right. He didn't. One of her other paramours did. My money is still on Chip, with a small possibility for her ex-husband. I think the time is too short for it to be yet another lover not introduced yet.
Inigo: I took the line to be saying one of two things. He didn't kill O'Dell, or he didn't kill O'Dell for that motive but he did kill him for an alternative motive. But yes, Chip is feeling likely to me at the mo, too. But I'm not sure Mindy is the motive, even for Chip.
grim squeaker: That he killed him for something else seems a possibility, too, but so far, I can't see a motive. And love for a woman would be something they haven't tried out yet. So far, we had fear of public outrage, fear of public shame, and general psychosis. Time for something more "normal." And my theory would be anyway that Mindy is the brains behind it (because honestly, Chip=brains? No way.) fitting into the femme fatale category.
Inigo: So you reckon Mindy and Chip in a conspiracy? And what, she's only asking Keith to investigate to get the insurance money? Hmm, or maybe she is getting Keith involved so that he reveals Chip as the killer, leaving her free of irksome obligation to a college boy. A sort of To Die For scenario.
grim squeaker: Yes, that was my idea, more or less.
Inigo: That's feasible, although I don't feel I have enough to be hooked on it as a theory. Although, I can work it into using Veronica's murder plot - Mindy would know that this would get the attention of the Mars family - so when Mindy asked Keith what convinced him about taking the case, she was expecting him to say the suicide note and was genuinely surprised to hear him say "Scotch." That was something she couldn't have known Cyrus told Keith.
grim squeaker: I feel like the Perfect Murder paper is one of these things that looks like a huge clue and in the end really turns up to be nothing much. In this case, I think it is supposed to point to Tim being the culprit.
Inigo: I never thought it would point to Tim because of the insertion of the line about Veronica needing to make it publish-worthy. Anyone could access it. I think the murderer had to have seen it one way or the other. It's too much of a coincidence otherwise.
grim squeaker: They took great care to mention that it was a very "generic" last words epitaph, though.
Inigo: True. If Hank is such a great profiler, wouldn't he have his own suspicions about Mindy - although, of course, that could explain why he's drinking alone in a bar.
grim squeaker: Did you ever have the feeling that Landry is a good profiler?
Inigo: I don't get the feeling he's a bad one.
grim squeaker: I don't have a feeling either way.
Inigo: But, then, I never bought into the complaint that he didn't know who Veronica was in 301 WW.
grim squeaker: There was a complaint about that?
Inigo: Just like I don't buy into the complaint I've seen that Keith had any reason to suspect O'Dell's death wasn't suicide before he saw the bottle. Of course he was interviewed by Lamb, but not in O'Dell's office. And what he had to tell Lamb substantiated a finding of suicide.
grim squeaker: There was a complaint about that, too? Huh.
Inigo: Yes. Maybe some just like complaining. Anyway, the combination with Mindy could apply to anyone she's slept with, I suppose. We know of Landry, her ex, Chip. Tim's a possible, what with his "finding others" rant to Bonnie. Whilst I agree it's too late to add new characters who are lovers, there's nothing to say existing characters can't be revealed as lovers. Maybe Samuel Nelson Pope did it. He is the father of Bronson and Amy. O'Dell made a move on Amy. SNP....
grim squeaker: Pope is a regular on another show I think.
Inigo: Oh, pooh.
grim squeaker: Besides, we should keep ourselves in reasonable confines. Maybe it's Bronson. Mac would never touch a guy again.
Inigo: Thing is, I know Mindy may be lying, but if it's true that O'Dell wouldn't have killed himself for her, I'm wondering if her sleeping around was ever a problem. I mean, it was, because of the way he responded to the news that she was, but...I don't know. I'm just suspicious that we don't have the real motive yet.
grim squeaker: Well, he seemed angry enough when he confronted her, and why should he have hired Keith to investigate her if it wasn't a problem? He seemed devastated at the very idea.
Inigo: Yes. But I think she's right about his nature. I don't think he would have killed himself over it. His first reaction was to kill her, or her lover. We need to know what happened in the hotel room that night.
grim squeaker: I agree, but I think Keith's initial hunch - that it has to do with Mindy, and that it is her lover - is correct. They are showing us this now, and then they'll move away from it, taking us into red herring area.
Inigo: Perhaps. We have what...six episodes in total?
grim squeaker: Yes, I agree. He wouldn't have killed himself over it. He would have threatened to divorce her and take all the money away. She was naturally upset. She went home, she called Chip. She told him a sob story, and persuaded him to go kill her mean husband. Then she persuaded Landry to pretend they had been together all night, so that they can give each other an alibi. Yes, six episodes.
Inigo: No doubt we'll get something on the cigar-smoking financial contributor to Hearst. Then there's O'Dell's gambling. We may need to check when we last saw Chip, but we already have examples of him disappearing from parties.
grim squeaker: I think we last saw him in the company of Bambi, that was before Veronica confronted Logan. Shortly before Mercer went back to rape What's-her-name.
Inigo: Yes, I think that's right.
grim squeaker: So he could have easily gotten a call from Mindy, gone to the Dean's office, shot him, type the suicide note - all after Mindy's instructions I'd think.
Inigo: Hmm. See, where I'm starting to find it far-fetched is in the timing. For it to have been generated by O'Dell's appearance at the Grand, the whole plan had to be conceived and executed very quickly. That bothers me. Do we know that O'Dell was killed with his own gun?
grim squeaker: I'd assume it, since we weren't told otherwise. Remember, this isn't CSI, it will be a minor point. Unless it's not, of course, but it seems like something that would have been mentioned. Even Lamb can't be as useless to rule something as suicide when the gun isn't still around, and has been verified as being the dean's. As for the timing/planning issue, I still maintain that she could have had the plan to off him for a while and just had to set it in motion far quicker than originally planned because he threatened to divorce her.
Inigo: Yes, I'm with you on assuming the bullet must have been from his gun and it was on the scene. Even Lamb wouldn't screw up that much. Mindy would have known about the gun in the drawer. The difference that night was that it was in his pocket, although he may have returned it. The murderer had to know about the gun and where it was for the whole plan to work. And if she was just bringing forward an existing plan, Veronica's paper could have already been incorporated (or, yes, it's coincidence - although I don't like it).

grim squeaker: I said it had to be his gun, it didn't necessarily have to be the one he had in his drawer. He could have had more than one gun, and it seems much too risky to just hope Chip could get to the drawer in time.
Inigo: That would mean there were two guns, unless one was removed. It's starting to feel more tenuous to me. I was interested in Veronica's comment that using "Goodbye, cruel world" was to stop the study of the message.
grim squeaker: Yeah, about that... is it verifiable that this is actually true, or did the writers make that up? Because, seriously, who would write such tripe when saying goodbye? I thought it would be more like "I'm sorry." or something.
Inigo: "I can't take anymore," whatever. I don't know the derivation of "Goodbye, cruel world." Might be worth looking up.
grim squeaker: I see where you're going with the gun, although what about if the dean simply put it back in his drawer? Why should he leave it in his pocket, after all? So, the plan would work again, if it incorporates the gun being in the drawer.
Inigo: Yes, I said he could have put it back, although it may not be that significant as Mindy could have told the killer that it may not be in the drawer but on his person. Which then raises the question of how he got the gun. Actually, that question arises either way. Who is Cyrus going to let go into one of his drawers and pull out the gun? Also, from the position of the body, it seems that O'Dell was sitting at his desk when he was murdered - which also suggests that the person who appeared at the door may not be the killer.
grim squeaker: I'm in two minds about this: On the one hand, they made a point out of showing that the dean saw someone and was surprised, that makes me think it wasn't the killer. On the other hand: they don't have a lot of time, so they can add only so many twists, ya know.
Inigo: Yes, but I'm ignoring structural issues for the minute. See, it's this stuff that makes me think it might have been a crime of opportunity, rather than one that was planned. I can imagine the dean coming back and laying the gun on the desk. I can see him returning to the couch to carry on drinking. The fact that he was at his desk seems odd to me. Why was he there? What was he going to do? Perhaps it was to do with his visitor; perhaps it was on the computer. And the visitor then just leans forward to take the gun and stops him, using the recently read "Goodbye cruel world" in place of what O'Dell was writing.
grim squeaker: Yeah, it's possible. Who and why?
Inigo: That's the sixty-four thousand dollar question.
grim squeaker: Actually that's two questions...ba-dum.
Inigo: Pedant. Or pendant. Except I think that's a necklace.
grim squeaker: No, I doubt you could hang me around your neck...snap! So, I guess that's the story so far, huh?
Inigo: Well, it does bring me nicely back round to Landry killing him for a reason unconnected to Mindy. If O'Dell was writing Landry's marching papers... Then there's the eggs.
grim squeaker: Well, yes, but that is still connected to the whole Mindy thing, isn't it? If it has to be another reason, it should be completely unconnected to this situation. Yeah, the eggs. An unsatisfied baking class, perhaps? I'd take anything that doesn't involve Nish and her girly girls.
Inigo: Another coincidence if they are not connected - it woke up the dean just in time to receive his mysterious visitor, but I can't see how there's any connection unless there is a conspiracy. Oh, pooh. I've just successfully gone in complete circles. I feel like Charlie chasing her tail.
grim squeaker: Probably time to call it, then.
Inigo: Yep.
grim squeaker: Okay. It has been a pleasure to substitute for missk...
Inigo: Bloody weddings.
grim squeaker: HOW DARE PEOPLE WED WHEN THERE ARE MYSTERIES TO BE SOLVED?!!