Moonlighting 2.05

My Fair David

Maddie is enraged when she walks into the office of the Blue Moon Detective Agency only to find that David has a limbo contest going, during working hours. Maddie bets David that he can't act professional for one week. He accepts the bet.

Maddie and David are hired my Emily Greydon to deliver the $100,000 ransom for her stepson Clark. She wants them to try and bargain with the kidnappers and offers them a bonus if they can get the kidnappers to take an amount less than $100,000.

David does his best to win the bet. It gets Maddie on the bad side of everyone in the office, especially Ms. DiPesto who accuses her of de-Dave-ing Mr. Addison.

David and Maddie soon find out that the ransom note was a fake. Clark faked the kidnapping in order to get more money from his stepmother. They keep quiet about the truth and collect their money including the bonus.

The next day a new ransom note appears. Emily Greydon gives them the money to cover it. They rush to get there in time but they don't make it. The van that Clark is in blows up just as they arrive on the scene. At first they think that he's dead, but then they think he's alive, but then they find out he was killed by his mother who's decided she had enough of his gambling problem.

Maddie let's David off the hook at the end of the episode. She misses the way he usually acted despite the unprofessional nature of his usual behavior.

Thoughts

Clark is watching a college football game at the beginning of the episode. It look like the Texas Longhorns are playing another school but I couldn't figure out who they were playing.

Emily Greydon was played by Barbara Bain. I know her best from the original Mission Impossible TV show and Space 1999.

I don't follow exactly what happened after the first kidnapping. It seems that they were paid $50,000 by Emily Greydon, which I assume means that Clark only kept $10,000. They returned the other $90,000. Emily Greydon gave them half of the returned money plus $5,000 that she offered to pay them regardless of whether they were able to bargain with the kidnappers or not. That's my read of the situation but it isn't explicitly clear that's the case.

The best parts of this episode aren't the parts that I focused on in my summary. The best parts are the scenes where David is trying to keep his behavior in check.

This was a fun episode. I like it but it is not my favorite. This is the third episode in a row that I have really liked.