Moonlighting 2.13

In God We Strongly Suspect

The Great Kandinsky, an escape artist, dies while attempting to escape (while handcuffed) from a tank of water. His widow hires David and Maddie to keep an eye on the body until it gets cremated. They spend the night at the funeral home in the room with the body. The body is there when they arrive but when they wake up the next morning it is gone.

Maddie and David drive to Mrs. Kandinsky's home. They tell her what happened. She is freaked out and slams the door in their faces. They drive around town looking for the body. They wind up at the morgue. They talk to the medical examiner. They ask to see any John Doe's that were brought in. The first one they look at is Mrs. Kandinsky.

David and Maddie don't know what to think. They mull over the situation. The next day the Great Kandinsky turns up dead, for a second time. Maddie and David return to the morgue and confront the medical examiner. He is less than pleased to see them.

Thoughts

J. A. Preston played the medical examiner. I've seen him before in a few things. The one that sticks out in my mind is A Few Good Men (1992) in which he played the judge. He has a beard in this episode. I didn't remember what it was that I had seen him in until I saw a picture of him without a beard. He is still around and in his 90s but his last screen credit was in 2006.

There are two fourth wall breaking moments in this episode. The first takes place during the cold open. The second takes place early in the episode. 

There is a scene early in the episode which felt mostly like filler. Maddie arrives at work only to discover the lights are off and no one is there. It turns out that it is her birthday and everyone, all her employees, are in her office waiting to sing her Happy Birthday. There are mentions of her birthday later in the episode but it in no way felt essential or like it really added anything to the episode.

The fact that it is Maddie's birthday gets mentioned a couple times later in the episode but aside from that it felt very inconsequential and unrelated to the rest of the episode.

This was a fun episode. It was kind of silly in places. It wasn't great but it didn't make me groan too much and the dialogue was smart and made me laugh a few times.