Recap: A beauty pageant contestant (Charlene West) is taking a bubble bath when her phone starts ringing. She stares fearfully into space until the ringing stops, then gets out of the tub and climbs into bed, clutching her stuffed bear. The phone promptly starts ringing again...and when she answers, a garbled male voice asks, "Why aren't you sleeping?" and taunts her about the importance of getting enough beauty rest. She cries, "Why are you doing this to me?!" ... and after the stalker hangs up, she leaves the receiver off the hook. The next day, pageant director Chuck Davis is leading a rehearsal of the Miss King Harbor pageant, directing swimsuit-clad women across the stage while he croons into the microphone. Behind the stage, MC and minor TV personality Eddie Caruthers gets all grab-handsy with Charlene and smarmily remarks on how this is her first pageant...and over at the judge's table, one of the pageant judges (Lois Ames) bitterly mumbles about the sluttish way in which Charlene is throwing herself at Eddie, despite it clearly being the other way around. When Murray (a fellow pageant judge) asks her if she's talking about Charlene West, she confirms she is, and snarls, "I know ambitious, loose women when I see them." Murray argues that Charlene seems like a very nice girl - but Lois insists that the trollop will do anything to win a local pageant that no one outside of King Harbor could possibly give a rat's ass about, and vows to ensure that the best contestant wins the pageant, not a harlot who's willing to jump into the sack with a vulture like Eddie Caruthers. Meow, Lois. When Cody arrives at the pageant rehearsal, Murray starts dishing to him about what Lois just said about Eddie - but Cody shushes him and reminds him that they don't want anyone to know that they're working undercover as pageant judges in order to sneakily investigate the creepy stalker who's been making threatening phone calls to Charlene. Murray insists that his dish is relevant to the case, so he shares that Lois referred to Eddie Caruthers as a vulture, and Cody suggests adding this bitter woman who looks to have an ax to grind on their List o' Suspects. Murray stares wistfully into space as he wonders aloud if the contestants are really so desperate to win the Miss King Harbor title that they'd go so far as to sleep with a judge...then jolts himself back into reality as he reminds himself that they're here on assignment, and that he shouldn't let his implausible fantasies run wild. As he and Cody watch the rehearsal, one particularly saucy contestant sashays over and gives Cody an unmistakable come hither look as she introduces herself as Whitney...and Murray is so overwhelmed by the brazen sexuality oozing from the woman's every pore that he literally falls off of his chair. An exhausted Nick arrives at the pageant venue, complains about what a joke this assignment is, and reminds Cody and Murray that he just came off a two week stint doing National Guard duty and hasn't slept in the last three days. Cody explains that this case just happened to come up while he was away, and that getting hired to look into something associated with the Miss King Harbor pageant is going to look great on their PI resume - not to mention what "a real gas" it is, being appointed a pageant judge. Nick's like, "It's still lame", but says he'll force himself to endure the case, but only as long as he doesn't have to tolerate the sight of baton twirlers...and by scripted coincidence, the three then wander backstage and come upon a baton twirling rehearsal. Womp womp! Charlene is primping in her dressing room when she gets another call from her stalker, tauntingly asking her if she liked the funeral wreath he just sent to her...and she cries, "Stop it! Leave me alone!" A few seconds later, the Riptide trio knocks on her door, so she ushers them inside and informs them that she just got another weird call. After she's introduced to a very sleepy looking Nick, she wails about how she hasn't done anything to deserve this harassment. When Nick suggests her stalker could be someone who really really doesn't want her to win the pageant, she points out how utterly ridiculous it would be for anyone to get their panties in a twist about which young woman gets crowned Miss King Harbor. That's a definite understatement. Murray plays back the garbled phone message left by the stalker and says he's going to fiddle around with the recording and see if he can remove the electronic screening device the caller used and thereby unveil the culprit. Charlene says she's considered dropping out of the pageant and looking for a different way to afford college tuition [like get a job, for example] - but an exhausted Nick, who nearly nods off while he's talking, urges her to hang in there, 'cause he's pretty sure he, Cody, and Murray are fully capable of catching the miscreant.
As the trio ambles toward the door, Charlene opens her closet to get dressed - and shrieks in horror when she finds a creepy looking mannequin staring back at her, which then crashes towards her onto the floor. When she sees that someone has gone through the silly trouble of plunging a knife into the back of the life-size doll for an added jolt of shock value, she starts sobbing and clings to Nick for comfort (yum!). Chuck Davis tells the Riptide trio that he wants this investigation wrapped up asap, 'cause it's not good for the business of running a pageant. Cody explains that it takes time to zero in on all the possible suspects, and Murray concurs and assures Chuck that they've made some excellent preliminary progress. Eddie Caruthers corners another contestant, Paula Anderson, and offers to pull some strings for her among the judges, in exchange for a visit to his dressing room - but she makes it clear she's not interested. Nick, who's been eavesdropping on the icky quid pro quo attempt, snarlingly chides Eddie for once putting a friend of his in the hospital...and Eddie chuckles at the memory of the unfortunate woman's "hot-headed friend who wanted to take me apart in the hospital waiting room". He pompously cautions Nick about threatening a [minor] celebrity - just as Cody and Murray wander over. After Eddie scuttles off, Cody tells Nick that Eddie is the MC of the pageant...as well as a prime suspect in their investigation. Nick explains that his former girlfriend's friend once dated Eddie...and when she tried to dump him, he beat her up. She was well compensated to keep the matter out of court, so Eddie was never even arrested for the assault. As the three continue to discuss the case, Charlene walks across the stage to ask Cody something - when suddenly the light bar above her starts to come suspiciously loose. Cody sees it dislodge and hastily pushes Charlene out of the way seconds before the entire contraption comes crashing to the stage. Eeeek! Murray studies the wiring of the light bar and deduces that it was a clear-cut act of sabotage, then explains that someone connected a cable cutter to the light bar that could be triggered remotely. [Not sure how such a thing would actually be possible - but then I'm a recapper, not a remotely triggered cable cutting expert.] Cody reveals that Eddie Caruthers is their main suspect, and then Nick says it's long past time to call in the cops. When Chuck says he really really doesn't want the pageant to get shut down, Nick tells him the sad tale about how Eddie beat up a gal pal of his so badly he put her in the hospital. Chuck says he's very sorry to hear that, but that it likely happened during the time Eddie was drinking like a fish and behaved in a completely unpredictable manner. He insists that Eddie is completely sober now...and if word got out that the police were questioning him about terrorizing beauty pageant contestants, it'd be the end of his career. He strongly urges them to wait until they have more definitive proof. Eddie is ogling the contestants as they rehearse their dance number when Chuck interrupts to call it a day so that his people can inspect the rest of the equipment and ensure that nothing else comes crashing onto the stage. Charlene tells Murray that some of the contestants don't believe that the light bar crash was an accident, not least 'cause they too have been receiving threatening phone calls, warning that something bad was about to happen. Murray tells her they're getting closer to catching the culprit and urges her to hang in there a little longer. He adds that he's arranged for Dooley to drive her to the Eden Park Hotel for safety reasons and assures her that no one knows she'll be staying there...except for the mystery person who's covertly eavesdropping outside her dressing room door. Eddie leaves a message for Charlene, inviting her to his dinner party...and after he exits his office, the Riptide trio sneaks inside to search for possible clues. Nick picks the lock on a drawer and finds an odd looking contraption, and Murray confirms that it's an electronic device designed to alter the human voice. Over at the Eden Park Hotel, Charlene meets up with Eddie, who pretends to be all regretful about how creepishly he came onto her earlier. He tells her that the Riptide PI trio will be joining them for dinner at his place, and she's all, "Wuh? Really?" and says she's extremely surprised that 1) he knows the Riptide guys are detectives, and 2) any of them would be remotely interested in having dinner with a pompous gas-bag like him. Eddie says he heard all about the creepy calls she's been getting and then hands her a rose, and she assures him she has no hard feelings and follows him out to his car. Noooooo!!
Over on the Riptide, Murray is replaying one of the stalker's creepy messages. When he manages to remove the audio filter, they're left with a voice that sounds unmistakably like that of Eddie Caruthers. Murray says along with that evidence, he has copies of the arrest reports he extracted (though questionable means) from the Reno Police Department that implicate Eddie for threatening various showgirls. He adds that the cases never made it to court, likely 'cause the victims were paid off...much like Nick's friend after he beat her to a pulp. Over at Casa Caruthers, a terrified Charlene begs Eddie not to hurt her, and the predator coos, "The choice is all yours" and creepishly points out that he tried to bone her "the nice way", which resulted in her giving him a well deserved smack across the face. He growls, "No woman ever hits me", while - across town - Cody worriedly reports to Nick and Murray that he can't seem to get a hold of Charlene at the hotel. Eddie tells Charlene that their evening will go a lot smoother if she obediently drinks her wine and lets him get as rapey with her as he wants...and when Charlene tells him she doesn't drink, he throws his glass across the room, forcibly smooches her, and says he has it on good authority (Chuck Davis) that her favorite booze-drink is a cheap brand of wine called Citrono Vintage Chablis. Seems weirdly specific, but OK. While en route to Eddie's house, where the Riptide trio correctly assumes that Eddie suckered Charlene into accompanying him, Murray tells Nick and Cody that he called Chuck about their evidence implicating Eddie as the stalker. Chuck offered to call the police to give them Eddie's address, then says he's about to head over there as well. When the trio arrives at Eddie's place, they find Chuck there...along with an unconscious and battered Charlene, and a deceased Eddie with a knife plunged into his abdomen. Chuck solemnly reiterates that he called the police, and Murray laments how horrible he now feels about urging Charlene to stick with the pageant while they continued to investigate her stalker. When the perpetually-angry-as-fuck Lieutenant Quinlan arrives on the scene, Nick informs him that they learned about Eddie getting repeatedly busted in Reno but never having to go to court...and Murray adds that they have audio proof implicating Eddie as the stalker who made threatening calls to Charlene. Quinlan responds by snarlingly warning Murray that he's going to fuck him up hard if he ever finds out he hacked into the Reno police database. Murray wearily tells him not to concern himself with how he gets his intel, and Quinlan changes the subject to the murder at hand and remarks on how the entire bottle of Citrono Vintage Chablis that Charlene and Eddie had been drinking was spiked, a detail which causes great puzzlement among the Riptide trio. Later at the hospital, Charlene laments not staying in the safety of her hotel room as she was strongly advised, then says she has no memory of killing Eddie. She does, however, recall that Eddie forced her to guzzle cheap wine and that he nattered on and on about how he heard that Citrono Vintage Chablis was her favorite, despite the fact that she's a tee-totaler. She says she pushed Eddie away as he continued to get violently grab-handsy with her...then suddenly blanked out until she came to after the three of them, Chuck, and the police appeared at Eddie's house. She then breaks into sobs at the thought of having possibly killed Eddie...despite him desperately needing killin' by whoever was willing to take the time and effort to stab him to death. Cody tells Nick and Murray he has serious doubts that Charlene could have killed Eddie, not least 'cause lots of people hated the prick. Nick and Murray concur and agree that they have to do everything possible to help her from being charged for an act of murder she likely did not commit. Hours later, while the cops who are guarding Eddie's house are on a cigarette break, the Riptide trio sneaks inside to look around for clues that might help exonerate Charlene. Murray focuses on Eddie's computer, accesses his financial records, and notices that he'd been receiving monthly deposits of $10,000. Cody says that while taking a look around, he noticed that Eddie was into very expensive wine...which makes it all the more perplexing why he'd forcibly serve cheap-ass chablis to Charlene. The cops, meanwhile, finally get wind that someone's in the house they're supposed to be guarding and go from room to room with their flashlights. While that's happening, Cody notices a framed wedding photo of Eddie with his former bride, Lois Ames (!), and quickly grabs it before he, Murray, and Nick flee the house, remove the license plate from the Jimmy, pile into the vehicle, and squeal off. They manage to elude the police with a series of deft u-turns that end up causing several police cruisers to smash into each other. Haha! Back at pageant headquarters, Lois Ames admits to the Riptide trio that:
A few seconds later, Lieutenant Quinlan enters the auditorium, snarkishly tells the trio he knows for a fact that they were in Eddie's house last night, and that he expects them to pay for all the damage they caused to the squad cars that crashed into each other. Nick cheekily asks him if he got the license plate of the vehicle they were pursuing, and Quinlan admits he didn't - but then grimaces smugly when he announces that he did, however, book their pageant friend Charlene for Murder One. He says that, despite the implausibility of a petite woman like Charlene overpowering a man who probably outweighed her by at least fifty pounds, he's totes convinced that she "flipped out" from all the harassing phone calls, which traumatized her into gaining the strength of ten petite women that made it possible for her to fatally stab her attacker. He adds that since her fingerprints were found all over the murder weapon, he has no doubt "it was pure, cold premeditation".
Later, Murray points out to Nick and Cody that Charlene might possibly have gotten so wigged out that she stabbed Eddie in a fit of panic - but Cody doesn't buy it, and thinks the truth is somehow linked to the spiked bottle of Citrono Vintage Chablis. Murray mulls that over and says it also doesn't feel quite right to him that Eddie was the weirdo who was making all those harassing calls to Charlene. At Eddie's funeral, the Riptide trio indulge in a joint cameo appearance featuring Bob Eubanks and Gene Rayburn. The two celebs dish about how helpful Eddie always was to fellow game show hosts...but that his career got derailed when he was implicated in the Quiz Show scandal, aka where he first hooked up with Chuck Davis. They further explain that after the show was cancelled, it was at least ten years before anyone would hire Eddie or Chuck. Bob Eubanks wryly says he doesn't believe that Chuck ever cleaned up his act, citing the rumor that Celebrity Stakeout (a show Chuck was hired to work on) was fixed. As the trio digests this illuminating new intel, Murray muses that perhaps it was, in fact, Chuck who's been behind all the weird stalker shit from the beginning. As the Riptide trio digs deeper into the case, they learn that Eddie had found out that Chuck had been rigging Celebrity Stakeout and blackmailed him in exchange for staying quiet - hence the monthly $10,000 deposits to his bank account. When they ponder why Chuck would bother hiring them to investigate a creepy stalker if he was planning to kill Eddie, Nick surmises that he likely did it "for the illusion", and that Chuck figured they'd be busy focusing on all the harassing phone calls being made to Charlene, who he could then use as a scapegoat for Eddie's murder. Later, at pageant headquarters, Murray strongly suspects that Chuck had the know-how to operate the sophisticated audio equipment to splice up recordings of Eddie's voice (using audio from his various game show appearances) and make it seem as though he had been the one making the calls to Charlene. Mmm...Chuck really doesn't strike me as someone who would be particularly savvy when it comes to the mechanics of audio file splicing...but I guess I'll take Murray's word for it. Nick chews on that for a few seconds, then suggests they make a spliced tape of their own. Nick and Cody invite Chuck to dinner at a fancy restaurant and inform him that they have some news about the case. An unsuspecting Chuck is like, "Kewl!" and orders some Citrono Vintage Chablis (red flag alert!) ... and then Cody reveals that Eddie wasn't the person who was making the weird phone calls to Charlene. Nick chimes in and says that while the voice on the calls belonged to Eddie, he didn't actually make the calls, then plays a tape Murray created with Eddie's voice spliced to say 'Chuck Davis killed me' ... and Chuck reacts by nervously chuckling. Cody explains that Murray spliced Eddie's voice to make it sound as though he'd said something he never actually said, then declares that it's exactly what his killer did. Nick says they highly suspect that this killer gave Eddie a spiked bottle of Citrono Vintage Chablis (to drink on the night of his murder) and had told him it was Charlene's favorite. The two then inform him the jig is officially up, 'cause - at this very moment - Murray is at the bank, looking to verify whether or not he had been making monthly $10,000 withdrawals as blackmail payments to Eddie, which is a clear motive for murder. Nick smugly says, "The deposits to your personal account will get you - if the wine and the tapes don't."
Chuck responds to the dismantling of his absurdly over-engineered [but probably not entirely provable in a court of law] plot to murder Eddie by flipping over the table and fleeing the restaurant. He heads to the nearby dock, steals a speedboat from a couple about to board, and motors off. Nick and Cody jump aboard the Ebb Tide (I'll assume) and race after him...and the marine chase goes on for what feels like a really loooooong time. Chuck crashes through a floating billboard (!), and eventually Nick and Cody get close enough so that Nick can leap onto the stolen boat, take control of the gears, and punch Chuck in the face. To conclude the episode, we learn that Charlene won the Miss King Harbor pageant. Hurray! She tells Murray that getting the scholarship money is definitely "boss", then gives him a chaste cheek kiss before directing her attention to Cody for an amorous tongue-on-tongue smoochfest. When the face-sucking goes on longer than Murray seems comfortable watching, he taps Cody on the shoulder and suggests that perhaps Nick too would like a thank you smooch from their client. Cody's like, "Fair point" - but sees that an exhausted Nick has fallen asleep while spooning Roboz...so he happily refrains from waking him and quietly declares, "As your friend and your partner, I'll collect for you." And Charlene seems only too happy to act as a mindless kissing machine in exchange for Cody's part in cracking The Case of the Demented Pageant Director Who Really Should Have Found a More Efficient Way to Kill Eddie. Thanks for reading! If you are enjoying TVofYore's recaps, consider thanking me by buying me a "coffee"!
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