In the Corner with Roger

A death like yours just comes knock, knock, knockin’ everyday…

That’s a neat little callback to the last time Vicky’s monologue referenced the local sheriff. But, all told, our man Patterson has been handling this little mystery with far more aplomb than his mustard-hating predecessor.

Patterson has come to Collinwood for the second time today for yet another intimate discussion with everyone’s favorite blob of man jello.

The painting Patterson is referring to isn’t in the frame, but it’s the big one to the right of the drawing room entrance, the most prominent wall hanging in the Foyer.

For…er…for now.

Benjamin was one of the names Elizabeth threw at Roger that first night when she boldly encouraged him to handle Burke by Doing Nothing, a strategy everybody has since followed except that guy who’s been killed.

The thing about Sheriff Patterson is he isn’t afraid to look somebody in the eye.

Roger wonders why Patterson wants to speak to him again.

This man is not here to be intimidated. It’s a sight to see.

There’s an interesting structure to this week’s episodes. Each of the three middle episodes has focused on Patterson questioning one of the three men present at the meeting Malloy called and died before he could show up. He’s done all these meetings in the course of a single afternoon, having been informed of the death in the morning and learned of the body being recovered only shortly after that.

Compared to Consteriff Carter, who handled his singular case on the show by cowering in his office and meekly bending to the will of the local bigwigs, he seems to have a handle on things.

Patterson declines and Roger seems to develop the momentary self-awareness that (though it may be after 5:00 by now…) it doesn’t do much for his Image to get drunk when talking to the police.

Patterson tells Roger about the mysterious blow on the head Malloy sustained, which may or may not indicate MURDER (dramatic).

I could add “Roger is disingenuous” to the drinking game, but that rule would kill you as sure as the “Burke Devlin” one.

Victoria returns from her shopping expedition.

Not only are those the exact same parcels Carolyn was carrying way back in suppository times, but Vicky even jokes that she “spent all her money”, which is similar to what Maggie chidingly tells Carolyn when she sees the packages in that episode.

Ah, women and their shopping. You just want to paddle ‘em.

Vicky intends to offload her goods before heading to that dinner date we’ve been teased with for close on three weeks, the one where it seems impossible she actually will learn something about herself, but which they keep mentioning so often that you have to believe she will anyway because it’s been this long, dammit.

Roger steps in to pull Liz into Patterson’s conventicle, which isn’t as racy as it sounds.

Hands to yourself, buddy.

Roger proceeds to prepare Liz for the inevitability that she will have to lie to cover his sorry ass. If she could do it for his son, why not for him?

Naturally, he can’t just do what he did with Sam and cajole and threaten her. The woman is letting him live in her house rent-free. So, instead, he plays on familial loyalty.

Yeah, and a goddamned pain in her ass.

So Patterson brings Liz up to speed on how Malloy maybe sorta coulda been MURDERED.

The thing of it is, Liz is basically obligated by the chains of the same skewed priorities that led to her covering up for David to perform a likewise task for her brother. Her attitude here is one of intense theatrical fakeness, only made convincing because Roger lays even more cheese on his performance.

But here’s the thing: this time, a man who could very well be considered her closest friend and confidante has died. He may have been killed. Liz knows what Malloy was trying to do. She knows Roger would’ve had good reason to stop him doing what he was trying to do.

What if he did? Does her loyalty to her worthless, selfish brother come before her affection for her friend who, whether she admits it or not, is perhaps the only man in her life who both respected and loved her?

Patterson and Roger relitigate the statement the latter gave earlier. We get a few new times, as well as more approximate time stamps, all of which I’ll add to the rundown later. Patterson, thinking of the mystery phone call Malloy got at 10:30, wonders if Roger took any calls.

Told you it would be important again.

We know that very night, not long after Malloy departed Collinwood, Victoria overheard Roger speaking on the phone about wanting meet somebody later. Who could it have been? Did the meeting happen at all? Might he have been Malloy’s caller?

How does Roger explain himself?

Seriously, man? I guess the idea is that would be hard to check up on. I can only imagine how many phone calls the Coast Guard got in the pre-Internet era just to figure out the one week forecast.

So here’s the new times as they’ve been given to us. New entries bolded as always.

1. 8:00 – 9:00:
   1. Burke sees Malloy at the Blue Whale. Malloy tells him about the meeting and the “hole card” that’ll be waiting there.
2. 10:00:
   1. Malloy sees Roger at Collinwood at around 10:00 to make him go to the meeting. It is apparently a 10 minute trip from Collinwood to the cannery, presumably by car.
   1. Malloy next goes to Sam to tell him about the meeting.
3. 10:10: Malloy leaves Collinwood.
4. 10:15: Roger makes a phone call, asking somebody to meet with him. This is observed by Victoria. He will later lie and say this call was to the Coast Guard.
5. 10:20: Malloy gets home at 10:20, per Mrs. Johnson the housekeeper.
6. 10:30: Roger leaves Collinwood.
   1. Burke is still at the Blue Whale. He is observed by the bartender and “one or two” other patrons.
   1. Sam leaves home and heads to the cannery on foot.
   1. At about this same time, Malloy is at home. Mrs. Johnson observes him taking a phone call. He departs within the half hour.
7. 10:45:
   1. Burke drives from the Blue Whale to the cannery.
   1. Presumed time of Malloy’s death, judging by his stopped watch.
8. 10:50: Roger leaves Collinwood. He is unobserved.
9. 11:01: By now, Roger, Sam and Burke are all at the cannery for the meeting.
10. 11:20: Elizabeth calls Malloy and gets no answer.
11. 11:30: Burke goes in search of Malloy, to no avail.
12. 12:00: Roger returns to Collinwood. Liz is waiting up for him.

So the fact of this is that, per Roger’s testimony, he has no alibi for Malloy’s death, the same as Sam. We don’t even know when he left Collinwood. Given everything else, things don’t look too peachy for him.

Patterson reveals Burke’s, er, statement about Malloy intending to clear Burke’s name.

He might as well have collapsed onto a fainting couch.

Liz insists she and Malloy had discussed a thoroughly “personal matter”, though she changes it up to say that Malloy was…

Which is at the very least not a lie.

Roger gets even wilder when Patterson tells him what Burke told him about the meeting’s true purpose:

Going from “scandalized aristocrat” to “mischievous schoolchild” in double-time.

Roger then pulls a Burke: telling Patterson exactly what’s going on as if that will make him less likely to believe it’s true.

Well, if you say so…

Patterson wonders if Liz agrees with Roger’s theatrical assessment and Liz is all “You heard him, didn’t you?”

Nice to have a code.

Upstairs, Vicky is getting tricked out for dinner.

Is…is David being nice? To Miss Winters?

Turns out he’s only being nice because he’s excited about sending his father to prison.

Victoria appears for almost half a second to take David seriously when he says Patterson is here to arrest his Pops for murder.

This returns to his most recent crystal ball prediction of this morning, that somebody in Collinsport (he made sure to broaden it past the house, I guess for suspense’s sake) would try killing her. Notably, this seems to give Victoria pause.

After all, we know Victoria is the only person who can verifiably give something to disprove Roger’s bullshit story about the phone call. She witnessed the tail end of it. Roger knows this. It’s not outside the realm of reason that he might seek a way to keep her from talking.

Any hopes of Victoria listening to anything David said are dashed when he tells her how he came to this conclusion:

You get a good idea where David’s mind is when he opens with the ghosts, not the actual physical evidence he spent actual man hours putting together.

I think she knows, kid.

In the drawing room, Patterson is fingering the hole in the story.

Liz gives Roger no hints here, probably sick of making herself out like an idiot for Roger’s sake. There’s only so much.

Patterson notes that, while Burke and Roger’s stories are polar opposites, Sam’s lines up exactly with Roger…just as Roger planned.

And so Burke emerges as a prime suspect for second time in this show’s run, and the third time counting his backstory.

Is he wrongfully accused again? It sure looks it. While his alibi may be shaky, he at least was observed by some (nameless) people at the time Malloy would’ve died. Sam, and especially Roger, have no such fortune.

*files in ‘Bitter Divorce Parallels’*

Clearly unsatisfied but also assured that he will get nothing more of this, Patterson takes his leave, and is roundly intercepted by David, the Make a Wish spokeschild for kids who want to incarcerate their parents.

David presents Patterson with the tide charts he drew up, neatly omitting the fact that Joe helped him with them, but the guy’s used to being erased.

Don’t remind him.

Maybe he’ll fire Harry and give David the job. I hope he can make good sandwiches.

Roger’s son trying to put him behind bars is lower than usual on his index of worries, however. At the moment, his sister wants his blood.

She doesn’t like having to lie for him. Putting aside that she had no qualms doing this for David, let’s recognize just what Liz has to lose by admitting her wastrel son-of-a-bitch of a brother, who seems to be viewed with a general contempt by everybody in town, is implicated in the death a man beloved by everyone including herself?

Sure, it would be scandalous. But Malloy’s death is already a scandal. Here we see Liz almost beginning to question her policy of keeping for the sake of the family.

Liz also tells Roger for the first time about Sam’s weird visit to her that same day, and how much more suspicious that looks in light of the fact that he, Roger and Burke all got together at Malloy’s invitation that night.

It’s looking more and more likely that Liz knows what she believes…it’s just her honor keeping her from saying it, and even that appears to be faltering.

And then we get…this.

Elizabeth is shaken by this verbose and theatrical confession.

And, of course…

Except it’s looking more and more like most of it is, at least.

Roger, apparently, was just doing this song and dance to make Liz feel bad, like a regular shithead. It might be more shocking if this hadn’t already happened (sans murder confession) last night. Roger pulled the same trick, penned by the same writer. There’s no reference to the earlier iteration of this gambit, which is…fine, I guess, because it works much better now that the guy is confirmed to be dead and Roger is rapidly emerging as the most likely suspect.

Now, if I were Elizabeth, I would get up, go to that phone I’m always using, and tell the sheriff he can have this piece of shit, but she has more restraint than I, I guess.

Or not, because she apologizes.

Oi.

In the next room, Vicky catches David eavesdropping.

If he was listening the whole time, he’d also know he was just being a prima donna during all that, but whatever.

I’d tell Roger to sleep with one eye open, but I don’t think he even can sleep anymore.

That could’ve been a nice way to cap off this episode, but no, we have to see Friday.

Victoria prepares to leave for her dinner date. Roger, all casually like, asks what it’s about and, with a delightful “Can’t stop me now, bitch” attitude, Vicky tells him.

Maybe we will get our Girl Detective after all. Maybe we’ll get two of them.

This Day in History- Thursday, September 15, 1966

Britain’s Royal Navy launches its first submarine capable of firing nuclear missiles. Isn’t that comforting?