An archaeological dig, potentially the site of Coronado’s City of Gold, does not please everyone as a new corpse is discovered.

Season 2, Episode 11: Murder Digs Deep (December 29, 1985)

Tonight on Murder, She Wrote…

What if Jessica Fletcher went on an Indiana Jones-style adventure?

Who’s in it, outside of Angela Lansbury, and were they in any exploitation movies?

Karen Parks is played by Cecile Callan. Most of her career was on TV.

Dr. Aubrey Benton is George Grizzard, a TV movie regular.

Dr. Stan Garfield is David Groh, Rhoda‘s husband Joe. At one point, this guy was on the highest-rated show almost ever.

Raymond Two Crows is Randolph Mantooth from Emergency!

Steve Gamble? That’s Stephen Shortridge, who was on Welcome Back, Kotter.

Man! The Armstrongs, Gideon and Cynthia? Connie Stevens and Robert Vaughn! There’s the starpower!

William Windom is Dr. Seth, as always.

Minor roles are played by Robert Dryer, Jake from Savage Streets, as a guard and Curtis Credel (the Worth Keeter movie Hot Heir) as a Native American.

What happens?

Jessica and Dr. Seth are on a platonic date all the way in New Mexico, digging with the Armstrongs. Joining them are grad students Karen Parkes and Steve Gamble, Dr. Garfrield, who is looking for treasure, Dr. Bento, who is also looking for gold and Native American expert Raymond Twocrows. At night, a Native American dancer keeps trying to scare them away.

The next night, Cynthia gets drunk and shoots at the dancer. He falls down, and it ends up being Raymond, who didn’t die from a gunshot. Yes, this show is a Giallo. Jessica soon shows Seth that Raymond only fell three feet, so that couldn’t be what killed him. It was drowning. In the desert.

The Armstrongs don’t allow anyone to use the radio or go to town to get the police. Jessica decides to look through the caves and scares Seth for the second time this episode, finding a cassette player with tribal chants on it. Someone is trying to scare people off while also leaving relics all around to try to get some more money for the land.

Who did it?

Cynthia, trying to take money off her husband through murder.

Who made it?

This episode was directed by Phillip Leacock and written by Mary Ann Kasica and Michael Scheff.

Does Jessica get some?

I think in this episode, she was testing Dr. Seth to see if he could be a hero and a rough lover. He failed.

Does Jessica dress up and act stupid?

She gets to wear desert dig clothes.

Was it any good?

Sure, it’s alright.

Any trivia?

I love that Raymond ends up being a fake Native American, one of the few examples of evil whitewashing I’ve seen.

Watch when Cynthia shoots at the Native American dancer. Her husband calls her her real name, Connie, not Cynthia.

It’s illegal to dig for relics on Native American reservations.

Give me a reasonable quote:

Jessica Fletcher: Is the weather always like this?

Dr. Seth Hazlitt: Nope. It starts to get hot in a couple of hours.

What’s next?

A former student of Jessica’s becomes involved in a love triangle that ends in murder. Robert Culp is in it, but doesn’t show his dick.