The justice system is tested when a group of angry rednecks form a lynch party and plan to hang a murder suspect.

Season 2, Episode 15: Powder Keg (February 9, 1986)

The second episode, set in Roper County (also in “It’s a Dog’s Life“), features Jessica and Ames Caulfield (Craig Stevens, Peter Gunn!) traveling down South to attend a writer’s convention. Coincidence strands them at a hotel owned by an old lover of Ames, Cassie Burns (Mariclare Costello, Emily from Let’s Scare Jessica to Death). She runs the place along with her son Matthew (Brian Lane Green). But hey…let’s get into it.

Who’s in it, outside of Angela Lansbury?

Other than the cast above, that is!

Frank Kelso is played by Pat Corley, who also was Sheriff Joe Corley in Kiss My Grits.

Linda Bonner is played by Cindy Fisher.

Jackie Earle Haley! He’s Billy Willetts.

Sheriff Claudell Cox, the law here, is Dorian Harewood, Shredder on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon.

Peter Fargo is played by John Dennis Johnston.

Charlie Demsey is Bill McKinney, who was in Deliverance, First Blood and Back to the Future III.

Jeff Osterage is in the role of Ed Bonner.

The elder Bonner is Stuart Whitman in one of his four appearances on the show.

Larry Wilcox is also in the four-timers club. He’s Andy Crane in this.

Smaller roles include W.K. Stratton as Deputy Morgan, John Alvin as Dr. Frazier, Debra Dusay as a desk clerk, Dave Adams as a barfly, Hartley Silver as a man, Muriel Minot as a woman, Renna Bartlett as a literary conference attendee and Bud Hazlett and Helen Kelly as background characters.

What happens?

Ames goes to watch Matthew play in a band at a bar that has a Confederate flag on the stage. Soon, Linda’s brother Ed and his sons Andy and Billy show up looking for him. And Matthew, who turns out not to be her son but is a lover, is involved.

As you guessed, Ed is dead in the morning, Matt is suspected, and Ames wants JB to help him. Maybe Ed was a drug dealer. Who can say? Well, everyone, because no one seems to like him even after he just died.

Jessica gets a gun pulled on her by a bartender when she’s snooping around. She knows more about guns than he does, and as you can imagine, this gets him rock hard. JB is told to leave people alone, and now look, she’s blue ballsing an NRA member.

But no matter who you think it is, as the townspeople all come to jail to kill Matthew, the surprise is…

Who did it?

The bartender. Yes, Frank Kelso caught his wife pounding it out with Ed, so he killed her and got blackmailed by Ed. Finally, he decided to shoot him with the very gun Jessica saw him pull on her.

Who made it?

This episode was directed by the best TV movie director of all time, John Llewellyn Moxey, and written by series creator Peter S. Fischer.

Does Jessica get some?

No, but Ames had it on his mind before his ex cock blocked him.

Does Jessica dress up and act stupid?

I wish.

Was it any good?

Yes, this is the best kind of episode, where JB is a fish out of water, wins everyone over and solves the case.

Any trivia?

Jeff Osterage was also in season 1’s “Funeral at Fifty-Mile.”

Give me a reasonable quote:

Jessica Fletcher: Oh, Ames, I’m so grateful to you for inviting me to loll around your estate for a few days. You know, that writer’s conference really wore me out.

Prof. Ames Caulfield: Nonsense. You loved it. And they loved you, he admitted enviously.

What’s next?

Art Hindle! Barbi Benton! Frank Bonner! Jessica must find the murderer of her close friend, whose will is in contention between the family and a popular evangelist.