Directed by: Leo Geter
Written by: Duppy Demetrius
First aired: August 05, 2013
When their landlord dies of an apparent suicide, his tenants—a lively bunch of retired Hollywood professionals—can finally enjoy the apartment complex their late colleague had intended for their last years together. Or can they? When questions about the nature of the landlord’s death arise, Major Crimes has no shortage of suspects and no shortage of causes of death.
While the previous case was very emotional and tough, this one is a string of absurdities featuring the guest cast of everyone’s dreams. Tim Conway, Paul Dooley, Ron Glass, Doris Roberts, and Marion Ross portray the five surviving tenants of the Lost Horizon or Shangri-La—a slightly decrepit-looking apartment complex which was supposed to serve as their retirement home before Ed Dagby inherited the place and turned it into hell to get them all to give up their life leases.
The five retirees all worked together on a crime show in the 70s—Prognosis Homicide. A bit of useless trivia: There is an episode of a 70s detective show called Dan August with the title “Prognosis Homicide”. From the description of the fictional show, however, it sounds more like a nod towards the 90s TV show Diagnosis Murder. Incidentally, Tim Conway was a guest star on that show twice (4×24 – Comedy is Murder (1997) and 7×01 – The Roast (1999)).
More useless trivia: Both Doris Roberts and Paul Dooley had guest parts on the 90s comedy show High Society. You know, the one with Mary McDonnell and Jean Smart. They were both in episode 1×11 – Touching Up Your Roots.
The case was first considered a suicide by the coroner—not an outrageous claim, considering he was found with his head stuck in his oven with the gas turned on. Major Crimes gets involved when Doctor Morales shows up in their Murder Room—not in his lab coat for once!—with a life-sized image of the deceased and quite a few unanswered questions. Like why did he try to kill himself after dying of an allergic reaction? And what has his fall down a flight of (greased) concrete stairs a few weeks prior to do with anything? The team later finds out that, in addition to all this, someone had cut the break lines of Ed’s car, as well. Provenza’s first theory is that the five tenants conspired to murder their landlord, and the more you learn about Ed, the more you understand why they would have wanted to do it. The Lieutenant does not put a lot of stock in the tenants’ tale of a mysterious visitor they named Scarface—until Scarface shows up, red mustache, scar and all. I love how Raydor is visibly thrown by his appearance and how it takes her a moment to adjust to the new development.
I mean, could you think of a suspect acting any more … suspect? With his ridiculous laugh, the way he tries not to answer questions, and his attempts at bribing Raydor and Flynn into declaring Ed’s death a suicide, everyone is ready to march him off to his cell. If only there wasn’t his very inconvenient and enormously cringe-worthy alibi… The faces of the team as they watch that karaoke video are priceless! And the way Sharon is flailing at the end when she wants Buzz to make it go away?
Turns out, however, that Scarface is not entirely innocent, after all. His suspicious behavior was just supposed to disguise his lucrative smuggling operation rather than a murder. Said operation lands an impressive number of counterfeit designer handbags in the Murder Room, leading to a few longing glances. If someone was looking for a gift for our lady detectives (and DDAs), it seems like a designer handbag might be a safe bet. Just look at how Hobbs is instantly protective of those bags—of course in a strictly professional capacity! And the way Sharon hugs the bag that Andy gave her and then suddenly realizes what it looks like and hands it back to him? Perfection!
In the end, Morales returns to the Murder Room with a solved puzzle—the brownies Ed ate did not contain actual nuts, but any kind of liquid nut product known to men—and Provenza’s original theory is proven right. The tenants of the Shangri-La may have learned a lot about murder while working on their crime show, but it was not quite enough for the perfect murder.
The side plot for this episode follows Provenza in his quest to renew his pistol qualification. I guess that his strategy for that comes from the same handbook as the one for passing physicals (getting his x-rays touched up). With his good friend Gary being retired, however, Provenza has to deal with his young and much less compassionate replacement. The new guy doesn’t seem to get that the threat of desk duty until retirement is a serious issue for the man who intends to die with his stapler in hand. I guess it is no surprise that this problem has Provenza be rather morose and grumpy – more so than usual. His colleagues’ constant quips about the age of that apartment complex do not exactly make him any more cheerful. His work wife and his boss are definitely concerned about him.
In the end, all he needed was a pair of glasses. And what a coincidence that the pair they confiscated from one of their suspects is a perfect fit! I love how he doesn’t give a flying f… about how the glasses look on him or that they still have the evidence tag on them. Neither does he seem particularly concerned about poor, half-blind Vera, who is still waiting to have her glasses returned to her.
With the exception of a brief interlude of Rusty and his teenage angst, which I will ignore here, because we will get more than enough of that in the next two episodes, this was a delightfully lighthearted episode. I love that Major Crimes carries on this tradition from The Closer. Last season gave us a hint of that with 1×04 The Ecstasy and the Agony, but it was not quite as light an episode as this one.
And here is a bonus video because this scene is just too funny not to include. Sharon’s face is utter perfection! I love how she’s moving back and forth somewhere between confused, flustered, and a little amused by Howard’s very clumsy attempts at flirting. He wants to teach her how to “play dominos”? Really?
So glad to be reading your reviews, again! This was a good review on a really good episode. I do love the interaction between Mary McDonnell and the great Tim Conway. Her expressions really show what a great actress she is.
Thank you so much for your lovely comments, Jennifer! I absolutely agree with you. That scene between Mary McDonnell and Tim Conway is pure gold. I can’t count how often I have watched this episode by now, but this scene still makes me laugh every time.