S3E03: Candidate for a Crime

Candidate for a Crime is one of the episodes that perfectly encapsulates the show's identity in my opinion (a down-to-earth detective against an arrogant, high-class jerk who thinks they can get away with anything. Now, what kind of person perfectly fits the latter? A politician, of course!) and it has an added bonus of having probably the most satisfying gotcha in the series. Also Season 3 in particular, was probably the peak of the series having such amazing episodes like Any Old Port in a Storm (S03E02), Double Exposure (S03E04), and A Friend in Deed (S03E08) which are other episodes that i love and also recommend but this one is my favourite out of the season.

The episode starts with a politician running for the senate, Nelson Hayward, Getting mauled by reporters asking about the threats to his life. Hayward assures them that he will be safe and the police has some of their men keeping watch and protecting him. The reporters and Hayward pass by Columbo who looked curious about the ruckus.

Listening to the news are Harry Stone, Hayward's campaign manager, and Linda Johnson, Hayward's wife's secretary and mistress. Harry is pleased that his "death threats" narrative is going well but in order to ensure Hayward's success, he orders Linda to leave Hayward since her relationship with him can destroy his chances if ever word of their affair gets out. Linda, however, refuses and says she will only stay away from Hayward if she hears it from Hayward himself. She then leaves and moments later Hayward arrives. Harry tells Hayward what he told Linda and orders him to break up with her too. Hayward, feeling cornered, agrees and tells Harry that he will break up with her in-person but there are police keeping watch on him so he cannot simply just leave. So, he proposes to Harry that they exchange jackets, so that when Harry escapes, the police will think it's Hayward and tail him. Giving the actual Hayward the opportunity to escape and break up with Linda. Harry agrees and Hayward tells him to go to his beach house. The two then execute the plan. Harry leaves, the police tails him, Hayward escapes.

Moments later, Harry slips from the cops and arrives in the beach house. However, surprise surpise, Hayward was already there waiting and shoots him multiple times. He then replaces the watch Harry was wearing with a less durable watch with the time set ahead to 9:20pm and breaks it to fake the time of death. Hayward goes to his home in order to celebrate his wife's birthday party in order to establish his alibi. Once it was actually past 9:20pm, Hayward excuses himself from the party and enters a room where he disguises his voice and calls the police, pretending to be the kiler who shot "Nelson Hayward". The police arrive at the scene and finds Harry Stone wearing Nelson Hayward's jacket and concludes that it's a case of mistaken identity, and Columbo (who came from the dentist in a bit of a long-winded scene) arrives shortly after to investigate.

i'm not gonna spoil the rest and tell how Columbo was able to solve such a complicated murder (that's the fun part of the show after all). Although it often gets criticized for its length (bordering around 2 hours) since it's longer than your average Columbo episode and what padded the runtime was a couple comedy scenes that were unnecessary (the dentist scene being one of them). I didn't really notice it being long both on my first watch and recent rewatch. What usually makes or break a Columbo episode for me is the cuprit and Columbo's chemistry with them, there are some episodes where they're dull and Columbo's interactions with them just isn't that fun to watch and there are some where they just match Columbo's wits and/or their exchanges with him are just entertaining to follow. This episode falls more on the latter, Jackie Cooper plays Nelson Hayward so well, he's not the toughest or most terrifying Columbo villain but he's so unlikeable that it's somewhat fun to see his downfall. He's evil but not comically evil, and i just really hated his guts becuase of his double life, cheating and lying to his wife whilst presenting this image of him being an altruistic public figure. He increasingly gets more aggressive too with the police as Columbo starts to get closer and closer to the truth, making the payoff as Columbo finally gets the gotcha more satisfying.

S4E04: Troubled Waters

Troubled Waters is a good change of pace to the usual setting of the show. This episode is set on a boat cruise ship which actually presents certain hurdles for Columbo to overcome and it's also somewhat of a comfy setting making this episode kind of relaxing to watch.

The episode begins with Columbo running in a hurry to onboard the ship. It turns out that he is looking for his wife since he lost her while they were onboarding as he asks some crewmen if they've seen his wife. The captain of the ship apparently remembers meeting her and points Columbo to their cabin or observation deck. We then meet Hayden Danziger and his wife, who appears to be a special and important guest on the ship. Little do they know, Danziger is starting to execute his plan. Under the pretense of lacking an extra key to his cabin, he asks for the master key only to secretly duplicate it with a tool in his cabin.

Meanwhile we are introduced to Lloyd Harrington and his friends, they are members of the band playing in the cruise ship. Lloyd apparently wants to pursue Rosanna Wells the singer of the band but one of his friends warns him that she'll "hang him out to dry", Lloyd pursues her none the less as she arrives. Turns out Lloyd should have listened, as despite having "something" between them in their previous gig in Vegas, Rosanna tells Lloyd to forget about it as she doesn't like to continue and explore what they had. Lloyd begs one last time but Rosanna doesn't change her mind and asks him to "get off her back". Lloyd blows off, causing a scene and leaves.

Back to Danziger who continues his scheme this time disposing the tool he used to duplicate the key by chucking it to the ocean. Then he breaks into Lloyd's room and plants a receipt of a gun he bought using Lloyd's name. He then breaks into another room and plants the gun there. Suddenly the door opens, and the owner of the room, Rosanna, comes in and asks Danziger why he is in her room. Turns out "surprisingly", Danziger had an affair with Rosanna back in Vegas but now she is blackmailing him in exchange for her silence. Rosanna asks for the money and Danziger says he gives it once the trip ends as long as she keeps quiet. She assures him she won't but also berates him a bit telling him to "use his head", which causes Danziger to hit her and he leaves frustratedly.

Danziger then goes to the pool and then secretly snorted something to trigger a heart attack. He is then sent to the clinic, after getting checked-up and being told to rest a bit in the clinic, Danziger clarifies if he is the only patient there. The nurse confirms he is, he secretly smirks very smugly. We then cut to the band performing, with Lloyd at the piano, and Rosanna singing "Volare", i hope you like the song cause you're gonna hear her sing it again and again and again while Danziger executes his scheme. Meanwhile, Danziger sneaks away from his room, grabs a pair of surgical gloves from the clinic and gets out of the clinic while the nurse is smoking and reading a book. He runs through multiple floors and switches his outfit with a crew uniform and then continues running. Meanwhile "Volare" thankfully ends and Rosanna goes back to her room only to be stopped one more time by Lloyd but of course she rejects him and enters her room. She sits and checks herself in front of a mirror not knowing that behind her, suprise surprise, is Danziger with a gun. He grabs a pillow to surpress the gun and shoots Rosanna as she turns around. He then grabs the lipstick she was using and writes an "L" to further incriminate Lloyd.

He then runs back to the clinic whilst disposing the gun in the laundry room. Meanwhile, the band is back for another round of performance but they start to notice Rosanna is still not yet back. While at the clinic, the nurse turns on the light to check on Danziger, who is already back with his clinic attire and all pretending that he just awoke from a comfortable nap. Moments later, A crewman knocks on poor `ol Columbo's door who just can't catch a break with a murder even on his vacation and informs him that the Captain wants to see him, Columbo hilariously assumes he is in trouble because of his wife, he is then brought to the crime scene and his investigation begins... after he has to deal with his seasickness.`

Now i'm gonna stop there and leave the rest for you to watch on your own. What i love about this episode, aside from it being on a cruise ship, is that Columbo has his back against the wall in this case. Not only does he have to solve a murder, he has to deal with seasickness, he has to work with a crew that is already dead set on Lloyd Harrington being the killer, and make do with his lack of equipment, forensics and lab technicians that usually back his evidences. Though i guess it is also balanced out with Danziger, played brilliantly by Robert Vaughn, being one of the less intimidating Columbo villains, especially when compared to the ones portrayed by Spock himself, Leonard Nimoy (S02E06 A Stitch in Crime) and Jack Cassidy (all his villains were intimidating but his most intimidating one imo is in S03E05 Publish or Perish). Something about his expression just looks visibly shaken and suspicious everytime Columbo points out an inconsistency in the narrative. Not that it's a flaw of the episode, tt's just pretty amusing. Anyways, it's another fun episode that i like to rewatch. Columbo's hijinks with his wife and all and the crew consistently correcting him that they're in a ship not a boat even in the middle of a questioning is comedy gold.

S7E01: Try and Catch Me

Not all Columbo villains are in the form of a smooth-talking, sharply-dressed, unsympathetic wealthy man. There are some who are fairly likable people, forced or pushed to commit a horrible crime because of unfortunate circumstances. We see this in episodes like Any Old Port in Storm (S03E02), Mind Over Mayhem (S03E06), and Forgotten Lady (S05E01). However, the most likable or rather the most tragic case of this is the case in the episode "Try and Catch Me".

We are introduced to an old lady writing at her desk. She looks over at a picture of a young woman on her desk and then to a paper resting on her typewritter with the words "EDMUND 2:30" typed on it. She takes it out and throws it away, and then she opens her secret safe behind a wall and seems to be examining it and testing something. This elderly lady is Abigail Mitchell, a famous crime writer a la Agatha Christie. She continues her experiment until a blonde woman comes in, Veronica Bryce, her assistant. Abigail informs her that she wants to see Edmund, who was apparently married to her niece, for a walk on the beach.

We then cut to said beach where Abigail and Edmund were walking. She mentions Phyllis, her niece, who apparently drowned. She "subtly" insinuates that Edmund is guilty despite claiming he tried to find the body. She then gets to her point. She wants Edmund to be her principal heir. Edmund tries to deny her offer, but she has already made up her mind about him and about her. Cut to Abigail tampering with a light switch in her room, causing it to turn off. She then goes out and meets Edmund as they prepare for the signing of the will. She orders him a bit to get some stuff in and out of her safe. Edmund notices that the light for the safe doesn't seem to work. Martin Hammond, Abigail's lawyer, arrives with the papers with two wills, Abigail's and Edmund's. Abigail reveals that she wanted to be Edmund's heir just in case an "unlikely" event occurs that he dies before her. Edmund naively accepts this and signs without even reading the will saying he trusts Abigail. They both sign and, afterwards, Abigail talks to Edmund privately and tells him to drive away and secretly come back and wait for her so she can tell her the combination to her safe without others knowing. Edmund blindly complies once again.

Abigail then informs Martin about the broken light in her room (the one she tampered with earlier) and once his attention is now towards fixing it. Abigail meets Edmund and shows him the combination. She then orders him to take the wills to the safe. Edmund, like before, does so. But this time Abigail creeps toward the door of the safe. She calls out to Edmund and tells him she knows he has murdered Phyllis. A look of horror appears on Edmund's face as Abigail pulls the cask of Amontillado by locking him inside. The safe is sound-proof, so Edmund's cries cannot be heard and Abigail is visibly shaken by what she just did. She then leaves and goes to her flight, only to be called back a day later as Edmund's body is discovered. Once she revisits the scene upon the request of the police, our good ol' lieutenant Columbo comes out of the safe who appears to be confirming the safe to be sound-proof. The sargent points Columbo to Abigail's arrival. Columbo is awe-struck, he is apparently a big Abigail Mitchell fan. Thus begins Columbo and Abigail's oddly endearing battle of wits.

So once again i'll stop and share my thoughts about the episode. The interesting thing about Abigail is that she never really got angry or irritated at Columbo. Compared to the other killers, the worst thing she displayed was only a hint of anger when Columbo was finally really close to proving his case, but besides that their talks were very respectful and friendly despite the subject matter. You really can't help but empathize and feel for Abigail, with how likable and cheerful Ruth Gordon plays her. She really captures that whimsical old lady vibe, you can't really blame Edmund for foolishly trusting her. We also get a sentimental speech from Columbo when Abigail, in one of her pranks, puts Columbo on the spot to give a talk at her woman's club. He shares that he respects and likes some of the murderers he faces not for what they did, but for the part of them that's intelligence or just nice, "Because there's niceness in everyone...a little bit, anyhow". We are also gifted a scene with Columbo's dog, who is very adorable. I mean just look at him lean on the railing ^-^

Anyway, this episode, of course, has its flaws. Abigail, in particular, blunders a lot with handling her narrative and isn't really the sharpest killer despite being apparently good at writing crime fiction but all in all, Columbo and Abigail's dynamic makes it a strong episode, and it highlights not only Columbo's dedication to his job but also his empathy at recognizing a person's strength or redeeming quality despite their flaws.

S1E06: The Socratic Method

Most of the episodes i love usually diverge from the usual formula of the show, but you can't really appreciate those episodes without experiencing the usual format of the series. So my first recommendation is one that follows said formula and is somehow one of the episodes that stuck with me despite years of not watching the show.

Lucy Palmeiro, a schizophrenic mom suffering from deep vein thrombosis, is rushed into the hospital with her son after she experienced chest pain and collapsed. House, intrigued by her schizophrenia and the fact that she is too young to have deep vein thrombosis, takes the case. House, who usually doesn't interact with his patients (until things get really bad), decides to talk to Lucy right from the start.

This case wasn't particularly one of the most intense ones, but the episode highlights and establishes further the dynamic between the team. House is curious about puzzles/seeing people as puzzles, using underhanded ways to get what he wants. Cameron, being the empathetic one in the team, remembers House's birthday and checks on him and is curious about his avoidance. Foreman, disagreeing with House and doing what he thinks is best for the patient, and Chase, despite being sort of a yes-man to House, still questions his diagnosis and believed there was more to the case. It's a solid episode that perfectly sticks to the formula of the show. It also stuck with me because it was one of the earlier episodes i watched, and it's essentially what got me into the show.

S1E21: Three Stories

This episode is beloved among the fanbase and has won awards, so it's no surprise that i also love it and recommend it too. This is one of the first times the show takes a break from its format, and it's genuinely engaging and has some good writing.

The hook of the episode is that House has to be a substitute for a professor who got sick, but House, being House, obviously declined until he was offered in exchange that 2 hours of his clinic duty would be removed. House then goes to the lecture and presents to the students with 3 cases where each patient suffered leg pain. He tasks them with diagnosing each of the 3 cases and deciding the next steps as if they were actually treating the patient, as he tells the progression of each case. The episode jumps between the 3 cases frequently and how the 3 cases were shown was pretty creative, since it's all in House's head, like when he disguised certain patients as Carmen Electra, or him sort of breaking the fourth wall since time is not a fixed construct in his scenario.

There's also the reveal of why he is sharing the 3 cases, which is a big insight into House as a character, and you begin to understand the tragic portrait of him that the writers are creating. It would probably be my favorite episode of the series if it wasn't for another episode, but this one is genuinely great even outside the series. It's just such a well-executed and fun piece of storytelling.

S4E02: The Right Stuff

Post-season 3 House needed something to revitalize the show. We already had 3 seasons of the same characters and formula and people needed something new. So, of course, at the end of season 3, House loses his team and is left all alone in his Diagnostic Department at the start of season 4. After barely avoiding a disastrous result in his previous case by trying to solve it alone (S04E01 Alone, which is also a fun episode imo), House reluctantly decides to hire replacements and does it in the most "House" way possible.

He invites 40 applicants and puts them to the test in solving a case whilst also firing applicants depending on his whims. Got a wrong answer? You're fired. Come back again as another applicant even though you were already fired. House approves of your shamelessness. Welcome back. There's a funny moment on the show where Cuddy confronts him about the 40 applicants since his budget can't accommodate all of them. So, he fires a row of applicants only to take them back once he finds out there's an attractive woman in said row and fires another row instead. It's just pure fun chaos.

Chaos further ensues, as the patient in this episode is a pilot suffering synesthesia affecting her training. She can't let details of her condition get out to the public since NASA will fire her as she would not be fit for flying. Thus, the treatment must be done off the books by the 20+ applicants remaining. You get to learn more about certain applicants who would eventually be a part of the House's new team and i wish i didn't know which ones were going to be mainstays, since there were some characters who were actually interesting and had a chemistry with House but were fired too soon. It honestly was pretty refreshing to see a new cast of characters surrounding House, and the reality show aspect of it with characters getting eliminated made it fun. It was also nice to see House being a mentor again, for someone who hates people, he is oddly somewhat an effective teacher and I want to get better. Whatever the hell that means.provides a great lesson to some applicants.

S6E01: Broken

Broken is my personal favorite episode of House. From the moment it opens with House suffering from withdrawal and showing his miserable life in a psych ward with "No Surprises" playing in the background, I was in. After a heartbreaking season 5 finale as the consequences of House's addiction finally catch up on him, season 6 picks up with his recovery as he comes to terms with his flawed nature, hence the title. The episode is a 2-hour special and almost works as its own movie.

House, among all things, is still, of course, House. He is reluctant and uncooperative at the start. After the initial detox in the opening scene, House is relocated to Ward 6, where he meets his roommate, Alvie, played by Hamilton himself, Lin Manuel Miranda, and we also get to meet the other patients at Ward 6 each with their own issues and insecurities. The episode spends alot of time with the patients and nurses of Ward 6, so you actually grow to like them, and it starts to feel like a small community. Ward 6 is also so disconnected from the rest of the world of House MD, it brings a different, more somber vibe to the show that it almost feels like a different show entirely. Of course, House still quips and insults people, but throughout the episode there is that big elephant in the room. That is House's issue: how he thinks his brilliance is brought about by him being miserable or his inability to move past failures. The episode essentially breaks down House, unlike the usual episode where he seems to be in power as things go his way at the end, because he is right, no matter what happens.

This episode just means a lot to me. It's honestly pretty inspiring with its theme of finding self-improvement. Seeing the different outcasts in Ward 6 do their best to be better despite their issues is heartwarming. The conversations between House and Dr. Nolan, played by Andre Braugher (R.I.P) hits hard. I agree with the general sentiment that this works as an ending for House as a series. House is actually better off at the end of this episode than in the actual series finale.