History Recap / ColumboS02E06

* NearVillainVictory: Mayfield very nearly managed to fool Columbo into leaving him alone by planting the dissolving suture on the lieutenant, as the police can't find it despite combing the operating room. However, just as Mayfield is able to breathe a sigh of relief when Columbo admits defeat and seemingly leaves from his office from the last time, the latter comes back in and reveals that he's found the suture.

* {{Narcissist}}: Dr. Mayfield is so unethical and willing to murder to steal the glory from Dr. Heideman, that Columbo learns to detest him. Even the idea of being accused of murder causes him to break into a creepy EvilLaugh.

* SmugSnake: Mayfield is a particularly smug ''Columbo'' killer, going so far as to laugh in Columbo's face.

* EvilLaugh: Mayfield, who has been humoring Columbo like most of the perps do, can't keep it up anymore, and breaks into a chilling evil laugh, as he knows Columbo has no proof. This provokes an uncharacteristic display of anger from the lieutenant, who slams a carafe on Mayfield's desk and tells him directly that he thinks Mayfield killed Sharon and is trying to kill Heideman.

** Mayfield counts on nobody noticing that he is using dissolving suture dyed to look like permanent suture, but Sharon foils this when she feels the suture and realizes that something is wrong with its texture. This ruins Mayfield's perfect murder right off the bat, inspiring him to hastily murder Sharon to silence any witnesses. However, this brings Columbo on the scene who quickly zeros in on Mayfield when he catches him toying with his desk clock inappropriately while receiving news over the phone about Sharon's murder.

* DidntThinkThisThrough: Mayfield's murder of Harry Alexander to frame him is an act of desperation that serves only to make Columbo even more suspicious of Mayfield due to performing an injection on the left arm and not knowing that Alexander is left-handed.

Guest Starring: Creator/LeonardNimoy, Creator/AnneFrancis, Will Geer]

Dr. Barry Mayfield (Creator/LeonardNimoy) is a hotshot surgeon. He and his mentor, the elderly Dr. Edmund Heideman (Will Geer) are working on a revolutionary drug which promises to end the problem of organ rejection in transplants. Dr. Mayfield is dissatisfied at the slow pace that Dr. Heideman is forcing on their research, and he wants to hog the credit anyway. So when Dr. Heideman starts suffering from chest pains and requires immediate surgery on a valve in his heart, Dr. Mayfield senses an opportunity. He will use dissolving sutures instead of permanent sutures when performing the surgery. When the sutures fail, as they will in a couple of days, Heideman will die of what will look like a heart attack.

Guest Starring: Creator/LeonardNimoy, Anne Francis, Will Geer]

The one thing he doesn't count on is one of the nurses, Sharon Martin (Anne Francis, in her second ''Columbo'' appearance, having appeared in the first season's "Short Fuse"). Sharon notices something off with the sutures that Mayfield used in the operation. Unwisely, she confronts him about it. Mayfield beats her to death with a tire iron in the hospital parking lot, and plants drugs in her apartment to make it look like she was into some bad business that got her killed. What Mayfield doesn't reckon on was Lt. Columbo of the LAPD, who notices strange things, like how Mayfield was setting a clock while receiving the supposedly disturbing news of his nurse's murder through his desk phone, and how professionally careful the killer was to ''not'' leave finger prints on the murder weapon or the planted drugs, leading Columbo to become suspicious of the villainous surgeon.

Guest Starring: Creator/LeonardNimoy, Creator/AnneFrancis, Creator/WillGeer]

** This also ends up screwing Mayfield over in the end. When Columbo enters the operation room to search for the dissolving suture, Mayfield gets in his face and shoves him. It hits Columbo that Mayfield has been so cool and collected up until now, it seems odd he would lose his temper like that. There's only one reason Columbo thinks of why the doctor did this: to plant the dissolving suture on Columbo, the one place they wouldn't think to look...and he's right.

The one thing he doesn't count on is one of the nurses, Sharon Martin (Anne Francis, in her second ''Columbo'' appearance, having appeared in the first season's "Short Fuse"). Sharon notices something off with the sutures that Mayfield used in the operation. Unwisely, she confronts him about it. Mayfield beats her to death with a tire iron in the hospital parking lot, and plants drugs in her apartment to make it look like she was into some bad business that got her killed. What Mayfield doesn't reckon on was Lt. Columbo of the LAPD, who notices strange things, like how Mayfield was setting a clock while receiving the supposedly disturbing news of his nurse's murder.

* EvilLaugh: Mayfield, who has been humoring Columbo like most of the perps do, can't keep it up anymore, and breaks into a chilling evil laugh, as he knows Columbo has no proof. This provokes an uncharacteristic display of anger from the lieutenant, who slams Mayfield's desk and tells him directly that he thinks Mayfield killed Sharon and is trying to kill Heideman.

* MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate: Earns this distinction by default for using premeditated murder to take over Dr. Heideman's project to develop a revolutionary drug that ends organ rejection. He also wants to rush the drug out the door without proper testing.

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Mayfield's EvilLaugh causes Columbo to do something that he virtually never does: get angry. Columbo slams a pitcher down on Mayfield's desk and tells him that he'd ''better'' take good care of Dr. Heideman, because if Heideman dies, Columbo will order an autopsy and they'll see whether or not those sutures were the right kind.

* TooCleverByHalf: If Mayfield had been content to bash Sharon's head in with a tire iron he probably would have gotten away with it or at least delayed forensics in finding a link to him. But the whole business with the fake drug scheme just gets too complicated and just presented more ways for Mayfield to trip up.

* GasLighting: When Sharon notices that Mayfield's suture of choice feels like dissolving suture, she unwisely confronts Mayfield about it not feeling right (because he dyed dissolving suture to look like permanent suture), and tells him about how he'd receive credit for Heideman's work if they die. Mayfield tries to throw Sharon off by suggesting that her dislike of him is causing her to lose herself in hysteria, and sarcastically suggests that the police may want to hear about this. Sharon isn't fooled by this psychological warfare, and schedules a meeting with a suture supplier to get the dyed suture looked at, but Mayfield eavesdropped on the call and bludgeons her at her car.