Title:"Lady in Waiting"
Directed by: Norman Lloyd
Written by: Steven Bochco (teleplay), Barney Slater (story)
Air Date: December 15, 1971
Previous: Suitable for Framing
Next: Short Fuse
Guest Starring: Susan Clark, Leslie Nielsen, Jessie Royce Landis, Richard Anderson
"Lady in Waiting" is the fifth episode of the first season of Columbo.
Beth Chadwick (Susan Clark) is the meek, mousy sister of Bryce Chadwick (Richard Anderson), owner of an advertising business. Bryce is a heartless prick who bosses and dominates his sister. Beth reaches a snapping point when Bryce forbids her marriage to a Chadwick employee, Peter Hamilton (Leslie Nielsen, a full decade before Leslie Nielsen Syndrome kicked in). She decides to murder her brother. Beth switches out his key with a fake key, planning to force him to enter through the glass door to her bedroom, where she'll shoot him and pretend he was a burglar.
Two things go awry: first, Bryce had a spare key stashed in a planter by the front door, so he simply strolls in. Beth is surprised, but shoots him anyway and drags him over to the glass door. Second, Peter arrives at this exact moment after receiving a threatening letter from Bryce, and hears the gunshots. However, Beth sticks to her story, and the jury at the inquest buys it. Freed from her domineering brother's thumb, Beth starts buying fancy new dresses and sports cars and takes over command of the advertising business and is thoroughly enjoying herself, except for the fly in the ointment: Lt. Columbo, who doesn't believe her story for a minute.
Marcia Wallace, months before her debut as Carol Kester on The Bob Newhart Show, has a bit part as a spectator at the Chadwick inquest.
Tropes:
- Absence of Evidence: Columbo notes that Bryce, who supposedly walked across a freshly-mowed lawn to his sister's bedroom, had no grass on his shoes.
- Abusive Parents:
- Mrs. Chadwick is just as cruel and heartless to Beth as Bryce.
- Bryce apparently gained his controlling and manipulative nature from his father, according to what Beth says.
- Asshole Victim: Bryce is cruel, thoughtless, and controlling. He tells Beth to her face that Peter must be a gold digger because no one could possibly be interested in her.
- Berserk Button: For Beth, it's being bossed around or at least being told what to do. This is especially true after she takes over the Chadwick advertising firm; Peter can't even suggest what she should or shouldn't wear without having her insist that she can take decisions herself.
- Bloodless Carnage: True throughout the series, especially the original NBC run, but quite egregious in this episode. Beth shoots her brother three times in the chest, then drags him face down all the way across the bedroom to the glass doors. There should have been blood on the carpet, which would have destroyed her story, but there wasn't.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Peter goes to a bar and starts slamming down drinks after an unpleasant board meeting leads to a confrontation between him and Beth.
- From Bad to Worse: Poor Peter. He falls in love with a sweet shy girl from an abusive family, and suddenly she changes in front of his eyes practically overnight, seemingly becoming every bit the arrogant, selfish person her brother had been. And then she's accused of murder and starts acting suspiciously even as the evidence against her starts piling up.
- Gold Digger: Discussed Trope, as both Bryce and Beth's equally cruel mother (Jessie Royce Landis) simply assume that Peter is this. He isn't.
- Horrible Judge of Character: As mentioned, Bryce doesn't believe that Peter Hamilton could love his sister for herself rather than her money.
- Imagine Spot: An entire fantasy sequence shows Beth imagining the murder, shooting her brother as he enters through the glass door. This sets up her surprise when Bryce enters from a completely different direction, with a spare key.
- Important Haircut: Following Bryce's murder and Beth's subsequent takeover of the advertising firm, she goes to her hairdresser to have her long, unkempt hair styled into a trendy flipped bob.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: Beth's plot, to make the murder seem like she thought Bryce was a prowler.
- Mister Muffykins: Mrs. Chadwick's tiny dog yaps at Columbo whenever the two meet.
- Nepotism: After Beth takes over her brother's position, she promotes Peter to a high position, then announces their engagement. Even Peter calls it out as obvious nepotism.
- Not So Stoic: Beth tosses the light bulb she used in the murder of her brother across the board room when she realizes that Columbo is getting closer to finding her out.
- Plethora of Mistakes: Beth's plan collapses under a combination of small mistakes and simple bad luck. Among the things she didn't account for are the possibility of a spare key, the suspiciousness of the burned-out lightbulb being perfectly clean, and—oh yeah—having a witness who contradicts a key part of her story.
- Sore Loser: Beth whips out her gun and points it at Columbo when he tells her the jig is up, only for him to gently tell her that there are a bunch more cops right outside.
- Sympathetic Murderer: Played with. Beth starts out at this, shooting her cruel and heartless brother who emotionally abused her. But by the end of the episode, when she's become just as cold and inconsiderate as he was, it's less true. It gets worse upon rewatching, as knowing why she took Bryce's key in the very first scene reveals that she was already planning to kill him even before he announced his ultimatum for Peter.
- Too Clever by Half: All Beth had to do after shooting Bryce was say that he went into her room without knocking and she shot him in the dark and turned on the alarm thinking he was a burglar, the sleeping pill she claimed to have taken making her groggy and not thinking clearly. This might not have aroused Columbo's suspicions, since it takes into account Bryce leaving behind his attache case on his own and taking the newspaper in. Instead, she went along with her original plan to make it look like he was trying to get in through the sliding doors.
- Took a Level in Badass: Beth goes from mousy, trod-upon sister to hard-ass corporate executive after she takes over the Chadwick advertising firm. It doesn't do her any good with Lt. Columbo, though.
- The Unfavorite: Beth, as far as her mother is concerned. When Mrs. Chadwick shows up after Bryce's death, the first thing she does is slap her daughter across the face. Then she starts ranting about how Bryce was awesome and strong and kept the family together, and took care of Beth, the screw-up and idiot.
- Unfit for Greatness: Implied to be the case with Beth. Without her brother Bryce hovering over her life anymore, she proceeds to make several rash decisions after she becomes the new owner of the family business, culminating with announcing her engagement to Peter without having consulted the latter first.
