Title:"The Conspirators"
Directed by: Leo Penn
Written by: Pat Robison (based on an idea by), Howard Berk (written by)
Air Date: May 13, 1978
Previous: How to Dial a Murder
Next: Columbo Goes to the Guillotine
Guest Starring: Clive Revill, Jeanette Nolan, Bernard Behrens, L.Q. Jones
"The Conspirators" is the fifth episode of the seventh season of Columbo.
Joe Devlin (Clive Revill) is an Irish poet, author, and raconteur. He is in America on a book tour. In Los Angeles, he appears at a benefit for the Friends of Northern Ireland Foundation, sponsored by the wealthy O'Connell shipping family. Devlin and the O'Connells make themselves out to be a pacifist group raising funds for the widows and orphans of The Troubles, but the reality is quite the opposite: the money is actually going to buy guns for the Irish Republican Army.
To that end, Devlin has a meeting with Vincent Pauley, the arms dealer who is collecting $100,000 from Devlin for the shipment of 300 MAC-10 machine pistols. What Pauley doesn't know is that Devlin has had him followed, and knows that Pauley has a ticket for a flight to Lisbon in 2 1/2 hours. Confronted with the knowledge that he is going to skip town with the money, Pauley goes for a gun but Devlin is quicker on the draw and shoots him.
Enter Columbo. Devlin would have gotten away with it, as there was nothing to connect him to Pauley...except for the signed, inscribed copy of Devlin's book in Pauley's coat pocket. When Columbo discovers that the message "Ourselves Alone" written in the book is actually the English for Sinn Fein
, he starts to zero in on Devlin, who was jailed at the age of 14 for anti-British terrorism. So now Devlin must try to ward off the investigation while also trying to track down the wholesaler who Pauley got the weapons from.
This episode was the 45th and last episode of the original run of Columbo on NBC. Peter Falk spent the 1980s getting other acting work, like appearing as the grandfather in The Princess Bride and As Himself in Wings of Desire, before putting Columbo's raincoat on again in 1989 after the show was Uncancelled and sent on a Channel Hop to ABC.
Tropes:
- The Alcoholic: Joe Devlin, who pretty much constantly has a drink in his hand. He has a habit of making scratches on whiskey bottles to set himself a limit—and this proves crucial to the solution.
- Affably Evil: Joe Devlin may be a terrorist and a murderer but he sure is funny and a great guy to hang out with at a bar. Devlin and Columbo drink together twice.
- Arms Dealer: Vincent Pauley. After Joe kills Pauley he struggles to find the wholesaler who was working with Pauley to move the guns.
- Bilingual Bonus: Eventually it's explained, but anyone who knows the English for "Sinn Fein" will be a step ahead of Columbo.
- Chalk Outline: Tape, in Pauley's room. The location of the whiskey bottle so close to the body is a clue for Columbo.
- Decoy Convoy: Columbo stops an O'Connell Industries ship to search it for illegal arms, but comes up empty. However, as they're looking Columbo spots a tugboat flying an O'Connell flag. The tug contains the real arms shipment, which was going to be transferred to the bigger ship once it was at sea.
- Didn't Think This Through:
- Whether or not the man was cheating him, Devlin murdering his source of guns before he can line up a new one causes him a lot of trouble; of the three other local contacts he knows one won't sell guns illegally, one is only selling larger caliber weapons and one has gone into drugs and left gunrunning behind.
- Also, Devlin forgets that Pauley had his book in his possession when he was killed, which leads Columbo right to him, immediately after Devlin assured his associates that there wasn't anything to connect him to the death. Devlin berates himself for this.
- Fake Charity: Devlin is unapologetic about getting a fortune in donations to bring peace to Ireland while really using the money to give guns to the fighters.
- Foreshadowing: Devlin is shown many times scratching whiskey bottles. This is how Columbo gets him, by matching scratches on all those Finn's Irish Dew bottles to the one found at the crime scene, which Devlin scratched while he was waiting for Pauley.
- Go-Karting with Bowser: Even as he's interrogating Devlin in his usual And Another Thing... manner, Columbo seems to really enjoy drinking and playing darts and reciting limericks with Devlin.
- Graceful Loser: Devlin is respectful and impressed when Columbo catches him and ruins his plans.
- Head-Tiltingly Kinky: Columbo can't help but gawk at a book on erotic art at a bookstore, even turning the book sideways to get a better look.
- Hidden Depths: Devlin is surprised when Columbo the rumpled schmo proves very good at making up limericks on the spot.
- Honest Corporate Executive: The second gun dealer Devlin visits after killing his original dealer.
- Implausible Deniability: According to the story of Devlin's arrest, he had been caught with a bag of dynamite and tried to tell the officer they were fireworks for the king's birthday. The officer saw through it as the king's birthday wasn't for five more months.
- Inadvertent Entrance Cue: Devlin is explaining to Kerry Malone and the O'Connells that nobody saw him with Pauley and there's nothing to connect them, so they're in the clear.Devlin: Pauley's dead, and that's the end of it.
Kerry Malone: There's a policeman in the parlor. (cut to Columbo in the parlor) - I Regret Nothing: Devlin simply makes a joke when its pointed out that he's a murderer whose been lying to fund violence and shows no fear at being arrested. Seeing the boat with the guns seized does shake him up some though.
- In the Original Klingon: Devlin wryly attributes a quote to "a famous Irish philosopher named Georg Wilhelmina Friedrich Hegel."
- Karma Houdini: While Devlin is arrested and the FBI will surely bring the hammer down on the O'Connells, the arms dealer played by L.Q. Jones appears to get away with it, as do the two crooked drug/gun runners Devlin went to see before him.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Devlin has a habit of making scratches on whiskey bottles and saying "This far, and no farther." At the end, Columbo pours a drink and says "This far, and no farther." And that was the last line of dialogue in the last episode of the original NBC run.
- Limerick: Columbo and Devlin have a little limerick duel. Here's the first one, recited by Columbo:There once was an old man from Lyme
Who married three wives at a time
When asked why a third
He replied one's absurd
And two of them sir is a crime - Mouth of Sauron: One of the gunrunners Devlin tries to meet, Proctor, remains unseen while a subordinate of his deals with Devlin and informs him that they've given up gun-running in favor of "Happy stuff" (cocaine and hash).
- Personal Arcade: Columbo is very impressed by the pinball machines in Devlin's house.
- Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: One of the men Devlin tries to buy guns from after killing his original supplier.Gun Dealer: What I sell goes out under license, strictly legal.Devlin: (irritably) I'm offering a considerable amount, man. Surely that'll cover any legal technicalities.Gun Dealer: You got the wrong guy, sorry.
- Western Terrorists: Joe Devlin and the O'Connells are raising money under false pretenses to buy guns for the Irish Republican Army. Devlin also did time at the age of 14 for anti-British terrorism.
- You Fool!: Devlin says this to himself for overlooking the fact that Pauley still had his book on him, which gave Columbo a connection to him.
