“Not all murders are heinous. Some are ridiculous.” ~ Kevin “Corky” Corcoran
Last time on ‘Copper’ Corky thwarted the Rodrick gang’s plan to steal money from Mrs. Elizabeth Haverford’s fundraiser by working security at her gala and transporting an empty box for the gang to steal while Robert Morehouse transported the actual funds to the bank. Meanwhile, Maguire finds “love” with Mme Grindle’s sister while Annie continued to spy on and report Mrs. Haverford’s visitors and activities to anyone who will listen and Matthew Freeman’s uncle attacked Sara while Matthew was away revealing his true colors.
In ‘Arsenic and Old Cake’ Corky takes over Byrne’s investigation into a murdered dentist after Byrnes also turns up dead, murdered by the same poison that killed the dentist. The investigation takes him on a few twists before coming to an interesting conclusion. Meanwhile, Maguire begins to suspect Mary is up to something when she receives a visit from an unknown man. Back at Mrs. Haverford’s, Annie acts out again which causes Mrs. Haverford to send her away while Jasper and Irishman Jake McGinnis finally meet in the ring.
Due to a lack of murders, Byrnes quickly snatches up the latest case when a dentist, Gillis Devery, turns up dead. During his investigation Byrnes drinks some wine and eats Devery’s cake, but after a few seconds, Byrnes becomes ill and dies of the same poisoning that killed Mr. Devery. Corky takes over the investigation, which leads him, Andrew and Maguire to Mrs. Devery who was heading to Poughkeepsie with her kids to visit her mother. When Corky informs her that they found the poison used to kill Devery in her pantry so whether she confesses or not she will hang for the murders, she becomes worried and admits that she had nothing to do with the poisoned cake. Corky believes her and begins to think about the card that came with the cake. Determined to find who wrote the card, Corky and Andrew return to Mr. Devery’s apartment building and ask all the neighbors for their signatures. They find the matching signature belongs to the landlord, Mr. Lunsford.
Mr. Lunsford confesses to killing Mr. Devery, but unintentionally. He tells them he received the cake from a butcher tenant, Hans Ekel, whom had given Mr. Lunsford the fruitcake as a peace offering. Since he didn’t like fruitcake, he passed it on to Mr. Devery as payment for some dental work. After questioning Hans Ekel, they learn that Ethel Devery had been sleeping with Hans and always baked him some fruitcake, which he never ate. When he received the latest fruitcake from Mr. Devery, he boxed it in a bakery box so it looked like it came from Nellis’ Bakery and gave it to Mr. Lunsford as a peace offering, unaware it was poisoned. At this point they realize that Mr. Devery had found out about Ethel’s affair and poisoned the fruitcake, intending to kill Hans Ekel. Unaware that Hans had put it in a Nellis’ Bakery box and gave it to Mr. Lunsford, Mr. Devery ate the cake when he received it from Mr. Lunsford and essentially poisoned himself and killed Byrnes after he died as well.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Haverford attempts to work with Annie by asking a monsignor of Annie’s faith to speak with her. Annie scares him off with her lewd and lascivious talk. Elizabeth confronts her about her actions and they argue, which ends with Annie shoving Mrs. Haverford and running off to Eva’s Paradise. Eva tells Annie that she can’t live there and then tells Corky that Annie has come to her, yet again, to which Corky tells her to take her back to Mrs. Haverford’s home. Eva objects pointing out that if Annie doesn’t feel like she belongs there, she’ll just continue to run away, but Corky insists that a whorehouse is no place for a little girl. Though Eva is insulted by this comment, she agrees to take Annie back to Mrs. Haverford’s home.
When they arrive there, Mrs. Haverford greets them and tells Annie she was worried. After Eva departs, Mrs. Haverford tells Annie that the best place for her is perhaps with her family and Annie’s father steps out into the hallway. As this man was in fact an abusive and disgusting man whom had forced Annie to marry her and is not really her father, Annie freaks out and tells Elizabeth he’s not her father. Her “father” states that Annie is lying and grabs her against her will. Annie begs and pleads with Mrs. Haverford to let her stay, but Elizabeth does nothing and lets him take her away. Later, when Corky comes to talk to Elizabeth about Annie, Elizabeth tells him she sent Annie away to California to live with a nice family there.
Meanwhile, Jasper and Irishman Jake McGinnis finally meet in the ring for the fight that Marcus Freeman promised to Robert Morehouse. Matthew, however, informs Morehouse that Jasper has no intentions of losing, Marcus lied to him and he fears for Jasper’s life should he win. Morehouse ignores his request to call off the fight and has security escort Matthew out of the building. Jasper and Jake begin to fight while Marcus and Morehouse eagerly watch. Marcus becomes exceedingly worried about the fight to the point of attempting to get his share of the money before the fight is over, but Morehouse doesn’t give in. Suddenly Jake gains the upper hand, but this merely sets Jasper off who comes back full force and beats the crap out of McGinnis, eventually winning the fight. Just after he swings the final blow to win, however, Morehouse pulls out his backup plan and has the referee knock Jasper out and pull Jake to his feet, declaring him the winner. This, however, does not quell the crowd who saw the beating Jasper had given Irishman Jake McGinnis. Fearful of what they will do to Jasper, Robert Morehouse shows up to Matthew Freeman’s home later that night and tells them that Jasper has to leave town immediately or risk death. He then gives Jasper a ticket to Halifax as well as the share of the money Marcus left behind in his hurry to skip town as an apology and leaves.
Review
If ‘Copper’ has made anything clear, it is that anyone on this show is fair game. First to go was Molly and now Sergeant Byrnes, neither of who I expected to die, whether I liked them or not. Though it was kind of nice seeing Byrnes get his desserts, it was still unexpected, as he seemed like a fairly regular character, but then again, so did Molly. I guess I shouldn’t have been too surprised. At least it was a slightly humorous end to a complete ass.
I was also surprised at Mrs. Haverford’s choice to send Annie away to live with her “father.” Considering the fact that she’s lied to Corky about where she sent Annie, I’m curious if she perhaps knows exactly who her “father” really is, but has chosen to punish Annie by sending her back to him. Annie is twisted. There is no denying that, but Mrs. Haverford has to be pretty twisted herself to send Annie away despite her reaction to seeing the man, whether she knew it was really Annie’s husband or not, and then proceed to lie to Corky to ensure she remains with him. What will Corky do when he finds out where Annie really is and that Mrs. Haverford lied to him? It was cold…. and more reason for me to dislike her, even if I did say she was starting to grow on me. I definitely take that back.
I’m also curious about how long it will take for Maguire to figure out Mary’s true intentions. He saw a man leaving her home. He suspects something at least. He’s just not sure what he suspects. I wonder what he’ll do when he finds out about the ledger and her blackmailing people for the money. To be honest, I’ve given up trying to guess what could happen. ‘Copper’ clearly has a knack for throwing my suspicions off. Either way, I look forward to finding out a bit more about all of these things…and who’s next on ‘Copper’s’ list of corpses.
