This episode is the third part of a four-episode storyline which began with the episode Blonde on Blonde and concludes with the episode I Am Curious … Maddie.
It is true that this episode is a continuation of the previous episode – the McClafferty case and Maddie's relationship with Sam both escalate in this episode – but it's also important to recognize that this episode is the feminine twin of the last episode. Sam's arrival into Maddie's life puts the relationship between Maddie and David out of balance. In the previous episode we saw Sam's intrusion and its effects primarily through David's eyes; in this episode we see the same effects from Maddie's point of view.
Maddie wakes up in bed with Sam, and he asks her how she slept. But she doesn't answer. Instead she looks away. This is the beginning of an episode full of body language from Maddie that tells us in the audience that she is troubled. Watch where she stands when she's interacting with Sam and with David, watch when she smiles, and at whom, and when she doesn't smile, and watch her eyes. Her feelings are never more palpable than they are in this episode.
As Maddie explains later on in this episode, Sam is "perfect" for her. We see that he is thoughtful, caring, talented, and devoted to her. But we also know that her relationship with David is important to her too. She tells Agnes that "they're both really terrific."
In the office, she confronts David. Why did he interrupt her dinner with Sam the night before? We suspect that she knows that he wanted to confess his love for her, and she wants to hear it for herself. But David won't admit to it. Instead he invents a story – he says he interrupted her dinner to talk about rewarding Herbert Viola for his hard work. But we don't believe him, and Maddie doesn't believe him.
Meanwhile there's a case to be solved. Last night Bert took photos of Mr. and Mrs. McClafferty, fulfilling the job Elaine Johnson hired Blue Moon to perform. Maddie and David deliver the photos to Elaine, but she insists that she wants more: she had expected sound recordings, and she wants Maddie and David to provide them. Thus, the two of them return to the McClafferty home with surveillance equipment, only to witness Mrs. McClafferty apparently sobbing, typing a suicide note, and ending her own life with a handgun.
Maddie returns to her home to find that Sam has been waiting for her, and has cooked her dinner. They talk, and he tells her how happy he is to know that she'd be coming home to him. And again she looks away, and we presume she's thinking of David. "I'm so confused," she says. "I just wish someone would tell me what to do." And Sam responds simply, "Do this: marry me."
The very next thing you know, Maddie is knocking on David's apartment door, and it's the middle of the night. Evidently she waited only a little while until Sam was asleep, then snuck out to confront David again. She urgently wants to know what he wanted to tell her when he interrupted her date with Sam, and those are the first words out of her mouth when he lets her in. "What did you want to tell me?" Again he won't answer. She starts to explain how she feels, but breaks into tears, and he takes her in his arms and they kiss tenderly.
In tears, she notices her mascara is running, and then remembers that Mrs. McClafferty's makeup was perfect when she died. "The woman we heard crying and the woman we saw being carried out were not the same woman." Maddie realizes that Elaine Johnson was the one who made sure the two of them were there to see the whole performance, and she suspects Johnson of murdering Mrs. McClafferty and setting up David and Maddie to make it look like a suicide.
The two of them confront Elaine Johnson in her apartment – it's now 4:30 in the morning – and discover proof that yes indeed, Johnson and Mr. McClafferty conspired to murder his wife. A chase ensues, involving milk bottles thrown from the back of a truck and a run through a bowling alley. In the end, they apprehend the bad guys and walk out of the bowling alley into the sunrise.
Maddie tells David that she feels great, and that she had a great time. And then she remembers Sam, remembers that she left him alone in bed, and she stops in her tracks. We see Sam wake up alone in her bed and call out her name, wondering where she is. And we wonder what Maddie is going to do now.
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Date of last change: 16 December 2000
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