SPOILERS!

I know I'm going to ruffle some feathers here, but I found this well-acted... and utterly unsatisfying. For one thing, I can understand why our 'old spinster' *was* a spinster -- she's a bit of an uptight, smarmy old bitty. She may have a good heart but the way she speaks to her oldest friend is chock full of sarcastic questioning and left-handed condescension. Then we have the most ridiculously pompous and just plain stupid 'sheriff' in the entire series -- the way he dismisses her initial plea for help is stunning in its patronizing ignorance and complete disregard for his job and his friends' well-being, and ultimately chooses an easy way out instead of investigating the actual crime. And our old spinster? She's spent a whole episode doing what she can, even by her own admission doing things she'd despised in other people, to save her oldest friend... but she just seems to stop really caring once he's dead. She races to his home in a panic and then sees the mess and sees him dead, and by the time our wonderful sheriff (who dismissed her gunshot story as well, but then came anyway?) shows up and in his classic way of dismissing actual truth and logic, her demeanor becomes one giant shrug of the shoulders. As well, after spending a whole episode with the 'old fool' but big-hearted Cartwright's dreams and sadly misplaced loyalty to his wife, we get a violent ending for him without the slightest explanation, no connection to the preceding story, and not an ounce of investigation or answers. Really? Let's wrap up the entire story lead up to this moment to dismiss it so we can have an ironic twist/punishment for our antagonists. It's one of the dumbest things Dann wrote for this series, and he has some of the best ones in the whole run, so it baffles me. The actors are all excellent, fit their written parts perfectly, but none of that matters in the last few minutes because the climax to the entire conflict happens offstage by an unknown, unexplained and unquestioned murderer. Deus Ex Machina? It's just plain bad.