As I said on the phone, I'm Spencer Magnussen Cooke,
the new editor of the Ulster County Review.
Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, Spencer.
So what happened to Lewis, if you don't mind me asking?
Screen-sharing incident.
He's now in rehab for porn addiction.
He, uh, wanted to spend more time with his family.
Uh, now, let us talk about your podcast.
- I love it. - He hates it.
Unfortunately, for budgetary reasons,
we are canceling it.
But we're in the middle of the season.
We haven't solved Alberta's murder yet.
Look, we don't want to leave the fans hanging, so...
I am going to give you one final episode
to wrap things up.
But it has to be posted by tomorrow.
What? Why tomorrow?
He's flexing his power, he has a sad home life.
Tax reasons, it's complicated.
Okay, so I guess I have one day to solve Alberta's murder.
Thanks for coming in.
He didn't wash his hands after he went to the bathroom.
♪ ♪
FLOWER: Hey, guys. What's going on?
I'm helping Pete check his email.
Pete, you have email?
I-I don't use it to contact anyone.
The creep factor for getting an email from a dead person
is unfortunately pretty high.
Sure.
But if you sign up at the Reader's Digest website,
they send you a free joke every day.
[chuckling] Hey, hey, Flower, uh...
what did the buffalo say when he dropped his kid off at school?
"Don't get in any vans"?
No. He-he said "bison."
[chuckling]: Get it? Like "Bye, son"?
So he just said bye?
Ah, jiminy. I guess it's more of a written thing.
Here, just look.
[dinging] Whoa, Pete,
you just got another email.
Bonus joke?
Man, the good folks at Reader's Digest
will just not rest.
No, it's from...
Prince Jones Dimka?
His eminency of the Republic of Nigeria?
A prince, emailing me?
"Urgent matter, open immediately."
Easier said than done.
[groaning] Ah.
"Dear Pete Martino, it is with great urgency
that I write to you from a penal colony on Snake Island."
Oh, my God.
This prince needs our help.
This is the murder board.
This is what he's been doing all day?
So, this took eight hours, Jay?
It took a long time to find red string.
Target was closed, Michael's was all out.
And, honestly, I kind of just lost track of time
in the Yarn Barn. That place is amazing.
Man, seeing all this laid out in one place like this,
really takes me back to that night.
I was invited to perform at a party at Woodstone Mansion.
It was New Year's Eve.
♪ Let's do it, let's fall in love ♪
The joint was jumping. Ha-ha!
Folks were getting zozzled.
I was working the crowd
and my bootlegger boyfriend was haggling with the homeowner
over payment for the night's booze.
Swinging party, Thomas.
Yes. Let's get you a drink.
Hetty, your son throw better party than you used to.
Oh, of course, everyone's in the mood to celebrate.
The stock market is roaring and there's no end in sight.
1929 is sure to be the greatest year yet.
Mm. Woodstone driving a hard bargain?
Yeah, he's trying to change the terms of our arrangement.
After tonight, - I'm done with him. - Mm.
You know what I'm done with?
These uncomfortable-ass shoes.
[laughter]
The price we pay for fashion, Earl.
Oh, baby, it's just for a few hours.
And besides...
you look great.
Mm. How great?
So great.
[laughter]
- All right, here we go. - Indeed.
Wouldn't mind watching him go at it.
Them, I said them.
Sorry, baby, that'll have to wait till later.
I got this one thing to take care of,
but I'll see you after the next set.
[chuckles]
[sighs]
ALBERTA: Mm. Putting on those uncomfortable shoes
was my first mistake.
[knocking]
I was about to make my second.
Somebody had left me a present.
Hmm. "Good luck"?
[scoffs] I don't need luck.
But I do love booze.
[laughing]
THORFINN: So you just...
drink alcohol even though no idea who gave it to you?
And you just traipsed through a field wearing a metal helmet
during a lightning storm?
What's your point, Thor? We all got here somehow.
So, we know that the bottle of booze was laced with strychnine.
Now, let's go over the murder suspects.
Theresa, Alberta's sister, who was there that night
as a member of Alberta's entourage.
The note that we found
in the bootlegged whiskey in the wall says,
"My dearest Earl, I can't wait for us to be together,
once we get rid of you-know-who,"
signed "T." T for Theresa?
Could be.
We also know that shortly after Alberta's death,
Theresa started dating Earl.
Damning evidence slash juicy gossip.
It can't have been Theresa.
There's no way my sister would have done that.
I don't want to believe it's true either,
but it would make a really good end to the podcast.
Good for the podcast?
Purely from a storytelling standpoint.
THORFINN: Sam.
Looks like Jay has something here.
Oh, Jay, did you come up with something?
No, I just thought the murder board was a little off balance.
Yeah.
That's better.
So the prince wants us to send him 1,000 bucks
so he can bribe the guards, get out of prison,
reclaim his fortune, and then he'll pay us back?
Ooh, not just pay us back.
He's gonna give us $5,000
for helping him.
Yeah, but this isn't about the money.
This is a guy who needs help.
And he reached out to me.
For some reason.
Should we tell Sam?
[chuckling]: No, no, no.
Since the whole sexual possession
on Christmas "incident," I've been expressly banned
from using their computers.
You never told me that.
Now I'm an accessory. And for what?
Wholesome jokes curated by the funniest people in the world?
So we're not gonna help the prince?
But he's the only one who can rally the people
to take down the military junta.
I know, but what can we do?
Well, we can't just leave him hanging. That's rude.
Should we just email him back to say we're sorry?
Fine, okay.
He probably reached out because he thinks
I'm still a living travel agent.
You know what people say.
When in trouble, call a travel agent.
I've never heard anyone say that.
Oh, it's a saying.
Yeah, I've never heard that--It's a saying!
Okay, if it really was the sister,
I think somebody might want to make this into a movie.
Really? Do you think they'd let me write it?
It wasn't my sister. We have a board full of suspects.
We haven't even looked into Clara yet.
All signs point to Clara.
Well, her name doesn't start with a "T."
Well, many signs point to Clara.
We know that she hated me because I ratted her out.
And we know she was there that night.
And she was wearing a very big hat...
HETTY: Yes, because she was trying to be inconspicuous.
Which is just what a murderer would do.
Is a big hat inconspicuous or like really conspicuous?
It is an interesting question.
More of a side trip, but not one unworthy of taking.
But do you think Clara would be mad enough to kill you?
I mean, you said she only spent one night in jail.
Wait, she only spent one night in jail? For bootlegging?
I thought that was a major offense.
Well, it should have been.
Alcohol is highly addictive,
with none of the productive
or medicinal qualities of cocaine.
Now that you mention it,
I guess Clara did get off sort of light.
I wonder if they cut her a deal.
Maybe that's why she was there.
We know there was a bootlegging deal.
Maybe Clara was there to drop a dime
on Alberta and Earl to get revenge.
That would explain one kind of weird detail about that night.
After Alberta's murder was called in,
the police arrived almost instantly.
So Clara was working with the cops
to get you arrested. Which means
she wasn't there to kill you.
Which means we're back to Theresa.
Sorry, Alberta.
JAY: You know what?
I have a friend who works at CAA.
Maybe you want to talk to him about this whole movie thing.
Really?
Although...
We don't know for sure yet.
But maybe do, like, an e-introduction,
just to get the ball rolling.
Oh, come on, there's got to be something
on this board that points to someone
besides my sister!
Unfortunately, there is a lot of yarn
pointing to your sister.
Next order of business: murder weapon.
We know from Todd drinking the booze and getting hospitalized
that Alberta was poisoned with strychnine.
Where is that bearded historian?
Shouldn't he be here, as cohost of the podcast?
We're doing just fine without Todd. Thank you, Isaac.
I did call Todd, but he said
he was on a Disney cruise with his mom.
His mom's boyfriend Kyle got a job as a Goofy.
I don't even want to know what any of those words mean.
Hmm. Interesting.
Strychnine is the main ingredient in rat poison.
They used to keep rat poison in the basement here.
Wait, has anyone ever talked to the basement ghosts
about what they saw that night?
I'll be honest.
I didn't know till very recently that they could speak.
Hey, guys.
Got another email from the prince.
- What did he say? - Is he mad at us?
No, he's not mad. But he is worried.
Things have deteriorated at the penal colony.
He seems very desperate.
And now he's willing to pay us
50 grand if we wire him the thousand.
Doesn't matter if he could give us a million smackers,
we don't have access to any money.
Well, that's not entirely true.
We could rob a bank.
Yes, Flower, we know. You robbed a bank once.
Who told you? Was it Jan?
Was it Starburst?
No, what I'm saying is, we don't have any money.
But Sam and Jay do.
And Jay uses the same password for everything,
including his online banking account.
Oh, come on, I don't know.
FLOWER: I'm in.
Even though I've never committed a crime
and I definitely haven't robbed a bank.
We do this, everybody wins.
The prince is saved.
Sam and Jay get a huge payday,
and we get all the credit.
Eh, I just...
Pete, someone's in trouble.
Are you a travel agent or aren't you?
Gosh darn it, let's do it.
[cheering]
You want to know what happened
some random night 100 years ago?
It wasn't a random night.
It was New Year's Eve, 1928.
It was also the night I died.
Does anybody remember somebody suspicious
coming down and grabbing some rat poison?
Hold on, rat poison? Now that you mention it,
there was some guy with a scar on his face.
Yeah, we notice when somebody
has something weird on their face.
They said that there was a guy who took rat poison,
he had a scar on his face.
Oh, you don't think that they mean Al Capone, do you?
You know...
Scarface?
I mean, he was there that night.
Ooh, and I did reject him.
Was this the guy that they're talking about?
Oops.
Uh, yeah, that's him.
You know, he did seem kind of agitated.
Yeah, that's him.
He was right over there.
This'll teach Alberta to facepalm me.
Alberta, how could you not think to tell us
you rejected Al Capone that night?
First of all, it was a very light facepalm.
And secondly, old Al was always hitting on me.
I didn't think anything of it.
Ooh, the famous gangster Al Capone.
Now that is a murderer worthy
of someone like you, Alberta.
Oh, fame-on-fame crime.
That is juicy.
Aw, congrats on your high-profile murderer, Alberta.
I'm really happy for you.
FLOWER: Oh, I can't wait to tell Sam and Jay.
They're going to be so happy with us.
The second the prince transfers the money
back into the account, we tell them.
I'm so excited.
I mean, this could be international news, right?
A freed prince?
Morley Safer's gonna be all over that.
That's actually a good idea.
I'm gonna google "Nigerian prince"
and see if it's in the news.
You know, the word "hero" gets thrown around
pretty casually these days, but
I think you're looking at three of them right here.
We are pretty great.
[groaning]
- You done yet? - I got one letter.
[bird cawing]
Ah! Done.
Uh-oh.
What? Were we too late?
Did they execute the prince?
I don't think there was a prince.
What?
It's a scam.
And according to Google, a very famous one.
PETE: So, Sam and Jay's money?
I think that's gone.
PETE:Gone?
I feel so... dumb.
Okay, so he lied to us about being a prince.
But at least we helped someone get off of Snake Island.
And that's what's important.
I feel less dumb, but still.
I mean, this is huge.
Al Capone killed somebody in this house.
Do we put that on the website?
So this guy was so upset about Alberta turning him down
that he killed her?
That's what the facts say, Sass.
If he couldn't have me, no one could.
Well, this is an exciting conclusion
to this thrilling mystery.
Seems like we can put this one to bed.
Well, it looks like you guys have got yourself enough yarn
to knit a jumper for Benjamin Franklin.
He was quite plump.
We're solving Alberta's murder.
We're under a strict deadline
because no one found it interesting enough
to sustain a podcast.
NIGEL: Well, any leads?
It looks like it was the famous gangster Al Capone.
Nigel just came in.
Oh, cheerio, guvnah.
Yes, that never gets old.
Pip, pip. Bob's your uncle.
Wait a moment.
I've seen this man before.
What are you doing?
If I can't have Alberta,
I don't want to live.
THERESA: Pull yourself together, Al.
No dame's worth it.
What are you doing?
Getting rid of this.
Now go back to the party,
and stop acting like a fool.
And pay your taxes,
that's gonna come back to haunt you.
And then the woman stopped Al Capone from killing himself.
Whoa. If Capone didn't kill Alberta, then who did?
Maybe woman who took bottle did.
We know she had poison.
Was the woman wearing a big hat
that was either conspicuous or inconspicuous?
No, no interesting headwear to speak of.
So then it wasn't Clara.
Then who was it?
Who was the woman who had the poisoned bottle?
It was her.
[gasping]
Ah, it always feels good
to elicit a classic Higgintoot gasp.
You're saying that my sister really did kill me?
I can't believe this.
I'm so sorry, Alberta.
She was my best friend.
I mean, I know we didn't always get along, but...
I thought we at least had each other's back.
But she killed me to be with Earl.
Men would come and go, but we always said
we would grow old together.
But apparently that was all a lie.
And now I'm stuck with this pain for eternity.
Your sister didn't kill you.
Yeah, I don't want to believe it either,
but the facts are what they are.
No, I am saying your sister didn't kill you
because I know who actually did.
I have always known.
Do we think Yarn Barn takes returns on opened packages?
Jay.
Hetty, what are you talking about?
She's saying she knows who the killer is.
Mm. Was it the board?
Did the board get her there?
No. She's saying she's always known.
Board did nothing for no one.
Uh, Hetty, I-I don't understand.
Uh, who did it and how do you know?
Because I saw it all happen.
On the night of the party,
I was following my son Thomas around...
...when your sister approached him with the poisoned bottle.
She informed him of the attempted suicide
and he took possession of the poisoned moonshine.
But instead of disposing of it...
he placed it outside Alberta's dressing room,
knocked on the door, and slipped away.
Your killer was my son Thomas.
But why would he want to kill me?
I-I didn't even know the man.
Actually much harder to kill a person you know.
Sometimes not even fun.
Well, You may not have known the man, b-but he knew your man.
The note?
That "T" stands for Thomas.
My son and your bootlegger boyfriend were lovers.
I mean, it's not not juicy.
So you're saying your son was having an affair with Earl
and that's why he killed Alberta?
Whose son? There's no son on the board.
Wait, so you're saying...
Earl was two-timing me with Thomas?
HETTY: Do you remember the fight,
the one that you thought was a dispute over a bootlegging deal?
Well, that's not what it was about.
Thomas was upset that Earl would not
break things off with you as he had promised.
Instead, that night Earl broke things off with Thomas.
That rhyme. Promise, Thomas. [chuckles]
Not most important thing right now but still noteworthy.
While still reeling, someone handed my son
a bottle of poisoned booze.
He was spurned,
he was heartbroken,
and he lashed out at the woman he blamed
for his unhappiness, you.
Hetty, you've known this this whole time and never told me?
Yes, I'm sorry. I'm very sorry, Alberta.
No, I'm sorry. Sorry I ever considered you to be a friend.
I know it's not the time,
but I always thought that Thomas was gay
so I do consider this a personal victory.
Again, acknowledged, not the time.
But very vindicating.
TREVOR: Sam, we're sorry.
You sent a scammer
$1,000 of our money?
PETE: Well, we'll make it up to you, somehow.
We could rob a bank.
I'm admitting it now. I've done it.
It's not that hard.
TREVOR: I don't want to point fingers,
but it all started with Pete begging me
- to set him up an email account. - Oh, come on.
He's addicted to gentle comedy.
- The man's got a problem. - Busted.
You guys are idiots.
Wait, what's happening?
I got a fraud alert on my phone an hour ago.
I cancelled the transfer.
So we didn't lose any of your money?
No. But...
And I can't believe I have to keep saying this,
stop using the computer
and never go into our bank accounts.
PETE: Absolutely.
I'm done with Reader's Digest.
I'll get my zingers elsewhere.
Look, don't beat yourselves up too much.
A lot of people do fall for these computer scams.
Usually they're older people,
but I guess you guys are old, in a way.
T-Money isn't old. You take that back.
You seen these thighs?
33 forever, babe.
Yeah, we've both got great thighs.
Couple of thigh guys.
- Shut up, Pete. - Right.
Alberta.
I don't have anything to say to you, Hetty.
Look...
first you were just an acquaintance,
whom my son had murdered.
And then later you became a dear, dear friend...
[exhales shakily]
whom my son had murdered.
Oh.
There just never seemed to be the right time to bring it up.
Is this you trying to apologize?
Because I got to tell you, you're very bad at this.
SASAPPIS: What did she say?
Can't really hear anything.
You got to move in closer.
Idiots, your heads are through the wall.
Oh. [chuckles] Okay if we stay?
No.
Okay. Sorry.
[sighs] The thing is, Alberta,
I was ashamed to have raised a man
that would do that to you.
So you just say this and you think it makes it all better?
Do you know how painful it's been
not knowing how I died for the last 100 years?
No. No, I don't.
And I knew that telling you
might-might fracture our friendship.
Perhaps irreparably.
Then why'd you tell me?
I couldn't let you go on thinking
that your sister had betrayed you like that.
Well, I'm glad my sister didn't betray me.
But the person who's come to be like one did.
And I don't know
if I'll ever get over that.
So you're saying you don't forgive me.
That's right.
NIGEL: What did she say?
I don't know, I couldn't quite make it out.
NIGEL: I fear you're through the door.
Hmm?
Oh, yes,
I can see them. They're staring at me.
They do not seem pleased.
TREVOR: Who cares if Sam called us old?
I mean, maybe it's the best of both worlds.
We get to be old, but we still look young and hot.
A couple of young thigh guys.
Hey, should we get a rack for these four guns?
Guns are arms. You know what? Just stop comparing our limbs.
Trevor's right.
I mean, yeah, maybe we got tricked,
but it didn't even end up costing us.
And we learned a valuable lesson, you know?
If something seems too good to be true,
it probably is.
Exactly. We're not gonna fall
for one of those scams again.
Because unlike actual old people,
we still got our wits about us.
Hey, look.
It's that guy from that old TV show.
He's doing commercials now?
TV ANNOUNCER: Unlock the power of a reverse mortgage.
What's a reverse mortgage?
TV ANNOUNCER: You get the cash you need now
and you get to stay in the home you love.
Hold up, they pay you for your house
but you get to keep it?
Uh, sign me up.
You know who we should sign up?
ALL: Sam and Jay!
[laughter]
They're gonna love this.
Captioning sponsored by CBS
and TOYOTA.
Captioned by Media Access Group at WGBH access.wgbh.org