Killer Deja Vu at 50

[Bobbi]

50 years ago tonight, CBS aired S07E03 “I’ll Kill ‘Em Again”.

This episode has, what Mr. Mike calls, “the series’ creepiest killer.” Danny Goldman is Eddie Josephs. Eddie is too smart for his own good and decides to play games with Five-O and in particularly, McGarrett.

Eddie decides to ‘recommit’ old murders in the same locations and posing the bodies exactly as they were found in some old Five-O cases. Eddie is scary attention detailed as he goes to great pains to make sure even the clothes are right!

Eddie works at a bookstore run and owned by Harry Beecham (Ivor Francis). Beecham likes having Eddie there but Eddie has been late too many times. Eddie knows where every book is but he’s useless if he doesn’t show up. Eddie’s been busy killing people, mailing postcards to McGarrett and taunting the Five-O head on the phone.

Beecham becomes a target but that murder was completely unplanned. McGarrett knows this because the handwriting and tone of the postcards have changed.

Once Five-O figures out what’s going on – they didn’t have a motive and the victims didn’t have anything in common – Eddie is tracked down. They stop him mid-kill and Eddie yells at McGarrett, “You can’t win!” Eddie then jumps out a window to his death.

Mr. Mike does a much better job than I. His review is found here: https://www.fiveohomepage.com/5-0log7.htm#147

This is one of the best episodes of the series. It’s interesting and complex. The motivation isn’t necessarily known off the bat and the use of a magazine series that covered older, solved Five-O cases is neat. It’s certainly different.

Danny Goldman does a good job in his role as does Ivor Francis. Francis was Genie Francis’ father and as such, was Jonathan Frakes’ father-in-law since 1988. (Another bit of Star Trek and Five-O mashing up).

What makes this a fun episode, Eddie is a criminal who actually holds his own against McGarrett for a bit. The dynamic has shades of S04E10 “Rest In Peace, Somebody”.

One thing that sticks in my mind is the closing shot. We see Eddie on the pavement and a power line across the window. How did Eddie manage to jump and MISS the power line!? I think we would have actually had fried Eddie before splatted Eddie. But that’s just me.

Happy 50th, “I’ll Kill ‘Em Again”!!

[Todd]

This is one of my favorites, also. It has some similarities to "Draw Me a Killer". In both, the killer is a mentally disturbed young man, whose crimes are seemingly random, but turn out to be based upon something they've read.

Both of them hold rather menial jobs (Eddie a bookstore clerk, Arthur a pet groomer).

Both cases seem to aggravate McGarrett when he can't solve them.

Both villains react unexpectedly at the end when caught. Eddie kills himself by jumping out a window, and Arthur cries because he "can't save Judy anymore" (Judy being a fictitious character).

I felt really bad seeming MMMMMMMMMMMMMMr. Beecham killed, when I first saw this episode in the 1990s. He was such a nice, gentle guy, and seemed to truly care about Eddie.

I did like how Eddie's undoing was his sloppiness regarding the Beecham murder, because he was irritated at the time and personally knew Beecham. Eddie saw himself as a genius who was too smart to get caught, but it turned out that he wasn't as smart as he thought.

The only thing that bothered me about this episode? There's no way they would have let Eddie stand around uncuffed and unguarded after being caught. This was written into the script in order to let him jump out of the window, but they could have managed it by having the cuffed Eddie just break free and charge at the window.

It isn't 100% certain that Eddie died from the fall (it wasn't super high up), but it seems to be implied, given his motionless body.

RIP Danny Goldman. He died in April 2020 at the age of 80, but not from what you'd think. He died of a stroke, not COVID. He was actually 35 at the time of the Five-O episode, but he was playing a younger character.

For those who watched 80s cartoons, Goldman was the voice of Brainy Smurf.