Season synopsis
Contains spoilers for this season and earlier seasons.
Four cases mark Columbo’s return after the NBC run. Elliott Blake’s supposed psychic demonstrations convince military officials that he could be a valuable intelligence asset, but magician Max Dyson knows the techniques behind the fraud. When Dyson threatens him, Blake kills him using a guillotine. Columbo examines the trick and prepares his own safeguard before putting his head beneath the blade. Blake’s attempt to kill the detective and his accompanying confession expose him before officials can give him a new identity.
Film director Alex Brady has concealed his responsibility for a fatal motorcycle stunt. When the victim’s brother Leonard obtains footage that could expose him, Brady kills him on a studio set. A staged conversation meant to mislead Columbo fails because a nurse’s costume does not belong in that day’s filming. Columbo then uses undercover officers to overhear Brady bribing his secretary. Sex therapist Joan Allenby, meanwhile, kills her unfaithful partner while disguised in a black wig. A discarded coat tag leads to the shop where she bought the disguise, and a policewoman recreates it to test her reaction.
The final case follows Colonel Frank Brailie, who diverts money from his employer’s foundation and has an affair with the general’s wife. Investigator Lester Keegan discovers the theft but tries blackmail rather than reporting it. Brailie kills him during a training exercise and places the body on a landmine, then claims he spent the evening building a military diorama. Mismatched shipping boxes reveal that the toy soldiers arrived earlier than he said, giving him time to prepare the display before the murder.