S11E02 - “Horoscope For Murder” - Plot

(Prepared by Bobbi Baker)


Act One

At the Hawaiian Regent, a man is found dead in the elevator. Elsewhere, a woman (Samantha Eggar) grabs her newspaper from her front porch. Turns out, the man in the elevator was a state senator!

In McGarrett's office, he asks if the victims had anything in common with Danno answering there's nothing obvious as the first three victims were a cab driver, cocktail waitress and a retired insurance executive. Duke says the only commonality is that they were killed with "a long, rounded, narrow blade," a homemade knife known as "an Arkansas toothpick". Problem is HPD hasn't found the weapon yet. The woman from the house, Agnes du Bois, stops by Five-O at Lani's (Claudia Lowndes) desk wanting to see McGarrett about "murder" with Lani staring at her while she picks up the phone! McGarrett is intrigued as Lani leads in Agnes who explains she's been doing some research for a new book but her field is astrology. McGarrett, Danno and Duke are skeptical about what she has to offer, the natal charts of each of the four victims and they have one thing in common: "Mars square Uranus," which means each of the victims had violent tempers. When asked who the killer is, the team's skepticism grows, as Agnes has no idea. McGarrett attacks from another angle, will there be another murder and when? Agnes calls the time-by-phone using McGarrett's phone: 11:23:30 a.m. and she takes it telling McGarrett she'll get back to him. As she leaves, she knows Five-O has jurisdiction now rather than HPD, based on the moon's position! They watch her leave, still shell-shocked but they get it together to start from "square one".

A customer Mrs. Wong (Sandy Shirai) arrives at Agnes' house with her secretary (Donna White) allowing Mrs. Wong in. Mrs. Wong sits in a parlor room where a guy (Kimo Kahoano) is waiting for his girlfriend and doesn't believe in any of the astrology "garbage". The girlfriend (Kerry Sherman) talks to Agnes in her office about her life's issues and Agnes tries to help looking at "the progression of the planets".

Duke checks out the Cab to see if any of the other victims were recognized besides their driver. Meanwhile, Danno asks a bartender who knew Miss Kane, the cocktail waitress, if he saw any of the other victims with her. McGarrett goes to speak with Mrs. Ramsey (Merrie Lueders), the Senator's wife, who doesn't recognize any of the others but says her husband would have liked to know Miss Kane.

Back in Agnes' office, Cindy rants about the loser men who have been in her life. Agnes tells her she has six more months until her love life isn't negatively influenced. Cindy realizes she'll have to be patient and talks Agnes into completing a chart on her boyfriend, Rick Makulu because Cindy has all his birth date information. She hands it over with Agnes saying she'll call when it's done.

Outside, Rick and Cindy ready to leave as Mel (Tab Hunter), a man Cindy knows, arrives. She introduces Mel and Rick with neither overly enthused about it. Rick double-checks his tie downs taking Cindy away from the house as Mel enters, going straight to Agnes' office. Mel wants some help with a client who has "deep emotional problems" and Agnes takes the chart writing down the information to complete a new chart on her own. While she does that, Mel picks up Rick's birth information, however, Agnes catches him pulling back Rick's information before Mel leaves. Agnes has Martha file the birth information while she goes to take care of something.

McGarrett walks into Five-O asking about messages and gets hit with information from Danno and Duke: no leads except the cab driver picked up a fare at the senator's high-rise about a week before the driver was killed but it's not known if he picked up the senator. McGarrett also struck out because the senator and his wife were having marital problems but there was no connection to the others. However, Danno and Duke bring up the temperaments of Miss Kane and the cab driver: she had "a violent temper" and he could "throw a tantrum". What's worse, McGarrett comes back with the same news about the senator. Lani interrupts delivering a card from Agnes: she predicts the next murder will occur Sunday between 4:30 and 5:00!

Act Two

An HPD unit responds to an incident near Sandy Beach: a fatal stabbing happening at 4:45! They now suspect her!

McGarrett goes to visit Agnes as she tends to her garden and Martha brings out lemonade. He tells her about the other murder "being in the realm of Neptune". Martha gives her an alibi for the time period saying she was at the house working and calling clients. When he asks for the list of people she talked to, she implies there are confidentiality issues at play but he doesn't buy it. Instead, he tells her she's a suspect and her defense is shaky at best. She relents, giving up the name of J. William Hayes. They spar a bit but Agnes eventually gets to the point that the killer knows astrology because there he or she knew about a negative Moon aspect relating to Pluto along with Mars square Uranus in the charts. It boils down to the killer being both judge and jury. McGarrett asks how many other professional astrologers are on the island: there are four or five. McGarrett wants to know how she was able to predict the time and place of the next murder and she explains it's "horary astrology": answering a specific question at a time stamp, this one being 11:23:30. McGarrett then asks if she can profile the killer and she can, if he's interested. He tells her he's interested before handing back her carrots. Before he leaves, Agnes asks McGarrett about the tempers and he says they've "confirmed three".

In McGarrett's office, Duke briefs the latest victim was Henry Kai, 27, a lifeguard who lived alone but had lots of friends with no connections to the others. There are "no starry shortcuts". McGarrett says they have to rely on old-fashioned police work and facts. He tells Duke to run down the victims' backgrounds while he and Danno run down all the professional astrologers Agnes told them about including her.

Rick pays a visit to Agnes telling her to butt out of his life in a threatening manner. Meantime, McGarrett speaks to a man (Don Jacobs) about Agnes who gives guest lectures at his facility including on two days before. He confirms for McGarrett that publicity is important to her, as it tends to bring in the clients. If she's able to help Five-O solve the case, that would sell a lot of books. McGarrett takes it all in with Agnes still on the suspect list.

Cindy goes to see Mel at the planetarium where he works out of the library. She there to see if Mel can talk to one of his clients to hire Rick who needs a job badly. McGarrett arrives at the planetarium tracking down Mel too. They meet in the lobby where Cindy leaves.

Mel leads McGarrett to the terrace in full view of the telescope behind them. McGarrett asks about Agnes with Mel answering she's "quite competent" but doesn't know her personally. When they discuss the last murder and Agnes nailed it, Mel tells him the method isn't reliable but now she has McGarrett hooked on astrology. Mel also says she is probably doing it all for her book. McGarrett is left wondering how to handle things.

That night, McGarrett has dinner with Agnes where he tells her the last victim did not have an explosive temper but he did have an ulcer. She claims the temper was internalized. She gives a profile of the killer: between 30 and 40, works with their brain, is introspective with terrible emotional problems and someone interested in astrology but not necessarily a man. She also says the person may be psychotic. When McGarrett makes a crack about that profile would fit just about anyone who reads horoscopes, Agnes realizes dinner is going to be "frustrating".

Agnes returns home from dinner only to find her front door unlocked! She carefully moves throughout her house turning on lights as she goes. She turns on the bedroom light only to find her chart stabbed through on her pillow!

Act Three

McGarrett is on scene as a lab technician dusts the knife. McGarrett tries to pull information from Agnes as she identifies the chart as her "natal horoscope" but just about anyone could have done it as her students can buy them from her or someone could have made a copy. She tells McGarrett the knife is stuck through her first house, her "personal house". She takes it as a threat to keep her out of the case. McGarrett tells her he'll need a list of her students and clients and she hands him the box of all the names. He offers her around the clock protection. As he looks through the files, he notices the books and asks if he can borrow some of them with Agnes agreeing. McGarrett wonders if someone isn't making "the facts conform to the stars".

In McGarrett's office, Duke reports all the victims were Honolulu residents, no a single tourist among them. Danno walks in with the lab report: the knife recovered from Agnes' house was an Arkansas toothpick and matches the victims' wounds. McGarrett wants metal shops, cutlery stores and the like checked to find where a blade like that could be made. The chart is a copy of one Agnes uses and could have been used by her to set this up but McGarrett doesn't think so as she was truly shaken. He wants Danno and Duke to start working on the list of students and clients to uncover any connection to the victims. He suggests they try cutting the list down by reading up on astrology!

Rick goes to see Mel at the planetarium about possible employment. The subject then shifts to Cindy with Mel claiming they were just friends. Rick leaves, thanking Mel. Meanwhile, Agnes works on her chalkboard with a chart.

In the evening, McGarrett wants Danno and Duke to "cross-index" the list of clients and students with agencies having access to birth data. When McGarrett says a chart can't be made without the date and time of birth, he asks Danno when is his birthday. Danno answers after the case is over McGarrett can complete his chart and tell him where he went wrong! Stepping to the outer office, Danno runs into Agnes as he wonders where her police guard is. She runs into McGarrett's office ready to tell him who the killer is: Rick! She found "a fated connection" between his chart and the victims' charts as well as the previous threat against her.

McGarrett and Danno go to Rick's apartment where they find him hanging on the other side of the bedroom door.

Act Four

As they take Rick away, the Medical Examiner (Steve Dulce) estimates Rick has been dead about an hour and predicts it was a suicide because there's no signs of a struggle. Danno finds the charts of the five stabbing victims and other charts with what may have been potential victims. McGarrett has Danno bring Agnes into the apartment. Duke finds a shoebox full of names and addresses: copies of driver's licenses from DMV files. Agnes walks in noticing the charts but there's one piece of information that changes everything: Rick wasn't suicidal. McGarrett asks her which client wanted Rick's chart done: Cindy who Duke knows works at DMV. McGarrett wants her picked up so he can talk to her.

Back in McGarrett's office, he and Danno discuss the case thus far. If the killer is psychotic, why kill himself "unless he completely flipped out" but McGarrett isn't keen on that possibility. When Danno reads off Rick's information, his birth date of March 18th is revealed but the killer's chart has a birth date of October 30th! Did Agnes make a mistake? Lani buzzes in as Duke has arrived with Cindy and she sends them in. Cindy claims she didn't know Rick was dead until they were driving to the Palace. When asked where she was the night before, Cindy tells them she and Rick had a fight because he thought she had slept with Mel who is an old boyfriend to get Rick a job. She went out and spent the night with a man she met at a disco. Danno asks her when she turned over the DMV files to Rick; she doesn't know what they're talking about. When McGarrett shows her the files, she recognizes them as they're copies for research, but not by Rick: by Mel Burgess!

Agnes drives to the planetarium to confront Mel about his 'client'. Agnes tells him Martha mixed up the cards on Mel's client and Rick. She says he needs to go to the police because of what's in the chart: "insurmountable problems" and the person is a killer. As Agnes racks her brain on the past events, she realizes the killer isn't Mel's client; Mel is the killer!

HPD and Five-O arrives at the planetarium to lock the place down with no one leaving. After Mel says the victims had to die and Rick's death had to look like a suicide, Agnes fights back escaping the room but only to find the back door locked! An HPD officer sees Mel and Agnes with the 'toothpick' as Danno surveys the wreck that's the library room. McGarrett and Danno finally meet up figuring out Mel has Agnes "someplace" only to run into them in the lobby. Mel disappears with Agnes, as a planetarium show is about to start. The narrator (Bill Bigelow) talks about what's about to be seen as he notices McGarrett and Danno sneaking around the perimeter. They eventually meet him at the controls hearing footsteps above. McGarrett flashes his badge wondering how they get up to the area. The narrator tells them there is a door outside and Danno rushes to it making he way to the rafters. The lights from above are turned on revealing Mel, Agnes and Danno to the crowd below. McGarrett talks Mel down as he maintains crowd control at the same time. Mel gives up his knife to Danno who arrests him, taking Agnes out of Mel's grip. On their way out, Agnes is impressed by McGarrett's homework.

This plot summary Copyright Bobbi Baker ©2020. No reproduction of any kind without permission.


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