Ransom for a Dead Man [SPOILERS]
First of all, there are spoilers here for if you haven't see this episode, you might want to not read this:
I just saw this recently (apparently it is 50th anniversary of its debut on TV). But there is one part I didn't get. In the scene where the daughter apparently calls Columbo and he comes (walks in the door - says she left it open) and then the daughter starts screaming that her step-mother (Mrs. Williams played by Lee Grant) was the one who killed her father. And then she brings out this set of keys. And she claims that these keys were her Dad's keys I guess and I guess the point is one of those keys was to the car that her Dad had apparently been kidnapped from so that they could ask for the ransom money from Mrs. Williams. And then we have this scene where Columbo gets on her case for lying about this, because he says they (the police) had been monitoring the house and they know that a locksmith had visited the house so he (Columbo) claims that she made up the keys herself to frame her step-mother. And the daughter keeps screaming at Columbo oh come on you know she did it!! And finally when he disagrees with her she slaps him and he gets angry with her and she runs to her room. The thing I don't get is, was that all supposed to be a staged thing that Columbo and the girl set up in advance? Or was it real? If it was set up I'm having trouble understanding what the point was. It was to assure Leslie Williams that Columbo and Margaret (daughter) were not working together against her (because at least eventually they did)? Because Columbo then accuses her of trying to frame her stepmother and reprimands her? Or was it real? And Columbo didn't know about this whole thing that was to transpire? And when she tried to slap him, she really meant it and it wasn't an act? Or is it possible Margaret really did find her father's keys but Columbo just pretends they are fake? But why would he do that? I would think the if Margaret really did find her father's keys there, that that would pretty much be conclusive evidence that she, Leslie Williams, was the culprit and nothing more was necessary to convict her. Earlier Margaret had pointed out that police cars were around watching the house. So then she has a locksmith come there, in full view of these police? So that when she makes these set of keys to pretend that they are her father's keys, the police watching over the house can see the locksmith come there? She wasn't intelligent enough to realize that once the police got the keys they would check to see if one of the keys fit her father's car, and none would since how could she know even what kind of key it was? Doesn't make any sense. I'm just interested in what the writers of this part of the episode, what were they thinking was happening?
By the way, I discovered that you can actually see this entire episode here:
https://columbophile.com/2021/02/28/columbo-pilot-ransom-for-a-dead-man-turns-50
The scene I am talking about starts at about 1:13:55