When Jessica books a flight to England to research an old murder, she finds herself busy investigating a fresher case. Mr. Leon Bigard, the young bodyguard/boyfriend of heiress Sonny Greer, turns up dead in his seat, the valuable necklace Greer had given him for safekeeping gone from his pocket. Jessica teams up with Inspector Pogson of Scotland Yard to solve the theft and murder.
This episode includes examples of the following tropes:
- B-Movie: Gunnar Globle makes these for a living, and may be inspired by of Roger Corman. He'd like Jessica to touch up the script for Off-road Aliens 2 and won't take no for an answer.
- Closest Thing We Got: When the stewardess finds Leon dead, the only doctor flying first class is Doctor Strayhorn, a plastic surgeon. He's able to tell how long Leon's been dead, but has neither the tools nor the expertise to tell the cause of death (incorrectly ruling it as a heart attack). Jessica's the one to confirm he'd been poisoned.
- Death by Woman Scorned: Sonny Greer turns out to have poisoned Mr. Bigard. As Jessica finds out early in the trip, they had a romance going on, but she had recently discovered he had been sleeping with another woman to help his career and intended to leave her once they reached London. She killed him in revenge.
- Death in the Clouds: Leon Bigard, Greer's bodyguard, is poisoned while on a plane trip to England.
- Detective Mole: Inspector Pogson turns out to have been in cahoots with Mr. Hardwick to steal the Empress Carlotta necklace. Hardwick, who had skill in pickpocketing, was to steal the necklace. If the theft came to light, Pogson would smuggle Hardwick and the necklace through airport security by claiming he was a prisoner and the necklace evidence.
- Gambit Pileup: One of the big twists is that there are two criminal plots happening simultaneously. As Jessica marvels, the two schemes end up ruining one another: the Bigard being murdered draws so much scrutiny to Pogson's meticulous robbery that the plot falls apart, whereas the illusive steps Pogson took in the robbery end up creating the smoking gun inconsistencies that ruin Greer's murder plot.
- Gender-Blender Name: "Sonny Greer", who Jessica meets on the flight, is a woman.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Gunnar Globle, producer of schlock movies, has a name reminiscent of Golan and Globus, who at this point had turned The Cannon Group into a factory for entertaining but cheesy low-budget movies. His name is also reminiscent of Roger Corman, another b-movie producer.
- Plane Awful Flight: Even if it's first class, this flight is pretty crazy: a movie star murders her bodyguard boyfriend, two men are scheming to steal a million-dollar necklace, the stewardess gives everyone the wrong drink and gets accused of theft, a couple is scheming to smuggle their dog into Britain, and the man seated next to Jessica is an annoying producer who keeps trying to get people to read his script. Jessica likely won't be booking that airline again.
- Pulled from Your Day Off: Played with. When Jessica meets him, Inspector Pogson has booked the flight to return to Britain after a holiday in America. After Bigard's murder and the theft of the necklace, Pogson comments that apparently he'll have to return to duty a little earlier than he planned. Of course, he was also partially responsible for the theft.
- Red Herring: The camera focuses a few times on one of the passengers, John Sukahara. He constantly looks at Sonny Greer and seems very interested in the case. However, he soon reveals why: he's a professional jeweler. He was interested in the necklace (as it's a very intricate/valuable piece), but he never intended to steal it. His knowledge is very helpful in confirming that the necklace was swapped with a fake, and he's the one to confirm it when the real necklace is found.
- Red Herring Secret: An older couple keep whispering to one another and acting suspicious. However, when Inspector Pogson and Jessica finally order them to show the contents of their luggage, their crime turns out to be nothing more than trying to smuggle their beloved dog, Bert, into Britain to avoid the quarantine laws. As a form of apology for exposing them, Jessica stops them in the airport and suggests they change their vacation plans to go to France instead of England, as France doesn't have strict quarantine laws. They happily thank her.
- Starving Artist: Invoked, then defied. When Jessica says she may not be a good enough writer for one of Gunnar Globle's movies in a polite effort to decline working on his schlock script, he points out that if she weren't a good writer, she wouldn't be flying first class. She doesn't have a good answer for that.
- The Thing That Would Not Leave: A relatively short-term version. Gunnar Globle wants Jessica to doctor the script for Off-road Aliens 2, and says he'll pester her the whole trans-continental flight if she doesn't. She takes the script... and gets a little revenge at the end when she tells him she thought it was a thoughtful piece that would do very well in small, artsy theaters (causing him to kill the project instantly).
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Unintentional Period Piece:- One of the big clues to who the necklace thief is involves the plane's smoking area. While planes had designated smoking areas in the 1980s, modern planes don't allow such things (especially with the discovery of the harmful effects of second-hand smoke).
- The couple's plan to smuggle their dog into England wouldn't work in a modern American airport: post 9/11, American airport security is very thorough, including scanning everyone's luggage to search for contraband. Since this is in the eighties, however, it's a bit more believable.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Mr. Bigard apparently had a phobia of flying. Greer sabotaged his cassette player so he couldn't use his relaxation tape and then gave him poison disguised as tranquilizers.
