- The Peabody
Memphis Beat, “Don’t Be So Cruel”
Originally Aired August 17, 2010
Rowdy Memphis (Plot synopsis):: Tony (Daniel Hugh Kelly) proposes to Ms. Hendricks (Celia Weston) at the Furthermore Hotel. Dwight Hendricks (Jason Lee) isn’t sure how he feels about that, but thankfully (for him), a crime has happened at the hotel that he can investigate instead.
A groom has gone missing on the day of his wedding. Greg Watson, the groom, was set to be married to Hilary Orland (Kayla Mae Maloney). Hilary is the daughter of Memphis City Councilman Gerald Orland (Sam Anderson), and Greg was his aide.
Suspects include Greg’s best man, the famous basketball player Colin Stevens (James Aaron Smith), and Greg’s dad, with whom he recently had an argument at the Rendezvous.
There’s blood all under the marble floor in Greg’s hotel room.
The investigation leads to a link between Rachel Stein, a reporter for the Memphis Voice newspaper, and the missing groom. Stein was investigating kickbacks going to Councilman Orland for the passage of a $300 million mall development on the Mississippi River. She has since gone missing. But she left her reporters notes in her car, providing valuable clues for Dwight.
The developer of the mall, Chester Bayonne, is implicated in the kickback scheme, and Dwight surveilles Bayonne meeting with a suspected hired gun. Dwight, Whitehead (Sam Hennings), and Officer Sutton (DJ Qualls) open up the trunk of a car at the scene of the meet-up and find the bodies of Greg Watson and Rachel Stein.
Dwight approaches the councilman who admits in a roundabout way that he took the bribe. Dwight deduces who was behind the murder: Hilary Orland. She’s arrested. It’s unclear if Gerald Orland takes a fall in it all. Well, I couldn’t figure it out anyway.
