I was watching Grand Deceptions again yesterday and I just can't get my head around the plot hole of the two boxes. All it would take is two phone calls to the relevant companies and the whole deal unravels. It's hard to imagine that a supposedly intelligent man like the Colonel would think that would hold up for a single second.

I think the hole is so big, it amazes me that the production team actually allowed this one onto the screen.

So the question is twofold.

1) Is the delivery of the boxes the biggest plot hole in a any Columbo story?

And

2) If you were in charge of re-writing Grand Deceptions to get it to screen, how would amend the story to make it work?

This has always bothered me too. The books show up in a box marked as toy soldiers and the toy soldiers show up in a box marked as books. Who at the stores labeled the boxes this way? Like you said, all it takes is a phone call.

That is a pretty large hole, but from my own post on February 22nd, people on this site probably caught wind that I think the biggest plot hole is in "Death Hits the Jackpot", to quote myself: "She was legally married to Freddy when he hit the $30M jackpot. She, free and clear, would get $15M to herself. But instead, she lets Leon take the whole $30M jackpot, with what? The hopes they share it so she could get $15M? They weren't in love. This was an old man/younger woman fling. Also, since Leon was considered the winner, there's this little thing about Leon's wife. If Leon divorced her to be with Nancy, well, wouldn't she get half of the money? Seriously of all Columbo episodes, this is a plot hole as gaping as the Grand Canyon."

So I definitely say that a woman who had $15M coming to hear legally deciding to conspire to commit murder so she could possibly get her $15M back, but potentially since Leon's wife could get half in a divorce, Nancy gets nothing.... Now that will always be the biggest plot hole to me.

I guess that all depends on if Leon told Nancy about his arrangement with Freddy? She may only know that Leon won the lottery.

Nancy may have just believed that Leon, as her lover was getting Freddy out of the way for her. Don't forget, she wasn't even aware that Freddy had signed the divorce papers.

Nancy may just as well have found out about the full truth after Freddy's death hence she realises the only way to get any money is to stick with Leon.

As for the boxes in Grand Deceptions, there is no way of explaining that.

I never understood why Leon Lamar would even want Freddy’s wife in on the scam. After all, her only role was to call Leon from Freddy’s apartment. Couldn’t some homeless guy have done that? Is that really something you pay $15 million for? Also, Freddy was willing to give Uncle Leon a few million anyway.

If he paid some accomplice and then sent the guy on a cruise to Singapore, his scam would have been a lot more lucrative.

Rob, Leon would have zero motivation, if your theory is that Nancy thought Leon won the lottery, to commit first degree murder. And again, she reminds him while on the phone that she has 1/2 of the jackpot coming to her. Columbo also does visit her at the boutique and asks her why she delayed signing the divorce papers, since he had signed them. So in my estimation, she knew Freddy won the lottery, was trying to keep her from getting her piece, and then for the oddest of reasons, decides to conspire with Leon to kill Freddy.

Maybe the Colonel had so much confidence in his plan that he thought nobody would look that closely into the box issue? Or maybe he didn’t think it would occur to anybody to check out the boxes?

This episode did nothing for me.