They're talking about this subject elsewhere. I'm bringing it over here.

Kay Freestone/"Make Me A Perfect Murder" - Nice girl, misunderstood - Or Vicious Lesbian out for Blood and Power?

I've just started wondering about Miss Kay Freestone, from the episode, "Make Me A Perfect Murder". As the story is presented it seems that Kay and Mark McAndrews are lovers. But were they? What if... while Mark may have thought that they were lovers, perhaps Kay didn't think that at all?

It's been mentioned that Kay and Valerie (the woman who was supposed to host the live variety show) may have been more than just "friends". If you know what I mean. Nudge-nudge. Wink-wink. Also, all along, it's been supposed that Kay and Mark were boyfriend and girlfriend. What if Kay Freestone was a bit more underhanded and sneaky than any of us have ever thought?

Perhaps Kay and Valerie were indeed lovers. But Kay wanted to get higher up in the chain of command at the network. What better way than to "get close" with one of the network execs? Maybe Kay was playing Mark for all that she could get. Perhaps she couldn't stand having to "be with him". Then, when he ended up insulting her by not giving her the job, and by telling her she doesn't mean much to him as a girlfriend/he's moving to New York and doesn't give a rat's tooth about her - maybe that's why she went ahead and murdered him. She simply taught him a lesson.

As the episode plays out, there doesn't seem to be much motive for Kay to have killed Mark McAndrews. But if you take into consideration what I've written above, perhaps it does start to make a bit more sense. Of course, NBC and TV in general being what it was back in the mid-1970s, a story about a lesbian using a man just to get a higher position of authority wouldn't have made it past the censors.

The writers would have had to edit out any actual "lesbian" references and wittle it down to "the viewer will have to figure this out for themselves." Then the writers would have to come up with new material to fill in the edited out material. Such new material could be comprised of a scene set at Kay Freestone's childhood home, perhaps? Hmmmmmmm.

Whatcha think?

I'm going for "Vicious Lesbian out for Blood and Power"
Of all the Columbo episodes...I have seen this one the least. It seemed they aired it less frequently than the others. And maybe the reason is precisely what you have said here Headache. The censors probably saw through the whole guise and figured out that she and Valerie were lovers and that Kay was using Mark to get the position she wanted. Your take on the fact that the scene where she went to her childhood 'home'.....aka 'shack'...to fill in the spaces where some of the juicy parts might have had to be deleted.....was brilliant......that is such a strong possibilty.
But as far as Kay and Valerie being lovers......I have no doubt whatsoever that they were. There are just too many references to the fact.
But with that being said...........Kay just looks so darn sexy in Mark's shirt!!!!!

Wow!...I think you're right too. The relationship between Kay and Valerie is very clearly hinted at, even though it couldn't be overt in the 70's.

The possibility that the scene at Kay's house wasn't planned from the start is really intriguing, and now that you mention it, it does seem possible! If it *was* added in later, it was done really well, though...It does a great job of shedding light on her motive and her issues around men and power. I love Kay almost as much as Leslie Williams. She is one of the most fully developed Columbo murderers.

I love the opening scene where she is rubbing the shoulders of her male underlings...dishing out a little of what she probably perceives she's put up with to get where she is. It is a perfect encapsulation of her attitudes about men and power, and it's the very first thing we see of her. The flashback to her childhood in poverty with a single mother adds a lot, because it gives the audience a glimpse of where some of that bitterness probably came from. And the relationship with Valerie is such a great counterpoint to the quality of her relationships with men.

Headache, I think you are almost certainly right. It's hard to imagine that an American TV network would be keen on such an explicit plot.

There are enough hints as to the nature of the relationship between Valerie and Kay. The ambiguity is no doubt a result of the nervousness about making it more obvious.

I'd love to know the truth about that 'shack' scene. Was it added in later? I've always thought that scene was a little odd, out of kilter with the rest of the episode. So I find this a very persuasive theory.

www.20six.co.uk/jiltedbarfly

ok this is a direct quote from Mark Dawidziak's wonderful Columbo Phile...

This is told by producer Richard Alan Simmons...."Peter thought there was no nexus between the characters (Columbo and Kay Freestone). Nothing in the script brought them together."

And then Dawidziak goes on to say...."Falk told Simmons about an incident that happened during the filming of "Candidate for Crime." Guest murderer Jackie Cooper had taken Falk to the shcack in Venice where he lived as a child. This served as the inspiration for the scene where Columbo finds Kay in the tiny, run-down home of her childhood."

.....um..that would be shack not shcack...

This is all very interesting, and I had not thought about it. I had thought that her relationship with Valerie Kirk was designed to show that the she was more complex than her "predecessor", Leslie Williams.
Both women are, as I have said before, seductive yet poisonous. However, Leslie Williams has "no redeeming virtures", whereas Kay Freestone is capable of being a real friend and helping someone in trouble.
Whereas Leslie's husband was a decent fellow who was just defending himself in threatening to throw Leslie out, Mark McAndrews sort of "had it coming" (I love his quote "Kay, all we owe each other is a little affection!"). I didn't think of their relationship as allusions to homosexuality. However, now that I recall the episode "The Conspirators" where there is quite open allusions to homosexuality between Joe Devlin and his young friend, Kerry Malone, this theory seems plausible.

Good points YM.....And with The Conspirators you throw in another set of lovers....possibly...I think both episodes were dealing with that same issue...It was the last season, and maybe they wanted to see the feathers fly!!!..............Will we ever know???