Yeah, Paul, it was Joe who started it on colsy's site and I had the bird-brained idea to make it into a thread! I mean...what can you add to it??????? "Oh...I liked the pool in The Most Crucial Game" or "Didn't the pool water look so clear when Nadia Donner plunged to her death in A Deadly State of Mind?"....it was a dead post...
I enjoy clues *and* traps. For me, the enjoyment is watching Columbo wear down the murderer until s/he makes a mistake. Columbo always knows from the start who the murderer is, he just has to prove it and the best endings are where the criminal unwittingly proves it themselves. In this respect, I do not think it accurate to call 'trap' endings deus ex machinas, though I can see why the term has been used. Really, a machina ending has no relation to the rest of the plot and is parahcuted in e.g. if Columbo's boss suddenly appeared in the last 5 minutes with new evidence. Columbo's traps are part of the way he puts pressure on people. One of my favourites is Prescription: Murder, one that others have criticised. IMO, the trap works because it comes as a natural development of Columbo's tactics with Dr. Fleming. It is Fleming himself who creates the trap. In the brilliant psychotherapy scene, Columbo asks Fleming how he catches a murderer like him and Fleming gives him the answer - he can't. So Columbo switches his attention to his accomplice and uses Fleming's 'substitute girl/wig' trick to complete the trap. I thought this a seamless and satisfying ending because the murderer, in effect, traps himself.