I actually think the Kay Freestone character is better-developed than a lot of other Columbo characters. The episode was made right around the time that feminism was starting to take hold, and I think the motive is more complex than simple ambition. It has more to do with Kay's hatred of male power than her desire for a job.

The episode gives you a sense of her childhood. She was raised in a tiny, dilapidated house by a single mother, which i think is given as a suggestion that she has issues around men. We are led to imagine that her father walked away.

The episode stresses her awareness of the games she believes women have to play in order to succeed in a male-dominated world. She fully expected that her affair with Mark would result in his taking her to New York, or at least giving her his job in LA.

We see her playing very different roles with other people, depending on her perception of their power and her own. She massages the shoulders of an unwilling subordinate in the very first scene. This is the prototypical harassment of a subordinate, and could reflect her continuation (or giving back) of behavior that she experienced on the way up.

The episode suggests that she is lesbian. She clearly has a stronger connection with Valerie than with anyone else in the episode--even the man she was sleeping with.

Even her completion of the murder itself is almost thwarted by a man who stops to leer at women in a magazine centerfold.

All these little details, I think, add up to a picture of a woman who considers herself victimized by male power and who is willing to murder to equal the score.

Sort of an extreme feminist fantasy.

She also doesn't admit defeat when Columbo offers his final clue. Most, if not all, of Columbo's prey usually admit, by word or facial expression, that he's got 'em. Not Kay. "I might even win," she offers hopefully. Maybe she will, at that.

John, that's a good point. I can't think of any other murderer who responds that way. It does fit her.

Well, those are good points Laura but she still comes across to me as one-dimensional. Even John's observation about her reaction, or lack of it, demonstrates that she can't jump out of her one track no matter what the circumstances.

Maybe it's the emotionless, monotone way she moves through the whole episode that contributes to my feelings. She clearly HAS emotions, otherwise she wouldn't have committed the crime of passion that she did, but she doesn't show them. She's like a robot with no emotion and a single motivation.

Laura that was very profound - i liked your deep thought of the episode and agree with it for the most part - i still didn't like Kay though, but your comments make me sympathize with her a litte (tiny) bit more.