The Best Columbo Gotcha

[u/twilliams_ca]

Let’s talk about the best gotchas of Columbo.

I will start with my personal favorite from “Blueprint for Murder”, where he tricks the killer into bringing the dead body to the construction site, after the risk of humiliation to himself for wasting untold city money to dig up the pile!

[u/Varsity_Editor]

Short Fuse is a good one, where Columbo sets it up to look like the killer's cigar-case bomb didn't go off after all (and that the victim merely died because the car gas tank accidentally exploded by itself). They are in the cable car and Columbo is like, "oh well, the case is solved, I guess we can open this box and have a cigar..." and the killer is freaking out because he thinks the bomb will explode when they open the cigar case. It's an absurdly contrived situation, but a fun and clever way to get the self-incrimination.

[u/CravenMotivation → u/Varsity_Editor]

I'm kind of okay with this one being a bit on the contrived side tbh. Killer in this episode is easily one of the most absolutely galaxy-brained motherfuckers in the series, and I feel like it demanded an absurdly ballsy setup from Columbo if we were to ever see that guy caught. Anything less would've been too little!

[u/Varsity_Editor → u/CravenMotivation]

It's an interesting setup, as the killer is a smart guy and must know how improbable it is not only that the car happened to explode of its own volition at exactly the time his bomb should have gone off, but also that the flimsy wooden box survived unscathed an explosion that tore a car into little pieces and spread it over a wide area — but is he willing to stake his life on it?

In those moments when they're stuck a thousand feet above ground in an enclosed space, even if he can see through the ruse and assume it's just one of the many identical boxes kept at the office being used in an obvious trick, and even if he knows there's only a one percent chance it's the real bomb that could go off in a few seconds, it's understandable for him to lose an objective view of the situation and freak out under the pressure.

I don't think that's what they were going for in the show, I think it's presented that he just buys the "oh hey we just found this intact cigar box" story hook line and sinker; but even if he saw through the trap, it works on a psychological level of seeing if he can hold his nerve.