In the year of 1989, three college frat-brats - Vivian Pratt, Brian Buckingham, and Derek Wolfe - decide to play a mean-spirited "joke" on poor Adam Kreeger. Viv comes on to Adam, leads him to a dark little cabin just away from the Delta Kappa Pi house, and leaves him in the bed waiting for her while she sends in Brian to meet Adam. Adam is humiliated and strikes out at Derek, who hits him back with drastic results. Adam is hurt seriously and can't breath very well. Afraid to take him to the hospital, Viv takes the matter into her own hands and beats Adam to death with a baseball bat. The three bury him and don't look back. Adam is listed as "missing".

In 1999, while breaking ground for a new addition to the college, Adam's lonely corpse is discovered and identified. He has no family, now; no one to care that his murder is solved. Mr. Chapel is dismayed by the incident and decides to find out who killed Adam. No envelope, no favors promised; Chapel is doing this for Adam.

He sends KC, dressed wonderfully tacky in faux-tiger coat and sunglasses bizzarro, to visit the District Attorney, Mr. Devane. Offers the DA's office an outstanding amount of money from her benefactor to pursue Adam's killers and bring them to full conviction. He, of course, now pursues the matter with great vigor. Now, it's all over the news for the perps to hear; the investigators have revealed that Adam was probably killed with a baseball bat which was found in the grave with him. The DA plans to throw the book at Adam's murderers. Meanwhile, Mr. Chapel sends out 27 baseball bats to former Delta Kappa Pi members who were at that frat house around the time Adam was killed. He watches as a bat is delivered to each. When Brian's bat arrives, all wrapped in a flower box with a note: "Love, Adam", Brian throws up, giving himself away. "27 bats. 27 frat boys. Brian is the only one who throws chunks."

Through the marvels of Mr. Chapel's bugging equipment, he stays with Brian while Brian contacts Derek, then Viv. Soon, he has all three conspiritors spotted and ready for torture. He makes sure he is seen doing something outrageous by, first, Viv. She finds a picture of Adam on her car with the note: "I won't tell anyone, pal", and looking around, she sees Chapel watching with an evil, crazy look. He goes on after Derek next. He pulls up in his car beside Derek and turns up his music - Robert Palmer's "Simply Irresistible", which was playing at the frat house the night the three decided to go after Adam. Grinning like a true madman, he speeds away. Brian is shaken.

NOW - KC, posing as a psychiatrist, contacts the terrible three to warn them that former mental patient, "Arnie Chapel" has been legally released from the hospital. The "shrink" is worried because "Arnie" is obsessed with them, believeing that he witnessed an incident involving the three of them. She lets them know that "Arnie" is not taking his "meds", and that he is very dangerous. Paranoid schizophrenic, voyeuristic, dillisuions of being controlled - completely gone. She shows them his picture. Now, they each remember seeing him and they're beginning to get a little worried, themselves. KC advises a restraining order. Of course, they can't get a restraining order because they are not going to the police over THIS. They hope this crazy person just goes away.

This part is so good, cause Mike is obviously having a lot of fun with this whole "crazy" thing - Arnie jumps out of a parking garage onto the car with The Terrible Trio in it. He wants to be their friend; part of the clique, as it were. He tells them that he was living up in a cabin near where Adam was killed and he watched the whole thing. (By now, the bugging device has picked up the facts behind the whole incident from the mouths of the perpetrators, themselves, so he gives them an incredibly detailed account, convincing them he DID see it all.) They're afraid of him and decide to humor him until they figure out what to do. They take him back to Brian's house to talk to him and find out just what he DOES know.

Arnie is a riot. At Brian's house, they meet with him, bring him milk so he can take his medication. He spews the milk all over everyone. Tells the gang it's not whole milk and he NEEDS whole milk. Vitamin D, you know. They are extremely nervous. The wild,, insane, drugged look in his eyes is marvelous! They give him money for a motel when he suggests they all stay together. (He sneaks up on them with a milk moustache and says, "Got money?...". It's totally hysterical! Don't miss this when the reruns start.)

He bonds with Brian and Brian's dog, elderly Golden Retriever, Piper. (Now, this dog is an absolute scene stealer, completely wonderful; more about him, later.) Brian and Arnie drink at Brian's bar and Arnie eccentrically collects the beer bottles (with Brian's prints on them). Arnie is suitably weird and writing furiously in a notebook. He tells Brian, "I'm not as smart as I look....." and he says he has to write everything down in his journal.

Arnie meets with Derek in a cafe and Derek brings him coffee, promising it's whole milk in the coffee. Arnie is not convinced, but sets the coffee down and insists on a checker game. Tells him Brian is remorseful and sad over Adam, not like Viv and Derek, who are able to just forget about it. Suddenly, he goes ballistic, accuses Derek of cheating and punches him in the mouth. The incident is smoothed over for now, but not before another spewing of milk. Arnie pockets the bloodstained hankie used to blot Derek's bloody lip. Viv is next.

Arnie goes to her room and sympatizes with her about killing Adam. Says he killed a few people himself. Destroys his medication (which Viv, a shrink herself, knows are powerful anti-psychotic drugs), 'cause his new friends are all he needs. "Brian, Derek, and Viv are better than drugs," he writes in his journal. She's scared, now. He offers to brush her hair, so she lets him, but she soon gets too nervous and leaves the room, so he calmly collects samples of her hair off her brush.

The next day, The Trio comes home and finds Arnie merrily cooking away at an outside grill. Barbeque with all his new friends. Brian can't find Piper. Arnie announces that Piper is right here, and he holds up a barbequed morsel, "Yappy, but tender". Brian goes ballistic and attacks Arnie in full view of all the neighbors, screaming, "I'll kill you! I'll kill you!". Later, back at the motel, Piper and Chapel are lying on the bed watching dog TV shows. Piper IS in dog heaven, but not the way Brian thinks. KC comes in and immediately starts cooing baby-talk over Piper. Chapel: "Are you gonna talk like that the whole time he's here?" This is my favorite part, 'cause I know that Madsen loves dogs and cats the same way I do. You can really tell with this wonderful dog that plays Piper, too. He watches TV as intently as the other human actors, munches his popcorn, participates in the conversation; totally wonderful dog.

Next - Chapel absconds with a body from a nearby teaching hospital. "Some people donate their body parts to science, some to justice." He takes "Arnie" to the dentist and complains of his teeth itching. The dentist nervously examines his teeth and notes the really nice crown Arnie has - on Arnie's brand new dental records. Later, he contacts a dentist Favoree and has him remove the crown. Dentist: "Do you want an anesthetic?" Chapel: "I took an ibuprofin." The crown is taken out and added to the "evidence" pile.

The three decide it's time to kill Arnie. He has no relatives or known associates, just like Adam. No one will miss him, and they can set it up to make it look like he killed Adam in the first place; they believe he's killed before and has a record of it. They call him to go for a ride. He's changed his clothes for the first time since they met him because he thinks he's going someplace special with his new pals. He wants to go bowling, but they want to go riding around instead.

KC is out on her own, setting up a crime scene. The body from the morgue is in an oil drum. KC arrives with Arnie's smelly, milk-splattered clothes, the bloody hankie, the beer bottles, and Viv's hair; plus the tooth crown noted by the first dentist during "Arnie's" last "official" dentist visit. She torches the oil drum and scatters the evidence around the site. Now, the partially burned body will be identified as "Arnie Chapel". The killers are now solidly framed for Arnie's murder and Arnie's journal tells the authorities all about the three murderers and the truth about Adam Kreeger's misfortune.

The Terrible Trio (and let's face it, folks, VIV is the really terrible one, here. REALLY terrible) take Arnie to a deserted place and tell him they're going to kill him. He is crushed that his new friends don't like him anymore, but he wants to tell them a story before they blow his brains out. Suddenly, his voice and demeanor change considerably; "I wanna tell you about Adam Kreeger."

They are aghast. "How come you don't sound crazy, anymore?" Chapel(Arnie):"Cause I'm not crazy - officially". But, with flashing red lights coming up the road, Derek and Brian break and run. Viv is going to go ahead and kill him anyway but thinks better of it with the car so close. She disappears, also. The car drives up with KC and Piper in it - no cops. The cops have found the oiil drum fire with the corpse burning and all the evidence (including the journal) and they are on their way to arresting Derek, Viv, and Brian.

The murderers get racked up REAL good because the DA is so zealous and Piper, the Dog, is back at the motel, lying between Mr. Chapel and KC, eating popcorn, and watching the trial on Trial TV. As the three are led away, KC takes Piper for a walk. Chapel mumbles to the TV, "Toldja we shoulda gone bowling."

Great episode! Too bad the powers that be have decided to trash our show and not renew it. OKAY! They cancelled it! What a crock THAT is! However, we have a couple of new shows left, and then reruns of the entire season. But, Jeeze Leweeze, couldn't ABC have given the show just a LITTLE time to catch on? I'll see you all next week. We might as well enjoy what we can while we can, and be glad we got to viddy what we did.