Elamin: I have to say, Matt, when I first saw that Party Down was being revived, I think I had the same reaction that Magnum P.I. was being rebooted — I was like, "who needs this? I don't know who this is for." But the show has this interesting history because it was on in 2009, 2010, and then it went off the air. But it truly developed this weird cult following. What drew you to the show? Put simply, Nadia is far too emotionally fragile to be relied on at the best of times – let alone at a time of crisis. No wonder Columbo saw through her story in a heartbeat. Even a first-day rookie wouldn’t have swallowed the tosh Nadia was ladling out, so it doesn’t say much for Collier’s judgement that he would entrust her with such a weight of responsibility knowing that any wrong move could spell disaster for them both. ET reporter Ash Crosson might have found herself in hot water when interviewing Pedro Pascal and his costar Bella Ramsey, who plays his daughter on The Last of Us. Things started to boil over when Crosson attempted to explain the distinction between the terms "daddy" and "zaddy" to a— once again— confused Pascal. Ok, suppose now the guy could really see – this would be again a reason to shut up and talk to your lawyer. In this case Collier should assume Columbo has real evidence, and anything that he says, can only discriminate him. Collier is a doctor, so supposedly – not a total idiot.

So Columbo lies in wait for Dr Borden in the research facility car park after a sleepless night. He’s dishevelled, impatient and wants answers, so he takes the direct route. “Is it possible to hypnotise Mrs. Donner so that with the use of suggestion you could make her jump over that balcony to her death?” he asks. No, she replies. A person won’t do anything in a hypnotic state that they wouldn’t do normally.If you spent any time on the internet in the past two months, you likely encountered Pedro Pascal fancams or thirst edits — ranging from tweets calling The Last of Us star “daddy,” to TikToks using an audio clip from Shaggy’s “Hey Sexy Lady” to punctuate thirsty fan edits. Or maybe you saw the 47-year-old Chilean American actor appear in an ad for the oddball game Merge Mansion and wondered how he got there. Karl, as one might expect, isn’t best pleased to see Collier. He threatens to ruin him and let the world know about the drugs he’s using on Nadia, and the ‘carnal relations’ they’re indulging in on the side. Karl also lets Collier know that he’s not the first lover Nadia has taken, nor even the fifth! “I know my wife – and the trash she’s attracted to,” he says. For Columbo’s investigations in A Deadly State of Mind really do present him with a smorgasbord of reasons to suspect the dastardly doc, well beyond the lighter flint. Detractors of this episode ( my own dear dad amongst them) bleat on about the ludicrousness of Columbo ever reasoning that Nadia was hypnotised to kill herself, but it’s really not a big leap when you examine the evidence. Elamin: That's exactly the tone of it, right? This is more than just an actor having a moment. It feels like a fever dream of adoration. Every day of this week, Pedro has been the main character of the Internet. Everybody calls him "daddy," and I don't mean this like a father. I mean this in like a—well, you know what I mean. Joel is the reluctant guardian to 14-year-old Ellie, a girl who might have the cure for the infection, and said reluctance might make Joel even more appealing. Someone who’s effervescent and cuddly as planet Earth faces total annihilation isn’t exactly hot. And Joel’s protection of Ellie is a duty and a promise he makes to his late partner, Tess, complicated by the experience of losing his own daughter. He’s responsible and loyal, but not exactly lovable. Protecting her is his job. This is Pedro Pascal in a white tuxedo. Laurent Koffel/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

Once his car-related snooping is done, Columbo attempts to navigate the bowels of the university to find Collier – at one point even eliciting a ‘comedy female scream’ sound effect after inadvertently entering a wrong door. He eventually finds Dr Borden, who confirms she was with Collier the night before during the time he was informed of the Donner death. Though Pedro Pascal has been an actor playing leading roles, for years now — with credits that span Game of Thrones, The Mandolarian , and Narcos — his role as Joel in HBO Max’s adaptation The Last of Us has ushered his meteoric rise, both in the public eye, and in the eyes of thirsty fans.But this particular cool slutty daddy is also an opportunity to look at what we mean when we say daddy. Deadly State gives us a barnstorming finale to what has been a staggeringly good season of television.” Following five excellent episodes, Columbo‘s fourth season rounded out on 27 April 1975 in the suave form of A Deadly State of Mind.

Our end-of-week Group Chat gets into all this and more, with the help of New York Magazine writer Kathryn VanArendonk, CBC Unreserved's pop culture correspondent Richard Van Camp, and musician/producer Matt Hart. An obvious pleasure of the show is having these elaborate and ingenious murders delicately unravelled by equally ingenious observations. The first death denies that pleasure and while the second murder is far more fulfilling (despite its implausibility) it leaves no time to savour Columbo’s efforts. Instead he immediately spots the (clever) inconsistencies and divines the wild truth in time to confront people with it in the next scene. Pedro Pascal didn’t invent the concept of “daddy,” nor will he be the last to embody it. Daddies have always existed in our world. They’re handsomely beautiful, the type that comes with age, maybe to the point of surprise. They’re authority figures. They’re effortlessly kind, but not always nice. They’re the antithesis of toxic masculinity, though their attractiveness has often been tethered to an oedipal taboo — “complexes” and “ issues.” And daddies would never call typically themselves daddy first, as it’s a title that is bestowed rather than self-proclaimed. Think Tony Leung, Chris Meloni, Idris Elba, Mad Men co-stars John Slattery and Jon Hamm, Matthew Goode, Keanu Reeves. A tearful Nadia Donner is recounting a ‘daddy’ moment from her youth, while her psychiatrist, Dr Mark Collier, prompts her with questions. It seems like he’s trying to uncover a traumatic event from Nadia’s past regarding her sister, but the info he’s after remains out of reach in Nadia’s mind. Disappointed, he brings her out of her hypnosis. With The Last of Us a hit for HBO and Season 3 of The Mandalorian returning to Disney+, Pedro Pascal is everywhere we look and friends, what a time to be alive. But the Chilean-American actor’s appeal goes beyond his handsome, handsome face. Indeed, so much of our attraction comes from his penchant for choosing (and there’s no other way to say this) DILF-y babysitter roles. Even though he’s not actually a dad, Pedro Pascal is a daddy. Our daddy. The internet has declared it.Matt: Well, that's why Party Down is so exciting is that, it doesn't have the burden of expectations behind it. No one was asking for this, and it came and surprised us and we're like, "wow, we really missed it, it's great!" At a signal from Columbo, Mr Morris, the eyewitness, is summoned from the hallway beyond. Morris, wearing sunglasses indoors, treads carefully down some steps, sits on the coach and offers Columbo some matches to light a cigar. Columbo asks him if he’s ever seen anyone in the room before, and Morris answers in the affirmative. He saw a driver screech out of the Donner driveway at 5.30pm on the day of the killing – and the man behind the wheel was Dr Collier. In my opinion, this episode gives us a barnstorming finale to what has been a staggeringly good season of television. There’s not one weak episode in the Season 4 line-up and Deadly State holds its own against any of the others that have come before it. I enjoy it a great deal and suspect I always shall, although I feel its conclusion marks something of a high water mark for the series. petitioning to be your fav pedro pascal editor #pedropascal #pedropascaledit #agentwhiskey #kingsman #dvcree ♬ save a horse ride a cowboy - ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀