Beauty and Deceased Directed by  Vincent McEveety Written by W.  Reed Moran, Tom Ropelewski, and Bob Shayne Synopsis: An old friend of the Simons, Beth, shows up in their office after finding a blackmail note given to one of the beauty contestants in her pageant. She's responsible for the pageant going off smoothly, so she wants the Simons to go undercover and find out who is being blackmailed by whom. With a sparkle in his eye, Rick decides that AJ will enter as a contestant while he will show up as a judge. AJ is less than happy about it, especially the  swimsuit competition, but grudgingly agrees to do it. Things get more  serious when the pageant host stumbles upon the blackmailer being beaten by two toughs. The blackmailer, realizing the host must have heard that he  owed money to a loan shark, kills him. A pageant  contestant finds the body and is immediately suspected of being the murderer. It turns out that she was the one being blackmailed because she  was kicked out of her family for being an unmarried mother. The Simons  don't believe she's guilty and get Abby to give them 48 hours to find the  real killer before letting news of the murder go public. When AJ is nearly killed by a falling mirrored disco ball, the brothers know they're  getting close. They eventually discover that the blackmailer and now  killer is one of the three judges of the contest, but not before AJ has to  go through the embarrassment of the pageant. Review I had almost as  much fun with this episode as Rick did. I don't know if anyone can match  the pure glee he felt as he managed to make AJ as uncomfortable as  possible. What a kick! Poor AJ. He is embarrassed at practically every turn in this episode. Even though I found  myself squirming with him, Rick's enjoyment of it made it worthwhile. I  just have to wonder how much of the squirming was real on JP's part. Kudos to him for having the guts to sing flat and appear in that tiny bathing  suit. It can't have been easy. I wonder if Mac gave him a hard time... Abby was hilarious in this episode. It's almost with unholy joy that she watches AJ's discomfort during the bathing suit scene. You go, girl. The only thing missing that I would've liked to see would have been Cecilia's reaction.  Would she say 'Not my child!" or would she be in the audience  cheering him on? Tough call, she can have as wicked a sense of humor as her firstborn. This one has fun romp written all over it, with plenty of teasing included. It's good to see a light-hearted episode after so many serious ones. 4  out of 5 Camaros   ©"Simon & Simon" and all of its characters'  copyrights are held by Universal City Studios, as are all pictures and quotes on this site unless otherwise noted. This site is completely  nonprofit - I don't get a dime. On the contrary, it is my hope that  the copyright holders will make more items available for sale so  others and I can spend more money!