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Columbo: Forgotten Lady (1975)
This brilliantly written movie employs one of the clearest examples of the literary technique 'forshadowing' you are ever likely to see
This episode of Columbo brilliantly employs the literary technique of 'forshadowing'. At the END Columbo effectively breaks the rules; taking in a man he knows did not commit the murder in order to allow the real killer to meet her end without being arrested for a crime she doesn't even remember committing. this ending on its own may well have been jarring and hard to swallow were it not for the setting up of the forshadowing sub-plot. We are introduced to the concept that Clomubo is prepared to bend the rules through his dealing with the requirement to take a firearms test. Basically Columbo has never taken the mandatory regular tests for firearm competence, and in the end Columbo actually pays another detective to take his test for him. However this sub-plot is presented light-heartedly, and with comedy. Columbo effectively bribes the detective to fraudulently take his test - but the 'bribe' is only five dollars and we all know that a) Colubo never uses, or even carries, his gun, and b) he is an excellent detective that has brought in many many murderers. Through a sub-plot that could easily be seen as a simple diversion, time filler and offering of light relief, the concept of breaking the rules is introduced in a smaller way, so that when the end comes and Columbo out and out breaks the rules and takes in a person he knows is not the killer, effectively letting the killer go, we are ready for it - in other words 'forewarned' or 'foreshadowed'.