A little while ago a question came through the website regarding whether MSW canon ever established a date for Jessica’s birthday. David wrote:
"Just a quick question, hopefully. When is Jessica's birthday? The Wikipedia entry [on Jessica] says November 21, 1930, but the episode "Dead Heat" has Jessica herself saying that her astrological sign is Pisces, which would make her birthday sometime in between February 20 and March 21. Is this a continuity error?"
I had seen that little factoid on Wikipedia myself. For those that haven’t, here is the relevant paragraph, which asserts the November 21st date but acknowledges the contradictory statements made over the course of the series:
Her birthday is November 21, which would make her birth sign probably Sagittarius, possibly Scorpio. However, at the end of the episode "Dead Heat", Jessica is asked what her astrological sign is, to which she answers that she is a "Pisces, the last time I looked,” which means that she had to be born sometime between February 19 and the vernal equinox around March 20. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessica_Fletcher)
I’ve always wondered where the entry’s author got the notion that Jessica’s birthday was the 21st of November. It’s possible that it is a bit of trivia from an episode that I haven’t seen in forever and simply don’t remember, or it could be a misinterpretation of some other significant date, but without a cited source I can’t say for sure.
But I digress. I wrote back to David, sharing what I have always figured to be true:
"Jessica's birthday is ambiguous. You are right that the Wikipedia entry conflicts with what she states to be her birth sign in "Dead Heat." The notion that she is a Pisces is supported (though not definitively proved) by the fact that the 8th season episode "To the Last Will I Grapple With Thee," in which she celebrates her birthday, first aired on March 15th. But I don't think there was ever a set date of birth for her character, so the writers made it a movable feast."
The fact that there was no canonical date was the reason I felt free to pick a date of my own choosing to use in my fan fiction, April 15th, the day that MSW first began filming in 1984 and, conveniently enough, also the day it concluded filming twelve years later.
But I digress again. The conversation took an interesting turn when David responded to my response. Turns out that David has “been doing astrology charts and interpretations for years as a hobby,” and he had given considerable thought to what Jessica’s theoretical chart would look like. Here’s what he had to say:
"Astrologically, the Scorpio/Sagittarius cusp works really well, a detective who loves to travel around the world and is physically able, insightful, and probes mysteries, and constantly surrounded by death. It all fits, astrologically. But she did say she was a Pisces, and I would rather go with words straight from the mouth of JBF."
There’s problems with going with what Jessica said, however:
"It doesn't make sense that Jessica would be a sun sign Pisces. Pisces is a mutable water sign, which would make her a follower, uncertain, hesitant, sensitive, dreamy, intuitive, spiritual, imaginative, empathic, retiring, and forgiving. It is not that you couldn't have a detective with these qualities, but they certainly don't describe JB, especially if this was her sun sign. She would have to have some very strong mitigating influences in her chart, primarily with the placement of her moon and ascendant to give the qualities that we are familiar with. If her sun was in Pisces, I would expect her Mercury to be in Aquarius, and her Venus in Taurus, to begin to make sense of her Pisces sun sign, and then I would expect her Ascent and Moon to be in Scorpio or Sagittarius to help round out her character, and have strong 3rd (communication and education), 8th (mystery, sex, death), and 9th (travel and higher learning) house placements."
David then went on to draw up an astrological chart for Jessica, assuming a Pisces birth sign, 1930 for the year of her birth and somewhere in or around Portland, Maine for where she was born. It’s a very complicated chart, loaded with data and yet aesthetically beautiful; I’m not going to try and reproduce it here. But the long and the short of it, according to David, was that the chart not only validated that she could indeed be a Pisces, but also ...
"It explains her career as teacher, writer, fame and fortune, all of her many, many friends, extraordinary good luck for her, and bad luck for those who are around her, quick wits, undercover roles, and her sudden insights gleaned from innocent conversations."
Makes sense to me.
(Thanks, David, for all your work on this project and for letting me quote you from your e-mails.)
