Garfield’s Babes and Bullets (1989) Timeline Explained – Every Event in Order

Professor O'Tabby was murdered by his colleague Professor O'Felix, who spiked his coffee with sleeping pills. The professor suffered from coffee-induced insomnia and took sleeping pills to counter it. O'Felix exploited this weakness, adding extra pills to his coffee, causing O'Tabby to fall asleep at the wheel and drive off a cliff.

• professor o'tabby death
• murder method
• sleeping pills
• coffee

O'Felix was jealous of O'Tabby's success and had been eyeing his position at the university for some time. As O'Tabby's former advisor, O'Felix resented his former student's accomplishments and wanted to take his place, making professional jealousy the primary motive for the murder.

• o'felix motive
• jealousy
• university position
• murder reason

The 'stone' Sam pocketed was actually a ceramic fragment from a broken coffee mug, not a piece of evidence from a struggle. This discovery, combined with the yellowish-brown stains on O'Tabby's clothing being identified as coffee, led Sam to realize the case centered on coffee rather than violence.

Foreshadowing: The coffee spill by Kitty earlier hints at coffee's importance to the case.

• painted stone
• coffee mug fragment
• morgue evidence
• detective clue

Sam suspected Kitty because she previously worked for Professor O'Tabby before becoming his secretary. He deduced the coffee stains and the mug fragment pointed to someone with access to O'Tabby's coffee, and concluded her motive might have been unrequited love for the professor. However, Kitty's confession revealed she only prepared coffee and filled prescriptions for sleeping pills, clearing her of murder.

• kitty suspicion
• secretary
• wrong suspect
• detective error

Professor O'Tabby had a severe coffee addiction that caused insomnia, so he took potent sleeping pills to counter it. O'Felix exploited this cycle by adding extra sleeping pills to O'Tabby's coffee, causing him to fall asleep while driving. The coffee cup fragment Sam found was the key evidence linking the sleeping pills to the crime.

Foreshadowing: O'Felix mentions O'Tabby's coffee addiction as his only weakness, subtly pointing to the murder method.

• sleeping pills
• coffee addiction
• murder method
• insomnia

The entire storyline is Garfield's daydream. After Jon Arbuckle interrupts and asks what Garfield is doing, he playfully says 'Gettin' ready to roll the credits, pal!' and returns to the closet to continue his fantasy. The ending maintains the whimsical tone by staying in the noir fantasy rather than snapping fully back to reality.

• closet
• daydream
• fantasy ending
• jon arbuckle

After the case is solved, Tanya visits Sam one last time and makes it clear that the romance he hoped for will never happen. This rejection is typical of the film noir genre, where the detective often wins the case but loses the romantic interest, adding to the bittersweet, hardboiled tone of the fantasy.

• tanya rejection
• noir romance
• detective story

No, the affair theory was ruled out. Professor O'Felix explained that O'Tabby was on his way to visit an elderly benefactress the night he died, not meeting a lover. O'Tabby's only weakness was his coffee addiction, not romance, which redirected the investigation away from jealousy or infidelity as the murder motive.

• affair
• o'tabby
• benefactress
• investigation

After being cleared of murder suspicion, Kitty attempts to seduce Sam in his office. This scene adds to the comedic noir parody tone, mixing the hardboiled detective genre with the cartoonish humor of the Garfield universe. The moment is interrupted when Jon breaks the fourth wall by asking Garfield what he's doing in the closet.

• kitty
• seduction
• noir parody
• comedy