How does Mute Witness make sense? *spoilers*
A doctor with a heart condition wants to leave a party because it could literally kill him. Parties, the later they go the more unpredictable they become. His wife/girlfriend is upset they had to leave a party and is doing the exact thing that aggravates his condition. Any couple I've seen, in real life, where one person has a heart condition has a way of arguing that won't potentially kill the other. I'm not at all condoning murder. From the doctors perspective it was a choice of his life or hers. He realized what a terrible person she is; who cares more about a party then the health of a loved one. To him killing her was a form of medication and ensured that he won't have to deal with her selfishness. He kills her and is perfectly okay with it. He may have wanted to do it for some time. Before I get to the Mute Witness, here are some unadressed issues. How did no one else hear the argument? The witness could hear them with their windows closed. What the hell did he do with the body? That question will come up again. How could the woman claim they were having a conversation? It was just her yelling at him, getting louder and louder each time she spoke.
The witness sees this and becomes mute. I've been around someone that loses the ability to speak. Once you figure out that they aren't chocking and can breath two choices are presented. You ask yes or no questions or you give them something to write with. I understand the husband was upset but once he could tell she wasn't chocking he should have asked her what was wrong. She didn't show any signs of physical pain besides being unable to speak. The witness was in shock but based on what we saw she was aware and not freaking out at all. He goes to go get a doctor not call emergency services. That is beyond baffling for this reason. The doctor he goes to isn't qualified for that type of emergency. I don't even know what kind of doctor he is, it's never made clear.
Dealing with people in a psychiatric hospital is stressful especially if you're the head doctor. It makes no sense for him to stay on in that position with such a serious condition. Pills don't just magically work. They take time to even when you crush it up. So anything too severe will not be fixed with pills. I'm not going to get into the placebo effect, that would make this explanation too complex.
The witness realizes the doctor her husband retrieved is the killer. She did the right thing in attempting to subdue him. She grabs a golf club and ends up hitting her husband. Golf clubs are deadly and she could have easily killed her husband or the doctor. They had their rear window homage TFTC story right there. They didn't need to leave the apartment in this story. Imagine her accidentally killing her husband and being stuck with a man that just purposely killed his wife and the witness is still mute.
The witness accidentally hitting her husband allows the doctor to spin the situation. The husband's sister gets pissed at his blatant stupidity. Their neighbor may be a doctor but the husband has no reason to trust what the doctor says. He doesn't let his wife go through proper testing and allows her to be committed. He didn't stop to think that everything was happening too fast and had no control. The husband's sister has to tell him he had the power to do what's necessary. Once again, what happened to the doctors wife/girlfriend's body? They are social enough to go to parties and there is nothing that indicates whether she works or not. The writer did just enough to make a viewer not ask the obvious questions IF you get caught up in the story. The body is important because a good enough amount of time passes to where a solution to the doctors disposal problem would need to be found. This is where giving the doctor a heart condition is a big problem. Sex for him would be more terrifying than pleasurable. Too much activity could kill him. How would he dispose of a body himself with his week heart?
The husband finally figures out what is happening and goes to set things right. The doctor kills the husband in the witness' cell. What did he do with the husband's body? That is a huge plot hole, bigger than the wife's body, that is never addressed. The doctor schedules the witness for a labatomy. I won't get into how that doesn't make sense itself. So now the doctor is also a surgeon and an anesthesiologist; he tries to put her to sleep before going to the O.R. What? Everything is on camera and it would look shady for those tapes to go missing or be erased. The husband's sister was already suspicious of the doctor. Now that I think of it, why didn't he call his sister when everything was happening? The doctor wouldn't have been active too long anyway. He has no idea the husband had a sister in the same field that was already suspect of his motives. When she didn't hear back from her brother she would have investigated. I'm trying to make sense of this story and I can't. Some episodes feel like there could be more, this one did way too much. If anyone can give a thoughtful reason why this story needed to be set in a hospital instead of the apartment please explain. It's weird so many bash the later seasons when the episodes stories don't fall apart like this one. The end dialogue makes me think this was never supposed to leave the apartment.
Why did he spill his pills everywhere for one and not put any back in? Why did he let her out of the straight jacket before putting her to sleep? Why did he try to kill her before a surgery that would have a staff waiting? What took the husband so long to get a bag in a bathroom that was right around the corner? Is it ironic or tragic the episode starts with the witness telling a story about fatefully meeting her husband, who ends up ruining their lives?
After throwing a machete through a guys chest, "Stick around!"- Dutch (Predator)