You know, I very much wanted to identify that rag immediately. But I couldn’t get it out.
For the fraction of one second, at the very end of his - fictional - existence, Colonel Rumford is free. Free from the burdens of authority and discipline, and of being seen to be in control of both. Free also from an internal struggle for control that defines the character and his actions as much as it defines his failureto act. It is not the crime of murder to which he confesses; indeed the timely dispatch of he-who-would-destroy-his-world is a tactical expediency for the seasoned soldier, but it is precisely this expediency which sets the human being adrift; his failure to reconcile the conflict is Rumford's original sin, and it precipitates his fall from grace. It also makes him human again.
Not the cider bottle, not the gelignite, not Springer's rebellious integrity, which contrasts with Rumford's own claustrophobic need for things to be neat and tidy and clean, not even the fact that he has been found to be lying weighs as heavily on the Colonel's shoulders as the fact that his own conscience made him hesitate - before lying. For a split second, Rumford is afraidto incriminate himself, and it is this split second of outward indecision which to the keen observer betrays the inner turmoil: Colonel Rumford has lost the struggle for control - over the narrative, the academy, his life, his career, and over his demons. Columbo's intuition is instantaneous; it takes a lifetime for Rumford not only to realize he is fighting a losing battle, but to finally admit defeat - and regain his humanity in the process.
Rumford's god-like rule is drawing to a close as he submits to the growing awareness of his own limitations, and the finite nature of his universe: in one final, deliberate act of humility, permission is sought, and granted, for the Colonel to indulge once more in the fantasy of omnipotence. The illusion of control is sustained for as long as the fictional reality remains suspended - or is frozen in time by the editor: the Colonel never leaves the microcosm of his academy; the outside world does not exist, nor can he exist within it.