last salute be an episode direct by falk friend mcgoohan and from start to finish the viewer can enjoy what be almost a pastiche of a crime mystery . columbo lingers in the harbor and in no hurry at all and work together with mac ( because his bos insists ) and make him drive his car and get entangle with robert vaughn in the car and with the telephone and try tm on the deck of the boat . he seem in a jolly mood all the time . note how he touch and lay his arm around everyone in this episode . it be an episode as calming a the waterfront itself . and it probably isn not up to what most viewer expect . but that always be a problem . we need to accept it a a creative thing too . and columbo always have it own pattern and in joke and but because of many different director as well a guest star and consider the fact that the show run for 35 year and there be no such thing a the one formula it stick to . so it be really quite sad that there be always these remark the last of the real columbo and the final good episode and here where episode become to long and here where falk be too old and etc and etc . enjoy every episode for it own merit . last salute be in no way possible to be compare with outing like double exposure of a stitch in crime . so do not . just sit and relax and watch this episode . and there be no episode like it and it be beyond comparison .