Cold Case – Recap & Review – Into the Blue

photo: cbs

Cold Case
Into The Blue

Original Air Date: May 10, 2009

Amanda – Senior Reviewer
amanda@thetwocentscorp.com

“As long as you ask the right question, it’s never too late.” That’s what a much younger (but still bald) Stillman told a ten-year-old Lilly, and advice we’d do well to heed. This episode left us with plenty of questions, and I’m forced to wonder which one is the right one. Did Lilly live through her crash into the river? Will she reconcile with her father? Does anyone remember that there’s a murder we’re supposed to be solving? And what in the WORLD happened at the end, anyway?

When last we met, Lilly was run off the road into the river, but she shoots out the car window, swims to the surface, and starts to walk away, only to be hit by a car. Oh, snap! She goes to the hospital long enough to be told she might have a concussion, but then splits and heads back to work, where she looks like death warmed over. Her colleagues all ask if she’s okay, but, naturally, she tells them she’s fine, and we’re supposed to buy that five of Philly’s finest detectives actually believe her.

Meanwhile, there’s also an open murder case. Lilly has narrowed her search for the killer of Kate Butler (remember her??) to Cadet Lawrence Gardner. In an interview with PMI instructor Moe Kitchener, Scotty and Lilly learn that the car that ran Lil off the road, which was registered to PMI, was only driven by faculty and certain students, one of whom was Gardner. Unfortunately, they find him dead in Kate’s room, hanging from the ceiling, but the knot couldn’t have been tied by the left-handed Gardner. Again, oh, snap. However, he did have the car keys.

When they inform Cmdt. Murillo of Gardner’s death, he tells them that a drunken Hank Butler came to him around the same time, angry about Kate’s murder. Murillo told him about the saber attack, and admits to giving Hank the names of everyone in Kate’s company. However, Hank claims to have been in the chapel begging forgiveness at the time of Gardner’s murder, and he tells them how he came to a ceremony where Kate received a medal of commendation. She expressed a desire to make him proud, but he walked away, and, naturally, regrets it.

Meanwhile, Gardner’s alibi for the night of Kate’s murder checks out, but CSU has conveniently provided a new suspect, thanks to a love letter to Kate from James Addison. “Shine detail” indeed! He says the feelings were mutual, and she agreed to go out with him, in part to avoid being a “barracks rat,” who holes up and never socializes. Those cadets, it seems, tend to break more easily than the others. The detectives find only one barracks rat on the roster: Landry! Oh, wait. Sorry. Wrong show. It’s Ryan Stewart, actually.

After a brief standoff, Ryan confesses to killing Kate. Figuring she’d be staying in as usual, he went to her room for help with homework, but she told him she had plans with some of the guys from the company. Deeply hurt because the guys would rather hang out with “a chick” than him, Ryan went ballistic and clubbed her with what appeared to be a pencil cup…but Lilly’s got one more question for him. How did he hide the body, since freshmen couldn’t drive?

Kat discovers, thanks to repeat speeding tickets and routine trips to Roxboro (where Kate’s body was found), that the other one involved had to be Moe Kitchener. Ryan finally tells them the rest of the story, which was him confessing to Moe what he’d done, and Moe helping him cover it up so he could graduate. While getting him to confess to both this and Gardner’s murder, Lilly starts to freak out, and then the glass shatters, the room fills with water…

…and Lil’s right back in the river. So…was this whole episode a dream? Were we living in the real world for 55 minutes, or were we in Lilly’s submerged blonde head? What is the right question in this situation, anyway? We do see Moe and Ryan being arrested at the end, so it appears that Lil solved the case in her head while she was underwater, but the other detectives actually did all the work. Personally, I’d rather have seen that.

While she was sleuthing in her underwater alternate universe, Lilly also had time for some personal flashbacks, triggered by her father visiting PPD to make sure she was all right. She remembers the day he told her over a chess game that he was leaving “to do some things.” She also recalls picking the man who attacked her when she was ten out of a lineup, then telling the detective in charge (Stillman, of all people!) that her mother said it was too late, leading to Stillman’s “ask the right question” advice. These flashbacks, among others, lead to the answer to Lilly’s burning question this season: why did her father leave? In a letter, which she was reading before her accident, and which he reads during the closing montage, he tells her he had to leave to get sober himself. He regrets leaving, and assures her that, should she ever need someone, he’s there for her. As she awakens in the hospital, we see that he’s kept his promise.

One more question remains to be answered, and it’s a sad one. Is this the end of the line for Cold Case? I certainly hope not. If you agree, here are two ways to take action.

1. Go to http://www.cbs.com/info/user_services/fb_global_form.php, select “Request,” and give CBS your Two Cents on why Cold Case should be renewed.

2. Sign the “Save Cold Case” Petition

So that’s my TwoCents, which I’d happily give to CBS to help with whatever budget crisis they’re claiming to have. I’d love to hear yours!