Cold Case — Recap & Review — Read Between The Lines

photo: cbs

Cold Case
Read Between the Lines

Original Air Date: Nov 15, 2009

Amanda — Senior Reviewer
amanda@thetwocentscorp.com

Read between the lines…it’s something these detectives have to do all the time. But when an up-and-coming rap star is murdered, they might need to depend on the victim herself for a break in the case. Meanwhile, Saccardo’s got a surprise for Lil, and the Queen of Snark returns, to much rejoicing from this recapper. Word.

The 1991 missing-persons case of 14-year-old Donalyn Sullivan is reopened when a prison inmate, Virgil “Sticky” Jones, trades information for the right to attend his daughter’s funeral: the night of his birthday party, he found Donalyn’s body in the basement of the nightclub he once owned, wrapped it in a rug, and took it to the Dumpster. The story checks out when CSU finds blood on a lead pipe in the club’s basement. This is later confirmed to be the murder weapon, but the evidence box turns up scant additional clues: the identity of her birth parents, who are both dead, her foster parents, and an old audiotape.

Vera and the newly-returned Kat interview Kenneth Watson, Donalyn’s foster father, who says he believed in strict rules and discipline. Frequently absent for work, he did what he could, even taking Donalyn to New York to see Phantom of the Opera. “She liked that,” he says. He says he was in Baltimore with a fishing buddy the night Donalyn disappeared, and he and Alice divorced in 1992. Meanwhile, Alice remembers Donalyn as a homebody, and tells Lilly and Scotty that she tried her best to get along, but, like everyone says, “It’s harder with the older ones.” She remembers watching Donalyn and her younger sister Meesha dance and sing along with a Queen Latifah video and suggesting a girls’ day out: manicures, shopping, the works. Meesha was fully on board, but Donalyn was reluctant. She eventually relented, however, for her sister, who was eventually adopted by Alice and grew up to become a doctor.

Meesha remembers one name on the list Sticky provided: Zeb “Zen” Edwards, who they encountered their first day in the new neighborhood. She tells Vera and Kat how Zen was rapping outside a record store and dissed Donalyn as she and Meesha walked by. Not one to suffer fools gladly, Donalyn demanded the mic and one-upped him, rap-style. It was fantastic…but Zen, predictably, took exception. A proud member of the 26th Street Villains, he showed Donalyn his gang tattoos and threatened her.

When Lilly and Scotty talk to the now-respectable Zen, he insists he and Donalyn patched things up. Impressed by her talent, he became her manager, grooming her into a proper rapper named “Sugar Dawn.” After blinging her out and giving her his sunglasses, he brought her into the studio for an audition. At first, the manager was unimpressed, but Donalyn soon won him over, much to the chagrin of another female rapper, Big Soph, who feared she was being replaced. I think. Look, my gig is classical, yo. I don’t speak “rap.” Zen also adds that Big Soph got her big break at Sticky’s party, thanks to the presence of representatives from Killadelphia Records (cute, show). Donalyn was supposed to “spit” for them, too…but she never showed.

Big Soph tells Lilly and Stillman that she also befriended Donalyn. She recalls giving Donalyn some tips to help her sell more tapes on the street. After making her first sale, Donalyn was approached by the record producer, Huxtable, demanding payment for the time she spent in the studio. Donalyn insisted Zen was supposed to pay for the time, so Huxtable hauled her off to find him. Vera and Kat find Huxtable, who, in a moment of comedic genius that had me giggling hysterically for a couple minutes, is played by Dwayne Wayne from Cosby spinoff “A Different World” (Kadeem Hardison). Huxtable, now firmly entrenched in the family mortuary business, says the kidnapping was staged: his family had money, but he had to maintain his street cred. He recalls telling Donalyn to ditch the “cliché ghetto nursery rhymes” Zen had her doing and sing about something real. Convinced he could make her a star, Donalyn called Zen on the spot and fired him. Huxtable thinks Zen didn’t take this well.

After some stonewalling, Zen finally admits to the firing, but says it only lasted a few minutes. Donalyn’s first song had gotten some radio airplay, and the news was getting even better: Killadelphia Records was putting in an appearance at Sticky’s party. Zen suggested a song for Donalyn, but she wanted to sing a song she wrote: something “real.” Zen thought a teenager couldn’t possibly know anything about “real,” but Donalyn proved him wrong, rapping then and there about a phantom and a chandelier…but it’s so not just about that. “Read between the lines,” the chorus urges. Donalyn says it’s her song or nothing, and Zen, blown away by the song, was okay with that.

The tape found in Donalyn’s evidence box contains the same song, and Kat’s managed to decipher all the lyrics. Chillingly, they accuse her foster father, Kenneth, of some pretty hefty inappropriations and express a desire to take Meesha and run away. Meanwhile, Vera’s learned that Kenneth’s alibi is only partially true. He was indeed in Baltimore…with his 17-year-old girlfriend. Vera, Kat, and I all have lots of additional questions for Kenneth, but, rather than answer any of us, he kills himself when the detectives arrive at his apartment. A search of his place finds evidence to back up Donalyn’s musical allegations, so the detectives decide to talk to Meesha and Alice to find out what was going on in that house.

Meesha remembers Donalyn warning her about “The Phantom,” but thinks it was just something her big sister made up to scare her. When she hears a clip of the song, though, she remembers it from a confrontation she overheard between Alice and Donalyn. Donalyn told Alice about her fear of Kenneth, saying she’d seen that look before, knew what came next, and wasn’t about to let it happen again, to her or Meesha.

Meanwhile, Alice tells Lilly and Scotty that Kenneth went to the club to talk to Donalyn that night, but ended up hitting her in the head with a lead pipe. Gripping story, as Scotty points out, but there are only two problems: Kenneth’s room receipt from Baltimore, and tiny little detail of the lead pipe wasn’t ever released to the public. Oopsie! Looks like it was Alice…in the basement…with the lead pipe! Sure enough, Alice confesses. Furious that Donalyn might take Meesha away, Alice followed her to Sticky’s, and during their ensuing argument, Donalyn threatened to call their social worker and rat out Kenneth. And you don’t really need me to tell you that Alice flew into a rage, picked up a lead pipe, and hit Donalyn in the head with it, do you? No? I didn’t think so.

Meanwhile, Saccardo decides to surprise Lilly with a gift for their anniversary: a new gun, which, as Saccardo helpfully points out, is untraceable! Tres romantique. Lil’s understandably a little skeeved by this, but Saccardo says he’s just worried about her and Moe, and he wants to protect her. Later, Lilly says his gesture was sweet, but her problems are hers, and she just needs some “room to maneuver.” She says she threw the gun in the river…but in the montage, we discover she’s still got it. This can’t end well.

Also, Kat is back!!!! And boy, did I miss her. That point was driven home during an adorably hilarious scene in the kitchen with Vera and Scotty, where the boys have grown so unaccustomed to her absence that they forget to bring the correct number of sandwiches for lunch. She takes issue with this, and Scotty ends up sharing his with her. Awwww. Welcome back, Kat.

Ignoring, for a moment, the presence of yet another contrived and not-really-believable murder, I enjoyed this one quite a bit. Being a musician, I always like musically-oriented cases, and this one had the added bonus of the music being the answer they needed. The scene where Donalyn told Zen, in song, about Kenneth, was so chilling. All the guest actors, in particular Daniele Watts (Donalyn) did an outstanding job.

So that’s my TwoCents, but I want to know yours. Anyone else call another Random Object Bludgeon? Anybody find themselves quietly digging the rap music? Any theories on just how far Lilly might go in her quest to defeat Moe? Leave your TwoCents in the comments section!