'Cold Case' Spins an Ugly Tale

Since last week was a holiday week and I was crazy busy and there isn't a new Cold Case tonight, I thought I would go ahead and revisit last week's episode. This episode was so hot/cold for me that I felt it would be worth it to discuss it a week late. It had a lot of great moments that saved it from slipping into the black hole of mediocrity. Pretty much every scene involving Vera had me laughing. I'm not sure why they showed us that random altercation between him and the young teen, but I'm thinking it may be important down the road. I also loved the scene with Lilly, Jeffries and the drag queen just because it's fun to watch Jeffries squirm a bit. It's also interesting to watch Lilly with these types of characters. She doesn't pass any judgment (one of the things I love about her), but she's quick to jump to conclusions about others when they're a little too similar to her mother. There was a great scene between Lil, Kat and Stillman when he told them that he was going to send the boys to the wedding chapel together. And then there was the more content Lilly at the end of the episode that gave me hope that she might have learned a little something from this case. The desperate "I don't want to be alone" Lilly was bumming me out when Joseph dumped her a few weeks back. It was so sad, so seeing a more joyful side to her at the end was a nice change of pace.


Unfortunately, the great moments were surrounded by a bad case. The actual trajectory of the story was good. It took plenty of turns and kept me guessing, but the subject matter was problematic. Are all "ugly" girls so desperate that they'll do absolutely anything to keep a hot guy around?? And are "ugly" girls the only ones who are unlucky in love?? Of course, the answer to both questions is no, but this episode led you to believe it was yes. Lilly is a nice contrast to the second question. She's beautiful, successful and completely alone, and yet, she has more issues than Time magazine and the absolute worst luck with men. I got the parallel, but I still felt that the subject matter was a mess. Instead of coming across as sympathetic (as I'm sure the show intended), it came across as a parody or mockery. It was so over-the-top that it seemed like the episode was making fun of girls like Martha. Perhaps, setting the story in the cheestastic 80s is to blame. Whatever the reason, the story seemed cruel. This one was a step backwards for Cold Case this season. Thankfully, the other moments were strong enough to keep me from getting too bogged down by the weakly executed subject matter.

Random thought of the week: Remember when Meg Ryan used to be cute? Back before she botoxed the emotion out of her face and ruined her best feature -- her lips. We're talking movies like Sleepless in Seattle, You've Got Mail, When Harry Met Sally and so on. Anyway, I've always thought that Kathryn Morris resembled this pre-botox cute version of Meg. They both have that sort of cute quality, the same eyes, and the curled lips (for Meg, pre-botox or whatever the hell happened to hers). Some people think I'm crazy, but there are moments when they look a lot alike. Last week's ending scene happens to be one of them. Check this out:

She looks like her, right? Leave me a comment and let me know if you agree or if you think that I'm totally crazy!


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