'Cold Case' Breaks the First Rule of Fight Club

I was just talking about how the little scenes on Cold Case this season are a major contributor to my newly revived love affair with this show, and then they go and give us multiple fantastic little scenes in one episode! That scene where Vera was paying the parking ticket over the phone, hung up when he saw Scotty coming, and then exchanged funny barbs with Kat will go down as one of the show's funniest. I'm laughing at it all over again just typing up what happened! But it wasn't just this little scene because we also had a great scene earlier between Vera and Scotty where said parking ticket originated ("Fix a parking ticket -- that's the oldest lie in the book." Later, cut to Vera paying the ticket over the phone with his credit card.). There was also a cute scene with Vera asking out his neighbor, and her calling him on his parking ticket gesture, and of course, the final scene with Vera and his neighbor after their big date. I am so glad that the writers brought back the team chemistry and lighter moments from season one because they had been lacking the past couple of seasons and the show suffered from it. It's good to see these guys having fun together. With all of these emotional cases, it makes sense that they would need the release. Speaking of which, where was Lilly during all of the fun stuff? She really isn't the stick in the mud that they all think she is -- just ask Scotty. Never mind, his lips are sealed because what happened in Nashville stayed in Nashville.


I suppose that I should talk about the case a bit. I'll admit that I wasn't too psyched to watch a "Fight Club" episode, but this one was about a lot more than I thought (as usual). We had daddy issues, abandonment issues, and a plausible murder with motive. Obviously, Lilly could relate to James (her father left), but as usual, the show didn't hit us over the head with the connection. After all, Lilly naturally feels sympathy and a strong will for justice with every victim, so making them even more personal just gets to be ridiculous over time. Surprisingly, the story was really about Tanner -- a kid who seemed to have it all except a loving father. He hated his father's constant pressure so much that it drove him to take it out on an innocent man who resembled the man who raised him. This is a common theme on Cold Case as we're accustomed to seeing Lilly take out her anger at her mother on suspects who have a history of being bad parents, but Tanner went way too far. To make matters worse, the very man he was trying to beat the life out of wound up beating the life out of his friend in front of him. And the poor man who was simply having car trouble in the wrong place at the wrong time ended up dead as well. Tanner's father wanted to make everything go away with high-priced lawyers to protect his son's future, but what he didn't realize was that he was the one responsible for ruining it. With Cold Case, there's always room for the viewer to dig a little deeper and think a little differently. It seems that the New Year has brought us the same awesome, inspired Cold Case that the second half of the last year gave us. CC moves to 11-1 on the season.

Brownie points for using The Fray's "How to Save a Life" at the end, even if that song will always be Scrubs' (they played it first).


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