Lil Looks Back on an Old 'Case'

Sometimes I think that we expect a little too much reality from our favorite fictional TV shows and that can cost us the enjoyment of a pretty solid story. I went into tonight's episode of Cold Case feeling pretty sure that no police department in America would reopen a case from 1919 because all of the suspects, witnesses, and evidence would be gone. Nonetheless, I was still interested to see how the show would deal with such an old case, and it turns out the answer is -- effortlessly. Because I went in knowing I had to suspend a little bit of reality (something I think we're supposed to do with any show on a regular basis), I was able to sit back and just enjoy the story, and what an excellent story we had tonight. It's hard to sit at my computer in 2007 and imagine what it would feel like to have my husband speak for me, tell me what to do, and relegate me to a "domestic angel" without having a say in any of it. I can't imagine it because it's not in my nature, and thanks to women like Francis, it doesn't have to be. As the women's studies professor said, we take our right to vote for granted today because we can't begin to understand what our foremothers went through in order to secure it for us. Because of this, I found the entire theme fascinating and the story engaging. We had an accidental death tonight, so the fact that no one paid for Francis' death was easy to swallow. Her mother grabbed her arm, and when Francis pulled away, she lost her balance and fell over the railing to her death. But, it was her mother who never recovered as we heard in her poignant recording. Lots of clever story telling devices tonight: the record, diaries, letters, relatives, gossip columns and other devices allowed the detectives to fill in the blanks so we could see the story unfold. The flashbacks were beautiful with a dash of sepia and understated hues to take me right back to a foreign time. An excellent effort all around.


This episode wasn't content to rest on its strong case laurels, though. We also had a nice little helping of Lil's personal life (always a crowd pleaser, especially here at PTR). Some things never change, and for Lilly, those things involve her mother. Another broken relationship, another drunken binge, and Lil is left to clean up the pieces of her mother's life once again. Ellen's entire self worth is dependant on whether she has a man in her life. She has no sense of taking care of herself, and I think this is the driving force behind Lilly's strong streak of independence. She grew up watching her mother move from man to man, losing a little bit of herself with each break up and finding solace in the closest bottle of Vodka or whatever else was handy, and she decided that no man was going to define her. Thus, we have the fiercely single Lilly Rush of today who isn't quite sure what a real, lasting relationship should look like because her mother's tended to end the next morning. It's dysfunction junction, and it continues now as Ellen vows to clean herself up again (this time for good) so she can once again find a man. Where does this leave Lil? In an endless cycle of bailing her mother out of jail, filling her fridge with something other than alcohol, throwing out the various hidden bottles and feeling torn about the mother that she loves despite it all. Cold Case at its best ( and it looks like things are only going to get better). CC moves to 18-2-1 on the season.


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