'Cold' Old Fashioned Hate

I've spent the better part the last month and a half trying to figure out why this week's episode of Cold Case was titled "Spiders." We weren't two minutes into it last night when Truitt introduces himself to Tamyra as Spider. "Hmm... where is the 's' coming from that's making it plural," I thought. But then, Spider explained his nickname: Flies and mosquitoes would inherit the Earth if it weren't for spiders. Combine that with the reveal that Tamyra was about to testify against her abusive, alcoholic father (an unrecognizable Jeffrey Combs - Dr. Burkhoff from The 4400) in order to gain emancipation, and I figured the flies and mosquitoes meant pieces of crap like Tamyra's father. Fast forward 55 minutes, and suddenly flies, mosquitoes and spiders all take on a darkly and disturbingly different meaning. Sure, Truitt was the spider, but the mosquitoes and flies are anyone who doesn't fit into the perfect Aryan mold. Reading the warning in front of the episode about the subject matter and actually seeing it play out on screen are two totally different things. Those disturbing images of the young Neo-Nazis congregating and vocalizing their hatred for everyone not white and not a part of the movement; the beating of the poor innocent Honduran woman; splashes of red against gray-tinged flashbacks; and of course, the ending images of Elliot shaving his head and standing in front of the larger-than-life swastika competed with Elliot's ending monologue laced with hatred and lacking any semblance of remorse. Images that burned their disturbing presence into my mind, and I know, won't go away any time soon.

Knowing all of this now, that scene with Kat and Vera walking into the "community meeting" to the shock and horror of all those in attendance is made even more powerful and sickening. In fact, this entire episode sorta turned my stomach. It dealt with a sector of society that we all wish didn't exist because it's hard to fathom that level of hate. But this episode shoved it in our faces and made us think. And guess what? It wasn't pretty. It was an upsetting, uncomfortable hour of television that moved me from start to finish. What a strong way to welcome back new episodes! Too bad we have to wait another month and a half to see the next one, but I am tremendously thankful that there are going to be more new episodes this season because I had resigned myself to the idea that this week's outing was our last until September. Thankfully, this isn't the case as new episodes are slated to begin March 30th. In the meantime, Cold Case moves to 13-0 on the season.

And just because I can't let this post end without a mention about Kat's story line, I will say that I had secretly been dying to know about Veronica's father. It seems Kat has a darker past than I realized. Yay to the CC writers for fleshing out this character some more. You all know that I secretly, OK screw it, I openly love her addition to the show and I'm pretty sure I could listen to Tracie Thoms singing "Seasons of Love" over and over again until it wore out my iPod.