'Cold Case' Gets Gaslighted

Instead of the usual "The following story is fictional..." disclaimer, this episode should have had one about not watching it while you're home all alone in a dark house with only your scary noise-making pets to keep you company. Let's just say that I jumped, felt cold shivers down my back, and carefully took a peak behind me more than once and leave it at that. Having read that this outing was loosely based on the 1944 classic Gaslight, I had a pretty good idea what was going on with Nancy, but I didn't know who was behind it and why, which made this one very enjoyable. This episode had so many twists and turns and had me going, "Huh???" so much I felt like I was watching an episode of Medium. And just like the psychic drama, everything came together perfectly in the end. I can't tell you how many times I alternated between suicide and murder and then back to suicide before the story unfolded and the answer turned out to be murder. I love psychological stuff and this case was purely psychological. It's really freaky that someone can make another person go insane by convincing them that they already are (and throwing in a bit of family history just for good measure).

The kick of the whole thing was that Daniel was the crazy one -- not his wife. He was sick with jealousy over her natural writing talent and he convinced himself that she stole his work rather than vice versa. He couldn't comprehend how a "child of the state" would be able to write something so beautiful while he, with the PhD and the compliment that his pen had been "touched by the gods," could be left with a book of mediocre poetry. So, he convinced his wife (with some help from the housekeeper -- who was harboring her own case of envy) that she had gone off the deep end just like her mother and then faked her suicide so he could steal her work. The thing that got me, though, was his lack of remorse. You would think that after all of these years, he would have felt a ping or two of guilt for killing his wife and stealing her work (the work that earned him that Poet Laureate title), but he was so cold or nuts or just obsessed with the attention her work got him or all of the above to care about the people he mowed over in the process. Just wow.

It's worth noting that I enjoyed the continuity with Scotty's story in this one. Elisa was the love of his life and someone that won't easily be forgotten, so it feels only natural that a case surrounding a supposed mentally ill woman who allegedly committed suicide would affect him more than the others. My heart broke a little for him when the case pointed back to suicide and he was left searching for any thread of credibility that pointed to murder. He looked so defeated, and Lilly could only reassure him that Nancy wasn't Elisa and her case wasn't about Elisa's suicide or Scotty's guilt. It was a nice side plot that allowed the viewers to fill in the blanks.

I also enjoyed Lilly's interrogation with Annette. The irony that Annette equated Lilly's beauty with her employer's and jumped to the conclusion that she has it easy because she's beautiful was well done. I liked the way Kathryn Morris played Lilly in this scene. That "if you only knew" look on her face when Annette made her assumptions (when we all know that her personal life is a complete disaster) was brilliant. Nice scene. And speaking of nice scenes, how much did we love that Jeffries and the housekeeper/former dancer story??!! I laughed out loud when Vera almost stole his milk. CLASSIC! I wonder if he'll be enjoying any more apple pie in the future. Cold Case moves to 17-0 on the season. Will the season finale next week complete the undefeated season? Tune in to PTR next Monday to find out.