'Medium' Justice

I can't even imagine the grief, frustration, and anger that one must feel when they learn that their child has been murdered and there's not a shred of solid evidence to out the b*stards away who did it. I can't even imagine the kind of grief that would lead one to take justice in her own hands and kill the smug, psychotic creep who stole her daughter away 10 years ago. And yet, I got a pretty good idea thanks to a top-notch performance from Angelica Houston. That ending scene with Cynthia and Allison was so poignant, disturbing and shocking that it left me with a feeling of emptiness. Did Joanna deserve what she got? Yes. Did Cynthia do what she thought was the right thing to do in order to give her daughter justice? Yes. Then why did everything feel so wrong at the end? Perhaps it's the two-wrongs-don't-make-a-right thing or our own moral barometers or even the thought that Cynthia will probably spend the rest of her life paying for murder while the real sociopath got off easy.

This episode demonstrated how Allison's dreams can only take us so far; show us only so much. They can't always give us the smoking gun that leads to the right people rotting in jail. And while they're a great crime-solving tool, they're not always going to lead to the result we want. That has to be a tough reality for Allison. As she told Joe, she feels responsible for Cynthia's grief, and this was before the bleeding body on the floor at the end. It's too bad they didn't have Philadelphia's finest on the Case -- Lil would have gotten the confession that Allison and Cynthia so desperately needed.

Yesterday, I commented on how gorgeous Lilly looked the other night on Cold Case, so I have to point out how great Allison looks this season. She looks FABULOUS!!

Photos courtesy nbc.com