'Case' Plays Mind Games

There must be some sort of unwritten law of television that a show starts to get awesome again just as talk about its not so promising future arises. Clearly, this recent spat of Cold Case episodes were written and filmed before the "possible cancellation" talk started, so it's not like they stepped up their game just to prove a point. But somehow, by chance, the show has done just that and it has made the dreary news, well, even dreary-er. This week's excellent episode was an exercise in good story telling, lots of Lilly involvement, Scotty adding his own personal experience with schizophrenia without hitting us over the head with it, and so many good scenes that it would take me several posts to discuss all of them in detail. I honestly haven't been this excited about the show since season 2. Three weeks in a row of stellar outings -- perhaps, CC should take random hiatuses more often (totally kidding, CBS).

It's hard to put my finger on what it was about this story that made it so special. Maybe it was the "prove that the schizophrenic kid didn't do it" aspect (as opposed to the show's usual prove who did it formula) or the clever manner in which the story unfolded via typical flashbacks as well as a look inside Pete's convoluted mind. I LOVED the way Mr. Exley was a combination of Pete's deceased brother and the manufacturer of the playground equipment they used to play on together. And I LOVED the way the "inner plane" was really just a map of the same playground equipment. It was just so well done. And can you believe how fabulous Lilly looked through Pete's eyes??!! So, the folks at CC do know how to make her look as beautiful as she is! Who'd have thunk it? Actually, she looked great throughout the episode this week (aside from the ridiculous clown make-up they had on her during that court scene and the ensuing one in the hallway). I'm not one to discuss the superficial, but I thought I'd give the CC crew props because they always get criticized for the way they have Lil looking.

Is anyone starting to think that Lil and ADA Curtis Bell are hitting it off really well? I can't figure out if the show is trying to hook them up or not. Although, they do seem to have him in the show for random reasons and those reasons always lead to scenes with Lil, so going off of past experience, all signs are pointing that way. I like him. I just hope he doesn't "Kite her" because I'm still not over that relationship.

CC easily jumps to 17-0-1 on the season. Screencaps courtesy of RichE.

BTW, series star Kathryn Morris appeared on Regis & Kelly this morning where she revealed that the 2-part season finale will use songs from the band Pearl Jam and will reveal secrets from Lilly's past. She also teased that Lil will show up in a flashback. She promised that it's an intense race to solve the murder of a female cadet at a military academy whose journey parallels that of Lilly's. Let's hope it's as stellar as this recent run of episodes!