Post by TVFan on Jun 22, 2008 14:55:17 GMT -5
Recap Provided by Cellogal
September 28, 1998
“Teardrop” by Massive Attack starts up, and I have to check and make sure for a second that I’m indeed watching “Cold Case” and not “House.” Yup, it’s Cold Case. Good. I was worried there for a second. Anyway, we’re on a plane, which has apparently just landed, because everybody’s doing that whole restless “getting their luggage out of the overhead compartment despite the fact that they’re going to be waiting in line behind the slow people at the front for the next five minutes” routine. The camera zooms in on a gorgeous young Hispanic woman, who pauses for a minute, then unfastens her seat belt and starts to get her stuff out of overhead while an older woman, seated a row behind her, watches for a second, then moves to get her things out of the next bin.
Aiport. The PA is announcing the arrival of Flight 528 from Bogota, Colombia. The two women from the plane are waiting for baggage at the carousel, and they exchange a slight smile. A police officer with a drug-sniffing dog walks by, and then the younger woman grabs her suitcase and heads for Customs. The other woman from the plane makes it through, and then the Customs official motions for the young woman to come forward. She greets the officer as she hands him her suitcase, and he asks her where she’s from. “Medellin, Colombia,” is the reply as she hands him her passport. He asks why she’s here, and she replies that she’s visiting her boyfriend. Customs Guy regards her with suspicion as he notes the stamps in the passport and points out that it’s her third visit in the last year, but she smiles at him and says her boyfriend misses her. Customs Guy asks if that’s all her luggage, and she nods; he then asks if she’s carrying any drugs, and she smiles and says no. He studies her for a minute, then hands her back her passport and welcomes her to the United States. She smiles, grabs her things, and heads down the escalator, where she scans the crowd for her boyfriend. The older woman from the plane has apparently found who she’s visiting, because a young man helps her with her suitcase, and then the young woman smiles as she sees who she’s looking for, and…hold on, back up… is that Scotty? It’s either Scotty or his equally delectable evil twin, who looks deliciously scruffy in a black leather jacket, jeans, spiked hair, and a soul patch. My goodness. (Yes, I know, I’m supposed to be recapping, but did you SEE this guy? I mean…SERIOUSLY. Okay, I’m better now). The Scotty lookalike whips out a bouquet of flowers and greets the girl with a seductive “Hola, cariña.” She seems thrilled to see him and surprised by the flowers, but there’s more coming. He gently lifts her chin and gives her a tender kiss. Yup, definitely Scotty. I think. He tells her she looks good, and she calls him “mentiroso,” Spanish for liar, and says she doesn’t. Scruffy Scotty smiles at her, then grabs her suitcase and suggests that they hit the road.
The camera takes us to a dark street, where the young woman lies dead from a vicious abdominal wound. A detective marks on a box labeled “Castilla, A.” in the evidence warehouse.
Present Day
Officers with guns drawn bust into an apartment, while outside on the street, Lilly’s asking Stillman if this is about a cold job. He says it’s about a drug mule killed in 1998: Ana Castilla, and the number one suspect was her handler, Ramiro. “The guy inside,” Lilly surmises, and Stillman says Ramiro disappeared for eight years, but returned for his brother’s wedding. They come up to Regular, Non-Scruffy Scotty, who’s standing there with his old boss, Manny Fernandez, whom Scotty re-introduces to Lil, then tells her that he and Manny worked the Cortez drug bust together, and Ramiro was Cortez’s point man. Manny explains that the Cortez bust was the biggest take-down of the ‘90s. “Your undercover job,” Stillman says, indicating Scotty, then he and Manny leave. “I didn’t know you worked undercover,” Lilly says, and Scotty tries to brush it off, saying that it was just the one job, and he was Ramiro’s lackey. Lilly concludes that Scotty knew the victim, and he looks reflective and says, “Ana. Yeah.”
One of the officers motions for them to come in then, and Scotty leads the charge inside, where the officers are handcuffing Ramiro. Ramiro stares at Scotty for a second. “Alvaro?” he says in disbelief. “Detective Valens,” Scotty corrects, with just a hint of satisfaction. “You’re a cop,” Ramiro concludes in amazement, and Scotty says he’s been waiting a long time to see Ramiro again. Ramiro calls Scotty an SOB and attempts to charge him, yelling that he trusted him, but attempting to charge a police officer while being restrained by another police officer usually isn’t entirely successful, as Ramiro soon learns. “Aw, don’t break my heart here, Ramiro,” Scotty tells him casually, and Ramiro says that Scotty moved the drugs same as he did. Scotty points out, though, that he won’t be the one rotting in a prison cell, then suddenly charges Ramiro, grabs him by the lapels, and fiercely demands to know what he did to Ana Castilla. Ramiro insists he didn’t do nothing to her, but Scotty clearly doesn’t believe him. Ramiro asks who cares about a “dumb, b*tch mule.” As they lead him out, Scotty calls after him, “I did!” Lilly stares at Scotty in amazement while he does that whole angry brooding thing that he does so well. Oh, Scotty.
Credits.
Evidence warehouse. Lilly’s already digging through Ana’s box while Jeffries and Scotty head up the stairs, Jeffries saying, “Undercover, huh?” Scotty agrees reluctantly, and Jeffries points out that that’s something that you’d think would have come up. “I also went to soccer camp as a kid,” Scotty says, a bit peevishly, “never mentioned that.” Awww, little Scotty playing soccer! Jeffries isn’t as distracted by this particular idea as I am, though, reminding us all that the Cortez bust was huge, and thinks that Scotty would still be bragging about it. Well, yeah, he’s got a good point there. Scotty is being rather uncharacteristically humble. Jeffries asks Scotty what he did for Ramiro, and Scotty says he was a driver, and was supposed to find out the chain of command.
Lilly, with a bit more sadness in her voice than usual, recaps for us: Ana Castilla, 22, found stabbed and gutted outside St. Abigail’s Church. Jeffries asks if it was from a pellet bursting, and they cut her open to get the drugs, and Lilly says that was the theory, and Ramiro was Ana’s boss and the number-one suspect. Jeffries hands the scene photo to Scotty, who glances at it briefly, then puts it back in the box, saying, a bit distractedly, that the job went cold when Ramiro skipped town. “But now he’s back, and on our turf,” Lilly says with satisfaction. Scotty nods, and Jeffries concludes that Scotty knew Ana. Scotty says he picked up the girls at the airport and brought them to Ramiro. Lilly asks Scotty if he got Ana all three of her trips, and Scotty says they they talked, connected, and this was going to be her last run. He adds sadly that Ana was 24 hours away from getting out and going home to Colombia. Jeffries asks Scotty if he saw her the day she died, and with a faraway look in his eyes, he says he did. Wow…are we about to get a flashback from a detective’s point of view? This should be cool.
Hooverphonic’s “Mad About You” plays as we weave in and out of traffic on the expressway, then ride the bumper of a black BMW, which we soon see is driven by Scruffy Scotty. Wow, sweet ride. Ana’s looking thoughtfully at the flowers and tells Scotty that he never brought flowers before. He shrugs, grins, and says there was a lady selling them outside. “You never kissed me before, either,” she points out, and he’s unable to hide his smile as he tells her he was just making it look good. They grin at each other, and then Scotty holds out his hand, and she digs in her purse and gives him her passport, guessing that he must be fighting with his real girlfriend. Scotty laughs a little and asks her what makes her say that, and she figures out that she’s right. “She wants a wedding date,” Scotty says, a bit reluctantly, and adds that he doesn’t know what the rush is. Ana tells him, a bit wistfully, that he should be happy he has someone. He grins and says he just doesn’t see doing that until he wants kids. She asks when that is, and he grins and says, “like, forty, maybe?” Ana giggles and tells him he’s like her sister Sophia: they call her “la princesa” because she wants everything. Scotty chuckles at this, and my goodness, but that scruffy look is fabulous. Ana unfolds a picture of a woman sitting at a desk in an office, and Scotty notices the picture and asks what it is. “That’s what I want,” she says softly, then explains that she wants to get a job for a big company in Bogota, to work by a window with a nice view and flowers on her desk. “Bet you can make that happen,” Scotty says encouragingly. She folds up the picture, and Scotty asks her if she’s going to stop this work. She says she’s telling Ramiro tonight, and Scotty warns her that Ramiro won’t let her go easy. She knows, and Scotty gives her a Significant Glance.
Scotty says he dropped her at the motel where they collected the goods from the girls, and the next morning, her body was found. Jeffries asks Scotty if he looked into it at all, and Scotty says he couldn’t, since he was still on the job. Lilly suggests that maybe Ana didn’t die from a pellet bursting, but because she wanted out. Scotty asks why she was cut open, then, and Jeffries guesses it was as a warning to his other girls to keep them in their place. Miller comes up then and tells Scotty that Narcotics just handed Ramiro over to West, and Scotty can have a go at him. “Yeah? Good,” Scotty replies grimly.
West. Scotty and Lilly walk into the room where Ramiro is waiting, and he points out that Scotty’s suit looks like a Halloween costume on him. “Trick or treat,” he says, knocking on the table. “Alvaro.” Scotty says drily that he forgot how funny Ramiro was…and how stupid. “Weddings and funerals always bring back the dummies who are supposed to stay lost,” he remarks. Ramiro figured that, eight years later, Scotty wouldn’t still have his nose to the ground…. “but I guess you had it bad for her, eh, Alvaro?” Scotty orders him not to call him that. Perhaps it is here that I should point out that “Alvaro” is Spanish for “Guardian.” (Ramiro, by the way, means “Supreme Judge.” They’re very clever, those writers). Anyway, Ramiro tells Scotty that he saw how Scotty watched Ana, and asks if he was doing her the whole time. He calls him Alvaro again, and Scotty gives him a rather vicious-sounding smack in the back of the head. Lilly gives him an icy glare. “Did you hear me or not?” Scotty asks Ramiro. Lil turns the Ice Queen stare onto Ramiro, asking him if he cut up Ana for the drugs inside her, and Ramiro says they got all 70 cookies, no problem. “So why’s she gutted like a fish?” Lilly demands. Ramiro says someone sliced her to make it look like him, but he never touched her. Scotty surmises that Ana told Ramiro she wanted out, and Ramiro says that they all talk big: so what? Lilly reminds him that Ana, with her good English and gutsiness, was one of his best. No way he was letting her go. Scotty asks Ramiro what happened, and he says she lost her mind, that’s what.
Motel room, where we hear Control Machete’s “Grin-Gosano.” Ramiro stands by the bathroom door while a bag of cookies sits on the dresser, and Ana escorts the older woman from the plane to a bed, telling her she’ll be okay when they’re all out. The woman asks Ana if she felt like this, too, and she says she did for a little while, but she’s fine now. She dabs the older woman’s forehead as the woman explains that she did this for her son. His wife gave up on him, she says, but he’s a good boy, he just needs another chance. Ramiro tells Ana that she travels again in two months, and the older woman whispers encouragement to her in Spanish, which strikes me as odd, since surely Ramiro speaks Spanish, too. Anyway, Ana gets up and crosses the room, where she fingers the flowers Scotty gave her for just a minute before telling Ramiro that this is her last run. “Oh, you decide now,” he replies, and she says she has the money to help her sister. Ramiro points out that she hasn’t been paid yet. She protests that she gave him all 70 cookies, but he insists that she hasn’t been paid yet. She says that he doesn’t need her, since he has lots of girls, but he argues that not everyone can bluff like her. He points out her big, innocent eyes and tries to caress her cheek, but she slaps his hand away. He reminds her that people believe her crap. She says angrily that she wants out, and Ramiro grabs her and says that what matters is what he wants, and what he wants is to keep her money from this trip, and she’ll get it next time. Ana says he can’t keep her here, but he holds up her passport and asks her where she’ll go without it. She tries to grab it, but snatches it away, then charmingly stuffs it down the front of his pants, telling her to come get it.
He says he came out in a few minutes, and she was gone. Lilly asks him where she could have gone, with no money and no passport. “If they’re smart like you,” he tells her, “they stay alive. But she was dumb, so she’s dead.” Scotty takes issue with this, and Ramiro amends his statement. “Okay, she was a genius. She’s still dead.” Scotty glares at Ramiro for a second, then walks out. Ramiro asks, in Spanish, where Scotty’s going, then tells Lilly that she should have seen Scotty with his Ana: he was all over her. Lil glares at Ramiro and says that Scotty says she was just a friend. “And you believe what he says,” Ramiro replies. “Do you think that he’s never lied to you?” Ooooh, touché. “You didn’t know him then,” Ramiro finishes. “I did.” Things are getting a little too close for Lilly’s comfort, so she says they’re done here, then walks out, leaving our Supreme Judge to sit at the table with a smug grin.
Squad room. Vera asks Miller how many of them drug cookies one girl could swallow, and she says up to 80. Yikes. Vera figures that each cookie is worth two or three grand, and Miller responds drily that that means every girl’s carrying a quarter of a million bucks in her gut. “No wonder they open ‘em up if they die,” Vera concludes. Stillman asks them how they did, and Vera says they talked to some of her drug buddies and thinks they’ve got a lead. Miller comments that there’s a Colombian guy who helps newcomers in the community. “El Ranchero,” Vera adds. “Also known as Father Peralta,” Miller concludes, and Stillman realizes that El Ranchero is a priest. Vera says in ’98, Father Peralta claimed he didn’t know Ana, but her contacts say otherwise. But wait! There’s more! Miller hands Stillman a file and tells him to guess which church Father Peralta serves: St. Abigail’s. Stillman remembers that that’s where Ana’s body was found.
St. Abigail’s. Scotty tells Father Peralta that local Colombians know him as “El Ranchero,” “The Rancher,” and Jeffries says this is because he wrangles the mules, then asks if this is some kind of joke. Father Peralta laughs slightly and says he can’t help what people call him. Scotty asks if he helps these girls, and Father Peralta says he does what he can. Jeffries hands him a photo and asks if he helped a girl named Ana in September ’98, and he smiles and says it’s hard to forget that pretty face. Well, you don’t need to tell that to Scotty! “You know she ended up dead,” Scotty tells Father Peralta, “behind your church.” Father Peralta sighs and hands the photo back to Jeffries, explaining that he was new there and reaching out to these girls, and figured it was someone warning him not to, but adds that he ignored it, and helps them still today. Scotty asks him what he did for Ana that night, and Father Peralta says he gave her a place to stay; sanctuary in the church. “Out of the kindness of your heart,” Jeffries concludes drily. “Saints, sinners, I help people in need,” Father Peralta replies. Scotty points out that Father Peralta didn’t help the cops solve Ana’s murder, that he claimed not to even know Ana in ’98. Father Peralta argues that these girls work for drug dealers, and most of his parishioners are here illegally, so he’s not gonna deal with cops. Well, it looks like he’s dealing with a couple right now, I can’t help but notice. Scotty asks him what else he lied about, and Father Peralta asks if Scotty is suggesting that he had something to do with Ana dying. “Did you?” Jeffries asks. Father Peralta says he was administering last rites that night in a hospital in Cobbs Creek. Scotty asks if anyone else was here with Ana, and Father Peralta says there was another girl in hiding: Ceci. Jeffries asks where they can find her, and Father Peralta says he helped her get her job.
Ritzy house. A young Hispanic woman taking out the trash is approached by Lil and Miller, who identify themselves as Philly PD, and she says she’s just a housekeeper, and she has all her papers; Ms. Caroline can tell them. Lilly tells the woman, Ceci, that they’re here about Ana Castilla’s murder. Ceci says uncomfortably that she heard they cut Ana up, and Kat replies that they’re not sure Ana was holding any drugs. Lilly asks Ceci if she has any idea why someone might have done that. Ceci shakes her head slightly, then says that it might have been revenge: girls are property, she explains, and dealers don’t like them getting away. Rolling up her sleeve, Ceci shows them a nasty scar on her arm and says she was lucky, this was all she got the first time she tried to run. Lilly asks her how she finally got out, and she explains that after ten runs, her stomach couldn’t hold anything anymore, and she was useless to them. Kat reminds Ceci that she was bunked up with Ana at the church the night of Ana’s death, and Ceci remembers, saying those were bad times. Lilly smiles slightly, and tells Ceci that it looks like things have improved. Ceci looks down at the sweater she’s wearing and says that her boss gives her hand-me-downs. Lil asks Ceci what she remembers about Ana, and Ceci remembers that Ana was a nice girl, trying to help her little sister, and that she was wound up. “Runnin’ for your life’ll do that,” Miller remarks, and Lilly asks if Ana talked to Ceci about Ramiro. Ceci answers that that’s all she talked about: how she had to make it home.
St. Abigail’s, where Ceci snuffs out a cigarette onto a piece of paper and Morcheeba’s “Let Me See” plays in the background. Ana reminisces about how after the first run, she bought her parents a car, and Sophia wanted to know where she got the money. Ceci asks Ana if she told Sophia, and Ana says no, explaining that Sophia looks up to her. She then looks wistfully at the picture of the secretary in the office, and Ceci asks if being a secretary pays well. Ana says if she could get a job like that, she could put Sophia in school. She sits down on the bed, looks down at the picture again, and then tells Ceci that she could get a job, too. Ceci says she doesn’t want to go back there, and besides, she’s going to Miami soon, with her boyfriend. Ana asks her what she’s waiting for, and Ceci explains that her boyfriend is caught up, too, and trying to get out, like they are. Ana asks Ceci if she’s okay, and Ceci answers that she quit using when she got there: “Father Peralta’s rules,” then lies down on the bed. Ana asks Ceci to tell her what Miami’s like, and Ceci smiles. “Nightclubs, music, sun…sun all the time.” Ana smiles wistfully, then Ceci asks her how she got away from Ramiro tonight. She says remorsefully that she ran, and left a new lady there, who was sick. Ceci reminds Ana that if a pellet opened, there’s nothing Ana can do: the woman’s going to die, whether Ana’s there or not. Ana suggests that maybe she can get her out, get her to a doctor, but Ceci says Ramiro would never let her, and besides, she can’t go back. Ana sighs and looks at the picture again, then folds it up, stuffs it into her pocket, and tells Ceci she stole two cookies. Ceci sits up, stunned, and asks to see them. Ana says she hid them, and Ceci says Ramiro’s going to kill her. “No,” she insists, “he’s going to give me my passport for them.”
Ceci says she tried to help Ana, but she was crazy, and went back to the motel. “Back to Ramiro,” Lilly realizes. Ceci says Ana had that trade stuck in her head. “Pellets for a passport,” Kat surmises. Ceci then wonders if Sophia ever knew how much Ana wanted to help her. Lil asks Ceci if that’s the last time she ever saw Ana, and Ceci says she went, and never came back.
West. Scotty accuses Ramiro of lying to them. “Look who’s talkin’,” Ramiro replies, saying he’s never seen anybody hustle as good as Scotty. Scotty says Ana stole two cookies from Ramiro and came back to barter, but Ramiro’s not interested in talking about Ana. He says Scotty was a natural on the street, and asks him if he knows why. Scotty continues his separate conversation, saying he knows Ramiro killed Ana; he’s cut up a girl for a lot less. Ramiro goes on, saying Scotty has a criminal nature, and this gives Scotty pause. Ramiro says Scotty loved it out there in the dirt; not like now, choking on that tie, and he’s so shined up there’s nothing left of him. “You bought my act, Ramiro,” Scotty retorts. “It’s your bad.” Ramiro agrees, saying he bought it, and so did the whole crew, then tells Scotty he’s really good at lying to the people he’s with every day. Manny and Stillman, behind the glass, exchange a Meaningful Glance, while inside, Scotty says Ramiro can talk trash all he wants, it doesn’t change what he did. Ramiro asks Scotty why he cares so much about this girl, and Scotty retorts that it’s not about him. Ana came back to trade the drugs for the money and passport, he says, and asks if that’s when the knife came out. Ramiro finally says that Ana came, but without the drugs, so he couldn’t kill her.
September 28, 1998
“Teardrop” by Massive Attack starts up, and I have to check and make sure for a second that I’m indeed watching “Cold Case” and not “House.” Yup, it’s Cold Case. Good. I was worried there for a second. Anyway, we’re on a plane, which has apparently just landed, because everybody’s doing that whole restless “getting their luggage out of the overhead compartment despite the fact that they’re going to be waiting in line behind the slow people at the front for the next five minutes” routine. The camera zooms in on a gorgeous young Hispanic woman, who pauses for a minute, then unfastens her seat belt and starts to get her stuff out of overhead while an older woman, seated a row behind her, watches for a second, then moves to get her things out of the next bin.
Aiport. The PA is announcing the arrival of Flight 528 from Bogota, Colombia. The two women from the plane are waiting for baggage at the carousel, and they exchange a slight smile. A police officer with a drug-sniffing dog walks by, and then the younger woman grabs her suitcase and heads for Customs. The other woman from the plane makes it through, and then the Customs official motions for the young woman to come forward. She greets the officer as she hands him her suitcase, and he asks her where she’s from. “Medellin, Colombia,” is the reply as she hands him her passport. He asks why she’s here, and she replies that she’s visiting her boyfriend. Customs Guy regards her with suspicion as he notes the stamps in the passport and points out that it’s her third visit in the last year, but she smiles at him and says her boyfriend misses her. Customs Guy asks if that’s all her luggage, and she nods; he then asks if she’s carrying any drugs, and she smiles and says no. He studies her for a minute, then hands her back her passport and welcomes her to the United States. She smiles, grabs her things, and heads down the escalator, where she scans the crowd for her boyfriend. The older woman from the plane has apparently found who she’s visiting, because a young man helps her with her suitcase, and then the young woman smiles as she sees who she’s looking for, and…hold on, back up… is that Scotty? It’s either Scotty or his equally delectable evil twin, who looks deliciously scruffy in a black leather jacket, jeans, spiked hair, and a soul patch. My goodness. (Yes, I know, I’m supposed to be recapping, but did you SEE this guy? I mean…SERIOUSLY. Okay, I’m better now). The Scotty lookalike whips out a bouquet of flowers and greets the girl with a seductive “Hola, cariña.” She seems thrilled to see him and surprised by the flowers, but there’s more coming. He gently lifts her chin and gives her a tender kiss. Yup, definitely Scotty. I think. He tells her she looks good, and she calls him “mentiroso,” Spanish for liar, and says she doesn’t. Scruffy Scotty smiles at her, then grabs her suitcase and suggests that they hit the road.
The camera takes us to a dark street, where the young woman lies dead from a vicious abdominal wound. A detective marks on a box labeled “Castilla, A.” in the evidence warehouse.
Present Day
Officers with guns drawn bust into an apartment, while outside on the street, Lilly’s asking Stillman if this is about a cold job. He says it’s about a drug mule killed in 1998: Ana Castilla, and the number one suspect was her handler, Ramiro. “The guy inside,” Lilly surmises, and Stillman says Ramiro disappeared for eight years, but returned for his brother’s wedding. They come up to Regular, Non-Scruffy Scotty, who’s standing there with his old boss, Manny Fernandez, whom Scotty re-introduces to Lil, then tells her that he and Manny worked the Cortez drug bust together, and Ramiro was Cortez’s point man. Manny explains that the Cortez bust was the biggest take-down of the ‘90s. “Your undercover job,” Stillman says, indicating Scotty, then he and Manny leave. “I didn’t know you worked undercover,” Lilly says, and Scotty tries to brush it off, saying that it was just the one job, and he was Ramiro’s lackey. Lilly concludes that Scotty knew the victim, and he looks reflective and says, “Ana. Yeah.”
One of the officers motions for them to come in then, and Scotty leads the charge inside, where the officers are handcuffing Ramiro. Ramiro stares at Scotty for a second. “Alvaro?” he says in disbelief. “Detective Valens,” Scotty corrects, with just a hint of satisfaction. “You’re a cop,” Ramiro concludes in amazement, and Scotty says he’s been waiting a long time to see Ramiro again. Ramiro calls Scotty an SOB and attempts to charge him, yelling that he trusted him, but attempting to charge a police officer while being restrained by another police officer usually isn’t entirely successful, as Ramiro soon learns. “Aw, don’t break my heart here, Ramiro,” Scotty tells him casually, and Ramiro says that Scotty moved the drugs same as he did. Scotty points out, though, that he won’t be the one rotting in a prison cell, then suddenly charges Ramiro, grabs him by the lapels, and fiercely demands to know what he did to Ana Castilla. Ramiro insists he didn’t do nothing to her, but Scotty clearly doesn’t believe him. Ramiro asks who cares about a “dumb, b*tch mule.” As they lead him out, Scotty calls after him, “I did!” Lilly stares at Scotty in amazement while he does that whole angry brooding thing that he does so well. Oh, Scotty.
Credits.
Evidence warehouse. Lilly’s already digging through Ana’s box while Jeffries and Scotty head up the stairs, Jeffries saying, “Undercover, huh?” Scotty agrees reluctantly, and Jeffries points out that that’s something that you’d think would have come up. “I also went to soccer camp as a kid,” Scotty says, a bit peevishly, “never mentioned that.” Awww, little Scotty playing soccer! Jeffries isn’t as distracted by this particular idea as I am, though, reminding us all that the Cortez bust was huge, and thinks that Scotty would still be bragging about it. Well, yeah, he’s got a good point there. Scotty is being rather uncharacteristically humble. Jeffries asks Scotty what he did for Ramiro, and Scotty says he was a driver, and was supposed to find out the chain of command.
Lilly, with a bit more sadness in her voice than usual, recaps for us: Ana Castilla, 22, found stabbed and gutted outside St. Abigail’s Church. Jeffries asks if it was from a pellet bursting, and they cut her open to get the drugs, and Lilly says that was the theory, and Ramiro was Ana’s boss and the number-one suspect. Jeffries hands the scene photo to Scotty, who glances at it briefly, then puts it back in the box, saying, a bit distractedly, that the job went cold when Ramiro skipped town. “But now he’s back, and on our turf,” Lilly says with satisfaction. Scotty nods, and Jeffries concludes that Scotty knew Ana. Scotty says he picked up the girls at the airport and brought them to Ramiro. Lilly asks Scotty if he got Ana all three of her trips, and Scotty says they they talked, connected, and this was going to be her last run. He adds sadly that Ana was 24 hours away from getting out and going home to Colombia. Jeffries asks Scotty if he saw her the day she died, and with a faraway look in his eyes, he says he did. Wow…are we about to get a flashback from a detective’s point of view? This should be cool.
Hooverphonic’s “Mad About You” plays as we weave in and out of traffic on the expressway, then ride the bumper of a black BMW, which we soon see is driven by Scruffy Scotty. Wow, sweet ride. Ana’s looking thoughtfully at the flowers and tells Scotty that he never brought flowers before. He shrugs, grins, and says there was a lady selling them outside. “You never kissed me before, either,” she points out, and he’s unable to hide his smile as he tells her he was just making it look good. They grin at each other, and then Scotty holds out his hand, and she digs in her purse and gives him her passport, guessing that he must be fighting with his real girlfriend. Scotty laughs a little and asks her what makes her say that, and she figures out that she’s right. “She wants a wedding date,” Scotty says, a bit reluctantly, and adds that he doesn’t know what the rush is. Ana tells him, a bit wistfully, that he should be happy he has someone. He grins and says he just doesn’t see doing that until he wants kids. She asks when that is, and he grins and says, “like, forty, maybe?” Ana giggles and tells him he’s like her sister Sophia: they call her “la princesa” because she wants everything. Scotty chuckles at this, and my goodness, but that scruffy look is fabulous. Ana unfolds a picture of a woman sitting at a desk in an office, and Scotty notices the picture and asks what it is. “That’s what I want,” she says softly, then explains that she wants to get a job for a big company in Bogota, to work by a window with a nice view and flowers on her desk. “Bet you can make that happen,” Scotty says encouragingly. She folds up the picture, and Scotty asks her if she’s going to stop this work. She says she’s telling Ramiro tonight, and Scotty warns her that Ramiro won’t let her go easy. She knows, and Scotty gives her a Significant Glance.
Scotty says he dropped her at the motel where they collected the goods from the girls, and the next morning, her body was found. Jeffries asks Scotty if he looked into it at all, and Scotty says he couldn’t, since he was still on the job. Lilly suggests that maybe Ana didn’t die from a pellet bursting, but because she wanted out. Scotty asks why she was cut open, then, and Jeffries guesses it was as a warning to his other girls to keep them in their place. Miller comes up then and tells Scotty that Narcotics just handed Ramiro over to West, and Scotty can have a go at him. “Yeah? Good,” Scotty replies grimly.
West. Scotty and Lilly walk into the room where Ramiro is waiting, and he points out that Scotty’s suit looks like a Halloween costume on him. “Trick or treat,” he says, knocking on the table. “Alvaro.” Scotty says drily that he forgot how funny Ramiro was…and how stupid. “Weddings and funerals always bring back the dummies who are supposed to stay lost,” he remarks. Ramiro figured that, eight years later, Scotty wouldn’t still have his nose to the ground…. “but I guess you had it bad for her, eh, Alvaro?” Scotty orders him not to call him that. Perhaps it is here that I should point out that “Alvaro” is Spanish for “Guardian.” (Ramiro, by the way, means “Supreme Judge.” They’re very clever, those writers). Anyway, Ramiro tells Scotty that he saw how Scotty watched Ana, and asks if he was doing her the whole time. He calls him Alvaro again, and Scotty gives him a rather vicious-sounding smack in the back of the head. Lilly gives him an icy glare. “Did you hear me or not?” Scotty asks Ramiro. Lil turns the Ice Queen stare onto Ramiro, asking him if he cut up Ana for the drugs inside her, and Ramiro says they got all 70 cookies, no problem. “So why’s she gutted like a fish?” Lilly demands. Ramiro says someone sliced her to make it look like him, but he never touched her. Scotty surmises that Ana told Ramiro she wanted out, and Ramiro says that they all talk big: so what? Lilly reminds him that Ana, with her good English and gutsiness, was one of his best. No way he was letting her go. Scotty asks Ramiro what happened, and he says she lost her mind, that’s what.
Motel room, where we hear Control Machete’s “Grin-Gosano.” Ramiro stands by the bathroom door while a bag of cookies sits on the dresser, and Ana escorts the older woman from the plane to a bed, telling her she’ll be okay when they’re all out. The woman asks Ana if she felt like this, too, and she says she did for a little while, but she’s fine now. She dabs the older woman’s forehead as the woman explains that she did this for her son. His wife gave up on him, she says, but he’s a good boy, he just needs another chance. Ramiro tells Ana that she travels again in two months, and the older woman whispers encouragement to her in Spanish, which strikes me as odd, since surely Ramiro speaks Spanish, too. Anyway, Ana gets up and crosses the room, where she fingers the flowers Scotty gave her for just a minute before telling Ramiro that this is her last run. “Oh, you decide now,” he replies, and she says she has the money to help her sister. Ramiro points out that she hasn’t been paid yet. She protests that she gave him all 70 cookies, but he insists that she hasn’t been paid yet. She says that he doesn’t need her, since he has lots of girls, but he argues that not everyone can bluff like her. He points out her big, innocent eyes and tries to caress her cheek, but she slaps his hand away. He reminds her that people believe her crap. She says angrily that she wants out, and Ramiro grabs her and says that what matters is what he wants, and what he wants is to keep her money from this trip, and she’ll get it next time. Ana says he can’t keep her here, but he holds up her passport and asks her where she’ll go without it. She tries to grab it, but snatches it away, then charmingly stuffs it down the front of his pants, telling her to come get it.
He says he came out in a few minutes, and she was gone. Lilly asks him where she could have gone, with no money and no passport. “If they’re smart like you,” he tells her, “they stay alive. But she was dumb, so she’s dead.” Scotty takes issue with this, and Ramiro amends his statement. “Okay, she was a genius. She’s still dead.” Scotty glares at Ramiro for a second, then walks out. Ramiro asks, in Spanish, where Scotty’s going, then tells Lilly that she should have seen Scotty with his Ana: he was all over her. Lil glares at Ramiro and says that Scotty says she was just a friend. “And you believe what he says,” Ramiro replies. “Do you think that he’s never lied to you?” Ooooh, touché. “You didn’t know him then,” Ramiro finishes. “I did.” Things are getting a little too close for Lilly’s comfort, so she says they’re done here, then walks out, leaving our Supreme Judge to sit at the table with a smug grin.
Squad room. Vera asks Miller how many of them drug cookies one girl could swallow, and she says up to 80. Yikes. Vera figures that each cookie is worth two or three grand, and Miller responds drily that that means every girl’s carrying a quarter of a million bucks in her gut. “No wonder they open ‘em up if they die,” Vera concludes. Stillman asks them how they did, and Vera says they talked to some of her drug buddies and thinks they’ve got a lead. Miller comments that there’s a Colombian guy who helps newcomers in the community. “El Ranchero,” Vera adds. “Also known as Father Peralta,” Miller concludes, and Stillman realizes that El Ranchero is a priest. Vera says in ’98, Father Peralta claimed he didn’t know Ana, but her contacts say otherwise. But wait! There’s more! Miller hands Stillman a file and tells him to guess which church Father Peralta serves: St. Abigail’s. Stillman remembers that that’s where Ana’s body was found.
St. Abigail’s. Scotty tells Father Peralta that local Colombians know him as “El Ranchero,” “The Rancher,” and Jeffries says this is because he wrangles the mules, then asks if this is some kind of joke. Father Peralta laughs slightly and says he can’t help what people call him. Scotty asks if he helps these girls, and Father Peralta says he does what he can. Jeffries hands him a photo and asks if he helped a girl named Ana in September ’98, and he smiles and says it’s hard to forget that pretty face. Well, you don’t need to tell that to Scotty! “You know she ended up dead,” Scotty tells Father Peralta, “behind your church.” Father Peralta sighs and hands the photo back to Jeffries, explaining that he was new there and reaching out to these girls, and figured it was someone warning him not to, but adds that he ignored it, and helps them still today. Scotty asks him what he did for Ana that night, and Father Peralta says he gave her a place to stay; sanctuary in the church. “Out of the kindness of your heart,” Jeffries concludes drily. “Saints, sinners, I help people in need,” Father Peralta replies. Scotty points out that Father Peralta didn’t help the cops solve Ana’s murder, that he claimed not to even know Ana in ’98. Father Peralta argues that these girls work for drug dealers, and most of his parishioners are here illegally, so he’s not gonna deal with cops. Well, it looks like he’s dealing with a couple right now, I can’t help but notice. Scotty asks him what else he lied about, and Father Peralta asks if Scotty is suggesting that he had something to do with Ana dying. “Did you?” Jeffries asks. Father Peralta says he was administering last rites that night in a hospital in Cobbs Creek. Scotty asks if anyone else was here with Ana, and Father Peralta says there was another girl in hiding: Ceci. Jeffries asks where they can find her, and Father Peralta says he helped her get her job.
Ritzy house. A young Hispanic woman taking out the trash is approached by Lil and Miller, who identify themselves as Philly PD, and she says she’s just a housekeeper, and she has all her papers; Ms. Caroline can tell them. Lilly tells the woman, Ceci, that they’re here about Ana Castilla’s murder. Ceci says uncomfortably that she heard they cut Ana up, and Kat replies that they’re not sure Ana was holding any drugs. Lilly asks Ceci if she has any idea why someone might have done that. Ceci shakes her head slightly, then says that it might have been revenge: girls are property, she explains, and dealers don’t like them getting away. Rolling up her sleeve, Ceci shows them a nasty scar on her arm and says she was lucky, this was all she got the first time she tried to run. Lilly asks her how she finally got out, and she explains that after ten runs, her stomach couldn’t hold anything anymore, and she was useless to them. Kat reminds Ceci that she was bunked up with Ana at the church the night of Ana’s death, and Ceci remembers, saying those were bad times. Lilly smiles slightly, and tells Ceci that it looks like things have improved. Ceci looks down at the sweater she’s wearing and says that her boss gives her hand-me-downs. Lil asks Ceci what she remembers about Ana, and Ceci remembers that Ana was a nice girl, trying to help her little sister, and that she was wound up. “Runnin’ for your life’ll do that,” Miller remarks, and Lilly asks if Ana talked to Ceci about Ramiro. Ceci answers that that’s all she talked about: how she had to make it home.
St. Abigail’s, where Ceci snuffs out a cigarette onto a piece of paper and Morcheeba’s “Let Me See” plays in the background. Ana reminisces about how after the first run, she bought her parents a car, and Sophia wanted to know where she got the money. Ceci asks Ana if she told Sophia, and Ana says no, explaining that Sophia looks up to her. She then looks wistfully at the picture of the secretary in the office, and Ceci asks if being a secretary pays well. Ana says if she could get a job like that, she could put Sophia in school. She sits down on the bed, looks down at the picture again, and then tells Ceci that she could get a job, too. Ceci says she doesn’t want to go back there, and besides, she’s going to Miami soon, with her boyfriend. Ana asks her what she’s waiting for, and Ceci explains that her boyfriend is caught up, too, and trying to get out, like they are. Ana asks Ceci if she’s okay, and Ceci answers that she quit using when she got there: “Father Peralta’s rules,” then lies down on the bed. Ana asks Ceci to tell her what Miami’s like, and Ceci smiles. “Nightclubs, music, sun…sun all the time.” Ana smiles wistfully, then Ceci asks her how she got away from Ramiro tonight. She says remorsefully that she ran, and left a new lady there, who was sick. Ceci reminds Ana that if a pellet opened, there’s nothing Ana can do: the woman’s going to die, whether Ana’s there or not. Ana suggests that maybe she can get her out, get her to a doctor, but Ceci says Ramiro would never let her, and besides, she can’t go back. Ana sighs and looks at the picture again, then folds it up, stuffs it into her pocket, and tells Ceci she stole two cookies. Ceci sits up, stunned, and asks to see them. Ana says she hid them, and Ceci says Ramiro’s going to kill her. “No,” she insists, “he’s going to give me my passport for them.”
Ceci says she tried to help Ana, but she was crazy, and went back to the motel. “Back to Ramiro,” Lilly realizes. Ceci says Ana had that trade stuck in her head. “Pellets for a passport,” Kat surmises. Ceci then wonders if Sophia ever knew how much Ana wanted to help her. Lil asks Ceci if that’s the last time she ever saw Ana, and Ceci says she went, and never came back.
West. Scotty accuses Ramiro of lying to them. “Look who’s talkin’,” Ramiro replies, saying he’s never seen anybody hustle as good as Scotty. Scotty says Ana stole two cookies from Ramiro and came back to barter, but Ramiro’s not interested in talking about Ana. He says Scotty was a natural on the street, and asks him if he knows why. Scotty continues his separate conversation, saying he knows Ramiro killed Ana; he’s cut up a girl for a lot less. Ramiro goes on, saying Scotty has a criminal nature, and this gives Scotty pause. Ramiro says Scotty loved it out there in the dirt; not like now, choking on that tie, and he’s so shined up there’s nothing left of him. “You bought my act, Ramiro,” Scotty retorts. “It’s your bad.” Ramiro agrees, saying he bought it, and so did the whole crew, then tells Scotty he’s really good at lying to the people he’s with every day. Manny and Stillman, behind the glass, exchange a Meaningful Glance, while inside, Scotty says Ramiro can talk trash all he wants, it doesn’t change what he did. Ramiro asks Scotty why he cares so much about this girl, and Scotty retorts that it’s not about him. Ana came back to trade the drugs for the money and passport, he says, and asks if that’s when the knife came out. Ramiro finally says that Ana came, but without the drugs, so he couldn’t kill her.
