Post by cellogal on Sept 7, 2008 18:27:58 GMT -5
September 15, 1984
Grocery store, where Asia’s “The Heat of the Moment” plays. A guy announces to a small crowd that he couldn’t be a prouder father because his son, Grant, qualified for the Junior Olympic training program in wrestling. Grant steps forward for a hug as everyone applauds, and Dad announces plans to bring back a shiny trinket back to the store: a little thing called Olympic gold. “No pressure or nothin’, huh?” Grant remarks, and Dad whips off a cover to reveal a trophy case with space reserved for the medal. A young man in an apron applauds half-heartedly as Dad gives his “work hard, never quit” motto. He then tells everyone the beer’s up front, and the crowd, not surprisingly, disperses. People hug and shake hands with Grant as they head for the beer, and Apron Boy, who also happens to be Grant’s brother, walks up to Dad and congratulates him on his speech. Dad reminisces about when Grant was just a sparkle in his eye, and Apron Boy remarks that now Grant eats an entire cow in one sitting. No bitterness there. Nuh-uh. Not at all. Dad turns to Apron Boy, also known as Maurice, and asks him if he’s got a plan for himself, pointing out that Grant set a goal, and there’s no stopping him, so what’s it going to be for Maurice? Maurice is suddenly distracted by a gorgeous young black woman perusing the aisles and practicing what appear to be dance moves, but Dad regains his attention, saying he’s talking to Maurice about his future. He’s sixteen, Dad says, he’s not the baby anymore. Maurice knows. Dad tells Maurice to find some direction, or he’ll find a direction for him. That doesn’t sound promising. Point made, Dad leaves, and Maurice and the girl exchange a smile.
In an alley, we see Maurice’s dead body lying in a dumpster. Oh, snap.
On a different street, passersby notice the Missing poster for Maurice.
Present Day
Morgue. Scotty and Lilly enter, Scotty commenting on how you can always count on a warm atmosphere in there, and Lilly asking him if he ever wonders if they’re not really dead and they’ll all of a sudden just sit up. “That’s not funny,” Scotty replies. Oh, it so is. Frannie agrees with me, because she asks Scotty if he’s going to be okay. Hee. Scotty, ignoring her, asks Stillman what they’ve got, and Stillman says that a construction crew raising a landfill up in Northeast found the skeletal remains that lie on Frannie’s table. Lilly asks how long it’s been in there, and Frannie says he’d been there about 20 years, adding that the skull shape and size confirm that it was a young adult male. Stillman says that they pulled all the missing persons from 1977 to 1987, and dental records narrowed it down to Maurice Hall, who went missing in October 1984 from his family’s apartment in Kensington, where he lived above their grocery store. Lilly reads sadly that he was only sixteen. Stillman explains that they originally thought Maurice was a teenage runaway, but Frannie points to injuries to his foot and says that it was shattered, leading Scotty to conclude that Maurice wasn’t running anywhere. Frannie then tells the detectives that Maurice died of multiple skull fractures, inflicted by something long and thin. Stillman asks if she can get more specific, but at this stage of decomposition, she can’t. Lilly leans a bit too close to the bones for my taste, and probably Scotty’s, and muses that, for 23 years, Maurice’s family’s been hoping he’s out there somewhere, and Scotty finishes her thought, saying that he was practically in their backyard the whole time.
Credits.
Street. Stillman and Jeffries are walking together, Stillman telling Jeffries that there’s something he wanted to let him in on, and he wanted Jeffries to hear it from him: they got a call about a guy facing an armed robbery charge has offered up a proffer: an ex-truck-driver friend of his confessed to a fatal hit-and-run on the Turnpike in the winter of ’95. Oh, snap. Jeffries realizes Stillman’s talking about his wife, then asks who it’s from. Stillman tells him it’s the Jersey State Police, and it could be the end of the line. Jeffries asks the man’s name, but Stillman is silent, so Jeffries then asks if they’ve got anything they can put him away on. Stillman says that the proffer’s all they’ve got, but Jersey’s got their best guys on it; they know it’s for him. Wow.
Squad room. Lilly reads the file, where we learn that Maurice Hall, a sophomore at James Marshall High, worked at his family’s grocery store, and lost his mother to cancer in 1981. His brother, Grant, the wrestling star, also worked at the store. Lilly and Kat read that Hall and Sons Grocery was the center of the search, and volunteers papered the town with Missing posters, but all they got were the usual loony calls. Vera adds that the father said Maurice was clean-cut and kept to himself, but Lilly reads a report that says Maurice was acting erratic before he ran away: late for work and moody. Vera thinks maybe he wasn’t so clean-cut, but Kat guesses Maurice might have been just a typical sulky teenager. Vera says that the father still lives in Kensington, and Lilly heads off to pay him the visit he’s been hoping not to get for 23 years.
Grocery store. Lilly and Scotty have just broken the news to Dad and Grant, and Dad asks if they’re sure it was Maurice that they found. They are, Lilly says, and they’re very sorry; Scotty adds that they should expect a call from the ME’s office. Lilly asks Dad about Maurice’s erratic behavior, and Dad says Maurice had a pretty much erratic way about him all the time: he was creative, like his mother. Grant, who doesn’t look anything like the star wrestler he once was, adds that Maurice and their mother were two peas in a pod. Dad says it wasn’t easy for Maurice after her death; he was different from the usual types in the neighborhood. Lilly asks what the usual type was, and Grant says it was regular guys like them. Scotty asks them to be more specific, and Grant lists sports, beer, and girls as the norm. Dad adds that Maurice was into books and music, and Scotty asks if anyone gave him trouble for being different. Dad knows of one time for sure, that same fall.
Grocery store. While Luscious Redhead’s “Behind the Mask” plays in the background, Dad’s ranting at Maurice, who’s wearing those charming plastic ‘80s sunglasses, about how, with Grant’s training, they’re short help in the store, then points out that since Maurice has dropped out of high school, he could contribute more to his brother’s dream. Maurice says he doesn’t want t work at the store for the rest of his life; he doesn’t mean it as an insult, but Dad certainly takes it as one, proclaiming Maurice odd. “And you dress funny,” Grant adds, coming up behind Dad. Dad takes off Maurice’s sunglasses to reveal a black eye. Maurice insists that it’s nothing, some mean kid just being a jerk. “You should’ve seen what I did to him,” he adds. Dad says Maurice should learn to defend himself, but Maurice hopes it won’t happen again. Grant pipes up that he tried showing Maurice how, and Dad orders Maurice to tell him who did this, so he can have Grant take care of it. Maurice insists that he doesn’t need help; he can handle it.
Lilly surmises that Maurice never told Dad who gave him the black eye, and Dad says that it wasn’t easy for Maurice, with Grant being this great athlete, the girls going after him, and all that. Scotty remarks that the bully had some balls, picking on Grant’s kid brother. Grant says that some people are real jerks, then leaves to do inventory. As Scotty watches him go, Dad says he always thought Maurice would just show up one day, telling him that he’d got the wandering out of his system and he was back home. “Not gonna happen, huh?” he asks.
Back room. Scotty tracks down Grant, reminiscing that, when he was little and someone picked on him, he’d tell them who his brother was, and the guy would step off in a hurry. Guess the ol’ fists o’ fury hadn’t fully developed yet, huh? Grant agrees, and Scotty asks him if he had Maurice’s back like that. Grant says he did, so Scotty demands to know who gave Maurice that black eye. Grant angrily repeats that it was nobody. “Nobody picked on my kid brother,” he says. “Except you,” Scotty realizes. Grant claims it was for his own good. Scotty asks him what he means by that, and Grant says one night he was jogging in the neighborhood and saw Maurice doing something that would have given their dad a heart attack.
Street, where we hear “Self Control” by Laura Branigan. Grant, who is indeed jogging, happens upon Maurice standing on a fire escape outside a dance studio and mimicking the moves he sees from the class inside. A better look tells us that the girl from earlier is in the class, but Grant seems just as interested in the moves as the girl. Grant finally asks Maurice what he’s doing, then demands to know if he’s a queer. Maurice denies it, and Grant points out that he’s sure acting like one. Maurice orders Grant to leave him alone, but Grant does the opposite: he hauls off and socks Maurice in the face, knocking him to the ground, then taunts him to get up. The girl, who’s apparently seen it all, runs outside and orders Grant to go away; she’s not even kidding, she says. She tells Grant that her name is Crystal, Maurice is her boyfriend, and Grant must be the piece of scum on the bottom of her shoe. Wow. I like her already. Grant doesn’t believe her claim to be his girlfriend, but she calls Maurice “baby,” asks him if he’s okay, and helps him to his feet. To further prove the point, they kiss, and Maurice reassures Crystal that he’s okay. Crystal turns to Grant and tells him once more to get out of there, but Grant asks Maurice if she’s really his girlfriend. He says she is, then tells Grant to get lost. Mercifully, he does.
Grant says it blew his mind, and Scotty asks why Crystal didn’t come up in the original investigation. Grant says he couldn’t have talked about it back then; Dad would have lost it. Scotty assumes it was because Crystal was black, but Grant says it was because she was a dancer. “So was your brother,” Scotty replies, and Grant says that’s the kind of thing that could get you offed around here. “Boy dancer…Kensington,” Scotty muses in apparent agreement.
Squad room. Jeffries informs Stillman that the dance class Maurice saw was at the Jacob Hayes School for the Arts, and they muse that the neighbors must have loved that. “Buncha freaks run amok,” Vera adds, then informs them that Crystal’s now a teacher at the school. Stillman says he’ll send Kat and Scotty, and then Vera hands Jeffries something from the Jersey State Police: a case file on Isaac Keller. Jeffries takes it and walks off, and Vera, clearly curious, asks if this is about the Hall case. “Nope,” Jeffries replies. “Okay,” a slightly miffed Vera replies, and walks away, leaving Jeffries looking at Xeroxes of Isaac Keller’s driver’s license.
Dance studio. Scotty introduces himself and Kat to Crystal and hands her one of Maurice’s Missing posters, asking if she remembers him. She does, recalling him getting into a fight with “some jerk,” who Kat identifies as his brother. Scotty asks Crystal about being Maurice’s girlfriend, and Crystal says she’d never met Maurice before that night. “He’s a total stranger who you saved from a fight,” Kat replies in disbelief, and Crystal says he wasn’t a total stranger; she’d seen him outside their class almost every night doing the routine with them. Scotty asks if that’s why she intervened on his behalf. “It was my superhero act,” Crystal answers, “savin’ my people from evil.” At Kat’s prompting, she elaborates, saying her people are the “inspired ones.”
Outside the dance studio. Chaka Khan’s “Through the Fire” plays as Maurice asks Crystal who she is, and she answers that she’s the best in school, and a star of the future, then she and Maurice introduce themselves. Crystal then tells Maurice he’s good, and asks who he studies with. “And don’t tell me it’s natural talent, because then you’re a liar, or I have to hate you,” she adds. Heh. Maurice says his mom taught him a few things; she’d dance in the kitchen, and he’d try to keep up. “And now she lets you dance on the street?” Crystal asks, but Maurice quietly tells her that his mother’s dead. Crystal apologizes, then launches into a sales pitch for the school, saying it’s “the max;” he’ll get the best teachers, join a company in New York, and be famous. “Like a Solid Gold dancer?” he asks. She laughs, then asks if he’s ever heard of Martha Graham, Bob Fosse, or Twyla Tharp, then says she’s talking about greatness and urges him to say it with her. Maurice protests that he works in a grocery store, but Crystal tells him that auditions for the school are on the 30th, and he should try out…but not if he can’t nail the hip snap. She demonstrates, he follows her movement, and suddenly a grouchy-looking guy comes out of the school glaring at them and asking if it’s a private lesson. Crystal tells the guy, Carlos, to relax; they’re just practicing. Carlos orders Maurice to stay away from Crystal, then grabs her roughly and starts to drag her away. Maurice chases after them, ordering Carlos to leave Crystal alone, and Carlos turns on Maurice, calling him a poser and asking him if he thinks he’s got moves, then challenges Maurice to a fight at 5:00 the next day.
Scotty asks the Obvious Question of the Day: did Carlos have violent tendencies? Crystal confirms it, saying she didn’t know what she was thinking back then. Kat asks what Carlos was up to, challenging Maurice to the fight, and Crystal doesn’t know, but she never saw Maurice again after that night.
Squad room. Carlos tells them to hurry up and do this; he’s got an open call in 20. “You got a tutu to wear over those tights?” Vera asks. Hee. Carlos asks Vera if he’s distracted, and Lilly steps in, telling Carlos they have an idea he knows how Maurice died. Carlos says their idea doesn’t hold water. “Sorry, sweetheart,” he tells Lilly with a lecherous wink. She gives him this fabulous look, and Vera reads Carlos’s record, pointing out his history of using his fists freely. “They got a word for that…sweetheart?” Lilly retorts. Hee. “Passionate,” is Carlos’s reply. “Homicidal,” Lilly corrects. Potato, potahto. Vera asks about the fight Carlos challenged Maurice to, and Carlos says it was a duel: mano a mano. “Like a catfight, right?” Vera asks. Heh. Carlos asks Vera if he thinks dancing’s for weaklings, then asks Vera when was the last time he carried his body weight on his toes while running, throwing a woman in the air, and catching her without breaking a sweat. I’m gonna go ahead and guess never, but my goodness, is that mental image hilarious. “It’s been a while,” Vera admits. Hee. Lilly interrupts their one-upmanship, asking Carlos if the duel was a fight to the death, and Carlos says sort of: death to the ego. Well, I bet we know who won that.
Dance studio. Maurice asks Carlos what this is, and Carlos sneers that it’s the Lion’s Den, then sarcastically tells him to break a leg. Maurice looks around at everyone else stretching and begins to do the same, but they’re all interrupted by an arrogant-looking black man who walks softly and carries a very big stick. He counts them off, and the dancers launch into the routine, which Maurice catches onto, but is behind. The teacher stops them, then sarcastically laments that someone’s gotten lost and wandered his way into class and wonders why none of them told him it was a dance class, not the steel mill. Amid the chuckles of the other students, Maurice bravely says he’s there for the class, and the teacher proclaims this sad. “You gon’ make me cry,” he replies. He then calls Maurice over and counts him off for the routine once more, yelling at him to spot. Maurice protests that he was, and the teacher bangs his big stick on the floor. Maurice asks what’s wrong with him; he almost took his toe off. “So what if I did?” the teacher asks, then tells Maurice that a dancer has to know pain, and asks him who taught him how to be so lazy. Maurice says his mother taught him to dance. “On a break from the wallpaper factory?” the teacher asks. “She teach you how to do the fox trot?” Maurice orders him not to talk about his mother, and the teacher proclaims him thin-skinned, announces he’ll never make it, and tells him to go home and cry to his mama. “What would you know about making it?” Maurice asks. Ooooh. The teacher angrily calls Maurice a little piece of insolent pale color and orders him out. Maurice leaves, the class reassembles, and Carlos looks on with satisfaction.
Carlos identifies the dance teacher as Dr. Leroy, and Lilly asks about the wooden staff. Carlos says it was Dr. Leroy’s trademark; he broke a girl’s foot with it one time. Well, now that’s a conveniently placed bit of random information.
Grocery store, where Asia’s “The Heat of the Moment” plays. A guy announces to a small crowd that he couldn’t be a prouder father because his son, Grant, qualified for the Junior Olympic training program in wrestling. Grant steps forward for a hug as everyone applauds, and Dad announces plans to bring back a shiny trinket back to the store: a little thing called Olympic gold. “No pressure or nothin’, huh?” Grant remarks, and Dad whips off a cover to reveal a trophy case with space reserved for the medal. A young man in an apron applauds half-heartedly as Dad gives his “work hard, never quit” motto. He then tells everyone the beer’s up front, and the crowd, not surprisingly, disperses. People hug and shake hands with Grant as they head for the beer, and Apron Boy, who also happens to be Grant’s brother, walks up to Dad and congratulates him on his speech. Dad reminisces about when Grant was just a sparkle in his eye, and Apron Boy remarks that now Grant eats an entire cow in one sitting. No bitterness there. Nuh-uh. Not at all. Dad turns to Apron Boy, also known as Maurice, and asks him if he’s got a plan for himself, pointing out that Grant set a goal, and there’s no stopping him, so what’s it going to be for Maurice? Maurice is suddenly distracted by a gorgeous young black woman perusing the aisles and practicing what appear to be dance moves, but Dad regains his attention, saying he’s talking to Maurice about his future. He’s sixteen, Dad says, he’s not the baby anymore. Maurice knows. Dad tells Maurice to find some direction, or he’ll find a direction for him. That doesn’t sound promising. Point made, Dad leaves, and Maurice and the girl exchange a smile.
In an alley, we see Maurice’s dead body lying in a dumpster. Oh, snap.
On a different street, passersby notice the Missing poster for Maurice.
Present Day
Morgue. Scotty and Lilly enter, Scotty commenting on how you can always count on a warm atmosphere in there, and Lilly asking him if he ever wonders if they’re not really dead and they’ll all of a sudden just sit up. “That’s not funny,” Scotty replies. Oh, it so is. Frannie agrees with me, because she asks Scotty if he’s going to be okay. Hee. Scotty, ignoring her, asks Stillman what they’ve got, and Stillman says that a construction crew raising a landfill up in Northeast found the skeletal remains that lie on Frannie’s table. Lilly asks how long it’s been in there, and Frannie says he’d been there about 20 years, adding that the skull shape and size confirm that it was a young adult male. Stillman says that they pulled all the missing persons from 1977 to 1987, and dental records narrowed it down to Maurice Hall, who went missing in October 1984 from his family’s apartment in Kensington, where he lived above their grocery store. Lilly reads sadly that he was only sixteen. Stillman explains that they originally thought Maurice was a teenage runaway, but Frannie points to injuries to his foot and says that it was shattered, leading Scotty to conclude that Maurice wasn’t running anywhere. Frannie then tells the detectives that Maurice died of multiple skull fractures, inflicted by something long and thin. Stillman asks if she can get more specific, but at this stage of decomposition, she can’t. Lilly leans a bit too close to the bones for my taste, and probably Scotty’s, and muses that, for 23 years, Maurice’s family’s been hoping he’s out there somewhere, and Scotty finishes her thought, saying that he was practically in their backyard the whole time.
Credits.
Street. Stillman and Jeffries are walking together, Stillman telling Jeffries that there’s something he wanted to let him in on, and he wanted Jeffries to hear it from him: they got a call about a guy facing an armed robbery charge has offered up a proffer: an ex-truck-driver friend of his confessed to a fatal hit-and-run on the Turnpike in the winter of ’95. Oh, snap. Jeffries realizes Stillman’s talking about his wife, then asks who it’s from. Stillman tells him it’s the Jersey State Police, and it could be the end of the line. Jeffries asks the man’s name, but Stillman is silent, so Jeffries then asks if they’ve got anything they can put him away on. Stillman says that the proffer’s all they’ve got, but Jersey’s got their best guys on it; they know it’s for him. Wow.
Squad room. Lilly reads the file, where we learn that Maurice Hall, a sophomore at James Marshall High, worked at his family’s grocery store, and lost his mother to cancer in 1981. His brother, Grant, the wrestling star, also worked at the store. Lilly and Kat read that Hall and Sons Grocery was the center of the search, and volunteers papered the town with Missing posters, but all they got were the usual loony calls. Vera adds that the father said Maurice was clean-cut and kept to himself, but Lilly reads a report that says Maurice was acting erratic before he ran away: late for work and moody. Vera thinks maybe he wasn’t so clean-cut, but Kat guesses Maurice might have been just a typical sulky teenager. Vera says that the father still lives in Kensington, and Lilly heads off to pay him the visit he’s been hoping not to get for 23 years.
Grocery store. Lilly and Scotty have just broken the news to Dad and Grant, and Dad asks if they’re sure it was Maurice that they found. They are, Lilly says, and they’re very sorry; Scotty adds that they should expect a call from the ME’s office. Lilly asks Dad about Maurice’s erratic behavior, and Dad says Maurice had a pretty much erratic way about him all the time: he was creative, like his mother. Grant, who doesn’t look anything like the star wrestler he once was, adds that Maurice and their mother were two peas in a pod. Dad says it wasn’t easy for Maurice after her death; he was different from the usual types in the neighborhood. Lilly asks what the usual type was, and Grant says it was regular guys like them. Scotty asks them to be more specific, and Grant lists sports, beer, and girls as the norm. Dad adds that Maurice was into books and music, and Scotty asks if anyone gave him trouble for being different. Dad knows of one time for sure, that same fall.
Grocery store. While Luscious Redhead’s “Behind the Mask” plays in the background, Dad’s ranting at Maurice, who’s wearing those charming plastic ‘80s sunglasses, about how, with Grant’s training, they’re short help in the store, then points out that since Maurice has dropped out of high school, he could contribute more to his brother’s dream. Maurice says he doesn’t want t work at the store for the rest of his life; he doesn’t mean it as an insult, but Dad certainly takes it as one, proclaiming Maurice odd. “And you dress funny,” Grant adds, coming up behind Dad. Dad takes off Maurice’s sunglasses to reveal a black eye. Maurice insists that it’s nothing, some mean kid just being a jerk. “You should’ve seen what I did to him,” he adds. Dad says Maurice should learn to defend himself, but Maurice hopes it won’t happen again. Grant pipes up that he tried showing Maurice how, and Dad orders Maurice to tell him who did this, so he can have Grant take care of it. Maurice insists that he doesn’t need help; he can handle it.
Lilly surmises that Maurice never told Dad who gave him the black eye, and Dad says that it wasn’t easy for Maurice, with Grant being this great athlete, the girls going after him, and all that. Scotty remarks that the bully had some balls, picking on Grant’s kid brother. Grant says that some people are real jerks, then leaves to do inventory. As Scotty watches him go, Dad says he always thought Maurice would just show up one day, telling him that he’d got the wandering out of his system and he was back home. “Not gonna happen, huh?” he asks.
Back room. Scotty tracks down Grant, reminiscing that, when he was little and someone picked on him, he’d tell them who his brother was, and the guy would step off in a hurry. Guess the ol’ fists o’ fury hadn’t fully developed yet, huh? Grant agrees, and Scotty asks him if he had Maurice’s back like that. Grant says he did, so Scotty demands to know who gave Maurice that black eye. Grant angrily repeats that it was nobody. “Nobody picked on my kid brother,” he says. “Except you,” Scotty realizes. Grant claims it was for his own good. Scotty asks him what he means by that, and Grant says one night he was jogging in the neighborhood and saw Maurice doing something that would have given their dad a heart attack.
Street, where we hear “Self Control” by Laura Branigan. Grant, who is indeed jogging, happens upon Maurice standing on a fire escape outside a dance studio and mimicking the moves he sees from the class inside. A better look tells us that the girl from earlier is in the class, but Grant seems just as interested in the moves as the girl. Grant finally asks Maurice what he’s doing, then demands to know if he’s a queer. Maurice denies it, and Grant points out that he’s sure acting like one. Maurice orders Grant to leave him alone, but Grant does the opposite: he hauls off and socks Maurice in the face, knocking him to the ground, then taunts him to get up. The girl, who’s apparently seen it all, runs outside and orders Grant to go away; she’s not even kidding, she says. She tells Grant that her name is Crystal, Maurice is her boyfriend, and Grant must be the piece of scum on the bottom of her shoe. Wow. I like her already. Grant doesn’t believe her claim to be his girlfriend, but she calls Maurice “baby,” asks him if he’s okay, and helps him to his feet. To further prove the point, they kiss, and Maurice reassures Crystal that he’s okay. Crystal turns to Grant and tells him once more to get out of there, but Grant asks Maurice if she’s really his girlfriend. He says she is, then tells Grant to get lost. Mercifully, he does.
Grant says it blew his mind, and Scotty asks why Crystal didn’t come up in the original investigation. Grant says he couldn’t have talked about it back then; Dad would have lost it. Scotty assumes it was because Crystal was black, but Grant says it was because she was a dancer. “So was your brother,” Scotty replies, and Grant says that’s the kind of thing that could get you offed around here. “Boy dancer…Kensington,” Scotty muses in apparent agreement.
Squad room. Jeffries informs Stillman that the dance class Maurice saw was at the Jacob Hayes School for the Arts, and they muse that the neighbors must have loved that. “Buncha freaks run amok,” Vera adds, then informs them that Crystal’s now a teacher at the school. Stillman says he’ll send Kat and Scotty, and then Vera hands Jeffries something from the Jersey State Police: a case file on Isaac Keller. Jeffries takes it and walks off, and Vera, clearly curious, asks if this is about the Hall case. “Nope,” Jeffries replies. “Okay,” a slightly miffed Vera replies, and walks away, leaving Jeffries looking at Xeroxes of Isaac Keller’s driver’s license.
Dance studio. Scotty introduces himself and Kat to Crystal and hands her one of Maurice’s Missing posters, asking if she remembers him. She does, recalling him getting into a fight with “some jerk,” who Kat identifies as his brother. Scotty asks Crystal about being Maurice’s girlfriend, and Crystal says she’d never met Maurice before that night. “He’s a total stranger who you saved from a fight,” Kat replies in disbelief, and Crystal says he wasn’t a total stranger; she’d seen him outside their class almost every night doing the routine with them. Scotty asks if that’s why she intervened on his behalf. “It was my superhero act,” Crystal answers, “savin’ my people from evil.” At Kat’s prompting, she elaborates, saying her people are the “inspired ones.”
Outside the dance studio. Chaka Khan’s “Through the Fire” plays as Maurice asks Crystal who she is, and she answers that she’s the best in school, and a star of the future, then she and Maurice introduce themselves. Crystal then tells Maurice he’s good, and asks who he studies with. “And don’t tell me it’s natural talent, because then you’re a liar, or I have to hate you,” she adds. Heh. Maurice says his mom taught him a few things; she’d dance in the kitchen, and he’d try to keep up. “And now she lets you dance on the street?” Crystal asks, but Maurice quietly tells her that his mother’s dead. Crystal apologizes, then launches into a sales pitch for the school, saying it’s “the max;” he’ll get the best teachers, join a company in New York, and be famous. “Like a Solid Gold dancer?” he asks. She laughs, then asks if he’s ever heard of Martha Graham, Bob Fosse, or Twyla Tharp, then says she’s talking about greatness and urges him to say it with her. Maurice protests that he works in a grocery store, but Crystal tells him that auditions for the school are on the 30th, and he should try out…but not if he can’t nail the hip snap. She demonstrates, he follows her movement, and suddenly a grouchy-looking guy comes out of the school glaring at them and asking if it’s a private lesson. Crystal tells the guy, Carlos, to relax; they’re just practicing. Carlos orders Maurice to stay away from Crystal, then grabs her roughly and starts to drag her away. Maurice chases after them, ordering Carlos to leave Crystal alone, and Carlos turns on Maurice, calling him a poser and asking him if he thinks he’s got moves, then challenges Maurice to a fight at 5:00 the next day.
Scotty asks the Obvious Question of the Day: did Carlos have violent tendencies? Crystal confirms it, saying she didn’t know what she was thinking back then. Kat asks what Carlos was up to, challenging Maurice to the fight, and Crystal doesn’t know, but she never saw Maurice again after that night.
Squad room. Carlos tells them to hurry up and do this; he’s got an open call in 20. “You got a tutu to wear over those tights?” Vera asks. Hee. Carlos asks Vera if he’s distracted, and Lilly steps in, telling Carlos they have an idea he knows how Maurice died. Carlos says their idea doesn’t hold water. “Sorry, sweetheart,” he tells Lilly with a lecherous wink. She gives him this fabulous look, and Vera reads Carlos’s record, pointing out his history of using his fists freely. “They got a word for that…sweetheart?” Lilly retorts. Hee. “Passionate,” is Carlos’s reply. “Homicidal,” Lilly corrects. Potato, potahto. Vera asks about the fight Carlos challenged Maurice to, and Carlos says it was a duel: mano a mano. “Like a catfight, right?” Vera asks. Heh. Carlos asks Vera if he thinks dancing’s for weaklings, then asks Vera when was the last time he carried his body weight on his toes while running, throwing a woman in the air, and catching her without breaking a sweat. I’m gonna go ahead and guess never, but my goodness, is that mental image hilarious. “It’s been a while,” Vera admits. Hee. Lilly interrupts their one-upmanship, asking Carlos if the duel was a fight to the death, and Carlos says sort of: death to the ego. Well, I bet we know who won that.
Dance studio. Maurice asks Carlos what this is, and Carlos sneers that it’s the Lion’s Den, then sarcastically tells him to break a leg. Maurice looks around at everyone else stretching and begins to do the same, but they’re all interrupted by an arrogant-looking black man who walks softly and carries a very big stick. He counts them off, and the dancers launch into the routine, which Maurice catches onto, but is behind. The teacher stops them, then sarcastically laments that someone’s gotten lost and wandered his way into class and wonders why none of them told him it was a dance class, not the steel mill. Amid the chuckles of the other students, Maurice bravely says he’s there for the class, and the teacher proclaims this sad. “You gon’ make me cry,” he replies. He then calls Maurice over and counts him off for the routine once more, yelling at him to spot. Maurice protests that he was, and the teacher bangs his big stick on the floor. Maurice asks what’s wrong with him; he almost took his toe off. “So what if I did?” the teacher asks, then tells Maurice that a dancer has to know pain, and asks him who taught him how to be so lazy. Maurice says his mother taught him to dance. “On a break from the wallpaper factory?” the teacher asks. “She teach you how to do the fox trot?” Maurice orders him not to talk about his mother, and the teacher proclaims him thin-skinned, announces he’ll never make it, and tells him to go home and cry to his mama. “What would you know about making it?” Maurice asks. Ooooh. The teacher angrily calls Maurice a little piece of insolent pale color and orders him out. Maurice leaves, the class reassembles, and Carlos looks on with satisfaction.
Carlos identifies the dance teacher as Dr. Leroy, and Lilly asks about the wooden staff. Carlos says it was Dr. Leroy’s trademark; he broke a girl’s foot with it one time. Well, now that’s a conveniently placed bit of random information.
