Episode 2.04: The House

[TVFan]

Airs Sun (10/24). Synopsis from TiVo:

"The House"
Human bones are found at the site of a now shuttered prison, the scene of melee and murder 36 years before.

Guest Cast List:

James Upshaw (2004): Howard Mungo
James Upshaw (l967/68): Ray Stoney
Wendall Floyd (l967/68): John Griffin
Wendall Floyd (2004): $%&^ Bakalyan
Tom Jaden (l965/68): Travis Clark
Tom Jaden (2004): Blake Clark
Warden Wilbur (2004): George Gerdes
Warden Wilbur (l965/68): Pat Healy
Lyle Olsen: Matt DeCaro
Hank Tatum: Seamus Dever
Claudia Valez (1968): Meeghan Holaway
Claudia Valez (2004): Gail Bearden
Johnny: Chad Lindberg
Bobbi Olsen (l967/68): Fiona Gubelmann
Bobbi Olsen (2004): Roxanne Hart
Frannie Ching: Susan Chuang
Guard #2: Hunter Bodine

[Ryebeach]

This ep's writer is Sean Whitesell, who wrote three eps last season, the excellent, "Sherry Darlin," the good, "The Hitchhiker," and the ok, "The Lost Soul of Herman Lester." I wonder how this episode will rate. I hope he gives us some great Lilly scenes like he did in "Sherry Darlin."

[Naj]

The promo looks good!


~Naj

[TVFan]

This could definitely go either way since, as Ryebeach pointed out, Sean Whitesell wrote the amazing "Sherry Darlin'" and the iffy "L.S. of Herman Lester." I'm hoping this one measures up to "Sherry Darlin'." I agree Naj, the promo looks excellent.

[Ryebeach]

TV guide has a nice rating for this ep from Matt Roush under Sundays Hits and Misses.

Source: TV Guide - October 24-30, 2004 Edition, Page 69.

COLD CASE (8pm/ET/CBS) Johnny Cash's live Folsom Prison concert provides the soulful soundtrack and backbeat to this evocative episode. The story flashes back, in glorious black-and-white, to an attempted jailbreak from a Philly prison during the radio broadcast of Cash's landmark 1968 concert. As Lilly Rush (Kathryn Morris) investigates the long-buried remains found in a collapsed tunnel, she finds herself falling for the romantic story of a lovesick jailbird who refused to be contained behind bars. Cold Case is rare among procedural detective dramas for examining not just the evidence, but also the emotional fallout of unsolved mysteries.MY SCORE (0-10): 9

Sounds like Lilly figures prominently in this ep, the flashbacks will be in black-and-white and Matt's score is a 9. Yea!!!!

[TVFan]

Found another critic's assessment of this ep. From USAToday.com's televison critic Robert Bianco:

Johnny Cash's 1968 Folsom Prison concert provides the springboard and soundtrack for an outstanding episode of Cold Case (CBS, Sunday, 8 p.m. ET/PT). The discovery of a skeleton in a prison escape tunnel pulls Lilly (Kathryn Morris) into a country-ballad tale of lost love and criminal injustice. What Lilly discovers is that life is not always a country song.

*the bold emphasis was mine, not Robert Bianco's.

[Naj]

Thanks for all the info! Sounds very good indeed.

"A Time to Hate" which I thought was last season's first best ep didn't air until ep. 7. So this may be one of those exceptional ones. We'll see.


~Naj

[Nikki B.]

I just finished watching the ep. It was alright. I think it would have been a skillion times better had I not had several interruptions my my family members throughout the show. -_-

I thought it was pretty good, with the twist and all. It definitely had an unpredictable ending-as all the eps do. :bananna:
[/size]

[krispy]

Just finished watching "the house" and I loved it. The twists were really well done and I didn't see it coming at all. And, I loved it because we were getting some really great insights into Lily's life all through the episode starting with Lily telling Bobby she knew someone who would've stole expensive boots for her once upon a time. My confusion lies in her story or fantasy about her husband who would've sold his motorbike to buy wedding rings. She made mention of a daughter. Was there ever a daughter or was this just something Lily hoped for. Anyway, great show. I think it'll become a fav.

[TVFan]

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

This was another really good episode. The case definitely took a lot of twists and turns. I didn't see the victim switch coming, but after they figured it must have been Johnny that died, it dawned on me that Hank must be Bobbi's husband. Man, did Hank ever get a bad deal. He stole boots and wound up with a loooong prison term. My heart really broke for him. Even when he was revealed as the "murderer," I was glad he was off somewhere nice with Bobbi. So glad the warden was arrested. He was horrible. Great storytelling.

So Scotty's dating someone new? This is interesting. I'm still wondering how Elisa's going to figure in to all of this. Lilly was cuter than words when she figured it out too. Loved that scene.

Now onto the Lilly stuff. I know the writers purposely give us just little bits of info, but what happened to the love of her life? Did he die? Did he run off? Did she leave him? I'm dying to know! Earlier in the ep, she seemed to indicate that he'd do anything for her. Later, she references this again when she says that he sold his motorcycle to buy their wedding bands. I wonder if they ever married? If he left or worse died, this could explain why Lilly is so reluctant to get close to someone again. Loved the jab at Kite - "I've been settling for less ever since." foujylos.notlong.com [/IMG] Interesting that she "saw" herself and Mr. Perfect at the end. Definitely a personal case for her. Kathryn did a nice job of blending the happy memory with the sad realization that her life with him will never be. I felt bad for her.

Overall, a first rate episode with plenty of twist and turns and character development. I loved the black and white. The contrast between the black color and the white color was very stark, and it looked really authentic to news reels I've seen from the general time period. I also thought that the Johnny Cash concert made a nice backdrop for the story.

[Ryebeach]

Very well done episode. As soon as they figured out that it wasn't Hank's body that they found, I realized Hank was Barbie's husband. The writers do keep coming up with different endings. Love that about CC.

This ep reminded me a lot of "The Shawshank Redemption," especially the mean warden. Glad when they took him away.

The black and white scenes were awesome and seemed gritty, to fit the prison locale.

A LOT of insight inot Lilly's past. I was a little surprised she opened up about something so personal to a stranger but I guess she just felt a connection. I wonder what happened to him. Is he still alive?

This was really a Lilly centered ep and it was neat how she saw herself on the bike at the end. Kinda sad.

It made no sense that it was Scotty who saw Johnny at the end. Why not Lilly? There was no connection.

Also, the scene where Scotty and that women who he may be going out with seemed forced. Not sure why the writers are pushing the personal Scotty scenes. It just didn't seem real.

I do think that Season 2 is getting better with each ep, although "Daniela" was a bit more emotional and surprising overall.

[r2k]

Spoilers Below about this episode and Lover's Lane for those who still haven't seen that one.
-
-
-
-
--
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
--
-
-
This episode rocked. I didn't see any of it coming and I was so wrong on the ending. I figured once they discovered a different body, it was one of the inmates who escaped in the '40s who might not have made it. However, when it was revealed that Johnny's death was mysterious, it finally hit me that Lyle was Hank. There were subtle clues. Bobbi didn't seem so shaken up about Hank's death. Remember how Mark Adams felt about Eve Kendall even though he had married someone else and moved on. He was still shaken by it. Bobbi never displayed that sense of loss. Also, Lyle didn't seem bothered at all by her reminiscing so happily. I would like to clear up that Hank is not the murderer. In my book, this was a clear case of friend gone nuts and Hank having to defend himself. Obviously, he couldn't go back and turn himself in. He would have been at the mercy of the warden. One thing that was off. In the episodes where Vera, Stillman, and Jeffries got their chances to see the victim, this was not the one for Scotty to get the chance. It should have been a case in which he was close to. I just didn't see it here. This episode was making me thing Shawshank Redemption so much. For a while, I thought his cellmate did it. Then, I thought the nurse might have been responsible. Even though Johnny Cash was the only singer featured in the episode, I saw it to be effective. I prefer different songs by different people. All in all, this is my favorite episode so far. As far as the mystery of Lilly's past, I'm assuming this might also be her abusive husband. Abusive husbands start off promising the world and turning into monsters. My dad tells me she's got to have some secrets in her life. Well, I'm going to check out some new posts, go work out, go to sleep, and then wake up tomorrow ready to deal with third grade monsters again. I mean monsters in a good way. I love them all. They do drive me nuts every now and then. And I keep forgetting Halloween is coming up. Later.

[misguided freak]

Excellent episode. I got the Hank-Bobbie's new husband twist halfway through, but only because I have an overactive imagination. Bits of this episode reminded me of the Shawshank Redemption, which is one of my favourite movies.

The case aside, I loved the insight we got into Lilly's past. Very bittersweet when she talked about how she and her past Mr Perfect wanted to live on a farm, and how she would tell her little girl how her daddy had sold his motorbike for wedding bands.

I wonder what is the significance of Scotty seeing Johnny at the end?

Maybe I'm asking for too much, but I'd love to see more Stillman, Jeffries, and Vera!

[Tracylynn]

Overall I thought it was a pretty good episode but I still think "Daniela" has been the best so far.

I did like how they kept going back to the flashbacks and how they were in black and white. I thought the flashbacks and the music by Johnny Cash were pretty effective to the story. One question though..the concert was in 1969, correct? But yet, I heard them talking about things in 1968. Was I dreaming, am I losing my mind or is this a mistake on the writters part? Did anyone else hear it or did I miss something?

Anyhow, the scenes with the fork and the pliers were shocking to say the least. That was really gross and but then again it was effective. It got the point across.

Overall I have no complaints with this episode but I felt "Daniela" was more together. There's something that is missing in this episode but I really can't put my finger on it. I did like how they shed some light on Lily's past. Ummm? Now that is interesting. She almost had a Prince but didn't. So sad.

As for Scotty seeing Johnny, that does make sense to me. In the beginning, Scotty talks about how the place was haunted and Lily asked him if he believed in it but he never answered. So for him to see Johnny confirms everything that he has heard. I think Scotty believes in ghosts, I really do.

Tracylynn

[TVFan]

I thought Scotty "seeing" Johnny was random too, but Tracylynn makes a good point. Scotty seemed pretty convinced the place was haunted. I forgot that he "saw" Johnny at the old prison site. I'm willing to buy this one on these grounds.

One other thing about this episode, do you guys think that whatever happened between Lilly and Mr. Perfect is what made her dreams at 15 impossible ("Lover's Lane" reference)? It sounded like she had her whole life planned out, but something happened and it caused her to change these plans. I guess we have some things answered, but more questions left unanswered now. The beauty of a complex character.

[onebyone]

I really loved this episode. The case was good, everyone was on their game, and I always get so excited when we get insight into Lilly. I like how they handle her story, I hope they keep it subtle like that.

[Naj]

The subject matter grabbed my attention for this story. Again I didn't know who did it until the end. Of course I'm not good at guessing this kind of stuff. I like to let the story unfold and entertain me rather than try to figure anything out.

What I thought was odd is doesn't anyone ever check to see if there are tunnels from the prision to block them? Why were these tunnels left?


~Naj

[TVFan]

Naj - I could be wrong (I've only seen this one once), but I think they mentioned something about how the tunnel had been blocked at the entrance. Hank had dug to the blocked entrance and then dug through the block to get to the original tunnel that Johnny's grandfather (?) built. If someone remembers better, please correct me.

[irishkale]

I encoded a few clips from this episode--the parts where Lilly mentions her old flame; hopefully we'll learn the significance this relationship later in the season!


(right click and "save target as..." to save to your hard drive)

clip1:
www.kaleirish.com/KM/ep_2-04_lilly_01.rm
(1.7 MB, RealVideo format)

clip2:
www.kaleirish.com/KM/ep_2-04_lilly_02.rm
(6.7 MB, RealVideo format)


--One thing I have to think about in clip #2: Lilly is an experienced interrogator... I wonder if her story about herself is genuine or if she is trying to establish confidence with Bobbi in order to get her to tell HER story. (i.e. Can we really believe Lilly is telling the truth about herself?)

[Naj]

--One thing I have to think about in clip #2: Lilly is an experienced interrogator... I wonder if her story about herself is genuine or if she is trying to establish confidence with Bobbi in order to get her to tell HER story. (i.e. Can we really believe Lilly is telling the truth about herself?)

Hi irishkale,

I was thinking the same thing here too. I felt she was making it up as part of a way to interrogate. At other times I haven't felt this way but have wondered if she is lying.

Thanks for the clips!


~Naj