Ep. 4.08 Fireflies

[TVFan]

WHEN A POSTMAN IS FOUND DEAD IN HIS HOME, SEVERAL BAGS OF UNDELIVERED MAIL IS ALSO DISCOVERED, INCLUDING A LETTER POSTMARKED 31 YEARS AGO AND IS NOW A MAJOR PIECE OF EVIDENCE IN THE 1975 CASE OF A MISSING GIRL, ON "COLD CASE," SUNDAY, NOV. 12

Marcos Siega directed the episode that was written by Erica Shelton.

Lilly Rush: Kathryn Morris
Scotty Valens: Danny Pino
LT. John Stillman: John Finn
Nick Vera: Jeremy Ratchford
Will Jeffries: Thom Barry
Kat Miller: Tracie Thoms
Melina Van Horn (1975): Savannah Stehlin
Waitress/Melanie (2006): Shannon Sturges
Cherise Tisdale (1975): Gabby Soleil
Cherise Tisdale (2006): Judith Scott
Terrell Tisdale (1975): Dee-Jay Daniels
Terrell Tisdale (2006): Bobby Hosea
Frances Campbell (1975): Becky Meister
Frances Campbell (2006): Jenny O'Hara
Norman Van Horn: John Aylward
Dale Wilson (1975): David Henrie
Dale Wilson (2006): Richard Steinmetz
Hank Wilson (1975): Eric Strickland
Hank Wilson (2006): Don Yanan
Wes Floyd (1975): Johnny Kastl
Wes Floyd (2006): Wolf Muser

[eurache]

Also, "LIVE" chats are on Monday and Wednesday nights. Look at our NEWS FADER for time and dates.

Also, click on "LIVE" Chats to see our discussions for this episode.

LIVE CHAT ON FIREFLIES

[r2k]

Excellent episode!!!!!!
This episode rocked. Definitely one of the best of all time. Melanie was a victim you could feel for. Until you learned she wasn't dead. You know, about halfway through the episode I had a feeling she was still alive. As for the attempted murderer, not sure what they can do with him now. Seeing she was alive and his age at the time. But something needs to be done. Can't wait for the chat.

[longislanditalian2]

I hope this comes out right... Melanie and Sharice were playing together in the side yard and they both get put down for playing together b/c of the color thing . . 31 yrs later, Lilly and Scotty are in the same exact yard looking for clues and nobody bothers them , considering that Scotty is hispanic and Lilly's white.

When I lived in NY I lived in a mostly black street , and there was some tension. Down the streets people glared at me and the people across the streets b/c we were white they never said anything but it was just felt.

I heard stories from my neighbors that in the 60's and 70's the white children would walk to school then wait at the bus stop.

I liked this episode, Traci Thoms really shined and impressed me in this episode. I liked how they showed Melanie and sharice glowing as fireflies.. Lilly and Scotty at the parents house and how she followed him out to the clothesline was great. It's so cruel that people were like that back then, Melanie didn't believe in that. She saw Sharice as equal and wanted to be friends with her no matter what anyone else had said. It was horrible what that guy did taking her to VA and leaving here there with a gunshot to the head,very cruel thing to do.


One thing I had noticed , Lilly's nose was little too red in the beginning when she went to talk to melanie's parents.

On a side note: I can't wait for the chat even though I might be a little late


One more thing, Melanie's father (2006) didn't he guest star on the X-files??

[eurache]

Wow!! what a twist!! This time no murder, I'll give my review later, but I thought it was excellent.

[misguided freak]

I haven't been to this board in forever because of real life reasons (why is my thesis trying to kill me?) but it's a long weekend here in Canada and I managed to catch tonight's episode.

Good god, Cold Case. I've missed you.

I haven't missed that fact that you manage to make me weep like a little baby at the end of every single episode though.

Damn you, Cold Case!

[r2k]

It has been a long time since you've posted. Welcome back. This was indeed one of those episodes. Hope you come around more often.

[The Reverend Bizarre]

Another excellent case, and quite a shock/relief when it turned out that Melanie was really alive.

The show itself as a whole made me more angry than sad. I always get upset at these racially charged shows, and wish there was "smack-a-vision" You get disgusted at a character, (in this case that guy that beat his son) and smack them. I think it may have something to do with the time and area I lived in.

*coughs* I digress, this episode was great.

[longislanditalian2]

I don't think people saw the way that melanie thought, that she saw sharice for who she was not her color. It's horrible to see people get discrimnated for their color, it's just plain cruelty. The ending really had me in tears, I think Scotty was picking up on Lilly's inner emotions her watching Melanie be reuited with her loving parents, something she didn't have growing up. I think it was painful for her to watch

[boxman]

This show always impresses me when they get Philly historical facts correct. Brewerytown is a section of North Philly; and Abington is an area just north outside of Philadelphia that many whites moved to when the economy in North Philly went bad towards the middle and end of the twentieth century. Philly neighborhoods names don't always refer to exact boundaries and locations, but if I understand correctly, Brewerytown either overlaps or is slightly southwest of "the Badlands" neighborhood that was used as the location of the season two episode.

Even more impressive with this show is when they use certain "Philly slangs" correctly. Like what Jeffries said, most people here use the term "burbs" when referring to the arch of suburbs located in the townships that ring Philly from the north, to northwest, and west of Philadelphia County. (Even though those neighborhoods are politically outside of Philadelphia county, they are still considered to be "Philadelphia suburbs" since Philly real estate is fully developed. On occasion, that arch of suburbs are called Pennsylvania's "Pharm Belt" because of the high number of pharmaceutical companies that span the area.)

There were some interesting use of recurring themes and symbolisms in this show. Alcohol/Alcoholism is inferred in the "Brewerytown" location, and Water/Rivers were inferred in the name of the "burb" that the realtor was trying to get the whites to move to. (My DVD Recorder bummed out on me again, so I can't remember what that exact name was.... ) Again, outstanding performance by Tracie Thoms as Kat... and yet *again* she is wearing a *black leather jacket*... Why... WHY.... WHY?? Argh!!! With each episode, Kat is turning quickly into one of my most favorite characters in this show, yet why does she wear the one piece of clothing that bad guys often wear?? Something sneaky is going on here!!! I'm also not clear if *drinking coffee* has any symbolic significance. You can always see the detectives drinking coffee. I have always passed this off as something that they do "just to keep their hands busy"... Ha ha ha... But here in this episode, they meet with Cherise and Terrell in a coffee shop, and coffee cups are framed rather prominently in some of the camera shots. Is this just a curve ball?? Or does drinking coffee has some sort of unknown significance in the show?? ;D

[boxman]

longislanditalian2 said:

I don't think people saw the way that melanie thought, that she saw sharice for who she was not her color. It's horrible to see people get discrimnated for their color, it's just plain cruelty. The ending really had me in tears, I think Scotty was picking up on Lilly's inner emotions her watching Melanie be reuited with her loving parents, something she didn't have growing up. I think it was painful for her to watch

Ahh, yes. Two more recurring themes: Racism and orphans. I was about to dismiss Melanie's amnesia as a "Hollywood ending"; but the way they filmed young Melanie after she was shot was just incredible. It was so simple, yet the way it revealed her injuries made me switch my opinion *really quickly* and made me realize that the gunshot definitely could have left her with amnesia.

[The Reverend Bizarre]

Looking for the symbolism of fireflies and so far all I've found is that the Firefly is Pennsylvania's official insect, and that the firefly is a symbol of illuminance and communication.

Looking at the episode this does make sense, especially the communication sense. Because Melanie and Charise were able to break the racial barrier (eventually) by communicating.

[The Reverend Bizarre]

Oh something else I noticed. Richard Steinmetz who played Dale Wilson in 2006 also played on Passions as Martin Fitzgerald.

The irony being that Passions (as with a number of soaps) is infamous for "amnesia" storylines. Thankfully though this episode of CC didn't have Melanie getting amnesia and then some other woman saying she's Charise talking to Melanie, and then the real Charise comes in and, and...

Wow.

[longislanditalian2]

Something I have caught the mention of the woods, Lilly got scared from george just like Melanie from Dale.
Wouldn't the hospital pick up that Melanie was from Philly from the Accent?

[Naj]

Hi misguided freak!

Vera's personality seems to have changed to a wild west cowboy. I liked his 'boo-hoo' comment. For some reason this ep didn't entice me much. I was disappointed. Another white vs black kinda story.

I gave it an OK.

[longislanditalian2]

Caught something else, Vera uses the same quote that Stillman had said in " Death Penalty" back in S3

" Get out of here before I drop kick you out"

[TVFan]

I gave this one an excellent. I wanted to stand and clap at the end because it was so well done. I had a feeling all along that Melanie could possibly be alive, but that quickly faded when we saw Cherise's terrifying flashback and then heard Dale's confession. I never imagined that she could have survived, so I was shocked when they found the police report from West Virginia! It was so nice to see a happy ending for a change. As much as I enjoy the usual format, it's also great when they change things up a bit for an episode.

The racially charged stories always intrigue me because they get me all riled up. This one was made more interesting by the fact that the overarching themes still apply today. "White flight" is a modern societal "norm" that we hear about frequently on the evening news. No matter how far we've come as a society, we still (as a whole) carry around some of the same prejudices and separatist attitudes of generations before us. Stories like this one carry so much relevance because of that fact. I'd like to think that a little girl wouldn't be "murdered" today because of her choice of friends, but we all know that there have been high profile murders that were either racially motivated or based on someone's sexuality. Hate still exists, and episodes like this one remind us that we have a long way to go.

This was more of a Kat-centric episode, and I thought that Tracie really shone. I loved her interrogation with Terrell. It highlighted a few of her quick judgments as she instantly turned against him as soon as she found out that he went to get the letter that night. It reminded me of the way that Lilly tends to jump to conclusions about people without knowing their full stories. It also lends some degree of fault to her character, and thus, makes her more relatable and human.

Overall, an excellent episode that will go down on my overall "Best Of" list for this series. As always, more thoughts and a few caps over at Pass the Remote.

[canuckiepen]

I had tears in my eyes...One of the season's best so far.....no murder victim, parents got their girl back...very happy ending <sniff sniff>.

[michelle]

Really enjoyed this ep. It's been the best of season 4 so far, IMO

[myril]

An interesting episode, still not sure if I would give it an excellent. It was well done, well written, but the basic storyline, black meet white (or white meet black), get hostile reaction from surrounding and one get killed is a sort of reoccurring theme in CC. Still interesting how many variations they've found for this theme so far. The twist at the end though, Melanie survived and reunites with family and friend after 3 decades, gave this episode a special turn.

3rd time we have a victim turning out to be alive. But in The House and Joseph we nevertheless had someone killed (hm, just realized the slight parallels of these 2 eps in this, something for you, boxman ), this time the victim simply survived, something new. Something you can't do often, but it's nice to have such an episode now.

You have to like the characters of Melanie and Cherise, 2 children acting more mature than most adults around them - especially Melanie, a strong opend minded person, standing up for her friendship, but having a good sense, that you can't change things always the straight way, sometimes you have to bend things a little. She understood well her mum acted to protect her, blended in and still stuck to her friendhip with Cherise. Parents can be proud of such a daughter. And Melanie didn't lose that spark, even after that traumatic experience, amnesia (and going through foster care) it was still somewhat there. This story deserved a happy ending for a change( not only a sort of "happy" conclusion like in most other episodes).

Interesting the difference to past week's ep: there the housewife waking up and finally growing with the idea, what is important in her life, but getting killed before she have a chance to live it - here the self-confident girl, having her own ideas about life and nearly getting killed because of it. Both episodes played in the '70s - though 4 years apart and different social context (the flower-power experimenting upper middle white class there, the hard working white middle class here). Some contrast.

Though embedded in a racial context, the motivation for the (attempted) murder was personal, it was fear and anger. Dale feared his father and was angry how these little girls' actions seem to mess up his life. You could nearly pity Dale. I like it, when a character is not simply good or bad, so kudos for how they made this character.

As others had pointed out before: it was sort of a Tracie Thoms' episode and she's doing a good job with giving Kat more and more shades in character. Her heated up reactions about the racial stuff was very believable, Kat is sensitive in that (as she is in women rights) and young. Think Jeffries knows these reactions to well from himself, but with coming of age learnt to deal a little different with it. Wonder if Jeffries turns a bit into a mentor for Kat, I would like that. And what a great interogation scene with Terell, Bobby Hosea (oh, Marcus from Xena! , both did a great job here. I always love if they reveal more of the main team characters this way, through a case and not so much with a personal side story, having not much to do with the main storyline of an episode.

All in all at least a good episode, maybe an excellent one (have still to make a decision about that)

About FIREFLIES. Guess, Reverend Bizarre, you didn't read many fairy tales? Quite common believe, that fireflies are faeries or spirits of nature ( not going into the long discussion about faeries, fairies, elves, spirits of nature, differences and mix up), sometimes seen as good spirits, sometimes believed to be tricksters. And there is the idea, that they're leading a human soul out of good or bad reasons away to the faeryland. Melanie mentions it. Some say only a pure soul can see the (good) faeries, like children can - for everyone else, they're just fireflies. -- BTW, did anyone else noticed, that one of the fireflies Melanie was seeing while struggling for her life in the woods really looked for a sec like a faery?