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Post by TVFan on Dec 22, 2006 21:45:26 GMT -5
A VIDEO CLIP THAT SHOWS A PROMISING COLLEGE BOUND YOUNG MAN WHO DISAPPEARED IN 2006, INVOLVED IN THE UNDERGROUND SUBCULTURE OF BARE-KNUCKLE BRAWLING IS FOUND ON THE INTERNET AND BROUGHT TO THE ATTENTION OF LILLY, WHO RE-OPENS THE CASE, ON "COLD CASE," SUNDAY, JAN. 7, 9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT
David Barrett directed the episode that was written by Greg Plageman.
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
Frannie (M.E.): Susan Chuang
Toni Jameson: Sonia Sohn
James Hoffman: Marshall Allman
Darren Hoffman: Michael Bofshever
Alexa Hoffman: Jenna Gavigan
Emmerich: Tony Pasqualini
Tanner: Jake McDorman
Arthur Lynch: Robert Picardo
Lucas Gladwell: Adam Hendershott
Cole/"Ares": Michael William Freeman
Martin Jacobson: Gregory Gifford Giles
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Post by longislanditalian2 on Jan 7, 2007 22:04:04 GMT -5
Some weird thing I had noticed, not trying to speculate anything here I promise: at the beginning of the episode, Lilly rubs her belly then sort of leaves her hand here as she walks down to where Stillman and Frannie are. As I said I just noticed this It might not be anything so I'll just shut up about it  The episode wasn't too bad, but I took me to the end to know who killed him. Vera getting a love life isn't too bad, but this episode didn't live up to it's usual hype. It was a little too slow and not enough screen time for Lilly. But I'm glad she and Scotty got to interrogate together. PS: Did anyone catch that the ending of that house , that was the same house that was on the 60's show Bewitched |
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The Reverend Bizarre
Lilly Rush
10 0011 10101 [/b][/color]
"The way your prophet breaks his bread does not speak the future." - Mephirostus
Posts: 2,605 
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Post by The Reverend Bizarre on Jan 7, 2007 23:11:20 GMT -5
I gave this good despite it's 'emo-ness'
Emo songs, an emo storyline, emo kids, and omg an emo father!
I was surprised at who the killer was though, and very glad that they'd get their just desserts.
I also loved the analogy between a dog/man and a wolf/devil/god
I'll post more later as I read the other posts.
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boxman
Lilly's Bedroom 
Philly Reporter [/color]Foxy Boxy [/color]
Posts: 2,514
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Post by boxman on Jan 8, 2007 0:02:14 GMT -5
Wow! Terriffic episode! I wasn't expecting much so it really caught me by surprise how much I enjoyed it. One thing that the writer and director did very well was to get me to buy into the idea of this "prep-school fight club" early on in the episode. It was a good strategy that kept me from predicting the killer and his motive until the very end. It was only until close to the end that I began to think how misguided these kids were, and by then I couldn't figure out who the suspect was and what his motive would be. Really good execution there.  I've also mentioned in chat before that I tend to be a bit more critical towards young guest actors in this series. They're not always convincing to me, but tonight they all were very talented and believable. I definitely enjoyed the episode a lot because of the strong performances throughout, and again, they made this idea of a "prep-school fight club" very acceptable and believeable. --- A *LOT* of excellent and mostly-accurate Philadelphia details were thrown into this episode: Before Prohibition, Philadelphia was a major center in the US for beer breweries. In fact, a section of the city was called "Brewerytown" for the dozens-upon-dozens of breweries in the neighborhood. Mantua, the location of the brewery and murder of this episode, actually isn't in Brewerytown, though. But it is directly across the Schuylkill River of Brewerytown, to which I can agree is still a realistic location for an abandoned beer factory. If you can recall, Mantua was the location of the neighborhood in season two's "Red Glare", where it was portrayed accurately (as in this episode) as a run-down section of Philly, located near train tracks. The Main Line, the name that refers to Philadelphia's affluent western suburbs, has been mentioned several times in this series; and one would easily expect a prep school such as the one in the episode there too. Also quite accurately, the R5 rail line *does* connect the Main Line, Overbrook, and Mantua like mentioned in the episode. (However, to my knowledge, there's no station for this train line in Mantua, even though it runs parallel to Mantua Avenue for a long stretch.) In fact, the name "Main Line" originally refers to the "Main Line Railroad" that connects Center City-Philadelphia (the city's business section), with the city's western suburbs. In the shot of Philadelphia's skyline at the beginning of the episode, you can just barely see the cranes that are building the Comcast Center office tower. That must mean it was filmed recently... really nice.. Our whole skyline is going to change really soon when that tower is finished in a few months. I liked the little detail of how Mr Lennox and his son Tanner were considered "untouchable" because of his big donation to the academy. This remined me of the real-life story of the large and controversial donation the Capano family had made to a Wilmington, Delaware private school. If you folks can recall, Kathryn Morris played Anne Marie-Fahey in the movie, "And Never Let Her Go" that was about the Capano-Fahey murder. That little detail about the Lennoxes was a nice tie-in to that major Philadelphia-area murder, and also to a past role Kathryn played. Another interesting twist I'm sure many have noticed, was that Mr Lennox was played by Robert Picardo. He, of course, played the Doctor on "Star Trek: Voyager", just like how John Billingsley (George Woods from season two) played a doctor on the Star Trek-prequel, "Enterprise". I'm also a bit surprised to find out that Robert Picardo is from Philly, and John Billingsley is from Media, a western suburb of Philadelphia. Kinda neat how coincidental (??) all that works out. I thought the mention of Ares was interesting. Not only because that is another allusion to Greek mythology, but also because that mention of Greek mythology was mentioned from Vera TO SCOTTY!!  Does this reinforce our theory that the "Scotty Underwater" imagery at the end of the episode "Saving Sammy" is alluding to the Greek mythology of Icarus and the danger of Hubris??? HMMMMM..... And WHY ARE THOSE TWO DETECTIVES DRINKING COFFEE AGAIN IN THAT SCENE??? ;D ;D ;D  |
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Post by longislanditalian2 on Jan 8, 2007 1:21:42 GMT -5
Sorry about the double posting, I just rewatched it and found something.
Both Alexia and Lilly have something in common, they both wanted their parents to be proud of them but instead went for the sibling. Lilly mentions in " Saving Sammy" that her mother was all about Christina and in this episode their father only cared about was James and his grades not Alexia who needed his love and support.
The sun rising behind Lilly does this symbolize as change in her life or a new beginning? James is seen throwing snowball up to the chimney before he dies, is this foreshadowing that th snowballs meaning him will be going to heaven? Then after his death he is doing the same thing, but turns and smiles at his family was this his final goodbye to see his father accepting him as is?
Blood was seen throughout the episode, even when James is having a nosebleed , foreshadowing again of his death?
In the end James realized what was important and wanted to do the right thing but never got to say sorry to his dad for everything. He knew this was wrong, Tanner's dad should have let this one go, it wasn't right what he had done.
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The Reverend Bizarre
Lilly Rush
10 0011 10101 [/b][/color]
"The way your prophet breaks his bread does not speak the future." - Mephirostus
Posts: 2,605
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Post by The Reverend Bizarre on Jan 8, 2007 1:55:30 GMT -5
See my post in general discussion. Yes, I do believe this is James saying his "final" goodbye to his family before finally crossing over.
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Post by morwenna16 on Jan 8, 2007 12:06:30 GMT -5
The issue of the insanely high college application pressure at prep schools isn't one that affects most people, but I'm really glad that Cold Case did an episode dealing with it. My little sister goes to a fancy NYC prep school and they're already talking about what the kids need to do in order to get into a top law school. My sister is in the 6th grade, BTW. It's nuts and it gets worse by the year, so it was good that they set the case as recently as possible. I thought they handled the issue very well (all the talk about "finding your passion" was spot on). I felt so bad for all those boys, though I agree that they were incredibly misguided.
As always, I am impressed with the way that Cold Case subtly carries a theme throughout both the cops' personal life and the case itself without beating you over the head with it. This week, the theme was clearly Being A Man, with the boys school setting, James finding the nerve to stand up to the corrupt men around him, the boys' misguided efforts to assert their masculinity, and Vera's subplot about getting up the courage to ask his neighbor out. This was a great episode for Jeremy Ratchford; I loved watching the emotions play over his face in his scenes with Toni, especially when he was asking her out. They're really cute together.
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toddsmitts
Veteran Detective
WIKI WIKI BOY [/color]
Posts: 611
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Post by toddsmitts on Jan 8, 2007 14:08:15 GMT -5
I don't know why it was that this episode fell a little flat for me. Even the end song "How to Save a Life" by the Fray was rather dull because I've heard it so many times. And can I say how sick I am of cases only a couple of years old??? Did the show's budget get cut this year or something? Why so few cases from the 50's, 60's, or 70's ?
Since most of the main characters were juiced-up uniformed kids with bruises and uniforms, I actually had trouble telling them apart at time.
I do wish there had been some more female characters in the story, other than just James' sister. One interesting impression I got from her second conversation with Lilly was that their father possibly placed more pressure on James but also gave him more attention. It would have been interesting if she was responsible for his death somehow. I know she was the one who got the case reoped by showing them that video, but wasn't there a case before were a guy got his sister's case reopened and it later turned out he was responsible for her death? Of course, that ending would be much more tragic for the father to essentially lose both children.
Is anyone else a "Prison Break" fan here? I didn't realize Marshall Allman (L.J. Burrows) played James until I saw the credits. With the different hair style, he looks totally different. Even though he's a regular on that show, there's been so many gaps between appearances he likely had plenty of time to shoot this episode.
Robert Picardo is one of those actors who's been in so much that everyone likely recognizes him from something. (Gremlins 2, Star Trek Voyager, China Beach, The Wonder Years, maybe even from The Howling). I don't think I've ever seen him play such a nasty character. Good job on him!
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Post by TVFan on Jan 8, 2007 16:05:16 GMT -5
I gave this one a "good." I definitely enjoyed it, but it wasn't as strong as some of the others this season. Very good, though. I wasn't too thrilled with the fight club theme going into it, but there was a lot more to this episode that made it shine. In fact, it really wasn't about a fight club at all! Rather, it was about the relationship between fathers and sons, which of course, subtlety paralleled Lilly's own relationship with her mother. One of the best points about this episode was the irony that Tanner's father wanted to hire fancy lawyers to save his son's future while he was the one flushing it down the toilet. Tanner never would have lashed out at the man who resembled his father had his own father not put so much pressure on him and left him so emotionally devoid. And then he has to watch as this same father beats to death his friend! Talk about a messed up experience! None of this makes what he did right, but it does help to explain it. And you guys know I love it when this show puts on its psychological hat.  I definitely could have stood for more Lilly, but the Vera scenes were some of the funniest in this series' history. I'm still laughing at that scene where he made the parking ticket "go away" (by using his credit card), and then hung up when he saw Scotty coming. I LOVED the jabs he and Kat exchanged -- again some of the best ever. All of the Vera scenes were sheer brilliance, and Jeremy Ratchford was excellent in this episode. He made me feel nervous, anxious, excited and embarrassed right along with Vera. Top-notch performance! Interesting observation LII. I remember the scene, and I interpreted her stomach holding as her disgust over what she just saw in that barrel. In fact, I found it funny because here she is a homicide detective, and the sight of a dead, decomposed body turns her stomach. I guess being off the line has softened her stomach a bit over the years. Again, another good episode this season. I'm just so excited that CC seems to have found its lighter, more fun side to balance out its excellent emotional one!! ETA: As usual, more thoughts and caps over at Pass the Remote |
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Post by riche on Jan 8, 2007 16:20:14 GMT -5
Some weird thing I had noticed, not trying to speculate anything here I promise: Think it is a little late for that but go on.... Looked like queasiness to me. She guided Jeffries away from the barrels and was definitely swallowing hard when Stillman asked if there was anything else. Can't say I'm into all this reading into little bits. I'm not saying they don't mean anything, but I do wonder if the writers and directors really go to that sort of trouble. Anyway, if you want to look for something is it significant that he was trying to hit the chimney. In the final shots it is clear that he missed, and had done twice before. Could this be a reference to the 3 chances he'd had? 1 being the argument with the headteacher, 2 being not saving the guy from being beaten to death and 3 being not getting the chance to the right thing and explain about that man's death. |
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myril
Veteran Detective
Merry One [/color][/center]
Posts: 795
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Post by myril on Jan 9, 2007 4:24:45 GMT -5
A good episode. Interesting plot with the fight club of these spoiled highschool guys. Think it's realistic that first thought is often drug abuse, when teenagers behave all of a sudden more weird than expected, but there are other possibilities. Actually sometimes think it's a wonder that most of us survive that time without bigger harm. And think, quite true what one of the guys said in interrogation, guys tend more to take their aggression outside and against others, while girls tend to turn it against themselves - statistical, there are always exceptions. Partly agree with TVFan, it was as well about father-son relations, not just about the fight club itself. But would say, that it was not only the pressure, that Tanner got from his father, to make him lash out the way he did, but that his father never showed him actually a different and better way to lash out if angry or pushed. Like father like son. Despite all the pressure James' father set up as well, different but it was pressure, still he gave a different example. toddsmitts Was pondering for a few minutes too, if it would have been interesting if James' sister had been somehow involved. But think it would have made no sense in this plot, and it would have been overdramatizing. So I'm glad they didn't go that way. It was a guys' episode and think it's good they're doing it occasionally. As much as I like a female focus and think, that we might still need more shows giving that focus, it's about having a good balance in the end. The murderer was not a big surprise to me, not like, "oh, he did it? never would have thought", it made sense. Still they managed this time to keep him out of investigation for a long time, so you speculated about everyone else but him. You can't do it often that way in a crime show, because speculating about "who did it" is part of the fun of watching these shows and for that you need hints and get to know more about the people. But it worked good in this episode. But next time seeing a former Startrek doctor on CC I might expect that character to turn out to be the murderer now. That Robert Picardo is good in playing villans I've seen before, even on Voyager (he had one of the most interesting roles there, giving a lot of space to act very differently, think his performance over the whole 7 years of that show was outstanding). Picardo hadn't many scenes here, but nevertheless managed to make this character in short time believeable. Interesting coloring again. The yellow-green combination as hint for greed and poisoning your mind, the red as hint for an explosion of violence in the end (in the scene between James and Darren, the red sky as a sort of dawning for things getting out of hand). It was an episode, that didn't hit me much on an emotional level, but that's absolutely ok, don't want to have tearjerkers all the time. Loved that Vera got a lot of time, I like this character. It's fun to see this "grumpy bear" turning into some teddy-bear again, and the story line was a good contrast to the main plot. Jeremy Ratchford is giving this character a lot, special applause from me. There are many great little Vera moments in the show, often the funny moments so important in all the drama to relax for a few seconds. It's becoming a running gag now, that Vera tries to get rid off the dumb cop image - he is not a dumb cop though, but might feel a little like that with all the smart, good looking and well educated people around him. Nice detail in the development of the character. |
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Post by eurache on Jan 9, 2007 8:33:35 GMT -5
I gave it a good, I liked it I wasn't crazy about the fight club. I just can't understand why the school didn't question the bruises on those boys' faces? Why they didn't say nothing to the parents?  I loved the kidding around with Vera, Scotty, and Kat. I loved the look on Vera's face when he meets up with Toni (the nurse) and they go out on a date. Priceless look on his face and I like how they are building up his character. I just love Vera!! ;D    Once again, a surprising ending of who done it. |
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Post by riche on Jan 9, 2007 8:47:17 GMT -5
I just can't understand why the school didn't question the bruises on those boys' faces? Why they didn't say nothing to the parents? That didn't make sense to me. One lad said that, and mention was made of his just seeking attention, but what about the rest of them? Plus the fact that the main lad suddenly changed from, well, geek to street fighter. A little over the top. I didn't but I should have done. The normal rule of a well known actor appearing in a seemingly minor role, that turns out to be key, often holds up. |
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Post by longislanditalian2 on Jan 9, 2007 12:53:16 GMT -5
Two side Notes:Did anyone notice that Lilly's outfit didn't change throughout the whole episode and what was Lilly saying to Stillman right before James's father and sister walked in, I can't make it out??  Oh another tidbit- Did anyone notice at the end Herman Lester's box in the warehouse room?? One last thing: Good team work for Lilly and Scotty. I liked how he had noticed Lucas kinds drifting away knowing about James. Love the shared looked between them, unspoken Communication. Lilly nods as she successfully manages to distracted the headmaster as Scotty gets Lucas to talk. I've managed to upload the picture of the House that James and His father are standing in front of , this is clearly the " Bewitched House" althought it has changed since the 1960's . Take a look  |
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LillyKat
Lilly Rush
Loyal to Lil'
Posts: 1,132
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Post by LillyKat on Jan 10, 2007 20:33:32 GMT -5
I have to admit I really enjoyed this ep a lot – and I was expecting NOT to like it given the whole “Fight Club” scenario. What really sold it for me were all of the young prep kid actors – Marshall Allman (James); Jack McDorman (Tanner); Adam Hendershott (Lucas); Michael William Freeman (Cole/Ares). I thought all of these guys were excellent – especially James and Cole. They did not bother me nearly as much as the young kid actors in “Rampage,” who, for me, felt as if they were trying a little too hard to “act” disturbed (Tina not withstanding). True, these kids were not of the same sort of “disturbed” variety, and the characters/backstories were definitely different, but I just felt real chemistry between all of them – which was key to the whole storyline. And, I think that boiled down to the individual talent of each young actor. The scene in the bathroom with James and Cole … wow, that was good. I really want to tip my hat again to the CC casting group (who NEVER get enough credit for the work they do week in/week out to bring us not only doubles of actors young and old, but just really find some unknowns/lesser knowns who have the chops). I thought the storyline was pretty compelling, too. The father/son angst played pretty well for me. It was a little light on Lilly, but that was OK. The Vera stuff more than made up for it. And again, Kat’s got another one of the best lines of Season 4: (to Vera): None taken. Makes you think I want an overweight, underpaid white man. (a beat) No offense. So I think she’s 3 for 3, now? Excellent ep. |
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Post by Pixie on Jan 11, 2007 14:17:47 GMT -5
Is there anyone who also thinks of "Fight Club" the movie with Brad Pitt and Edward Norton?? |
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Post by riche on Jan 11, 2007 15:38:05 GMT -5
Is there anyone who also thinks of "Fight Club" the movie with Brad Pitt and Edward Norton?? Really? Which bit? |
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Post by longislanditalian2 on Jan 11, 2007 16:05:24 GMT -5
This episode was a little off without Lilly in a lot of the scenes. I feel like something's missing when she's not there.
@riche- What did you mean about too late for that in your first post??
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Post by riche on Jan 11, 2007 16:20:33 GMT -5
@riche - What did you mean about too late for that in your first post?? I wasn't being serious, perhaps that didn't come off well. Sorry. You had said that you didn't want to speculate, and then went and speculated |
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Post by longislanditalian2 on Jan 11, 2007 16:39:37 GMT -5
I think James and Tanner's father was so wrapped up about his schoolwork that he didn't even notice what was happening to their sons . If they had cared about them as a whole person maybe this would not had happened. I think both Tanner and James wanted their parents to back off to let them live their lives independetly making their own decisions. The anger got so blown up that that was the reason for all the fighting.
When Lilly goes to see the body the sun is blaring, maybe symbolizing death or a light that of justice rising being her that she will shead some light and bring James's killer to justice
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