Ep. 4.15 Blood on the Tracks

[TVFan]

WHEN AN ACCIDENTAL FIRE IS FOUND TO HAVE BEEN CAUSED BY A BOMB, LILLY AND THE TEAM RE-OPEN THE 1981 CASE INVOLVING THE MURDER OF A YUPPIE COUPLE, ON "COLD CASE," SUNDAY, FEB. 18, 9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT

Kevin Bray directed the episode that was written by Gavin Harris.

Original songs by multiple Grammy Award winner and living legend Bob Dylan will be featured throughout the episode.

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
Janie Melinda: Page Hamilton
Sean: Raymond Ochoa
Louie: Doug Spinuzza
Jack Kimball: Jamie Bamber
Johanna Kimball (1981): Kelly Overton
Sara Lowell (1981): Bess Wohl
Sara Lowell/Johanna (2007): Cindy Pickett
Porter Rawley (1981): Sam Trammell
Porter Rawley (2007): Patrick St. Esprit
Tom "Z" Zimmerman: (1981) Scott Michael Campbell
Tom "Z" Zimmerman: (2007) Sam McMurray
Roger McBride: William B. Jackson

[Naj]

Another all one *male* artist ep? Whut? When are they going to feature a woman.

[longislanditalian2]

This episode reminded me of the movie" The Big Chill" for some reason and the friends getting together listening to music...


First, Louie noticed Lilly's change by telling her that she looked good, Second When Lilly closes the case, Herman Lester's box is very visable. Did anyone catch that Zimmerman is a reference to Bob Dylan's real life last name and there is a song by the name" Johanna"?


Okay I loved the case, a lot.
Stillman with his Grandson was totally priceless, cute when Kat thought she was going to get busted and it turned out he needed her to open a juice box. Sean is an absolute cutie the bed scene was just totally cute!!

I think Johanna was only thinking of herself not what her friends thought. Greed had gotten her and she wanted out not to be with anyone to get rid of the life she once had. On the other hand, they all grew apart kinda like the episode 8 years in retrospect.



The orchards represent Family, that Sara/Johanna had mentioned earlier but they were seen all over the episode even when she was fighting with Jack. Her desire for a family was ever more greater then the murder that Jack did back then sort of reminds me of Linda/Rebecca in Maternal Instincts in a way



I liked how at the end when Lilly was looking at the slide and Jack appear and it flickers like an old movie showing his sprirt. Maybe that answered Lilly question " When you kill someone does your soul leave your body"?


When Johanna was getting into the cop car and sara sprirt was shown also reminded me of Hubris the way it was shown

[longislanditalian2]

Sorry to double post,

Did anyone catch when Lilly and Scotty are looking at the black and white pictures taped onto the wall. Vera comes by and Lilly puts her hands in her pockets not even a second later,Lilly has both of her hands behind her back??



When Sara/ Johanna said something about protesting capitalist and Lilly said " Vagily familiar" what was she talking about. If this a reference to her own age??

[coldcasegirl]

I have to say that I didn't want to expect too much, after reading the "OUCH!" article about this episode.
**BUT:

It was MUCH more than what I thought it would be, the preview made it seem a little boring, but all of the twists that kept coming made it all the more exciting! The music wasn't half bad, I have never heard of Bob Dylan (**only 15 ) , but it was pretty good!

Anyone else notice how Lilly wore a green shirt? She has never worn green before! (not lately, if I'm wrong , but it's always fun to see her in new colors! Not always black and blue! ;D

I absolutely LOVED seeing Stillman and his grandson! They were both so cute! I got scared for Kat when he yelled at her to get into his office! and when he started to turn around with something in his hand, I thought it was going to be drugs or something bad!, but totallt OMG, when he pulled that juice box out with THAT facial expression, I could not stop laughing! He's such a great grandfather, and Sean's character was too cute! I hope we get to see him again sometime!! ;D

Overall "Blood on the Tracks" was excellent, and it was certainly not what I expected!

[koufax]

Although Cold Case is still a very good show it seems to me that there is a distinct difference between this season and the first two seasons. In the first two seasons the Lilly Rush character had much more of an edge. She was either very sympathetic to the victims and/or their families or she viewed the potential murderers with a dispicable attitude. It would be nice if the writers got back to those type of shows.

[TVFan]

This one was a little too political for me (especially since it coincided with the current war and state of our country -- no coincidence, I'm sure). In fact, I found myself rolling my eyes at a few of the comments. I'm just not a fan of my fave shows getting political, especially since it seemed to just be an excuse to make a statement about current affairs. In the end, the murder had little to do with the characters' Vietnam protests. Jack and Sara died because they wanted to come clean with their involvement in McBride's murder 10 years earlier, and the others did not. Plain and simple. The part that wasn't simple was Johanna's ability to sacrifice her husband and her friend for her new, "better" life. There was no way she was going back to her days growing up in Jersey in a one-bedroom apartment. That part reminded me of Sherry from "Sherry Darlin'."

I loved the twist because the show totally shocked me. I didn't see it coming, despite the signs along the way. I love when shows pull the wool over my eyes because so few do anymore. I also loved the Stillman story line (and Kat's juicebox help) and Louis' "Lookin' good" comment. This episode would have gotten an excellent had it steered clear of the political implications. Since it didn't, it's settling for a good.

As always, more thoughts and caps over at Pass the Remote.

[boxman]

IIRC, in "The House" (another one-artist episode), wasn't there another switcharoo with the murder victim?? Also interesting to see the similarity with "8 Years", which featured one-artist and the story of how a group of friends changed over the years. I thought Lilly looked strikingly like Joanna/Sara when on the bleachers because of their similar hair. They both also reminded me of Stillman's wife, who was mentioned but absent in this episode. She had appeared in the single-artist episode "8 Years" too....

[riche]

longislanditalian2 said:

Did anyone catch when Lilly and Scotty are looking at the black and white pictures taped onto the wall. Vera comes by and Lilly puts her hands in her pockets not even a second later, Lilly has both of her hands behind her back??

Having seen this post just before watching it I did see it.

When Sara/ Johanna said something about protesting capitalist and Lilly said " Vaguely familiar" what was she talking about. If this a reference to her own age??

The line was about America becoming an "imperialistic bully". Lilly's "sounds vaguely familiar" I took to be a reference to America's current "foreign policies." As TVFan said the show was little obviously slanted towards being against the current situation in Iraq etc. I'm not against them being against it, but I'm not sure it should be done like that.

[longislanditalian2]

coldcasegirl- Lilly never wore a green shirt until now, and also she had on a new scarf also.

This episode really was good, good acting from all

[riche]

I realise (having looked it up) that the title "Blood On The Tracks" is Bob Dylan song but I can't really see much relevance to the story otherwise. But I don't know the song (or much of Dylan's work to be honest) at all so maybe I'm missing something.

[myril]

Blood On Tracks is the title of one of Dylan's albums, released 1975, some consider as one of his best. The songs are seen to be inspired by his personal situation at that time (mainly divorce).

Hm, what is wrong with being political? At least once in a while. Not to mention, isn't it political as well to tell a story about 2 male cops falling in love with each other and not condeming it but letting it look acceptable? Or a black and white girl falling in love with each other? Well, yeah, it's more critical if it's something up-to-date. But this show plays in the present time and those controversies are part of this world and of talks at work, in families, with friends. I wouldn't like if they would totally ignore it. I don't mind if people state opinions, I only mind if they would tell, that's the only way to see it and I should have to have the same opinion. Don't think though that happened here. And I take it as balancing the end of ep "War At Home" a bit.

And again, yup, the story only had a sort of political background but the murder itself was fairly personal motivated. So far Cold Case never had done really anything else. Johanna, grown up in a poor family and not with a silver spoon in her mouth, didn't want to lose what she had worked hard for from her point of view. The idealist Jack couldn't live anymore with the thought of being responsible for the death of a friend and wanted to confess, noble but with harsh consequences not only for him (honestly, who was he to make that descision?), and the rest had selfish motives to do their parts as well. That's how life often is.

I liked the case, though knowing the very moment Johanna was mistaken as Sara (by Jack, oh dear, how good did that guy knew his wife? ooops), that this would be important for the case. So when they said, Johanna had been killed, I only wondered, how long it would take them to figure out, she's still alive and posing as Sara. And made her suspect number one, though wasn't sure about the why for first half of the show maybe. The story was predictable, but enjoyable.

Mind I didn't read the cast list before watching. If so, I wouldn't have jumped from my seat, seeing who played Jack. Geee, do they had to blow him up? LOL One of the main cast of my favorite show Battlestar as guest star in CC, Jamie Bamber, aka Captain Lee Adam! Nice.

Well, all in all a good epsiode. Was able to enjoy it. But have no high expectation for CC anymore, it's becoming more and more a show just nice to watch. Something this episode didn't change either.

Hehe, but the scene with Miller and Stillman and his grandson was hilarious. And nice to see a bit of what is going on in Stillman's life.

One more thing. As others wrote before: Why another episode entitled to a male singer? There are so many, well known and not so well known good female musicians, singers out there, it's due time to give one of them an episode. Come on, producers, hope you read this.

[LillyKat]

I didn't like this ep much. I went into it with an open mind (even after reading the "ouch" review), and it just fell completely flat for me. It wasn't the one artist/Bob Dylan angle, I just didn't care for the case, the yuppies who suddenly discovered a conscience, the political angle ... it just was really boring - like an episode of Family Ties gone bad. LOL!

Additionally, it seemed like all the detectives were missing in this ep ... where were they? Lilly? Scotty? Kat? It felt like everyone was only around for 1 or 2 scenes, with minimal dialogue, yet it seemed to spend a very lengthy amount of time on the flashbacks and/or the POV of the yuppies. Maybe it was just me. But, I got up to clean parts of my apartment in between Lilly scenes - LOL!

However, there were a couple of highlights:

- Louie's banter with Lilly at the beginning ... very cute. I think it's been speculated before if ANYONE on the PPD ever notices Lilly's good looks, so it was nice to have some confirmation that they DO, and thus, DON'T wander around with bags on their heads (LOL!). And, it seemed Lilly kind of liked the attention for a moment.

- I absolutely LOVED Stillman with his grandson. This was the saving grace! I would love to see more of this.

- Lilly had one of the best lines I've ever heard from her (at the end): "When you steal a life, do you leave your soul behind?"

- I did like how they used the letterbox/widescreen effect as the "transition" between flashback scenes. I would actually like to see the show shot entirely in letterbox/widescreen (like West Wing used to be, or ER) as I enjoy that viewing format, but I wonder if it costs more, isn't what they want as the look/feel, etc.

All in all, not a great ep for me.

[riche]

At the end of the opening flashback (if you see what I mean), just before the explosion, Jack sees a figure run past the doorway. This was never referred to again or explained. Johanna had long gone and the one who's name we shall not say was asleep on the sofa, weren't they?

[TVFan]

I saw it too, RichE. I just assumed that the whistling tea kettle woke Sara up as well, but I'm not sure. Like you said, it wasn't explained.

Myril - My problem with the show getting political over the "war" is the fact that the War in Iraq is a HUGELY divisive issue in this country. When you incorporate comments about it (either for or against), you're going to isolate viewers. Everyone has their strong opinion either way, so it's just not something that I want to be mixed into my fave shows. I feel the same way when I watch award shows (which I rarely do anymore), and someone puts their opinion on the war into their acceptance speech. There's a time and place for these types of outbursts, and awards shows and episodes of my fave shows are not one of them in my opinion. I understand that most of CC's issues are political (that's going to happen when you use time as a factor in your story), but they usually focus on social issues (like racial tensions, sexuality, gender issues, etc). I have no problem with these issues because I feel that we need to be discussing them both in a historical and current sense. The war is just too polarizing and political for me to consider it anything other than off limits in my entertainment arena. I hope that makes a little more sense.

[riche]

Clearly CC has a social conscience, more than most crime shows, and there are some messages they want to put across, and they tackle them head on. And all credit for them doing so. Hopefully CC has raised awareness of issues and caused discussion amongst people. Doing a race related story set today would be nothing particularly new, and less challenging. Setting it in the 50 years ago on the other hand...

However, I did feel that in this episode the writers wanted to make a definite point about the current situation and it felt a little forced.

[boxman]

"It was OK"

I like the overall concept behind the episode's story, but the execution fell really flat. I'm rather disappointed with this because after seeing that "Ouch!" thread earlier in the week, I *really* wanted to like this episode enough to prove the writer wrong. Unfortunately, the columnist got most of the weakness of this episode right. And sadly, I don't think that it had anything to do with the one-artist music. Much worse, this episode fails for me because the show took two *very big* steps away from it's traditional strengths: 1) Presenting an intriguing story about how Bad things happen to Good people, and 2) Presenting the story in a dramatic, "Modern American Tragedy" format.

The idea behind this episode is rather compelling: 1970s Vietnam war activists turn into 1980s suburban Yuppies, and one death leads to two more because of growing differences. Through it all, we see the dissolution of a tight group of young friends. I find this angle of the story the most powerful and interesting because it's the most easiest for anyone to relate to. I think most people--of any age--can understand the sorrow that occurs when people who were once best friends grow apart and distant. This idea forms the basis of Stillman's separation side story, as well as his daughter's marital problems too. The episode would have been much stronger to me if they had presented this group of friends through that common, shared human experience of broken friendships. But instead, much of the show was dedicated towards showing how despictable these people were.

So quite frankly, "Who Cares?"

For one thing, it's simply not very interesting when bad things happen to "bad" people. Look at the latest news. People who don't think highly of the way Anna Nicole Smith married an 86 year old man are the very ones who don't care to hear about the latest news regarding her death. It's just nearly impossible to put a positive "emotional investment" into people you basically do not admire or care about. Another thing to consider: People who actually like watching bad things happen to "bad" people aren't practicing or developing good character. It's called "gloating" when you feel triumphant or satisfied at seeing an enemy's misfortune. Even without knowing which Greek philosopher had said something important and profound about that, most people simply know that this type of behavior is wrong and therefore refuse to feel this way. Stories of "Bad things happening to 'Bad' people" have a harder time appealing to a wide audience.

The victims and people around the victim also need to be "Good" people to fulfill the second "Cold Case strength" I mention above--Presenting the story in a dramatic, "Modern American Tragedy" format. It must be nearly impossible to write a tragedy if an audience has zero "emotional investment" in the main characters of a story. How do we "cry at the end of the episode" when we never even followed the characters through their experiences in the first place?? And without caring much for the victim, seeing their apparation at the end of the show has much less of that cathartic, cleansing effect that a lot of people like about this show.

I mentioned in Monday's chat that the dialog sounded more like it was written for live theatre ...or for soap operas. It's a little hard for me to describe, but it felt almost as if each actor was speaking in monologue for every scene of the episode. Not just the guest actors, but the regular cast as well. Sorry, but this doesn't work for me because all the pauses between dialog just isn't realistic. People don't talk and interact in real life the way it was shown in this episode. People interrupt each other, second-guess what the other person's saying, finish each other's sentences, or simply lose interest in a conversation. It's crummy how poor people's listening skills are in real life, but that's reality. Almost everyone in this episode sounded like an actor reading a script, rather than a person having a conversation with another person. The dialog in this episode felt very "soap opera-ish", and it's not a style I've come to expect from Cold Case. By contrast, recall from "Knuckle Up", the scene where Lilly and Scotty are heading to the academy's computer room. As the headmaster approach them, Lilly and Scotty glance at each other because they both spot a suspicious-acting student. Scotty steps away, while Lilly distracts the headmaster by continuing to talk to him. Now that was much more "multi-dimensional" and realistic: Several things were happening at once. In this episode, I kept repeating to myself, "Okay I get it. Will y'all hurry up?" I got so bored listening to the dialog in this episode; Words took way too long to get said.

---

The mention of one guy about writing candybar slogans seems to allude to Michael A. Levine's early fame as the composer for the "Kit Kat" jingle:
www.imdb.com/name/nm0002605/bio
"Gimme a Break, Gimme a Break...."

[Naj]

I thought this was a so so eppy. Some of the case themes seem to have not grown. Something I thought would have gotten better with each season. Season 2 is the season to beat.

Is Lilly and Louie gonna be a couple? ;D The Stillman story didn't grab me. First time I must say.

[riche]

Forgive my ignorance (there's a lot of it though so don't go out of your way ) but have we seen Louie before?

[LillyKat]

naj said:

Season 2 is the season to beat

I totally agree with you on this, Naj. Having just plowed through S2, I felt that season had everything firing on all cylinders. It really impressed me week in, week out.

@boxman - really nice post.