Ep. 4.17 Shuffle, Ball Change

[TVFan]

WHEN THE BODY OF A MISSING TEENAGER IS FOUND IN A DUMPSTER, THE COLD CASE TEAM ENTERS THE MACHO BLUE-COLLAR WORLD OF KENSINGTON IN THE '80S AND DISCOVERS THE TABOO SECRET THAT GOT THE BOY KILLED, ON "COLD CASE," SUNDAY, MARCH 11, 9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT

Mark Pellington directed the script written by Liz W. Garcia

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 Ching: Susan Chuang
Maurice Hall: Nathan Halliday
Pat Hall (1984/2007): Chris Mulkey
Grant Hall (1984): Greg Finley
Grant Hall (2007): Don Swayze
Crystal Stacy (1984): Tanya Michelle
Crystal Stacy (2007): Vanessa Williams
Carlos Garcia (1984): Vinicius Machado
Carlos Garcia (2007): Mauricio Mendoza
Dr. Octavius Leroy (1984/2007): Obba Babatunde
Keller: John Diehl
80s Female Teen Dancer #1: Jessica Reely
80s Female Teen Dancer #2: Tiffany Daniels
80s Female Teen Dancer #3: Aliane Baquerot
80s Female Teen Dancer #4: Gina Katon
80s Female Teen Dancer #5: Kelly Connelly
80s Female Teen Dancer #6: Rhapsody Violetti
80s Female Teen Dancer #7: Stephanie Moseley
80s Female Teen Dancer #8: Shelby Rebara
80s Female Teen Dancer #9: Charmine Jordan
80s Male Teen Dancer #1: Nick Flores
80s Male Teen Dancer #2: Chris Liu

[coldcasegirl]

WOW! This episode was pretty great! Very sad situation, and just like Cain and Abel....

I loved in the beginning when Lilly said, "you ever wonder if they are alive and will just sit up?" to scotty about the dead body on the table It's fun seeing her humor side

And omg for a second there I thought Will was gonna attack that man in the diner who killed his wife! I hope they carry that over well and I hope Will doesn't do anything he will regret! And of course I type that last sentence RIGHT before the preview comes on....freaky!!

Anyways, the music in this ep was good too; I liked the ending song...80's music is fun ;D

This whole ep was pretty great, didn't expect too much, but it was better than I had thought it would be! (they all are seeming to be that way lately

[longislanditalian2]

coldcasegirl said:

I loved in the beginning when Lilly said, "you ever wonder if they are alive and will just sit up?" to scotty about the dead body on the table It's fun seeing her humor side

I liked that also , never thought in a million years that Lilly would say that. Carlos flirting with Lilly was priceless, her facial expressions hit it off right away. The episode was great, I felt so sorry for maurice, he wanted to be accepted by his family but couldn't.

I was thinking about Lilly how Ellen favoured Christina over her always, in way things were similar especially growing up in Kesington. What was with Kat at the end, did she loose someone too.

Poor Jefferies, he needs closure but then anger in his eyes was too much.

[teledetective]

Cain and Abel, Lilly and Christina . . . this story seems to be like a parallel to this particular case. I personally felt sorry for Maurice because of the fact that his family didn't accept him for what he wanted to do, and he got killed by his brother over it. I nearly shouted at the TV for that.

I was half-expecting Jeffries to either arrest that man in the diner or punch his lights out, too. But in the end of the episode, you could see the anger in his eyes . . . 12 years of not being able to find your wife's killer will do that to you, I'm sure.

I laughed at when Carlos was flirting with Lilly, too. You can see how her face went from normal to "WTF?" in a matter of seconds, but Kathryn is really pretty, I'll admit, so I'm not too surprised. ;D

I'm pretty sure the dances in the episode were symbolic of something, though. Anyone know what they are and what stories they could tell?

Anyway, lovely episode. And I agree with coldcasegirl; the episodes are getting much better as the season progresses.

[boxman]

coldcasegirl said:

WOW! This episode was pretty great! Very sad situation, and just like Cain and Abel....

Hey, great observation, ColdCaseGirl!

I really liked this episode also. It was almost too easy to figure out who killed Maurice, but the story was told so incredibly well that it didn't matter to me that I had picked the killer the moment I saw him.

The episode had a very nice theme running throughout by asking the basic question, "What is it to be a Man?" Is it all about "sports, beer, girls" like Grant says, or about having goals and defending yourself like Maurice's dad was trying to emphasize?? I liked the way it touched upon Vera and Scotty's machismo during the investigation; and at the same time, briefly made Maurice really look like the stereotypical "twinkle toe fairy" when he pranced about the store and gyrated his hips to Kenny Loggin's "I'm Free". His dancing was impressive; it was just the choice of music that made me squirm to think about how offensively gleeful those 80's music could be. ;D I was about to barf at the end of that flashback, so I was *very* happily surprised to hear Chaka Khan's "Ain't Nobody" immediately after. I just love that song. And Maurice and Stacy put on such an incredibly hot dance to it, that I quickly forgave the show for using that Kenny Loggins.

The irony of all these men was that while both Carlos and Dr. Leroy liked to challenge those who don't think male dancers are masculine, they both expressed their masculinity in the same way that Grant and Mr. Hall did. Like Grant, Carlos loved competition and "wrestling" with an opponent's will; and like Mr. Hall, Dr. Leroy sought masculinity through status and prestige. For example, Mr. Hall named his store after himself, and wanted Grant to win medals; while Dr. Leroy loved to play a strong paternal role to his students. Dr. Leroy even pressured Maurice into making hard decisions about his future, and to commit himself to his goals just like his dad did. Dancing caused neither Carlos nor Dr. Leroy to view Masculinity differently than Maurice's brother and dad.

So this is where I thought it was very clever how they brought in Jeffrey's side-story into the episode. In the diner, Jeffries meets Isaac Keller, the man who possibly killed Jeffries' wife in an accidental hit-and-run. Their discussion around the possible incident gives another answer to the question of what a Man should be: It's simply someone who's around for his wife and family. Even Crystal's interview reflected this thought, that a man should be able to express himself clearly to his lady, even if its a way that doesn't use any words. The communication comes from being there and through simple interaction, just like having a dance partner.

I wondered if the real tragedy of tonight's story was that Mr. Hall couldn't cope with the loss of his wife. Could it be that because Maurice was interested in the same creative type of things his wife was, that Mr. Hall found it hard to embrace his son?? Hmm....

In the end, this was a simple, yet powerful story to me. I also think this episode's storyline meshes well with last week's episode, where we had this type of "strong silent" type of character with Hilary's dad, and also the "jock" type character with Hilary's boyfriend Huck. This episode gave some insight to what motivates men into being that way. I loved the way the episode finished with the song "I Want to Know What Love Is" by Foreigner. During the band's earlier years, they personified that "sports, beer, girls" mentality well with songs such as "Hot Blooded", "Dirty White Boy", and "Urgent". "I Want to Know What Love Is" showed a deeper and matured side to the band, and the song goes well with the episode's masculinity and relationships theme.

Other nice touches: Scotty gets peeved at Crystal for lying. He always likes to point out others when they do this, yet he's known to do the same. Outside the diner, the road is wet and a car rolls by, thus utilizing the automobile and water symbolism again. I'm not sure why Carlos was wearing a black leather jacket, though. He was nasty, yet not criminal like how those jackets tend to indicate in this show... The location outside the dance studio was set up and filmed very well; I was wondering when the "El" was gonna pass through... And naming Maurice's father "Pat" was funny, in retrospect of the Masculinity theme. "Pat" is one of those androgynous names....

[Naj]

I found this episode extremely corny. I don't know if it was the theme of Footloose type story but I just thought the whole grocery store bit was ridiculous. Not to say that a young boy wanting to be a dancer couldn't do so while working at his father's establishment. For I know how hard it could have been to be a dancer back then. I know in the 70's we had a guy behind me one year in Junior High that loved to dance and performed in our school assemblies. The girls loved it! The guys didn't approve. Now that was a tough time to even display one wanted to be a male dancer.

The Jeffries story was good. I enjoyed that. And Frannie was back although I wasn't impressed with the scene of the body parts found.

[koufax]

NAJ-
I agree completley with you. Also, the dancing scenes at the end seemed to be a filler for lack of more of a storyline.(i.e. more dialogue)

[longislanditalian2]

I like the ending when Lilly saw ' Maurice' dancing, it made me think of something she once said back in ' lovers lane' about that she something else planned out and it wasn't possible, maybe in contrast this was simliar.

I like this episode it was a very good one, Love that smile that Lilly gave to Scotty in the beginning.

[coldfan74]

thanks for the recap folks
i missed this episode entirely because of confusion with the "sudden" daylight savings.
the preview looked intriguing..hopefully itll re-air during it's hiatus period.

[longislanditalian2]

Think I caught a goof, When Frannie says that the body is been there for twenty years that can't be. Maurice was killed in 1984 making it 23 yrs not 20 .

[scottyandlillyfan]

I thought the episode was excellent.

[LillyKat]

So, I think I’ve figured out CC for me this season … when I think I’m going to love the ep, I don’t. When I think it’s going to be corny, I end up liking it. Go figure.

Case in point was this episode. For whatever reason, I liked it. I think I have a sentimental soft spot for Liz Garcia’s scripts (and the nerd in me always makes a note of who wrote each ep's script). It’s weird. I'm starting to feel like her biggest fan or something. LOL!

The story was definitely some cross-between or ode to Footloose and/or Flashdance (neither are my favorites), but I kind of felt for Maurice a bit – sort of wanting to go against the grain and be something other than what people expected him to be; to be “different.” I’ve identified with this theme before, and I think that’s why I bought into it again.

I actually thought the dance sequences were a nice change of pace (then again, I like dance, so I may have watched it from a different point of view). I thought Maurice’s solo dance for his audition was beautiful – sort of like the ultimate tribute to his mom, and I enjoyed that. I would be curious to know who the technical dance consultant on this episode was and/or if the young actor portraying Maurice had any prior dance skill/experience or did he do a “crash course” for this ep to stick it. Either way, the sequences were nicely done, I thought.

I admit I was also very interested in this ep for the Jefferies side story … I really enjoy Thom Barry’s “darker” side of Jefferies. I think we’ve seen hints of this side over the past couple of seasons. It’s very subtle, but it’s been there – especially as it pertains to his wife’s death. He’s always so calm, cool and collected. To see him sort of brimming with rage is a good change of pace – character wise. It looks as though that is going to fully come out NEXT week (the trailer was pretty intense). I'll be interested to see how it's resolved - IF it's resolved.

All in all, I was entertained by this ep.

[morwenna16]

I thought this episode was very lovely. I like it that the show mixes it up with all sorts of different kinds of stories, so I liked the change of pace with the dance sequences, as LillyKat said. The audition sequence was the best, IMO, and Marc Pellington directed the dancing very well. There was something gently haunted about the episode, with the dead mother's ghost hanging over the flashbacks and Jeffries' wife's ghost hanging over the present day scenes. The shot of Jeffries in the closing montage was just amazing, the way he was all eyes. I felt so bad for him. And boxman already pointed out the nice touch of using a gentle song by Foreigner as the closing song. The whole thing just worked for me.

I also very much appreciated two of the guest stars this week. Obba Babatunde, who played Dr. Leroy, is always enjoyable and the dance sequence with him and Maurice in the grocery store was adorable. But especially I was amused by the casting of Don Swayze, brother of actor/dancer Patrick Swayze, as the older older brother. I'm sure he knows what it's like to live in your brother's shadow. He did a nice job, too.

[Naj]

The last fifteen minutes of the ep has exceptional quality all around which was such a contrast with the rest of the ep. I don't know. It was just pretty strange for me. I'm glad others enjoyed it. I enjoyed that last part of it and the underscore along with some of the songs of the time. I noticed the Swayze actor in there as another subliminal reminder of Patrick's dance movie(s).

So this is where I thought it was very clever how they brought in Jeffrey's side-story into the episode. In the diner, Jeffries meets Isaac Keller, the man who possibly killed Jeffries' wife in an accidental hit-and-run. Their discussion around the possible incident gives another answer to the question of what a Man should be: It's simply someone who's around for his wife and family.

I agree coldcasegirl. I'm not sure how this is going to play out as feeling real to Jeffries character next week. We shall see.

[riche]

morwenna16 said:

There was something gently haunted about the episode, with the dead mother's ghost hanging over the flashbacks

Which made it a flashback within a flashback. Must be a first for CC.

The whole dancing in the aisles stuff was a little corny but I was prepared to go along with it.

I was a bit curious over Kat's looking at the missing poster at the end. Maybe there is something there.

[riche]

longislanditalian2 said:

Think I caught a goof, When Frannie says that the body is been there for twenty years that can't be. Maurice was killed in 1984 making it 23 yrs not 20 .

Frannie said "about 20 years". It is far from an exact science. Without knowing the exact conditions the body was in etc. etc. there is no way to be accurate.

[michelle]

I missed the first two thirds of this ep, but from what I did see, I enjoyed it a LOT. Figures that I'd miss most of what looked like it would have been one of my favorites for the season. Of course, maybe I liked it because of how much I missed, as some have indicated it lacked substance. I really like Jeffries and wish I could have seen the scene with him in the diner. Maybe during summer reruns. This is the ONLY episode this season that made me actually really care about the dead person.

Maybe I'm just a corny cheese sucker.

(Sounds like a gross lollipop flavor, doesn't it?)

[coldcasegirl]

@: longislanditalian2, boxman, and Naj: Thanks for lettin' me know yall agree with me! ;D It's always nice to know that we all notice the SAME little things!

It's definitly going to be interesting to see how Jefferies plays out 12 years worth of anger and rage!

[TVFan]

This one was just OK for me. As usual this season with "weaker" episodes (I use the term loosely because they're really not weak, just not as strong as the amazing work we've seen this year ), there were some excellent things, but overall, it fell a little flat for me. I didn't love it, I didn't hate it.

First off, I thought that the grocery store scenes were too corny as well. There's no way that Maurice would have risked his father or his father's customers catching him dancing in the aisles. It all felt a little family film of the week for me where all sense of reality is thrown out the window for a good, clear message. Not that I dislike that sort of entertainment, but I expect more realism from CC.

I wondered if the real tragedy of tonight's story was that Mr. Hall couldn't cope with the loss of his wife. Could it be that because Maurice was interested in the same creative type of things his wife was, that Mr. Hall found it hard to embrace his son?? Hmm....

This was my read on the situation, boxman. It became more apparent that Maurice's father wasn't as against his son's dancing as Grant would have liked us and Maurice to believe. I think his dislike of the activity has everything to do with the memory of his dead wife. As Grant pointed out, Mr. Hall went dancing himself in Atlantic City with his wife when she was alive.

Overall, the case just didn't move me, make me think, make me laugh, or give me the feeling that Lilly (or any of the other detectives) were behind the wheel. In fact, it felt like we didn't get enough of any of them last night. I was happy to see the Jeffries sidestory, though, and I'm interested to see how it plays out. I also liked that the show didn't fall to the usual male dancer/sexuality stereotypes. It was a nice surprise to see the show take the road less traveled.

I LOVED the ending song. It's one of my 80s faves, and it worked nicely in this episode. I would also like to once again commend Mark Pellington for his beautiful direction. The closing scenes with Jeffries' concealed face and Lilly's private moment with Maurice's ghost were amazing. I also enjoyed the direction during all of Lilly's interrogations. The one with Carlos was the best.

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

[The Reverend Bizarre]

I thought the episode was ok/good.

However when they showed the flashback/montage scene I somehow got the song "Montage" from the Team America: World Police OST in my head.

And then I started cracking up.

The hours approaching, to give it your best
You've got to reach your prime.
That’s when you need to put yourself to the test
And show us a passage of time
Were going to need a montage (montage)
Ooh it takes a montage (montage)

Sure a lot of things happing at once,
Remind everyone what’s going on (what’s going on)
And when every shot you show a little improvement
Just show it all or it will take to long
That’s called a montage (montage)
Ooh we want montage (montage)

And anything that we want to know
From just a beginner to a pro,
You want a montage (montage)
Even rocky had a montage (montage)

(Montage...montage)

Anything that we want to know
From just a beginner to a pro,
You need a montage (montage)
Ooh it takes a montage (montage)

Always fade out in a montage,
If you fade out
It seem like more time has passed in a montage
Montage