Episode 3.13: Debut

[Naj]

COLD CASE
Air Date: 1/29/06 (SUNDAY)
Time Slot: 8:00 PM-9:00 PM EST on CBS
Episode Title: (#313) "Debut"



LILLY REOPENS THE 1968 CASE INVOLVING THE MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF A DEBUTANTE, ON "COLD CASE," SUNDAY, JAN. 29

"Debut" -- When a frazzled mother bursts into the Philadelphia Police Department claiming to know who might have killed her daughter at the 1968 debutante ball, Lilly re-opens the case on COLD CASE, Sunday, Jan. 29 (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. Tim Hunter directed the episode that was written by Karin Lewicki and Kate Purdy.


Lilly Rush: Kathryn Morris
John Stillman: John Finn
Nick Vera: Jeremy Ratchford
Will Jeffries: Thom Barry
Scotty Valens: Danny Pino
Kat Miller: Tracie Thoms
Emma (1968): Elizabeth Hendrickson
Travis (2006): Ben Murphy
Travis (1968): Charlie Koznick
Lillian (2006): Priscilla Pointer
Lillian (1968): Kelly Miller
Irene (1968): Tina Morasco
Landon (2006): Valerie Wildman
Landon (1968): Julie Mond
Matthew (1968): Tom Virtue
Sloane (2006): the one who's name we shall not say Shelton
Sloane (1968): Holly Lynch
Chip (1968): Josh Janowicz
M.C. (1968): Warren Sweeney

[Pixie]

What is a "debutante" ?

It would be nice knowing.......

[eurache]

here ya go... I think this is mostly down South of USA and maybe not.. I see it's all over I know I didn't have one..

Debutante

Debutante

[longislanditalian2]

I hope we hear some Lilly stories in this episode

[lils231]

I'm guessing that there might be some friction between some of the suspects and Lily in regard to how a proper girl should act, like in 'Start Up' with the secretary, because I don't think I could ever see Lily being in a debutante ball ever...but it's just a guess, I can't wait for tomorrow night! :smile8:

[Naj]

I'm heading into chat right now but just want to say how hysterically funny Vera is. And a nod to the director: Tim Hunter. Best directed ep this season. Much tighter shots like Season 1.





Vera: We're coworkers. We should share our lives with each other. :smile21:

[lils231]

I think this was the first time Tracie Thoms appeared in the opening credits, maybe I'm wrong, please correct me...
I think this episode was ok, but not so great. It didn't really move me so much emotionally, althogh the victim Emma seemed so sweet. The motive for murder was weak, it was just a spurt of anger really.
The music was a little different also, there were less songs because alot of music was the debutante classical music...
I think Lily looked really great this ep though. I really loved that blue shirt she wore in the beginning, and the vest. She was also wearing her red lining coat, you could see it in the art gallery scene...
Either way, I did enjoy it, but I hope now that this Veronica storyline is wrapped up we can focus on Lily more...Sorry for being so negative!!! I usually love each episode, but I was really looking forward for more Lily...!!!! :smile88: :smile10:

[eurache]

Yep, Kat Miller was in the beginning and Vera was funny with her and Lilly in asking them both about Basketball tickets..

I agree with Naj... Vera was funny this episode, boy was he embarrassed when the cat was out of the bag with Kat's secret..

I thought it was a great episode, it was back to basics like Season 1 was before... Kudos to the director

Ps...I'll give my chat room rundown later today, I gotta take MIL to doctor's this morning.. see ya then :smile49: btw it was a good chat and we had over 15 ppl on it too... :smile49:

[V]

lils231 said:

I think this episode was ok, but not so great. It didn't really move me so much emotionally, althogh the victim Emma seemed so sweet. The motive for murder was weak, it was just a spurt of anger really.
The music was a little different also, there were less songs because alot of music was the debutante classical music...
I think Lily looked really great this ep though. I really loved that blue shirt she wore in the beginning, and the vest. She was also wearing her red lining coat, you could see it in the art gallery scene...
Either way, I did enjoy it, but I hope now that this Veronica storyline is wrapped up we can focus on Lily more...Sorry for being so negative!!! I usually love each episode, but I was really looking forward for more Lily...!!!!

lils, you took the words out of my mouth. I agree with everything you said. I liked the victim, too, but wasn't moved at the end. Don't these people know not to dance on the top of stairs and get into a heated discussion?

Vera was hilarious as usual. IHe's so nosy -- I love it. And it was funny when he told Scotty that they're all colleagues and should know everything about each other (or something like that). Scotty's response (and my thought as well): "Yeah, good luck with that!"

[longislanditalian2]

I agree about vera being hilarious , and Nosey

[sukkerspinn]

Ok, I'm not thrilled about this eppy. It was OK. (I refuse to call a CC ep BAD, but it was below the middle). I guess I just didn't connect with the victim that much, or.. I dunno, I found it somewhat boring. Liked the music tho. (Moooooon riiiiiver.... Nice song!)

About Det. Miller: I think I could get used to having her around, as long as they don't clothe her with jackets like Chippy's all the time. (The jacked in her last interrogation looked a bit too much like one of JS's)
And this wednesday thing; is it about her (maybe) daughter/niece/balletclass...?? I honestly got a bit tired of the excessive mentioning of the Wednesday-thing. OK, we GOT IT already, that it's something secret and personal. Tell us what it is, or shut up about it. (I'm sorry for my mood. I'm not mad, just tired of all the chit chat.)

And about Lilly: GIVE US LILLY BAAACK! At least put her hair up again! It may be just me, but it seems like KM (or the "new" Lilly personality) is afraid to act out in fear of messing up her hair. She's barely moving her head, for crying out loud! *sigh*...

I'm not giving up just yet, I still think they can get the excitement back in my life in their future eps. Just hope it will be soon.

(Again, sooooorrry for being so negative...)

[Naj]

Hi sukkerspin,

You bring up some interesting observations. The Kat thing didn't bother me. I'd like to see her and Vera go tit for tat for a while longer. I think it's funny. The ending was very weak. As someone pointed out in chat last night it was the same kind of ending we saw in Factory Girls (didn't care for that ep at all btw. although I love irishkale's logo for it up in the Ep Recap or Ep Review forum )

What would have been a stronger ending was to have Emma miscalculate the stairs. They had been dancing so close to the stairway that it would have made more sense if she had turned to walk away from Travis and fell down the steps. That would have been better.

And Lilly. Yea, whatever they've done with her hair and makeup and personality is really weird. Are they trying to make her look old to bring in a new gal that looks the same age that Lilly looked last year? :smile21: It's really distracting and not even what the show is about. And who is it fooling?

I'd like to see some good Lilly eps this season and get back to the main premise this show was centered originally. Cold Case Departments are not this large.

[scottyandlillyfan]

I thought last night's episode was good.

[TVFan]

I see this ep is getting mixed reviews, so count me in the court that liked this one a lot. I thought this episode was very well done with a well-developed story, excellent directing, and the right amount of emotion.

First of all, I really liked Emma. She was one of those victims that stays with you long after the closing credits. She's like Rita from "The Sleepover" in that respect. I liked how she played along with her mother's wishes, but never managed to lose herself or her beliefs in the face of all of those snooty debutantes. Travis was the anti-Emma as he found it impossible to be true to himself. I agreed 100% with what Lilly said to Travis at the end of the episode about how he was the guy who's really no one, and it made perfect sense as to why Emma wouldn't want to be with him. She didn't want to live a life that wasn't her own or one where she constantly had to pretend to be something that she wasn't, and I just had to respect that about her. She was one of those good people in a group full of superficial and shallow people.

The directing in this episode was excellent. Usually, the overarching theme of the episode is contained to the flashbacks, but Tim Hunter managed to flawlessly incorporate some of the 60s movie theme into the current day scenes as well. This was most noticeable during the closing montage. I loved the pan from the illuminating moon to the quaint Philly street below as "the boys" went to check on what Kat was up to on Wednesday nights (more on that later), and also the sweeping shot of Emma's mother walking out on her front porch with the leaves blowing and the same bright moon shining on her daughter as she looked through her telescope all while the wonderful "Moon River" played in the background. It was just extremely well done. Again, a useful tactic for this episode that Cold Case so beautifully balances from week to week.

I knew that the whole Kat-has-something-on-Wednesday-nights thing wasn't going to be what Vera thought, but I was a little surprised to see that she goes to her daughter's (?) dance practices/recitals. I'm glad it didn't end up being something traumatic because this show has enough drama. Vera's comments were priceless last night, and I loved the look on his face when he found out Kat's secret. Man, was he embarrassed! Kat's I-caught-you look was great as well.

The one weak link in last night's episode was the actual murder scene. I had a hard time buying Travis as the killer, unless it was an accident in the midst of a fit of rage. He just seemed too devoted to Emma and everything she stood for to kill her. I was also a little disappointed to see that Lilly wasn't included in the final montage. Maybe now that this Kat thing is out of the bag , we'll get more Lilly. I hope so, anyway.

I did like that Lilly seemed to be setting herself up for an "I told you so" moment with her rush to judgment on Travis. I thought she was reverting to her usual quick-to-judge self, especially when we found out that his wife's death was an accident, but Lil ended up being half right. Travis was responsible for Emma's death. I guess she had him pegged. I do think that a lot of what he had to say to her seemed to resonate. She seemed a little thrown off by his comments back to her accusatory tones, which fit in perfectly with her overall state this season. She does seem to be evaluating a lot about herself, especially when people seem to point out some of her flaws. This little journey is really fascinating to me because we all go through self assessments and try to improve things that we don't like about ourselves. I liked how last night's scenes between Lilly and Travis seemed to play on this season-long idea.

Overall, a very strong episode for me, and certainly one of my favs for this season so far.

[Pixie]

Okay.... did someone push her down the stairs or did she dance and then fell backwards.....

Oh one more thing which song was used at closing song?

[MrsB]

Toward the end, when it was mentioned that the grandfather of Landon had the rings made for his granddaughter and his housekeeper's granddaughter, Emma, I thought they were revealing a twist that maybe Emma's mom and Landon's dad had a fling when they were young and that Emma was actually his daughter. I also thought that when he offered to walk her in the ball that it was another clue that he could be her biological father. I was really surprised that it didn't turn out that way. It seemed anti-climactic that it was Travis. It seems they could have added something else to the plot.

By the way, I may have missed something because I had the DVR taping it and then it switched off at 9:00 p.m. and went straight to the actual show, which was at a different point than what I was watching on my DVR. Anyway, at the point that my DVR switched off taping, Emma's mom was explaining that her family cleaned Matthew's home and that they had grown up together - that was why he was so nice to them. Did she mention any secret romance between them when they were young? Again, I didn't see the few minutes after that conversation, so I don't know if that was mentioned or not. That's partly where my idea came from. Possibly, they were close in a "forbidden" romance and produced a child, Emma. Oh well!

All in all, I didn't think it was a bad episode, but not great either.

[TVFan]

Pixie - She was pushed. The closing song was "Moon River."

Mrs. B - There was no secret romance, although I thought it was going there as well. It was just a mutual friendship and appreciation. I was actually glad that it didn't go that way because it would have been too predictable.

[MrsB]

Thanks, TVFan! Just wondered!

[Pixie]

Thanks TVFan...


P. S. Thanks Eurache for letting me know what a debutante is

[Naj]

Emma, I thought they were revealing a twist that maybe Emma's mom and Landon's dad had a fling when they were young and that Emma was actually his daughter. I also thought that when he offered to walk her in the ball that it was another clue that he could be her biological father. I was really surprised that it didn't turn out that way. It seemed anti-climactic that it was Travis. It seems they could have added something else to the plot.

I agree here. I thought it was going to be something too but I guess this was info to push us off track. Well I checked my tape today and this is one I will have to retape because I had it on the wrong speed and all it does is flicker! Bring on the rerun....