Ep. 3.22 The River

[TVFan]

Great thoughts as usual boxman! I especially enjoyed your parallel between Lilly and Grant. I completely missed that, but you're right. Very interesting that "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" contains those two frequent CC themes. Alcoholism, and addiction in general, are very prominent on this show. I look forward to reading more from you.

[boxman]

tvfan said:

... I especially enjoyed your parallel between Lilly and Grant. ...

Unfortunately, TVFan, but that makes me rather nervous about this season finale. After all, the doctor did end up on a downward spiral with his addiction... Does this mean that Lilly will follow her mom's destructive spiral as Grant's did his father?? This is the second episode I've seen Cold Case tie personal flaws to genetics. (I can't remember at this moment which was the other episode.... ) So does this indicate an awful and irreversible fate for Lilly?? There's also the article that Naj points out about CBS shows having this kind of unsettling season finales this year (plus all the other indications we've talked many times before)..... hmm....

[boxman]

To continue from where I left off earlier:

After Seth's literary reference, he denies his involvement with Grant's murder. Instead, he tells Kat and Scotty about Grant's addiction: His "genetic past" of his father's addictive tendencies catching up with him. So again, is this a foreshadow of a possible Lilly breakdown in the season finale?? There has been many hints of this throughout the season....

Seth's flashback is very interesting in its color symbolisms. We see the colour Green again in the form of the round card table and a green ashtray. These are an easily expected reappearance of the color, because the scene involves gambling money. Somewhat different, though, is the appearance of the colour Red in many objects: A red ashtray, red coloured brick walls, red neon lights, a red lamp above the poker table, and a red pin on the doctor's lapel. In Pixie's post over in the "Greed" thread, its generally taken that the colour Red is associated with the sin Anger. And what happens at the end of Seth's flashback?? Cyrus Tisdale explodes in anger at the doctor for betting his hand on a pair of deuces!! Did the colour Red foreshadow Cy's anger?? Hmm....

In the next scene, Scotty and Vera look for Cy. This scene too, is filled with Green items. The hotel marquee in the outside shot is green. They find Cy in the green-painted hotel lobby playing cards. Cy pushes away a green jade pendant. While Cy and his buddies are playing on a regular wooden table, the ashtray is again green in colour. Barely noticeable is the colour Red once again, in the form of the deck of cards they are using. More amusingly, the men were apparently smoking Marlboro cigarettes--both the regular flavor (which comes in a red/white box), and the menthol flavor (which comes in a green/white box)!! That is just too cool, and I didn't notice that until the second time around! What is more easily visible in this scene are the Gold accents in the room that mimick the colour scheme of the Jade and Gold pendant seen earlier. Most of the lighting fixtures in the room--sconces, chandeliers, and desk lamps--are gold coloured. A cabinet in the back of the room shines a warm yellow glow, and an ashtray/wastecan in the background is gold coloured also. The colour Yellow (which resembles Gold) is associated with the sin "Greed".

The Green/Gold colour scheme continues in Cy's flashback as well. He tells Scotty and Vera about the doctor's difficulty in paying a restaurant check. The restaurant has green walls and furniture, green tablecloths, green tropical plants, and even little green pots for the tabletop plants! The lighting in this restaurant also has a golden hue to it, like in the hotel earlier. Grant and his guests are drinking white wine, which of course, is actually golden yellow in color.

Interestingly, the color Red also reappears in this scene. But this time, its in the form of a red dress on the doctor's wife (herself a "red"-head). And how does this scene end?? Of course, the red dress on the redhead foreshadowed Anne's anger at Grant for being "on-call" and walking out of the dinner--doesn't it??

Anne becomes the focus on the investigation. She tells Lilly about trying to save Grant from his gambling addiction, and her flashbacks are filled with several recurring and previously used symbols. Just like the kitchen flashback in "The Hen House", this flashback opens with Water, the symbol of a person's changing fate. Water appears in the very first cut of the flashback as the camera looks through an aquarium to show Grant desparately looking for money. He is frantically looking through Anne's purse, which is Red. This colour is now established twice in this episode as a foreshadow to anger and arguments. Does the Red Purse foreshadow a third argument?? Anne walks in to see what Grant is doing, and she confronts him with their money problems and his gambling. We can also see at this point that the kitchen lamp and a hanging oven mitten are both also red. Not only that, but more water-associated items can be seen: the kitchen sink, a coffee maker, and the top of the aquarium. These water elements symbolize the changing fate between Anne and Grant as an argument does indeed develop. Additionally, rather clever and amusingly, a gold swan statue also appears very briefly in this scene. Swans, of course, swim on top of ponds so the statue is another water symbol for this scene. But gold swans were also symbolic and pivitol in the earlier season three episode "Debut". In that episode, the victim's gold swan ring was stolen, and the end of the episode revealed that she was killed in a fit of anger. This is exactly what Anne is being investigated by Lilly for: As a suspect in killing her husband in a fit of anger. Was the gold swan supposed to be a curveball?? A final curious symbolism in this scene was the song "Drive" by The Cars. In Cold Case, Automotive references usually associate with some type of sin or crime. In this flashback, we see Grant stealing money from his wife's purse, lying to his wife about their bank accounts, writing bouncing checks to his son's university, and placing more value towards gambling above his marriage.

More to follow....

[boxman]

Okay! Now we get to one of my favorite parts....

I was surprised to find in the chat that some of y'all hadn't heard of the term "Crack Ho" before. I asked, then maybe it's an East Coast thing? Hmm... It got me curious about the etymology of the phrase, and from asking several people with their familiarity with the term, I'm rather convinced that it came from inner city Black kids. Literally, it means "Crack lovely woman", but it definitely does not have all the negative connotation of this literal meaning. While kids may use it to tease each other, adults almost always use the phrase in a disarming, humorous way during a discussion or argument. Sort of like when someone says, "Oh yeah? Well, yo mamma is sooo fat....." Ha ha ha... People who haven't heard the phrase before will probably be very offended by it, but those who use it regularly will have some understanding that the slang can be taken for as comic relief. Anyway, the use of the slang "Crack Ho" in this episode makes me wonder if the writers are toying with us again, as in the the board's use of the phrase "Lilly Ho"?? Hmm...

Speaking of.... Edie's real name is "Edwina Davis". This is the third character I'm aware of in the show that has the "-ina" suffix to what was originally a guy's name. There was "Wilhemina 'Billie' Ducette" from the episode "Best Friends", and also "Christina Rush" before this. Oddly, Vera uses the word "Trifecta" moments later in the scene. A "Trifecta" is a gambling term where the bettor names three finishers they want to win in a race... Coincidence?? Hmm...

This scene takes place in the office kitchen. I wonder if that's of any significance?? Very significant events occured in the kitchen of this and the previous episode. In "The Hen House", we learned Noah's true identity from the kitchen conversation. Minutes earlier in this episode, Lilly hears from Anne how the kitchen argument with Grant was the moment that ended their "18-year old" relationship. Why did this scene take place in the kitchen too?? Any significance to Vera standing by the sink, a source of water?? How about Stillman and Jeffries taking late-night "drinks"?? We know from last week's episode what Stillman pours in those coffee mugs at this time of the night...and those are the same blue and white coffee mugs they're drinking from. Are the two of them getting addicted to these late night beverages?? Hmm...

Again the color Red is associated with Anger. The "Red heart-shaped sticker" that Lilly mentions gives the detectives reason to suspect that Jason may have been angry with his dad, and thus may have killed the doctor.

More later! (Hopefully before Sunday night!)

[jazzyb]

"This is the second episode I've seen Cold Case tie personal flaws to genetics. (I can't remember at this moment which was the other episode.... ) "
Boxman,
I believe you may be thinking of the episode "House" where Johnny Harkins confronts Hank in the escape tunnel and admits that his murderous impulses are "in his blood"

[boxman]

jazzyb said:

"This is the second episode I've seen Cold Case tie personal flaws to genetics. (I can't remember at this moment which was the other episode.... ) "
Boxman,
I believe you may be thinking of the episode "House" where Johnny Harkins confronts Hank in the escape tunnel and admits that his murderous impulses are "in his blood"

JazzyB, I haven't seen "House" so its another episode. I know I commented about it.... I thought it was "One Night", but can't find the post where I said anything about it....

[boxman]

Here's another "reality-following-fiction" irony:
www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/05/31/sex.offender.suit.ap/index.html

Sex offenders sue for playground access

INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana (AP) -- Six sex offenders sued the city Wednesday to block a new ordinance that bars them from venturing within 1,000 feet of parks, pools and playgrounds when children are present.

The plaintiffs went to federal court to argue that the law is unconstitutionally vague, violates their rights to vote and attend church, and prevents them from freely traveling on roads that may pass within 1,000 feet of the affected sites.

The ordinance was approved May 15 and took effect immediately. It carries fines of up to $2,500.

The law includes an exception that permits sex offenders to visit those sites as long as they are with another adult who is not a convicted sexual offender.

The six, who include convicted child molesters and rapists, are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana.

Tenley Drescher, an attorney for the city, said officials planned to defend the ordinance. "The important part is protecting kids," she said.

[TVFan]

How bizarre that this story comes on the heels of this ep! Thanks for the story, boxman.

[boxman]

jazzyb said:

We've all heard the term "slippery slope" and that's precisely where Scotty is headed after that beat down. If we look at the circumstances with the guy in the park, there is only the presumption that he would have harmed the young boy; his behavior characterizes that of known pedophiles so we take guilty pleasure in Scotty beating him to a pulp. In the world of TV fiction you can get away with that. But anytime we excuse vigilante-ism as the "end that justifies the means" you open the door for a whole slew of questionable tactics. Keep in mind that gay-bashers also think they're doing the world a favor. Sorry to be so preachy about this; I'm no defender of child molesters certainly but am against anyone, police included, taking the law into their own hands.

Oi! I totally agree, and I hope that this is looked further into in Season Four.

Does anyone else think that Kat's daughter, Veronica, had rather light-coloured eyes and hair?? It seems to imply that her father is white. I wonder where this will lead to....

[boxman]

It's been bugging me to finish this episode up! I think anyone reading so far probably gets the point that this episode was filled with these "Cold Case" symbolisms. Here are a few more significant ones towards the ending of the episode:

In Mrs Lee's pet store for both modern-day time and flashback, we again see the colors Red and Green (plus an occasional touch of Gold). While Red was used to foreshadow anger or an argument to come later in the scene, in the scenes with Mrs. Lee--surprise, surprise!--there is none!! Here, in Mrs. Lee's Chinese environment, the colors take different meaning, perhaps?? I found this to be a clever and amusing twist to the pattern that was being played throughout the episode. It was almost like a poker player making a bluff by breaking their pattern to their unsuspecting card players. Very funny! As I told TVFan in the "Sherry Darlin'" thread, the show throws us curveballs such as this with the symbolisms. And here, they bluffed us with the Red in the pet store scene!

Cold Case uses several methods to foreshadow and underline themes that run through an episode. It can be colour, objects, camera angles, or even allusions to books or other movies. One method *rarely* used on the show, however, is numerology. But one thing interesting about the symbolisms in this episode, is that there seems to be hints to the number "8" in several of the episode's main themes. The victim in this case, Seth Garvey, and also his son and good friend, were all doctors. A doctoral degree generally takes "8 Years" to accomplish. A Chinese jade pendant was used as a good luck charm. In Chinese numerology, the number "8" is supposed to bring good fortune. The title of this episode, "The River" refers to Poker, and poker tables are generally 8-sided. Is the recurrence of the number "8" a definite foreshadow or reference to something, or just a curveball like the Red in Mrs. Lee's pet store??

Finally, the way this show throws curveballs like this made it hard for me to really figure out what the whole Scotty thing with the guy at the park was all about. I think I've finally found something that satisfies me. Scotty's act was Hubris:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubris

Aristotle defined Hubris as follows:
"Hubris consists in doing or saying things that cause shame to the victim, not in order that anything may happen to you, nor because anything has happened to you, but merely for your own gratification. Hubris is not the requital of past injuries; this is revenge. As for the pleasure in hubris, its cause is this: men think that by ill-treating others they make their own superiority the greater."

Crucial to this definition are the ancient Greek concepts of honor (timē) and shame. In Aristotle's view, a hubristic act is one that inflicts undeserved shame on the victim for the gratification of the perpetrator."

Hubris was a crime in classical Athens.

[TVFan]

That definition of hubris does seem to fit Scotty's behavior at the playground. He knew that beating the crap out of that guy wasn't going to make him stop having the compulsions that cause him to act out, but it certainly made Scotty feel better. Maybe that guy stays away from Veronica's park, but he'll just find another one to hang around.

[samanda]

Re-Air Date: 9/3/06 (SUNDAY)
Time Slot: 9:00 PM-10:00 PM EST

[boxman]

I came across this:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_slang_names_for_poker_hands

The Texas Hold-Em slangs are rather funny!

[angelicxdeath]

I just finished watching the episode for the first time and I thought it was excellent. I was really cheering for Valens actually. I was happy he gave him a "warning." I also understand it wasn't right but I think it's sweet that he is looking out for Kat's daughter. I don't think he did that for that reason but I like to believe so.^_^

Kaialise xx

[eurache]

TNT REPEAT - 7/30/08 - 3AM ET

[stillmanfan]

Thought it was a good episode as to shows how hard it is to kick the addiction to gambling.

The part about Kat, her mom and Veronica, Do you think her mom just wanted to give the guy a chance as to being left alone?

Didn't like to see Scotty kick the guy's butt when I first saw this but I didn't realize that was the same boy the guy was looking at though till I saw it posted here.

I understand why he did it but I don't think it was right.

[ninja1088]

I have to wonder what will happen to Cy. At the end of the day, this was an assisted suicide, I really can't see him going to prison for more than a few years... if that.