7.04 Soul

[Trublu]

THE TEAM RE-OPENS THE 1970 MURDER CASE OF A 20-YEAR-OLD MUSICIAN WHO WAS SECRETLY INSTRUMENTAL IN CREATING THE POPULAR PHILADELPHIA SOUL SOUND, ON "COLD CASE," SUNDAY, OCT. 18

Wesley Jonathan ("What I Like About You") Guest Stars as the Victim

Loretta Devine ("Grey's Anatomy"),

Jamie Hector ("The Wire"), Anna Maria Horsford ("The Shield"),

And Steven Williams ("The X-Files") Also Guest Star





"Soul" - The team delves into the 1970 murder of a musician who tried to keep his involvement with the Philadelphia Soul scene a secret from his strict preacher father for whom he was an organist. Meanwhile, Lilly meets her teenaged step-brother, Finn, on COLD CASE, Sunday, Oct. 18 (10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.



Guest stars include Wesley Jonathan ("What I Like About You") as the victim, Billy; Loretta Devine ("Grey's Anatomy") as a choir girlfriend of Billy; and Anna Maria Horsford ("The Shield") as the owner of an after-hours Jazz club. Jamie Hector ("The Wire") and Steven Williams ("The X-Files") also guest star, respectively, as the 1970 and 2009 incarnations of a record label founder.



SERIES REGULARS:


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


GUEST CAST:

Billy Jeremiah Sanders............ Wesley Jonathan

Chandra Patterson (2009)......... Loretta Devine

Geraldine

Watkins (2009)............ Anna Maria Horsford

Ronde Brooks (2009)............. Steven Williams

Ronde Brooks (1970)................. Jamie Hector

Reverend Tom Sanders

(2009)...................................... John Cothran

Reverend Tom Sanders (1970)....... Dig Wayne



Geraldine Watkins

(1970)........................ Vanessa Bell Calloway

Chandra Patterson

(1970)............................ Hope Olaidé Wilson

Buster Large (2009).................. Ajgie Kirkland

Buster Large (1970)................... Kelvin Brown

Beatrice Sloan (1970)................ Meagan Good

Archie Sloan (2009)....... Freedom Bridgewater

Finn Cooper................................ Brett Davern

Officer Lennox............................. Alex Valente



WRITTEN BY: Ryan Farley



DIRECTED BY: John Showalter

[Naj]

Not official yet, but Cold Case is cancelled for tonight due to over run of NFL football.



It's now official by CBS Eye Alert - No Cold Case tonight.
Revised start times for tonight's CBS programs: 60 Minutes (8:14pm ET), Amazing Race (9:14pm ET), Three Rivers (10:14pm ET) and (11:14pm ET) due to an NFL runover.

[Trublu]

Soul Airing 10.25

It is official: CBS will be pushing the schedule back a week to accommodate the episode. US viewers should expect to see "Soul" Sunday, October 25, at 10PM EST.

[Naj]

CBS EYE ALERT: October 25th

Revised start times for tonight's CBS programs: 60 Minutes (7:02pm ET), Amazing Race (8:02pm ET), Three Rivers (9:02pm ET) and Cold Case (10:02pm ET) due to an NFL runover.

[ninja1088]

Yay, we can discuss it now. Very solid episode in my option. You kept guessing on who the doer was and Billy was someone you could feel for. All he wanted to do was go out on his own... and he never got the chance.

[Electrophile]

I voted this as one of the season's best. The music bumped it up from excellent. I thought the story was great - a young man with a ton of talent wanting to break away from a confining space and move on in the world, but is struck down before he can. Billy was a very sympathetic character, I felt and I didn't know who the killer was until the very end, which is good - they kept me guessing.


I loved the whole "Lilly meets Finn" arc they put in this episode. I hope to see more interaction between the two for the rest of the season because I think it's important for Lilly to get to know this part of her family and as we saw, it's important for Finn to get to know that part of his family.

[Kassandra]

uh FINALLY!!!!

I have waited a week to discuss this episode!

I loved the finn meet lilly thing! They did it in a great way. I hope they bring the rest of the family in at some point! The show is just not the same without Kat! She really needs to come back. The case was really good. I loved the music. I will rate is one of the best this season!!

[ninja1088]

Agree with everyone else on Finn. I know Lily is afraid to let anyone get close to her but she needs to drop it just a little bit. Her half siblings want to meet her and just because she's mad ather dad, no reason to cut them off too.

[madmax]

For me it was a great episode Voted the best ever, because of plot, side plot and music. Plot itself was great with great setting in the Philly music scene. Music was really taking me back to the 1970, and the scene when they played the song in the studio was amazing. I also liked doer's anger and dissapointment, kinda panic attack, in the last flashback.

Finn and Lilly scenes - GREAT! And Lilly's look when she saw the fake ID said 'yeah, right!' - priceless! In the holding cell, the way she woke him up - brutal, but effective Now, that they met, I don't think Lilly will be able to keep Finn away...It felt like Lilly and Finn have the same type of character, which is very nice of writers to do.

[boxman]

LOVED IT! I immediately gave my O'Jays and Spinners MP3s a few listens right after the episode! ;D

First off, my one beef is the "good churchgoing girl" was a bit overdone. You know, with this show it goes pretty much back to Season One's "Churchgoing People" that the most religious person can't be ignored as the doer...

I really enjoyed the flashback where Chandra sings "Backstabbers"!!! It was so cool on so many levels. I'm really happy that with all the cutbacks, it didn't seem like they sacrificed much for that scene. It definitely added a lot of dimension to the whole episode, as you knew the song selection was hinting SOMETHING about the episode. I guessed correctly that the murderer had felt Billy had turned on them, and began to suspect Ronde. But obviously, I was wrong: The song "Backstabbers" alludes to Warner Brothers Studios for stabbing this show in the back by cutting it's filming budget!!! ;D Ha ha ha.... Seriously, in addition to being a great rendition of the O'Jays' song, the scene worked perfectly with me to see that Billy really did have both the talent and leadership skills as a rising music star--which exactly would be the 'magnet' that draws the killer in to him at the end.

I was a bit leery of how they cast Loretta Devine as the older Chandra, but when she gave that confession, I took that back!

And of course, the episode's whole "missing branch of the family tree" theme tied really well into the Lilly/Finn side story. It's nice meeting him, and I hope the show doesn't screw up with the unresolved Christina side story too....

[The Reverend Bizarre]

Well, I have to say that this was a great episode, especially the music itself.

The two things I noticed right away were the musical overtones, and the religious overtones. I knew that something was going to be up when Billy's father quoted Mark 8:36 and then it cut to Billy's body out in the street.

6For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?

I don't know if the writers intended it, but that verse did fit Billy, but not in the way most think. In this case the term 'soul' really means 'life'. So it would be better said as;

6For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own life?

If anyone remembers, his song became a huge hit; and had he lived he probably would have made more hits. But, even after having 'gained' the 'whole world', he didn't profit from it, because he died.


The Psalm 145:9 verse being used by Chandra was incredibly ironic, especially when you look at the verse in context.

8The LORD is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy.

9The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.

10All thy works shall praise thee, O LORD; and thy saints shall bless thee.

Oh yeah, Chandra, you were truly a mirror of that verse. :roll:


And I'll post more tomorrow, after I've digested this.

[ninja1088]

Alas Reverend, for all the verses Chandra remembered, she forgot one of the most important ones... Thou Shall Not Kill.

[The Reverend Bizarre]

That too. Again, it further makes the whole Psalm 145:9 verse a complete irony. As a Christian she should have been imitating Christ, and been slow to anger. Not gotten angry at Billy right away, and killed him.

Also something that Boxman said came to mind. When I saw Chandra I had a suspicious feeling that she was going to be the killer, and it was going to be out of jealousy.

[ninja1088]

Ahh, but in many cases Cold Case has always had the why to explain why a killer did what he/she did. Chandra had dreams and wanted to be the next Aretha. The insults Ronde gave her stung (as I'm sure it would anyone) and I'm sure others also felt she didn't have the "look". To Chandra, Billy was the only one who gave her a shot and believed in her talent.
To Chandra, Billy leaving was not only the end of her dreams... but the loss of the one person who told her she could actually follow them. That was clearly more than she could bear. It wasn't just that he didn't love her, he was destroying her dreams.

P.S. If nothing else, she belongs in the top five for biggest meltdowns. I would have wanted to get out of that car too.

[toddsmitts]

Finally, after waiting a week to tell people my thoughts on this eppy!

First off, I'll say I think it's the best so far this season.

-The music was great, especially the performace of "Backstabbers". I'd actually never heard this one before, and Hope Olaidé Wilson's rendition was great. With the strings and horns, you can definately see how this segued into the sound that defined the 70's.

-It's a pity they decided to have Beatrice be dead in the present, meaning she never knew Billy wasn't a deadbeat drunk and was actually on his way to be with her. Would've been a nice touch.

-Nice to see the hapless Officer Lennox back, again being less than diligent with kids under his watch. Interestingly, the audition cast list for this episode (see the link in the thread in Spoilers) called for an officer Wayne. I guess at some point, somebody just said "Hey, instead of casting someone new, why don't we just bring back the guy who played that uniform cop in "Officer Down"?" Here's hoping he returns again.

-"X-Files" fans should recognize Steven Williams (Mulder's informant "X") as the older Ronde. Jerry Hardin, who was Mulder earlier informant "Deep Throat", was also on earlier this year in "The Brush Man". John Cothran, I recognized from playing a few aliens (including a couple of Klingons) in various "Star Trek" series.

-No mention of Miller this week. If not for the Finn subplot, you could almost fit this episode in somewhere in the first or second season.

-What I especially liked about this episode was how surprised I was at who the doer turned out to be. Not since season four's "Static" have I been so off in guessing who the doer would be. I was convinced it would be Buster, the heavy guy. The jealous, less-talented types are classic CC doers. Add to that, I didn't buy buster's line when he was being questioned by Vera and Jeffries for a second. "I realized that Billy was just better than me." Come on! Nobody's THAT gracious a loser! But if the writers were deliberately trying to make Buster a red herring, they pulled it off wonderfully, especially with the bottles he takes swigs from. Vera even warns Buster to sit tight cause they may be back (which they're not).

I considered Ronde early on as well, simply because of his upcoming Lifetime Achievement Award. It would just give him that much more height to fall from, being arrested on the eve of that (kind of like Becca being arrested at her reunion in "Stand Up and Holler").

Chandra being the one totally threw me, but it makes sense. Loretta Devine is one of the better-known actors in the guest cast (although I recognized a few others) and you don't just bring her in for one scene in a church. It's a neat twist on the "doer kills victim after their feelings are rejected" scenario by having it be a girl rejected by a guy.

-And of course, the much awaited arrival of Lilly's half-brother Finn. As strange as his situation is, I know bit about it, having once discovered I had an older sister on my dad's side I never knew existed (I never got myself arrested to meet her though). Finn's still a bit of a blank canvas. They could go either way by making him a good kid who did one impulsive thing to meet Lilly, or they could have him be a troubled kid, and this was just the latest in a long list of bad moves. It's too soon to tell.

As I said, good stuff! Was it worth the wait? (Not that I had to.)

[The Reverend Bizarre]

Even if someone isn't 'that' gracious of a loser, that doesn't mean they're going to kill. I do have to admit that I thought that Buster would be the killer. They did the same thing in the "Red White and Blue", but in that case the doer was still using. In this case, Buster had been clean for 30 years years. In a way this shows the extreme duality of the show. In this case:

'The drug user will A.) eventually clean up their act B.) Kill someone so they can get drug money.

ninja1088 - You do have a point about Chandra. I can imagine that she must have been crushed when she found out that they replaced her vocals with someone else' vocals.

[ninja1088]

Oct 26, 2009 1:46:50 GMT -5 toddsmitts said:

Finally, after waiting a week to tell people my thoughts on this eppy!

First off, I'll say I think it's the best so far this season.

-It's a pity they decided to have Beatrice be dead in the present, meaning she never knew Billy wasn't a deadbeat drunk and was actually on his way to be with her. Would've been a nice touch.

-What I especially liked about this episode was how surprised I was at who the doer turned out to be. Not since season four's "Static" have I been so off in guessing who the doer would be. I was convinced it would be Buster, the heavy guy. The jealous, less-talented types are classic CC doers. Add to that, I didn't buy buster's line when he was being questioned by Vera and Jeffries for a second. "I realized that Billy was just better than me." Come on! Nobody's THAT gracious a loser! But if the writers were deliberately trying to make Buster a red herring, they pulled it off wonderfully, especially with the bottles he takes swigs from. Vera even warns Buster to sit tight cause they may be back (which they're not).

Agreed with that. When have they EVER shown a former addict that admitted someone was better than them and that they were responsible for their own problems. Almost never. Loretta Devine was a big name guest star but so were many of the other players as well. The only thing you know is that for any guest star that has a recognizable name,you'll see them at least twice.

[zoé]

My favorite episode so far this season!
Apologies for repeating things already said, but I like to post when I really enjoyed an episode:

GORGEOUS flashbacks, both visually and musically, great job, CC!!!

They were also some funny and moving stuff:
Will's enthousiasm was very cool to watch, his look when Vera ruined his opportunity to attend the life achievement ceremony was priceless

The reverend's last words to his son They took the wrong son really ached... and also the fact, like Todd said, that Billy's girlfriend died without knowing that he was coming back to her and finally chose to be a father just before he died. Usually in the CCverse, pregnant girlfriends of the victim finally learn the truth!

The introduction to Lilly's half brother nicely echoed the father-son thema of the case. It's good to have Lilly with no family drama.

My only gripe, the episode seemed out of the season subplots:
No mentions of evil Moe nor Kat (would have been better to have Scotty checked on her instead of his mom)
After the big Doherty/Stillman fight on budget cuts, they are allowed to reopen a case with no real new lead

[The Reverend Bizarre]

they are allowed to reopen a case with no real new lead

Actually, they did get a new lead. At first they suspected that Billy was just a drunk, no-good person. It was when William noticed the Jack of Clubs card that he realized that Billy was a VIP member of the Beehive, therefore one of the best musicians in Philly, and ergo NOT a drunk, no good guy.

[irishgirl101]

awesome episode!
loved Lilly and Finn,cant wait for more! the storyline and music were so much better! i think were finally getting into the swing of things in this season.

Oct 26, 2009 4:03:07 GMT -5 zoé said:

they are allowed to reopen a case with no real new lead

yeah i was wondering about that to. i know they found the bee card but wernt they already looking into the case when they found it?!? will opened it just because the guy asked. i thought that was weird especially since were hearing so much about budget cuts in the police department.