7.05 WASP

[Trublu]

(NOTE TO EDITORS: The following episode of COLD CASE has been substituted for the one previously scheduled for Nov. 1) -- THE TEAM INVESTIGATES THE MURDER OF THE TOP PILOT OF THE CIVILIAN WWII WASP (WOMEN AIR FORCE SERVICE PILOTS) PROGRAM IN 1944, ON "COLD CASE," SUNDAY, NOV. 1

Daniel Baldwin ("Grey Gardens") Returns

Multiple Emmy Award Winner Michael Learned ("The Waltons"),

Tony Award Winner Deanna Dunagan ("August: Osage County"),

John Aniston ("Days of Our Lives") and Chad Faust ("The 4400") Guest Star



"WASP" - The team looks into the 1944 murder of the top pilot from the WASP program, a pioneering group of civilian women who volunteered to fly non-combat missions for the U.S. Army Air Force during WWII. Also, Lilly becomes fixated on her nemesis, Moe Kitchener, on COLD CASE, Sunday, Nov. 1 (10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. (Previously scheduled for an earlier date)



Daniel Baldwin ("Grey Gardens") returns as Moe Kitchener, who is out on bail awaiting his trial for running Lilly's car off the road.



Additional guest stars include multiple Emmy Award winner Michael Learned ("The Waltons") as a former WASP pilot, Tony Award winner Deanna Dunagan ("August: Osage County") as the ex-WASP commander, Chad Faust ("The 4400") as a WASP flight instructor, and John Aniston ("Days of Our Lives") as a WWII Army Air Force pilot veteran.



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



RECURRING CAST:

Moe Kitchener......................... Daniel Baldwin

Rosa Valens.................................. Terri Hoyos



GUEST CAST:

Vivian Lynn (1944)............... the one who's name we shall not say Glendening

Iris Keening (1944)................... Amy Dudgeon

Iris Keening (2009)................ Deanna Dunagan

Frank James (1944)....................... Chad Faust

Frank James (2009)............. Newell Alexander

Herbert "Wolf" James (1944)........ Zane Holtz

Herbert "Wolf" James (2009).... John Aniston

Betty Joe Henders (1944)........... Kaitlyn Black

Betty Joe Henders (2009)........ Mary Jo Catlett

Louise Patterson (1944).............. Louise Linton

Louise Patterson (2009)......... Michael Learned

Edna Reed (1944)................... Camryn Grimes

Sweaty Mechanic (1944)............ David Landry

WRITTEN BY: Denise Thé



DIRECTED BY: Chris Fisher

[Trublu]

Just as a note, CBS only has one NFL game slated for today, so all primetime airings should be on time tonight.

[Kassandra]

I really Loved this episode.

The little thing between Moe and Lilly. And Scotty and his mom.

There is a lot of tension between the team. I love it

The storyline was good, for me it wasn't a clear shoot for who did it. A strong episode.

And for people it starting ontime, and i think it was a strong episode I hope the numbers are better this week!

And the end memo about president Obama awarding WASP memebers metals was amazing!!!!

[ninja1088]

I also liked this episode. Lily's behavior is basically stalking. I know it drives people nuts but Moe isn't guilty until twelve people say he is. Until then, he is well within his rights to file a complaint against her.
As for the episode, it was good. It was tricky to figure out who the doer was, and as someone who has female relatives in the military now, it was nice seeing the women who paved the way for them.

[The Reverend Bizarre]

I only gave this one a good. The case didn't do anything for me, but I LOVED the Lilly and Moe interactions!

I'll post more tomorrow.

[ninja1088]

Lily can get the case against Moe tossed if she doesn't let up on harassing him.

[The Reverend Bizarre]

In this episode, Moe harassed Lilly as well.

[ninja1088]

He did.... they're going back and forth. Just not a good idea the route she's taking.
As for Iris, how sad to see almost 70 years later she still felt justified in what she did. When you think you're committing a murder for the greater good....it's easy to see why she showed no real remorse.

[Naj]

I actually liked this episode. It wasn't anything grand or spectatular just a nice little Cold Case story. I knew there were women pilots but I didn't know their official name. Why did Scotty go off on Iris in the interrogation room that Lilly had to ask him to leave? Was that a set up for Iris or what?

The side stories with Lilly and Scotty are still keeping my interest, although I think Lilly is going to sabotage her career and I don't understand her motiviation. It does seem kind mute why she insists on harassing Moe, though as she's more intelligent than that. I know some may be sick of the side stories but this show has always done that from the getgo and I think the writers are simply trying to give the fans something more this year on the two lead detectives so I'm not unhappy about that. I gave it an excellent.

[tommyk]

I found this a step down from the previous two (splendid) episodes, but still far superior to the first two (dreadful) episodes of the season. I liked the sense of period, I liked the story-line, I liked the subplots, I liked the ending, and by and large, I liked the performances. So why did I just give this episode a “good”? Two things, I guess. It felt a little overpopulated, for one; for a change, I was having trouble figuring out who was who – to the point where, when the woman died near the end, I had no idea who she was. And too many of the interrogations followed that lazy story-telling format that I loathe most: the “I didn’t have a problem with her – it was so-and-so” flashback, that instantly leads the detectives to their next suspect. Two of them even followed that other, overripe interrogation cliché: “Sure, I disliked her at first, but then we became the best of friends.” Still, all in all, not a bad episode. Not bad at all.

[Trublu]

Nov 2, 2009 15:15:15 GMT -5 Naj said:

Why did Scotty go off on Iris in the interrogation room that Lilly had to ask him to leave? Was that a set up for Iris or what?

Yes, it was a set up. Notice that it allowed Lilly to segway perfectly into a place where she could have Iris identify with her; Iris, being the educated woman she was, and experienced in taking crap from male superiors in the military, would have known full well that women still are not fully integrated into the work place, and would have no reason to believe Lilly otherwise when she said that she had the same trouble in a workplace dominated by males. Scotty, for his part, gave Stillman a bit of a look after he exited the room that was a, "not to shabby acting, huh?" look.

I very much liked this episode. I love the time period that it was set in anyway; I think we could study WWII era forever and still not know everything that there is to know about it. I was doubly glad that they decided to center the episode around the WASP program. Most people don't realize that it was really the first time that women were allowed to serve in the military, though as one of the characters pointed out, even that description is glorifying it. The women were still civilians who were just working for the military, but the program may very well have opened the doors to women being able to serve.

I think it was also an excellent parallel to Lilly's character on the show, being the only woman in the squad for the longest time, and with Kat apparently in and out this season, the only regular female squad member. That is how the show originally started, with Lilly fighting her way though a workplace dominated by men. And it still is, in the 7 years she's been at it. I think that the conflict between her and Moe speaks to this very well also; Moe was able to file a complaint against Lilly that could very well get her in a lot of trouble if she doesn't watch every step, and it is partly her doing. But it seems that Moe has free range to stalk her just the same, and nothing is being done about it. I don't blame Lilly for beginning to take this into her own hands; it's at a point that she believes that she needs to protect herself because no one else is. To a point, that is true.

I was getting worried when they started to set up Vivian to be a stuck up hot shot pilot, but I thought it was a lovely touch giving her the tender moments with Edna, teaching her how to fly, and after her crash, singing the Air Corps song. I was also relieved that Vivian didn't fall helpless, after all that characterization, to Frank. I'm actually also very glad that the killer was female, and specifically Iris. The idea of "good for the majority" is a very sticky one to contemplate; if WASP's success story was indeed due to the lack of trouble coming from the group, then was the killing of "trouble" pilots justified? Some people might say yes. The fact that she was taking the group's success as her own success story, though, might prove that the motive was a little more selfish than anything else.

[irishgirl101]

it was a decent enough episode! not one of my favorites but i like the whole lilly/moe interaction, i think its moments like that that let KM show off her acting abilities! i was definiatly not expecting the killer to be who they were, which was nice for a change! poor scotty tho!

[eduardo]

I just watched this one- Left me specheless...
Vivian is one of those victims that I will NEVER forget.
The last time we saw a really old case was in Family 8108 (5th season) and 40's cases are always good.
Clothes, music, emotions... I don't know what to say!
I have felt this only with my all time fav episodes like Wednesday's women, A time to hate, Revenge, One night and my all time FAV Shuffle Ball change.
This is the first episode this season that traps me--- where I have this feeling to cry to scream... EXCELLENT. One of the best ever for me!
LOVED IT

[Electrophile]

I really loved this episode and voted it one of the season's best. So that's two in a row now, last week's and this week's.

I think so few people understand the contributions women made to the war effort, whether they were on the home front or actively working for the military. With all the men at war, women were the only available workforce left and and they had to be utilized. The WASP were no different. It was dangerous for anyone to be doing what they did, but for women at the time, it was seen as downright reckless. They did it anyway because they felt they had a duty and an obligation. Which is what Vivian felt. Edna had been sabotaged by male fliers and Iris knew that if the higher-ups knew what was going on, their program would get shut down. Iris was right to protect "her girls", but she went about it in all the wrong ways.


I felt for them all - I can't imagine what they had to do go through. Truly heroes, every last one of them.

[boxman]

I had to DVR this episode and watch it tonight...

I really liked many elements about the episode, but one thing that stuck in my head was that none of the 2009 actors convinced me much that they were in their late 80s or early 90s as they should be if they were in their mid-20s during the 40s. For that reason, I had to vote "Good".

I really liked the idea in the story that the doer thought these women pilots would've simply parachuted out when they risked crashing. It was an interesting--and to me, unusual--angle that this episode took that the doer intentionally put people in front of harm's way because she believed they would have found their way to safety.

I also liked the parallels between the victim and Lilly. Vivian's storyline of pursuing the truth brings up the point that Lilly was always motivated to solve cold cases because she felt no victim should ever be forgotten. That was Lilly's passion in being a 'murder cop'. So that brings up an interesting question to the side-story: Why is she so passionate about pursuing Moe? This is *not* the standard "Lilly M.O.", so to speak. Is there something to Moe's case we're not aware of.... yet?? What also makes the parallel peculiar is how Vivian died after having fallen in a vehicle, trapped underwater--not too much unlike Lilly in last season's finale double-episode. It really makes me wonder if there's more to the Moe/Lilly side story...

Oh, and one more thing....

GO PHILLIES!!!

[ninja1088]

In real life, the Wasps were shut down in December of 1944. Iris killed Vivian to protect a program that sadly didn't have much time left anyway. As for the age of the actors, yes it irks me sometimes but in the same breath, not everyone in their 70's or 80's is wrinkle central and needs a cane to walk either. Still not as bad as World's End.

[zoé]

I had low expectations for that one and ended up pleasantly surprised. The premise of the girl in the air fighting its way in a man's world with a WWII history lesson sounded a bit boring and deja vu (Wings, The Long Blue Line, among others) but the case turned out OK, mainly because of the resolution. 2 cases solved in one, with 2 very different doers (one sympathetic and one antipathic). Original motives, doers, way to kill and a premeditated murder (very welcome after the long series of "heat of the moment" killings)/manslaughter for Edna.

The doer's revelation was a big surprise (mainly because I thought that statistically wise it wasn't CC like to have yet another female doer!) but upon a 2nd viewing, it was more obvious:
- she was the first interviewee and never came back until the very end
- she was the only one to depict the victim in a negative way (coherent with the fact that she strongly believes her murder was justified)
- she set the false lead to the mysterious boyfriend in Manhattan
- she conducted the research of the plane and of course made sure they weren't looking in the right places

I agree with Naj, I like the side stories we're having every episodes so far. As long as it does not take too much screen time, of course. Scotty and his mom are really cute together and I'm really interested in knowing what's happening.
Concerning the Lilly/Moe story: since we learnt that he didn't send the pictures on Lilly's cell phone, Moe didn't do anything to Lilly since he has been freed. I kind of like that Moe's first agressive move was caused by Lilly's harassing (loved his comment on her car being dried up or changed!) because it makes both characters "grayer". Lilly had some unexplained border line behavior before (at least for me) like for example when she stalked her father last year and stole his mail, or disobeyed Stillman's orders and went AWOL in Joseph. What puzzles me is the team not picking this and I would expect Scotty or Stillman to have a real talk with her. Maybe because of the pressure Stillman has been under, Kat's departure (still no mention of her ) and Scotty familial concerns. I have the feeling the team is not as close as before.

Nov 3, 2009 1:56:44 GMT -5 boxman said:

I also liked the parallels between the victim and Lilly. Vivian's storyline of pursuing the truth brings up the point that Lilly was always motivated to solve cold cases because she felt no victim should ever be forgotten. That was Lilly's passion in being a 'murder cop'. So that brings up an interesting question to the side-story: Why is she so passionate about pursuing Moe? This is *not* the standard "Lilly M.O.", so to speak. Is there something to Moe's case we're not aware of.... yet?? What also makes the parallel peculiar is how Vivian died after having fallen in a vehicle, trapped underwater--not too much unlike Lilly in last season's finale double-episode.

I had a mental image of underwater Lilly as well!
When Lilly said "I speak for Vivian", I was thinking that Lilly must be feeling like a victim and since no one speaks for her, she has to speak for herself.

[ninja1088]

Zoe, in complete agree with you about the fact the team isn't as close because of the other problems they are facing. If nothing else, Lily reallys needs to get some sense talked into her. She thinks justice is being denied now, her actions will REALLY make sure it will be by getting the case tossed.
Also for the doers, as much as a jerk as Wolf was, he wasn't going to let his brother take the blame for something he did, showed remorse (albeit almost seven decades later) and refused to drag anyone else with him. It's also clear he never meant to kill Edna, just drive her and the rest of the WASPS out.
Contrast him with Iris, who sixty-five years later still saw nothing wrong with what she did to Vivian. IMO, her comment about how she speaks for Vivian wasn't because she feels like a victim, but in response to Iris's speech. Iris's speech talked about how far women come become of the WASPS in avaition and how little girls look up to her. All this in an attempt to justify what she did. Iris may speak for the WASPS but Lily spoke for another brave women who helped future generations and died trying to get justice for her friend.

[The Reverend Bizarre]

So that brings up an interesting question to the side-story: Why is she so passionate about pursuing Moe? This is *not* the standard "Lilly M.O.", so to speak. Is there something to Moe's case we're not aware of.... yet?? What also makes the parallel peculiar is how Vivian died after having fallen in a vehicle, trapped underwater--not too much unlike Lilly in last season's finale double-episode

I've had a theory for a while that Lilly's story on the show parallels the story of the Tarot. As of right now she's in the "The Devil" arcana. I won't go too indepth, but...

Episode 6x23 "Into the Blue" - Lilly was in the 'Hanged (wo)Man' arcana. This is the arcana where the character is hung between the world of the living, and another world, and where they gain divine knowledge. This is what happened to Lilly.

Episode 7x01 - Lilly enters the 'Death' arcana (I Die) this arcana is marked by the old self dying, and a new self emerging. A good part of Lilly died when they let Moe out on bail.

Now - Lilly is in the 'Devil' arcana (I Blind). This arcana is marked solely by temptation and pleasure. Right now, Lilly may feel trapped and that she has to go after Moe, BUT, the chains are loose (metaphorically) and Lilly could take them off.

The next arcana she could enter would be The Tower (I Destroy). Considered by many to be the absolute worst card of the arcana.

[eduardo]

The higher-ups didn't know what exactly the wasp were doing? and If they discover this the program would have been shut down?

I rewatched the scene when Edna dies and they sing the Air Force song...
Speechless... My favorite this season