amorehl

This started out as a pretty amusing episode. My favourite one in this episode is a big, happy drunk, Terry. When asked to leave the CVS drugstore, he refused to go. According to him, this was his 23rd appearance at the booking station in less than 6 months. He passes the time flirting with one of the female officers.

Then there's Brittany, an admittedly often-convicted felon who got into a fight at the liquor store. She sprayed her opponent with "souped up," "strong stuff" "Bear Mace." When asked her sexual orientation, she says, "both." I don't know what difference it made, but I guess there's no percentage in claiming to be straight nowadays.

The next arrestee is a young guy, Antarius, who admittedly was caught for speeding, going 76 in a 60-mph zone. When the officer who pulled him over smelled pot and asked if there were any drugs in his car, of course he says 'No'. But of course he's got pot, 28.26 grams. In Florida, although pot can be purchased medically legally, possession of more than 20 grams is a felony. When asked by a couple of the officers why he didn't get a Medical Marijuana card, he said he didn't want to because you can't get a Concealed Carry Permit if you have a Medical Marijuana card. This is untrue. He blames his problems on being "a Black Man in America," saying that recently, in a different county, a white guy killed 3 black guys in a store, so having protection is more important. This slanted view of the facts is perhaps understandable since the nationwide press widely covers crimes where black people are shot by whites, but pays less attention in the converse situation.

There were others booked in as well, but by then I'd lost interest.

Haven't seen the second half of this show yet, but the murder plot set-up is intriguing, including the fact that understandably the husband, David Haddeley, was the chief suspect in his wife Kathy's murder. Yet lacking evidence, the investigation stalled. It is revived 6 years later when the wife's decomposed body is finally found, hidden in a tree, deep in the woods (which at the time was part of a gated & barbed-wire fenced military camp). Ridley comes into the cold case, and tries to bring the original ex-detective Jean Dixon, back to help since she is intimately knowledgeable about the case and also became very close with the murdered wife's daughter, Sam.

Now, this is the part of the writing I don't like. Dixon is portrayed as refusing to help the new investigators because she holds a grudge against Ridley and DCI DEl Paul Goodwin for their actions in a different case which ended in her disgrace and leaving the force. This Haddeley case was supposedly so incredibly important to her, including her concern over the extreme trauma suffered by the victim's then-13-year-old daughter Sam, (and Dixon's belief that the husband David was guilty) yet she's pettily repeatedly refusing her help. Finally, she grudgingly agrees to provided limited help, again repeatedly asserting she's only doing it, not for them, but for Kathy and Sam. As if that isn't bleedingly obvious without stating it at all, much less so many times.

When Jean does talk to the daughter, Sam says the body can't be her mum's because ever since Kathy left, she's been sending texts to Sam, saying she left of her own accord, did not want to come back, etc., but would come back for Sam some day. Thus, Sam has kept quiet about that and other aspects of the family's dynamics. So who's sending the texts?

A major 'sub-plot' here is Jean's personal life with her new boyfriend Ross. Initially, he's sweetly caring, but it soon becomes clear that he's a controlling, manipulative SOB, which Jean's daughter Molly saw from the start. When it dawns on Jean, he goes from sweet to lashing out, both verbally and physically. (BTW, in the UK, the National Legal Service has a good site on such behaviour.)

Two young black teenagers (Iris & Lawrence) are in a bad neighborhood where they know they should not be (although Iris actually has a valid reason for being there). Boyfriend Lawrence, protecting Iris, is shot by a member of a violent Hispanic gang. Iris & her affluent, educated Black family (father, mother, & younger sister) must enter WITSEC to avoid retaliation for her planned testimony. Most of the episode is about the family dynamics. Wendell Pierce provides an exemplary portrayal as Iris's arrogant father, Dr. McBride. He is (somewhat understandably) extremely irate about losing the life he's built, and he directs his explosive anger towards Iris, making both his family and the Marshals miserable. Tina Lifford also does an admirable job as the mom, put in the difficult position of trying to placate the husband she loves and keep her family together. After all these years, I'm somewhat jaded, but I found this episode to be quite moving. It actually made me cry. There is a great scene where Marshall (Frederick Weller) challenges the doctor, asserting that while he "demands" respect, he doesn't "command" respect, that he was "just a lot of hot air and puffery."