Raines

I think I’m going to have to start off with some of my favorite lines. The best exchange was Raines translating Boyer.

Boyer: how hard the plane hits
Raines: impact’s force
Boyer: water deepness
Raines: ocean depth

Hilarious!

Other good stuff included:
— "How many of the rest of you were sleeping with my wife? Very funny. Hands down."

— "Do you have an appointment?"
"No, I have a badge."

— "Do I need to explain further?"
"I wouldn’t be much of a detective if you did."

— "You calling me unprofessional?"
"No, I’m calling you a guy."

— "You’re a friend whore."

— "How’s it being back at work without him [Charlie]?"
"A little tough."

— "It’s tough to watch her leave, isn’t it?"
"Every time."

— "A no-hitter isn’t perfect but at least it’s close. Your marriage was a disaster."

I think I took way too many notes during this episode. I was feeling a little pressure, because it’s the season finale and I wanted to make sure to get all the details. I accidentally almost wrote down Libby instead of Sarah in a few places, not that I think Cynthia Watros' performance was reminiscent of her time on Lost. I don’t think that at all. She was great in this episode and Raines’ interaction with her and with her husband Andrew concerning her was really powerful.

Speaking of which, let’s get to the mystery. A plane crash ruled an accident by the NTSB is investigated three months later by the LAPD. Why? Because Raines’ ex-wife Sarah seems to think there was foul play. The captain is reluctant to let Raines take on this case because Raines was once married to the victim’s wife. He soon gives in and Raines and Andrew are off to investigate. Raines’ conversation with Andrew in the car was priceless. I love that Andrew was talking about how he couldn’t satisfy Sarah in bed, then switched to berating Raines for making him say those words. I really do enjoy the inner workings of Raines’ mind. When Raines learns Billings was planning a land grab for a football stadium, he thinks he might be able to prove motive if he can find someone who was willing to kill to keep their land. But at this point the investigation is still focused on Andrew.

Since he doesn’t seem to be getting very far very fast. Raines figures he’ll stir up some trouble with the ex. I do think he was inappropriate with her, but it’s hard to control your mouth when your heart is hurting. Wow, was that cheesy? I’m just saying that sometimes it's easy to say hurtful things to the ones you love to make yourself feel better (paging Mr. Baldwin. Mr. Alec Baldwin). I loved that Sarah smacked him, though. He was asking for it.

Andrew swoops in as the voice of reason and reminds Raines that four other people died in that crash. Maybe it wasn’t about Billings. How much does he know about the other victims? So the focus shifts from Andrew to all five of the plane’s passengers. I loved that they all appeared in the car until Raines made all but Billings stay. And he couldn’t seem to get rid of Andrew so he stuck around, too.

Billing’s wife Angelina, a former actress, inherited everything when he died. She was sunning herself and self-medicating when Raines dropped by for a visit. She wasn’t very helpful but did manage to let him know her husband hired a cop to investigate the death threats he was getting.

Cue the ex-cop, only he was investigating a mole in the company, not the threats. Billings knew someone was leaking information to the press about his plans and his whereabouts. If they knew where he was, they’d also know what Billings was traveling in. Raines visits Billings’ mechanic Craig to ask about the plane and learns he’s been cleared by the NTSB. But Craig took his affair with Billings' wife very seriously and killed him so he could be with Angelina. Raines' coaching Angelina through her lines was brutal. You could see him taking it so personally — like maybe Sarah said those exact same things to him when she left him. Craig didn’t seem to care that he killed four other people in the process. I really liked it when Raines did brief little bios on the victims so they could go to that special place in the sky. But Andrew sticks around. Why? Because Raines has one more thing to do.

He goes back to Sarah’s nice suburban house — the house she would have shared with her family — to tell her what happened. It turns out Andrew was never really there to help solve the mystery of his murder. He was there to help Sarah find closure, in a way. She’ll never really have closure, though, because she’ll always know something was missing, always wonder what her life could have been. But as Raines said, you don’t want to forget. It’s that sadness that lets you know how much the people who are gone meant to you.

Maybe we’ll end on a happy note? I loved this episode and I love this show. I really hope it comes back next year. In the meantime, here are some fun facts we learned about Raines in this episode:

— He may have started drinking when his wife left him. If he was already a drinker, his problem got worse when she left.

— Raines thinks lawyers are insignificant.

— Raines still owns the mattress he had when he was married, even though it’s uncomfortable according to Andrew and Billings (so it’s really according to him).

How could I forget Boyer’s little trip to Sacramento? I loved how Boyer tried to brush the highway patrol cop off when he got pulled over for speeding. He went all “official business” on him and still ended up with a ticket. It was that much funnier when the same cop pulled him over on his way back.

Please feel free to share your favorite lines, moments, etc, if I’ve left anything out (which I have, because I didn’t want this to be the longest post ever).

OK, this is the last thing, I promise. Did anyone else feel like there was too much closure for Raines during this episode? It all felt very final, but maybe I was just imagining that. Hopefully, I’ll see you here next year.

As Raines says, law and order takes a backseat to justice. I’m paraphrasing, but you catch my drift. This was one tough case. His cases all get a little gruesome considering Raines is a homicide detective, but the ick factor was high this week. Poor Emily. She seemed like such a sweet kid. It’s unfortunate that at age 10 she thought she was a grownup. I have to say I’m continuously surprised at what little kids get themselves into these days. I’m not a parent so I don’t know what most parents are dealing with, but I can’t imagine myself having an e-mail account and IMing people at age 10. But I got on the technology train a little late; I didn’t have an e-mail account until college and I’ve only been IMing the last few years. But back to the case.

I had one big issue with the story: How could Emily have a half day and her parents not know about it? I feel relatively confident in saying any elementary school would not rely on their students to tell their parents about a half day. I feel like there would be some sort of literature on it — either a note the child had to take home or some sort of holiday schedule the parent gets at the beginning of the school year. I could be wrong, but that seemed a little unrealistic. But I’m no stranger to suspension of disbelief so I quickly recovered.

There were many things I did like about the episode. When Raines goes to the Strongs' house and questions the father, he asks if Emily knows how to play the piano. That threw me for a second until I realized Raines needed Emily to be doing something else so he could ask her father all those questions without any distractions. He’s a smart guy. I also liked seeing Boyer take some initiative. It’s more fun to see Raines giving him a hard time, but I really liked that Boyer stopped being his normal slacker, unhelpful self and really stepped it up.

And what about the perp? I have to admit I had no idea Charlie was guilty. He did seem nervous during the interview, but I totally believed he didn’t do it. Although he was a convicted pedophile the things he said made him seem innocent. Obviously, it’s a very good thing I’m not a cop. Well, maybe I wouldn’t have taken him at his word if I were a cop. I know they are used to hearing lies all day, but I guess Raines believed him too since he let him go.

It was weird but very interesting to see Raines interacting with two dead people. I was surprised when he let Emily kill Charlie in his mind. But I did think it was funny when Emily threatened Charlie with the gun. Do you think we’ve become desensitized to violence in our society? I mean, it was a pretty violent act but I wasn’t crying over it. I was pretty upset to discover Emily’s father had killed Charlie. I guess it was inevitable, but I was still disappointed. I’m not sure having Charlie tried and convicted would have done much for Emily’s family, but is it ever OK to take the law into your own hands?

And what about Raines’ sessions with Dr. Kohl? In a way I was glad he lied about seeing the victims. Even if he’s destroying himself in the process, he’s still solving his cases. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want anything bad (or worse than what’s already going on) to happen to Raines, but I want him to have the opportunity to keep doing his job. If he does lose his job, I think we’ll lose him. His job gives him purpose and forces him to keep dealing with life. I definitely don’t want to see him lose that.

Random stuff we learned: Raines didn’t have any toys as a kid. This worries me. The only two explanations I can think of are that he grew up really poor or that his parents were really mean and didn’t allow toys. Yikes. We also learn he might be having thoughts of suicide. He was great at talking Emily’s dad off the ledge, but I hope he takes his own advice. Stay strong, Raines.

I usually list all my favorite lines, but I thought it might be more fun this week if you share yours instead. And next week is the season finale. I do hope this little trial run has proven to NBC that this show is a keeper.

I think you’re probably all with me when I say I knew the husband did it upon his introduction. There was just something off about him that made me think he was the doer immediately. Maybe that can be credited to the actor’s nuanced performance. Maybe not. I did, however, enjoy going through the process with Raines. I like that Raines was friends with Judge Webb. It made it hard for Raines to believe a man he knew and respected could do something like that to the woman he loved. And although the judge didn’t commit the act, paying someone else to do it makes you just as guilty.

Was there an unusual amount of gore in tonight’s episode? First we have a headless victim who’s been carved up. We’ve got two officers involved in shootings, for which Raines will probably be forced to go to even more therapy (yay!), and a suicide. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy dark. I like serious. But I will say again that the humor in this show is such a welcome relief at times.

Let’s meet the victim. Connie Webb seems to have it all: a successful husband and a happy home. Raines digs a little deeper to find a woman 90 days into recovery. She was heavy into drugs and booze until she met her husband, who helped her clean up her act. When he gets into a car accident and tweaks his back, the judge falls back into old habits and drags his wife down with him. Enter Svetlana, the sex worker. The judge is into watching and Connie likes to get high beforehand. Svetlana helps Connie get sober again, and her husband, still paranoid and delusional from his fall off the wagon, thinks she’ll tell on him. He got his just desserts in the end, though. And I was so happy Svetlana got out of that whole ordeal alive.

Raines' ever-changing imaginings of the victim were illuminating. I loved it when he saw her for the first time. It was freaky seeing a headless body walking around. I couldn’t help but smile when he almost begged the judge for a picture of his wife. It was interesting seeing her as a druggie, and I’m sure every male viewer (and some female viewers) enjoyed seeing some girl-on-girl action. I even liked it at the end when Raines admits to Connie that it wouldn’t be so bad if she decides to stick around. But that’s not the way it works. She’s gotta go because the case is solved.

As always, the dialogue crackled. Here are my favorites from what I managed to write down:

“Let’s try to avoid tracking bits of the victim all over her living room.” “Man. She’s everywhere.”

“I’m shocked. I have to lay down. I’m dizzy.”

“Did I seriously just hear you refer to us as homeboys?”

“… maybe later for the begging.”

“It’s called detective work. I’m detecting.”

“One face for the people you know, the other just for yourself. Toast to justice at any price and secrets well kept.”

Ouch. His partner knows him better than anyone, and he knows the toll these cases and this life are taking on Raines. I’ve been missing Charlie so I was glad to see him. Maybe next time his words won’t drive Raines to drink.

Lance and Boyer did some fine work tonight. Throughout the episode, everyone assumed Lance was upset because she shot someone. Turns out she was upset because she fired three times and only hit her target once. She is one tough cookie. Her exchange with Boyer in the kitchen was priceless. I went all gooey inside for a moment when I thought Lance was being metrosexual and sharing his feelings. Thank god he got over that quickly. I enjoyed Carolyn’s brief scene, but where was Dr. Kohl? Seeing Raines with her is always a kick.

Quick sidebar: I was driving home tonight from an event (a Friday Night Lights panel put on by the MTR. It was awesome. I’ll post some of my thoughts on Leah’s FNL blog) before I saw the episode, and I was imagining what kind of case Raines would work on tonight. Yeah, I’m a nerd. I can’t help it. Anyway, I actually thought it would be cool if Raines had to work with a headless body. I’m not even kidding! I actually thought this on my drive home. Maybe it’s a weird Friday the 13th thing. Maybe I’m psychic. Thanks for indulging me. Sorry I’m a dork.

Any thoughts on tonight’s episode? Please share.

We got a very interesting introduction to the wife and child of Raines’ slain partner Charlie tonight. Charlie’s wife Lisa (The Closer’s Gina Ravera) is dealing with her husband’s death in a healthy way but her son Jack is still reeling. Not only is Jack angry that his father is gone, but he’s in serious want of some revenge. It broke my heart a little when Jack said he wished he could have killed his father’s murderer. Raines was understandably concerned when he heard Jack say that. So concerned, in fact, that he discusses Jack with Dr. Kohl during his session. When Raines asks her, “What kind of selfish father does something that he knows sooner or later’s gonna kill him,” the doctor assumes she’s talking about Charlie. But Raines is referring to Jimmy’s father who overdosed in front of him when he was five. Dr. Kohl encourages Raines to bring Jack in because whether or not the kid wants to talk to her she seems to be able to help people whether or not they want to be there.

Our victim this week, Jimmy, is a reformed pothead who got his act together and was attending art school. His old crew the 420 mafia couldn’t function without him so when he moved away to college they followed him. When the muscle of the group Surfer discovers how much money can be made selling fake collector’s editions of comic books he drags Jimmy back into that life. But when Surfer threatens Wally, who had become like a father figure to Jimmy, Jimmy knows he has to permanently cut ties to the group but his plan backfires on him.

This was my favorite episode so far. Series creator Graham Yost did scripting duty on this episode and it sings with his little touches. As always, I like seeing Raines in action on his cases. He’s always meeting interesting people but this week the cast of characters was particularly colorful and amusing. My favorite was probably the doper old lady. “Old age put her on the bicycle but pot is doing the peddling.” I thought it was sweet when she gave Raines that pair of shoes. I also enjoyed Boyer letting canine officer Sophie (who was blind) do a little damage in Sergei’s smoke shop. Raines questioning the stoner gang was great as well. He always gets his man and it was probably made that much easier by a confused group of potheads. I did have one small problem though. Jimmy set out to kill Surfer. I know Surfer threatened to hurt Wally but I still had a problem with that. Your thoughts?

I know we all enjoy how the information Raines learns about the victim changes his perception of them. I also enjoy how much we learn about Raines through these interactions. This week we learned Raines moved to Los Angeles to be a writer like Raymond Chandler, which certainly explains his way with words. And although this is a show about death – Raines isn’t on the scene unless there’s a murder – there is also a lot of humor here. I think it’s welcome and much needed considering we have a main character who drinks and sees dead people.

As always, there were so many great lines. Here’s a sampling of my favorites:

“You’re freakishly tall.”

“Some people say my dad’s in a better place. How come that best place wasn’t with me and my mom?”

“I’m cursing God less.” “Don’t stop completely. I’m sure it’s a welcome change from all those people sucking up and asking for stuff.”

“That smart ass attitude is exactly why you’ll never get to have a captain’s ulcer.”

“Maybe he fell on the knife you were holding. Twice.”

“You suck at lying.”

“What if I buy you something?” “Can I just have the cash?”

The tone and mood of this week’s episode is very different from last week's. Instead of zingers and destined-to-be-classic one-liners, we have some heavy stuff. I know Raines is a homicide detective who might be crazy, but a bit of levity never killed anyone. (Sorry, I couldn't resist.) Don't get me wrong, though, I really enjoyed the episode and I liked that it was a little heavier, a little darker.

Let me sing the praises of Laurie Metcalf for just a moment. I think she’s great. She shines at comedy, as her time on Rosanne proved, but she can also do the heavy stuff, as evidenced on Grey’s Anatomy. She had very memorable guest appearances on Desperate Housewives and My Boys last year, and this is another solid turn for her. But back to our main man, Raines. He seems to have hit a new low; he's becoming a bit of an insomniac and has started drinking. Well, maybe he’s been drinking, but this is the first we’ve seen of it. The whole Alice in Wonderland tea party for the mad hatters down the rabbit hole was trippy and strange, but very well done. Our dead girl Alice plays it close to the vest.

Speaking of Alice, let’s focus for a moment on our victim of the week. It’s none other than Alice Brody, a homeless woman who had her identity stolen. Again, I have to commend the writers on taking a topic we’re all familiar with — identity theft — and showing it to us in a new way. I think you’ve got to be pretty crafty to even think of stealing a homeless person’s identity, even if they’re not using it. Although Alice was depressed and in the drink, she had people who loved her. Mickey Russo, a reformed alcoholic who cleaned up his act, got off the streets and wanted to help her do the same. But she couldn’t accept his help; she was dealing with her own demons. When the deputy from Denver flies out to identify the body, Raines’ Spidey sense starts tingling because there are no open investigations on her and there’s no need for him to identify the body in person. When the deputy admits Alice is his mother it’s not a huge shock, to Raines or to us. But when he says he won’t claim the body for burial, it made me very sad. Even if he imagined the worst about his mother after she walked out on him, doesn’t she deserve some compassion? Nothing like that has ever happened to me so maybe I’m speaking out of turn. What do you guys think?

I really enjoyed Raines' interactions with Alice in front of his shrink. Everything he said to Alice he was really saying to himself, including, “Don’t put your so-called problems on display. Have some dignity.” Ouch. Raines is really beating himself up. But at the same time I think seeing and talking to these mental projections of the victims is really helping him. He admitted to Alice that he’s afraid of becoming her. He might be crazy and he’s been drinking but he doesn’t want to end up alone on the street. He’s already lost his wife (divorce) and his partner (murder). He’s not sure he can lose anything else.

A few of you have already mentioned this, but I also love to see how Raines’ perception of the victims changes with every new piece of information he learns. The transformation I enjoyed most this week was when he made Alice look like the model from the catalog.

And what about Sally’s transformation? Who knew she was such a looker? I laughed out loud when she showed up in that outfit. Her hair was down, she had makeup on, and you could see the shape of her body. I loved that she “used her body like a weapon” to get information they so desperately needed for the case.

I think there was some good misdirection in this episode. I thought I knew who killed Alice, but I was actually surprised. I also don’t like to try too hard to solve the case before Raines does. I want to go along for the ride and enjoy his discoveries. And I loved that Mickey and Raines put Alice to rest where she loved to be in life: near the ocean (well, technically in the ocean, but you know what I mean).

You may have noticed that I didn’t really talk about the perpetrators of this crime. I was so impressed with Laurie Metcalf that they kind of blended into the background for me, but please feel free to discuss below.

Raines and Alice had a lot of very witty repartee. My favorites exchanges were:

“I’d like to see what you look like after a few years on the street.”
“We keep talking like this you’re gonna get your wish.”

“I’m not in a position to judge.”
“It hasn’t stopped you yet.”

“That’s like your 10th cup of coffee today.”
“Are you the caffeine police?”

I’m a huge fan of snarky, sarcastic, dry humor, and this show seems to have it in spades. Jeff Goldblum is highly enjoyable in this role; the taunting, the teasing, the inappropriate humor — I might be in heaven.

For anyone who missed last week’s pilot episode the first minute or so did a great job bringing you up to speed. Raines sees and talks to dead people, but they aren’t ghosts and they don’t know anything he doesn’t know. They are more of a sounding board. He talks to them to work out the details of his case. Did I mention they’re dead? He doesn’t do too well with the living. And I think once he’s solved the case the victim’s don’t perform their vanishing acts until he’s helped their families in some way. Last week Raines helped Sandy’s mom get the money her daughter had been saving for her, and this week he helped Aurelio meet his daughter-in-law and grandchild.

I have to say I was very excited to see A. Martinez back on television. After being introduced to him on Santa Barbara and seeing him many years later on General Hospital, I thought he might be relegated to daytime television. Don’t get me wrong, I love soaps, but it was nice to see him in prime time. I enjoyed that the writers put a new twist on what could have been a run-of-the-mill illegal-immigration story. By focusing on all the people who profit from smuggling people into the country — the coyotes, lawyers, brokers, gangs — a new aspect of this story was told. The fact that our Juan Doe, or Julio Santiago to those who knew and loved him, only wanted to take his wife and child to Disneyland and meet his father before returning to Mexico was a fresh and interesting twist.

I was also quite pleased to see Madeleine Stowe as Dr. Samantha Kohl. She is a great character to pair with someone like Raines, who doesn’t believe in psychiatry even though he’s admitted he’s crazy. Raines needs someone to call him on his bull, and she did that nicely after he told her the fake story of his brother’s drowning, nicely borrowed from Ordinary People. That was pretty low, but I think it gave us great insight into Raines. He’s got to be extremely screwed up to try something like that. But we kind of already knew that considering he got his ex-partner killed (or so he seems to think). I’m impressed with the other supporting characters as well. Nicole Sullivan’s Carolyn is sassy, with great comic timing. I’m glad she graduated from guest stints on Scrubs, Boston Legal and The King of Queens. Dov Davidoff’s Remi is a great foil for Raines, and tonight he showed us he has some fire in his veins. I might also be a bit reluctant to have someone who talks to themselves carry a gun.

Only one thing disappointed me and it wasn’t that bad: I figured out Aurelio was Julio’s father before the reveal. Did you figure that out early, too?

For everyone who saw the pilot and can't wait for more perhaps this Q&A will sate your appetite.

Let me know what you think so far.