TVSquad

I don't watch this show that often. Usually only when everything else is a repeat like this past week. But when I do catch it, it's always good and last night was no exception. I always laugh when I see Anthony LaPaglia because I can still picture him far skinnier and wearing that purple fedora in So I Married an Axe Murderer. Beyond that, this episode dealt with a woman who was missing, but not in the traditional sense - she was an amnesiac. By far though, the secondary plot was the highlight because Martin Landau returned as Jack's father, Frank.

Two cops find a woman wandering the streets late at night. She has no idea who she is or why she's wandering around the cold wearing nothing but a dress. She gets thrown in a loony bin for the time being, and Sam is called in to see if maybe there's more to her story. Sam runs her through the facial recognition database but there are just too many hits. A photo is sent to the media and a hotdog vendor calls in saying he saw her the night before. Viv and Danny see the guy and he gives them a bloody coat that the woman left with him before she ran away. The pockets don't have much, save for a subway card but no ID or anything like that. Sam goes back to see her and tells the woman that she may have been involved in a murder. She remembers a stabbing, and she thinks she did it. But there may have been a witness - a little boy. And bees... there were lot's of bees there too. Sam isn't quite sure what to make of this.

Martin (who is apparently addicted to Vicodin now) runs the subway card with the transportation authorities and finds out which stations the woman frequented the most. One is right near a theatre downtown which is great for two reasons: there was theatrical make-up found on the coat and the blood was B-, which matched the blood-type of a stabbing victim that took place at the theatre a day earlier. The theatre's director, Sasha, was the victim - he's fine, just in an arm sling. But he knows the woman. Her name was Carmen and she had been in the theatre's current play, until Sasha fired her yesterday. She starred as a woman dealing with the loss of her younger brother. While outside, when he was firing her, Sasha and Carmen were mugged by a guy with a knife. Sasha was stabbed and that's when Carmen's amnesia kicked in - but why? Turns out when she was younger, she watched her brother die as he was stung by bees dozens of times. She felt responsible, and between her role in the show and the trauma of the mugging, she broke down. So she committed no crime, but they found out who she was.

Now as I mentioned, the great part of this episode was the return of Frank. He's still sick and his dementia is getting worse. He goes in and out with fits of memory loss. His kidneys are failing now but he's refused treatment. It was incredibly sad watching Jack deal with this. He was literally watching his father become a missing person right in front of him. He tells his father he'll take time off from work, do whatever he has to, as long as Frank will go in for the treatment. Frank agrees - he seemed happy that his son would do this for him seeing as how they always seemed to be fighting. But while Jack stepped out, Frank died on the couch. As soon as he knew his son would have been there for him, he was ready to move on. The whole final two minutes were very well done, real tear-jerker. It's too bad Landau won't be back, but they sent him off well. I'll be curious to see if this affects Jack's work in future episodes or if they'll just forget about it.