[picspam and thoughts] Life - Let Her Go - 1x03

[grimorie]

Let Her Go - 1x03

Charlie starts the day by sharing his plans to go to space to which Reese quickly reminds him that a space shuttle is basically just another box, much like his prison. This stops Charlie short and revises his plans accordingly.

They meet with a fireman (I think he's the same firefighter in Farthingale) and discuss the new case, the fireman brings Reese and Charlie up to speed and informs them that the driver of the car is missing then Charlie decides to head down to the car on his own. Reese joins him without hesitation and both discover that the woman in the passenger seat was shot, Reese says they'll call for air support to help in the search but just as she discusses their plans Charlie disappears on her again.

I guess he's done this to her often enough that she's not even surprised when he does it, Reese was just basically, 'Now where did he go?'

Meanwhile Charlie finds Stillman (the driver of the car), Stillman's in shock or something and mistakes Charlie for a valet, Charlie says that he is until Stillman blinks and sort of clears his head a little and realizes he isn't in a restaurant nor is Charlie a valet.

After the seriously too short credits we find our intrepid, misfit detectives investigating the car.

Can I just say, again, how refreshing it is to see detectives actually working? I mean, yeah, crime scene folk are really amazing with their technology but I just love seeing detectives, y'know, detecting. On a sidenote Charlie's obsession with GPS begins.

Anyway, Reese and Charlie discover that the only way the victim could have sustained her injury is if she were facing the backseat.

They visit Stillman and once again Charlie uses his sometimes scary ice like eyes to question him, it almost works but Stillman breaks eye contact and shifts subjects much to Charlie's frustration.

Meanwhile, Ted goes swimming and finds himself face to face with a scary predator (coyote) and immediately sinks back in the pool to hide, to be fair, I'd do the same thing if I were face to face with a coyote, also, there would be more screaming.

Of course, Ted immediately calls Charlie about the coyote. Charlie watching his phone is the cutest thing ever. Also, I love that even though Reese is in the background we can see her reacting to Charlie's one sided conversation (again, I say, half the fun of watching this show are the faces Reese makes). Reese seems to take Charlie's quirks as a fact of life now and as long as he doesn't do anything severely annoying she'll just settle for shaking her head and rolling her eyes at him.

Plus, Ted and Charlie are so married. I bet Reese would like a Ted-husband too, uh, not in the she wants to marry him way, more of the take care of my house and occasionally make me coffee way.

I love this scene, they're just so... I don't know I love seeing them working together and Davis sitting there quizzing them about their reports and looking like she's starting to be impressed with their partnership is kind of awesome.

The store scene also funny with the way the clerk kept answering a question with a question and then, of course, Reese quickly figuring out where Charlie was headed with his round about questioning.

I have to admit I've been neglecting mentioning Charlie's big conspiracy but this scene just really intrigues me. Ames was the lead detective in the Seybolt murders and responsible for Charlie spending more than a decade in prison. It gave me the chills when Charlie confronted Ames, you can see how much he wanted to rub his freedom in Ames' face and also telling him upfront that he knows that Ames removed Rachel from his report. You can see just below the amicable words just how angry Charlie is.

Stillman: I told you, I don't remember anything about what happened!
Charlie: We talked to your car.
[Reese rolls her eyes and gives Charlie a pointed look]
Stillman: [confused]You talked to my car?
Reese: We retraced your steps using GPS. You stopped in a gas station on the way home from dinner, where a very large Latino man approached you. We haven't been able to identify him yet, he kept his back to the gas station security cameras.
Stillman: My head is hurting, just leave me alone.
Charlie: Do you know what treppanning is, Peter?
Stillman: [shakes head in confusion] No.
Charlie: It was an ancient cure for head pain. They thought the pain was caused by spirits in your head so they would drill a hole in your skull to let the spirits out. Do we need to drill a hole in your head, Peter?
[Reese sighs and shakes her head]
Stillman: Why would you say something like-- What kind of person says something like that?
Charlie: It's going to hurt when you look inside and remember what happened to you and to your wife.
Stillman: My wife is dead.
Charlie: No. She's still dying, now tell us what happened and let her go

I read somewhere that creator or one of the writers of The Wire discussing the attitudes of the detectives in their show and mentioning that most of the real life detectives they've encountered aren't all full of empathy for the victims, for them it's all about the intellectual challenge. I'm not saying that Reese and Crews are the same but this scene showcases that they're not easily swayed by a few tears, from the first second they sit on the chair they're observing every reaction and emotions that Stillman shows and even Crews who's usually the first to empathize isn't swayed. He's watchful and in the background, Reese is the same, you can actually weighing everything Stillman says to what they know.

Also, despite the treppanning thing I liked that Reese just let Charlie roll with it, after all, to her this was just another form of interrogation, if shock tactics were needed to get an answer, she's not above using that.

Reese and Crews report back to Davis and update her that the prints showed that the big Latino dude, was in fact actually a big Samoan named Manny Umaga. Davis expresses her skepticism about Stillman's sudden recall and judging from the detective's expressions, they're not sure either. The scene ends with Davis congratulating them on their teamwork with a little smile, I love Reese's small 'yay!' moment at that even Charlie was happy to hear the compliment.

Part II