Life“Black Friday”
Original Air Date: Nov 12, 2008
Brittany Wells – TwoCents Reviewer
brittanyw@twocentscorp.com
In my first job, I worked retail. On the day after Thanksgiving, I had to work the opening shift, and I saw so many people lined up outside the store I thought I was going to die. On this day after Thanksgiving, someone apparently does. Crews and Reese get the early morning callout to an L.A. mall to find the dead body of shoe store employee Marshall Clark.
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[photo: Adam Taylor/NBC]
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ReplyDelete“Black Friday”
Original Air Date: Nov 12, 2008
Brittany Wells – TwoCents Reviewer
brittanyw@twocentscorp.com
In my first job, I worked retail. On the day after Thanksgiving, I had to work the opening shift, and I saw so many people lined up outside the store I thought I was going to die. On this day after Thanksgiving, someone apparently does. Crews and Reese get the early morning callout to an L.A. mall to find the dead body of shoe store employee Marshall Clark.
It’s already not a good holiday for Detective Reese: she tells Charlie that her dad still hasn’t come back, her mom’s a wreck, and her Thanksgiving sucked. Now she has a dead body on her hands, and even worse, mall security hasn’t bothered to tell the staff not to open the mall. Before Crews and Reese can stop them, the mall gets opened, a mob of people storms in, and as a result, the body goes missing from the crime scene. Not to mention, Tidwell turns up.
Detective work turns up the dead man’s apparent girlfriend, who denies that they were involved. However, they’re curious that a guy working the kiosk nearby hasn’t turned up for work on the busiest shopping day of the year. A neat little trick involving a lack of caller ID and about 40 uses of the redial button leads them to a kid named Zak and his kid sister Karen, who live in the mall basement. Tidwell wants to ship them off to Children’s Services, while Reese doesn’t want the kids separated, and they fight…again.
Meanwhile, Charlie is distracted by the girl and her buddy, and a whole lot of fruitcake. Reese is correct when she says no one likes fruitcake (I’m reminded of Jim Gaffigan: “Fruit, good. Cake, great. Fruitcake? Nasty crap.”) but Charlie realizes that the two kids are now working Santa’s line. Not only that, but they’re replacing presents they supposedly wrap with fruitcake. In what may be one of the coolest takedowns ever, Charlie confronts them both and knocks out the dude with a thrown fruitcake. And guess who happens to be playing mall Santa? The mall security guy who conveniently forgot to close off the mall in the first place.
Long story short, Marshall was not such a nice guy. He was stealing stuff like his buddies, and abusing the young kids that worked at the mall. Mall security guy was his partner in crime. Marshall met his end when Zak decided he didn’t want to take it anymore, and went after him, pushing him off the second-story railing. Now the kid’s going to be charged with murder, but Crews tells him to say that Marshall slipped and fell accidentally. It’s a touching moment.
But that’s not all that happens this week. Charlie’s ex-wife has another change of heart, and meets him at a trashy motel to sleep with him. Really, who didn’t see that coming after all the back-and-forth this season? Her husband is going to be seriously ticked. Whatever happened to his supposed attraction to Constance? Probably went out the door along with her character. No Ted in this episode, and no mention of Rachel Seybolt, either.
However, to my shock and surprise, Reese actually shows up for her oft mentioned dinner date with Tidwell. It lasts all of about a minute until she storms off. Poor guy even got her a goldfish, because he somehow knows she likes them. Interestingly, the only person who knows that is Charlie, who caught her looking in a pet store during the case. I thought Charlie might be sweet and get her one, but instead, Tidwell has it. So methinks Charlie’s got the idea that Tidwell likes his partner and may be offering up these helpful bits of information.
Slightly creepy episode, and one that doesn’t really advance plotlines too much, but it had its moments. What’s your opinion?