Cold Case “Lotto Fever”
Original Airdate: Jan 4, 2009
Amanda — TwoCents Reviewer
amanda@thetwocentscorp.com
What would you do if you won the lottery? That’s the hot topic on this week’s Cold Case, as the detectives solve the 2007 murder of a lottery winner while gambling a bit on their own. Does anyone get a visit from Lady Luck? We’re about to find out…
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[photo: CBS]
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Cold Case
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Original Airdate: Jan 4, 2009
Amanda — TwoCents Reviewer
amanda@thetwocentscorp.com
What would you do if you won the lottery? That’s the hot topic on this week’s Cold Case, as the detectives solve the 2007 murder of a lottery winner while gambling a bit on their own. Does anyone get a visit from Lady Luck? We’re about to find out…
An overloaded detective working open cases asks Lilly to take the case of auto mechanic Ed Dubinski off his hands. Ed, winner of $8 million, was found shot to death six months after his big win. The bank kept his nearly-empty account open, and someone just tried to use his stolen ATM card.
Lilly interviews Shelly, a friend of Ed’s who’s in veterinary school, and who says he helped her out by giving her a discount on car repairs. Meanwhile, Kat talks with financial planner Roger Weaver, who says any remaining money would have gone to Ed’s sister, Pam, and then Lilly and Scotty visit with Pam and her husband Marty. Pam says that, after his win, Ed found himself in over his head and surrounded by freeloaders. She remembers a wild party at Ed’s mansion where he was handing out money willy-nilly, including a check for $50,000 to them, with an offer of more if they needed it.
At the party, Ed’s friend, George, was injured in an ATV accident, and George sued Ed. In a chat with Vera and Jeffries, George claims he wanted to sue only Ed’s insurance company, but, unfortunately, Ed’s insurance didn’t cover ATV accidents, so Ed gave George a check for $25,000 to drop the suit. The conflict resolved, the two guys started playing around with paintball guns, only to be surprised by a guy with a real gun: Ed’s estranged father, Jack.
Jack admits to asking Ed for money, saying he needed a little help getting back on his feet. He recalls going to Ed’s mansion and meeting his fiancée, Nikki, then warning Ed that she was only into him for his money. Unfortunately, the same proves true for Jack, as Ed, in a scene that was far better written than last episode’s similar scene where Lilly met her own long-lost dad, invited Jack to come with him and Nikki to Atlantic City…but Jack was only interested in the cash, which he used for surgery so he could work again. Conveniently enough, that surgery was the night of the murder.
Meanwhile, Stillman and Jeffries track down Nikki. Stillman actually flirts with her a bit, which is weirdly adorable, and she tells them that Jack’s rejection started Ed’s downward spiral, which culminated in him going broke and them breaking up. Coincidence? I think not.
Kat and Stillman confront Weaver about the scam he was running: paying off a lotto official for the names and addresses of lottery winners so he could be Johnny on the spot when they got their big cardboard checks. He recalls a conversation in which Ed angrily insisted on withdrawing his remaining $100,000 in cash right then. Weaver didn’t kill Ed, but he’s not off the hook: Stillman’s invited the SEC and the FBI to the party.
After Ed’s landlord claims to have seen Shelly snooping around Ed’s storage unit, she comes in for another chat. She says she was just borrowing Ed’s bike so she could get to class, then recalls visiting Ed to cheer him up. The break the detectives need comes when she talks about Ed’s childhood dog, Ripley, the corresponding digits of which spell out Ed’s PIN number. And who would have known about that dog better than Pam?
Sure enough, Pam reveals that she and Marty had made some poor financial decisions and were in danger of losing their hardware store, but Ed refused to give them any more money. Jeffries finds the murder weapon at their hardware store, and then they confess: Marty confronted Ed and asked for the money again; Ed claimed that his remaining money went to the one person who never asked him for it, which, during the end montage, is revealed to be Shelly. Enraged, Marty shot Ed, and Pam stole his ATM card.
In other news, Scotty gets a turn of really bad luck; his car is vandalized, and he’s attacked from behind by the enraged vandal. Turns out it’s not a random act of violence, though: it’s Frankie’s husband. Oh, snap! Scotty confronts Frankie about it, and she claims that they’ve been separated for a while, and it’s over, and blah blah sob storycakes. To his credit, Scotty doesn’t seem to be buying any of it. She asks him if this is going to be a problem; oh, it so is. She correctly surmises that they’re off for tonight, and Scotty just gives her this fabulous withering look and walks away.
Meanwhile, Vera’s gung-ho about getting a pool going for the latest lottery jackpot. His co-workers all scoff at first, with Stillman claiming he’s got a better chance of winning “American Idol” (now that, I’d like to see), but throughout the episode, Vera gradually ropes everyone but Jeffries in. Kat gets bought with the promise of how many shoes $33 million could buy, while Scotty jumps at the chance go buy a rare car, Lilly wants to go to Hawaii (better stock up on sunblock, Lil), and Stillman rationalizes it with the knowledge that the money will go to the schools.
They all gather at Jones’ at the end for the drawing, which, surprisingly enough, they don’t win, but they look to be having a grand old time anyway. I love this moment, and it proves once and for all why they don’t need outsiders raining on their parade: they work so well together, and clearly have a lot of fun.
So that’s my two cents, which, in 2007, would buy you not much, on a fairly boring episode. I’d love to hear your thoughts, rants, raves…and what you’d do if you won the lottery.
thanks so much been searching for an episode guide on this, work for the ambulance service and got a call 10 min before the end :( been trying to find out since who did it :) thanks again
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