Cold CaseStealing Home
Original Air Date: April 12, 2009
Amanda - Senior Reviewer
amanda@thetwocentscorp.com
Ever since I found out about this episode, I’ve been looking forward to it like you wouldn’t believe. I’m a sucker for cases that are personal to one of the detectives, and when I learned that Scotty’s portrayer, Danny Pino, co-wrote the episode, I was even more excited. Learning that the squad would be playing softball was icing on the cake. So, did “Stealing Home” strike out, or was it a home run?
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[photo: CBS]
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Ever since I found out about this episode, I’ve been looking forward to it like you wouldn’t believe. I’m a sucker for cases that are personal to one of the detectives, and when I learned that Scotty’s portrayer, Danny Pino, co-wrote the episode, I was even more excited. Learning that the squad would be playing softball was icing on the cake. So, did “Stealing Home” strike out, or was it a home run? Read on...
ReplyDeleteThis week’s case investigates the 1999 murder of Gonzalo Luque, a Cuban baseball player who left his wife and son behind to play for the Phillies. Thanks to a law whereby Cubans who made it to US soil were granted asylum, but those who were caught in the water were deported, he came to America, only to be hit in the chest with a baseball bat with the initials “ST” on the bottom. The investigation begins with Gonzalo’s widow, Piedad, who recalled how the Cuban government banned Gonzalo from baseball for making contact with a US sports agent. Deprived of both his passion and his livelihood, Gonzalo had no choice but to leave his wife and young son, Andres, behind. Meanwhile, Scotty and Lilly interview Gonzalo’s cousin Juan, who remembers visiting Gonzalo’s apartment and being impressed by the abundant food, clothing, and everything else, including a bottle of champagne which Gonzalo says they’ll drink when Cuba is finally free. He refers them to Jaime Reyes, Gonzalo’s agent, who recounts for Stillman and Jeffries how Gonzalo and Eric “Showtime” Hines fought at practice. Since Showtime lost his job to Gonzalo, this gets their attention, especially since “Showtime” also fits the initials on the bat.
Kat and Vera talk to Showtime, who says he and Gonzalo became friends, and tells them how Gonzalo met a woman, Marisol, in a bar. When Scotty and Lilly interview Marisol, she says she had no idea Gonzalo had a family back home until she went to his apartment one night and overheard Juan telling Gonzalo that Piedad had filed for divorce. Gonzalo, she says, was determined to get Andres to American soil, and it seemed Piedad still planned to bring him. To add to the holes in Piedad’s story, Scotty and Lilly receive her INS file, and it certainly doesn’t appear that she came over on a raft. Confronted with this, Piedad says she filed for divorce for protection, as the government was threatening to take their house after Gonzalo left. Gonzalo secured passage for Piedad, Andres, and his parents, but she called him from Miami with a problem: his parents didn’t make the boat, and “Oz,” the man who brought them, was demanding more money.
Kat tracks down Oz by way of Clifford, one of her old CIs, and he admits to holding Piedad and Andres. The spots on the boat that were supposed to go to Gonzalo’s parents went to two baseball players instead, a passage arranged by Gonzalo’s agent, Jaime. Stillman and Jeffries pay Jaime another visit, and he insists he was trying to make it right. He recalls Gonzalo confronting him, and in their argument, he mentions that he’d secured a tryout for Juan. This gets their attention, as Juan had claimed to play only a little ball in Cuba, but it turns out he was a standout pitcher, nicknamed “The Cannon.” They learn that Juan and Gonzalo came on the same raft; Gonzalo made it to the beach and was granted asylum, but Juan was sent back to Cuba. Scotty then shares a bit of his own history: his grandfather and great-uncle tried to escape, and while his grandfather reached Philly, his great-uncle died in a Cuban prison. “What happens in Cuba…it stays with us,” he says. Juan then tells how he and Gonzalo were playing ball in the sandlot, and Gonzalo said he fired Jaime. Juan was angry at the loss of his tryout, but Gonzalo promised to make everything better. Unfortunately, he couldn’t; Juan’s arm had been repeatedly broken in prison until he could no longer pitch. “I have nothing,” he says tearfully, then lashes out at Gonzalo, accidentally hitting him in the chest with the bat. The moment when he realizes what he’s done is one of the more wrenching murder scenes this show has ever had. I also adored the moment in the montage where Andres steals home in a Little League game, bringing the dual meaning of the episode’s title full-circle.
On the lighter side, Vera is working hard to organize the squad for the annual police-fire softball game, which, to his chagrin, must now be co-ed. This led to some great Kat/Vera snark (“You throw like a girl?” “You dance like a white guy?”), sorely missing for much of the season, as well as some great moments of the game itself in the end montage. These detectives clearly care a lot for each other, and it’s great to see them out running around and having fun.
I’ve griped repeatedly this season that Scotty’s character has been pigeonholed, so it was wonderful to see some new depth to him in this episode (and to have one centered around him that didn’t involve some ill-advised love interest). Even though we’ve known these guys for six years, it’s always a treat to learn something new about them, and it was even more meaningful getting Danny Pino’s feelings on his Cuban heritage through the eyes of his character. The story Scotty told Juan about his grandfather and great-uncle was heartbreaking, and I absolutely adored the moment in the end montage where we see not only that photo on Scotty’s refrigerator, but the bottle of champagne expressing the hope Scotty, and the rest of us, hold for a liberated Cuba.
So that’s my two cents, which might pay for a sip or two of that champagne. I’d love to hear yours!