Only the innocent return.
I've been waiting for an episode that would let me write about something other than just the case of the week. It finally came and it's one that gives us a little glimpse of Nick's past.
It started off with Nick and Linda Cole parting after a date, with a promise from him to join her for brandy later. An appointment he never got to keep when he is abducted at gunpoint.
The gunman who drove him out to the desert turned out to be former client Donnie Barrett (Dean Norris) who had left trial seventeen years ago. Hoping that modern day technology can prove his innocence, he asked Nick for help to clear his name in the murder of his wife, for his daughter's sake. Nick agreed just as police arrived after Nick's 911 call.
This was Nick's case, back when he was known as Nicky D, he worked for a boss with mob ties. Fresh out of law school, middle-aged, with zero connections and zero experience, he took the job that would take him. And Donnie was an accountant who worked for clients in the mob. The prosecution had blood type, neighbour testimony and the fact that Donnie was estranged from his wife. They just needed to prove that the blood was not his, but the evidence was missing from cold storage.
Nick paid his old boss Carmine (Daniel J. Travanti) a visit. Aside from asking him for Donnie's old case files, Nick wanted his assurances that the murder was not mob-related. Except for the fact that someone blew up Pete's car since they have been on Donnie's case, Nick assured his partner this had nothing to do with his past.
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| Carmine |
The picture this was painting: the neighbor was obsessed about the wife. He strangled her when she rejected him and blamed it on the husband.
Even with new DNA evidence pointing to somebody else, the defense was not allowed to implicate the state witness.
“Why does a man walk back into town and face trial? I don't know if only the guilty run, but only the innocent return.”
Despite getting a guilty verdict, Nick managed to convince Donnie's daughter that her father did not kill her mother.
Assistant District Attorney Hannah Harrison advised Nick that there is an appeals process. If they discovered new evidence, they can always take the case to the high court in Carson City.
Comments:
The ending was a tease. We don't even get to hear what the D in Nicky D stood for. Despite the fact that we don't find out too much about Nick's past, you do get a sense that it was a part of his life he was not too proud of. It was actually nice to see a continuation from a previous episode with Lady Bear Linda Cole. Hopefully, she will forgive Nick for missing their brandy date.
It was also nice to see Daniel J. Travanti as Carmine. He is a talented actor whose most notable role was Captain Frank Furillo in Hill Street Blues.
I loved how in a few minutes time Lisa and Zoey figured out how the neighbor did it. Some fine old-fashion detective work on an old-school case.
