3.16 - "Leap of Faith"
This week on Major Crimes, Lieutenant Andy Flynn talks a man down off a ledge, only to find that he may have been responsible for a murder. Meanwhile, Rusty hears of possibly getting out of being a witness against Philip Stroh.
"Life is temporary. Death is forever."
Detective Andy Flynn tracked a bunch of commotion over to a bridge where a man stood on the ledge. Andy immediately approached him, and started asking him personal questions and asked if he wanted to be responsible for causing a possibly disastrous car accident below. He pointed out that innocent lives would be lost along with his own if he jumped, and said life is worth living. After some coaxing, he was able to get the man back over to the bridge itself, and asked for some identification. The man, heavy with grief, stated that his ID was in his truck. When Andy went to check, he found the body of a young girl under a blanket in his truck bed. What's worse is after they ran his ID, he was found as Billy George, a registered sex offender.
When pressed for what happened that day, Billy stated that he found that girl in his house on his bed, dead, with no explanation. He thought to get rid of the body, as his status as an offender would likely damn him, so that's why he ended up on the bridge in the first place... No one would believe what he'd say.
They quickly received a warrant for his house, and took him there with the team to search it. However, they found a couple and Agent Bobby Oderno at the suspect/jumper's door who was looking for their autistic daughter. Her GPS-enabled bracelet was signaling that she was inside Billy's house, who they know is a registered sex offender. Flynn asked for an image of the girl, and it was the young girl that was found in Billy's truck bed.
When they spotted Billy in the car, the mother immediately threw a rock at the window of the police car, and screamed that if he hurt her daughter she'd kill him. (At this point, I was 99% sure it was one of the parents that killed the daughter, after they mentioned it multiple times that he was a nasty sex offender, when his actual offense was sexual relations with a minor, which while is always legally without consent, it doesn't exactly equate to something like taking and murdering a young autistic girl either...)
Within his house, they found that it was pristine, almost like no one lived there at all. They could not find anything that tied specifically to the girl's disappearance. But there were several little paper hearts cut out that said things along the line of "I love you" and "XOXO" on them. The thought was perhaps the young autistic girl might have had a relationship with Billy, which was similar to his original charge as a sex offender.
It was determined that the young girl was killed when she was held down and was unable to breathe under the pressure of another person's body. But there were no signs of a sexual activity or assault, and she was in fact, still a virgin.
The investigation continues, and Provenza digs into Billy especially hard, without much deference to "innocent until proven guilty." They find out that Billy was actually in a relationship with Tori Kemp, who has a daughter named Kayla that looks very similar to Annie, the victim. At this point, they bring in Tori and Kayla for a better idea of who Billy was to them, and to figure out if he had an inappropriate relationship with Kayla. First they broke the news to Tori that he was a registered sex offender, even though Sharon pleaded with her to keep in mind that it may not be relevant to the circumstances, and she asked her to think on whether Kayla and Billy have anything inappropriate going on between them. She mostly just sobbed, and they didn't get anywhere with her.
Billy was then made aware that they knew about Tori and Kelly, and had told them everything about his history. He immediately became apathetic and fired his lawyer, and said he was ready to write his statement. They handed him a pen and paper, and then watched in horror as he started stabbing himself in the neck to finish his suicide attempt that he was talked out of earlier that day. Sanchez burst into the room and stopped him from finishing the job and they took him out for medical attention. It turned out that he tried to kill himself knowing that the cops would do exactly as they did: they condemned him before they even questioned him, and it lead to him being the prime suspect no matter what he said. It was quite tragic. But I am not sure that hit anyone other than Andy, as the others moved on to figure out who the real killer was.
When Kayla was asked about the hearts she made for Billy, she said she put them in his truck every morning before he left, as her way of wishing him a good day. Dreading the worst, they asked her if there were any secrets that she and Billy kept from her mother. After some hesitation, she said that no one could tell, but he was going to propose to her mother, Tori. The relief was palpable, if also expected, as everyone watching had figured out what happened about 5 minutes into the episode. The only thing left was to get one of the disgruntled parents to 'fess up.
It turns out the stepfather (surprise!...?) was very indignant about shoving his life needs out of the way for his wife's daughter, and lo and behold--a special needs child takes up a lot of their time! So, when she was acting out, he accidentally crushed her chest in and suffocated her! Excuse my language, but fuck that guy... If he was so upset, it was obviously not worth the bother to stay with that woman who did the best she could with her troubled daughter, even if it was an accident, going through extreme measures, which included stalking their neighbor's movements in order to frame him for Annie's killing was atrocious. Some people don't deserve a deal. I digress -- supposedly at that point, Billy was excused and they took the stepfather Chris out to start his charges, and the focus shifted over to Sharon and Rusty.
When pressed for what happened that day, Billy stated that he found that girl in his house on his bed, dead, with no explanation. He thought to get rid of the body, as his status as an offender would likely damn him, so that's why he ended up on the bridge in the first place... No one would believe what he'd say.
When they spotted Billy in the car, the mother immediately threw a rock at the window of the police car, and screamed that if he hurt her daughter she'd kill him. (At this point, I was 99% sure it was one of the parents that killed the daughter, after they mentioned it multiple times that he was a nasty sex offender, when his actual offense was sexual relations with a minor, which while is always legally without consent, it doesn't exactly equate to something like taking and murdering a young autistic girl either...)
Within his house, they found that it was pristine, almost like no one lived there at all. They could not find anything that tied specifically to the girl's disappearance. But there were several little paper hearts cut out that said things along the line of "I love you" and "XOXO" on them. The thought was perhaps the young autistic girl might have had a relationship with Billy, which was similar to his original charge as a sex offender.
It was determined that the young girl was killed when she was held down and was unable to breathe under the pressure of another person's body. But there were no signs of a sexual activity or assault, and she was in fact, still a virgin.
"A kind word from a friend can get you through a rough day..."
Billy was then made aware that they knew about Tori and Kelly, and had told them everything about his history. He immediately became apathetic and fired his lawyer, and said he was ready to write his statement. They handed him a pen and paper, and then watched in horror as he started stabbing himself in the neck to finish his suicide attempt that he was talked out of earlier that day. Sanchez burst into the room and stopped him from finishing the job and they took him out for medical attention. It turned out that he tried to kill himself knowing that the cops would do exactly as they did: they condemned him before they even questioned him, and it lead to him being the prime suspect no matter what he said. It was quite tragic. But I am not sure that hit anyone other than Andy, as the others moved on to figure out who the real killer was.
When Kayla was asked about the hearts she made for Billy, she said she put them in his truck every morning before he left, as her way of wishing him a good day. Dreading the worst, they asked her if there were any secrets that she and Billy kept from her mother. After some hesitation, she said that no one could tell, but he was going to propose to her mother, Tori. The relief was palpable, if also expected, as everyone watching had figured out what happened about 5 minutes into the episode. The only thing left was to get one of the disgruntled parents to 'fess up.
It turns out the stepfather (surprise!...?) was very indignant about shoving his life needs out of the way for his wife's daughter, and lo and behold--a special needs child takes up a lot of their time! So, when she was acting out, he accidentally crushed her chest in and suffocated her! Excuse my language, but fuck that guy... If he was so upset, it was obviously not worth the bother to stay with that woman who did the best she could with her troubled daughter, even if it was an accident, going through extreme measures, which included stalking their neighbor's movements in order to frame him for Annie's killing was atrocious. Some people don't deserve a deal. I digress -- supposedly at that point, Billy was excused and they took the stepfather Chris out to start his charges, and the focus shifted over to Sharon and Rusty."You've been given a voice here..."
Rusty's side plot of the week was a bit vague and uninteresting for me. From what I ascertained, he saw Emma (who we haven't seen in a long time and she didn't actually make an appearance if I am not mistaken) and somehow got it in his head that after she asked him to write an impact statement for the Philip Stroh case, he'd be let off the hook for testifying against Stroh on the stand. However, Sharon didn't think that was a strong possibility. She expected that Stroh was never going to get a "deal" given his crimes.At the end of the episode, D.D.A. Hobbs popped by and cleared the confusion by saying that Rusty will still be expected to testify on the stand, and that the impact statement was more of a formality that frames the case. He was let down, but Sharon reminded him that it was not his fault that he was found in that situation, he was the victim, and this was a chance for him to have what he thought brought up to the court after Philip Stroh tried to murder him.
Some people may bring up that this Philip Stroh case has been going on since before this show technically even started, and should be resolved soon. I am on the fence about it, because I feel like that will be the end of the original premise of Rusty's storyline, which has humanized Sharon's character a lot since the beginning of Major Crimes. Also, I should mention that it's actually very realistic that it's taking so long for them to handle the Stroh case -- typically there's years between the beginning and end of a murder trial. So, can't fault them too much for milking it out over time.
Sidenotes:
- Apologies for the tardiness in posting these the last 2-3 weeks. It's been a blast catching up with family for the holidays! Happy New Year, everyone!
- I don't care how upset you are, throwing that rock through a police officer's window and then threatening another person's life should have had her arrested for attempted assault or something. I guess they just let it go because of how bad the situation was, but she threw that rock at an innocent man.
- The tone of this episode was strongly built. It's not exactly the first time I've seen this exact cop procedural episode play out, but it was effective storytelling, especially given that 1-2 of the "mind-blowing" episodes as they are advertised didn't really live up to the hype for me.
- Having said that, I'm getting tired of procedural episodes that I feel like I've seen before... On a weekly basis, too.
- What the heck was Provenza going on about this episode? Was he trying to sabotage his relationship with Patrice? I didn't understand any of his reasoning behind his questions for Andy...
- Secondarily, I think it should be noted that Provenza was very short-sighted in the way he handled this case. If Andy wasn't there to provide his perspective, Provenza would have likely either put Billy in jail or let him succumb to his suicidal tendencies. Very poor detective work on his behalf.
- Actor Chad Lindberg played Billy, who also played Ash in Supernatural! :) He did a great job bringing a morose feel to the character, as the only roles I'd seen him in previously were comedic roles.
- Billy had a really terrible few days, and in the end, I didn't feel all that good about how his character might have fared... I feel like they should have put him in therapy or something...it wasn't enough for me to see the stepfather arrested... I wanted more closure for that character.
- Apologies for the tardiness in posting these the last 2-3 weeks. It's been a blast catching up with family for the holidays! Happy New Year, everyone!
- I don't care how upset you are, throwing that rock through a police officer's window and then threatening another person's life should have had her arrested for attempted assault or something. I guess they just let it go because of how bad the situation was, but she threw that rock at an innocent man.
- The tone of this episode was strongly built. It's not exactly the first time I've seen this exact cop procedural episode play out, but it was effective storytelling, especially given that 1-2 of the "mind-blowing" episodes as they are advertised didn't really live up to the hype for me.
- Having said that, I'm getting tired of procedural episodes that I feel like I've seen before... On a weekly basis, too.
- What the heck was Provenza going on about this episode? Was he trying to sabotage his relationship with Patrice? I didn't understand any of his reasoning behind his questions for Andy...
- Secondarily, I think it should be noted that Provenza was very short-sighted in the way he handled this case. If Andy wasn't there to provide his perspective, Provenza would have likely either put Billy in jail or let him succumb to his suicidal tendencies. Very poor detective work on his behalf.
- Actor Chad Lindberg played Billy, who also played Ash in Supernatural! :) He did a great job bringing a morose feel to the character, as the only roles I'd seen him in previously were comedic roles.
- Billy had a really terrible few days, and in the end, I didn't feel all that good about how his character might have fared... I feel like they should have put him in therapy or something...it wasn't enough for me to see the stepfather arrested... I wanted more closure for that character.
What did you think of this week's episode? Start a discussion below in the comments!
