Stitchers - The Root of all Evil - Review

This week opens with a bit of a surprise when Kirsten’s boyfriend shows up at the front door unexpected. There are a couple of repercussions to his arrival. One is that Camille instigates the most awkward moment in this history of professional meetings and the other is that Maggie assigns her to vet this beau.

The Stitch this week is of a Jane Doe whose body was found at the bottom of a trail on Mulholland Drive in Beverly Hills. When Kirsten Stitches in she finds herself in an extremely expensive house during a 4th of July party. She’s having trouble figuring out the woman’s name. But she does see her taking a selfie with a magazine cover. The magazine in the selfie leads them to the location of the party.

They find the owners of the house (Mr. and Mrs. Parks) and, because Fisher is off on an assignment, Cameron and Kirsten accompany Maggie to talk to the couple. Maggie and Cameron bicker like children to the point that Maggie informs them she will be doing the talking. They’re informed that the homeowners were out of town over the 4th of July weekend and they have no daughter. So who threw the party? They are definitely in the right house so Kirsten assumes the couple is lying. Kirsten’s famous grasp of tact and subtlety encourage the couple to lawyer up and kick them out. But when Maggie chastises Kirsten, Cameron has her back.

There was a lot I liked about this sequence. It was kind of fun to watch Kirsten be Kirsten, but it also made me wonder if the writers had a grasp on the character. This comes, in part I think, from the fact the person she Stitches in to can affect Kirsten’s personality. If the Stitch is very emotional we get more emotion from Kirsten during the investigation. This Stitch she never seemed to have connected with the victim. She doesn’t even have a name for the victim so who we see in this scene seems to be pure unfiltered Kirsten.

Linus is the one who saves the day. We don’t often get to see that Linus actually has a brain. While Kirsten and Cameron were off frustrating Maggie, Linus was examining the evidence. He put together an empty baggie in the victim’s pocket and Kirsten’s mention of a dog and came up with the victim’s name, Brenda (Bentley) Miller.

With the name, comes an address and a visit to Bentley’s apartment and another clue from the Stitch pays off. They find a baggie loaded with expensive jewelry in Bentley’s toilet. Bentley is a thief. When they track down her best friend, Sadie, they discover that these two women would break into people’s homes to hang out and party. Sadie had no idea that Bentley was stealing. She mentions that the homeowner came home the night of the 4th of July party.

When they Stitch again they discover that Bentley videotaped the husband returning home to spend some “quiet” time with his mistress. She also sees the murder. Bentley was walking her dog when her assailant appears. We learn that Bentley was blackmailing the murderer. If you were looking closely I bet you also figured out who the killer was.

Mr. Parks is arrested and everyone is set home after a job well done. Linus and Cameron are having a bro night (with a spread that you would never see at an 80s jock poker night). Linus puts a stop to that. They order pizza, summon a featured extra, and dive into a first person shooter video game; much better and more fun.

Kirsten’s beau is making dinner for she and Camille. It’s a nice pleasant evening that starts with Kirsten giving Camille a pair of extremely expensive boots. Camille has officially won Kirsten over. When a neighborhood dog barks the evening ends. Kirsten remembers Linus mentioning that Bentley’s dog hated men and wasn’t barking in the Stitch. The killer was Mrs. Parks not Mr. Parks. Kirsten keeps talking until Mrs. Parks pulls a gun. Kirsten hits her in the face with a jewelry box. Another case solved.

Now back to Kirsten’s boyfriend. What guy wouldn’t mind a girlfriend who is completely okay if he disappears for months or years on end? Liam seemed more genuine when talking about how convenient it is that Kirsten doesn’t feel their separations than he did when telling us how he felt about those separations. He told Camille how great Kirsten is but not how he feels about her.

I have the solid impression that Kirsten is a nice distraction with no strings attached. I don’t trust him. I especially do not trust the proposal. It’s clear we aren’t supposed to trust him or the proposal.

Maggie and Les discuss a man partially visible in the background of a photo where Liam is being given an award. This man has them concerned. That is the main reason I am inclined to think that Liam may not be a bad guy. I think he may be pawn to powerful people, but I don’t think he is an out and out villain. I really hope that’s a story point that will add to the arc story for the show.

This wasn’t one of my favorite episodes of the season to date. Although I did warm to it as I re-watched for this review. This episode felt like it’s sole purpose was to introduce Liam and the potential complications he could bring to the arc story. I don’t have a problem with that per say, I just they had done it with an A-story that had something to grab me. This week’s victim was an unlikeable thief and blackmailer. Her victim was also unlikable. Consequently, I didn’t care about the bulk of the story.

One element that really bothered me were the meeting scenes. Linus and Cameron snark through these scenes frequently, but they are generally on point…relating to the case. Camille’s sidebar comments about Kirsten’s dating life in the middle of a professional meeting with your boss absolutely made me insane. I realize that I am considerably older than ABC Family’s target demographic but sometimes a joke should be skipped.

So, what did you guys think of this episode? I look forward to hearing what you think.

About the Author - Prpleight

Prpleight is a screenwriter and senior software engineer with solid geek cred. When not writing code, screenplays, or watching TV (sometimes she does all three at the same time), she uses her broadsword Bessie to battle evil. She's been a frequent contributor to the SpoilerTV discussion boards for several years now. Currently, she's reviewing Stitchers and Major Crimes.

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