Murder in the First Season 3 Episode Guide:
3.01. Normandy, Bitch - Review!
3.02. Tropic of Cancer - Review!
3.03. Black and Blue - Review!
3.04. The Barbers of Seville - Review!
3.05. Follow the Money - Review!
3.06. Sam I Am - Review!
3.07. Let's Make a Deal - Review!
3.08. Daddy Dearest - Review!
3.09. Rise of the Phoenix - Review!
3.10. Kat's Meow - Review!
Murder in the First 3.10: Kat's Meow - Review:
Directed by Jesse Bochco, Written by Alison Cross, Corinne Marrinan, Daniele Nathanson & Ethan Kass
And so here we are again at the end of the third season of Murder in the First as we finally learn the answer to the Normandy Parker case that's been the central mystery for the entire season, divergences for Mario Siletti's court case aside. It's been an interesting drama that perhaps hasn't quite lived up to the previous two seasons but was still fairly watchable and a decent season, even if the mystery wasn't actually that gripping and the case wasn't as good as it could have been. The finale was still a strong one, with an effective and emotional conclusion.
Even though there was one more twist left in the tale there wasn't really any new surprises here. Alicia was able to unlock Billy James' phone which serves to confirm that he was hired to kill Parker. An analysis of the voice of the employer links it to everyone's number one suspect, Paul Barnes, but things are made complicated when Kat, the estranged mother of Alicia, goes to her house and decides to kill Paul out of vengeance. She then confesses her murder and is arrested by Terry and Hildy, who try to be sympathetic.
The death of her father and the arrest of her mother sends Alicia into a tailspin, checking herself out of rehab and turns to alcohol. This forces Hildy to intervene to attempt to set her back on the straight and narrow by taking her to the morgue and showing her a seventeen year old girl who was an overdose victim and tells her to change her ways or that could happen to her. The end of Terry and Hildy's storyline sees them holding hands while they're watching Alicia embrace her mother in the jail, leaving another case resolved. If the show is renewed for another season it'll be interesting to see what route the show takes with Terry and Hildy and their relationship, but for now it's left things on a note so where if it doesn't get renewed fans can leave it up to their own imagination as to what happened next between the two.
Meanwhile, Siletti is in trouble with his wife Cassie who threatens a divorce after she learns that he blackmailed the husband of the girl who died. Siletti ends up buying the car that his son has been wanting for most of the season as well as creating a trust fund for the woman's children. This seems like an overreaction from Cassie's part because after all, hasn't Siletti done so much already? Either way, the trust fund was established, but at the same time, could have been done without as we got an effective resolution to his court case last week.
And in the backup story that roughly translates to the fact that the writers needed to keep Molk and Navarro busy this episode after pushing them to the side for most of the season, we saw them arrive at the scene at a beating of a woman and the number one suspect is the victim's abusive husband, reinforced by the fact that the husband is killed in a drive by shooting later. However despite Molk and Navarro doing everything they can to not investigate the dad, an estranged daughter reveals that he was equally abusive and the name that he's currently under is not his real one. The fact that he is wanted for multiple cases in Phoenix is enough to get Molk and Navarro interested, especially when the revelation comes that he is also a gang assassin.
Again, much like Louise's shoplifting story in Rise of the Phoenix, the Molk and Navarro subplot just seems like a way to pad the story out a bit and as a result it's not very memorable or necessary. The whole season lacked the intrigue of the previous one, and felt incredibly predictable from start to finish, especially with the title of this episode Kat's Meow giving you a hint as to who was involved. But on the whole, there are worse things out there, and this show remained dependable for the season with no episode that was really worse than any of the others. If consistency was what Murder in the First was aiming for then it achieved that in its third season.
What did you think of Season 3 of Murder in the First? Did you enjoy it as much as the previous seasons or were you left underwhelmed? Let me know in the comments section below.
Overall Episode Verdict: C+
Positives:
+Terry/Hildy.
+Case solved without a cliffhanger.
Negatives:
-Too predictable?
-Molk/Navarro story not needed.
