Rosewood - Radiation & Rough Landings - Review: “Suspects Here, Suspects There, Suspects Everywhere!”
2.17 - “Radiation & Rough Landings”
Directed by Hanelle M. Culpepper
Written by Marc Halsey & Diana Mendez
Reviewed by Kelly Anne Blount
“Radiation & Rough Landings” opens with a woman running through the woods. She stops when she gets a call. The call seems terse, but I think the woman is about to run into something even worse in the woods.
We cut to Rosie and Slade playing basketball. They both have skills! Nice! Slade is giving Rosie his kidney and they joke about it on the court.
Uh oh! We’re on site of a plantation where a man finds an orange with blood on it. When he looks up, he sees a woman’s body in the tree.
Villa is already at the crime scene, when Slade and Rosie show up together. They are adorable together!
Rosie surmises that the woman fell into the tree. Hmm… How did that happen? He also shares that the woman was alive when she hit the tree. Villa thinks she might have been pushed from a plane. Rosie thinks she’s been dead for several days. What an intriguing case!
Villa gets a call from her landlord that someone is in her house. She leaves the crime scene and rushes home. Villa enters the house with her gun drawn. There is someone in the house… OMG! It’s her BROTHER!
Donna gives Rosie a hard time for playing basketball with Slade. She also moved up Rosie and Slade’s kidney surgery by two weeks.
Rosie and TMI study strange burn marks on the woman’s body. She also has signs of being bed ridden and she has radiation in her skin.
TMI recognizes her as Laura Ann Hill, an astronaut!
Rosie, Villa, and Slade interview Laura’s boss from NASA. He admits that she, “didn’t have much of a life outside of the program.”
Rosie jokes around with Villa about her little brother, Marcos, being back. He says, “Double the Villa, double the FUNNN!” Villa tells Rosie that he probably won’t get to meet Marcos, that he, “isn’t the type to stay.”
TMI is fangirling over Laura. Pippy says, “Laura Hill is an America Hero, the way she died just wasn’t right.”
Villa, Slade, and Rosie go through Laura’s personal belongings. There isn’t much… But, there is a shaving kit and a pair of men’s shoes. Did Laura have a boyfriend? Laura also had an appointment scheduled for today. Rosie and Villa head over to meet whoever Laura had planned on seeing.
Turns out Laura was going to a school to talk about being an astronaut. The teacher, Evie Hower, was her good friend. She admits to not seeing her for a few months. Rosie asks, “Where can we find Laura’s boyfriend?” Villa is surprised that the Evie doesn’t know anything. She finally admits that Laura swore her to secrecy, but that she was indeed seeing Rodrigo Vargas, Air Force Trained Flight Engineer. They want to bring Vargas in for questioning. The problem is, he’s up in space.
Rosie and Villa question Rodrigo via video cam. They fell in love and were engaged. They were supposed to get married as soon as he gets back, which is right around the corner.
Clearly Vargas isn’t the killer, because he’s been up in space, but he admits Laura had issues with someone on her last mission and maybe they had something to do with her murder. Vargas admits Laura just wanted to forget it and that she never gave him a name.
Back in the lab, they figure out that Laura was electrocuted in space, that’s why she has her burn marks. The strange thing is, she was scheduled to fix a part on the space station, which could have caused the burn, but it’s reported that another astronaut, Yuri Cvetko fixed it and blamed the problem on Laura. Interesting!
Villa brings Yuri in to be questioned. He’s appears to be a huge misogynist and asks Villa to bring in her boss so they can talk things through, so he can get right back to his important work. Villa asked what happened with him and Laura? Yuri says that Laura never should have been allowed to go to space. What. A. Jerk.
Villa shows him the picture of Laura’s burns and asks him to explain. Meanwhile, behind the glass, Slade says, “Just goes to show that sometimes you can’t trust the people you work with…” Rosie asks him if he’s alright. He is not okay. Someone stole his, “Best Cop Ever,” mug. Rosie says, “IT WAS YOU!” It looks like Rosie was playing Slade to see how he would react to losing something he loved about. Slade quips, “I don’t drink coffee out of my kidney!”
Rosie spots something! Yuri is lying in the interrogation room. Turns out his eyes have been impacted by his time in space. He made a mistake on the ship that Laura had to fix for him. He’s a prime suspect, because if Laura told anyone that he messed up and couldn’t see, his days as an astronaut would be over.
Yuri has an alibi, although I’m not sure how solid it is? He was allegedly at a spa.
If it wasn’t for Yuri, Laura Hill could have been a Commander. He is such a jerk! Do any of you remember The Finder episode about astronauts? It’s definitely worth checking out on Netflix. And, for the record, I’m still salty that show was canceled.
Slade sends everyone home for the day and says to come back in the morning with “fresh eyes.”
Villa and Marcos are having dinner and catching up. Uh oh! Villa asks Marcos what’s really going on, he’s been home for four months, not a few days like he led Villa to believe. He eludes that he didn’t realize that everything he ran from in Miami when he joined the service would still be “waiting for him when he came back.” Interesting! What was he running from before and what is still waiting for him now?
Villa finds data from the victim’s fit watch. They find that during her last run, she ran close to three miles, then suddenly stopped and her heart rate spiked. Did the phone call we saw in the beginning of the episode cause that spike?
Mitchie pulls up a map of Laura Hill’s neighborhood. They figure out what is all in a three-mile radius and decide to stop at a Nova Fleet, an aerospace company. They think Laura might have stopped by there.
Nova Fleet is designing and creating space ships for the public, so everyone can enjoy space travel. Ah, interesting! Laura was a consultant for Nova Fleet. The owner says that their advances wouldn’t have been possible without Laura. I sense some jealousy. The owner points out that Laura was the only one who had ever been to space. They relied on her, but was someone else also so jealous that they wanted to kill her? We shall see!
Pippy has ID’ed the white powder found under Laura’s fingernails. Turns out it’s baking soda! Rosie and Villa determine that Laura and her friend, Evie, the school teacher DID indeed see each other shortly before Laura died and that she got baking soda under her nails from one of Evie’s student’s science fair projects. When they call the school, they learn that Evie took off shortly after the last time they visited her at school.
Rosie and Villa track Evie down to an air field, where her father, who was in the Air Force, keeps a plane. Evie is behind the wheel of the plane when Rosie and Villa show up, blocking the runway. Villa pops out of the car and asks Evie, “So, you want to tell me why you lied about seeing Laura or skip to the part where you pushed her out of this plane?”
Evie says that she would never hurt Laura. Villa wants to know why Evie lied. Evie admits that Rodrigo confronted her about Laura possibly seeing another guy. He wanted to know who. She says, “One thing led to another.” Oooh! She Evie and Rodrigo slept together?!? Behind Laura’s back? Yikes! She says, “I don’t know how it happened! It was a mistake!” Evie tells Rosie and Villa that Rodrigo thought that Laura was having an affair with someone she worked with, but neither of them knew who. Maybe someone from Nova Fleet?
Villa gets a text message and she looks disturbed. She rushes to see her brother, who is wasted and sitting on the curb. The police officer on the scene lets her handle it. But man, it looks like she’s got her hands full with Marcos. He tells her he wants to walk home. He can barely stand straight!
Villa stops by the lab. She admits to Pippy that something’s up with her brother.
Ooh! Rosie and the team have something! The chemical used on the oranges have slowed the decomp rate. Turns out Laura has been dead for two weeks, not seven days, and guess who was home two weeks ago? Rodrigo! He no longer has an alibi.
Rodrigo is recovering at NASA, as he just returned from space. Rosie and Villa demand to see him. His boss isn’t okay with this plan. Villa has more intel! Turns out Rodrigo went to Nova Fleet a while ago and caused a major scene. No one pressed charges.
Uh oh! Rodrigo disappeared from the recovery area at NASA. Villa and Rosie think he might be going after Jason Hiyashi, the head of Nova Fleet. They suspect that Rodrigo thinks that Laura was having an affair with Hiyashi.
Villa and Rosie rush to Nova Fleet, where they are unveiling a new space ship. Hiyashi has already started his presentation. If Rodrigo is there, Hiyashi will be an easy target. Hiyashi says that he and Laura were not having an affair. Slade comes to back up Rosie and Villa. Rosie is pumped because he gets a “butt” a.k.a. earpiece set. He is seriously geeked and I love it!
Slade gets eyes on Rodrigo’s vehicle. Uh oh, I have a bad feeling about this! Rosie needs his kidney! STAY SAFE, SLADE! Phew! Rodrigo isn’t in the car, but unfortunately, that means that he is most likely already inside. Rosie gives the team a heads up on some of the symptoms Rodrigo might be experiences and the difficulties he might be having since he only arrived back from space a short time ago (a.k.a. like a day).
Uh oh! I spy Rodrigo! He breaks a glass and heads toward Slade. He demands Slade’s gun and presses the broken glass against Slade’s back. EEK! That is right near his kidney! STOP IT! ROSIE NEEDS THAT KIDNEY! Thanks to the butt a.k.a. earpiece, Rosie and Villa are on it! Villa draws her gun and tells Rodrigo to drop the razor sharp broken wine glass.
Hiyashi wants to know what’s going on. Rodrigo says, “Laura and I were starting our lives together and you took her from me!” Rosie, being the smart doc that he is, produces an unfortunate noise by sticking his earpiece by a speaker. This throw Rodrigo off and Slade is able to get the upper hand. Slade now has the partially shattered glass, which is still in Rodrigo’s hand, pointed at Rodrigo’s neck. Slade subdues him a moment later.
Uh oh! Slade is bleeding! Is it serious? I can’t tell! AHGHG! PHEW! Slade gets checked out by the EMTs, who declare that the cut isn’t deep and that his kidney he’s donating to Rosie is just fine. PHEW!
Uh oh! Rosie points out that both he and Slade were preemies. He tells Slade that preemies tend to have a higher tendency of kidney problems later in life. He says that that risk increases with a kidney donation. Rosie tells him that he’s not going to let him risk his life. NO! ROSIE! We’ve been through this! YOU NEED SLADE’S KIDNEY!
TMI and Pippy are back at the lab looking at plans for one of Nova Fleet’s space ships. They are so sweet together! I love it! Meanwhile, Rosie and Villa look over evidence from Laura’s murder. Uh oh! They find out that the ring that Rodrigo gave Laura, a.k.a. her engagement ring, was in her pocket at the time of her murder. Why wouldn’t she be wearing her ring instead? Does this mean she really was having an affair?
TMI found something too! The date on the spaceship plans from Nova Fleet proves that they have the wrong man in jail for Laura’s murder!
Rosie and Villa head back to visit Hiyashi. Turns out that the date on the Nova Fleet design specs show that Laura designed the spaceship over two years ago. She wanted recognition for her design. Hiyashi clearly didn’t want to share the credit with Laura, so he brought her up into his helicopter and with the help of a broken seatbelt and a hard right turn, she fell out of Hiyashi’s helicopter to her death. Yikes! Villa arrests Hiyashi on the spot. Laura’s work will go on forever. Hiyashi will soon be a forgotten memory.
Donna Rosewood stop by the precinct to visit to visit Slade. She thanks him for saving her son’s life. Donna returns Slade’s BEST COP EVER, mug and says, “My soon asked me to give you this.” AW! Does that mean that Rosie IS going to accept Slade’s kidney?!?!? Oh man, I really hope so! Sorry, when I get excited I use a lot of exclamation points and question marks.
Outside, Rosie joins Villa on a bench while she’s looking up at the stars. She points out her “favorite” star, which Rosie quickly says, “That’s a satellite.” Villa knows that he turned away Slade’s kidney. Rosie tells Villa that he’ll be okay. He’ll get back on the transplant list. NOOOOOOOO! I do NOT approve of this plan!
Villa admits that she’s worried about Rosie and her brother, Marcos. She’s afraid that they are a lot more alike than she would like to admit. Rosie says, “You want to help him? What helped you?”
Villa heads back home, where Marcos is packing up. He says that he requested an assignment in the Philippines. She admits that she felt the same way that Marcos did when she came back, like an alien. She says that everything changed when she met the man with the “biggest heart,” Rosie, who never gave up on her. Aw! That’s sweet! Villa urges Marcos to try to build a life in Miami. If she could do it, so can he.
Aw, things are getting really emotional! Villa says that she’s scared because her best friend could die, but she can’t say anything to him about it. She’s crying and says that she, “could really use a brother right now.” Marcos hugs her and agrees to stay.
The episode ends with Marcos jogging to an apartment. A man on a couch asks how everything went, to which he replies, “perfectly.” He heads to a bedroom where he has pictures of Villa, Slade, Rosie, and the rest of the crew on his wall! He also has notes plastered into between the pictures. WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON HERE? As we fade out, Marcos sits down on the bed and stares at the pictures.
My Thoughts:
WHOA! I’ll be back to the stellar episode in a minute, but can we TALK about that ending?!?!? WHAT IS HAPPENING? Why does Marcos have all of those pictures and notes posted on bedroom wall? Is that his bedroom? Why is he staying there? Who is that other guy? I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS!
Can I just point out that the writing on this show is beyond on point? Each episode is perfectly crafted and they leave us wanting more each and every single time an episode comes to the end!
Okay, my mind is still blown by that cliffhanger, but I also want to talk about my thoughts on the episode! I really like how there were so many potential suspects we could blame for Laura’s death. It was really difficult to sort through all of the clues and evidence in order to find the real killer. I mean, Evie with the plane and Hiyashi with the helicopter! Rodrigo, the jealous lover!
I’m also a HUGE fan of the storyline with Villa’s brother, Marcos! I want to know everything! How about you?
Overall, another five star episode of ROSEWOOD!
Let me know what you thought of this episode with a comment below!
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