Cindy Cosey

9 min read

·

Nov 19, 2024

SPOILERS

Our story opens today with a young girl discovering the body of a young woman washed up on the beach. The team is busy discussing the case in the office, getting a start on their investigation. During the discussion Patrick seems to be leading Grace around the area by the hand with great intent. In explanation he says Grace is mentally telling him where she hid the van keys. His prize if he finds them? He gets to drive. Grace wears a somewhat amused look on her face and she’s half smiling. I wonder, does she just think the whole exercise is simply a funny little game or is she just a little enamored of Patrick? The rest of the team is intrigued. Patrick continues to move Grace around the room, intently watching her face. A sudden move away from her AND away from the direction they were walking and he finds the keys without hesitation and triumph is his. The team clearly gets a kick out of his success and Grace looks a little chagrinned. Was she deliberately trying to misdirect Patrick without really knowing how?

Out to the beach we go where we are first met with a group of young people who appear to be giving a grieving send off to the murdered woman, Christine. Most appear to be teenagers. The men of the CBI team are strolling up the beach discussing the case (and Patrick’s finding of the keys) where they meet up with the group of grievers. A small group of the kids breaks off and approaches Kimball, Wayne and Patrick and ascertains that they are cops. Here we meet Hope and Win along with others of their small group and we learn that they surf and hang out together and that Christine was their friend. Some questions are asked and answered, then Patrick steps in and seems to ask some rather odd questions — If Chris were a color what color would she be? If Chris were an animal what animal would she be. The kids respond readily. This is clearly a line of questioning they are comfortable with. When Wayne asks how that is relevant Kimball replies “we’re looking for someone who doesn’t like orange rabbits.” Kind of funny but Patrick is feeling out the kids already for information.

As the men get ready to leave the beach Patrick states he thinks he’ll stay a while which Kimball and Wayne think is kind of weird, but whatever. Patrick takes a lay down in the sand. I find this interesting. He’s fully dressed — suit trousers, vest, dress shirt, jacket in hand — but he drops his jacket in the sand and lays himself down. It doesn’t seem to bother him about getting sandy or dirty. I think there a couple reasons he chose to stay on the beach. Naturally to find more information about the murder, but maybe to get a little down time. A chance to rest his mind from the situation at hand. I think these cases — murders — hit him harder than he lets on. It bothers him and he needs a little emotional break sometimes. And the victim here would be about the same age as his dead daughter would have been had she lived.

Teresa and Grace go to visit Christine’s family. Her dad is an alcoholic, broken by the death of his wife a few years previous in a car accident. There is a younger brother and sister. It seems Chris became “mom” to the family after her mother was killed and her dad was really dependent on her to care for the younger children and take care of the house. Even so, she was permitted a substantial amount of freedom and spent a good bit of time with friends. She was essentially a pretty good kid though. It does appear as though the sister will now be taking over Christine’s duties. Dad just isn’t hacking it at home although he does work steadily. Dad tells Teresa and Grace about Christine’s current group of friends as well as another girl that she was no longer friends with who wasn’t such a good influence. We hear the names Andy and Danny and Flipper.

Flip back to the beach and we find Patrick sans vest and shoes now with sleeves and trousers rolled up. He tried digging in the sand with a shoe and is loaned a bucket by a girl close by and begins building a sand castle. It turns out to be a pretty darned good sand castle. I would expect no less.

Back to Grace and Teresa. A brief confrontation between the two where Teresa, in no uncertain terms, tells Grace that the team does not discuss their personal lives. It’s unprofessional. I think this is something that changed with time largely due to Patrick’s influence. As much as he distances himself (for obvious reasons) he thinks it’s stupid that they wouldn’t know and care for each other and he encourages those friendships.

Teresa interviews the old friend, Darlene, who is in juvie for whatever. She reveals that Christine was sleeping with an older man called Pops who liked 50’s music and was good in bed.

The team gets information about Flipper, also known as Philip Handler. Teresa and Wayne go to see Flipper for an interview. He lives in a smallish trailer and it’s surrounded by the needs of a serious surfer. Loud music emits from inside. They go busting in guns drawn and throw back a curtain in an inside doorway to reveal Flipper sitting at a table, beer in hand. He looks a little startled at the intrusion but not really bothered and says “hey, these friends of yours?” Much to my amusement Patrick makes himself seen from the other side of the table, huge smile on his face, and HE actually invites Wayne and Teresa on in. He’s playing a game of chess with Flipper. The brief exchange between Flipper and Patrick over the chess game reveals that Patrick has already established a good rapport with Flipper.

Flipper is brought in for an interview and it turns out he hurt a woman pretty badly in the past. Turns out this woman was damaging the marine environment. Something Flipper is very protective of. Flipper is kind of an arrogant fellow but you cannot help but like him. He tries to do what is right. When questioned about whether or not he was sleeping with Christine (she was 15) he says no, but he thought about it. But he didn’t because it would be wrong. Teresa is thinking strongly that Flipper may be the murderer and Patrick gives him a great little speech. “See the thing is, Flip, Lisbon here is looking at you like you’re a pork chop because you fit the profile. Your life is in chaos. You’re lonely. You’re depressed. You’re addicted to drugs and pornography and a little nuts to be honest. You’re exactly the kind of man that does terrible things to women. Uh, but I don’t think you did this. Because I think deep down you’re a good man. You should use your bishops a little more efficiently, but otherwise a good man.” Flipper tells his story about what he did the evening that Chris was killed but he really doesn’t have much of an alibi.

The team learns more information about the murder victim’s death and Patrick and Teresa go to the school to talk with her little circle of friends again. When the group is confronted with the fact of the party that Flipper talked about they are evasive and one cannot agree with the other. Lies lies lies. Some information comes to light after a bit of tooth pulling — like the fact that the kids “hook up” with one another on a regular basis but do not consider themselves to be lovers. Their story about the time line for the party seems to correspond with Flipper’s although mention is made that maybe Flipper returned to the party spot later after everyone but Chris had gone.

Teresa and Patrick go to investigate the party site which is property belonging to Danny’s father. During their interview with the site foreman Patrick makes the gruesome discovery of a missing guard for the site. Apparently the guy got buried in concrete and all that was showing was the tip of his nose. Ick. The property owner, Dane Kurtik, arrives on the scene in response to the concreted man being found on his work site. He’s pretty arrogant and worried about this slowing progress on his project. Patrick takes an immediate dislike to Mr. Kurtik. He asks Dane if he knew Christine and spots the lie in his evasive answers. As Kurtik walks away Patrick calls out “hey Pops, I hear you’re good in bed. What’s your secret?” He continues to antagonize Dane until he gets a pretty hard punch in the face.

Kurtik gets arrested for assault but Minelli isn’t happy. Kurtik is friends with people in high places. This looks bad for the CBI and we all know Patrick was asking for it. Teresa defends Patrick’s actions and gets permission from Minelli to question Kurtik, gently. Kurtik, of course, denies having anything to do with Christine. And he threatens to sue unless Teresa and Patrick are fired.

Patrick gathers Hope, Danny, Win and Andy together at Kurtik’s work site. He offers them the opportunity to help find Christine’s killer. He also presents possible suspects to them — maybe Flipper. Maybe Danny’s dad. Again, the teens argue among themselves. Lies lies lies. Patrick takes the group to a quiet area onsite and tells them he wants to hypnotize them to help them remember anything related to the night of the murder. After a little convincing they all agree to be hypnotized. During this group hypnosis Hope says she recalls seeing Danny’s father watching them at their party. An argument ensues among the teens again following their “awakening” from hypnosis. They accuse Danny’s dad of the murder.

The next day Hope shows up at the police station to ask if Dane Kurtik was arrested but Patrick confronts her with the fact that he never hypnotized her and she made up the whole “being in a trance” thing so she could place blame for Chris’s murder on Kurtik. Patrick then plainly accuses Hope of the murder. Here’s our manipulative mentalist at his best. He knows Hope is super vulnerable at this point; her people to blame options have run out, guilt is eating away at her, she’s only 15, her friends aren’t a sure thing anymore and Patrick is an adult in a position of authority. So Hope tells her story. A guard showed up at their party. Danny hit the guard who fell and struck his head and died — an accident. All the kids except Chris agreed not to tell to try to save themselves from punishment. Chris said they had to report it. Hope said Danny whacked Chris over the head and drowned her in a water trough to keep her quiet. Patrick and Teresa move on to interview Danny who states he cannot let his dad be falsely accused of killing Christine, but at the same time he denies Hope’s version of the party and the murder. Danny acuses Hope of hitting Chris over the head with a shovel and in a tearful moment Hope confesses that “I did it for you jerk, I did it for you.” She also states that Danny’s father was sleeping with Chris which Danny does not deny. Then it’s time to bring in Win and Andy and it turns out that Hope struck Christine over the head but she didn’t die and so Hope said all four of them had to drown Christine to finish the job so all would be equally guilty and no one could tell. All the teens are taken into custody.

Dane Kurtik is charged with statutory rape.

The story ends with Teresa encouraging Mr. Tanner, Christine’s father, to get help for his alcoholism. She tells him the story of her own alcoholic father and how he killed himself and nearly killed her and her brothers with his drinking. She definitely put herself out there to try to help someone else. I’m sure this was difficult for her but I think she has seen Patrick do this even though it’s hard for him, in an effort to help others. He’s willing to sacrifice his own feelings and self for the sake of others.