Cindy Cosey

13 min read

·

Dec 2, 2024

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SPOILERS

The story begins with local police leading Teresa, Kimball and Patrick into a wooded area and explaining that there is a homicide, and they may need help. Teresa clarifies that CBI doesn’t help out; they take over. There are two missing women — Nicole and Kara. Their car was found abandoned. Teresa asks if the car was found exactly as it appears now and the sheriff states that, yes, the door was open, but his team popped the trunk. A dog is heard barking. A search dog has been brought to the scene.

The dog seems confused (odd behavior), and his handler states the dog is acting like the missing women are right there even though no one is to be seen. The sheriff accuses the handler of having a crappy dog to which the handler replies that he is the best dog in the county.

Patrick asks the sheriff if they looked under the car. The sheriff says they did but then pretty much admits they didn’t. Kimball and the sheriff look under the car, and low and behold, a dead chick. The dead woman is Kara.

Patrick, Teresa, the sheriff and the dog and handler set off down the dirt road to hunt for Nicole. The handler explains how the dog works, and it looks like Nicole did not leave the scene on foot.

We meet some of the other local officers, including Kyle, who states his opinion of the situation — he thinks Nicole (known as a ‘troubled soul’ according to the police chief) got mad at Kara, stabbed her to death and ran off into the woods. Teresa admonishes Kyle, stating he shouldn’t assume anything. The subject of karma arises, and Patrick shows how he seems to know something about everything, stating that there are traditional Buddhist teachings about karma. We know that Patrick is an avid reader, and he remembers pretty much everything, so I’m not surprised he would have this tidbit of knowledge.

Next Wayne & Grace visit with Kara’s parents. They don’t think Nicole hurt Kara. They report a boyfriend/fiancé named Jason who was engaged to Kara. The night Kara was killed there was an engagement party held at a local tavern. They surmise Kara might have been a little jealous of Nicole having a boyfriend but also say that Kara had “higher standards.” She wasn’t interested in the local fellows too much — most being low paid workers with alcohol and/or drug issues.

Back to the search for Nicole. Patrick surmises that Nicole has either been abducted or is dead. Why? They’ve come 5 miles in the search. Nicole may have been barefoot or drunk or both. It was dark. He says Nicole could not possibly have gone that far and that someone must have her in a vehicle and the dog lost her scent. The police chief gets sarcastic with Patrick. “Okay you’re in charge now, what do we do?” Patrick replies to call off the search and gather the members of the search party. He asks the chief who, in the search party, he might consider being a violent sexual predator. The chief really dislikes that question. He becomes pretty indignant and questions how CBI works — guess work? The chief continues to be skeptical but, for once, Teresa is supportive of Patrick’s request. He wants to gather the search team and be allowed to question them. The chief says he’ll vouch for all search team members but a stare down with Patrick causes him to rethink that and he agrees to call in the search team members.

Wayne and Kimball hunt down Jason, Nicole’s fiancé. He’s pretty belligerent and confrontational. He denies any fight with Kara and states he is trying to find Nicole on his own. He offers a video of the engagement party as proof. Kimball and Wayne tell Jason that they were told Kara didn’t like Jason, which Jason denies. His alibi for the time of the murder is that he was at the bar passed out drunk.

The sheriff has called the search party members together and introduces Patrick. Patrick asks all the people gathered to raise both hands above their heads. He even asks Teresa to raise her hands, and she is clearly disgusted. Patrick then states that one of the people present killed Kara and abducted Nicole and he wants that person to lower their right hand, NOW. He checks out everyone and no one has lowered their hand. He states that often gets a hit but since it didn’t, he says “forget I even spoke.” Teresa looks more disgusted than ever. When is she EVER going to figure out there is a method to Patrick’s madness?

The sheriff gets a call, and we are taken to a local convenience store where Nicole is sitting in an aisle, disheveled and bloody, stuffing her mouth with food. She has a large knife in one hand. She’s taken to the hospital where the doctor says she’ll be okay physically, but her mental state is in question. He states she has no memory of the event. The sheriff is skeptical of this, stating it’s somehow convenient. He wants to charge Nicole with Kara’s murder, but Teresa tells him that is not his call, and they don’t have all the facts yet. Patrick looks pleased with Teresa’s statement to the sheriff. The sheriff is pissed.

Teresa asks the doctor if they can talk with Nicole. The doctor agrees but encourages them to be gentle. Teresa introduces herself and asks Nicole what happened. Nicole says she remembers nothing after leaving her party with Kara and she wants to know where Jason and Kara are. She wants to know why no one will tell her anything. She asks again where Kara is and Patrick bluntly says, “she’s dead.” Teresa is appalled and asks Patrick why he did that — they were supposed to be gentle. Patrick replies that Nicole was going to find out sometime. He tells Nicole she can handle the truth because she must. Then he begins to encourage her to remember what happened. Teresa and the sheriff don’t like Patrick’s approach. He starts to walk Nicole through the event by asking her why Kara stopped the car. Nicole states she was feeling sick, and she got out of the car. There was a man, but she states she cannot remember what happened next. Patrick is pretty hard-nosed about this, telling Nicole several times that she MUST remember what happened. She gets upset, setting off her heart monitor and the doctor intervenes.

Teresa, Patrick and the sheriff are ousted from the room and, again, the sheriff questions Nicole’s memory loss. He states maybe she, conveniently, cannot remember what happened because she’s the one who killed Kara. Patrick agrees that this is possible, but he doesn’t think so. He thinks some traumatic thing happened to Nicole. He says he thinks Nicole is a victim and the sheriff asks what makes Patrick think this. Patrick looks a little sheepish as he says, “it’s in her eyes.” I think his facial expression and tilt of his head is because he knows the sheriff will blow this off in a heartbeat. The sheriff surmises the women were fighting and Teresa adds that women kill each other — over men. The sheriff reminds them Nicole was covered in blood. Patrick reminds them it was raining the night of the murder so Nicole must have been under cover somewhere or indoors. Hiding, maybe.

Teresa calls Wayne and tells him to look up the location of nearby cabins because Nicole mentioned the sound of rushing water close by. She also wants to see Jason’s party video.

Patrick tells the sheriff that Nicole is in danger. He advises the sheriff to make sure no one enters Nicole’s hospital room for her safety. The sheriff responds, “I know my business. You mind yours.” I don’t think the sheriff likes Patrick much. What do you think?

The entire CBI team reviews the party video and state they see no problem with the Nicole/Kara/Jason relationship. Teresa questions the appearance of a guy in the background who seems to be staring at Kara and Nicole. A bit of research tells them the guy is Rulon Farnes, a delivery driver for Earthly Pure cosmetics — a brand of cosmetics found in Kara’s car.

They learn from Wayne that no clues were found in the cabins near the river, and they start the hunt for Rulon Farnes. Patrick suddenly grabs his jacket and leaves, stating he is going for a walk. Teresa is suspicious (as always). She hates it when Patrick goes off on his own.

Patrick went to the hospital and sits with Nicole. She was evidently told there is a police officer outside her door, so she won’t escape — seems like everyone thinks she killed Kara. Patrick asks her if she did kill Kara and she says she doesn’t know for sure. She asks Patrick if he thinks she killed Kara and he tells her he does not.

Nicole’s boyfriend makes a noisy entrance into the hospital corridor but is restrained by police and a rather loud confrontation takes place before he is escorted out. Patrick briefly steps out of the room to tell Jason no one can see Nicole right now and when he steps back into the room, Nicole is clearly upset, but not at Jason’s not being permitted to visit. It’s something else. She asks Patrick to stay with her — she’s scared of something.

Kimball, Wayne and Grace go to pick up Rulon and find him in the men’s room at the bar. Kimball & Wayne go into the bathroom while Grace waits outside the door. Rulon proceeds to beat the crap out of Wayne and Kimball; Grace hears the ruckus and enters the bathroom and kicks Rulon in the balls. End of problem. Pretty funny.

Back to the hospital where Patrick is sitting with Nicole. A lady in the day room is playing a familiar tune on the piano and you see Patrick remembering his wife and daughter playing the same tune in a duet on their piano at home. His sadness is obvious. I wondered when Red John would rear his ugly head in this episode. Patrick’s thoughts are interrupted by a phone call.

He’s summoned to sit in on the interview with Rulon. Rulon’s a cocky bastard. He says he came onto Kara but she turned him down, so he started giving her free stuff from Earthly Pure, hoping for sexual favors in return. He tells Grace he knows that he disgusts her and does a rant about “pretty” people not understanding what it’s like to be unattractive (he’s overweight and kind of sweaty). That people like him want love and affection just like everyone else. He says it’s not his fault he looks like he does, and Kimball bluntly replies, “It is, actually. A low carb diet and a little exercise could make you look very different.” Go, Kimball! Patrick asks Rulon how much he weighs. He says he lost a lot of weight last year. The team determines Rulon has no alibi, but he’s not bothered. He says they don’t have enough evidence to convict him beyond a reasonable doubt. His attitude just makes me want to slap him. Teresa asks Patrick what he thinks, and he says to let Rulon go. When asked why, Patrick says the guy is innocent. His reasoning? The guy liked Kara, why would he kill her? And he blushed when he lied about his weight. He’s a crappy liar. The team questions Patrick’s assessment of Rulon. Of course.

While the interview was going on Patrick helped himself to Kara’s iPod from the evidence box. They even had to yell at him to pay attention because he had the earbuds in his ears. Now Teresa asks him about it and admonishes him for having it, saying it was in the log, and he can’t have it. All the team agrees, although Wayne looks amused that he took it. Mostly they just all seem to think Patrick’s a pain in the butt. He’s told he has to return it to which he agrees but a quick sleight of hand makes it look like he returned it, but he really doesn’t.

Patrick shows up back at the hospital and asks Nicole if she wants to get out of the hospital. She does. He gives her clothes to change into and tricks the police officer outside the door to leave his post. Patrick quickly escorts a now dressed Nicole out of the hospital.

Wayne and Teresa are keeping an eye on Rulon and while they’re watching and waiting, they hear the rush of nearby traffic and question whether or not they should have been looking at cabins nearer to the highway than to the river where they had already searched. They decide to search more cabins. They decide to split up to do a faster search and Teresa states she will get another police officer to accompany her for the search so that the search goes even more quickly.

Now we see Patrick driving Nicole somewhere. He tells her he’s going to help her remember what happened the night of the murder and turns on Kara’s iPod to play the same music as was playing when the incident occurred. Nicole says she doesn’t want to remember but, again, Patrick tells her that she must. He tells her she’ll be haunted by Kara’s death until she knows the truth. Patrick pretty much tells Nicole that Kara told her a secret she didn’t want to hear and Nicole states she’s going to be sick. Patrick stops the car and both he and Nicole get out. Nicole remembers that Kara told her Jason was a two timer and the reason she knew was because she (Kara) had actually been hooking up with Jason. Patrick asks Nicole what happened next, but she is crying and scared. Patrick is VERY encouraging and kind. He promises to keep her safe. Nicole remembers getting out of the car the night of the murder to vomit. She was pretty angry with Kara. During the stop another vehicle came up behind the women and although Kara begged Nicole to get back in the car, she refused. A man knocked Nicole out and when Kara tried to come to her rescue he killed Kara. The man carried Nicole to a truck and Patrick asks her for details — what kind of truck did it sound like, how long was the trip from where she was picked up to where he took her?

The sheriff calls Teresa to tell her that Patrick kidnapped Nicole from the hospital. She tries calling Patrick (to yell at him, I’m sure, and find out what he thinks he is doing). She and the police officer she got to accompany her on the cabin search have arrived at their destination and get out of the car.

Nicole continues to remember and tells Patrick she wakes up in a locked shed. She is panicking crying that she cannot get out of the shed, but Patrick reassures her that she does, indeed, get out and that she will be okay. She remembers that she did get the door open but just as she did, her attacker returned.

Back to Teresa (and Kyle, the police officer helping her search) going through a rickety looking building.

Then back to Nicole’s memories. She says the man has a knife and attempts to rape her. Smart girl, she’s gives him a hard knee in the crotch and while he’s rolling around on the floor clutching the family jewels she makes her escape.

Patrick calls Teresa and tells her Nicole remembered everything and can describe her attacker. Teresa is disdainful, stating the description describes half the men in California. Patrick says, ‘well at least we know who DIDN’T do it.’ Teresa is angry about the abduction and the lack of better evidence from Patrick. Patrick does sound contrite when he tells Teresa he was planning to tell her about it but since what he did was illegal, he thought it would be better to keep her ignorant so she wouldn’t be responsible for what he did. She sarcastically thanks him for consideration. Kyle asks Teresa what the phone call was about and gets an evasive answer from Teresa, but he also asks her how Nicole is doing. He wants to know if she remembers anything. Again, Teresa is evasive. I do like this about Teresa. She does really well at not supplying information to people who really have no business knowing it.

Back to Patrick and Nicole. Patrick’s looking for more specifics from Nicole about her abductor since Teresa is unhappy with the little information he has gleaned so far. He prods her for sounds, smells, anything. Nicole remembers he smelled like pineapple.

Patrick calls Teresa to tell her his latest information which she starts to blow off, but then she remembers there is a pineapple air freshener in Kyle’s vehicle. And guess what! Kyle fits the physical description Nicole gave of her attacker. She tells Patrick to contact Wayne and tell him she needs his help. She leaves the phone line open so Patrick can monitor the situation. ( I can’t help wondering how he’s supposed to contact Wayne since Teresa didn’t hang up) but I’m sure he’ll figure something out. Teresa confronts Kyle and accuses him of the crime. Kyle nearly admits he murdered Kara and abducted Nicole by saying he had been watching Nicole for some time and he didn’t want her marrying Jason. Teresa tells Kyle she doesn’t want to shoot him, pretty much she just wants him to give it up. But Kyle has other ideas and takes a shot at Teresa. She evades injury and Patrick worriedly asks her if she’s okay. She is. She asks Patrick if he contacted Wayne and he says Wayne is on his way. I must have missed something somewhere. How did he contact Wayne? Patrick tells Teresa he has an idea that might help her get out of her situation and she follows up by sliding her phone across the floor and Patrick calls out loudly over the phone for her to be careful. The distraction to Kyle makes her able to get out of the building she and Kyle are in and when Kyle rushes out the door after her, Teresa is right there, gun in hand, to make him stop. Wayne almost immediately shows up on the other side of Kyle and Kyle is apprehended.

Now the team is back in town and getting ready to return home. I love it when Kimball says, “nice work, Jane.” He really is becoming Patrick’s friend. Patrick gets a thank you hug from Nicole and he tells her, “you know, uh, eventually you’ll start to remember the good things.” So often he tries to leave the victim with some kind of hope for a better tomorrow.

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