I highly doubt many people on here remember these episodes. But, in case some posters do, and are willing to discuss this, I’m going to leave this here. This is about the two-part six season finale of the CBS’ crime drama, “Cold Case”.
Spoilers
So, the first part/episode is called “The Long Blue Line”. A woman’s body is found buried in the cemetery, in a mismarked grave. Her military tags identity her as 18-year-old Kate Butler, a cadet from the Pennsylvania Military Institute, who went missing four years prior. Entry records show that Kate signed out on the day of her disappearance, voluntarily leaving the Institute. But she was found buried inside the school-issue foot locker; together with her clothes and laptop, to make it appear like she took off. That implies that she was murdered on the Institute’s premises, meaning that somebody must have tampered with the records. The investigation reveals that Kate Butler was regularly bullied and harassed by other cadets and even officers, and nobody did anything to help her. Near the end of the episode, the show’s protagonist, detective Lilly Rush, zeroes in on Cadet Lawrence Gardner, who had a history of conflict with the victim and the access to the records. She rushes to the precinct in order to share her discovery with the team. But while she is on her way there, another driver starts pursuing her, ramming his car into hers. Eventually, the attacker manages to push Lilly’s car off the road and into the river.
The second part/episode, “Into the Blue”, picks up where the “The Long Blue Line” left off. Lilly’s car is underwater, and she is trapped inside, drowning. Suddenly, she regains consciousness, pulls out her service weapon, shoots through the passenger side window, and swims out of the car and to the surface. She is taken to the hospital. All the tests come back clean. The doctor advises her to take a few days off, but as soon as she gets the chance, Lilly leaves the hospital and resumes working on the case.
Lilly and her colleagues go back to the Institute, and soon locate their prime suspect, Cadet Lawrence Gardner; hanged to death in the room that the first victim, Kate Butler, used to occupy. But the knot is placed to the right side of his neck, even though Gardner was left-handed. And the bruises on his neck aren’t consistent with hanging. Somebody murdered him and made it look like a suicide in order to tie up loose ends.
Over the course of the episode, Lilly and her partners re-interview the suspects, try to locate the car used to attack Lilly, etc. Lilly and the rest eventually find out that one of the cadets, Ryan Stewart, murdered Kate Butler out of jealousy. The Operations Officer, Moe Kitchener, covered up Ryan Stewart’s crime by disposing of the victim’s body, and then convincing another cadet, Lawrence Gardner, to tamper with the records, making it seem like Kate Butler had left the premises voluntarily that day. And four years later, after the case was re-opened, Kitchener tried to kill Lilly by derailing her car into the river. He then murdered Cadet Lawrence Gardner, made it look like a suicide, and slipped car keys and room keys into his pocket in order to cover his tracks. Over the course of the episode, Lilly is having sudden, vivid flashbacks to her childhood.
Near the end of the episode, while Lilly is interrogating the man who tried to murder, Operations Officer Moe Kitchener, more weird things start happening. The whole interrogation room starts shaking/vibrating, and water starts seeping under the door. Lilly blacks out… and, in the next moment, she is back where the episode started: in her car, underwater.
Basically, at the end of that episode, it turns out that Lilly was actually in her car, on the bottom of the river, the whole time, drowning. All the events featured in the second part were a hallucination/dying dream that she had. In the last moment, the rescue team pulls Lilly out of the car and to the surface.
The episode ends with Lilly in the hospital: but we are also shown a brief montage of other detectives interrogating suspects and following leads, and we do see Ryan Stewart and Moe Kitchener being arrested at the end, meaning that what Lilly “dreamed” was the truth, only other detectives found it out (apparently after Lilly was rescued from the river?).
[In case I wasn’t clear enough, here are the detailed recaps of both episodes, though they don’t focus on the twist ending much:
Cold Case – Recap & Review – Into the Blue | TheTwoCents ]
So… how exactly did all that work? Apparently, Lilly solved the case in her head, while drowning to death. But she solved the case using the clues and information that she had no way of knowing before her car was derailed. And it’s not like she could have learned them while being unconscious on the bottom of the river.
For example, over the course of the episode, they can not locate the suspect, Cadet Lawrence Gardner. They talk to Moe Kitchener, and eventually decide to check the original victim’s (Kate Butler’s) room. Kitchener gives them the key. The enter the room and find Lawrence Gardner there, hanged to death. They also find room keys and car keys in his pocket. They notice that the knot is placed to the right, even though Gardner was left-handed, and that the bruises on his neck aren’t consistent with the hanging. How could Lilly possibly foresee all that in her dying dream?
Also, they find out that the vehicle used to push Lilly’s car off the road is the property of the Pennsylvania Military Institute. The records show that the car got three parking tickets over the last year (all in the area where Kate Butler’s body was found), and that the same person paid for them all three times; Operations Officer Moe Kitchener. That is how they figure out he is the one who covered up the murder and tried to kill Lilly. Again, how could Lilly possibly deduce all that in her dying dream? She had no information about that before she was attacked.
And those are just some of the examples.
Yes, Lilly zeroed in on Gardner before her car was derailed, but that was the only new lead she had before she ended up on the bottom of the river.
Also, how did Lilly get rescued in the first place? Even if she somehow managed to dial 911 before losing consciousness, or somebody witnessed the accident and called for help, would the rescue team really arrive in time, before she drowned to death (or suffered a significant brain damage due to a lack of oxygen)? Or did her car coincidentally get derailed while scuba divers were on the bottom of that river for some unrelated reason? She was shown to be rescued by a guy in scuba-diving door, who used a hammer to smash the car window open.
Another weird detail: just before the twist at the end, around the time the water starts pouring into the interrogation room, Lilly is gripping at the letter that her father sent her. At the end of the episode, once Lilly is rescued from the river and wheeled into the ambulance, we see her still gripping that letter, even though she gripped it in her “dream” and wasn’t shown holding it before her car was derailed. Is the implication that most of the episode took place in a parallel universe or something? Or did Lilly somehow get a hold of that letter and held on to it while she was unconsciousness?
Also, Moe Kitchener appears in few of the following episodes. He is on trial for the attempted murder of Lilly Rush; but there is no mention about the murder of Cadet Lawrence Gardner. So, most of what Lilly “hallucinated” of actually happened (although after she was rescued/“back in reality”)… but not all of it? Or were they simply unable to pin that murder on Kitchener?
Is anyone able to make sense of that episode? Was anyone else as confuded as I was when you first watched it? Any reply is appreciated. Thank you.