Life: The Way We Were

This week, Charlie Crews and team work on the case of Mike Brody, a murdered junkyard driver whose body is found crushed to death in a car after it was wrecked at the junkyard.  They track down the victim’s fiancé, and discover that he was involved in internet sex with a woman calling herself Bethany.  Crews also tracks down the widow, Mrs. Dunn, of the slain police officer in the photograph of Jack Reese and four other police officers.  Ted teaches his first business class.

The conspiracy theory plot thickens when Mrs. Dunn fails to recognize any of the men in the photograph, but does admit that the death of her husband was reported as an accident while he was cleaning his gun so that she could keep the pension benefits.  In an effort to track down Bethany, Crews, Reese, and Tidwell are able to take clues from past email conversations to track down the potential suspect who turns out to be the rich, blonde, tennis-playing daughter of a music industry mogul.  Crews and Dani realize Bethany is one messed up suspect after questioning Bethany’s indifferent mother and possessive father, as well as a slew of former sorority sisters who confirmed Bethany not only had an affair with their college professor but that she also had a disturbing relationship with her father.

Ted ends up with a very small class after most of his students drop out upon realizing the class is graded, not pass/fail.  After one of the remaining students learns of his past in jail while looking him up on the internet, Ted finds himself having to explain that while he did go to prison for a crime he did commit, he nonetheless knows the business world very well.

Crews and his ex-wife, Jennifer, take a walk down memory lane when they go through all their old stuff that his ex-wife kept in storage.  After he tells her about his current case and rummages for an old album, Jennifer tells him she feels like she did when they were married.  The album turns out to be Bethany’s mother’s album, which leads back to a song that was sung online to Mike.  Bethany takes Crews for a wild car ride when he questions her about other possible suspects who may have wanted to impersonate her online.

Crews goes to visit Rachel, only to find Jack Reese there with her.  Jack tells Crews he was always protecting Rachel.  Mrs. Dunn comes by the station and tells Crews her husband didn’t die accidentally or commit suicide.  She also admits recognizing one of the men in the picture, Mickey Raybourne.  As we hit mid-season, this week’s episode, Crushed, gave everyone a sudden sense of nostalgia, as Crews and Jennifer remembered their marriage, Ted remembered the mistakes of his past, and Brody’s murderer longed for the days of being a young, blonde heartbreaker like Bethany.

Season 2, Episode 5: Crushed (originally aired October 17, 2008)

For another take on this episode, read Cameron Cubbison’s review here.

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Wednesdays at 9/8c, NBC
Photographs courtesy of www.nbc.com