"Cold Case" Blood on the Tracks (TV Episode 2007) Poster

(TV Series)

(2007)

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8/10
A stolen life
jotix10010 March 2010
Warning: Spoilers
The house that was damaged because an explosion in the early 1980s is being renovated. The workers unveil a secret that was overlooked by the original investigators. The explosion was due to a device that someone had planted in the kitchen range that was connected to a bomb. The Cold Case team get to the scene and the investigation begins.

In flashbacks we are taken to the time of the explosion. Five friends, that met in college, gather at the home of Jack and Johanna for a weekend so they can catch up with their present lives. It is now ten years since they all met like this. They had all been involved in subversive groups because their leftist ideas. The Viet Nam war was an ongoing embarrassment for them, as well as capitalism and imperialism. Jack, the host, has prepared a slide projection about their college days, when the picture of a dead colleague comes on the screen. They get a jolt when they see Roger McBride on the screen. He was killed because something went wrong with a device the group was preparing.

Sarah, Zimmerman and Porter, the three other friends, have gone into good jobs and they have become yuppies. Johanna Kimball, who married Jack was the only one of them that came from a humble background. She stands to lose the most because she has all the material comforts she never had. Jack, on the other hand, has been carrying a lot of guilt because of his terrorist involvement feels responsible for what happened to Roger. He wants to go to the police and confess. The group takes a vote and he is outvoted.

More than twenty years have elapsed from the time of the terrible explosion that took the lives of Jack and Johanna in their home. Anyone of the three remaining friends could have been the one that planted the device that killed the couple. One of them is hiding a bigger secret that comes to light as the detectives realize a technicality that no one caught from the start.

Kevin Bray a frequent director was in command of this chapter in the series. Gavin Harris, who is also involved in the show wrote the screenplay with the ironic twist no one could have guessed. We enjoyed this episode. The acting is first rate. One of the best cases in this excellent police drama.
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Tricky Twist
dgz7827 September 2011
Warning: Spoilers
----- MAJOR SPOILER WARNING ----- This episode did not rely on my pet peeve with the series where the case is closed when the perp, after going years or decades covering their crime, confesses under questioning of the detectives and no lawyer in sight. At least in this episode there was actual forensic evidence.

But it is a real stretch to believe someone could switch identities after two people are killed in an explosion. The deaths were investigated by the PDP in 1981 not Sheriff Bart in Blazing Saddles. They didn't have dna evidence back then but they would have other ways to try to identify the bodies. And even if the police didn't discover the change, weren't there people that knew Sarah and Johanna? With all that said, I enjoyed the episode and especially the Dylan songs. I wondered if they would use Like A Rolling Stone since it is not a three minute pop song and I knew the ending would not last 7 minutes. So after complimenting them for using the entire My Back Pages from The Byrds they cut off LARS after about three minutes. Oh well! Still a great series.
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10/10
Bomb
bevo-1367814 October 2020
Great episode. Awesome soundtrack and a wonderful twist
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