Waking The Dead : What Happened and Why in
Breaking Glass

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Forensic scientist Frankie Wharton is flexing her forensic muscle by delivering a speech on forensic anthropology to archaeologists who uncovered medieval "Barnabus Boy." By way of introduction the emcee says she will compare her field to theirs; as we learn later in the episode, the biggest difference is that Frankie has a clue. Frankie makes a joke that archaeologists spend more time on their knees than civil servants but thankfully does not extend the analogy to White House interns. Grace is in the audience to support Frankie but what of the rest of the team?

The Cold Case Squad is having a tough time dissuading psychotherapist Laurie Poole that the squad should be interested in the information she has learned from a patient while he was under hypnosis. Apparently, Detective Superintendent Boyd is categorically unimpressed with recovered memories and the only thing that he would like to hear from her is the sound of her receding footsteps. Alas, such is not to be the case as Dr. Poole holds her ground until her sister in psychology, Dr. Grace Foley arrives to save the day.

Grace grills Dr. Poole as the others peer through the glass darkly. Poole tells Grace that her client is Terrence Tanner, born 8-7-70. I presume that means July 8th but who knows, it might just mean August 7th, no matter, apart from getting a sense of his age, the date can be safely categorized as trivia. Poole says that he has severely disassociative memories of "homosexual rape" as a child. She says that someone named Papa Doc was the abuser. Poole plays a videotape of one of her sessions with a distraught Terry recounting his experience with Papa Doc. Poole says Terry told her his friend Kevin Pearce was also abused but that Kevin was killed. As it turns out there was a report of a Kevin Pearce who went missing when he was 16, many years ago. Poole smugly announces that now the police will have to listen to her.

There really is no reason why Boyd could not have obtained the very same information from Dr. Poole. Boyd complains lamely that Dr. Poole did not tell him, all in all a rather odd complaint for a crack detective who specializes in pulling basic information out of people even when they are not trained to deliver the information as if it were a police procedural training video. Boyd pouts, and says essentially "you are not the boss of me." It works for deciding who gets to go down the slide first on the playground, probably not so good in deciding which cases merit investigation. In Multistorey, when Boyd threw a fit over taking a case, it was internal, now here an outsider is subjected to his tirades and so it is not amusing in the same way.

Spence finds out that Kevin Pearce went missing in 1986. He also finds out that Terrence Tanner does not exist.

Even though he does not exist, we watch Terrence Tanner walk down the street towards home. He can see out of the corner of his eye that he is being followed. He seems more curious than frightened. At his door he finds a picture of "Barnabus Boy" and turns hurriedly to try to see his pursuer. We are only left to speculate that there must be some connection among the three.

Spence discovers that in 1991, there was an internal inquiry run by the head of the local social services, Oliver Gill, about Papa Doc. A member of Gill's staff, Peter Murdoch, committed suicide, leaving a typed note, with a typewritten name, confessesing to being Papa Doc and to molesting the boys. The authorities do not have the envelope so they cannot tell when or from where it was sent.

Boyd surmises that since Poole was willing to break patient confidentiality that the only reason she would do this is that she suspects Tanner might do something dangerous in the future to whomever he believes is Papa Doc. It seems that Grace has taught Boyd that one of the keys to successful psychotherapy is to steer patients away from feelings of revenge. Boyd does not believe that Poole has been successful.

Apparently, breaking and entering is not high on the list of the Met's no-no's. Mel picks the lock to Tanner's apartment and they proceed to rummage through his possessions. Only after they realize that there is stuff of interest to them do they call for a warrant. There was a time when in countries with laws, basing your request for a search warrant upon information you have obtained illegally means you do not get that warrant. Although the term is 'search warrant' really there must be warrant for the search. No matter, Spence makes himself at home on Tanner's computer while Grace roots through his wardrobe. She finds the wardrobe is divided between an extremely neat side and a complete mess. They find a copy of J.D. Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye." It has been inscribed, "To Jono, from Papa Doc." Boyd notes quietly that it is about a boy who secretly saves people from killing themselves.

Spence calls Boyd over to see that Tanner's computer is filled with hard core pornography. Boyd calls Grace over to see. Mel is on the phone trying to get Frankie to come over.

Back at the office, Frankie makes a startling connection between the picture on the book jacket of Barnabus Boy and Tanner's picture. She thinks they look as if they could be the same person. This is an instance where we have to take her at her word, because on my television, I would not make that assumption. Frankie would like to inform the others of her momentous find but rather than let her investigate more, they tell her to come over to Tanner's place to rummage with them.

Frankie arrives to tell the team that Tanner has been dead for 600 years. Boyd wants to know if there is any way to test whether the clothes they have found in the wardrobe belong to someone who has been dead for 600 years.

Tanner feigns drunkenness and shows up at a men's shelter. We are treated to a nice little bit of directing as the scene in the men's shelter fades seamlessly into the scene years before at the boys' home. In the flashback, we see a young Tanner with his twin brother, one is distraught and the other is trying to console the other by saying "he might not even come tonight." A young Rainman sits on a bed behind them.

In the present day, Terry lies on the bunk but still hears the terrifying approach of Papa Doc's slow footsteps coming down the corridor. Rainman also makes an appearance at the men's shelter. Tanner wants his help because he knows that Rainman has a special ability to remember details. Rainman says that he has had contact with Papa Doc. Tanner admits that he cannot remember much about what happened back then, he thinks he has spoken with Papa Doc in a chat room but he needs help to find him.

The results of Frankie's test of the DNA found on the messy and neat clothing was that there were identical twins, one of whom was incorrectly identified by her archaeologist buddies as medieval Barnabus Boy.

Peter Murdoch's widow, Eileen, comes to the office but just as in Every Breath, the only person around is Mel. In a nice mini-moment of continuity, we see Mel beginning to write a note to Grace, then when Grace enters the observation room, she is holding a similar piece of paper.

Worse than Christopher Columbus "discovering" a continent full of people, Dr. Paul Blackstone has discovered bones from the Medieval era which belong to a boy born in the MTV era. Given the gravity of the situation, he really seems not too upset, perhaps because he deals with graves every day. As for plot, the good archaeologist tells us that the book with the photograph was published 6 weeks earlier.

Grace reviews the videotape of Tanner's sessions with Dr. Poole and concludes that while Dr. Poole thought it was a disassociative memory, it may really have been a third person experience. He could have seen or reconstructed what happened to his twin brother. Grace says we all construct memories. I know I can remember when I thought her character was more than comic relief or maybe I'm just constructing that. In any event, Grace goes on tell Boyd stuff about twins.

Spence reports that Barnabus boy was found in building converted for use as the Arjana Center, a psychiatric care home run by Dr. Hugh Cullen. Grace spaces out at the sound of the name.

Grace runs off to see an old friend, Alan Macintosh. She asks him if Hugh Cullen is still alive and if she can speak with him. She says it is about allegations of sexual abuse. Her buddy is very defensive of Cullen, although really who would not be defensive.

Rainman and Tanner crawl through tunnels which do not seem to be new territory for Rainman. It is the place where they dug up Tanner's twin. Tanner says that he knows why Rainman sent him the picture of Medieval boy and what it meant. Rainman says that he sees Papa Doc trying to pick up young boys in the street. Tanner holds a gun at Rainman's head, but we do not get the idea that he is threatening Rainman. Tanner and Rainman both confess that they see Papa Doc in their heads, although who would trust either of these two to be able to distinguish between reality and fantasy. To prove the point, Tanner shoots Papa Doc, unfortunately it is in reality a security guard.

There is a break in at Dr. Poole's office. The burglars came in through the window. Frankie points out that there is a lot of broken glass. The thieves took three hard drives from the center's computers.

Rainman tells Tanner about specific dates when he has seen Papa Doc. Rainman says that he Papa Doc has picked him up and takes him someplace dark.

Oliver Gill, retired social services bureaucrat comes in to be interviewed. He describes what Arjana house was like under Cullen. He said it was a free for all. Boyd suggests that Peter Murdoch may not have been Papa Doc but that the real Papa Doc is still alive. Gill says that he had heard rumors about Papa Doc but essentially that he discounted them, even in this day and age he finds such allegations hard to imagine.

Grace and Alan Macintosh go to see Hugh Cullen, she does not want Alan to tell Hugh that she works with the police. Hugh is Alan's mentor and Alan seems to be in awe of him. Hugh tries to pretend as if he is not home, but Grace probably gets that a lot. Hugh not only studies mental patients he really should be one. Grace gets nowhere trying to get information out of Cullen and then becomes annoyed when Alan tells Cullen that Grace is with the police. However, it seems to be a more effective strategy. They tell him they found the remains of one of the twins at the old Arjana center.

Tanner and Rainman talk over lunch. Tanner says Dr. Poole was recommended by the person he met in the chat room for abuse survivors, the person he suspects is Papa Doc. The person with whom he had been chatting said he remmembered Arjana house. Tanner then drops a big bomb. He says that he told the doctor what Papa Doc did to them because he wants to set up his defense.

Our intrepid archaeologist, Blackstone, finds a new skeleton which he believes is Kevin Pearce.

Grace makes a point of telling Boyd that Tanner's real name is Adams.

Hugh Cullen meets with Boyd and Grace with Alan in tow, per Grace's recomendation. Jonathan suffered from command hallucinations and he would become violent when he thought his twin Terry was being threatened. Alan in his own overprotective mode tries to answer questions for Hugh, Boyd does not like this. Cullen gave Terry the copy of "Catcher in the Rye" and signed it "Papa Doc" to convince them that there was no Papa Doc. Cullen suspected that Jonathan killed Kevin Pearce. He really thought the boys' had made up Papa Doc,and is distraught when Boyd informs him that Papa Doc was real and that the boys were trying to tell him that they were being abused.

Their computer expert pieces together Tanner's hard drive and discovers that he has been chatting with someone named "Papa Doc." When Tanner is online he uses the name, "Jono." It dawns on the team that they may not know which twin went missing and which ended up dead. It is possible that Jonathan is still alive. In a clear and unambiguous statement of fact, the computer person tells Boyd that Hugh Cullen does not have an isp account, this pretty much eliminates him as the person chatting with Tanner as "Papa Doc."

Mrs. Murdoch kept the envelope which held her husband's suicide note. She says she tries to hold on to everything. Thank heavens, those nattering folk from the BBC's Life Laundry had not been by earlier, they probably would have destroyed this bit of evidence. Instead we are only left with fears near and dear to long time WTD fans as Boyd says, "yes, I understand." A small wave of panic arises amongst some of us as we fret over the possibility that this will be a Joe Boyd moment, but fortunately the moment passes with no mention of wee Joe.

Rainman leads Tanner to the what he believes is Papa Doc's car. A lovely car with voice commands. Tanner uses a public restroom to switch into his businessman mode. He returns to his job as a credit clerk and checks on the license plate of the car. Apparently, the reason they could not find a Terrence Tanner working as a credit clerk was because he goes by the name of Keith.

Frankie is playing with the broken glass from the break in at Poole's office. It appears as if the break in had been staged because no organic material was carried in from outside near the broken window. Someone must have used a key to the office. They drag Poole in to be grilled. Boyd still hates her. She says that the only other person other than the staff with a key is Oliver Gill. He is the principal investor, he bought the building. He encourages the practice to specialize in abuse cases and has even sent some clients to them. As they speak, Mel dials frantically from the observation room. She comes in to say that he is not answering the home number and wants to know if there is another address. Boyd says, "a clear statement of fact is what is required now." They fear that if they do not get to Gill quickly, Jonathan Adams, that is, Tanner, will get to him first. It's that revenge thing.

Spence and Frankie break some glass to snoop around Gil's studio. They find the hard drive from Poole's office at New Life Directions. Spence boots up the computer to look for porn.

Gill is out trolling for boys to ride and he is in his fancy car with the voice commands. What he does not know is that Tanner is waiting for him at home. As he waits, Tanner is transported mentally to the boy's shelter where he would wait in terror as Papa Doc approached. Finally, as an adult, Tanner is able to fight back; he holds a gun on Papa Doc Gill. Gill's latest frightened would-be conquest runs off to safety.

Boyd, Grace and Mel drive over to Gill's house. Spence calls to tell them that Gill is Papa Doc. Rainman aids the idenification by spray painting"Papa Doc" in large white letters on Gill's car. Boyd chases after Rainman, over hill and dale, wall and rail.

Mel walks in on the exchange between Tanner and Gill. She tells Tanner she is here to talk to Gill about what he did to his brother and Kevin Pearce. For some reason, Mel says she is the only one there. She has no idea if Grace and Boyd are right behind her. In fact, Grace is not too far away. Gill is on his knees proclaiming that he has never hurt anyone.

Tanner becomes agitated when he sees Grace, don't we all. Boyd has subdued Rainman and tries to go into the house. The door is locked so Boyd must climb the drain pipe to get to the action.

Grace is busy traumatizing Tanner into reliving the memories of his brother's death. It turns out that Tanner's brother committed suicide by hanging himself. Tanner and Rainman cut him down and buried him under the center. Grace starts to scream, "no," much the same way she did at the end of Burn Out and for an equally clear reason. Grace is screaming, Tanner is ranting, the only thing left is for Boyd to burst through the balcony doors to grab Tanner.

While sitting atop Tanner, Boyd asks Grace and Mel if they are alright. Gill spouts that Tanner is mad and that no one will believe him. Boyd asks him, after he killed Peter Murdoch did he forge his suicide note. Gill responds that he is being ridiculous, to which Boyd replies, why then did you lick the stamp. Boyd is bluffing because even if Frankie were able to grab some of Gill's saliva off the stamp, there is no way for her to get any test results back, much less any time to have told Boyd.

Boyd lets Tanner get up. Tanner, Boyd and Grace start to walk out of the room. Tanner catches his reflection in the window but he sees how he looked aa a teenager. Tanner runs toward the window and breaks through the glass, plunging to his death. Whether he was running to reunite with his brother now that Papa Doc was finally caught or running to bring an end to his tragic life, we can never know.