Waking The Dead : What Happened and Why in
Cold Fusion

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It is Detective Inspector Spencer Jordan's birthday and by now you should have some idea that birthdays mean abject misery for the Cold Case Squad. On Psychological Profiler Grace Foley's birthday she was physically assaulted and on Detective Superintendent Peter Boyd's birthday, he was betrayed by a good friend and a fellow cop. Spence, the lucky dog, gets the best of both of these and then some.

In 1988, Spence was a young police constable assigned to Dunwell Norfolk atomic energy constabulary. One night on patrol, he and his partner, Tom McQueen found the very dead bodies of two local anti-nuke activists, Jackie Holmes and her lover, Marcus Coulter. In what became known as the Cherry Tree Farm murders, both their necks were broken and Jackie's face was severely disfigured. Her estranged husband, Toby Holmes, was later convicted of the crime. Toby made himself a suspect by making a rather boisterous and rude display during a anti-nuke meetingearlier that night. After he was convicted, Toby dropped trying to explain his innocence since not acknowledging his guilt would endanger his bid for parole. Toby ran into a lot of trouble in prison and was placed in a psychiatric facility and feels as if now he can tell the truth about what happened all those years ago.

Penny Coulter was married to Marcus at the time of the murder. They were estranged, but still traveled in the same circle. She brings the case to the cold case squad because she has just found a photograph of her husband wearing a sweatshirt. This is significant because one of the key pieces of evidence against Toby was his blood soaked sweatshirt that Tom and Spence found burning. Boyd tells his constable Stella Goodman to keep all of this information from Spence because he does not need to know just yet. Unfortunately, Spence spots Penny leaving the office and Stella tells the first of many intra-squad lies that will haunt them this episode. Spence pretends to believe Stella, but later confirrms that it is Marcus Coulter's widow.

The squad has little evidence to go on with this case. Apart from the burnt remains of the sweatshirt, there are some blood drops that were found on the light fixture from which Jackie Holmes was strung up. Using modern technology they hope to be able to get DNA from the blood. There was also an anonymous phone call to the police that night. If they can track down the caller, they may have a witness or a suspect.

After work, Spence meets up with his former partner, Tom McQueen, who is in town for an early birthday celebration. Tom is no longer with the force and seems to work as a security consultant. The next day, Spence has another birthday celebration with the gang at the office. That is the gang, except for Dr. Felix Gibson. Felix is preoccupied with a box in the Evidence Room. She and Boyd discover that Spence or someone using his access pass came into the Evidence Room and tampered with the evidence for the Cherry Tree Farm murders. Compounding the cause for concern, there is a deadly fire at Central Labs where the vital piece of blood DNA evidence for the case was being stored.

Boyd consults with Grace and asks her to meet with Toby Holmes in prison. Grace is on the ball and has found an old case where a husband had severely mutilated his unfaithful wife's face. In that case of domestic violence, the wife survived, but a young police officer was killed trying to make the arrest. Patience, all of this will magically tie into the Cherry Tree Farm case later on.

Felix lies to Stella about checking for a computer virus and proceeds to go through Spence's files on his pc. Stella is suspicious, but plays along, but she is all ears when Felix gets a phone call saying some of the Central Lab evidence may be salvagable. Later, Stella gets an instant message from "WD1" telling her to destroy the hard drive holding the evidence.

Spence returns unexpectedly and Boyd diverts him into his office before he can see what Felix is doing. At last, a bit of honesty, Boyd tells Spence they are re-investigating the Cherry Tree Farm murders. We are treated to more flashbacks of a young Spence re-investigating his stomach contents after discovering the bodies. Spence, prompted by Boyd's suggestions that all was not as it seemed back then, provides some more background on what led to Toby Holmes' arrest. Boyd is particularly suspicious of Tom McQueen and catches Spence in a lie when he asks when he last saw Tom. Spence says it's been awhile, Felix had just told Boyd that she read an email from Tom arranging to meet the previous night.

Grace meets with Toby in prison; he's just a sad sack face biting killer. Toby insists that he did not kill his wife or Marcus Coulter. He admits that he saw the bodies, but left the scene without calling for help. He also insists that there was no word "slut" written on the wall and that definitely Jackie's face had not been hacked to shreds. Grace tends to believe Toby is innocent.

Some unknown person is playing mad bomber and is putting together a gift box addressed to Spence containing an explosive. Spence picks up the package from the downstairs desk and carries it with him to meet Tom McQueen. Spence tries to get Tom to reassure him that he has had nothing to do with the recent events undermining the new Cherry Tree investigation. Tom mixes in enough truth with his lies to soothe most of Spence's concerns.

Tom tells Spence that way back when, Bill Drake tried to recruit him. Drake is now a Commander and an anti-terrorism honcho who is investigating last night's Central Lab fire as a possible terrorist act. In 1988, Drake wanted Tom to set up an anti-Dunwell group to work along with a mole that Drake had placed inside Jackie and Marcus' group. Tom says he refused on the grounds he didn't want to spy on innocent people.

According to Tom, everybody's favorite domestic spies, MI-5, had Jackie and Marcus under surveillance at the time of the murders, but somehow the murders still took place. This will come as no surprise to anyone who has seen an episode of Spooks/MI-5, for everyone else, there's something amiss.

Spence repeats most of this back to a skeptical Boyd. Boyd does not seem all that happy with Spence's loyalty to his former mentor.

Grace has a turn at interviewing Penny Coulter. Grace gets Penny to confess that she was the mole in the organization. Penny offers up the name Clifford Day as the man who recruited her.

Stella makes a valiant effort to sabotage the Central Lab hard drive storing the DNA analysis of the blood sample from the crime scene. Instead, she salvages it for Felix and leaves behind evidence of her tampering. What do you know, the sample belongs to Clifford Day. Spencer barges in, lies about having Boyd's approval and takes a look at the name. He goes off to apprehend Day.

Felix realizes that Stella may have been lying to her about the hard drive and goes to ask questions. She has to cool her heels while Stella chats on the phone, allegedly to her mom. Felix decides to take a look at the book on Spence's desk. It is the Book of Job, more importantly, it is the present that he had received earlier. She opens the cover and is treated to an explosion that covers her in some unknown substance. She crumbles to the ground in pain.

It would seem that the anti-terrorist squad swoops in faster than they have any cause or ability to do so, but there they are, ushering Boyd, Grace, Stella and the visiting lab tech into an interview room. They are all dressed in blue bio-hazard suits because the anti-terrorism squad says they may be contaminated.

Meanwhile, Spence has tracked down Clifford Day at his apartment and puts him under arrest or rather tries to put him under arrest. Boyd calls Spence and tells him about the explosion. Spence is leading a handcuffed Day out of the apartment complex when a sniper shoots Day. He starts bleeding and the two men scramble for cover. Boyd hears the gunshots over the phone but is powerless to help.

It turns out that Commander Drake is in charge of the Book of Job birthday explosion. It is all too coincidental for Boyd but Grace says he is being paranoid. The building is crawling with anti-terrorism agents, someone is shooting at Spence, an explosion has been detonated in their office, Felix has been injured to an unknown extent, Drake, a man with ties to a murder case they were investigating, is suddenly controlling their lives, they are locked away in a room clothed only in biohazard suits, Stella is behaving oddly and they cannot use the phones to contact anyone. If ever there was a time for paranoia....

Grace eventually gets on board with the situation and helps Boyd with a ruse to keep one of their cellphones to try and get help for Spence. Boyd calls McQueen and asks him to check out the situation. How long has Boyd worked on the force and he has no trusted allies to call? Spence and Day get as far as an abandoned industrial complex before their car breaks down and forces them to hide out. Day is a telecommunications expert and rigs the leftover telephone wires to get a connection.

Drake interviews Boyd. Boyd is understanably and uncharacteristically reserved. Boyd tells Drake that Spence took the afternoon off, to which Drake replies that Boyd is not cooperating.

Grace gives Boyd a report on Clifford Day. He was a telecommunications engineer. He was once arrested by Drake long ago for wire tapping. Drake came to Day's defense saying he must have been manipulated. Grace notes that this does not sound like a brutal double murderer.

McQueen reports back to Boyd that all he knows is that Day's apartment complex is crawling with cops. Spence tries to contact Boyd but his call is rerouted to Drake. Knowing nothing other than that he needs help right away and that Drake is a high ranking officer, Spence gives him his location. Drake lies and says he will send help. Instead, Drake calls the assassin and tells him to finish the job.

Day offers Spence an explanation for why his blood was at the Cherry Tree Farm murder scene. He says he had earlier planted a bug in the room and ended up taping Toby Holmes killing his wife. There was no warrant for the surveillance, so Day said he needed to remove the devices before the local police found it. The problem was that the bug was hidden in the light fixture from which Jackie was hanging. Day tells Spence that he gave the recording to his MI-5 contact.

Spence thinks Days account is full of holes or full of something. He says Day was working with a partner who could help him get in and out of places. That night, Day was planting bugs, not removing them. Jackie and Marcus arrived home early and surprised Day. His accomplice killed them. Day confirms Spence's version and reveals that his accomplice was none other than Spence's partner and friend, Tom McQueen. It was McQueen who killed them and cut off Jackie's face.

Just as Day completes his story, the gun wielding assassin bursts into the room. He shoots and kills Day. Spence struggles with him and manages to turn the gun on his would-be assassin, killing him, but not before Spence takes a bullet in the thigh.

Back at the homefront, Stella pulls Drake aside in the corridor. She is upset about all that has happened to her and her team. She blames herself. Drake tries to console her by saying he has taken care of it.

Stella says she does not want to be patronized, but it seems there is a paternal link there. He calls her his daughter, but she resists his embrace. Stella says she is going to tell Boyd everything, but Drake asks what will Boyd do when he finds out that he has a spy in his midst? Drake seizes the opportunity to put more pressure on Stella when he spots Grace at the end of the corridor. He thanks Stella loudly for her help. Grace is already suspicious of Stella and seeing her in a secret meeting with Drake only cements her distrust. Stella breaks down in tears.

Grace does some digging into Stella's past. Thankfully, she doesn't try to justify this invasion of privacy. It's also probably okay because she's not that thorough. She finds out only that Stella's father was a police officer. Grace tracks Stella down for a meeting in the ladies' room. Stella admits that she knows Drake through her father, Colin Goodman. Her father was killed in the line of duty the same year she was born. It was during a domestic disturbance call. Come on, you remember the one, it was the case Grace mentioned to Boyd about the guy who cut up his wife's face. Keep that tidbit to yourself because Grace does not make the connection.

Bill Drake became Stella's legal guardian. He helped with family finances when they moved to France. Later, when she returned to London, he helped her decide to join the police. Recently, Drake has been pressuring Stella to make sure Clifford Day never had his day in court. She says she trusted Drake. Grace is unmoved. Unbelievably, Grace cannot imagine that Stella has a legitimate conflict.

Stella confesses to Boyd that she tried to sabotage Felix' data recovery efforts. He's not happy and also goes the guilt route. It must be nice for him finally to have someone in the office who also conceals pertinent information from the team and does everything possible to betray their trust. Just when we were thinking Spence was Boyd's protege. For some reason, they all seem to think that the little Stella did created every problem they have experienced. She had nothing to do with the bomb, the shooting or much of anything else. Instead, she was persuaded to act secretly by an important authority figure in her personal and professional life. Plus, she just joined the team, when was she supposed to have developed this great trust and belief in them? In Black Run, when they all suspected Boyd of being a drunk, lying, hit and run driver with a possible vendetta to punish an innocent cop? How about during this case, when Boyd told her to lie to Spence for his own good?

One of Drake's officers lets slip Spence's location and that Drake said he was sending him help. It is Stella's turn to create a distraction while Boyd tries to escape from the building. He is forced back inside for a face to face meeting with Drake. Drake has just called McQueen to pick up where the assassin left off. Boyd and Drake go back and forth with competing theories about what really happened the night of the Cherry Tree Farm murders.

Drake pleads that he has sacrificed everything to put the bad guys away. Boyd recounts the collateral damage of his actions, including Stella, not to mention the tech who died in the lab fire and Jackie and Marcus. Boyd says he will do everything to see that Stella is not punished, but, in exchange, Drake has to help him find Spence.

In the lab, Grace and a now recovered Felix, brainstorm. Stella comes in and apologizes to Felix. Felix is uninterested in an apology. Rebuffed, Stella turns to leave but spots a file folder about her father's last case.

Grace says that she did not realize that the officer killed was Stella's father. They also note that Tom McQueen interviewed the husband who cut up his wife's face. This contact no doubt gave him ideas when it came time to frame Toby Carlson. Wow, that was a roundabout connection. Although, why would Tom go about making his murder look like a previous case, when there was a good chance that someone might note that he was involved in both cases.

Tom arrives at the industrial complex. Spence has dragged himself out of building out into the open; still bleeding profusely, he crawls away from Tom. Apparently, Spence is one of those humans who doesn't need much blood. He speaks in a strained and obviously falsely casual manner, all the while keeping the gun he took from Day's killer out of Tom's sight. Tom is unapologetic about his heinous past and not that overwrought about his deplorable present. He aims a gun at Spence's head.

Boyd and Drake arrive. Not sure why they don't have some sort of medical team in tow, but they arrrive alone. They know at least one person has been shot and needs medical attention. Tom turns the gun on Drake and puts a bullet through Drake's forehead. He then turns and shoots Spence. Boyd fights for the gun and shoots and kills Tom.

As we leave them, Boyd frantically calls for help as he cradles a badly wounded Spencer Jordan.

Will Spence survive his gunshots? Will the team survive their bouts of mistrust? Will any team member dare to celebrate a birthday?