Waking The Dead : What Happened and Why in
Simple Sacrifice

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Poor Annie Keel. First off, with an episode titled, "A Simple Sacrifice," telling the story of a woman imprisoned for the past 25 years, can there be any doubt that she is innocent? Of course there's doubt, there's always doubt, but let's put that aside until later.

D.A.C. Christie calls upon the Cold Case Squad to dispense with new information which professes to cast doubt upon Annie Keel's guilt. So with little more than a few cryptic words from an unknown source, Boyd and crew go about setting to re-investigate the murders of Jeff Keel and Giles Mantel.

Jeff was Annie's husband and Sam's stepfather as well as something of a skeevy, albeit successful, lawyer. When Annie married Jeff she was a pregnant prostitute. Despite the otherwise gallant gesture of marrying a woman carrying someone else's child, his worth as a husband is questionable because it may be that he abused his wife. Whatever his failings as a person, Jeff Keel met his end when he was stabbed to death as he lay sleeping in his bed one night. Giles was Sam Keel's friend and next door neighbor and by all accounts, an innocent child. He too was stabbed to death that night.

When Detective John Fontaine and his partner arrived at her house that night, they found Annie and Sam in the house with the bodies. Annie had a knife in her hand and confessed to the crimes. She was convicted and incarcerated. Sam was put into foster care and Annie knew nothing of him from that time.

Boyd is drawn into the case because an anonymous source claims to have evidence that someone else was in the house at the time of the murders. The suggestion is that it is possible that someone else committed the murders. Naturally, Boyd and everyone is skeptical that Annie could be innocent. Is this a cold case - well I'll agree the leads are cold but given this criteria every old case can be a cold case. It's best not to dwell on such things.

The message that stirs them into action reads, "In the eyes of a mother, a son can do no wrong, Annie Keel is innocent. Free her or terminal justice will be done. You have five days." Grace decides that this is meant as a threat to Annie's son, Sam. This falls under the category of Grace-speak. It is just one of the things she says that she does not have to justify but yet they still shape their activities around her words. I suppose this could be a threat but there's no reason that it must be a threat, yet, they never treat it as anything else. If the person who wrote it believes that Annie is innocent then the act of denying her parole and keeping her in prison is terminal justice.

Anyway, Spence and Mel go off in search of the now adult Sam Keel. Unbeknownst to the team, Sam has changed his name to Alex Bryson. He is now married and has a son who was about Sam's age when the murders took place. Sam does not really remember what happened that night. Most of his memories are from what he was told, but he does occasionally have memories of that night where he is the one holding the knife.

Only, Joanne McKenzie Riley, the social worker who handled Sam's case knows that he changed his identity. Fearing her reaction if she knew she were married to the son of killer, Sam has kept his identity change from his wife. Spence and Mel locate the social worker. Spence applies some questionable techniques to locate Sam through the social worker. Joanne has a picture of Sam/Alex on her desk and talks of a time when he lived with her, all of which leads me to believe she was a little too close to Sam. Then there is the odd thing about her name, she seems to use two different last names; either someone in the continuity department lapsed or Joanne is taking a page out of Sam's book.

At the office, Mel convinced Grace that she should start using a computer, Boyd contributed the promise of the internet, "unlimited access to some of the strangest people on the planet." Grace gets the computer, jumps online and within seconds makes contact with the key figure in the case. Grace professes to be befuddled by the whole computer revolution which makes me wonder how effective she can be in profiling anyone in the past decade. Can you be that out of touch with modern society and still understand what motivates people within that society?

Throughout, Frankie has been delving into all of the physical evidence that was uncovered during the iniitial investigation. She is able to construct a replica of the Keel household on the night of the murders, replete with blood stained beds, floors and walls. More important is that she is able to determine that the knife that was introduced during Annie's trial as the murder weapon was in fact not the knife that was used to kill Jeff or Max. They make note of this but they do not seem to think it is very crucial. Personally, I think not having a murder weapon is problematic, even when someone confesses. The reconstructed room's greatest purpose seems to come from showing it to Alex/Sam. Putting aside the chance that seeing such a horrific scene from his childhood could easily do irreparable harm to him, the squad stands by as Alex tells them that he remembers someone else being in the house that night. It's true that Frankie had already figured out from the bloody footprints that someone else was inside the house that night after the murders but somehow hearing it from Alex makes the experience worth while.

Outside of the police station, Boyd makes a remark to a young female officer about massaging his bad back. He only has a moment to smirk because then he sees that someone has left a padded envelope on his windshield. Fortunately for him it is only from the killer and not from a women's rights advocate. Boyd rushes it inside to Frankie for her to investigate. Frankie cuts the envelope open and says that she does not think that the killer will be stupid enough to have licked the envelope to seal it. I say, the sender wouldn't be stupid enough to lick a self-sealing envelope. No bomb, just a Lone Ranger action figure (you call baby dolls action figures when boys play with them). The Lone Ranger is splattered with blood. Also in the envelope is a sheet of paper. Printed on the paper are the words, "simple sacrifice."

Boyd tells Christie about the blood splattered Lone Ranger doll. It is the last thing that Christie wants to hear because it means that Annie Keel may have taken "the rap for someone else." He frets over the press coverage the department will receive. If he is curious about the divergent views he is likely to encounter, he need look no further than Annie's next door neighbors.

Giles' mother and father have opposite reactions to the news about Annie. It seems that Patrick was one of the many men who found Annie irresistible. In fact, he was at the house "visiting" the night his son was murdered. Mary has been putting up with him for far too long. Later, Mary Mantel confessess sadly that she has been in a mental prison for years. If that is true then perhaps she is much more of a prisoner than Annie Keel ever has been. Annie allowed herself to be imprisoned because she believed it meant freedom for her son.

Perhaps as some sort of retribution, Patrick later suffers a heart attack at his son's graveside. Boyd and Spence had tracked him down to interview him about why he never came forward to say that he had been in the house that night. He asserts it does not make any difference. His stress level tells a different story as he collapses. Spence reaches into his pocket and pulls out some plastic to adminster mouth to mouth. Personally, the plastic I would have used would have been a cellphone but luckily for Patrick, their quick actions saved him and he lived to annoy his wife another day.

Boyd visits Annie a couple of times in prison. He tries to get her to give him more information about why someone would think that she was innocent. She never does. Her lawyer is suspicious of why Boyd would be interested in Annie's case. Boyd thinks he is an odd fellow. The second time they visit Annie, her face is bruised from a fight with some other inmates. The fight is never really explained, it would be surprising if the other inmates were still beating Annie up because she is a child kiler. Then again, maybe that is their only recreation. Nonetheless, Annie reveals nothing about the fight or that night. Annie does perform a bit of a miracle, she fixes Boyd's bad back. He's carrying on in manner unbecoming a sentient being and she stands behind him, puts her arms around him and squeezes. Apparently, all that yoga Annie does comes in handy.

While his back may be better his understanding of the case is still twisted. Stumped, Boyd pays a visit to John Fontaine. The Wonder Twins had questionned him earlier but they were unable to draw much information from him. Apparently Boyd has some sort of history with Fontaine which is not made clear. Perhaps it is something that was lost in the Atlantic, perhaps the writers just feel an episode is incomplete without some cranky old man who happens to hate Boyd.

Boyd decides to take Annie's solicitor up on on his offer to provide background information about the case. He goes to visit Reece Dickson at his home office. Reece says that the papers he needs are upstairs and asks Boyd to wait in the living rooom. Boyd's natural curiousity gets the best of him and something in the basement attracts his attention; perhaps it is the blue lighting which cannot be conducive to computer use.

While Boyd is snooping around in the computer room, Reece is changing out of his hair and getting the ceremonial knife. I supppose aftter keeping the Lone Ranger doll all of these years it probably should not be too much of a stretch to believe that he would keep the murder weapon as well. In any event, he finds Boyd in the basement and stabs him in the back or side, it's hard to tell.

Reece killed Jeff Keel because ? Well, I don't really know why he killed Jeff. He killed Giles because Giles saw him. He did not kill Annie because he was in love with her. He did not kill Sam because he did not see him and besides he thought that Giles was Sam. He took the bloody Lone Ranger doll because I guess he wanted some sort of trophy or maybe he just really liked the Lone Ranger.

When Reece went to answer the doorbell to let Boyd in, he had been online with Grace; rather than breaking the connection he simply left the room and the camera running. Thus, when Boyd found his way into Reece's lair, Grace had a front row seat, albeit swathed in blue. Grace, Mel and Spence watched in what I guess was horror, as Reece walked up behind the Detective Superintendent and stabbed him. Boyd slumps over, Grace shreiks, Spence makes a phone call. Mel and Spence eventually hurry off. Grace settles in to chat with Reece.

Despite his obvious pain, Boyd remains ever vigilant in trying to antagonize Reece into explaining his actions. Boyd is able to figure out that not only had Reece been stricken with the same desire to change his identity he was once one of Jeff Keel's clients. One of the clients that Fontaine knew about but never investigated. The Mantels mentioned him as well and recalled that he was a little nutso. Reese apparently did not anticipate that Annie would take the rap for the murders, we can't blame him, this was before he picked up his law degree.

We knew Boyd was tough and that's a good thing because this knife was supposed to be able to slice cleanly through bone. No one should be surprised to learn that Boyd survives the attack just fine. Of course, the big mystery is why Reece stabbed Boyd in the first place. Reeece was the one to extend the invitation to visit him so why did he resort to such a drastic measure. What would he have gained by killing Boyd? What did he think Boyd would discover when he came to his house? It is not as if the rest of Reece's motivations for any of his actions make any sense. The only explanation that helps somewhat is that when Boyd showed up to ask for his help, Reece must have concluded that there was no way Boyd was going to solve the case and set Annie free. Reese had to take one last desperate act to save the woman he loved. He sacrificed himself for Annie. He must not have thought that a mere confession would have been enough to get them to believe him, he had to demonstrate that he was capable of committing the crime. Stabbing a police officer in full view of a witness was just the act that would put aside any doubt. With everything lost, he makes his grandest gesture of all, he runs into a hail of police bullets.

His gesture does not go for naught because Annie is soon released from prison and reunited with her son. Sam is unsure of what to say to Annie after all of these years. He might start by saying thank you for being so coked out of your mind that you would believe that your own son would stab two people to death in a horrific and senseless manner. If she believed he were a deranged killer capapble of such an act how could she just let him loose on some unsuspecting person. He might also ask why in all those years it never occurred to her that he did not have any blood on his pajamas. More than likely, Sam will say none of that and he and Annie will put the past behind them by writing a best selling book about their lives.