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Life Sentence

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Life Sentence is the story of two very different people serving the same life sentence. The story begins when a figure in the night lunges out at Dr. Clare Delaney's car landing on the hood with a thump. He then slaps a playing card on the terrified wonan's windshield. She shrieks. The next thing we know, Boyd and Frankie arrive on the scene. Frankie shrieks that her crime scene is being ruined by the uniformed police. It's raining heavily, there isn't a crime scene really but it really is Frankie.

Is this a cold case? Well, it is related to a case that was solved years ago, so I guess that qualifies. This is also the first case of the second series. Notable is the change in the office. Perhaps they were forced to move from the old location after Anna Maitland smashed the place up in Every Breath You Take. They don't say. It is for the best that they moved because then they started using that translucent board thingee. But, about the show...

Boyd goes into the house and meets Tim Walker. Tim explains that he is just a friend of Clare's, later in the episode we learn that Boyd should know who Tim is but for reasons which we never learn he acts as if he has never heard of him. Tim says that Clare called him after the incident and that he is the one who took the card off the windshield/windscreen. Tim asks if this has anything to do with Thomas Rice. Boyd looks at him quizzically and asks why he would think that. Tim says because it is like it was before. It isn't at all, but the playing card does link Clare Delaney to Thomas Rice.

At best, Thomas Edward Rice is a self important sociopath. He is serving a life sentence in the penetentiary for kidnapping six women and murdering five. Clare Delaney is the one woman who escaped his death sentence. Thomas was known as "The Gambler" because he would tell the police that he would release his victim if they chose the right playing card. They chose the Queen of Hearts for Clare and the police were told where they could find her. None of the other women were as fortunate.

The team decide that they need Thomas' insights to figure out who might be terrorizing Clare. They speculate that Thomas could have had an accomplice and that because someone knew the right card to use, this accomplice might be behind the latest attack on Clare. Boyd thinks that Grace and Spence should go visit Thomas but since Grace and Spence are never in a scene alone together, Grace ends up taking Mel. The stated reason is that Grace believes that she can understand Thomas better if she observes him react to a woman. A dubious strategy but one of Thomas' strengths is getting weak willed people to take part in his fantasies. It seems to be working before they even enter the prison.

The one person who appears to have seen through Thomas' reformed act is Dermot Sullivan, a prison psychologist. He attends the meeting with Thomas, Mel and Grace. As they talk, Thomas seems to be doing needlepoint in a common room of the most secure section of the prison. He says that he rarely gets to spend time in the room but it is where he feels most comfortable. He asks them to sign his scrapbook which is filled with letters and pictues sent to him from women on the outside. He tells them that it is not uncommon for his admirers to want to know how he committed his crimes. Mel and Grace want to know that as well but they don't seem to be able to get him to say anything useful but then again they did not sign his scrapbook. After the meeting, Grace concludes that Thomas "sees clever women as the ultimate challenge to his virility and he obviously has his eye on Mel." To be accurate Grace says this after the meeting, obviously observing Thomas had no bearing on her arriving at this conclusion. The things he does and says seem to suggest that male authority figures entice him much more.

My best guess about Thomas is that he is supposed to be mesmerizing. Perhaps if we did not already know that he was merely a low life punk then maybe there might be something there but instead we are supposed to recall Silence of the Lambs or something in that ilk. Problem is, Thomas doesn't even rank as a mastermind criminal because he doesn't have a mastermind. He does seem to have a knack for attracting weak willed individuals to feed his substantial ego. Prison has supplied him with a seemingly endless supply of dupes, on both sides of the bars.

Boyd and Spence are left to interview Clare. She comes in to the office. She drinks a lot of water. She does not have a lot of answers. In a flashback narrated by Clare, she tells them about Thomas kidnapping her and holding her hostage. At the time she was in medical school and engaged to Tim. The night she was abducted they had had an argument at a party. On the way home, she told him to stop the car, she got out and her Prince Charming drives off, leaving her literally on the side of the road in the middle of the night. She stops in a small store which seems to be the only sign of civilization in the vicinity but they do not have a telephone. Unfortunately, the very uncivilized Thomas has been watching her and he stops in as well. Smiling he poses as a good samaritan and asks if she needs a ride, she declines wisely and says that she can walk.

Clare proceeds down a dark lonely road. A van passes and stops just ahead of her, it's Thomas. He gets out and moves towards her. Boyd interrupts her flashback to ask if it was the passenger or driver side. She says she thinks it was the passenger side. Presumably, Boyd is still trying to figure out if Thomas had an accomplice and not just quizzing Clare on her knowledge of wrong side of the road driving. Clare tried to run away but Thomas caught her, put a sack over her head and threw her in the back of the van.

Later, the team reconvenes to review what they have learned so far. They are in an unusually considerate mood: Boyd helps Grace with her coat, Spence appears with a cup of coffee for Mel. Spence questions whether it is a good idea to use Mel to get to Thomas. Boyd says he's in prison so there's nothing he can do to harm her. For the moment, Boyd wants to hear what Frankie has been watiing patiently to say. Although if he knew what she had to say he might prefer being berated by Spence.

Frankie has been testing items recovered from the place where Clare was held to find DNA by a possible accomplice. She tests a red shoe and finds a woman's DNA. She is surprised that she is able to identify the it as Valerie Wright's. Valerie is part of the database because she was believed to be the victim of an unsolved crime. She reveals that it was Boyd who entered Valerie's DNA into the database.

Boyd confesses that not only did he work on the Clare Delaney case he was the one to choose the playing card that set her free. His revelation and the dna files leave the team feeling as if they have been sent on a wild goose chase and now want to cook Boyd's goose. He is the only one who believes that Thomas kidnapped other women before he kidnapped Clare Delaney. They accuse him of having a hero complex. Spence says he must be convinced that if he had been allowed to stay on the case he could have saved the other women as well. Boyd tries to deny this but none of them believe him. Mel says that Clare could be the first because he had to start somewhere. Grace says not necessarily, because human behavior moves from the less complicated to the more complicated. She might be agreeing with Boyd when he said that he thought there were earlier victims because of the rehearsal factor, it is hard to determine. Despite the anger they express, nothing ever comes of this. Thankfully, it is an entertaining, if ultimately meaningless scene with respect to the team's dynamics.

Boyd says that Eddie Dixon, the officer in charge of the case could not handle the stress and I suppose if Clare were the fifth victim that might make sense but she was the first. This guy must have started out like mush. Playing the game was not unreasonable under the circumstances, the police will sometimes play along with criminals to force them out, but once you decide to play, then why fall apart? It does not seem likely. All of this information also raises the question of how Thomas was caught. We know after Clare, he went on to kill five more women but we are not told what brought an end to his spree. Boyd was transferred and Dixon was done, so who was the hero who brought down the Gambler?

Clare goes to visit Thomas. They engage in a very intense conversation, with Thomas intimating they have a close bond which Clare strenuously denies it. Thomas takes her hand and noting the absence of a wedding band, says she never married. Clare levels him with a swift right hook.

Mel and Grace return for their follow-up visit to Thomas. This time Mel goes into the room alone with him, while Grace and Dermot watch on camera from another room. For some reason this room is very far away, very very far. Thomas grabs Mel and pins her down on a table. Dermot runs at full speed along several corridors, up a flight of stairs and through security gates before bursting in the room and getting captured by William Pardy, another prisoner who is helping Thomas. Pardy holds Thomas' sewing needle threateningly in front of Dermot's eye. Perhaps knowing that help in this high security prison would never arrive, Mel manages to extricate herself and captures Thomas.

Boyd arrives on the scene and within seconds of realizing he is talking to the man in charge, Thomas gives him the location of Valerie Wright's body. Dare we suggest that Thomas should have been given the opportunity to show off in front of the top gun from the outset. Was anything gained from those Mel Grace visits?

Just after finding the body, Boyd receives an envelope filled with playing cards, a polaroid of a young woman and a note which reads,"Publish your card in Thursday's Standard Boyd, cut the pack, save the girl." Grace immedidately sets in by going on and on that there is no way they will ever be able to identify her because no one is interested in her, she's part of the dregs of society and no one will ever miss her. She makes yet another of her baseless assumptions on why Thomas Rice would abduct her. Seconds later, Frankie announces she can positively identify the woman. As fast as Frankie is, I can only wish she were fast enough to have spared us that latest bit of Gracebabble. The abducted woman is Maya Wilson, an 18 year old prostitute.

This time the team brings Thomas Rice and all of his possessions into the office. Thomas pries more information out of Grace then she gets out of him. Fortunately, they have Thomas' possessions to look over for answers. With Dermot's help they are able to figure out that Thomas has been getting extra cards to make telephone calls from an overly friendly prison guard. Spence and Mel go to pick up Gates, the guard. Mel brings the funny. The guard asks what this is about, and Mel says, "missing women, which is what [Gates] will be doing for the next ten years."

Clare makes a return appearance to the office, this time Grace joins Boyd in the interview. Once again Clare drinks lots of water. You would think she were standing in the heat of the sun with the way she seems to crave liquids. She tries to explain her visit to Thomas but is unable to put aside their suspicions that she knows why Thomas believes they have a close relationship. Boyd bullies her into admitting that she did have sex with Thomas. He expected that but his foundation is shaken when she goes on to confess that not only was she the one to devise the card game, but that it was a meaningless exercise. Boyd could have chosen any card and the result would have been the same.

Clare says that she never expected that Thomas would kidnap other women and do the same thing. It would have been more believeable had she said that she did not want to think about it. That would not excuse her from telling the police about the card game after she had been released but it would be understandable.

Boyd drops Clare off at her house and finds Tim out in a large garden shed. Tim says that he helps out by doing some of the yard work. Boyd makes some polite noises but it is apparent that he thinks it is a little odd. If the size of her property is any indication, Clare seems to make a more than comfortable living she could very well hire her own garden staff. Boyd does not dwell on this behavior nearly long enough.

Spence, Mel and Frankie discover that Thomas has been sending messages to someone on the outside by using lemon juice on his paintings. The prison guard gave him the numbers of telephone booths around the city and Thomas arranges for his accomplice to be at the booth. He gives the paintings to Phillip Bryant, who had taken Thomas in after Thomas' parents died. Phillip is unaware that the paintings contain numbers of telephone booths but his son, Paul is well aware and tricks his father into giving him the paintings.

Thomas agrees to tell them where he buried Alana Try. Whatever his reasons, it gives him another opportunity to leave prison. On the way back, Paul, dressed in a police officer's uniform, stops the car carrying Thomas. Thomas kills the two officers guarding him. The duo run away, but Thomas accuses Paul of betraying him and shoots his childhood friend in the back. Thomas then somehow gets over to Clare's house.

Boyd calls Clare to tell her that Thomas has escaped. He asks Tim of all people to look after Clare. Apparently Boyd still has not figured out that Clare can look after herself. Tim goes out to check on Maya in the shed. Frankie who must have been bored, plays a game of hide the ball with Boyd and Grace. Rather than just come out and say that she knows Tim is the stalker she takes them through everything that she has found. You would think with information that important she would save the details for later.

Clare finds Tim out in the shed with Maya. Tim explains that he wanted things to be like they were before Thomas. He believed that if she thought it was happening again she would need him. Grace thought he kidnapped Maya because the police became involved and that upped the ante. She seems to ignore all of the planning he seems to have done to pull it off. In short order, Thomas settles things between Clare and Tim by shooting and killing Tim.

Mel tries unsuccessfully to get Boyd to wait for backup. Boyd rushes past her. Thomas holds the gun on Maya and taunts Boyd by saying that Eddie Dixon would have been there hours ago. Too bad they left Grace back at the office she might finally catch on to what motivates Thomas. Boyd plays with some cards but makes no progress with Thomas. Clare steps in and tells Thomas seductively that they are in this together. Thomas seems happy with this and surrenders.

In the cold moonlight, Boyd tries to console Clare by saying that Thomas will return to his life sentence. Not much consolation to all of the people Thomas murdered in his few hours on the outside. It does not seem much consolation to Clare either. She says that she too is serving a life sentence. We can only imagine that the terms of her sentence will only get worse. Already she was living so close to a rail line that the train lights would shine in her living room and her glass of water would shake. She keeps all of the passes Thomas sends to visit him in prison. Now she will have the shed to remind her of what Tim did to Maya in her name. Perhaps without Tim's influence and with the secrets she has harbored for so many years revealed, she will finally put her past in the past.