Waking The Dead : What Happened and Why in
Special Relationship

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It is not for certain that there are more relationships depicted in this episode or that they are any more special than other episodes but nonetheless they do provide an interesting backdrop to the story.

The story begins with the murder of government official Katherine Reed. Burglar Rickyy Taft is arrested, tried and acquitted. That same day, the case is turned over to the cold case squad. Ricky should have a good relationship with his attorney (brief) Majid Kahn because it was not a foregone conclusion that innocence is enough to escape a guilty verdict, in particular when there is a great deal of pressure to produce that guilty verdict. In any event, Taft is set free.

Boyd begins his investigation where Katherine's life ended, her townhouse. The team meets Katherine's estranged husband, Professor Ray Levin, who greets them with the usual hostility the team receives. He and Katherine had a short marriage and an unpleasant separation. He would be a suspect but the killer is rarely the first person introduced. The team mills about the apartment aimlessly before concluding that it has been a year since the murder, lots of people have been through the place and there is nothing there for them to find. Boyd decides that Ricky Taft must have kept more of Katherine's things then he handed over to the police. After questionning, Ricky gives them the additional items, including a radio and a picture in a silver frame. Clearly, Ricky thought this was more valuable than his life, because a house thief facing a murder charge might just want to be as truthful as possible and explain all of his movements so as to dispel the notion that he could have committed the murder. As I said, he had a good lawyer.

Grace and Mel team up to find out more about Katherine's life. In addition to her Home Office duties, Katherine was an author and a leading figure in the women's rights movement. Grace seems mystified by some of Katherine's writings which is very funny because the nonsensical quotes she pulls from Katherine's book sound a good deal like the psychobabble Grace spouts week after week.

While trying to interview Ray Levin, they meet Lorna Gyles who works with Ray at a university's psychology department. They recognize her as the woman in the picture with Katherine that Ricky stole. Lorna is evasive and insists that if they want to know anything about Katherine that they must ask Ray. Ray tells them to go away. Much later, Frankie finds a hair in Katherine's hairbrush that does not belong to her. They conclude that since she let another woman use her hairbrush and she went on holiday with a woman she was bisexual.

Frankie learns that the pathologist who performed the post mortem on Katherine discovered semen in her body. The investigation team was unable to determine whose sperm it was. Eventually they decided it did not matter. It does seem like something of a glaring oversight not to investigate this angle further. Afterall, that was a big point in Every Breath You Take when the boyfriend did not materialize after Debbie was murdered.

The first team investigated every car that passed through Cheltenham Square within a 12 hour window but they were blocked from following up with one car. It seems as if they put a lot of work into collecting information on people passing through the square but it is never explained how they did not happen upon the killer's car. Boyd and Spence must go see the Permanent Secretary of the Home Office, Sir James Beatty, to find out information about the blocked car. After getting Boyd to sign the Official Secrets Act he tells him that the car belongs to the London Chief of Station of the CIA, Larry Karp. Not only did his car pass through the Square, he had a meeting with Katherine that night in her flat. Finally, the other person with him was none other than Sir James himself. Sir James said that he was not at liberty to disclose this information earlier. If pressed he might be able to say that after they arrested Ricky Taft, he did not believe it was important but perhaps a more interesting question would be why Sir James suddenly became a chatty Kathy.

Boyd calls in the CIA to ask more about the meeting with Katherine and their relationship with the Home Office. Karp and his colleague, Tyler too, deny any involvement with Katherine's murder. They show Boyd and Grace the results of Karp's lie detector test. Boyd and Grace scoff at this test saying that lie detector tests are notoriously unreliable and unacceptable as evidence in the UK. What they don't tell the CIA is that the cold case squad has no need for lie detector tests because they have Grace. Grace always knows if soneone is telling the truth. If anyone were in any doubt, a few scenes later Boyd is interviewing a witness and Grace says, "you don't need me to tell you that she's telling the truth." A person may be able to manipulate his or her body's biochemical reaction to certain stimuli, but there's no fooling Grace.

Karp happily shares some cheek cells with the team but they soon learn that the reason why he was so nonchalant about giving was that it was not his semen. Boyd turns to the other male he knows was in Katherine's apartment that night, Sir James. Sir James also denies having anything other than a strictly professional relationship with Katherine. Boyd helps himself to some of Sir James' DNA while he is out, unethical but effective. Frankie identifies the semen as being Sir James'. It's just one of those times when the answer gives Boyd a screaming headache or rather he gives everyone else a headache from his screaming.

Believing that Sir James had a relationship with Katherine means that the team must investigate his relationship with his wife, Lady Alice Beatty. A better name for Lady Alice is Lady Spider for the way she lures her prey in by jingling the threads of the web she has woven. Ever so gently, she beguiles them with just enough promise of enlightenment that they grab hold each and every time. For her part, Lady Alice sits in the center patiently dangling her goodies and preparing to pounce. She first traps the squad when she drops hints about her husband having an affair with Katherine Reed. Later she leads Mel to the conclusion that Sir James had something to do with their daughter Harriet's death.

The revelation that Lady Alice is the killer is not particularly surprising but this is okay because watching Lady Alice lead everyone along more than makes up for it. In fact, since there are some annoying technical problems with the motivation and execution of the killing the build up is all the more important.

It is worth mentioning that somebody dropped the ball on the Harriet Beatty tidbit. Fortunately, the outcome does not turn on this one facet but nonetheless it is annoying. Lady Alice said that she and Sir James had been married for about 32 years. Harriet was 15 when she died and she died 15 years ago. All of which means that the Beatty's were married for a year or two when Harriet was born. Boyd says that since Harriet was conceived late in their marriage, Lady Alice was spurred on to learn more about fertility treatments. It was also the opportunity for Lady Alice to freeze the sample of Sir James' sperm that she used to frame him.

The Harriet continuity error also makes it somewhat difficult to try and sort through if Harriet's death was anything other than an accident. I tend to think Harriet's death was an accident. It is certainly plausible that the death of two of her children, combined with foregoing her career in favor of supporting her unfaithful husband's career might contribute greatly to Lady Alice's mental state. When Katherine came to her for fertility treatments, it was enough to send her over the edge. It is at least more satisfying then just saying that she is an evil controlling woman who will kill to remain the center of attention. Of course, even this explanation depends on the dubious assumption that Lady Alice did not know about Sir James' vasectomy.

Did Lady Alice abandon her plan when Ricky Taft was arrested? If he were convicted it would take a great deal more than casual innuendo for anyone to connect the possibility that Sir James and Katherine were having an affair to the possibility that Sir James murdered her. Sir James knew that Lady Alice was guilty but she did not know that he knew. She also had no idea that he was having an affair with his secretary, Ann Harding for a decade. For one third of their marriage he was sleeping with someone else. This is something a truly controlling person might notice. She also might have made it an issue with the original investigation team. It is possible that she tried to bring Katherine and James up with the lead investigator but this investigator may have been reluctant to consider a workplace affair.

And so at last we arrive at Detective Inspector Jess Worrall. We are not told very much about the relationship of D.I. Worrall and D.S. Boyd but apparently it came to a fiery end an indeterminate number of years ago. At the beginning of the episdode, Spence hand delivers an envelope from Jess to Boyd which luckily Spence didn't open. Inside was the key to Katherine Reed's townhouse and a note. The note says that no matter what she said to him when they last met, she won't let them do to him what they've done to her and that he should call her if he wants. Later that evening she shows up at the office. It might be significant in understanding the demise of their relationship that Boyd is always the last to leave the office but then again he is always the last to arrive in the morning. Jess says that she has resigned but that she hasn't let anyone get to her over the case. Jess is okay with the seeming contradiction. Boyd does a lot of tap dancing to try and avoid arguing with her it is not that easy but overall, he is successful. They make a big deal of her giving him her telephone number but why did she say to call her if he did not already know it? Because it was cute that's why and that's enough.

He asks Jess for her help with the case but Jess is really not much help. To be fair he's not that much help to Jess either. For those of you wondering, yes it was Yellow by Coldplay. Jess would have made a nice addition to the team. They need someone at her level and she could keep Boyd in line - maybe. At a minimum we could have had her meet the team but she only interacts with Boyd.

The other woman helping Boyd to lose his sanity is Mary Holmes. Ms. Holmes has been sent by the Home Office to audit the team, coincidentally at the same time that they picked up the Reed case. Boyd positively hates being spied upon and does nothing to hide his contempt for her presence and what she represents. Eventually, Boyd sends her packing. We never learn why she was there or what she was doing. It could have been one of the things lost in the Atlantic on the way over from England. Boyd's hostility to Ms. Holmes is one thing but Grace's hostility is laughable since in the previous episode,Deathwatch, she was making apologies for a man who murdered 12 innocent individuals based on the idea that he was following orders. Mary Holmes clearly is only doing her job, as a psychologist one might think that Grace could see past her function and see the person. Instead, Grace chose to sling high school caliber insults at the woman. Did she think if she hurt her feelings enough she would write nice things about the squad in her report, did she think that she would be treated with a more even hand?

What about that name 'Holmes'? The first instinct is to see it as a play on Sherlock Holmes but when you combine Taft, Tyler and Harding(ham) I think it's more a play on Oliver Wendal Holmes. Not enough for a reference section entry but intriguing none the less.