Waking The Dead : What Happened and Why in
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I'll say it to get it out of the way: All that glitters isn't gold but those Golds sure are glittery. Father Benjamin, Mother Leah, children Joanna, David and Clara have suffered greatly in the name of family.

You try and try to tell your kids that too many sweets are not good for them but sometimes it takes a tragedy to get your point through to them. That is probably not what Leah and Benjamin Gold were thinking on April 16, 1989 when they watched their oldest child, Joanna, leave a family gathering on Hempstead Heath to run to the ice cream truck. Later that evening, the very lovely Joanna was reported missing.

Thirteen years after Joanna's disappearance, Detective Superintendent Peter Boyd and Detective Sergeant Spencer Jordan cover themselves in sweat and grins during a squash match. Their rapture is brought to an end by the appearance of two uniformed officers. The duo have been summoned to the Black Dog storage facility where they are met by Detective Constable Mel Silver and Dr. Frankie Wharton. Not surprisingly for those of us who watched the first few minutes of the episode, something has been discovered relating to Joanna Gold's disappearance.

Tucked away in a storage room is a mannequin wearing the dress Joanna was wearing on the Heath. The lifelike pose and the dark curls cascading about the shoulders are enough to stop Boyd in his tracks. If there were any mistaking the connection to Joanna then Dr. Frankie Wharton seals it when she shows Boyd an album of photographs and newspaper clippings about Joanna's disappearance that she has found in the room.

News of the discovery travels fast, faster still on greased wheels. The Commissioner calls Boyd to meet him in his chauffeured driven car. The Commissioner may regret requiring Boyd's attendance after Boyd announces that he is still sweaty from his squash match. Just as an aside, I must note that there is nothing normal about that statement. Anyway, as it turns out, the Commissioner and Benjamin Gold are good friends. He presses Boyd to come up with conclusive information to give the Golds. Boyd in turn puts pressure on his team to deliver information to solve the case.

The team finds Alice in Wonderland references hidden in the renter information. It is a fantastic book but do not fret if you have not read it yet, the references are not integral to the case. They also find several doll houses. At the office, Frankie finds some fingerprints on some of the articles.

Dr. Grace Foley arrives into the office at what we can assume is a late hour. Grace balks at Boyd's request/demand for her to do some work by retorting, that it has been thirteen years, what is the rush. Cold case squad, just saying. Grace eventually gets down to work and determines that the dress was the only thing in the storage room that seemed of importance to the owner. Mel takes a doll house to a shopkeeper who gives her the name Garvey. The designer was a woman who died in a fire about 15 years ago. Her son, Alec, survived the fire.

Boyd pays a visit to Alec Garvey in his adorable little house. Garvey gives Boyd the old I'm going to make some tea line but slips out the back door. Luckily, Spence arrives in the nick of time to give chase and tackles Garvey to the ground. Later, they bring Garvey in for questioning. He denies knowing Joanna Gold and says that he only knows what he read in the papers. He says he found the dress. Boyd does not like Garvey very much and he likes him less when he finds out that he stalked young women.

The Commissioner descends upon the team and tells Boyd to arrest Garvey. He wants to be able to tell the Gold's something. Boyd thinks arresting Garvey without real evidence is a mistake. Boyd thinks the Commissioner only compounds the mistake by giving the Gold's and the public a a false sense of relief that the mystery has been solved. But he is the Commissioner so maybe making mistakes is the path towards advancement.

Boyd and Spence interview Garvey again. Now armed with conclusive proof that Garvey knew Joanna they pressure him to explain their relationship. Garvey has this way of trying to exonerate himself which only makes him look more guilty. He says he did not want to come forward after finding Joanna's dress because after his mother died the police suspected him of killing her. He did not want that to happen again.

Boyd reaches into his bag of questionable tricks and tells Garvey that they were able to enhance the home video of Joanna on the Heath when she went to get ice cream to see Garvey standing there. Garvey falls for it and admits being on the Heath. In an award winning moment, Garvey tries to exonerate himself by saying that Joanna met up with a "black guy." Spence, King of the Deadpan, asks what black guy. Neither cop believes any part of Garvey's story. Yet, Garvey insists that Garvey met a black guy and they kissed but the guy later slapped Joanna.

Boyd has had enough of Garvey and charges him with Joanna's murder. Garvey has had enough of everything and makes a very credible suicide attempt.

After Garvey tries to kill himself, Boyd has a change of heart about the case and proceeds as if Garvey were innocent. It is interesting that it was Garvey's odd behavior that led Boyd to thinking he was guilty and now more odd behavior is leading him to think he is not guilty. Now Garvey is comatose so Boyd is on his own.

At the time of her disappearance, Joanna's ex-boyfriend, Mark Kaufman, was the prime suspect but nothing was ever proven to connect him to the disappearance. On the Heath, the police had found a torn note written to him. There was "alien male dna" (I love that expression) on the note. It did not match Mark's, Frankie is testing it to see if it matches Garvey's.

They haul Mark Kaufman into the office. Mark is fairly self-composed and provides reasonable answers. Apparently, the trauma of being accused of murdering a loved one was not as great for him as it was for Alec Garvey. Mark tells them of that evening. The phone rang a lot that evening but he did not answer. When he did answer around 10 p.m. it was Benjamin Gold looking for Joanna. Mark spared Benjamin his views that he shared with Boyd. Mark and Joanna had fell out of sorts; Mark believed that Joanna was seeing someone else. He "didn't think she was a virgin anymore." It is not clear whether he meant that she deserved whatever happened to her. He does still seem to be a little bitter over the experience.

Leah Gold drops in wearing a memorable blouse to tell Grace that her daughter was a good girl. Good as gold as it turns out. Grace tells her that they found traces of ecstasy in the pocket of her dress. Grace does not believe it could have come from any school friends because the school had no cases of ecstasy at the time. Leah confesses that Joanna sometimes went out with the 21 year old nanny. Grace thinks they went to raves. It's cool to hear Grace talk about raves. Leah did not tell Benjamin about Joanna and Leah's trips out on the town. It seems as if she still has not told him about the excursions.

Spence and Mel track down the nanny, Elaine. Elaine now has a daughter, Kirstie, who looks to be 5 or 6 years old. She tucks her daughter away in another room and admits taking ecstasy with Joanna. Spence connects with Elaine when he spots a flyer from back in the day. He asks her about one rave in particular, a white van with crap sound but still brilliant. Spence nods but does not let on that he knows a lot more about that van. Outside of Elaine's place he tells Mel that his friend Charlie Bellows used to run that rave. Spence did the posters for him. Charlie wanted Spence to jack the force and join him in the business. At the start of the episode, Spence said that he was a probationer when Joanna disappeared.

Elaine tells them that Clara came to see earlier that day. It was the first time she had seen any of the Gold's since two weeks after Joanna disappeared when she left her nanny job. Clara did not really seem to want anything, she just talked about old times.

Mel suggests Spence put aside his problems with Charlie so that they can go ask him if he has any useful pictures. They meet up with the nattily award winning dressed Charlie Bellows in his first club. Charlie says he does not remember her coming to the club. Spence seems as if he has reservations about Charlie's denials or maybe he just has reservations about Charlie or reservations with the club. Sometimes it is hard to tell.

Boyd revisits the Heath. He makes his way over to the place where Garvey said Joanna and the mysterious "black guy" had an argument. Much to his surprise, Clara Gold is there as well. Clara is the spitting image of her older sister and her presence at the scene adds to the eerieness of the experience. She wants to know why Boyd had asked her parents if Joanna had dated a "black guy?" Clara wants to help. Boyd says it does not work that way. He said similar things to Marina Coleman in Burn Out when she said she could help the investigation. The difference being that Marina actually was a help. Clara is something different.

Clara sticks her hand in her purse and cuts herself on a knife. She tells Boyd that she does not want to disappear like Joanna. She says, if Joanna can disappear with 2000 people surrounding her then why should she worry about being in a place alone? Boyd says they have charged someone in the case, Clara asks, what if it is the wrong person? Questions Boyd just cannot answer.

At Elaine's building, an unknown person makes his way up the stairs. We can only see his sneakers (trainers) and a white jumpsuit. Elaine is searching frantically for something in her apartment. Just then the lights go out as the man in the jumpsuit removes a fuse from the box. (cliche alert!) It is lights out in more ways than one for Elaine. Boyd arrives at her place to find the door open and Elaine dead on the floor.

The team dons their mucking-about-a-crime-scene wear and tries to figure out what happened. Spence notes that she has lots of locks on her door. Mel says she let the assailant in, which means she knew him or trusted his apparent authority. Frankie finds two sets of fingerprints on a cold empty beer bottle. Fortunately, or not, there is a witness of sorts. Christie was in the apartment during the murder. She is understandably traumatized but not so understandably Boyd thinks the best thing is to have Grace talk to her.

Grace has Kirstie draw some pictures. Kirstie draws pictures of two men. Grace asks if she knows the man, Kirstie points at Spence. Thankfully, no one decided to arrest Spence, even if he is a "black guy.".

Dr. Frankie matches the dna on the beer bottle to the alien male dna on the letter. She rushes in to share her discovery with Boyd - the person who took the note off the door 13 years ago was in Elaine's flat last night. Boyd pushes her to tell him the ethnicity. Frankie pushes back. She tells him that they cannot entirely eliminate the possibility that the owner is white or asian. Clearly this is a non answer for Boyd and he pushes more. He says that the dna matching changes everything. Not sure how, given how little they know about anything. All the ethnicity data does is bring back the mysterious"black guy" they have not been able to find. You do not need ethnicity to tell that the letter and beer dna matched.

Boyd goes over to the Gold's house. Clara says she has something to show him and leads him upstairs. Boyd says he really feels as if he should not be there. That is only because he really should not be there. Clara opens up a wardrobe to show him Joanna's dresses. Clara holds up the dress Joanna wore on her 18th birthday, noting she is almost the same age but still feels like a child. She says this because she is still a child.

Clara has a secret box in which she has kept movie ticket stubs from Who Framed Roger Rabbit on April 3rd 1989. If we wanted to get more mileage from the Alice in Wonderland references we should note that they went to see a movie where a rabbit played a large role and one that appealed to children but was really a tale for adults. Visually, we have Clara looking into the mirror as she talks to Boyd holding up a very Alice-like dress. Clara and Boyd play a guessing game rather than Clara simply telling Boyd who went to the movies with Joanna and her. Before Boyd can guess the identity of the mystery movie goer, Benjamin Gold comes looking for his daughter. His looks says that he thinks it odd that Boyd is in Clara's room but he does not say as much. Benjamin laments that Boyd gave them the impression that it was all over but now it is still being dragged out. Boyd takes his leave of the Golds but not before he and Clara share a look between co-conspirators.

Boyd and Clara meet at a restaurant after she summons him on his mobile phone. I think I will just assume that Boyd always gives out his cell phone number. Clara says that she and her sister went to the movies with a guy whose name she does not remember, she only remembers that he was black. He took them out for a posh tea afterwards and they had a great time. Joanna told Clara never to mention it to anyone. Clara says that it is the last clear memory she has of Joanna. It would probably be too much for her to have a clear memory of Joanna's date's name.

Clara tells Boyd about what she was doing at Elaine's flat. She went there to get Elaine to tell her Joanna's boyfriend's name. She says she felt that Elaine was hiding something from her. She looked around and found the smiley face with a tear drop button (badge) that Joanna was wearing on her hat when she disappeared. Clara is probably bright enough to realize that this is a very significant piece of evidence. Evidence of what, remains to be seen.

Mel finds that Elaine made a call to a place called "Heist Entertainment" on the day she died. The sound of the name stops Spence cold. In a flash he is off to see his not so good buddy, Charlie Bellows. Cool Charlie denies knowing Joanna despite knowing Elaine. Spence says he could have been Joanna's boyfriend because they were both good looking and popular and since people usually get what they started with in a relationship. This is true except for the times when opposites attract. No matter, Spence tells Charlie that Elaine is dead and Charlie seems genuinely surprised. He does not have much time to digest this new information because police sirens signal the arrival of a very annoyed Detective Superintendent.

Not sure what Spence was thinking trying to have a private chat with a suspect -- unless he too got the mistake your way to the top memo. Boyd tells him if he does it again, Spence is off the case. Chances are good Spence figured Boyd was kidding.

At the police station, Charlie still denies being Joanna's "black guy." Boyd trips him up with information about the movie date with Joanna and Clara. Charlie caves and takes them to the Heath to reminisce about the day Joanna disappeared. It turns out Joanna was the one who ripped up the note she wrote to Mark Kaufman. Her declaration and kisses were not enough to put Charlie at ease because the feeling of being used came over him. He slapped her and gave her a nose bleed. She ran off and he never saw her again.

Pulling in more Alice in Wonderland imagery, Boyd says Joanna fell down a hole like Alice. Inspired he leads the group down a path and spies the Garvey house. It seems likely that Joanna went there. Does it also seem likely that Garvey is once again the prime suspect?

Mel stands watch as Spence interviews Charlie. As a lookout, Mel leaves a lot to be desired. As soon as the boss walks in she blurts out that she tried to stop him. Boyd pulls Spence out of the interview with a deadly glare. He barks, "go home Spence." It seems he remembers warning Spence before about these chats with Charlie. Favorite son Spence pushes his luck. He says that Charlie knew about the guy in the jumpsuit. Like a spark of electricity leaping from the outlet to the plug, Spence connects the blown fuse, the white guy in the white jumpsuit, oil on Elaine's dress and her call to the caretaker to say the white jumpsuit guy killed Elaine.

Boyd is working late, when an unexpected visitor arrives. It's Clara bearing beer. Apparently, it is her 18th birthday and she sought out Boyd because she is a child. Boyd shares a beer and a story about his 18th birthday. His one moment of clarity comes when Clara leans over his desk and says, "birthday kiss?" He declines with a look. Not nearly embarrassed enough by the entire ordeal Clara mutters a sorry and wanders off to the main room. She stares at that board thingee which is covered with information about her sister's case. Boyd tries to tell her that she needs to get her own life but Clara is resistant to the thought.

Clara wants to see Joanna's red dress. Every reason says that Boyd should say no, but he lets her into Frankie's lab with a half-hearted, don't touch anything. Clara who listens really well, immediately asks to put the dress on. Boyd says, "absolutely not." She says she wants to put it on because someone has been following her. She thinks if she wears this vital piece of evidence out on the Heath she can draw out whomever it is that is following her. Boyd gets very animated and tells her to get away from the dress. It is a short lived moment of reason.

Clara charms Boyd into letting her wear the dress. He unbuttons the dress as she gets out of her tee shirt and jeans. They go to the Heath and just as Clara predicted someone follows and spots them. Boyd runs out of the park and straight into Clara's father. He is standing outside of his house looking for Clara. He is overwrought with worry that he will lose yet another daughter. Boyd catches Clara slip away out of the corner of his eye. He goes inside with Benjamin who offers Boyd a drink. Gold gives the line Boyd must hear once a series, you don't know what it's like to lose a child." Boyd disagrees and tells him he lost a son but before anyone can say "what ever happened to that cutie Joe Boyd," Clara arrives home. She throws on a raincoat in the foyer to hide the red dress. It would have been interesting to see Benjamin's reaction to dead ringer Clara wearing that dress. Something tells me it would not have been pretty. Co-conspirator Clara tosses the dress out of the window to a waiting Boyd on the front door step.

Perhaps the next night although it cannot be the next night, Grace interviews Leah again at the office. It is unfortunate that Leah was not there to exert some maternal influence on her daughter's search for inappropriate paternal influence. Leah drops a few more tidbits to fill in what happened the night Joanna was reported missing. It was her son's David's 13th birthday. She had taken him to the hospital because he suffers from chronic pancreatis Noting Grace's surprise, Leah jumps in quickly to add that it is not always induced by alcohol, David has the more rare hereditary pancreatis Although earlier that night, David had thrown a fit and a picture of Joanna and then downed a half bottle of vodka. Leah called Benjamin sometime around 11:30 that night from the hospital and he said that no one had seen Joanna since the park. So at 11:30 she and David are still out of the house. David has just had his stomach pumped to counter the effects of the vodka he ingested. He really should be exhausted.

Gold number 3 shows up at the office. David comes in wearing a white jumpsuit covered in blood. He is rocking back and forth, repeating, I killed Elaine. A test confirms that the blood is indeed Elaine's. Mel is tapped to hear David's confession. He says when he saw Clara with Joanna's smiley face button (badge) he knew she had seen Elaine. Elaine had found the button in his drawer in 1989. David says he took the button off Joanna's dead body as it lay on the kitchen floor. David says he had heard a drunk Joanna arrive home. He complained to her that she ruined his birthday and then he says he hit her. He leads the team to Joanna's remains in the garden right outside the family home.

Elaine is not alive to explain her actions, but what was she thinking hiding what she believed about David killing his sister? How much could she have hated the Golds to just leave while they searched desperately for Joanna or to find out what happened to her. Not to mention, if David is a killer, who knows whether he would do it again. How in good conscience did she not tell?

Frankie is disturbed by the height differential between Joanna and David. She does not think David was tall enough to deliver a blow consistent with her examination of the skull. There is also the problem that Joanna is wearing an odd set of clothes. The team hunkers down to compare notes. Well not all of their notes. The Commissioner barges into the session to announce that Boyd is relieved of duty for his romp on the Heath with Clara.

The team is definitely, albeit momentarily stunned. Boyd's only words of defense are, "who told you?" At least he seems to suspect contaminating evidence is a problem.

Boyd goes over to the Gold household. Benjamin is angered by his presence saying the Commissioner told him that Boyd was off the case. He places a call to the Commissioner which he aborts quickly when Boyd places Joanna's smiley face button on the table in front of him. As Clara and Leah stand by, Boyd poses the question of where David found the button. Leah is excited by the prospect that there may be some hope that her son did not kill her daughter.

Spying a radio controlled race car, Boyd picks up the controls and treats us to another mini Joe Boyd moment. He suggests that David found Joanna's button while playing with a similar car. Boyd speculates that the button had gotten stuck under the refrigerator where David found it. He then hid it in his drawer where Elaine found it. She figured David killed Joanna. When Clara took it from Elaine, the killer who had been stalking Clara, felt threatened.

Boyd realizes that Benjamin was the one who told the Commissioner about the red dress on the Heath. This meant he was stalking Clara; which meant he killed Joanna. As if killing his own daughter were not horrific enough, Boyd goes on to spell out Benjamin's disturbing rationale. Benjamin was in love with Joanna. He flew into a jealous rage when it became apparent that he would never be able to have Joanna.

Boyd demonstrates his theory by caressing Clara's face, saying how seductive girls her age are and then trying to kiss her. Benjamin took the appropriate action and punched him in the jaw. Yet the damage was done. Benjamin is forced to face the reality of his actions 13 years ago. Benjamin confesses that he was distraught when Joanna announced that she had fallen in love with a black club owner and that she was leaving to live with him. Benjamin only wanted to keep her for himself. He grabbed the nearest object, a frying pan, and bludgeoned his daughter to death. He then buried her in the garden. He did not give himself up because he had to be strong for the family.

Outside, the team has gathered behind their evidently unfired boss. They must have been too ecstatic with the relief of getting a confession out of Benjamin Gold to fret over another of Boyd's transgressions. Absent the confession, there is no way they could make a case for murder. Boyd is concerned not with making amends to his colleagues but with Clara's reaction to him revealing the truth about Joanna's murder. Grace says it is best that she knows the truth, Boyd questions whether that observation is true.

Perhaps Boyd was able to figure out Benjamin Gold because they are similar. Gold created a massive problem, covered it up and then anointed himself as the only one who could lead the family. Boyd creates problems, nothing on the scale of murder, but similarly he covers for himself and anoints himself the rudder of the ship. The bad thing is that Boyd routinely behaves like a creepy criminal and massages the truth, dispensing it out as he sees fit, the good thing is that because of it, he solved a mystery that haunted the city for 13 years.