Episode 94
Blame Game (03-19-06)

Play by Play Synopsis:

Teaser: Bug pulls up in a new red car—Ford Mustang and a new look—sleek, all in black, sunglasses and beret style hat: spiffy outfit. He walks into morgue and Nigel is shock. Then says: “Finally my influence pays off. You look hot.”

Outside: Lu and Woody walking out of building talking. Woody wants to talk about last week. Lu is avoiding talking. She won’t look Woody in the eye.

Morgue: Lily walks in – She’s impressed with Bugs outfit. Bug is explaining his car to Nigel and says he parked it on the street and not the garage because his spot is next to Jordan’s and she always dings his door. He says he’s not worried about it on the street cause it’s got an alarm (as he says this a body falls behind him outside) and it’ll call his phone if it goes off. We hear a crash then his phone rings.

Outside: Dead body falls on Bugs car. His car is crushed--totaled. “Oh Man!” He’s not pleased. He just stares at his car in disbelief.

(Leslie Bibb in opening credits)

Act One: TV is on in the break room area. A news reporter is talking about the out of control wild fires that the MA Firemen are battling. They’re causing huge destruction of homes and forest. Lily is watching. Nigel comes up. He says he’s taken an inventory and they have everything they need. Lily looks at him and says there are no dead bodies. Nigel responds: “Yet.”

Rehab Center: Abby and Garret are talking. They’re arguing again. Garret’s phone keeps ringing. He’s ignoring it. Abby finally says go ahead and answer it. It’s his whole life. God forbid she get in the way of it.

At site of wild fire. Garret drives up. Jordan is there. There are 6 dead bodies lying in a row with American Flags laid over them. Jordan wants to know why they’ve been moved. The Chief says it was out of respect. Jordan and Garret are upset they moved the bodies—they’ve compromised the scene. Suddenly a huge burst of fire comes shouting out of the brush. Jordan and Garret are fine. Just a little shaken.

They go look at bodies. They’re burnt pretty bad. A fireman says the dead men were great men.

At Morgue: Garret and Jordan enter, coming back from the site of the wild fires. Then Maggie comes in. She accuses him of saying Abby can leave. They argue. Maggie accuses Garret of not being around. Garret finally says it’d be best if they just concentrate on Abby. Maggie says she doesn’t want to get a phone call saying that Abby is ‘here’ (the morgue).

Bug with the jumper. ‘He ruined my car’. Lily is trying not to laugh. They start to undress the man and he’s wearing a super hero outfit. Nigel starts joking about the body and him and Lily can’t help laughing.

Garret comes in and tells Nigel to GET into autopsy. He’s in a testy mood.

Nigel and Jordan are in morgue talking and the bodies arrive. Garret comes in and tells Jordan to hydrate them. Jordan sees a watch one of the men is wearing and says time of death was 8:06. Nigel says that’s not right. Whoever was in charge knew when that the winds were supposed to kick up around 8pm where those men were. They had to know it was dangerous for the men to be there, and should have gotten them out of there right away. The men shouldn’t have died.

Act Two: At the fire site in the woods. Garret is asking who’s in charge and why the men were there. Captain says they knew about the winds and everyone knew to be out of there by 8. They say they were on top of it. The radios malfunctioned, but they did everything they could to get the man out.

Morgue: Bug is going on about the insurance company how they better pay. He’s still pissed about his car. Nigel introduced his Blog.

Lily runs into Bug. She asks if he’s determined who the man is. He says no. Then he rants how the insurance company will only pay if the man was pushed. If it was suicide then the company considers it an act of God and Bug is out of luck.

Woody and Lu riding the elevator together. They stop on 14th floor confronted by yellow robots. Woody looks like a kid in a toy store. He starts putting them in the freight elevator and sending them down to the morgue. Lu says that’s not such a good idea. Woody says loosen up. Crazy old dude comes out, yells at them. Then disappears before they can say anything. They find the window and it’s sealed shut. Another man appears. The man talking to Woody and Lu is just as weird as the other guy. Woody asks if he knows anything about the guy who fell.

On the next floor – it’s a shredder room. The window is totally blocked by the shredder.

They got to the 16th floor. It’s quieter and looks more promising. They call out but no one answers so they start going through the man’s office. They determine that it’s the guy who jumped office. They start going through his files. They find tons of news paper. Then files filled with tons of cash.

Morgue: Dead bodies all laid out. Garret staring at death certificate. He puts it down and goes to find Nigel. Garret starts bitiching—no one is doing any work. Nigel tells him to shut up. He has something to show Garret.

Nigel is showing him all these people. Mr. Olber a well to do friend of the guy in charge of the fire (not the fire chief – other guy, his name is Cronin) has a house in the area the fires were. Garret asks if Nigel is telling him that the men died because they were sent in there to save Mr. Olber’s house? (and weren’t adequately warned because someone has ulterior motives)

Act Three: Morgue – Jordan tells Garret to calm down. He thinks Cronin left the men there to fight the fire purposely knowing it wasn’t safe.

Autopsy Room: Lu comes in and tells Bug who the man is. He ask Lu to give him a hand (removing the super hero suit). She looks and him and says NO. Lu says he’s known Woody a long time. Is he a good man? Bug says yes. He’s undressing the man. There’s a rash on him. He’ll run test. Bug notices bruising too. Lu says come with me upstairs.

Morgue: Nigel is testing the walkie talkies. They want to prove negligence somehow, but they don’t have enough evidence. Garret gets a call, he goes to rehab center. Maggie, Abby and Garret are arguing. The people found a needle in Abby’s room. Abby didn’t use it and claims it’s not hers. Garret gets defensive with Abby again. Maggie tells him to shut up. Abby finally shouts out that it’s everyone’s fault. And for them to quit laying the blame somewhere. Then she gets up and leaves the room.

Morgue: Jordan goes to see one of the widows because Lily needs her to answer a question. She says her husband was wearing a medallion the Patron saint of fire fighters. Jordan says she hasn’t found it yet.

Guys office—16th Floor: Lu, Woody and Bug going over office. The dead guy was skimming all his accounts except one, the robot toy designer on the 14th floor.

They go down to talk to the crazy guy, he says the man was his nephew. Woody says someone pushed him, he was killed. Woody explains how he wore a costume under his closes. The man says the biggest disappointment of his nephew’s life was when he learned he couldn’t be a super hero. Lu says they think he was stealing from his clients. The crazy man (his uncle) says they’re wrong he would never steal.

Act Four: Jordan is going over bodies with Nigel. Nigel asks if Macy’s ok. He’s particularly crabby. Jordan says she thinks he’s got stuff going on with Abby. Jordan finds the medal the fire fighter was wearing. It’s melted. It’s made of Platinum, it shouldn’t melt unless temperatures exceed 3500 degrees (or something around that). Garret enters and she is about to explain what they found.

Cronin—the man in charge of the bodies of the firemen (some political guy)—comes in cutting Jordan off and threatens Garret with his job. Says he can get Garret suspended. He leaves. Jordan shows him the platinum medal. So something is wrong. There had to be some very high heat to melt the metal. Nigel and Garret go off to do some research at the site where the fire was.

Jordan tries to explain to the wife that she can’t return the medal yet. She finally says it’s possible there was some miscommunication, where the radios failed and they walked into a back draft.

Garret and Nigel on site. They find ‘benzene’ (sp) The Captain told Garret the men were out here cutting the brush. Garret thinks they then they got a new order. They think Cronin told them to set a fire (back draft) in an effort to save the houses, however with the winds the fire trapped the men and they died.…

Woody and Lu in elevator. Woody says the uncle is wrong. Lu says I don’t know the guy doesn’t have any money. If he was steeling money then where did it go. It just doesn’t make since.

Lu goes into morgue and asks Bug what he’s found about the rash on the guys next. There were fibers on the guy’s neck that came from a glove. They locate the where the gloves were from and it’s the shredder guy from the 15th Floor.

Lu and Woody enter police station talking and finishing each other’s thoughts. Lu says “Does this mean something that we’re finishing each others thoughts?” Woody makes a comment, “I don’t know you tell me, you’re the shrink.”

Moruge: Chief and Garret there. Garret says the firemen set a back fire (per orders). Chief says that killed them—with those wind conditions it was suicidal to set a back fire. He says Cronin is to blame. Garret says it’ll be the Chief’s word against Cronin. Need something else to make it stick.

Act Five: On the 15th Floor: Lu shuts down shredders. Guy comes running out. She and Woody explain how he was blackmailing people. They arrest him.

Woody comes in to the dead man’s office to find Bug. Bug figured out what the guy was doing with the money he was skimming. The man was skimming people and playing Robin Hood. He wasn’t keeping the money for himself, he was helping people in need. They go to explain to the Uncle how his nephew was helping. They give the man his nephew’s super hero outfit/costume.

Cronin looking at the autopsy reports. Garret called the men’s death Homicide. Garret says this will be public news. Guy throws the papers at Garret. Garret goes after him and pushes him into room with the grieving family members. Tells him to explain it to them.

Lily comes in to find Bug. She asked if he got the insurance money for his car. He says yes. Lily says there was a letter to him, from a man thanking him for his generous support and help. The man was the last name on ‘Robin Hood’s’ list, the one person he was unable to help. So Bug helped him.

Woody at precinct. Lu comes up after him. She says she never apologized for kissing him…Woody says he doesn’t need apology. She says she was upset. Not upset now. Ask if he wants to talk and they start kissing.

Garret’s Office. Jordan comes in as he picks up the phone then hangs up. She has reports in her hand which she gives to him. Jordan asks who was he calling Abby or Maggie. Garret makes a comment about not being able to fix the problem, he doesn’t know how. Jordan says he can’t fix it. It’s a process, not a broken toy. Jordan says then maybe he should just listen—instead of talking for once.

Garret meets with Maggie. Garret starts talking, he says there isn’t any blame. Maggie says they could put up a united front. Supportive and non-judgmental. It can’t hurt, they’ve never tried it. They realize that it might be their last chance. They go to see Abby. They come to her together. Abby breaks down, they come together as a family (for the first time ever probably). You get the feeling Abby will stay and be okay.