Episode 39
Conspiracy (03-17-03)

Brief Synopsis: Jordan investigates when a man claims his murdered friend was the victim of a government conspiracy.

Where to start?  This was one crazy episode with a lot going on, both the main and secondary story line.  I have to say the episode kept me guessing.  Normally it’s easy enough to guess where it’s heading, but I wasn’t expecting today’s ending until it was upon us.  Of course they held back enough clues that we really couldn’t figure it out any faster than Jordan and Nigel did.  Though there were enough clues that they should have clued me in somewhat.

On that note…

Henry Ross comes to Jordan claiming his friend (Frank) is missing and is in trouble.  He claims he’s some researcher for some weapons program for the government.  Jordan—a sucker for the underdog (that’s Clue #1 I didn’t realize it until the end of the show)—tells him she’ll look into it.  As they follow the trail Jordan and Nigel eventually find Frank—dead.  The search leads her to Paramax Industries where Frank worked.  After getting tossed by the security guards Jordan comes back with a warrant.  They learn that Frank was nothing more than a forklift driver—Clue #2.  I doubted the truth of that statement at first, but why would the company lie?  Then we learned he was a family relationship with access to the family wealth.  Warning lights should have started flashing right there (I ignored them, shame on me).  Money is always a motive for murder…and who would have been able to get at that money than our one and only financial advisor—Henry.  However he was in the hospital.  And because of that I naively believed that—though it made sense—he couldn’t be guilty.  Then Henry goes and dies (momentarily anyway).  It wasn’t until we were in Henry’s office and we see the files he kept on Jordan (Clue #3) that I realized I’d been had.  Then Nigel calls and tells Jordan about the finances being transferred and the missing body and everything falls into place from there.

Henry played his part to a T.  So all of you who also fell for his nice, sincere demeanor don’t feel too bad. I fell for it too.

So…Nigel.  I just love his character.  We start the episode off with him refusing to be the ‘computer’ guy.  Loved his little rant.  You know it won’t last.  Nigel’s too at home on a keyboard.  As proved a few scenes later in the episode when he comes lurking back to Jordan.  She’s on the computer—obviously not getting anywhere.  Nigel after a few agonizing moments orders her to move.

Nigel- Please evacuate the keyboard area…It was so painful to watch you flounder I was actually prepared to beg.
Jordan- Yeah, so was I.

Nigel and Jordan work well together.  They’ve got a great chemistry when it comes to figuring things out.  By the end of the episode he’s back to being the old Nigel.  You knew ‘new’ Nigel wouldn’t last when he got jealous of Garret turning to Bug for computer help. Bug has a great line—“I’m beginning to feel Nigel’s pain.”

The secondary story was interesting because we got to learn more about closed, quiet Garret.  I found it interesting how he held his own marriage up to the Hewitt’s.  Then ends up disappointed in them when they prove they weren’t worthy of his ‘worship’ of their marriage. 

His ex-wife was annoying.  It’s like she purposely wanted to start a fight.  She brings up all the problems again that they had in their marriage—even after Garret asks her nicely to ‘shut-up’.

A side note about Peter.  I kind of enjoyed him this week.  He gets mad at Garret when he’s ordered to just sign off on the death certificate and then Garret goes and reopens it.  Peter did have the right to be upset.  The two of them are actually starting to get along somewhat.  Still not a fan of Peter, but I’m liking him a little more.

I thought the end was fitting.  Jordan and Garret talk about blind spots (which is how they were both used this week—people played off of their weaknesses).  Jordan is a sucker for the underdog and Garret puts people on a pedestal and they eventually fall off.  It leaves Jordan susceptible to people like Henry.  And it leaves Garret hurt and disappointed in people, as he was with the Hewitt’s.

3 out of 5 Dead Bodies.