Episode 50
Dead or Alive (03-21-04)

Brief Synopsis: A photograph prompts Macy to depart for Mexico in pursuit of a fugitive rapist, while Jordan tries to get relevant information from a reluctant witness.

It was decent episode.  The rapist, Brad Halfred, was an evil ruthless villain.  You hated him from the moment you heard his name, saw his face for that matter.  He gave me the shivers. 

Garret has been haunted by this case for the past five years.  He feels responsible for letting him get away in the first place.  Garret played by the rules and that enabled Halfred to slip through the cracks and escape, something Garret feels personally responsible for.  Technically Garret didn’t do anything wrong.  There’s system and rules for a reason.  Mayhem would break lose (Jordan’s a perfect example—problems seem to follow Jordan, even if she does come out on top at the end) if we didn’t have these rules.  Det. Cruise wanted Macy to break the rules five years ago, which he wouldn’t do.  Cruise made sure Garret felt responsible.  Cruise was a ruthless, heartless character.

Macy gets himself into some hot water with Walcott (though that seems to always be the case with Walcott).  Technically Garret didn’t (in my eyes) do anything horrendously wrong.  Yes he should have come back when Rene told him too, but he didn’t.  He played a hunch out which ended up leading him to more bodies. 

Garret had a choice.  He could bring Halfred back to be tried in the US under our judicial system and hope that he paid for his crimes with a guilty verdict or he could go ahead and let the bounty hunter kill him.  Garret was tempted to play God and take Halfred’s fate into his own hands, but he doesn’t.  At the end he has a talk with Jordan.  He tells her what he almost did.  He’s lost some of his perspective on this case and it scares him.  He wonders how far he really would have gone.  I liked Jordan’s explanation.  She tells Garret that sometimes we all need to cross that line—it’s a matter of just how far we cross it though.  Jordan tells him she knows he’d never go to far.  It’s just not who he is.  And it’s true.  Garret followed the law five years ago and he followed it this time too.  It’s who he is.  Even when he was lead by his emotions he still couldn’t completely break free from what he knew was right.  It’s what makes Garret a good person and a great boss for Jordan.

There were some great exchanges between the character today.  First and most obvious: Jordan and Cruise.  Dislike would be too nice a word to describe the feelings between them.  Loved the comments of Nigel and Woody when Jordan walks in and first meets Cruise.  Their little argument was hilarious.  Needless to say they avoid each other for most of the episode and Jordan sticks it too him in the end when she tells him ‘so does fungus’ in reference to his comment he grows on people.  Woody grows on people, Cruise is just a pain in the a**—simple as that.

Poor Woody, here he is ready to reopen the case and Cruise comes to him (attitude and all) informing Woody that he’s working for him.  Cruise is DIC (detective in charge).  It puts Woody on a delicate and very thin piece of ice.  He can’t second-guess Cruise and has to follow his lead—even when he disagrees with things.  Woody handles it all fairly diplomatically.  He keeps Jordan out of Cruise’s hair and manages to still let Jordan do her thing without disrupting anyone. 

Cruise needs some people skills.  If he thought his yell and demand method was going to get any information out of Susan, he was sorely mistaken.  Jordan goes and talks with Susan.  Jordan knows what Susan will go through if she comes forward to testify.  She also understands how Susan’s life has been effected the past five years.  She’s able to connect with her.  She feels for Susan—knows it won’t be an easy journey for her, but Jordan knows they need her testimony and will try her best to get it.  In the end Jordan does gain her trust.

3 out of 5 Dead Bodies.