Episode 43
Sunset Division (04-21-03)

Brief Synopsis: Detective Woody Hoyt (Jerry O'Connell) follows a killer's path to Sunset strip while investigating the murder of his mentor.

So this didn’t feel like a Crossing Jordan episode at all.  I know it was meant as a crossover episode, but I felt like I was watching a pilot episode for a brand new show (which it very well could have been).  It was entertaining, but I really missed our morgue staff.

We got a few scenes in the beginning with Jordan and Woody.  They had some great lines this week, for the few moments they were together.  But basically it was all Woody today.  He did a good job—proved he could carry a show on his own.  I enjoyed the episode, I just felt deprived.

So we met Woody’s brother Cal (short for Calvin). We got to see Woody’s ‘home’ and learn a little more about him.  Woody and Cal are hunting when they hear a plane fly over and suddenly a body falls out of the air and oh…it just happens to be the sheriff.  Woody being Woody does some questioning and gets a lead that has him heading out toward California.

In Wisconsin, at the funeral, we meet Annie (the sheriff’s daughter) and learn that Woody once wanted to marry her.  He went to her father to ask for permission and the sheriff told Woody that no daughter of his would ever marry a cop—that she was too good for that.  Two weeks later Woody headed for Boston.  He couldn’t tell Annie what her father had said, so instead he goes running.  It’s sad for both Woody and Annie that their love doesn’t even get a chance, because Woody won’t go against the sheriff’s wants.  He should have laid the cards out on the table and given Annie a choice.  But he believed he was acting in her best attentions.

It’s interesting how life changes our best laid plans.  If things had gone as Woody had planned, he would have married Annie, eventually taken over as Sheriff—remained happy to be the deputy until that time.  He would have had a quiet life—a wife, children, a town where everyone new him a job he was content at.  Instead he moves to Boston, meets Jordan and I don’t think he could ever go back to Wisconsin now.  Somehow I don’t think he could ever be content with the quiet life he once knew.

It was telling that Jordan ended up in LA at the end.  I think she was afraid she might lose Woody to LA.  And obviously (I mean she flew across the country for him!) she has feelings that are more than just ‘friends’ for Woody.  She wanted—needed to make sure he was coming home.  There might be hope yet for those two.

The Sunset Division story was okay.  It was a fairly basic story: bad guys, fake money, killed a person who started getting suspicious.  It didn’t strike me as being anything ‘spectacular’ though.

3 out of 5 Dead Bodies.  It was nice to learn more about Woody, but I missed everyone else.