Season two of Cold Case premiered in 2004 and wrapped up in 2005. The second season does a good job of exploring the characters of the Cold Case unit. Lilly Rush and Scotty Valens like the previous season are the ones to get the most development, but this season does a good job of giving us more information about the other characters: Nick Vera, Will Jeffries, and John Stillman. This season also has more of Scotty’s relationship with his girlfriend Elisa and the ending of that relationship. They also introduce Lilly’s estranged younger sister Christina, who Lilly wants nothing to do with, but Scotty gets drawn to.
[SPOILERS DOWN BELOW]
This season has a lot of great episodes and some not so great, but the consistency with the storytelling that the writer’s delivered in the first season is still strong in this second season. They also weren’t afraid to tackle some dark topics and to some viewers at the time, probably taboo topics.
There were 23 episodes total and below I’ve listed some that I felt were the best and the worst of the season and why I felt that.
Best Episodes: “Daniela”, “Mind Hunter”, “Time to Hate”, “Strange Fruit”, “Best Friends”, and “The Woods”
“Daniela” was the third episode of the season and it was so impactful and painful. This episode tells the story of a young transgender woman in the ’70’s who falls for a cisgender guy and how during that time people weren’t accepting of not only transgender people, but of any cisgender person being in a relationship with a transgender person. It’s revealed that Daniela’s death was the result of a suicide that she committed after being rejected by her boyfriend when his father finds out about their relationship. This episode does have some language that is hurtful/harmful to transgender people, so those parts were hard to watch, but the way the show humanized Daniela and tried to show that she was just a young woman who wanted to be loved for who she was, was what made this episode both beautiful and painful.
“Mind Hunter” and “The Woods” are phenomenal episodes. These two episodes follow the serial killer George, who works in the records room in the police department. It’s through these episodes that you really learn a lot about Lilly because George relates to Lilly and she’s like all his other victims. It’s revealed in “The Woods” that when Lilly was a child she was robbed and beaten by a man when she went to the local store to get her mom alcohol. The acting from the whole cast in these two episodes, especially Kathryn Morris and the actor who plays George, is fantastic. These two episodes are must see Cold Case episodes.
“Time to Crime” tells the story of a young girl who is killed in a drive by shooting and it’s revealed that it was actually her older brother who killed her accidently because he was trying to kill the man that his mother had an affair with. It’s just a heartbreaking episode that leaves you so sad for this whole family and the circumstances that lead to the senseless death of a little girl.
“Strange Fruit” is one of, if not, the best episode of Cold Case. The fact that the writer’s were allowed to write this story and that CBS allowed them to air it is shocking to me, but it’s an important episode. This show never shy’s away from showing America’s history of racism when they include any actors of color, but this episode they brought it front and center. The most disgusting and horrifying thing in this episode is to watch these four or five white men beat a defenseless black teenage boy and then hang him. It’s still so hard for me to watch when they show Zeke hanging from the tree and then with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech playing in the background just makes the impact stronger. The choice to play Nina Simone’s cover of Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit” at the end of the episode makes the reality of this horrible darkness in humanity more potent. This episode also makes you connect to Will Jeffries more since it’s revealed that he is the one that found the Zeke’s body when Will was a child.
“Best Friends” is another episode that breaks my heart when I watch it. This episode tackles a interracial lesbian relationship in the 30’s. The way the love and tenderness is shown between the two women is so great, but it’s the ending that really breaks your heart. The two crash their car hoping to die together, but only one of them dies and the other survives. It’s a beautifully tragic episode that showcases the hardships of LGBTQ+ youth back then, especially people like Tessa Thompson’s character Billie, who was a black lesbian who dressed in more masculine clothes.
Worst Episodes: “The House”, “Red Glare”, “Blank Generation”, “Yo, Adrian”, “Wishing”, and “Kensington”
These episodes were either forgettable or just weren’t as compelling to me. “The House”, “Red Glare”, “Blank Generation”, “Yo, Adrian”, “Wishing”, and “Kensington” are just forgettable episodes. I didn’t remember who the killer was in any of these and when it was revealed I wasn’t shocked or interested honestly. The only memorable thing about any of these is the fact that they brought back James from the first season episode “Sherry Darlin'” to be the one to have them reopen the case of his murdered uncle in the episode “Kensington”.
With “Blank Generation”, “Yo, Adrian”, and “Wishing” the only memorable things are the things we learn about the detectives and not the cases themselves. In “Blank Generation” Scotty’s girlfriend Elisa who had been dealing with Schizophrenia kills herself in this episode and watching Scotty deal with that is interesting, more interesting than the case itself, which features Bug Hall from The Little Rascals as a guest star. Then with “Yo, Adrian” Scotty starts a relationship with Lilly’s sister, Christina, which Lilly isn’t happy about. Scotty’s relationship with Christina causes friction between him and Lilly which is showcased in the episode “Wishing” when Lilly says to Scotty, “You whoring around with a cocktail waitress won’t bring your dead girlfriend back”. That tension is the only memorable thing about “Wishing”.
The rest of the episodes this season were okay, not bad, but not great either. I liked that the first case of this season, “The Badlands”, was the the case that Lilly was pulled off of in the first episode of last season. You also get to learn more about Will with this case because he had a close connection to the victims and their family. “Discretion” is another episode that does a good job of developing Scotty and Nick’s characters, while also showing that their are dirty cops that put away the wrong people. “Ravaged” is another good episode that gives Nick more character development. You see a softer side to Nick in this episode which I think his character really needed. “Creatures of the Night” was a fun episode that the whole episode’s soundtrack was songs from The Rocky Horror Picture Show, but there’s also plot development because a cop from New York comes looking for Christina and instead of facing what she did in New York she runs, leaving Scotty behind.
Overall, the second season of Cold Case is just as strong as the first season and might even be better than the first. I’m having so much fun rewatching these shows from my childhood and hope you are all enjoying my reviews.
If you want to watch it yourself you can find Cold Case on HBO MAX.
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