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- Megan
We begin with a rather disturbing scene. A baby is safe in her playpen while the sounds of a fight echo all around her. We see shadows and a blood trail. The baby is unharmed. Next, Megan and Peter arrive and we learn Peter grew up not far from the crime scene. He spent a lot of time in the nearby park to get away from his three sisters. They walk in to find a woman holding the baby. Bud shows them to the victim, Ed. There’s a pretty big blood pool and his watch his missing. The wife was home to feed the baby and he was a stay-at-home dad. Their fifteen-year-old son, Mike, wasn’t home yet. Bud offers to go inform Mike but Megan says not to. It should be news that comes from his mother. We get a quick flashback of a very young Megan coming home and being told by a cop that her father is dead.
Back at the lab, Curtis runs into Todd, Megan’s ex-husband. He’s there to talk to Kate about a case that he needs a forensic anthropologist for (why not pop over to Bones?). But he also needs Megan to play kid taxi and pick Lacey up from a sleepover the next day. A short while later, Megan and Peter are examining Ed’s body. At least five stab wounds plus multiple abrasions to his chest, stomach and arms. They also discover, with Ethan’s help, that he had ulcers. And she finds that the body was exposed to hydrogen peroxide. Megan races off to tell Sam that the wife is lying. She didn’t just touch the body, the phone and the baby. It’s likely she tried to clean up. Ed’s wife says it wasn’t her. She wouldn’t want to kill her husband. But with the new baby and money tight, it’s probably why he was so stressed. Meanwhile, Bud’s picked up their son from football practice. He doesn’t actually get to play because he has asthma. But he plays in a touch league on weekends. Not that his parents ever go to see him. His dad’s too busy with his sister and his mom works all the time. So his mom coming home in the middle of the day to feed the baby was news to him. They get to the station and his mom breaks the news to him about his dad.
Back at the lab, Kate is meeting with Todd. She’s a little skeptical about the case he’ brought her. It’s not his typical rich white client. In fact it’s a teenage illegal immigrant who went for a joyride that turned bad. And Todd needs Kate to verify his age. But she has to do it tomorrow since the case starts on Monday at 9am. Megan gets back to lab and is on the phone with Lacey when she spots Kate and Todd. Todd didn’t tell Megan that she was supposed to play kid taxi to Lacey and her friends. And Megan has to work tomorrow. We’ll see how that works out. She’s examining the body some more with Peter and Ethan and they discover that the stab wound to his heart is what killed Ed. The other wounds were post mortem. And the funny thing about the blade is both side were serrated. Even I picked up on the fact that he has tools to make furniture. Even before Peter figured it out. Back at Ed’s house, Bud and Sam are walking the wife through what she did to find the body. They’re still not convinced she didn’t do it but Sam finds a partial bloody shoe print leading out the back door that could match Mike.
Megan’s gotten to Ed’s house and she and Bud are trying to get his wife to admit that she’s covering for her son and determine why. Mike skipped school the day before, and now they can’t find him. But Bud figures out pretty quick where he is. He learns that Mike skipped school to meet a girl he met online. And he insists he didn’t kill his dad. He does admit they fought the day before Ed died and that Mike got grounded. He gives Bud the name of a day laborer named Jake that sometimes helped his dad. It’s a lead.
Megan’s at the office still trying to piece things together when Peter stops by with a carpool survival kit; namely snacks. Pretty soon she realizes she’s late. She ends up making Peter tag along in the company car. Bud and Sam are pretty obviously getting tired of looking for Jake until they find him, complete with Ed’s missing watch. Lacey and her friends are kind of annoyed at Megan for being late. Well, mostly Lacey. And I have to say, it’s now become obvious they aired something out of order because Lacey asks who Peter is, even though she met him in “Helping Hand”. Anyway, Peter tells the kids they’re working on a homicide and it seems to get them a little interested.
Back at the lab, Todd’s arrived with his client, Manny. Kate rattles off some convincing-sounding scientific jargon about determining Manny’s age. He appears pre-pubescent (so still a teenager), but she says there’s one way to know for sure. And apparently that involves Curtis taking a look at Manny’s man parts. Curtis does not look happy about this request at all. Todd insists they need the determination as soon as possible. Bud and Sam are interviewing Jake and like everyone else, he insists he didn’t kill Ed. He liked Ed and says Ed gave him the watch as payment. They did find a double serrated tool in Jake’s toolbox, and they’ve got Ethan trying to match it to the wounds, as well as test for blood. Ethan says the tool is a match to the wounds, but there was no blood. Upon closer inspection, Megan finds something in the tissue that looks like fish scales. This reminds me of a recent episode of Hawaii Five-O that involved fish scales in wounds.
It turns out what they found in the wound wasn’t fish scales but flakes of human skin. And almost immediately, Megan has to run off to pick up Lacey and her friends from riding practice. She gives Peter a pleading look (they seemed to like him and I don’t blame them. He’s pretty easy on the eyes) but he says she can handle it on her own. So she’s off but she wants to know the results on the skin as soon as possible. It doesn’t take long for Ethan to call. The girls seem really impressed with Megan working the case from the wheel. Even Lacey is impressed (though she tries not to show it). It turns out the person who killed Ed has peeling skin. Curtis has agreed to examine Todd’s client. And Ethan ends up walking in just as he’s about to begin the exam. You have to love Ethan for his penchant for walking in at the worst possible times. Ethan tries to leave but Curtis drags him back in. There’s something not right about Manny and Ethan says they need a full body x-ray. Now I want to know what’s going on!
Bud and Peter are checking to see if Jake has the shedding condition, but he’s clean. There are other symptoms that come with the condition, including sweating and breathing issues. So it looks like we’re back to Mike as the prime suspect. I kind of want to know more about Megan’s past that’s dredged up by this case. So Megan and company head back to Ed’s house. Mike didn’t go home after his football game. But they’ve got a warrant to check his room. His mom confirms he has the shedding condition and they find out why Ed and Mike were fighting. Ed wanted to take away Mike’s computer. Bud and Sam find a message on his computer saying he hated his dad and wanted to make him disappear.
Bud, Sam and a computer tech are going through the chats between Mike and Carla (the girl he was going to see the day his dad died). And now it seems they’re meeting up at a coffee shop. So Bud and Sam head over. Meanwhile, Curtis fills Kate in on why he did a full body x-ray. They tell Todd that Manny’s been abused over the last two years (since his mom died and moved in with his uncle). They refuse to send him back to his abuser, so Kate tells Todd to figure something out. Bud and Sam catch Mike soon enough at the coffee shop and bring in to interrogation. At least he’s got an attorney present. Anyway, Peter swabs his arms so Megan can compare it to the flakes they previously found on Ed’s body. Watching from outside, Bud says he’s never going to have kids. Megan just looks kind of sad but says she’ll let him know when she confirms a DNA match.
We have a quick scene between Kate and Megan in the break room where Kate tells Megan to find out why Mike killed his dad. Big departure from the pilot where Kate said they weren’t interested in the ‘why’. Curtis stops in to tell Megan that Ethan needs to see her. And Curtis gives Kate a brochure of some kind. I’m guessing for foster care or something to do with Manny. Downstairs, Ethan makes a revelation that he doesn’t even get at first. Ed wasn’t Mike’s biological father. It turns out Ed’s wife, Jen, fled from Arizona fifteen years earlier after filing domestic abuse charges. It looks like her ex killed Ed. Megan goes to try and talk to Jen but Jen refuses. It turns out Tim (her ex and Mike’s biological father) is holding Mike’s little sister. He’s definitely one scary dude.
Megan is stubborn and ends up in the house. Lucky for her, Bud and Sam and a bunch of back up are on their way. She finds the baby in her crib and Tim drags Jen out the back. The cops corner him and Bud ends up shooting Tim in the leg. We get a little reunion with Jen and Mike after Jen says she never would have thought Tim found them. We also get a little replay of what actually went down when Tim showed up. As Megan watches mother and son reunite, she flashes back to watch the coroner take her dad away and she sits down on the front steps alone, waiting for her mom.
Kate meets up with Todd in her office and gives him the brochure from Curtis. It turns out it’s a children’s home. Manny would need a sponsor (a professional who could give him a part time job). Todd seems unsure. I really don’t like him. he’s kind of a jerk. But I guess we’ll see if it works out. That night, Megan drops Lacey off at home and they have a rather important conversation. Lacey was mad that Megan messed up so much in the past but today her mom actually came through. And they both agree that Lacey’s friends thinking Megan is cool is kind of weird. Megan tells Lacey that she knows what it’s like to be forgotten, but that Lacey needs to know Megan will always love her. They part ways with Lacey asking Megan to do carpool the following week and Megan saying she’d like that. Not as much Megan back story as I thought coming into the episode but overall, a good show.
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