Saturday, December 3, 2011

Body of Proof 2.06: "Second Chances"

Once again, Sarah's back with another "Body of Proof" write-up. Enjoy!

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“You can’t convince someone you’ve changed if they don’t want to believe you.”
- Zoe

We begin with a rather disorienting image of a beaten young woman being dragged through the forest. She finally stops moving and sees a very blurred figure leaning over her. Cut to Megan and Lacey at Megan’s apartment. Megan is quizzing her daughter on Latin phrases. Do people really still study Latin in high school? [Ed. note: my high school offered Latin when I was a student there ten years ago, way back in the olden days of the early ‘aughts] Lacey complains that Megan promised they could watch a movie, but their argument is cut short by Todd’s arrival. Apparently he and Kate are taking Lacey to Boston for the weekend. And cut again to the crime scene. Megan and Peter are going over the body while Bud talks to a meth addict who was apparently caught rifling through Jane Doe’s pockets. The girl suffered lots of trauma, including a broken tibia. Bud suggests that the girl was out there with the druggie to get high and things went south. Megan’s not sure she’s a user. As she and Peter leave the scene, Kate arrives and says she wants to consult on the case. Megan’s not exactly thrilled (she’s still put off about Boston).

Bud’s brought meth head back to the precinct, but the interrogation goes nowhere. He’s too strung out, and he keeps saying he didn’t know the girl and he didn’t kill her. Over at the lab, Megan, Ethan and Curtis are going over the body, and they find a tattoo of 4 horses on her wrist. Peter shows up with a new suspect from the bloody handprint on Jane Doe’s body: a young woman named Zoe Brandt doing 4-7 years for beating her drug dealer nearly to death. Bud and Megan make the trip out to see Zoe and we learn that she was doing work release two days a week at the stables where the Jane Doe (Brinn Walker) worked.

As Kate and Megan continue to examine Brinn’s body, they discover through x-rays that she had a lot of old riding injuries. And Peter discovers she was a champion equestrian. Kate is trying to determine the cause of a spiral fracture in one of her ankles when Megan points out that it would be consistent with the injuries if Brinn’s foot got caught in one o the stirrups and she was dragged along by a horse. At the stables, the manager says that Brinn was a pro, didn’t ride without a helmet and only rode one horse (which was all tucked away in its stable). Megan’s not so sure she trusts the manager. The horse Brinn rode flinched when he touched it and apparently horses are very sensitive to people (I’m not a big horse fan myself. I’m allergic to hay). So Megan decides to use Lacey as a resource since her daughter rides, too.

Back at the lab, Kate gets into autopsy by dissecting Brinn’s lungs since Megan is gone and so is Ethan. She’s trying to be helpful to make up for taking Lacey to Boston. She and Curtis find a foreign piece of matter in the tissue. Strange. Peter and Ethan have been sent back to the forest to see if they can prove Megan’s theory that Brinn was riding a horse before she died. Peter finds hoof marks in the dirt so it looks like Megan was right. It also helps that Ethan finds horse manure and Peter finds the horse. Megan has Lacey swing by the lab to look at safety vests and finds out that she really doesn’t want to go to Boston. Her friend’s birthday party is that weekend, but Todd doesn’t care. I think Megan is a little happy about this development. And she’s even more excited when Lacey points out that Brinn’s foot couldn’t have gotten caught in the stirrup because most riders use ones that release if you get caught. So it’s time for a field trip back to the stable with Lacey in toe. Lacey shows how the stirrup should work, but she also finds the one that Brinn was riding was tampered with. I really dislike the stable manager. He’s creepy.

Apparently I’m not the only one who finds him creepy. Brinn’s boyfriend, James, thought so, too. Apparently Mr. Creepy kept making passes at Brinn. Megan and Peter keep him talking while Bud inspects Brinn’s storage shed. Bud finds all kinds of trophies and ribbons and Lacey sneaks up on him. When Peter pops in to tell her that Megan is looking for her, Lacey remarks that she doesn’t understand how Brinn could have fallen off her horse. That is indeed the question of the hour. Megan gets back to the lab to find that Kate did the lung dissection. She’s a little short with her, but they do uncover an injection point in her hip (being drugged is the only way she could have fallen off the horse and gotten a blow to the stomach to force her stomach contents into her lungs). They head upstairs so Kate can take a sample to the lab for analysis when they find Todd waiting. He’s really pissed that Megan took Lacey to a crime scene, but he refuses to let Megan have Lacey for the weekend. Way to use the kid to make your ex hurt. Jerk.

Peter also swings by with some results from a white powder they found under Brinn’s fingernails. It was a mixture of horse feed and a compound used to treat pain in horses. Apparently her boyfriend’s horse was disqualified for having too much of it in its system. Now he’s not looking so grief-stricken after all. Turns out Brinn’s boyfriend amped up his own horse for an edge in the competition, but he denies killing Brinn. As Bud tells Megan he thinks Lacey wants to spend more time with her, she gets results from the lab. Someone shot Brinn up with horse anesthetic. So now it’s back to Zoe. Zoe denies she did anything to Brinn and that the argument a guard saw shortly before Brinn died was Zoe begging Brinn to stop calling her (Zoe’s) mom. Bud still wants to know how Zoe’s fingerprints ended up on the box of horse sedatives (with one vial missing). She says she was putting the sedatives away because Brinn asked her to. Some guy was trying to put a white horse down.

In the lab, Ethan is going through the horse’s waste and finds out that the horse was sick with an injured leg and Mr. Creep from the stables sold the horse to a guy who returned it when the horse couldn’t compete. Poor horse. So Brinn was trying to take care of it. On a coffee break, Kate is trying to convince Todd that Megan has changed. He doesn’t want to accept that and denies he invited Lacey to go with them because he’s afraid of losing her. Before Todd can counter her too much, Kate gets called back to the lab. The horse has all kinds of problems including arthritis, splints and someone filed its teeth down with silver nitrate to make it look younger. All signs once again point towards Mr. Creep.

Ethan and Peter find an empty bottle of the sedative that was in Brinn’s system and the syringe. Mr. Creep claims he got caught by Brinn and that he would stop and she could have the old horses for her prisoner program. The last time he saw the syringe, Brinn had it. I still don’t trust him. And I really don’t like Todd either. He lets Megan have Lacey for the weekend but balks when Megan says she wants Lacey every other weekend. He doesn’t stay long. Lacey calls Megan, complaining that Todd is late picking her up. And so, Megan goes and after some beating around the bush apologizes to Kate for be being so bitchy and thanks her for nudging Todd into letting Lacey stay. Unfortunately their happy moment is ruined when Curtis brings in the results of the syringe. There wasn’t enough in Brinn’s system to kill her.

So it’s back to the body to try and find more evidence. It comes in the form of glitter. And the manure at the scene didn’t belong to the horse Brinn was riding. Her boyfriend thought she was cheating on him with Mr. Creep and so he killed her. Later that evening, Peter stops by the morgue to tell Megan some of the prisoners who worked with Brinn were taking up a collection for a memorial service. And the program will still continue so Zoe can get a job when she gets out of prison. And Bud brings by her daughter. I think he finally believes people can change. We end with Megan and Todd telling/asking Lacey if she wants to spend more time with Megan, she can start with alternating weekends. Finally, some progress in Megan’s favor.

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