On the latest episode of “Murder in the First,†Blunt’s hubris and general douche-baggery finally caught up to him, and it was time to pay the piper in “Burning Woman.†Though the title probably applied as much to Hildy as Blunt, it could well have been titled “Burning Man,†given the disastrous outcome of Blunt doing the stupidest thing ever and skipping out on bail to go to the festival of the same name- where, naturally, many caught him on camera, including arch-nemesis and former employee Jeremy Leonard. Faster than you can say “#richwhitepeopleproblems,†Blunt was out ten million dollars and went directly back to jail, did not pass go and said goodbye to all that money. Whoops!
Even worse, his defense attorney, Warren Daniels (James Cromwell), dropped out of the case altogether, recusing himself as Blunt’s lead defense, but not without taking a nice chunk of change his own damn self, as lawyers are wont to do. About the only one actually looking out for the guy was head of security, retired cop Jimmy Salter (Peter Onorati), who managed to quell an attempt by the cops to set-up Blunt for a drug buy from Milan Gunn (Michael Aurelio) by smelling it a mile away and calling Terry and company out on their blatant attempt to entrap Blunt.
Not faring much better at first was Hildy, who found herself being investigated by Internal Affairs, and if that wasn’t bad enough, being sued by the very woman whose life she likely saved, Theresa Ramos (Corina Calderon)- who also got her son, D-Hop (Michael Padilla) to lie about it. Harsh times. But thankfully, Terry talked some sense into the kid, and he recanted, much to his mother’s chagrin- and potential windfall bank account. Charges dropped, and case against her disproven, Hildy was quickly reinstated and allowed to pretty much pick up where she left off, with a little therapy and “retraining†to do and that was about it.
That was also about it for the episode, save a few interesting moments here and there, like Blunt’s sexy virtual reality scenario (with a surprise cameo form Hildy and- eep! – dead Cindy), what looked like Steven Weber shirtless dancing around in glow paint (a sight I could have done without, honestly), Daniels giving Blunt a full-on reality check, and, of course, Hildy and Terry kissing. So, shirtless former “Wings†star notwithstanding, some pretty good stuff.
I like the way the show keeps you guessing about what’s going to happen next, and who’s guilty of what. Here, Jeremy became part of the mix again in an unexpected way, and it made me wonder if maybe even Ivana (Bess Rous) was in on it and had helped Jeremy set Blunt up on purpose, to further incriminate him. Maybe Ivana’s even using the VR headgear in some nefarious way, i.e. to hypnotize or compromise him in some oddball way. Or is that too much of a stretch?
Also still in the running was Cindy’s estranged husband Mark Strauss, who, from the looks of next week’s preview, might have left the bar he claimed he was in at the time of his ex’s death. This, of course, means he might have done it as well. I’m still not entirely sold on the guy who confessed to killing Blunt’s dad, either, so he could be involved somehow as well. Ditto David Hertzberg, aka Richard Schiff’s character. Lots of potential suspects on this show, and I still maintain that Blunt being the perp is way too obvious.
All in all, a solid episode that managed some respectable drama outside of the main case at hand in Hildy’s situation, which was nice. Plus, the whole “Burning Man†sequence was a lot of fun, and fairly bizarre, what with the VR mask and what have you. What did you think of “Murder in the First†this week? Who do you think did it? What did you make of the festival scene? Is Blunt a complete idiot or what? Will Terry and Hildy make a go of things? Was that really Weber in that scene dancing in hippie make-up? What the what? Sound off on these things and more down below!