Raines Recapped pt. 7

Again...just putting Green Eyez's great recap in normal font:

He’s at the home of a guy who can authenticate the comics. A “Forensic Artist” who I think had to draw a picture of a Hispanic suspect in the first episode, and drew Erik Estrada. Funny, because this guy was also on Numbers this past week. Raines immediately starts making fun of this guy, who has a bald head and a gray ring of hair around the outside. In other words, he’s no kid. “So, this is the Forensic Artist’s Secret Lair”. Mr. FA says “one”. Raines snickers and sees some comic drawings up on the walls and says, “wow you did these?” FA: Yes, why? Raines: They’re good!. FA: Two. Raines, finally picking up on what FA is saying: one what? Two what? FA is not happy about the put-downs, so one more, and Raines goes home empty-handed. Raines backs off. FA explains that he’s an artist, not a collector and he should have gone to someone who grades comics. Raines offers up Wally and Mr. FA agrees. A woman’s nagging voice floats down the stairs and asks “Stanley” who he has down there. Turns out it’s not his wife…it’s his mom, so I guess his office is the basement of his mom’s house.

Stanley examines the comics. He says they’re usually worth 5K but these are worthless because they’re fakes. Mom continues to nag Stanley about who it is and he yells back that it’s the guy from the P.B.A. picnic with the shoulders she likes. Raines looks all flattered, asking if his mom has the hots for him. Stanley: She’s losing her mind.

OK, apparently much time was spent making the covers look authentic, but they barely tried with the inside. Raines wants to know if it would work if they were just “graded and slabbed” aka: put it in that case thingy where you can’t open it until you buy it (and even then I doubt someone would open it since they said it decreases in value) but FA explains that graders are like priests and would never certify a fake. Raines shows FA one of the “slabs” the comics came in and it has Wally’s sticker at the top. FA is incredulous that Wally would sell fakes since he’s “a Jedi-level nerd. He’d never go to the dark side.” Raines speculates that maybe someone forced him to.

Raines is back at the office with cop lady on the “Geek Farm” website. He sees something called “The Dragon’s Fangs” which looks like what it sounds like. A big metal scary-looking thing with four very sharp edges at the ends (think Batman’s “bat signal” shape and you can grab it in the middle.). Raines doesn’t remember seeing it in the store. He had thought that Jimmy was stabbed twice, but maybe not, and with that Jimmy reappears to demonstrate that Wally hit him once with the Dragon Fangs. Raines asks cop lady for a warrant for Wally Anderson for murder.

Wally is in the interrogation room. He now comes clean that he saw Jimmy that night, not because he was working, but because he fired him…over the fake comics. Raines confronts Wally, saying he thought he could turn Jimmy’s life around, treated him like a son, and he repaid Wally with the fake comics. Raines says that the fake comics would ruin Wally’s career and Jimmy didn’t care and it was “too late to save him” because the damage was done. That he used Wally. Wally keeps insisting it’s not true and that Jimmy was a good kid. That it was the other “losers” who made Jimmy copy the comics. Wally found out because they sold one to a collector in Van Nuys who could tell it was a fake. It was traced back to Wally and Wally confronted Jimmy. Jimmy told Wally about the drug debt and Wally agreed to pay the money if Jimmy destroyed the rest of the comic books. Then he told Jimmy he never wanted to see him again, and he never did. Wally starts to choke up.

Jack is in with Samantha the Therapist. I guess mom talked him into it. Jack does a drawing and I can tell from Samantha’s reaction when she finally looks at it, that she’s a bit disturbed. Jack describes it as a robot with 8 arms (which he’s drawn with a scary face and a bunch of black crayon shaded over him) and is about to attack the kid who’s sleeping. Samantha points out that it’s gonna be hard for the kid to fight back because the robot blends into the darkness. Jack explains that it’s a trap, because the kid is not a real kid, but a bomb in the shape of a kid (oy). Samantha asks for one where the bomb kid blows up the robot, but Jack explains that it wouldn’t really happen and that he’s too tired to draw another one.

Raines drives Jack home and wants to talk about his session with Samantha, but Jack says Samantha told him he didn’t have to tell anyone. Raines switches gears and says he remembers the day Jack was born and how his dad put on the siren and the lights and raced over the station to show everyone pictures because he was the “most beautiful thing he’d ever seen in his whole life”. Jack says he saw those pictures and he “was all puffy with a pointy head.” Raines says, “that’s what I said! Yes you were!” Perfect!

He tells Jack that his dad said he was a good man, but that Jack was gonna grow up to be a great man. Jimmy reappears confronting Raines and saying it’s why he won’t let him change. That if Raines keeps him “nice Jimmy” he doesn’t have to deal with the thought that he turned out bad because he didn’t have a father. At this point Raines turns on the radio, trying to drown out Jimmy who keeps getting louder as Raines makes the music louder. Jimmy goes on to say that Raines is afraid the same thing will happen to Jack if he doesn’t step up and do something, but he doesn’t think he’s up to it. Loud rock music is BLARING from the radio and Jack finally turns it off saying, “that’s really bad for your ears, man”. Raines is going mad as Jimmy continues to berate him, asking where Charlie is and confirming that Charlie is in his head just like Jimmy is, and that if Charlie was worried about the way he’s taking care of Jack that he’d be seeing him every second of the day.

Jack brings Raines back to reality, saying that Samantha didn’t make him say anything in the session and he could just draw. That he knew what she was doing, but it was OK because he knows “the truth comes out when you draw”. DING! The lightbulb goes on above Raines’ head.

He goes back to Jimmy’s apartment and grabs the sketches. Jimmy’s there asking what he’s doing. Raines is betting that whoever killed Jimmy is in his sketches.

Raines goes to Wally’s and shows him the sketches or “panels” for the comic book they were working on together. Since Jimmy was the artist and Wally was the writer, Raines asks him to speculate as to what the story is going is going on in the panels, even though Wally hadn’t seen them yet.

Wally interprets that Payback is being attacked by an evil force. Some sort of dark sea creature, but he refuses to submit.

The evil force threatens to destroy an elder and that the elder is drawn “sympathetically” and is someone Payback cares about.

Payback is making himself stronger. He armors himself and goes after the evil force. He attacks it.

Raines asks him to do another take on it, only in this case, Payback is Jimmy, and a dark force is attacking Jimmy because somebody wants those copies of the comics and threatened to come after the sympathetic elder, aka Wally (Raines notes the beard on the character which Wally also sports). Then Jimmy ingests the toxic waste, (flashes on Jimmy getting high for the first time in 6 months) and armors himself (flash on Jimmy getting the Dragon fangs from behind the counter) and went after the dark force (flash on Jimmy chasing a guy we can’t see) who Jimmy drew as a sea creature because it would be too on the nose if he just drew…Surfer. (flash on Jimmy taking down Surfer). The entire fight is shown in sort of a red tint, as if in a comic book. Raines’ VO saying that Surfer was “the muscle” and “the violent one”. He was a lot stronger than Jimmy. While Jimmy was “the smart one” that night he was stoned out of his mind. And so it ended the way it does in real life. (the fight ends with Surfer stabbing Jimmy). Wally says he knows Jimmy was stoned, but if he knew Surfer was dangerous, why did he go after him? Jimmy reappears, crying. Raines looks at Wally and says, “to protect you”. That Wally was the closest thing he had to a dad. So many emotions cross Wally’s face in a moment. Fear, shock, guilt and finally, anger. “Can you get this bastard?” Raines looks worried.

Raines has got the four stoner dudes in the interrogation room. Surfer is not there. He asks them if they know why they’re there. Jerry of the blonde spiked hair expresses that he’s hungry. Raines: munchies later. He asks them again if they know why they’re there. One stoner wants to know where Surfer is.

Surfer is just outside the interrogation room, watching this all go down through the one-way mirror. He’s not happy to be there.

Raines tells stoner guys that he understands they have a code to not tell cops anything, so he’ll just say what he thinks and if they agree, they don’t say anything. Sounds like a plan! Raines goes through the whole story about how Jimmy was counterfeiting comics and Surfer saw there was big money in it and pushed him to do more and when Jimmy refused, he was killed.

They show Surfer again watching the interrogation.

Stoner dudes won’t give it up so Raines asks them if they know why Jimmy had quit smoking pot. They’re sure it’s a mental breakdown, but Raines says it’s because Jimmy had been busted 6 months previously for possession and he became an informant and was wearing a wire.

Surfer is trying to yell through the glass not to listen to Raines. The other cops hold him back, saying they can’t hear him.

Stoner guys say they’re not on the tape, but Raines says that Surfer is going to testify that they killed Jimmy.

Needless to say, Surfer is starting to really lose it now, screaming that they shouldn’t listen to Raines because he’s lying. A cop screams at him to shut up.

Jerry the wastoid hears this and asks what that sound was. Raines says it was the captain beating a confession out of somebody. They start to look nervous. They’re definitely cracking at this point.

The most sober of the bunch insists they had nothing to do with Jimmy dying. Raines brings out this little digital tape recorder and says you can hear Jimmy fighting for his life and that at the end it gets real real quiet and “I swear, you can hear Jimmy breathing his last breath” and threatens to play it. The Dizzy Gillespie dude looks really confused. Raines is saved from more bluffing by one of the guys telling him not to play it. One of the other guys confesses Surfer did it on his own.

Surfer begins to lose his mind in the other room and calls the guy a “putz”. Heh. The cops take hold of him and handcuff him.

One of the stoner guys says they didn’t know it happened until Surfer came back with blood on his arm. Apparently Jimmy got in one blow. They show Surfer’s arm and sure enough, there’s a big ol’ scar there.

Jerry the wastoid earnestly says he can give Raines the murder weapon.

Stoner dude tells him Surfer told him to dump it.

Jerry: It’s a collectible, man!

As Surfer is being carted away, we see from his POV Raines turning around and giving him this little bye bye wave. Surfer looks miserable. Yay!

Back at the Geek Farm, Jimmy’s artwork is being displayed all in color. Wally is saying “Dark Horse” may want to publish it. Jimmy’s gf Jolie is there and so is Jack who says the drawings are “tight”. Wally brings Jolie over to show her the cover of the comic book, whe she claims she never saw. It shows “Payback – The Beginning and there’s an Angel taking up most of the left side of he page. Wally asks Jolie if the Archangel looks familiar. It definitely resembles Jolie, only there’s a halo instead of the scarf. Jolie turns to Raines and says she told him he wasn’t a bad guy. Raines says he never doubted it for a second.

Jack comes up an asks Raines if he can have a comic and he says he’ll get it for him, along with his favorite when he was a kid “Tiny Mighty Titan”. Jack’s all, yeah, thanks but no thanks. Raines says he’s gonna get it for him AND make him read it out loud unless…Jack can grab the comic from him. Little Jack starts leaping into the air trying to get the comic and Raines teases him, saying he’s not jumping very high and raising and lowering it, finally letting Jack grab it. Raines looks over and sees Jimmy looking all teary and sentimental, with a sketch pad he places on the counter. As Raines approaches, Jimmy disappears, but his sketchbook remains on the counter. Raines turns it around and it’s a sketch of him with Jack on his tip-toes, just as he got a hold of the comic book. Jack comes over and takes Raines’ hand, which is now sitting on an empty counter. That little hand in Raines’ big ol’ hand just…well…left this recapper blubbering like a leetle gurl. Raines asks where they’re going. Jack answers “to the movies”. Raines says, “you and I”? Jack says “mm hmmm”.

The end.

Ok, so I finally caught an episode of Raines. As you know I love Jeff Goldblum and after reading the intriging recaps by Green eyez, I could'nt wait to watch it.

Well, here was my take on it. (This was the new episode this week about the child rape/murder )
Also loved the creative show intro montage..that was very cool. Jeff looks good with salt and pepper hair, too. Is aging well. His suit looked too small for him, though. Doubt it was supposed to be part of the character's MO-so don't know what that was about.

I had a problem though with his delivery of lines being flat in this episode.
I get that this is his interpretation of the character's troubled, dark personality, but I just did'nt think his super dry deadpan delivery quite cut it considering the hideous nature of the crime that was being investigated. Just something about his performance seemed insincere and dead. No pun intended.

The little girl that played the murder victim was as cute as they come, but not a very good actress I'm afraid. She just seemed forced and artificial IMO or maybe it was just her lines and the way her character was written.
The popping in and out of dead people at all the wrong times seemed lame and unbelievable to me. It also was distracting and irritating. Did'nt seem like it flowed well with the story line.

The little girl's father and the pedofile suspect (played Steve on Sex in the City) were both very good and delivered convincing, riviting performances.

Yes, there were some witty lines here and there that made me smile a few times that Raines delivered flawlessly. But, it was not enough to keep me from having to turn the show off. The subject matter about the child rape and killing just was too awful for me to continue watching. Maybe, I am just on overload after the Virgina Tech massacre, but I could'nt go there last night. I guess I realized I am not big on grotesque murder/crime shows these days. I get enough of that watching the news.

I agree the show is trying to be creative. But, the premise of the dead folks coming back to help solve the crime has been overdone. It is hard to pull off the dead victims popping in and out for the writers to make it smooth and edgy vs. hokey and tired.

Green Eyez, was this just a bad episode or have you seen some of these problems in other episodes? I will give it one more try if it was just an episode that was substandard. Maybe I am just too critical of network shows. So many of them just have that underlying formula TV writing feel to me.

Well, you know I'm a huge fan of the show, so I'm assuming you caught a bad one. I haven't seen the latest episode, so when I get home, I'll review it and be able to give you a better answer.

It's funny what you said about the little girl, because in the Raines forums on TwoP, they praised the casting of the cop's son (in the last episode) because of how real he was and unprecocious.

You may also be suffering from not seeing this show from the beginning. It may take another one to get into the groove of his character. Again, not having seen the episode, I can't say for sure.

I LOVED it last night! Yes, child rape/murder is always very distrubing, but I did not find this episode anywhere near as upsetting as I have seen this difficult subject portrayed on shows like any of the CSIs or L&Os or even TV movies. I really love the way Goldbloom plays this character. I think he is right on the money as someone who is both brilliant mind detective and perhaps losing mind detective. I don't find the dead people popping in and out a problem at all since they are figments of his imagination. I actually really liked the little girl very much. I think this is a really creative, interesting and unique show. I am SOOOOOOOO over the CSI's. I stopped watching all of them when this season began. Raines is currently the only crime drama I am watching.

YAY! FC! I guess it's all about perception.

I think Goldblum is usually on the money, so I was surprised when Luca said he was off the mark. Glad to hear it lived up to the hype I've been giving it!

I watch the L&O's and YES, it's all very dramatic and disturbing and heavy-handed. Like you said, to bring some (appropriate) light-heartedness to a heavy subject is pretty welcome. If the respect is still there, then it's acceptable. Like, yeah I know it's a serious case, but we don't have to walk around being MAUDLIN and UPSET. Just...respectful and solve the case.

I really like this show. I hope it comes back next season. Does anyone know?
I think CSI has had one of the best seasons ever. I love the original one , the other two not so much. David Caruso cannot act his way out of a wet paper bag.
I love Monk also it is a fun crime show.

Oh Aerwin I love Monk also!! I just don't think of it is a crime drama. It's a crime comedy! AND it is never too grusome. That's what got to me about the CSIs. Just too much blood. I do think the original one is by far the best and I probably would still watch that one if it was not up against Grey's. LOVE William Peterson! The other two CSIs don't come close in my book. Maybe I will catch some of the reruns of that one over the summer since you say it was a good season.

I hope Raines comes back too. Maybe I will go hunting around later to see if there is any info on how it is doing and what it's fate may be. Sadly, I don't think Friday nights are the best nights ratings wise.

OH NOZ! I just read that this Friday night is the season finale of Raines that will mark my 4th episode and now it will be gone for the summer. I have no idea if it will come back. I hope so and I hope we know soon.

I knew a medic on CSI and went to a taping at a really nice house. I locked eyes with WP a couple of times. He's quite good-looking in person. I've loved him since "Manhunter". Edward Norton (who I usually totally LOVE) just couldn't summon up the same anguish WP did.

My friend had commented how much better WP was and Edward was too young for the role. After watching Manhunter again, I had to agree.

Sorry to hear Raines is already going on hiatus. I'll check on TwoP to see if it's renewed. Hopefully you may be able to catch back episodes somewhere. I didn't even see the pilot.

Oh, I loved WP in Manhunter too!

I found a site that has two min. catch-up clips. I hope you can find full episodes to watch or download.

I saw the some of the pilot. I was in and out of the room. Them I missed two weeks and caught the rest.