I find this episode interesting in the fact that it raises more questions than it answers. Was Nick wrong to nail Ray Bonita for that murder, or was he just doing his job? Was Ray wrong to kill out of revenge for the life he lost? These are a couple of the questions, and it's a bit mindbending to think about them. On one hand, Nick WAS just doing his job. All evidence seemed to point to Ray, so he got the conviction. Should he have dug further? Probably, but he was a rookie. On the other hand, Ray turning to murder to take his revenge is most certainly wrong.

But, the most refreshing thing about this episode is the fact that Nick actually gets to do something different this time. Namely, he's not running around the whole time, shouting, "I KNOW there's an Immortal involved here!" That routine gets a little tired.

As the episode opens, a man is playing pool when someone breaks into his place. He doesn't hear the intruder approach, but finds himself face to face with him shortly. The man takes him for a thief, and offers money, a big wad of it. "More." he says. The guy's a bit puzzled, but then the intruder makes himself know. "You ever hit a ball when you're in the zone?" I won't mention that that begs the question, "Are you in the zone if you're NOT hitting the ball?" Oh well. Anyway, the guy recognizes him as "that ballplayer" who got convicted of murder. And HE was the prosecutor in the case. He realizes this isn't going to be good, and tells the guy that it was "Wolfe", the guy who put him in jail. The ball player asks him if he got the letters he sent him from prison. He lies, saying he did, but Mr. Baseball knows it. The lawyer asks him what he wants, and gets his answer in the form of a bullet. "I want my life back."

Cut to...Nick walking along the street, having a bit of a peaceful day. In the background, we notice our ballplayer friend driving around. There's also someone tailing Nick. Nick notices he's got a tail, and grabs the guy. "I hope you don't do this for a living." Hehehe. The ballplayer sees the tail get burned, and drives off.

Meanwhile, Amanda is getting dinner ready. Seems she and Nick have something of a date planned. So, she's worked and slaved over a phone book and ordered fine take-out. This scene really lacks....something. As my wife puts it, the show hasn't quite gotten the timing down yet. Kinda like the first few episodes of "Friends". They were funny, but things just weren't quite moving properly yet. Here..we get some awkward dead space, as if somebody forgot a line or something. Oh well. Anyway, Nick doesn't show. Bummer.

So, where's Nick? Well, he's down at the station, finding out that Capt. Magnus put the tail on him. Carl tells Nick that the D.A. for his first case was just whacked. Nick remembers that case....flashback!

Six years earlier:

Nick is following leads in the murder of a baseball manager. He questions Ray Bonita (who just happens to be our ballplayer friend) about a certain drug test, and asks him about an argument with the manager. Ray admits he and the manager had words, but he says he didn't kill him. Nick, ever persistent, looks around, finding a bloody bat in Ray's bag. Some killers are just dumb that way. Ray freaks, but his friend Darryl promises to get him a lawyer. What a pal, eh?

So, Nick's first case was open and shut. Nice for him.

Back to Amanda. She's decided to go out since Nick isn't showing. She remarks on how she hasn't been stood up since D-Day, and it was Winnie Churchill who stood her up. Hehehe.

She goes downstairs, and Nick is just showing up. Interestingly, Amanda senses something amiss and asks what's up. This time, it's NICK who tells AMANDA that nothing's up. Usually it's the other way around. "Is it an Immortal?" "Uh, dunno Nick."

As Nick assures her there's nothing wrong, Ray drives up and tries to shoot and run over our beloved ex-cop. D'oh!!!

They go upstairs, and Amanda renews her questions. But, Nick tries to blow her off. Macho moron. She tells him whoever it is will keep coming. He comments that he needs the files on Bonita's case. Amanda makes a snide comment about how six years is "short-term" memory for her. She mentions she remembers every detail of a seventeen course meal from hundreds of years ago. Ummm...to compare apples to apples here, she'd have to remember every detail of a very mundane and normal meal. Cop stuff is what Nick lived and breathed for years...it might all start to run together after a time, even for an Immortal.

Anyway, Amanda offers to go in and swipe the records he needs, but Nick reminds her that Cindy Crawford isn't as popular downtown as Amanda is. Amanda reminds Nick that Cindy isn't as talented, either. Lucy clears her throat loudly, and they both get the picture. Who better to pull a heist in a police station than....Lucy?? O.....K.....

So, she puts on custodial gear, waltzes into the precinct, finds her way to Carl's office, and swipes the file, which is conveniently located on top of Carl's desk. Isn't that just nice? I won't even mention how much it chills me to think that security in a police station is half as bad as this scene makes it out to be. Oh, darnit, I went and mentioned it!

Back to business. Now we meet Ray's lady, Angie. She's closing up a restaurant as Ray sneaks in. She puts on some actually pretty kewl, haunting music, then screams as she sees Ray. She attacks him with a beeeg knife, but he's prepared. Of course, she was only reacting, not really trying to kill him. They embrace, and Ray lets out all the emotion he's stored up since he was put away. We get a flashback which is supposed to explain things.

Seems when he was first in prison, he was attacked with a knife (leaving him with a beauty of a scar on his cheek) and beaten. He fought back, likely killing his attacker. So, now he's a Bad Man. O.....K.....

Back to Amanda, Nick and Lucy. Lucy's recommending a vacation to the Bahamas, and Amanda asks why she's always planning to leave? Nick's looking through the files and finds something disturbing. The motive for Ray's crime was supposedly that he failed a drug screen and killed the Manager to cover it up. But, his prison drug screen was clean. Okay....so he was processed SO fast that drugs could possibly have still been in his system, if he ever HAD done drugs? O......K.......

The next day, Ray goes to see Darryl, the friend indeed. They're reminiscing about how Ray could have been a star. Well, Darryl IS a star now. Bummer. Nick shows up, and Ray pulls a gun, but Darryl stops him before Nick sees them. He rushes Ray off and talks to Nick. Nick tells Darryl they're thinking about reopening the case. At this, Darryl seems to no longer be worried about Ray taking shots at Nick, and tells him he's in the locker room.

Of course, Ray obligingly takes a few shots at Nick, while Nick shouts at him that he knows he was innocent. Nick comes out of hiding and they talk face to face. Ray says that it's too late, since he killed the D.A.

R: "There is no hope for me."
N: "You'll be alive."
R: "Prison is NOT living."

Outside, sirens are heard, and Ray thinks Nick doublecrossed him. Of course, he takes a few more shots at him. Nick, being the star, isn't hit.

Nick goes to talk to Carl about Ray, but he won't reopen the case. With the D.A. dead, they're taking a lot of heat. Nick thinks it's all his fault. Well, it probably is....not.

Amanda goes to the place where Angie works, and puts on a cop act. She tells Angie that Ray needs to start running, and just keep on running. She spots him playing some pool and walks right up to him. "Get out of town, Ray."

As she gets ready to leave the place, Nick walks up outside. She stalls him to keep him from seeing Ray (or the other way around). Ray and Angie talk about how they can't just run, because they don't have any money. Angie points out that Darryl has money.

Outside, Amanda's trying to get Nick to back off things. He feels responsible, because he knows he put away and innocent man. "I owe him." Interesting, because it's a sentiment echoed by Amanda in "The Unknown Soldier". She was willing to take responsibility for what she did so long ago. Nick is willing to do whatever it takes to make it up to Ray.

Amanda's attempt to distract Nick falls apart when Ray goes driving off. A chase ensues, and Ray takes a few more bad shots at Nicky. He ends up at Darryl's place, asking for money. Darryl goes right along with him, giving him money, then pulls a gun. Ray tries to draw, but he doesn't make it. Nick shows up in short order, Darryl making up a story about it being self-defense. Trouble is, there were no witnesses, and no solid motive. Bummer.

Nick goes to Carl again, telling him that six years ago, there were two players good enough to make that team, but only one made it. Darryl switched the drug screens and let Ray take the fall. Still, Carl isn't budging. I guess it's too much to ask for him to admit they were wrong. Nick sums it up for him. "We killed him."

Nick and Amanda have a little talk about what truth is, but I won't delve into it here. But, Amanda sums it up with this statement: "Sometimes the best way to get the truth is to lie." Hehehe. What's she mean by that? Check it out....

Amanda shows up at Darryl's place, claiming to be Ray's sister. She tells him what she knows, but he doesn't take it to nicely. He tells her that Ray wasn't supposed to plead the case out. He was supposed to go to court and get acquitted. But, he plead to a lesser charge and was put away. Oh well. He offers Amanda money, but she keeps upping the price on him. So, he grabs a bat and starts thrashing on his place. Amanda goes along, breaking a few things herself, having fun. He figures he'll say she attacked him with the bat (yeah, a jury'd buy that!) and he shot her in self-defense. He pulls his gun and plugs her, then calls the police. But, when he turns around, she's gone.

Next scene, Nick is playing the tape for Carl. Finally, the evidence is in, and Carl can be a good guy.

The tag scene is good. Nick is at Amanda's place, reclining on a sofa with her. He's regretting that he took a good man and turned him into a thug. "Someone died because I made a mistake." Whoa there, cowboy! Yes, Nick's mistake put Ray in prison. Yes, bad things happened there. But, nobody killed that D.A. but Ray. Until he pulled that trigger, he could have made things right. The term "justifiable homicide" applies to self-defense only, in my opinion. Other than that, there is never any valid reason for one person to take the life of another (apart from war, maybe). If Ray had put away the gun and enlisted the help of that D.A., he might have gotten his conviction overturned. Yes, he had TRIED that, but there's nothing like a face-to-face meeting to move things along. Especially when you're a convicted murderer! But, instead of trying to make his life better, he went for revenge. In my book, that makes him a bad guy, and not worthy of Nick's regrets.

But, the regrets are still there. Nick's human. He can't help feeling that even though he didn't make Ray a killer, he at least put him on the path that led to that. I like Amanda's closing comment.

A: "The best people I've known didn't always do the right thing, they just wanted to." I think she's talking about Dunkie!

And, I like Nick's reply, and Amanda's lack of an answer...

N: "Tell me it gets easier after the first thousand years." Nope.

So, we come to the end of this episode. It was decent, but not spectacular by any means. Still, it was thought-provoking. Like I said, I liked the fact that Nick wasn't running around looking for Immortals the whole episode. Comments? Questions? Email me.

- AM