Motive - General Discussion

[David T. Cole]

Canadian airdate: 2014.03.06

 

 

Detectives Flynn and Vega investigate a suspected suicide victim who may have had some unwelcome help ending his life. The victim had been methodically looking for someone before his death, and finding out for whom he was searching will lead the detectives to the motive. But Angie's focus is compromised when Cross joins the team as the new commander.

 

[David T. Cole]

A seemingly straightforward case of self-defense during a home invasion turns out to be more complicated than originally thought when a mother (Jennifer Beals) goes to extreme lengths to protect her drug-addicted son. Meanwhile, tensions flare when Cross asserts his authority and Angie pushes back.

[David T. Cole]

A stunning socialite drowns after a celebration aboard her wealthy husband’s new yacht.

[David T. Cole]

Someone is deconstructed by a construction worker.

[David T. Cole]

Angie takes an aggressive approach to solve the murder of a high school student; Lucas and Sung's relationship gets personal.

 

Original US airdate is June 18, 2014

Edited June 18, 2014 by yeswedo
added description

[David T. Cole]

 

When Sgt. Cross helps Flynn search for a missing bartender, Flynn feels guilty for leaving Vega out of the action.

 

Original US airdate June 25, 2014

Edited June 26, 2014 by yeswedo
added description

[David T. Cole]

 

Angie and Vega are forced to leave his father's wedding to investigate a skydiving jump gone wrong and tries to regain Vega's trust by sharing information abut Sgt. Cross.

 

Original US air date is July 9, 2014

Edited July 10, 2014 by yeswedo
added description and air date

[David T. Cole]

 

A man is left unconscious after what seems to be an erotic encounter gone wrong; Angie calls in a professional favor that turns out to be costly; Lucas has a difficult time at home.

 

Original US air date July 16, 2014

Edited July 12, 2014 by yeswedo
added description

[David T. Cole]

 

Flynn and Vega investigate a kitchen explosion; Angie shares the truth about her past and that of Sgt. Cross.

 

Original US air date July 23, 2014

Edited July 22, 2014 by yeswedo
added description

[David T. Cole]

Your guest cast topic!

[Lisin]

 

A murder mystery author is poisoned; Lucas' personal life takes a hit; Angie gets a nice surprise.

 

Original US air date August 20, 2014

Edited August 19, 2014 by yeswedo
added US air date

[Trey]

ABC season premiere was last night, May 21, 10 pm.

 

Was Cross introduced last season?  I really hate when they have "issues" with the star of the show.  Angie certainly has no use for him.  Do we know their backstory?

 

Crime of the week was okay, as sad as most of these episodes are.  Dave(?), the kid's grandfather certainly had the perp pegged as a bad guy even before he knew he was a killer.

[walnutqueen]

That was a decent start to the new season.  The crime, while convoluted, was really interesting, and I am still loving the great partnership between Flynn and Vega.

 

Not sure what to make of Cross - there seems to be some history we're missing out on for now ...

[Dagny]

Ignoring Cross for the moment. I'm just glad they didn't bring back her kid.  The fun part for me is to try to figure out which person is going to get the victim or killer tag when the show starts.

[Grammaeryn]

I'm just glad they didn't bring back her kid. 

Ugh, no kidding! Talk about getting hit by the bad adolescence stick... My impression of Cross is too tied up with being happy to see a former Alphas actor. Vega is Latino Aiden Quinn in my head. These kind of murders usually make me space out and get lost but it's to the writers credit that they were able to create three distinct male characters (one who only was seen once).

[shapeshifter]

Still not enough Louis Ferreira for me, but it looks like they may be working on that, and I like Kristin Lehman and Roger Cross (who must be on a TV set somewhere in the world at any given moment).

I'm not crazy about the guy from Alphas, but that's okay, because we aren't supposed to be, right?

And hello, Colonel Maybourne from SG1 (he played the Grandpa).

[threebluestars]

I really love all of the characters on this show - their interactions are great. Flynn and Vega have such a great partnership.

 

Love seeing a who's who of local actors too lol.

[millahnna]

I really liked the kid in this one (the "person of interest" who wrote the mercury story).  Other than when he stupidly confronted his teacher while standing with his back to a stairwell, I thought he showed a lot of smarts.  Young and overeager but still a nifty character.

 

I still haven't gotten over my amusement at the Alphas cast reunion.

[shapeshifter]

In addition to the Canadian v U.S. original air date confusion, reruns and other special scheduling are bound to further confuse.

For instance, if you missed the "Yankee Doodle" Season 2, episode 1 premier of "Raw Deal," on Wednesday, you can catch a rerun of it tonight, Sunday, May 25, 10 p.m. EDT, 9 p.m. CDT.

[Trey]

I wish they would show it a little earlier in the evening, since 10 pm is so late for me.   I can catch it at 7 pm from the east coast, but i would prefer  8 or 9 pm.

[Mama No Life]

This was my first episode....never saw this show last season.  Sounds like I have some catching up to do, but I really like Vega so I may try to stay with it for a while.  Anything crucial I need to know?

[Lisin]

 

A major case from the past resurfaces; Angie thinks her and Cross should come clean.

 

Original US air date August 27, 2014

Edited August 24, 2014 by yeswedo
added US air date

[shapeshifter]

If Louis Ferreira's beard gets any longer, I'll be worried he's going over to Duck Dynasty. More Vega, please.

When H!TG Martin Donovan/Miles Balfour put the tracker on his wife's car, you could clearly see Beautiful Brit[ish Columbia] on the license plate.

So for once the victim sort of deserved to die.

[Trey]

Yeah the victim was a really rotten character but killing him was going too far.  Reporting him to the police for selling drugs and for extortion, and/or kicking the living shit out of him would have accomplished the same thing.  The mother also didn't seem to think her son had any responsibility in his own problems.

 

They get Jennifer Beals to guest star, have her at a dance studio, and then she doesn't even dance.  That looked like a pretty high end dance studio, no kiddie tap classes there I'll bet.

 

I was disappointed that Angie and Cross had a relationship thing in the past although that was certainly what they were hinting at.  I was hoping it was a work related problem, some event where he didn't have her back.  That would have been more interesting.  Whatever he did it must have been bad for her to still be carrying such baggage about it.

[SonofaBiscuit]

Angie and Vega have some lovely partner/friend chemistry.  You can really see how much trust the two of them have for each other. 

 

I'm hoping Angie's son was shipped off permanently and won't show up at all this season.  He was kind of annoying.

 

This show must do pretty well in Canada as they seem to have a lot of recognizable guest stars.  I saw online that it was renewed in Canada, so I hope that we get the third season here in the States.  It's an entertaining summer show.

[shapeshifter]

Is the title of the episode a reference to anything specific?

[millahnna]

The killer/victim opening worked particularly well.  It's a bit I've always dug on this show but this week there was a split second where I thought they were ditching it in flashback land.  It gave me this kind of low simmering dread during the following scene while I waiting to see which of the two was the victim. It's too bad the characters hadn't been on the show a bit longer to lend some more weight but I'm a fan of both actors from Alphas so it worked for me. 

[Trey]

It was a title of a 1939 movie.  The blurb from  imdb says: A boxer flees believing he has committed a murder while he was drunk.

 

The mother in this episode seemed to feel that she was forced into murdering the drug dealer to save her son.  But she did have other options. 

 

Anyway, that's what I think the title means.

[Dagny]

When the killer's son showed up, for a second, I panicked that it was Angie's kid. Now that I'm years away from being a teenager, I still can't believe my mom didn't try to drown me.

[millahnna]

So say we all.  I apologize on my birthday every year.

[shapeshifter]

And Mother's Day.

The actor who plays Angie's son is listed as being in episode 12 this season. Hopefully he's just popping in to say goodbye before he moves to China to work as an English tutor, or maybe to travel around Europe.

Edited May 30, 2014 by shapeshifter

[yeswedo]

Cross should be signed up for Management 101. He was smarter in his first episode and seemed to be trying to ease into the department. This episode he's issuing orders and not listening, with the exception of with the younger detective (Brian?). There's blame on both sides but that's not the best way to take over leading a new team.

 

The case was interesting. When the son showed up at the police station was when I figured out the motive. When Flynn and Vega first showed up at the house and were told the husband killed the victim I thought I had not been paying attention when the killer was revealed, not thinking the husband was covering for the wife. I need to stop multitasking.

[yeswedo]

This was my first episode....never saw this show last season.  Sounds like I have some catching up to do, but I really like Vega so I may try to stay with it for a while.  Anything crucial I need to know?

 

It's a fairly straightforward procedural. The first season had some back story on Flynn - single mom with a son in his late teens who was not a very interesting character. I think it should be fairly easy to pick up without seeing the first season.

[shapeshifter]

Cross should be signed up for Management 101... This episode he's issuing orders and not listening, with the exception of with the younger detective (Brian?). There's blame on both sides but that's not the best way to take over leading a new team.

If he continues to act like my sociopathic boss, I will have to mute him. Hey, that might be therapeutic.

[Trey]

 

The case was interesting. When the son showed up at the police station was when I figured out the motive.

 

I knew it was about the son then but I thought it was a gay thing, not a drug thing.

 

Re Cross's bad attitude, I even said to Mr.Trey that if he didn't treat all his staff equally he shouldn't be a supervisor.  I hope it was just for that one episode that he was so uneven because that will get old really, really soon.

[Mama No Life]

Great, thanks!

[shapeshifter]

I knew it was about the son then but I thought it was a gay thing, not a drug thing.

Me too. And before that, I assumed he was the mother's young lover.

[NJ RadioGuy]

And I'm out. I've never liked disjointed storytelling but I can put up with it if it's good storytelling. I really don't like to know who the killer upfront but was willing to stick it out because the two leads were interesting characters. Unfortunately this show has become a hot mess and shows few signs of evolving. As an ex-Pat Canadian I really wanted to stick around but the clichés are just too anvilicious.

 

Why would any educated upper-middle-class or wealthy couple say word one to any police once it became clear that they were being investigated? Have their attorney earn his pay. Put me on her jury and she'd walk. Oh, and those fibres falling into the wound? Yeah, they became dislodged and fell a few minutes after the fatal shot. And the range? All of a sudden it's suspicious that you keep current with your weapon? I go to the range weekly, so that makes me a killer? I think not. Just....ugh. And I won't even get into the idiot ex-lover/new-boss crap. Buhbye, Motive.

[shapeshifter]

This episode premier starts in the U.S. tonight in 1 hour and 45 minutes: 9 CDT, 10 EDT

[Trey]

I very often have sympathy for the killer but Damian was every bit as bad as Kurt, the one who killed his sister.  If he wanted revenge he should have stuck to killing Kurt - that would have been understandable (although still very illegal), but planning to kill his wife (and ending up killing Kurt's girlfriend) was just very bad.  He could have gone to St. Lucia to investigate his sister's death and maybe he would have come up with something so Kurt could be charged.  And now his poor mother has lost her daughter and her son.

 

Nobody was particularly likeable in last night's bunch of characters.

 

My favourite line of the show was Vega, at the end, telling Kurt they found the $50,000 bribe so they'd be seeing him soon.  I love Vega.

 

Why did they even start this sorry relationship story line?  It is boring and doesn't put Angie in a very good light.  Doesn't do much for Cross either but it's worse for Angie.

 

The actress playing Meredith reminded me of Sarah Michelle Gellar so I dreamed about vampires and monsters last night.

[shapeshifter]

My favourite line of the show was Vega, at the end, telling Kurt they found the $50,000 bribe so they'd be seeing him soon.  I love Vega.

 

Why did they even start this sorry relationship story line?  It is boring and doesn't put Angie in a very good light.  Doesn't do much for Cross either but it's worse for Angie.

I love Vega/Louis Ferreira too. He was looking very spiffy in his fitted suit jacket and shades. I'm guessing the purpose of the ex is so Vega can swoop in and make everything better after the Cross situation goes south and implodes.

[Mama No Life]

Yes, I adore Vega!! 

 

Agree that Angie isn't doing herself any favors with the way she's handling the Cross situation.  If she hadn't been so outwardly hostile towards him when he arrived, no one would be watching them now.  The only thing he's doing is performing the job a bit differently than her previous boss.  That happens...be a professional and deal with it.

 

I thought they gave too much away too early in this ep...I like knowing the killer and the victim but we knew right away that Damian was framing someone. Didn't take much to figure out it was revenge for the sister....

[DrLar]

They also took their sweet time to begin suspecting Damien, I guess being ex-military he covered his tracks well until they found out he was using a fake name.

 

The '84 Olds survives another day... (not to nitpick but that car should be a collectible and not being driven every day).

 

So I guess we'll see "Tony Almeida" in another episode but the premise of the show will be lost, unless he kills another

[yeswedo]

 

I very often have sympathy for the killer but Damian was every bit as bad as Kurt, the one who killed his sister.  If he wanted revenge he should have stuck to killing Kurt - that would have been understandable (although still very illegal), but planning to kill his wife (and ending up killing Kurt's girlfriend) was just very bad. He could have gone to St. Lucia to investigate his sister's death and maybe he would have come up with something so Kurt could be charged.  And now his poor mother has lost her daughter and her son.

 

Flynn's line at the end that Alicia also had a mother seemed to make Damien realize that for the first time. And that he shifted so quickly from planning to kill Meredith to Alicia was really cold blooded.

 

Hoping Flynn will back off the hostility to Cross now that she realizes others are talking about them. And why was it a surprise they are talking? She has not hidden the hostility and she works with detectives! They are trained to be observant about stuff like that. The show has minimized her son this season (so far), I'd rather they didn't replace that with relationship drama.

 

Shout out to The Good Wife with a married couple named Peter and Alicia who have a marriage in name only.

[UncleChuck]

It's 2014, for goodness sake!!!  Don't these Vancouver fools know that you cannot solve crimes by just asking a million questions and doing a bunch of routine police work???   Where is the staff of lab rats who can solve a crime based on one seed that came from a plant that only grows on the side of one mountain--in June?  Where are the magical machines that can analyze DNA in ten minutes?  And how can they expect results without a super, super-genius computer geek with a mystical machine and a database that can find EVERYTHING and identify the killer with a few keystrokes?

Knocking on doors--asking questions--asking follow-up questions--persevering until they find "The Motive"----that is why I love this show.

 

But get rid of the adolescent relationship drama.

[Trey]

I did notice the the crime scene people had authentic jackets on, with CSI in large letters on the back , just like the CSI people in Las Vegas, possibly even on loan from them.

 

Yes, it is definitely a low tech show - I like that too, more Dragnet than CSI.  I think it is a lot  more realistic than all the wonderful machines other shows have although I enjoy them too in the right show.

[shapeshifter]

This one airs tonight in the U.S. on ABC at 9pm CDT and 10pm EDT.

From Zap2it:

One of the team's own is murdered, causing Sgt. Cross to cross the line between professional and personal.

[Xantar]

I figured out the motive pretty quickly on this one. I'm really starting to think the structure of this show isn't going to work in the long run. When we already know who the killer is, it can be hard to make the episode interesting when the motive is also pretty easy to figure out. The only thing I didn't see coming was that the killer's husband died in prison. 

 

Which, by the way, means I have zero sympathy for the victim. I understand the murder is not justified, but as the killer pointed out, he took the law into his own hands just as much as she did. He probably destroyed more lives than she ever will. You could even argue that she prevented future tragedies like her own from happening. As I said, murder is not justified. But I hope the writers weren't expecting us to have any sympathy for the victim just because the good guys kind of knew him. As far as I'm concerned, he was scum.

 

I didn't quite understand why Angie got so worked up about Cross mentioning her twitch. Was she saying it was an inappropriate discussion of an intimate detail? To me it just seemed like a correct read of her mood: she had a theory. Her partner also said that she has a twitch. What's wrong here? It just appeared to me that she overreacted which is not a way to endear me to the character.

[shapeshifter]

I figured out the motive pretty quickly on this one....

I didn't, but that was probably because I didn't see how Sean from Psych's dad could be a bad guy, especially since he was beloved by a good guy main character here. Plus, I was very confused about the murderer not being the wife of the guy at the meth party where a kid was shot.

...You could even argue that she prevented future tragedies like her own from happening....

I really want an epilogue for this one on how her murder trial goes. Angie states that because the doer had repositioned the camera 13 hours before the murder, it is premeditated. But that was after she saw her innocent husband being wheeled away on a prison gurney after being fatally stabbed, right? Or not? If so, could a lawyer get an insanity plea, saying she was in a fugue state?

...I didn't quite understand why Angie got so worked up about Cross mentioning her twitch....

I can't really explain it, but that made sense to me, and I liked that she called him on it.

So both last week and this week the killers were main characters from Eureka. Next week has two bit part Eureka alums too. It's nice they are getting work.

[Mama No Life]

When it became obvious that prison guy's wife killed him, I thought that it was too easy, too soon.  But I didn't see the twist about her husband being innocent and set up by Stan.

 

Can I just say that Vega is so freaking sexy?  And I love the way he and Cross both deal with the newbie cop....