S01.E04: Prized Possessions

[Snazzy Daisy]

Quote

At a fundraiser for her arts center, Cassandra reunites with a childhood friend who later discovers that her husband has gone missing and that a crime scene has unfolded in her home. Cassandra shares clues with Alberg as he investigates the mysterious disappearance, unveiling secrets and the truth behind a marriage.

Air Date: Oct 15, 2024

 

Guest star — Erica Durance

 

 

[AnimeMania]

Erica Durance as Emma O’Brea
Dakota Guppy as Holly Alberg
Paloma Kwiatkowski as Bree
Brandi Alexander as Tonya Helgenberger
Toby Levins as Charlie O’Brea
Eva Day as Gail

[AnimeMania]

Who gets expelled for smoking pot in college? Even if it was 60 years ago?

That metal letter opener should be a fingerprint magnet, especially since she wasn't wearing gloves.

I wish they would have shown us what happened with the gunshot 6 months earlier, since I have no idea.

[LakeGal]

I enjoyed this episode.  I thought the wife had killed her husband at first.  But then as it went on I realized she had only tried to kill him 6 months earlier.  

[meira.hand]

must have been a nice meeting for Kristin Kreuk and Erica Durance, both Smallville veterans.

[blackwing]

19 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

I wish they would have shown us what happened with the gunshot 6 months earlier, since I have no idea.

They didn't show us because they wanted us to think that the wife killed him.

I thought this was a great episode.  And what a twist.  Pre-credits we see the wife pointing a gun on her husband.  We hear a shot and the scene fades.  Then six months later we see lots of blood and a missing husband.

I spent a good portion of the show thinking that the wife killed the husband in their bed six months ago.  Then she buried the body in the backyard and for the past six months has been pretending to everyone that the husband never joins her because he's always working or on a trip.  That's what made sense to me, she kept deflecting questions about the husband's whereabouts at the charity dinner.

This scenario would be the typical formulaic procedural.  So kudos to the show for completely fooling me!  The part that doesn't really make sense to me... the plan was that he and the blood donor girlfriend were going to disappear and move to Alaska?  And do what?  All of the money seemed to be coming from the wife and her family's investment firm.  Why wouldn't he just ask for a divorce?  He would be fired from her family's firm. and might get a decent divorce settlement or alimony payment.  Then he would be free to move on with blood donor lady.

Instead, they kill the brother.  And now they are both in prison for a long time or possibly getting the death penalty.  I was surprised he actually killed the brother, I thought he was going to reconsider and get help.  But the girlfriend seemed to have a complete hold on him.

I don't buy that this guy had some self-esteem issues which enabled him to be manipulated by the girlfriend.  He told the brother that he felt like he was never good enough.  Why not?  Good-looking dude, married to a beautiful woman who loved him and was happy with him, good secure job in the family firm.  We were not given an explanation of why he and the wife's marriage fell apart.  The girlfriend was the real mastermind, sadly he allowed himself to be just a puppet.

[AnimeMania]

13 minutes ago, blackwing said:

They didn't show us because they wanted us to think that the wife killed him.

That was fine, they fooled me as well about what transpired. I wish they would have did a flashback about what really happened. I believe that the wife said the husband shot at the wall, maybe even while trying to shoot at her. I don't think that is what happened, not even close. I think this incident made him decide to fake his death, instead of trying to seek a divorce.

[GeorgiaRai]

He had to fake his death so he could disappear with the money he embezzled, right? That wouldn't have been awarded to him in a divorce.  lol

I hope Holly stays; I'm more interested in the father/daughter relationship than Carl and Cassandra. 

[Snazzy Daisy]

A Smallville reunion!

A much better COTW as we get to see more of Edwina and Andy.

Charlie O’Brea has a type — controlling women. He won’t be happy with Tonya. She suffocates him.

Wait, their island has private airstrip? Fancy. 👀

 

[LakeGal]

I assume either the wife just shot over his head to scare him and put the bullet in the wall.  Or the husband grabbed her hands and pushed them up and she fired into the wall.  They never showed us exactly so that was what I guessed.  

[blackwing]

2 hours ago, GeorgiaRai said:

He had to fake his death so he could disappear with the money he embezzled, right? That wouldn't have been awarded to him in a divorce.  lol
 

Ah, I forgot about that.  So they would have the money in Alaska.  It seems clear that the girlfriend encouraged him to do the embezzling.  He was married into the family money and he wanted for nothing.  He could have gotten a divorce and still gotten a settlement.  But the girlfriend was greedy and wanted more so must have encouraged him to embezzle.

[emma675]

A really good episode. I like that Alberg and Cassandra were half right. No, the wife didn't kill her husband but yes, she had enough rage at the end to do so.

I think the husband was a guy who let himself get into a relationship with a woman who absolutely couldn't handle anything negative, to the point where she actively forced everyone around her to bend to her version of reality. Her brother even said she couldn't handle anything bad happening, everything had to be perfect. And the husband let her family's money provide him with a cushy life, he was too lazy or not smart enough to go out on his own, plus he had an affair. I think he was just a dumb, egotistical, lazy ass who had terrible taste in women.

Is the daughter supposed to be in high school or college? This is the younger one, right?

I snorted at that quick moment of Alberg bending over to pick up the thermos and his coveralls splitting in the rear after he and Cassandra painted his deck. 

I do have a question about the fundraiser dinner at the beginning. When the wife is talking to Cassandra's friends at the table, was there supposed to be a weird undercurrent between her and the other women? Like the other women felt like she was rude or something? I'll be honest, the actress playing the wife had so much botox that I often couldn't tell what expression she was trying to make. 

[blackwing]

11 hours ago, emma675 said:

Is the daughter supposed to be in high school or college? This is the younger one, right?

 

I do have a question about the fundraiser dinner at the beginning. When the wife is talking to Cassandra's friends at the table, was there supposed to be a weird undercurrent between her and the other women? Like the other women felt like she was rude or something? I'll be honest, the actress playing the wife had so much botox that I often couldn't tell what expression she was trying to make. 

I couldn't figure out which daughter this was either.  I couldn't figure out which one was which, they should have made them look vastly different because from one episode to the next I found myself not really remembering the details of what the previous one looked like.  There was a daughter that visited briefly in the previous episode, right?  And this was the other daughter?  

One of the daughters isn't talking to him because she is mad about the divorce.  Which one is that?  I assumed the daughter visiting in this episode is the younger one, because she got suspended or kicked out of school for smoking pot, which seems to apply to high school and not college.

[AnimeMania]

1 hour ago, blackwing said:

I couldn't figure out which daughter this was either.  I couldn't figure out which one was which, they should have made them look vastly different because from one episode to the next I found myself not really remembering the details of what the previous one looked like.  There was a daughter that visited briefly in the previous episode, right?  And this was the other daughter?  

I am pretty sure it is the younger daughter and was the same daughter in both episodes. I think she even says that you didn't introduce me to Cassandra the first time I came by.

[Cementhead]

Strange episode name for this one.  I can't make out the significance of it. 

[blackwing]

1 hour ago, Cementhead said:

Strange episode name for this one.  I can't make out the significance of it. 

The episode titles are titles of the books written by LR Wright upon which this series is based (although the book "A Chill Rain in January" was truncated to "A Chill Rain" for the title of the third episode).  I haven't read any of the books so I don't know if the plot points are generally the same in the books as they are in the TV episodes.

There are only 9 books.  I'm not sure how many episodes are in this season, so depending on how long the series lasts, at some point they will run out of book titles.

[AnimeMania]

1 hour ago, blackwing said:

There are only 9 books.  I'm not sure how many episodes are in this season, so depending on how long the series lasts, at some point they will run out of book titles.

Kind of had 9 episodes with the first episode being a double, so there will be 8 actual episodes total.

[KeithJ]

Do they film this show differently than most other TV shows?  I can’t quite put my finger on it but something seems off.  It’s almost like soap opera video but not quite.

[AnimeMania]

24 minutes ago, KeithJ said:

Do they film this show differently than most other TV shows?  I can’t quite put my finger on it but something seems off.  It’s almost like soap opera video but not quite.

I think it is the houses, they look like super expensive showrooms instead of places where actual people live. Karl's living room with the view of the harbor is stunning.

[KeithJ]

On 10/15/2024 at 8:13 PM, AnimeMania said:

I wish they would have shown us what happened with the gunshot 6 months earlier, since I have no idea.

I thought they did?  She hit the wall instead and covered it up with the photo.

[torqy]

Nobody hip to Lt. Disher from Monk??

[Cementhead]

9 hours ago, KeithJ said:

Do they film this show differently than most other TV shows?  I can’t quite put my finger on it but something seems off.  It’s almost like soap opera video but not quite.

 

9 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

I think it is the houses, they look like super expensive showrooms instead of places where actual people live. Karl's living room with the view of the harbor is stunning.

I agree.  It has a very saccharine vibe to it that is typical of a hundred romance movies you would find on the Hallmark Channel.  The sets play a big part in that; most especially the shiny, showroom houses.  So does the clichéd best friend with all the cheesy one liners, who just happens to run the local diner.

I was excited to tune into a new show called Murder in a Small Town starring Kristin Kreuk and Rossif Sutherland but this is not the show I was expecting. It's a lot more cheesy and a lot less murdery than I was anticipating.  It feels like a show that I've already seen before; maybe even 20 years ago, but maybe that is what is appealing to some viewers and that's what they like about it. 

[emma675]

IMO, they could pick this show up, make absolutely no changes, drop it onto the Hallmark network, and it would fit. I like the show, but I'm surprised it got picked up by a primetime network. 

[laredhead]

On 10/20/2024 at 12:41 AM, torqy said:

Nobody hip to Lt. Disher from Monk??

Thank you!!  I have been trying to think I had seen him.  

[zapper]

I'm about a week back, I have to be in the right frame of mind to enjoy what, for me, has become the train wreck I need to watch.

This was a better episode, with only a couple of WTF moments

• the thermos on the freshly stained deck should have picked up a bunch of stain and left marks on the deck - sloppy missed detail
• that was one splendid blue sweater underneath the forensic bunny suit that Cassandra was wearing.  She had a shirt under the sweater, those hooded coveralls get hot, a sweater would be silly
• the white house that Cassandra's rich friend owned - the outside images looked an awful lot like the house James Cromwell's character house from S1E1. was it the same house?

But the direction was miles above the previous three which was no surprise as Amanda Tapping was behind the episode and in previous shows I have seen where she is the director, I have found the shows to be well done.

[chediavolo]

On 10/20/2024 at 8:20 AM, Cementhead said:

 

I agree.  It has a very saccharine vibe to it that is typical of a hundred romance movies you would find on the Hallmark Channel.  The sets play a big part in that; most especially the shiny, showroom houses.  So does the clichéd best friend with all the cheesy one liners, who just happens to run the local diner.

I was excited to tune into a new show called Murder in a Small Town starring Kristin Kreuk and Rossif Sutherland but this is not the show I was expecting. It's a lot more cheesy and a lot less murdery than I was anticipating.  It feels like a show that I've already seen before; maybe even 20 years ago, but maybe that is what is appealing to some viewers and that's what they like about it. 

Yes! Very Hallmark.  I hate Hallmark.