Take Two – Shadows of the Past

By: Gladys Luna

Sam (Rachel Bilson) and Eddie (Eddie Cibrian) are called by Detective Rollins (Aliyah O’Brien) to a crime scene. When they get there, Rollins explains that what they have found it’s the third victim of a serial killer whose M.O. is to murder his victims then drop them on the woods and drawing some kind of symbols on their eyelids. They are taken next to the victim’s body where Mick (Jordan Gavaris) explains to them the way the victim died. Also, Det. Rollins explains that one of the reasons she called them is because the victim had Eddie’s card with him. When they uncover the body, Sam recognizes the man lying there as Ken Hopkins (Christopher Rosamond), who had showed up at their office asking for their help to find his wife who had been missing for three months.

Sam and Eddie recall how Ken explained to them that his wife had just disappeared. A even though the police suggested that maybe she just left him, he cannot believe it since the woman has a blood condition that kept her on medication and he is pretty sure she won’t survive without it. Ken tells them that the hard drive of the laptop that Allison (Chelsea Hobbs), his wife, had with her when she disappeared had been erased but with the help of a data-recovery company he hired he had manage to save some files including a video where the woman had agreed to meet with someone.

Back to the present, Eddie suggests that he may join the case and help them find who killed his client but Detective Jay Elder (Colin Lawrence), who has joined the conversation, doesn’t seem to be so happy to bring Eddie onboard. However, he ends up agreeing to it.

Back at the office, Berto (Xavier de Guzman) and Monica (Alice Lee) help Sam and Eddie to put the case together while the duo pays a visit to Allison’s brother Tim Stepansky (Jonathan Chase) to see if they can get any information that may help them to solve the case. Tim tells them about a grad student that Alison had rented out a basement apartment to and who got truly angry at her when she kicked him out when she found drugs on him.

Sam and Eddie meet with Andrei Rumens (Alex Cherman), Allison’s former student, and he confirms that she threw him away from the apartment, but the drugs didn’t belong to him. He said that he had talked to the woman’s contractor and he confessed that Allison wanted Andrei out of the place since she was building a safe room there, but he didn’t know what for.

Eddie receives a text from Det. Rollins telling him that another victim had been found; the man was identified as Michael Pedraza (Francisco Cano), who was a volunteer at the same LA kitchen as Allison’s. On the man’s neck was found a hair that Mick will a run a test to and see what kind of information provides.

Sam and Eddie visit the kitchen where Allison and Michael volunteered. Det. Rollins calls Eddie to inform him about the results that they ran on the hair and tells him that it belongs to a man that is on his 30’s that had taken anti-psychotics. Once in the kitchen, the duo meets with Bob Kadish (Lee Shorten) who lets them know that Allison used to receive some poetry notes from a man, but he doesn’t believe that there was a bigger problem with that since Allison never complained about it. The man is identified as Phillip H. Neal (Jamie Harris). Eddie informs Det Rollins about it who promises to send any information she finds to Berto. At the office, Berto and Monica are working on the information they were provided and the latter recognizes the place where Phillip was treated and decides to pay a visit to one of her teachers that happen to work there. When she arrives she meets with Dr. Santos (Venus Terzo) who, after some convincing, decides to deliver Monica the information she needs.

When Sam and Eddie arrive to the place where Phillip had been hiding, they happen to find that Phillip has hung himself. Later, Det. Rollins shows up and they find the murder weapons that indicates that Phillip was actually the serial killer they were after. Sam and Eddie go back to the office but aren’t exactly sure that the case is entirely closed. Berto informs Eddie about what he found once he cleaned the image of Allison’s video. It seems like the building where she was at is located downtown so Eddie asks him to dig further into that.

Berto and Monica go to the place where Allison had taken the video call and talk to the receptionist (Natalie Moon) who helps them by providing the date where Allison was there to meet with a criminal lawyer. She also tells them that after she wrapped her video call, she asked for directions to the Willis Hotel. Berto tells Eddie about the new-found information so the man asks for the hotel’s video cameras footage where Allison can be seen next to her brother Tim. Eddie and Sam go back to the office and as they are discussing Tim’s case they are suddenly met face to face with him. He explains that he wants to pay them for helping him solving his sister’s case, but the duo informs him that said case isn’t closed yet and he seems to be unsettled by the new information he was handed. He tries to make them confess who might be the new suspect, but they don’t give in. Tim praises Eddie’s level of work commitment and offers a job to both of them. He then leaves with the promise of calling them back to know their answer.

As they all are analyzing the case board, they see a picture of Tim and Allison’s mother and Sam realizes that the women that Tim have murdered are alike to his mom, which might have been one of the reasons they are dead now. Eddie also sees that in one of the pictures taken of the siblings when they were kids there was the same drawing that the man has been putting on his victims’ eyelids. Sam and Eddie visit the siblings’ case worker Dahlia (BJ Harrison) who shows them some tapes of the two of them back in the day. Tim can be seen there doing the same drawing and explaining that it represents his father when he got mad. Eddie is on his way to drop Sam at her house when he receives a call from Tim who asks about the man’s decision on his job offer. The two of them are surprised that Tim had figured out his private phone number since he never provided it.  Eddie and Sam get to her place and she is scared that Tim may be after them, especially after her since she seems to fit with his victims’ profile. When they are there, she sees a “human” shadow on her backyard but when they go outside there seems to be nothing there. However, Eddie decides to stay and keep her company.

At the office, Berto explains to Monica that he had figured out how Tim found his victims. Apparently, he used one of his companies in charge of doing data mining to hack them and know exactly where they would be.

Back at Sam’s place, Eddie tells her that he decided to become a cop the day his father’s store was burned to ashes just because he was an immigrant. So, Eddie wanted to stand up for the people that couldn’t stand up for themselves. Right on time, he is interrupted by a call from Mick who asks him to meet immediately. After some tests, Mick had concluded that Allison’s earrings that were handed as evidence to the police were taken from her when she was still alive, which wasn’t a long time ago. Berto had found that the medication Allison was taking had been ordered a few weeks ago and the prescription had been written by a doctor that worked at the same place where Tim is a donor.

Later that day at Sunshine Hills, Tim walks in a hurry into his room and asks Allison to get ready since they are leaving. The woman, who happens to be all covered up by a blanket, starts to question him about the murders and then it is revealed that the one hiding was Sam and not his sister. Tim runs down the stairs but is met with Det. Rollins and Eddie. He is taken to prison but promises that he’ll be released soon since they have nothing on him. Eddie and Sam go to visit Allison, but before they enter the room Eddie is intercepted by Jay who tells him that his boss is grateful for his help on the case and in debt with him so he can ask for anything he wants as a payment. The duo talk to Allison and she helps them to provide some information about the place where Tim may have murdered the victims. Eddie visits Tim and the latter is pretty confident that he’ll be out of prison in a blink of an eye and make sure Eddie’s business is burned to the ground. But Eddie informs him about what they had found so, he won´t seem to be released any time soon.

After the whole chaos, Eddie and Sam meet at the roof of their office building and the woman questions him if he’ll be going back to be a cop but he confesses he won’t. Instead, he hands her a St. Michael’s medallion saying that all his partners have had one so it just seems right to give one to her.

So many more adventures to come and cases to solve, so please don’t miss out on the fun and come back next Thursday to watch “Take Two” at 10/9c on ABC. ¡Hasta la próxima!