Episode Report Card Couch Baron: B | 4 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT Ask Not For Whom The Bell Tolls...
By Couch Baron | Season 3 | Episode 15 | Aired on 02.26.2007
Landry is lecturing about profiling when Sacks and another deputy appear at the back of the room. In Sacks's case, it wouldn't shock me if he were auditing the class; the man needs all the help he can get. But Landry seems to think that this signals something untoward, and his suspicions are confirmed when Keith enters at the front of the room and quietly tells Landry that he's going to arrest him, so Landry might want to dismiss the class. Landry takes the news well enough, and sunnily turns to the students and announces that Keith needs to consult with him about a case, so he's letting them go early. Tim and Veronica are the only ones chagrined at this development. That sounds about the right percentage of a roomful of college students, if you'll allow me to indulge in a little profiling myself. Credits.
Landry has taken Mindy's place in the interrogation room, and attests to the fact that he's willing to answer Keith's questions without the presence of an attorney. Keith tells Landry that Mindy flipped on him. Landry doesn't believe it, but Keith tells him about Mindy's claim that Landry was gone from the hotel room at the time of Dean Ed's murder, and suggests that maybe he really, really does want a lawyer. Landry stays mum until Keith relays Mindy's account of Dean Ed's visit to the hotel. Landry informs Keith that Dean Ed did more than threaten him, as...
...in a continuation of the hotel flashback, Dean Ed tells Mindy that she'll find her stuff on the lawn in the morning. If he's including her son, I hope he at least tosses out a pillow as well. He goes on to say that he didn't take his friends' advice about not marrying her, but he's sure as hell glad that he acceded to their wishes that he make her sign a prenup. Boy, Dean Ed's friends sure were nosy. It's a shame they weren't around lately to intervene about his hair. On that subject, Dean Ed agitatedly runs his hands through his hair, and for a second I'm convinced that we're heading for Arrested Development-ville. His eyebrows look pretty firmly in place, though.
Anyway, Landry tells Keith that Mindy went to the office to plead her own case, not Landry's. Keith points out that Mindy was back at the Grand by the time Dean Ed was killed. Landry brings up Grieco as a potential answer, but Keith breaks the news to him about his clothes, soaked in Dean Ed's blood, being found. I...really think it should have at least occurred to Keith that Landry was being framed. Aside from the convenience of the clothes just happening to get stuck in a spot where they surely would eventually be found, with all Landry's knowledge of true crime, would he really drop clothes in a school incinerator? That kind of thing has tripped people up before, I'd wager. Wouldn't he have taken the time to burn them himself? I mean, you may think I'm nitpicking, but seriously, put yourself in his shoes. Landry commits murder, has blood all over his monogrammed shirt, and doesn't take the time to make sure he sees it burn with his own eyes? I can't believe Keith would take this completely at face value, although given the circumstances surrounding Keith's retaking this job, maybe it's his way of honoring Lamb. But seriously, I would have found this a bit more interesting and credible if it had occurred to Keith that someone could be framing Landry here rather than that Landry could be so very sloppy. That thought does occur to Landry, but he suspects Mindy, and Keith has to tell him that Mindy's alibi checks out, and ask him where he was at 3 AM on the night in question. Well, I'm sure at 3 AM, he must have been lonely...oh, wait, wrong Rob Thomas. Landry forlornly says that he drove home alone, but brightens as he remembers that he stopped at a convenience store for cigarettes. Keith asks whether he charged them, but Landry admits that he didn't, and, what's more, the clerk didn't even look up from his little TV set. Oh, man, given that they had Kevin Smith on the show, they couldn't have cast Jeff Anderson in that role? I hate to give away my grading secrets, show, but you just missed out on an auto-A-plus. Well, an auto-A, and a bonus for the Berserker dance. Okay, I'm glad I'm on vacation after this, because clearly I need to watch that movie again a lot more than I thought. Landry then perks up once more, and in flashback, we see him walking out of the store packing his smokes when a woman, whose face we never see, asks him for one. He turns and gives her two, saying that he doesn't really smoke. Most people who say that are full of shit, it's true, but given his penchant for six-hour, um, "business" sessions, the idea actually fits in his case. Landry describes the woman as a brunette in her late thirties or early forties. Keith asks about the bloody clothes, and Landry has no answer, so Keith presses the lawyer point again, adding, "You're a smart man. You gotta see I have a case." Landry has no comment.