Without a Trace - Kam Li -3/13/03 Spoilers
Lynn
I thought it was a good episode, and although, the "Viet
Nam-operation-that-isn't-what-it-seemed" has gotten way too much play
lately, it did have a little different twist. I'm still not positive
who knew, who didn't and when. I'm assuming that only Sanderson's
character (and Bull, of course) knew the truth until he wrote the letter
to the son. I'm not clear why Sykes(?) killed himself. I guess he
thought Bull's death would be the end of it, but when the FBI showed up,
it was all he could take.
Is Martin's dad the Deputy Director of the FBI? I remember from the
pilot he's related to somebody. I'm pretty tired of the clichéd "evil
boss" working against the "maverick operative", so that wasn't high on
my list of favorite scenes. I'd like to see Martin's relationship with
his dad, but I wish it was outside of the context of the rest of the
group.
I did like the way the story unfolded; how we got the investigation as
well as the victim's story. The telling has gotten better as the series
goes on.
--
Lynn
http://www.lynnsland.com
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Life is a search for the truth; and there is no truth
- Chinese Proverb
piscesrr
Lynn wrote:
> Without a Trace - Kam Li -3/13/03 Spoilers
>
> I thought it was a good episode, and although, the "Viet
> Nam-operation-that-isn't-what-it-seemed" has gotten way too much play
> lately, it did have a little different twist. I'm still not positive
> who knew, who didn't and when.
Don't think that is was absoultely clear due to the various
storytellers and their guilt, but I'll give it a shot:
SPOILERS
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Bull and his team were sent in to check the village for weapons and
if found, evacuate and bomb the cache. One villager was screaming
at Bull and he grabbed her and took her into the village, allegedly
to get her to 'confess' about the whereabouts of these supposed
weapons. Supposedly he raped her (this was either surmised based on
Bull's later history of sexual assault or in a confession by Bull at
some point shortly after the rape- I'm not absolutely sure.)
Bull's superior Tommy Lewis asked Sykes (I think - perhaps it was
Ernie Hudson's character) where Bull was and then went after Bull.
Don't know if he caught Bull in the middle of the rape or if they
just argued, but a gunshot was heard. (A later autopsy ordered by
Tommy's family found that death was due to a gunshot to the head.
The ballistic evidence proved it came from the same Russian gun
that Bull had in Vietnam and brought to the retirement dinner.)
Bull told everyone Tommy was caught in an ambush and was shot.
Bull went back to Sanderson, who asked Bull if he had found the
weapons. Bull said yes, and Sykes backed up Bull, knowing that
Bull had lied. Sanderson ordered the village bombed and then
they went back to get Tommy's body. The FBI guys guessed that
Bull probably hoped that the body would have been blown up too,
to hide the ballistic evidence (so they'd take Bull word about
the ambush).
> I'm assuming that only Sanderson's
> character (and Bull, of course) knew the truth until he wrote the letter
> to the son. I'm not clear why Sykes(?) killed himself. I guess he
My guess: he didn't want to face a public reprimand at any level
for lying about seeing the weapons that weren't really there just
to go along with Bull; and his confrontation with Bull along with
Ernie Hudson's character directly caused Bull's suicide and that
was the final straw of guilt that broke him after all these years.
>
> Is Martin's dad the Deputy Director of the FBI?
Yes.
>
> I did like the way the story unfolded; how we got the investigation as
> well as the victim's story. The telling has gotten better as the series
> goes on.
This show has become really good. I look forward to seeing it now,
and rarely turn to ER anymore, though I still TiVo ER to watch later.
Ian J. Ball
piscesrr <piscesrr@MY_KNICKERSaustin.rr.com> wrote:
> [one explaination snipped]
Note: I don't believe the story that you (and Jack) posit is what
actually happened. I think Jack was leaning in the direction until they
realized it was a suicide after all.
In the end, I don't think Bull killed Lewis at all. I think something
else must have happened, and they tried to cover it up.
--
Ian J. Ball | Mac OS X? Gotta love it!
TV lover, and | Bye-bye members.aol.com!
Usenet slacker |
ijb...@mac.com | http://homepage.mac.com/ijball/TV.html
Denise Perry
I think what he said was correct (the only difference might be that Lewis and
Sykes surprised Bull and he shot Lewis before he knew who it was, thinking it
could be the enemy).
I think it was a coverup to say that Bull committed suicide and Sykes took his
body to conceal. And I think LaPaglia was responsible for the coverup because
he didn't think the other black character should be prosecuted for the murder,
since Bull apparently planned to commit suicide all along.
Denise Perry
---
This is where it's at!
piscesrr
Ok, I buy that explanation over the one I wrote. Still not clear on
why Sykes had to conceal the body - a suicide is a suicide, and Lewis's
son was already suspicious of his father's death. And I must have been
distracted because I don't even remember who Jack revealed as the one
who wrote the original letter to Lewis's son.
Denise Perry
wrote:
Sykes wrote the original letter. I think they were implying that Bull committed
suicide because he was no longer needed as a soldier (I think the coverup kept
anything about how Lewis actually died under wraps). The idea of Sykes hiding
Bull's body (in the coverup) was because Sykes (maybe all the guys) felt bad
that Bull committed suicide and wanted to hide the fact. Of course, they
actually killed him and hid the body, not knowing a suicide note written by Bull
would ever surface. I got a lot of my interpretation just from the end scene
with LaPaglia's character and the other guy at the elevator.
IMHO