Family 8108
Season : 5
Episode: 11
Directed by: Jeannot Szwarc
Written by: Kellye Garrett and Elizabeth Randall
Production Number:
Airdate: 9 December 2007
Date of Crime: 1 December 1945
Previous: Justice
Next: Sabotage
External Links
IMDB Site
Contents
Description
The team reopens the 1945 case of a Japanese-American man killed outside the annual Army-Navy football game in Philadelphia when it was revealed that the original investigation may have been in the wrong place.
Synopsis
The team reopens the investigation of a Japanese-American man whose death occurred after being released from a internment camp in California during World War II.
Ray Takahashi was a hard working American who worked to have success for both himself and his family. When World War II broke out, he saw that all slip away. Like tens of thousands of Japanese Americans and legal residents at the time, the family was sent to internment a camp in California, his son Billy ripped away from his best friend, Skip. The family had to start over, learn to live in a barn which they shared, and tried to keep their spirits high as the war continued. Billy was able to take classes through a kind teacher, Mary Anne Clayton, who Ray also befriended.
As time passed Ray and Mary Anne grew close. One day, Shinji Nakamura, a man also incarcerated at the camp and who had also beef with Ray, caught his rival in a romantic scene with Mary-Anne. So, he ran off and told people what he saw. Tragically, Ray's family was one of those people. Furious and hurt over his father's actions, Billy Takahasi enlisted in the U.S. Army, said goodbye to his mother, Evelyn, and left. Ray was heartbroken and never heard from his son again. A few months later, the family received a telegram stating that Billy had died overseas.
After being released from the camp, Mary Anne helped the Takahashi’s start over in Philadelphia. When Shinji finds Ray to deliver Billy’s last note to his father, he gets a new found patriotic spirit and decides to go to the annual Army Navy game see Billy’s commanding officer and former best friend, Skip, and ask if Billy can receive an honorary medal.
Sadly the war turned Skip into a different and angry person and he lashes out at Ray, punching him which results in Ray falling from the train steps to his death.
Cast
Main Cast
- Kathryn Morris as Lilly Rush
- Danny Pino as Scotty Valens
- John Finn as John Stillman
- Jeremy Ratchford as Nick Vera
- Thom Barry as Will Jeffries
- Tracie Thoms as Kat Miller
Guest Cast
- Ian Anthony Dale as Ray Takahashi (1942-1945)
- Erin Cottrell as Mary Anne Clayton (1942-1944)
- Jerry Douglas as Eugene "Skip" Robertson (2007)
- David Huynh as Billy Takahashi (1942-1944)
- Mia Korf as Evelyn Takahashi (1942-1945)
- Kim Miyori as Evelyn Takahashi (2007)
- Patti Yasutake as Barbara Takahashi (2007)
- Ron Yuan as Shinji Nakamura (1944-1945)
- Sean Davis as Eugene "Skip" Robertson (1942-1945)
- Mary-Margaret Lewis as Mary Anne Clayton (2007)
- Jonathan Terry as Larry Scholz (2007)
And
- Keone Young as Shinji Nakamura (2007)
Co-Starring
- Toby Meuli as Larry Scholz (1942-1944)
Notes
- This episode and "Colors" tie for the earliest case with a male victim. Since "Colors" was solved two years sooner, this one was technically older. There were eight episodes which took place earlier: "Torn" (1919), "Beautiful Little Fool" (1929), "Best Friends" (1932), "World's End" (1938), "The Letter" (1939), and "Factory Girls" (1943), "WASP" (1944), and "The Hen House" (1945) ; all of which had female victims.
- Billy Takahashi's image also appears at the end even when he was not killed by the murderer.
- No song was played in the end of the episode because this was a World War II related episode, the producers decided that they should have Billy's letter read by David Huynh in the end of the episode.
- The manner in which Ray dies is similar to Emma Vine, both falling down a flight of stairs and breaking their necks, albeit the fact that Emma's death happened almost 20 years after Ray's.
Music
- The Andrews Sisters "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy"
- Vera Lynn "The White Cliffs of Dover"
- Glenn Miller "This Is No Laughing Matter"
- Kay Kyser "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition!"
- The Ink Spots "Whispering Grass (Don't Tell the Trees)"
- Ella Fitzgerald & The Ink Spots "I'm Making Believe"
- Vaughn Monroe "When the Lights Go On Again All Over the World"
Closing Oration
Since this is a World War related crime story, the production team didn't provide any song for it, instead David Huynh (portraying Billy Takahashi) was reading his letter for his father aloud on its last montage scene. The following lines were mentioned after Ray Takahashi's murder case was finally closed:
- Dear Dad,
- "It's the night before we go on a battle, and I can't sleep. Even in my dreams, I hear their artillery and I'm so afraid."
- "When I need to be brave, I think of you Dad, and your strength in the world that's no longer simple. Sometimes, I dreamed I'm home again; drawing pictures of you, Mom, and Little Barbara, none of us behind bars. Because in my dreams, we're free."
- "I know now that's why I'm here; Its not about who am I fighting against, but who am I fighting for; You Dad, and what your dreams in America could be, should be. See all of us in this battlefield: white, black, brown, yellow, and that's America I know."
- "Maybe one day I'll see you there Dad,"
- "Love, Your son, Billy"
- background music was composed by Michael Levine, which also first heard during Maurice Hall's performance scene in the episode Shuffle, Ball Change.
| Season 5 Episodes |
| Thrill Kill | That Woman | Running Around | Devil Music | Thick as Thieves | Wunderkind | World's End | It Takes a Village | Boy Crazy | Justice | Family 8108 | Sabotage | Spiders | Andy in C Minor | The Road | Bad Reputation | Slipping | Ghost of My Child |
