Hoodrats is the 2nd case of the seventh and final season of the series and is the 136th overall.
Description[]
The team investigates the murder of 17-year-old skateboarder Nash Simpson in 1995 when he was escaping from a terrible homelife and trying to make some money, so he could get his younger brother to live with him. Unfortunately, the pressures of the street and the cut-throat competition of boarders to get sponsors resulted in Nash's murder, which remained unsolved... till now.
Synopsis[]
Flashback from March 25, 1995, in New Jersey
A 17-year-old boy named Nash Simpson rides his skateboard through the streets. He sees his younger brother Mick in front of their house drawing a skater superhero. Their mother's boyfriend Rafe Stockton walks outside after an argument with her. He asks Nash if he wants a piece of him. When he didn't respond, Rafe goes back inside the house. Pissed off on their situation, before he takes off and ran away, he reminded his little brother to remember the rules, then Nash skates off down the street leaving his little brother. Later, one evening of June 27, 1995, in one of the warehouses in Philadelphia, he has been killed and stashed inside a fan shaft.
Back to the Present day
Philly PD experiencing a series of budget cut on their department, which led the entire office to become extremely hot, as the aircon was turned off to save up. Stillman later told the detectives about an unidentified body found in a fan shaft. Rush and Valens meet with Mick. Mick says that his brother ran away in 1995 and might be dead. He found a skateboard that Nash sent to him as a gift from Philly. Their mother Chelsea didn’t give Mick the board because she thought he would run away like his brother. Rush takes Mick to the evidence room. Mick tells her that his mom had a string of boyfriends. Among the evidence, he recognizes a drawing that he gave to Nash. The detectives find that Nash was killed by blunt force trauma to his head. He had no drugs in his system at the time of his death. Miller informs them that Nash was written up by an officer named Joe Mueller.
Valens' father visits and brings him a pair of sneakers. He asks Valens to check on his mother, who is changing and doing stuff like Tai Chi.
Stillman and Rush have Joe come in and ask him about Nash. He remembers Nash, having found out he was from Jersey and asked if he needed a place to stay. Joe says that one of Nash’s friend’s, Cal, rode his board on the hood of Joe's patrol car.
Rush and Valens meet with Cal and ask him about Nash. They tell him that they identified Nash’s body. Cal says that he and Nash had each other’s back. He remembers going into a skate shop. Cal tried to steal a set of wheels but was caught. Cal says that Nash helped him out by paying for the wheels. Hess, the skate shop owner, liked Nash. Hess helped Nash out by letting him stay in his basement. Cal says that Hess was creepy because he liked to take photos of the skaters shirtless.
Vera and Miller visit Hess and ask him about Nash. They tell him what Cal said about him. Hess defends himself and reveals that Cal was a drug user. Hess claims he brought attention to the Philadelphia skating scene. He remembers when a skater named Grady Giles became jealous of Nash’s skills and got in a fight with him. Grady also was angry that his girlfriend Vonda Martin, who was a photographer, liked Nash. Hess says that later, Grady sold out and is now selling his boards in big retail stores.
Valens visits Grady at his skate park and ask him about Nash. Valens tells him that he knows that Nash liked his girlfriend, Vonda. Grady remembers when he was giving out boards provided by his sponsor. He saw that Vonda had her eyes on Nash. He says that she left him but came back.
Later, Valens meets with his mom and sees that her hair is different. He asks her about Tai Chi. Rosa says that it helps her get centered. Valens suspects that his mother is having an affair. Rosa just asks him to mind his own business.
Vera and Jeffries bring in Vonda and ask her about Nash. She says that she let him borrow a video camera and thought that he was using her. Vonda remembers when she visited Nash at Hess’s skate shop. He told her about his younger brother, who he left in Jersey. Vonda suggested that he bring his brother to Philly, but Nash couldn’t because he is not in that position. She gave him a video camera to shoot himself and send to a sponsor. Nash told her that he was working on something else. Vonda says that Nash couldn’t get custody of Mick until he had a source of income. If Nash recorded a perfect trick, he would have gotten sponsors.
The detectives learn that Chelsea and her boyfriend went to Philadelphia to visit Nash. Stillman tells them to visit her to find out what they did.
Rush visits Chelsea, who is now in prison. Rush knows she went to Philly the week Nash died. Chelsey says that she went to Philly because she missed her son. She remembers that she visited Nash, who asked where Mick was. Nash told her that he wanted Mick to live with him because he now had money from a sponsor. Chelsey asked him to give her the money. Nash took off after he saw Chelsey’s boyfriend Rafe approach them.
The detectives learn that the board that Mick received was a prototype made by Hess. They learn that Hess filed for bankruptcy. Vera and Miller visit Hess and ask him why Nash didn’t become a star. Hess says that he had a chance to take Nash into stardom, but someone else beat him to the punch. Hess remembers when he showed Nash a prototype board that he wanted to put his name on. He wanted to be Nash's sponsor. However, Nash told Hess that he already got sponsored by a company called Accelerator, the same company that is currently sponsoring Grady. Nash couldn’t wait since Hess had trouble even making rent. Hess ordered Nash to leave his shop. Hess tells the detectives that he thought that Nash sold out to a big corporation.
The detectives play Vonda’s tapes that she recorded showing Nash and Grady skating. They see Nash perform a trick that Grady stole a few months later. The detectives realize that the tape was shot in the place where Nash’s body was found. Rush and Valens bring Grady to the station and show him the tape. They accuse him of stealing Nash’s trick at the warehouse where he died. Grady explains that he first saw the trick performed on tape. Cal sold him the tape. Grady gave Cal the money and learned that the trick was performed at the warehouse. Grady says that it took him a month to nail the trick.
They bring Cal to the station. Rush and Valens tell him that they know he used drugs. They also inform him that they know he sold a tape to Grady. Rush orders Cal to speak into a microphone in order to match it to a voice they found on the tape. They figure that he sold Grady the tape because he knew that Nash wouldn’t come back, forever. Cal says that Nash was leaving him behind. He remembers when he met with Nash at the warehouse when he tried to perfect a trick. Nash told Cal not to use drugs anymore in order to be a better skater. Nash promised to get Cal signed with a sponsor if he nailed the trick. After he tried and failed several times, Cal told Nash that he couldn’t do it. Nash decided to show Cal how to do it himself. Cal became jealous and furious about it and uncontrollably hit Nash in the side of the head with his skateboard.
Cal is arrested for Nash’s murder. A worried Scotty watches his mother as she cries in her car. Rush gave back the board to Mick, as he also "sees" his brothers spirit doing the trick again on the other side of the park, for one last time.
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[]
- Nick Thurston as Nash Simpson
- Kevin Chapman as Joe Mueller (1995/2009)
- Jeannetta Arnette as Chelsea Simpson (2009)
- Lombardo Boyar as Cal Acevedo (2009)
- Chris Browning as Steve Hess (1995/2009)
- Ismael "East" Carlo as Ramiro Valens
- Tamara Clatterbuck as Chelsea Simpson (1995)
- Terri Hoyos as Rosa Valens
- Drew James as Grady Giles (1995)
- Warren Kole as Grady Giles (2009)
- Dawn Olivieri as Vonda Martin (2009)
- Nate Sanchez as Cal Acevedo (1995)
- Travis Wester as Mick Simpson (2009)
- Gillian Zinser as Vonda Martin (1995)
Co-Starring[]
- Kevin Scott Allen as Rafe Stockton (1995)
- Matthew Shane as Mick Simpson (1995)
Notes[]
- This episode acknowledged the show's budget cuts by saying that Philly PD also suffered cuts.
- Nick Thurston, (playing Nash Simpson) personally requested to the production for the closing song (Disarm by The Smashing Pumpkins) featured for this case, as he said that it is one of his favorite tracks back in his days.
- Coincidentally, the producers revealed that the surname of the characters (Simpson), was loosely based on The Simpsons.
- They possibly taken Nash's skateboarding skills and its surname to Bart Simpson as an inspiration.
Music[]
