Description[]
Lilly reopens a 1990 murder case, in which a prep-school girl was found dead in a local swimming hole, after a present-day victim with similar markings is discovered at the same place. The investigation reveals that the victim of the earlier crime was routinely tormented by a trio of classmates who invited her to a sleepover the night she was killed.
Synopsis[]
The episode opens in November 9, 1990. Ariel, Brandi, Tiffany, and Rita are all in a middle school class together. The teacher asks each of them about their plans for the weekend. Ariel, Brandi, and Tiffany are going dress shopping for the upcoming school dance. The class laughs at Rita's plans to go shopping for an iguana with her mom despite the teacher's admonitions. The bell rings and the students get up to leave. Rita goes outside and puts her bike helmet on while some other kids laugh at her. We see her riding her bike down a leaf-lined street, happy and carefree. The next shot shows Rita's lifeless body at the bottom of a ravine in Devil's Pool. There are circles with X's in them drawn on her body in black marker. The case box is filed in the vault under "Baxter, R."
Present day. Lilly, Stillman, and Scotty go to the scene of a current homicide. A 19-year-old woman named Caitlin Gather was found dead at the bottom of Devil's Pool. She drowned as her head was held under the water. She has the same marks on her body as Rita, and her body was found 14 years ago on this day. They don't believe it's a copycat murder because the detail about the marks was never released.
Lilly, Scotty, and Stillman go through Rita's case box down in the vault. The first detectives couldn't figure out what the marks meant. They checked with the FBI database, but nothing came up, suggesting they were not ritualistic. Rita attended an exclusive prep school on scholarship. She died of a broken neck after hitting the rocks. Jeffries comes down and tells them that Det. Sherman just brought in a guy, Neil Beaudry, who was stopped along the highway. His car was full of Caitlin Gather's clothes.
Sherman shows Lilly and Scotty to Neil Beaudry's parents. They insist that this must be a mistake because their son is schizophrenic. Lilly asks them if they knew Rita Baxter, but the parents say that they never met her. They did, however, hear about her death at Devil's Pool 14 years ago. Scotty suggests that the Beaudrys go home and get Neil's medication.
Lilly and Sherman interrogate Neil while Scotty and Stillman watch through the glass. Neil tells them that he goes to Devil's Pool every year on the anniversary of Rita's death. He admits to putting the marks on Caitlin's body and then killing her, but he has little to say about Rita. Scotty suggests that they give Neil his meds, and he'll be more cooperative.
Vera and Jeffries speak with Rita's mom, Kelly. She doesn't know Neil, but she knows his younger sister, Brandi. She says the Beaudrys were never around because they were too busy spending their money. Kelly tells them that Brandi spent her time tormenting Rita. She dropped her daughter off at school one day, and Rita saw Brandi with Ariel (whom she used to be good friends with) and Tiffany. Rita didn't want to get out of the car because she knew the girls would pick on her. Her mother told her that everyone who has ever been important in life was a loser. Kelly reassured Rita that those girls are foolish for not wanting to hang out with her, and that she would be popular in college. She tells Vera and Jeffries that the Beaudrys just couldn't let Rita be.
Scotty interrogates Neil again once his medication kicked in and shows him a picture of Rita. He remembers her, and he remembers the marks on her skin. He says he put the same marks on Caitlin to make her look like Rita, but he didn't put the marks on Rita. He reveals that Rita was his first kiss. Brandi made Rita kiss Neil so she could "go to first base" at a sleepover the night she died. Neil tells Scotty that he didn't kill Rita, it was the house because it is an "evil house."
Lilly, Scotty, Vera, Jeffries, and Stillman discuss the case at the office. Vera thinks Neil's a "whack job" with plenty of opportunity to kill Rita. Lilly wants to know why there are three girls who never admitted to having a sleepover with Rita the night she died. Stillman wants them to track the three down.
Lilly and Scotty find Brandi working in a party planning job. She says that Rita came by the sleepover, but left in the middle of the night. Brandi never said anything because she was afraid she would have been blamed. She hasn't spoken with Ariel and Tiffany since high school. Lilly wants to know why an outcast like Rita was invited to Brandi's party. She says it was Ariel's idea; Ariel told Rita that Brandi thought she was cool and wanted her to come to the sleepover while her parents were out of town. Ariel assured Rita that it wasn't a trick, so Rita agreed to sneak out after her mom went to bed. Brandi tells Lilly and Scotty that Rita came over around 10pm and left after they hid her glasses.
Jeffries and Vera visit Ariel, who is now a doctor. She tells them that she wanted to give Rita a chance to be invited into the popular girls' clique. Brandi and Tiffany really ripped into Rita at the sleepover. Brandi circled Rita's "fat" with a magic marker. Each of the girls had to take a turn and circle it. Tiffany claims that Rita had fat like her mom, and that her mom was ugly. Ariel explains to the detectives that Rita's mom was having an affair with Tiffany's dad, but Rita didn't know about it. She says that Rita left after the fat marks. The rest of the girls stayed behind, but she doesn't know about Neil.
Lilly and Jeffries talk to Kelly at the police station. She admits to the affair, but she didn't know that Tiffany knew about it. The affair ended when Rita died. Vera asks Kelly if she knows what happened to Tiffany, and she tells them that Tiffany had a drinking problem and was expelled in 8th grade.
Valens goes to talk to Tiffany who is under house arrest for multiple DUIs. She denies having anything to do with Rita's death. Scotty wants to know what went wrong in Tiffany's life to lead her to where she is now. Tiffany hated Rita, but she says she didn't have it in her to kill her. At the sleepover, they made fun of her glasses, hair, and called her eyes weird. Brandi's parents came home early, and Brandi instructed everyone to hide. Rita couldn't find her glasses, so she was caught by the Beaudrys. They asked for her name, and she told them. Mr. Beaudry instructed Brandi to find her brother and he told his wife to run a bath. He asked Rita how many girls were over, and she lied (to protect Brandi) and said just herself. Mr. Beaudry called her a liar. Tiffany tells Scotty that the Beaudrys abused their children. She left after that, and doesn't know what they did to Rita.
Lilly interrogates Mrs. Beaudry at the police station. Mrs. Beaudry insists that someone has been telling her lies. She believes it's Brandi because she's a liar and a drug addict. Mrs. Beaudry says that they were physical with their children because they had to be — they were afraid of Brandi. Jeffries talks to Mr. Beaudry. He tells him that Brandi killed their cat. Brandi said it drowned, but they didn't believe her. He indicates that she was capable of killing Rita.
Lilly tells Brandi that her parents think she killed Rita. Brandi tells Lilly that she was an angry kid. The night of the sleepover, she was forced to go upstairs to the bathroom where her mom had run a bath. Her parents forced Neil to hold Brandi's head under water until she almost drowned as punishment for having friends over and lying about it. Neil kept asking his dad to let him release Brandi, but he made him hold her head down longer. Rita was standing outside the bathroom and saw it all. Brandi says that Rita was supposed to go home, but she must have come back. Brandi and Neil were sent to their rooms, and the next day, Rita was dead.
Stillman tells Lilly, Vera, Valens, and Jeffries that the Beaudrys were right about Brandi. She was picked up for trying to get Dilaudid with a false prescription. They know that Brandi thinks her parents killed Rita to keep the abuse a secret. Scotty decides to go talk to Neil, but he finds out that he's at the same hospital as Elisa. Lilly asks Scotty if he's going to see Elisa while he's there, but he says it's not the right time.
At the hospital, Scotty tells Neil that he knows about the "dunking" that his parents made him do. Neil explains that that is what happened to Caitlin. He goes to Devil's Pool every year because he misses Rita. He saw Caitlin there and thought it was Rita. Neil put the marks on her to remind him of Rita. He held Caitlin under the water to keep her quiet, but he held her too long. Neil says that his parents never left their room after the "dunking" incident. He tells Scotty that Rita tried to save him and his sister. After the dunking, Neil brought Brandi to her room, and Rita entered. She told them what their parents were doing was wrong and she could help them. She wanted to tell another adult. Neil was willing to go, but Brandi kept denying it, becoming progressively angrier. Tiffany and Ariel came back into the room, and Brandi told them that she wanted Rita to die. The other girls agreed. Neil left Rita alone in Brandi's room with the three girls.
Lilly brings Brandi, Tiffany, and Ariel into the interrogation room. She tells them that she knows one of them killed Rita, and the other two should save themselves. She leaves the room to see what happens. The trio start arguing amongst themselves, and Tiffany tells Brandi that she's not keeping her secrets anymore. Lilly and Scotty decide that the girls are ready. Scotty talks to Tiffany. She tells him that Brandi kept coming up with ideas to kill Rita. Brandi took a knife and cut her own finger so they could be blood sisters. Ariel agreed, but Tiffany thought she was crazy and left. She tried to take Rita, but Brandi wouldn't let her. Tiffany went downstairs and found the Beaudry's liquor cabinet. She drank until she passed out.
Back in the interrogation room, Lilly and Stillman watch as Brandi starts sweating and breathing harder. She grabs Ariel's purse and starts looking through it. Lilly knows she's looking for a drug fix, but Stillman wants to know why she's looking in Ariel's purse. Brandi comes up empty-handed. Lilly points out that Ariel is a doctor, and could write prescriptions for Brandi's habit. Stillman wants to know why Ariel is risking her license to feed Brandi's addiction.
Lilly gets Brandi alone because wants to know what she has on Ariel. Lilly knows Brandi takes what she needs from people, then loses them when she doesn't need them anymore, and Ariel's tapped out. Brandi says she got bored and sent Rita and Ariel home. She told Ariel that she wasn't cool, and she wasn't going to be friends with her anymore; Ariel was better off being friends with Rita. As Ariel and Rita left, Brandi also told Ariel that she wasn't to sit with her in the lunchroom anymore. Brandi says they left, and she looked out the window and saw them cutting through the woods. Brandi mocks how Ariel cried that night over a lunch table and gets defensive at Lilly's visible disapproval.
Scotty and Lilly interrogate Ariel. She claims that Brandi is in pain, and that's why she prescribed the drugs. They correct that it's blackmail because Brandi knew what Ariel did. Ariel starts crying, and asks Lilly if she hates her. Lilly tells her it doesn't matter, as Rita was just a little girl. Ariel laments that she was a little girl too and didn't know you lived through it. The night Rita died, Ariel was walking home with her and was devastated about losing Brandi as a friend. Rita tried to comfort her, and she told Ariel what her mom said about losers going on to be important later in life. Ariel repeatedly refused to believe this. Rita assured her that they can be friends, but Ariel got upset and shoved her in a fit of rage. Rita fell down the ravine and hit her head on a rock.
The closing scenes are to Edie Brickell's "Circle". Tiffany leaves the police station and sees Lilly escorting Ariel to lock-up. They pass Brandi. Scotty brings Brandi to the hospital to see Neil, where the siblings share a tearful embrace. Their parents arrive to visit, but Brandi doesn't want them to come in. Scotty shuts the door on them. Later, he goes down the hall and is pointed to where Elisa is. Lilly tells Kelly what happened. Rita's ghost rides her bike, just as happy and carefree as in life. She passes by Lilly, who is getting into her car. Lilly watches Rita ride down the street and disappear.
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
Guest Cast[]
- Nicholas Guest as Jason Beaudry
- Fred Koehler as Neil Beaudry (2004)
- Abigail Mavity as Rita Baxter
- Kevin McCorkle as Det. Gil Sherman
- Judy Prescott as Kelly Baxter
- Emma Bates as Ariel Shuman (2004)
- Daveigh Chase as Ariel Shuman (1990)
- Katie Mitchell as Teacher
- Mary Chris Wall as Holly Beaudry
- Ashley Rose Orr as Tiffany O'Connell (1990)
- Dawn Stahlak as Tiffany O'Connell (2004)
- Virginia Williams as Brandi Beaudry (2004)
- Carly Schroeder as Brandi Beaudry (1990)
Co-Starring[]
- Chaffee Graham as Neil Beaudry (1990)
- John Benjamin Martin as Det. McElroy
- Unknown actress as Caitlin Gather
Notes[]
- This episode is loosely based on the 1989 film Heathers.
- This episode is loosely based on the murder of Shanda Sharer.
- At twelve years old, Ariel Shuman is tied with Jimmy Bartram from "Justice" and George Marks from "Mind Hunters"/ "The Woods" and Chuck Pierce from "One Small Step" as the youngest doer seen on the show. Ariel is the only girl of the four.
- The episode was remade as the seventh episode of Cold Case - Door of Truth.
[]
- REM "Stand"
- The La's "There She Goes"
- Crowded House "Something So Strong"
- Simple Minds "Alive and Kicking"
- The Bangles "In Your Room"
- Erik Broms "Don't Leave the Girl"
- The Pixies "Wave of Mutilation"
- The Cure "Lullaby"
- Martika "Toy Soldiers"
- Closing Song: Edie Brickell "Circle"