2.6 To One Shortly To Die This week, Corky and Francis are back together on a case. The stage is set for sparks to fly… and they don’t. Aside from a few plot developments (which could have been covered in a total of ten minutes), To One Shortly to Die is mostly filler. Even the episode’s criminal investigation makes so little progress that it has not been solved by the end of the episode. It’s the day of Lincoln’s second Inauguration, and everybody is too busy getting drunk and blowing off fireworks to do anything interesting. Corcoran and Francis have a strange chemistry this week. There are a few dirty looks and unpleasant comments, but nothing worthy of the hatred Corcoran has repeatedly expressed for Francis. At one point they even share a grin. For the most part, though, it’s all business, and that doesn’t mesh well with the emotional Corky of the last several episodes. Shouldn’t there be some brass-knuckled swinging right about now? Ellen has made yet another bad choice, but again it’s hard to blame her, this time because she has just received the alarming news that she is pregnant. Eva is also pregnant, something we learned a while ago but that has not gotten much attention until now. It appears her baby is Corcoran’s, as she tries to get him alone so they can talk about something important (he brushes her off). It’ll be fun to see how Corcoran reacts to his sudden influx of progeny. Meanwhile, his surrogate daughter Annie is nowhere to be found, and the coppers think he is better off for it. Sara’s mother Hattie finally appears this week after Elizabeth buys her from a plantation in Virginia. The two have a happy reunion, but then Sara has to tell her about the death of her brothers, Hattie’s sons. Sara tells her they died as heroes while rescuing people in a ferry collision. Lying about their death probably was not a good idea, but it was a relief not to have to see Hattie’s reaction to the real story, that they were hanged from a lamppost by rioting Irishmen. The lie reveals a real change in Sara. The old, angry Sara would have gladly laid the blame on the Irish so that she and her mother could rage at them together. By telling a different story, Sara has taken a step to end the cycle of violence. I am loving this woman more every week. Corky and Francis’ investigation involves a dead alderman and his pianist son Benjamin, who was allegedly sleeping with his stepmother. Benjamin is eventually found dead on his piano with a suicide note. The coppers accept the note’s claim that Benjamin killed his father and then himself, but Corky, versed in the convoluted machinations of Copper writers, thinks that’s too easy a solution. And that’s about it. It’s not a bad episode, but it falls short of the level of sturm und drang viewers have come to expect of Copper. Maybe the show has set too high standards for itself – now we expect epic drama and action at every turn, but can it be expected to deliver every single week? With the way this season was going, I was beginning to think maybe it could. It’s hard to fault the show if it has a few low-key episodes, though. Next week, it’s the two things no good TV show can do without: cholera, and guys shooting guns at pigs’ heads. Don’t miss it. Read Laura’s review of the previous episode, A Morning Song, here. Please, if you can, buy our charity horror stories ebook, Den Of Eek!, raising money for Geeks Vs Cancer. Details here.
