Saturday, April 4, 2015

Backstrom - Inescapable Truth


Noticing an unexpected physical resemblance with Valentine (Thomas Dekker), along with an offhand comment from Niedermayer (Kristoffer Polaha), sends Backstrom (Rainn Wilson) down a rabbit hole wondering if Val might be his son. As such thoughts continue to fester, leading Backstrom to make a trip to see a former prostitute (Lolita Davidovich) he frequented in his youth (who is roomie's mother), the squad is called in to investigate a missing musician who disappeared after escaping rehab.

After Backstrom discovers the musician's body suspicion falls on the other members of the dead man's music collective who, despite needing his talent, had motive for his murder. Based on Niedermayer's odd theory that the members of the collective match the personalities of the unit, with Backstrom being the overbearing victim, Backstrom is able to solve the case but not before questioning one suspect while high on Oxycodone. Because the network is showing these episodes out of order "Inescapable Truth" teases the upcoming romantic relationship between Niedermayer and Paquet (Beatrice Rosen) which we've already seen explored in another episode.

"Inescapable Truth" introduces Ben Hollingsworth as Assistant District Attorney Steven Kines who has a past with Gravely (Genevieve Angelson) and who was relying on the dead musician's testimony on an important case. I don't know how much of Kines we'll continue to see but the animosity between the two works well and gives us at least a piece of her backstory and how she wound up playing nursemaid to Backstrom. The episode also crystallizes the true relationship of Backstrom and Valentine, who comes under attack late in the episode by an unsavory associate who Backstrom strongly urges to never touch his friend again, providing a (somewhat unnecessary) reason for the detective not to kick the thief out of his home and his life.

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