Season 1, Episode 5 of Cold Case.
The team reinvestigate the 1973 murder of police officer Joe Washington after an addict discovers a cassette tape in the garage that records him calling out “Runner! Runner!” before he was shot.
Directed by David Straiton
Written by Veena Sud
Tropes for the episode:
- Dark and Troubled Past: Joe is from the ghetto. He erased his identity to make it seem like he's from the country.
- The Dog Was the Mastermind: The homeless woman Niecy is in fact the grown-up Sammie. She brought the tape recorder to finally solve Joe's murder.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The ending montage in this episode has a scene in which Lilly reveals to Diane the truth about who Sammie is. Subsequent ending montages would generally have no dialogue featured in them instead just having the era-appropriate song played throughout.
- Girlish Pigtails: Sammie styled her hair this way in her youth.
- The Lost Lenore: Joe’s wife Diane not only lost her husband, but the stress and grief of the tragedy caused her to miscarry their unborn child, a little girl.
- Mistaken for Cheating: Diane suspected Joe of cheating because he was acting secretive toward her. One day, she followed him to the slums and saw him go into an apartment and ask for Sammie, whom she assumed was his mistress. Turns out, Sammie was not his mistress, but a little girl whom he loved like a sister, and planned to bring home to live with him and Diane to give her a shot at a better life. When Diane finds this out and meets Sammie for the first time, they embrace tenderly, bonded by their love for the man in their lives.
- Tragic Hero: Joe is killed while trying to save Sammie.
- Wacky Cravings: Joe and his partner both had pregnant wives. When his partner is complaining about his wife busting his balls for forgetting her mint chip ice cream, Joe laughs and talks about Diane sending him out for pickles and fish sauce.
