Life on Mars: Let All the Children Boogie

I watched the movie Dreamgirls last night.  I tell you this because we had not only a Supremes knock-off, we had a James Brown knock-off, a Four Tops knock-off, and a Bo Diddly knock-off.  And on this week’s Life on Mars, we have a KISS knock-off.  Oh yeah, and we get an X-files knock-off as well.

Jonathan Murphy as Detective Chris Skelton in Life on Mars

A rock-star by the name of Gene Simmons Sebastian Grace has received death threats and needs police protection.  Since 20-something detective Chris Skelton is a big fan, he draws the duty and heads to the band’s hotel where a huge party, complete with about a dozen geese (don’t ask), is in progress.  When Sebastian disappears with a groupie named Rocket Girl in a VW bus (this guy makes a million dollars, and he drives a VW bus?), Chris follows them to a New Jersey wasteland called the Meadowlands.  Sebastian and Rocket Girl want some “quality time” alone, so Sebastian bribes Chris with a bottle of grape soda.  And I so know where this is going.  Chris starts seeing glowing hands, floating soda bottles, and bright lights.  But the bright lights aren’t an hallucination.  Sebastian and R. Girl see them, too, and R. Girl is so eager to meet the aliens, she runs out of the bus to stand under the lights.

Fade to white.  The next morning, the entire squad is rescuing Chris (no, I do not know how they found him in the pre-lo-jack era), but Sebasian and Rocket Girl are nowhere to be found.  Sebastian eventually shows up, but Rocket Girl remains missing.  The rock star arrested.

In a convenient turn of events, another groupie comes to the squad room and tells the police that one Carl Stefanski killed Rocket Girl (real name Emily Something-or-other.  It seems Carl was obsessed with Emily and became crazy-jealous of any band she hung out with.  Sam and Ray (Michael Imperioli, in case you’ve forgotten the Emmy winner is in this show) visit Carl.  And yes, he has the standard obsessed-nut-job shrine to Emily.  There’s also a Sebastian Grace death threat notice in the making.  So at least that part of the case is solved.

Interestingly, Chris is not opposed to the idea of aliens having abducted Emily.  He’s found an FBI agent who specializes in the paranormal.  Chris and Sam visit Mulder Richard Morrell.  He tells them aliens do exist, and those who’ve been abducted are “dropped off” in the exact same place, but in a different time, always in the past.  Aha!  Sam now knows how he got 1973.  He heads to the Meadowlands and sure enough, he’s bombarded with bright lights and high winds.  (But, but, this isn’t where Sam was abducted.  Oh heck.  Just roll with it.)  He runs underneath the space ship, begging them to take him home.

Fade to white.  Again.  But this time we see Sam’s head emerging from the bog.  He grabs a breath, dives under again, and returns with Emily’s dead body.

Mulder Morrell explains that the location is a restricted area where the military test prototype aircraft.  In this case, it’s a terrain-following helicopter that produces glaringly bright lights and high winds, which pushed Emily, and later Sam, down into the bog.

Well, wasn’t that convenient?  Chris is disappointed.  He wishes there wasn’t an explanation for everything.  Aw.  And to further the “aw” factor, he gives Sam a St. Christopher’s medal (St. Christopher being the patron saint of travelers).

I liked that this episode gave us better insight into one of the supporting characters.  Before now, Chris had been mainly a by-stander, and maybe comic relief.  But this episode gave him some depth ,in addition to his sweetness and innocence.  Chris wants to believe in the unexplainable, partly because he thinks the possibility of aliens is not that different from the possibility of angels.  And, unlike the rest of the squad, who continue to think Sam is a little nuts, Chris believes that Sam could indeed be from another era.

The other, more light-hearted story involves Sam banging Lt Gene Hunt’s daughter in the file room.  I guess this happened last week when I wasn’t watching.  Gene knows there were “hi-jinks” in his office, and knows Sam was involved.  Their confrontation is quite humorous, mainly because Jason O’Mara has such an expressive case.  In scenes like these, it’s fun.  But it gets a little maudlin in the depressing scenes.  And I end up laughing anyway.  Gene believes the woman involved is Annie, and he chastises her as well.  She takes the blame, mainly to protect Sam from Gene’s wrath.  But the episode ends with Gene finding the initialed pen he gave his daughter in the file room.  Uh-oh.