Warning: Spoiler Alert
When we last saw Doctor Henry Morgan, Medical Examiner for the NYPD, he was coming to grips that for the first time in his over 200-years on this planet, he killed another human being. Morgan had to kill the psychopath that broke into Abe’s shop, or risk both his and Abe’s life, but the man he stabbed was not Henry’s immortal stalker as he believed. Morgan got set up by his stalker to kill this man, as the stalker pulled all the strings. We found out in the closing seconds, that Morgan’s stalker, is Bellevue psychiatrist Dr. Louis Garber, who treated both Morgan and the psychopath. He told Henry he was leaving town for a while but looked forward to talking upon his return.
As the ABC series “Forever,” returned to the airwaves, after being off for the holidays, the episode opens at a restaurant as veteran actor William Baldwin, sits at the head of a table with three more men a woman, who all look like investment brokers. The camera pans to one of the waiters, whose father owns the restaurant and he’s just staring at the table. His father comes over and chastises his son Jason from staring at the customers. The son tells his father the man at the head of the table’s Oliver Clarion, CEO of Clarion Capitol Investments, a firm he’s sent his resume to ten times.
Jason goes over to the table and asks Clarion if everything’s okay and the CEO responds, everything’s excellent. Jason says but it could be better right? How about instead of handing you your bill, I give you a hot stock tip. Clarion laughs and says to tell him what he’s got. We see a graphic stating it’s five-years later, and we hear Baldwin say this kid told him about a Chinese company that produced computer chips and five years later it’s made $83 million for the company. Jason’s dream came true, he’s working for Clarion and Oliver says that Jason’s like a son to him. He then says he spoils his kids and throws Jason the keys to a brand new Aston-Martin. We see Jason and his girlfriend making out in the car.
The next thing we see is Jason’s dead body the following morning, there’s a police team investigating along with a different Medical Examiner than Henry, although Detective Jo Martinez and Morgan’s assistant Lucas Wahl are on hand. The M.E. says the victim showed signs of being intoxicated, he jumped on the rail of the barrier and fell into the river and drowned. Lucas asks if he drowned why aren’t his hands wrinkled. The Medical Examiner tells Jo he’ll have his report complete by the following morning, Martinez asks him why the victim would jump on the rail and the doctor responds the why is her job. She clearly doesn’t like this guy and Lucas feels the same and asks if she misses Henry?
It’s been three-weeks and two-days since they lost saw Henry, as he still hasn’t recovered from the shooting. He’s in the basement doing an autopsy on a rat, when Abe walks in. Abe asks him when he’s going back to work, that he’s had enough time to adjust and he had to kill the man as it was self-defense. Now we find out that it’s not just the trauma of killing another person, that’s bothering Morgan, it’s the fact that his stalker manipulated him and he won. Abe says the only way he wins, is if Henry remains a hermit. The phone rings and Abe answers to find it’s his old war buddy Marco and he’s Jason’s father. Abe says he’ll be right over, then tells Henry that was Marco’s only child, it’s hard to imagine how that must feel for him.
The following morning the other M.E. meets with Martinez and Wahl and says his final ruling’s accidental death by drowning. Right then Henry walks into the room, says he examined the body earlier that morning and he found too many inconsistencies, to agree with that. The other doctor says to Jo she has a choice accept his report and be done with the case or work with Henry and deal with paperwork and insanity, she chooses insanity.
Morgan and Martinez interview Marco and he tells them ever since Jason joined Clarion Capitol, he changed. His whole life and culture were built around money, that’s not the life he wanted Jason to have. He says he can’t help but think if he had stayed at the restaurant, he’d be alive now. Then he looks at Henry and says he couldn’t protect his son which is a father’s job.
Which sends us on our first flashback of the week, to 1965, as Henry’s wife Abigail worriedly shows Henry that the letter from the Draft Board came for Abraham. Abraham then enters sees the notice and asks if his mother’s excited to have another soldier in the family. Henry responds neither of them are and they have to sit down and talk about it, but Abraham says it’s his decision.
Jo and Henry head to Jason’s apartment and meet his girlfriend Hannah, whose filled with grief. She told them that Jason dropped her off early and told her he was going to enjoy his new car. Henry’s pounding on the floor with his feet, then compliments Hannah for the floor, its white oak, just like the slivers that were found under Jason’s fingernails. He stomps some more, then finds a hiding spot under the floor board, about a hundred grand in cash and a strange shaped key. Jo asks if Hannah knows anything about this and she says no and one hundred grand’s a small sum for them.
The pair then head to Clarion Capitol, and check out Jason’s office, there’s another guy in their that believes Henry and Jo are the decorators he’s hired to redecorate what will soon become his office. He then puts Jason down for his taste, blaming his Brooklyn background. Martinez then identifies herself as a detective and says they’ve come to investigate Jason’s death, the other broker identifies himself as Val Kaplan and says he’ll get out of their way. Martinez sees blood on the carpet and Henry notices the lamp had fallen and says that a fight took place there.
They ask the receptionist to speak to Clarion, but she tells them he’s just about to have his daily pep-talk with his employees. He welcome all his employees from branches across the planet, that must receive a closed circuit feed and then eulogizes Jason, as his Green Beret, the top of his soldiers because he knew the magic word and asks what it is. The employees scream Kill, he gets them to repeat it a few times and then asks, or what to which they respond, Be Killed.
They meet with Clarion and he’s as full of himself as one could expect. He says that he needs to keep the atmosphere ferocious to keep his soldiers motivated. He then responds that many of Jason’s fellow employees, may have resented him and the bond the two men shared. He then says he needs to leave as he has a meeting.
The receptionist Melanie Fontana, tells them that Oliver said to feel free to talk to anyone, Martinez responds she’s not done talking with Oliver. Henry sneakers under Melanie’s desk and ask if she has a long commute, she tells him yes she lives in Brooklyn, near where Jason grew-up. She says they used to joke that they had broken out, then says Jason was a good egg, Henry then asks if she knows anything about the blood on Jason’s carpet.
Jo catches up with Clarion at the elevators and asks about the blood, he says Jason fought with some guy he grew up with. Melanie gives Henry the guy’s name Kevin Cracciola and the address of the body-shop he owns. Morgan heads home and tells Abe the update, but Abe wants him and Henry to visit the guy right then, he tells Henry he wants to help. Henry gives him the strange shaped key and Abe says he knows just the guy to solve this.
The next morning Abe walks into a locksmith’s store and the older man behind the counter stares at him with ice-cold eyes, calls him Abe The Knave and says he doesn’t deal with guy’s that steal an Army buddy’s girlfriend. Abe tells Jerry Charters, the locksmith he needs his help to help Marco and tells Charters that Jason got murdered. Jerry tells him it’s a key to a humidor and to leave it with him and he’ll find out what the key fits.
Meanwhile Martinez and Morgan are at the body-shop talking to Jason’s friend Kevin about the fight. He asks if Jason’s pressing charges and Jo tells him that Jason’s been murdered. As she questions the suspect, Henry looks around the shop and soon calls over Jo, he’s seeing pieces of an Aston-Martin all over the shop, they’ve chopped Jason’s car down and are using it for parts, like the Aston-Martin engine that Kevin put into the Impala, he’s trying to escape in. Henry runs to the street and stands straight in the car’s pathway, Jo knocks him out-of-the-way just in time and Kevin crashes his car.
They bring him in and Martinez pulls Henry aside and asks about the stunt he pulled and Morgan responds he didn’t want him to escape. Jo tells him that’s not his job, but he says that the guy was “manipulating” them, same word he used when talking to Abe about his stalker.
They go in to question Kevin and he admits heisting the car, but he didn’t kill Jason. He waited in Kevin’s garage to get the hundred grand that Jason promised him, then some Aston-Martin pulled into Kevin’s parking spot so he took the car. But he says it wasn’t Jason who parked the car, after looking at photos, he identifies the guy as Val Kaplan. They head to the office and take him away in handcuffs.
Kaplan admits to Martinez that Oliver Clarion called him at midnight, that Jason’s body was in the swimming pool, he retrieved the body stuffed him in the trunk and dumped him near the river. Clarion assured him he’d take care of everything. Jo and Henry arrive at Clarion’s with a warrant and head to his indoor pool, filled with sea-water, Henry pulls the filter and sees the same ground glass found in Jason’s skull. Oliver says to Martinez he thinks he’s very smart doesn’t he, at that point her cell-phone rings, it’s Lieutenant Reece telling her and Henry to head to the station. Jo says Henry’s just found the murder weapon and the Lieutenant responds they have someone who admits to murdering Jason, Melanie Fontana. Clarion grins from ear-to-ear.
Abe and Jerry have located Clarion’s yacht, which holds the humidor and they convince the attendant that they service the humidor and their readings indicate the humidor’s far too moist and they need to reset it immediately, or all of Clarion’s cigars will become garbage. He then distracts the attendant as Jerry opens the humidor, finding a packet of financial records inside.
Martinez questions Melanie and she says Jason tried putting the moves on her and was smashed so he wouldn’t stop. She says he said the reason he wouldn’t be with him was she was sleeping with Oliver. She says it really ticked her off, so she threw a bottle of wine at him, hitting him in the head and he drowned, she didn’t mean to kill him.
Henry heads home to find the over the hill gang sitting at his kitchen table, Abe, Jerry and Abe’s accountant. Abe tells Henry there’s been a major break in the case, tells him they stole the documents and these are the real numbers, they’ve hidden from the SEC. Jason confronted him and Clarion killed him. The usually unflappable Morgan yells at the three old men that by stealing the documents they’re inadmissible in court and he has to call Martinez.
Jo gets the call, tells Henry she’ll call him back and tells Melanie that was a source from the SEC and they’ll soon file suit against Clarion Capitol. She asks Fontana how much Oliver paid him to confess, a million, five million. She then says the Government has forensic accountants who will find the money and she’ll have nothing, then starts to leave the room, but Melanie stops her. She says Oliver gave her 20 million it would get wired the next day.
At Clarion Capitol, the entire staff’s deleting files from computers, gathering all paper documents and Oliver’s in his office smashing a hard drive. The FBI, Jo and Henry enter the offices and the Federal Agents tell everybody to put down their boxes and stand at their desks. Henry realizes Clarion’s in the second floor parking garage and goes after him, Jo realizes what Henry’s done and heads to the garage. Clarion’s heading straight for Morgan when Jo starts shooting at the car and Oliver gives up.
Henry sits and talks with Marco, Jerry and Abe at the house and Marco thanks Henry for all his work. Henry responds that he’s heard Marco’s a big reason why Abe made it home safe from Vietnam. He flashback to 1965, as Henry and Abigail bid Abraham farewell as he’s about to get on the bus to boot camp. As he gets into line, the guy ahead of him introduces himself as Marco and Abraham tells him his name’s Abe. Marco asks are you scared and they both nervously chuckle. Marco says he’s from Brooklyn so he’ll be okay then tells Abe to stick with him, he’ll take care of him.
Later that evening, there’s a knock at the shop’s door and it’s Jo, Henry lets her in and asks if she there to tell him she no longer wants to work with him? She says just the opposite but they’ve both gone through the same experience recently and she tried too hard when she first came back on duty, comparatively to him standing in front of speeding cars. Henry needs to take it one day at a time and she’s there for him. They then go to check on another homicide.
The Story Continues Next Tuesday at 10:00 pm on ABC.
