Warning: Spoiler Alert
“They say memories make us who we are, that the past defines us. But, we can’t forget to grow, evolve. Because sometimes a memory’s so powerful, that we get stuck in it, frozen in a moment.”
Henry Morgan’s opening monologues, are always a high point in an episode the ABC series, “Forever,” but the one he gave near the beginning of the latest episode entitled “Punk Is Dead,” basically summed up the plot for the evening. Dr. Morgan’s latest case, involved the lost love of a rock-guitarist, convicted of murdering her 30-years earlier and brought back vividly, Henry’s memories when Abigail left in the mid-eighties. That incident almost destroyed Henry, mentally and spiritually, before recovering with help from his son, Abe.
Our first scene takes place in Henry and Abe’s kitchen, as Henry blows on a hot seafood dish, Abe just prepared, when he asks if he added the saffron. Abe replies, of course it’s mom’s recipe, Morgan takes a bite and he’s in heaven. Abe says that dinner’s a nice change of pace, no bodies or calls from Jo Martinez, summoning Henry for another case.
Henry responds that Jo’s on a date with her new beau and Abe starts interrogating his father, about the man she’s seeing. Morgan tells him that his name’s Isaac Monroe, he’s a hotelier, driven and rich, his son replies wealth doesn’t impress him, but at least Martinez’s dating again.
Monroe takes Jo to the Forever universe’s legendary New York City Punk Club, the Trash Bar, for their celebratory final concert. Isaac bought the club and he’s tearing it down to put his next hotel in that spot. Martinez says he can’t do that, the place’s a landmark, filled with music and as she looks around the crowd, she says and drugs and starts reaching for her shield. Isaac stops her, asking her to take the night off from being a cop.
Carrying on a tradition that began with The Who, then got turned into an institution via the Sex Pistols, the band onstage starts destroying their instruments, the guitarist taking his instrument and smacks it against the backdrop wall, putting a hole through it and exposing the corpse of a woman buried within the walls.
Henry and Lucas arrive at their lab and meet Jo as the corpse is on an examining table, Martinez still wearing the outfit she wore for the date and Henry tells her she looks nice. He tells her the body got mummified by being wrapped in insulation, and they’re going to hydrate it with a bath, using a formula started in Egypt in the last century. If things go well, they might get a facial recognition of the woman.
The phone in the lab rings, Lucas picks up and the man on the other end asks to speak to the detective handling the Jane Doe case. Martinez gets on the line and the man asks if the victim’s Lucy, she then puts him on speaker-phone. She says they’ve yet to identify the body, but he’s welcome to come down to try to identify her, he says that would prove difficult as he’s in prison. She asks who it is and the man says he’s the guy convicted of killing her.
The man on the phone, Eddie Warsaw, was the lead-singer and guitarist for an eighties band called the Buzz-Cracks and boyfriend of Lucy Templeton, who indeed was the woman discovered in the wall. Lieutenant Joanna Reece was a beat-cop on the case and the District Attorney’s office wanted a quick conviction, considering Eddie and Lucy worthless junkies. Reece thought they didn’t do a thorough investigation, but was too low in rank to speak up. She tells Jo to take Henry to visit Warsaw.
The former Rock-Star confirms the pictures they bring of the body are Lucy, then asks if that means the case will get reopened and Jo replies, the evidence still says he killed her. Eddie says he’s built up all sorts of theories over the years and has an extensive collection of notes, would they like to examine it? Henry quickly says yes, but Jo replies no. Warsaw looks her in the eyes, saying he didn’t kill Lucy, she was his heart, then he asks the pair if they have any idea the pain of losing the love of your life, without having a clue where she’s gone to?
Dr. Morgan knows that experience all too well, as we witness ourselves as we take our first flashback of the evening to 1985, as Henry’s in his house, shouting out of fear and frustration to two policemen standing in his living room. He tells them they don’t understand, his wife’s missing and they ask for a recent picture of Abigail, that he gives right to them. The first officer looks at the picture then at Henry a couple of times, before he asks how old she is and Morgan says 64. He then says he received a letter from her a week after she left, saying she needed to do some thinking, but she’d return, however it’s been three-months.
One of the officers reads the message and tells Henry it’s a Dear John letter, but Henry says that’s insane. They tell him it looks like she wants to stay hidden and there’s nothing they can do to help. They wish him luck and leave and we can see by Morgan’s facial expression, he’s running out of options.
The District Attorney claimed that Eddie killed Lucy with his guitar, but Henry says the wound on the back of her head weren’t caused by a guitar. Jo walks into the morgue as Henry comes to his conclusion and he informs the detective, she tells Morgan that Eddie’s upstairs, ready to sign a confession he killed Lucy, in exchange for his immediate release. Henry convinces Warsaw to reject the deal, the D.A. says they’ll pull the deal off the table in 48-hours.
Henry tells Abe about the case and his son says that make sure this case’s about Eddie and Lucy, not Henry and Abigail. We flashback to 1985, to find Henry passed out on his living room floor, getting revived by a younger version of Abe, portrayed by David Krumholtz. The house is in complete disarray, with Morgan’s notes all over the living room. Henry says he must have passed out due to exhaustion, but they need to go to the bus station, as a clerk thinks he may have seen Abigail. Abe says it’s too late and puts Henry to sleep on the sofa with a pillow and blanket, then says I’m here now Dad. Morgan’s soon asleep and Abe looks around the room repeating, I’m here now.
Detective Mike Hanson was in a band in his early years, called Craniac, (pretty cool, huh?) and he brings in a coffee table book of photos from the Trash Bar, to show his buddies his ear in one of the pictures. Henry realizes, that the photographer Carl Massey, was likely familiar with both Lucy and Eddie and pay him a visit. A young man answers the door and it turns out the former gonzo-photographer, now specializes in child’s portraits to put food on the table.
Massey tells them he knew them both well and wasn’t shocked when Warsaw got convicted for Templeton’s murder, he said Eddie always had a temper. But then he says that the rest of the band hated her, they called her Yoko and said she stopped the band from reaching the top. Carl says, she likely was, because the only thing Eddie loved more than the band was Lucy.
The two go to talk to Eddie’s old band mate Rich Dornis and he notices that a wrist band that Rich’s daughter’s wearing, which belongs to him, have the same spike-placement as the marks on Lucy’s thigh. They ask to speak to him privately. Dornis says he did cause the wounds, as he found her dead body and buried her in the wall to protect Eddie, he says they were family and he had to help.
Henry goes to the penitentiary where Eddie’s imprisoned and says that everything Rich says checks out. Warsaw starts getting agitated saying maybe Dornis killed her, then the prison guards take him back to his cell, Warsaw’s notes and pictures, wind up all over the floor.
Morgan’s checking things over and over again, trying to prove Eddie’s innocence. Abe comes in and says this is how it started the last time Henry, I pulled you out once, I’m not sure I can do it again. We once again return to 1985, Henry wakes up after sleeping on the couch and sees all his notes and his corkboard are gone. He calls for Abe and his son tells him he threw the stuff out. He says it’s a year you have to get on with your life.
Henry’s nearly hysterical saying he can’t go on without her and he lacks death as an option. Abe replies that’s right, so you can sit and sulk for the next 175-years, or get over it. Henry asks how Abe can act so callous, Abigail was his mother, his son responds, that’s right and he lost her too. The phone rings and it’s the police, they may have found Abigail.
Apparently, Eddie lost all hope of getting cleared so he signed the deal, admitting he killed Templeton for his immediate release. Minutes later the toxicology report on Lucy comes back, she was clean for eight-months before she got killed. Henry realizes she must have had a reason to kick it and does a test to find out she had a baby. They look him up and his name’s Jeff Templeton and Jo and Henry go to pay the boy a visit.
Turns out Jeff Templeton’s the adopted son of Carl Massey and Martinez and Morgan quickly realize, Massey killed Lucy. They head to his shop, he tells them she was carrying Eddie’s baby, but she thought he’d freak out, so he took her upstate, got her sober and helped deliver her son. But after she gave birth to Jeff, she wanted to see Eddie again. He followed her and in a struggle to take her back upstate, she banged her head against the nail and died. Jo cuffs Massey and they take him outside.
Eddie’s waiting for them figuring out when Henry showed her the pictures Massey took of Lucy he loved her. He shoots out a window and when Jo reaches for her weapon he tells her to stay still. He’s about to shoot Massey, when Jeff shows up, the resemblance between Eddie and Jeff’s remarkable and Eddie drops the gun.
Massey’s getting arraigned on accidental homicide, but Eddie’s allowed to go free, Jo says he can go and he asks go where? Henry says he has a son and Warsaw says the boy doesn’t need him, Morgan counters with perhaps he needs the boy.
Back in 1985, Henry and Abe see the body and it’s not Abigail’s. When they walk away, Henry says he’s not sure what’s worse if that had been her, or her still missing, then asks Abe, what next? His son responds, with all the crap he’s collected over the years, Henry’s almost a hoarder, Morgan asks if Abe wants him to throw out his stuff? Abe says let’s sell it and open an antique store.
Mike finally gets to show off his vocal skills, as Isaac and Jo, Henry and Lucas watch him rock out in a karaoke bar, they applaud vigorously. Jo and Isaac kiss and Henry looks uncomfortable, but attempts to play it off.
Later that night, Henry’s sipping some whiskey, at home, looking at Jeff Templeton’s birth records when Abe walks in. Henry says something about the twin-doves in the logo reminds him of Abigail, but he’s going to leave it alone and go to sleep. Abe picks up the document and looks at it, we then see him in a storage facility, he opens the door to a room and all Henry’s stuff’s stored there, Abe didn’t throw it out. He looks at the poster board and sees a 20 cent stamp that has the same two doves together.
The Story Continues Next Tuesday Night at 10:00 pm on ABC.
