Spoilers

“When in Rome”

Paranoia and hysteria engulf Rome, Wisconsin in one of the most uncomfortable episodes of Picket Fences.

Adam Wood came to Rome. Adam Wood had spent 16 years in prison for child molestation. By law, he had to announce himself to his new neighbors, which just happened to be the Brock household.

The town rallied against the man. Fear of what could happen with the children of the community sent the people of Rome into a tizzy. While completely understandable, it put the people of Rome’s prejudices front and center. It made some normally good people look unfair and bloodthirsty.

This show is not afraid to make their main characters show their warts and their own dark sides. It is quite amazing.

To throw yet another twist, Adam Wood was revealed, after his own suicide on the steps of the court house, to be the son of Judge Bone. Ray Walston gives a wonderful performance as a grieving father, shamed of his response to his son.

By the way, Ed Lawson is still in the freezer.

“Heroes and Villains”

The Dancing Bandit returned to Rome to wish Zack a happy birthday. The FBI was able to capture her. Marlee Matlin comes back to the show to reclaim the role of Laurie Bey, and she went to trial for the bank robbery she committed in season one.

Marlee Matlin brought a remarkable charm and charisma to this character. She was a trigger for a fight between the Brocks, of course, because this is Picket Fences.

Jane Kaczmarek appeared as the prosecutor for the federal government who, for some reason, wanted to try the case in Rome. She had some of the best moments of the episode, reacting to Wambaugh and looking perplexed when so many of the past things from Rome popped up during the trial (cows giving birth to humans, anyone?).

Though the jury found her not guilty, Judge Bone threw that verdict out and assigned Laurie 3000 hours of community service, meaning Marlee Matlin would be sticking around the town.

Oh, and Ed Lawson is still in the freezer.

“Changing of the Guard”

Hey! They finally pulled Ed Lawson out of the freezer!

Laurie Bey started her community service when Jimmy asked her to help find Ed Lawson, thinking that he had run off with his wife after murdering George the massage guy. They had no idea that Ed’s wife Marsha had killed both men.

When Laurie wanted to go see the Lawson house, they finally found the freezer with a lock on it. Freezers in Rome have now claimed three victims.

When Marsha returned from her trip, she put on an act that she did not know what had happened. Wambaugh was front and center in her defense. However, when she told him that she had killed both men and wanted to get through the trial without testifying so she could avoid perjury because she had book and movie deals waiting for her story, Wambaugh had a crisis of faith in himself and his job.

This case was used to look at the character of Douglas Wambaugh and it gave us dimensions that we may not have seen before. He has always been portrayed as a shyster, a character as he always said. This looked at the toll taken by defense attorneys and how difficult it could be to put guilty defendants back on the street. This is a theme David E. Kelley has used in several series, including The Practice and Boston Legal.

Meanwhile, Laurie Bey was asked to be the mayor of Rome, a job with a short life span. In not even three full seasons, we have had multiple mayors including Bill Pugen, Howard Buss, Rachel Harris, Jill Brock (and the guy who was a temporary co-mayor with her), and Ed Lawson. Three of them are dead now.

Spoilers

“Close Encounters”

It’s Valentine’s Day and the heart is playing tricks on those from Rome, Wisconsin.

Carter pronounces a singer dead, but she comes back to life.

Aisha senses that Littleton was attracted to her… and he was, but could not act on it.

Max and Kenny have sex, and they fight over what it meant.

Unfortunately, none of these stories really worked well for me. I found the Carter and the singer to be the best one, but Carter said that he was not attracted to her and I found that totally incorrect.

Max and Kenny is the only one of the couples who are trying to keep it going, but they were also the ones that were the worst to each other.

Loretta Devine guest starred as Marla Melrose and she was very charming and fun. Carter had to be out of his mind to reject her.

Spoilers

“Freezer Burn”

Another murder in Rome. This time, the victim has been shoved into a freezer, much like Ginny. Except Ginny’s was accidental and this was intentional.

The victim turned out to be a special masseuse who was giving sensual massages to the women of Rome. He kept a book that indicated which women he would give the “Squiggly.” The mind races.

Turned out that Ed Lawson, who was the main suspect because he had threatened the man, was married to the woman who killed the masseuse. She was in love with the man and mad because Ed had chased him off. She then whacked Ed in the back of the head and shoved him into the freezer too.

This was a great episode and I remember the moment it happened, and it was shocking.

“Frogman Returns”

The Frogman returned to Rome, signing and dancing about frogs, and his son, the same son who had shot Kenny in season one, sued for emancipation from his father.

The other story was really strong too. Matthew, in trying to move the car from the driveway, accidently hits Zack and injures him. Thankfully he did not injure him as badly as he could have. However, Jill arrived on the scene and hit Matthew in anger over the accident.

This unseated some deep feelings from Matthew, believing that Jill did not love him as much as she did Zack or Kimberly.

Justin Shenkarow, the young actor who played Matthew, did a tremendous job playing the anger and the pain of his belief his mother did not love him as much as his brother. He was not just mad, there were times when he portrayed the anger extremely well, with a glance or an expression. It was a very solid and, at times, subtle performance.

“Mr. Seed Goes to Town”

Family drama continues in the Brock house. When Lydia arrives asking for permission to use Jimmy’s sperm to become pregnant, she throws the entire Brock clan into chaos. And just like holidays in the Brock house, it always becomes about more than the overlying situation.

Judge Bone, who was tired of the weird cases he had to rule upon, decided to place Jimmy, Jill and Lydia under house arrest until they could come up with a answer without the court having to make the ruling.

So he put them all together and guaranteed fireworks. Deep hidden doubts and motives come crashing out from everyone, including Kimberly, Matthew and Zack. Zack actually had one of the more brutal moments when he wished that Lydia was dead. Zack and Matthew also had overheard Kimberly saying how she was intrigued with the idea of having a ‘real’ sibling, which made them feel terrible.

This type of episode has happened several times over the run of this series, from “Thanksgiving” to “Buried Alive.” There is always something more under the surface in Rome, Wisconsin.

Oh, and by the way, Ed Lawson is still in the freezer. I mean, he was the mayor. Has no one checked on him?

Spoilers

“Away in the Manger”

This was the episode that was supposed to have been the crossover event with The X-Files. Apparently, David E. Kelley and X-Files creator Chris Carter had wanted to do a event involving cows and alien DNA. However, the fact was that Picket Fences was on CBS TV and The X-Files was on FOX TV and a crossover event at that time across two competing networks was just not going to work. So the great idea wound up being squashed.

However, while all the references to Picket Fences were removed from the X-Files episode (Mulder and Scully were reportedly supposed to go to Rome, Wisconsin), there were still references left in this Picket Fences episode. Carter Pike mentioned about weird things going on in Delta Glen, Wisconsin (the city where the X-Files episode was set) such as alien DNA, cows, a plane crash, and a doctor named Larsen (which are all involved in the X-Files episode).

How cool that could have been, this episode has cows giving birth to human babies. You certainly would think that Mulder would be intrigued by that.

As with all Picket Fences episodes, this main plot was used to deconstruct main characters of the show. This one was used to help look at Kimberly’s belief that there is no God as well as continuing to confuse the young Brock boys. Poor Zack has no idea what religion he is or which one he wants to partake in.

Former mayor Rachel Harris returned for this episode. She had really disappeared since losing the mayor’s office back in season two, but she popped up here as the owner of the cow and the mother of the baby boy that cow gave birth to.