Spoilers

“Frog Man”

The first time Kenny isn’t a great shot, he gets taken down.

A powerful episode dealing with the consequences of a police officer being shot and the ways that that can mess with someone’s head.

Kenny is shot by Frog Man at a jewelry shop. Frog Man, a person who had been committing crimes with frogs, was at the shop and wound up shooting Kenny twice. He just happened to get the drop on Kenny.

Kenny was rushed to surgery and Jill had to operate to pull the bullet out of him.

Eccentric frog lover Peter Lebeck (Michael Jeter) was an immediate suspect and Maxine overstepped procedure in her investigation, which led to Peter’s arrest and eventual dismissal of charges because of an illegal search and a confession that stemmed from the legal term, ‘poisonous fruits.’

This entire event led to a meltdown between Maxine and Kenny, because Kenny blamed her for not being there when he needed her and Maxine mad at Kenny for going behind her back to Jimmy. These two who have been very close really came to some dramatic tension.

It turned out that it was actually Peter’s son Milton (Chris Owen) who had shot Kenny, as the 11-year old was trying to find a hero, aka Frog Man.

Maxine and Kenny were able to work out their issues, as Jimmy pointed out that they were both at fault for the situation. That Kenny was not mad at Maxine, but at himself because he got shot and that he had taken the situation with such a lazy approach and that Maxine had blown the search and arrest because she was affected by what had happened.

The scenes with Peter and Milton at the police station before Milton was taken away were powerful and painful.

This was a really strong episode that, again, takes the plot and uses it to dive deep inside the characters that we love.

Spoilers

“Pageantry”

“High Tidings”

It’s Christmastime in Rome.

Rome Christmas brings all kinds of conflict.

A female teacher who used to be a male.

Statutory rape. Well, sort of…

Kris Kringle is arrested and takes the police station hostage. Kenny is still a great shot.

A pageant is not allowed because of the Nativity scene. Separation of church and state.

Unfortunately, Judge Bone has an issue with transsexuals. He warned Wambaugh not to bring the case into his court room. That warning was clearly never going to be kept.

Jimmy’s ex-wife Lydia comes to help with Kimberly.

These were two consecutive excellent episodes. The whole Santa takes the station hostage was tense and anxious. As it was mixed with the whole Kimberly drama that was ripping apart the Brock family making it all the more poignant.

Once again, holidays in Rome, Wisconsin are something else.

Spoilers

“The Snake Lady”

A dead body. Suicide or homicide? How does a snake play into it?

Another mystery in Rome, Wisconsin that the Sheriff’s Department has to solve. But can their motives be trusted?

A woman is found dead in her home and the initial appearance is that of suicide. However, her husband, Brian, is confident that she would never have killed herself. He wanted to blame her sister, K.C., who has several pet snakes and thus dubbed ‘The Snake Lady.’

Problem… Maxine started to have feelings for Brian, to empathize with him over his situation leading to Kenny to call her out on it and tell Jimmy.

The case went through several final answers, from suicide to accidental shooting to possible murder. Poor Carter had to report each change in the case to the media which mocked him horribly over the changing case and Carter’s constant comments of being ‘nearly’ deputized.

The mystery of this episode is well done and is one of the tropes of Picket fences. There are a ton of twists and turns among the show’s mystery cases and this is no exception. Everything does come out nicely done and worked as a solution.

Again, we get conflict between our characters developed by the plot. In this case, Maxine and Kenny, who had a lovely encounter with one another last episode over Thanksgiving, immediately had their partnership tossed in the grinder.

By the way, Kenny is one damn fine shot.

The only drawback of this episode is that we never got to hear, “Douglas Wambaugh for the Snake Lady!” No Wambaugh or Judge Bone this episode. Perhaps Wambaugh is taking this episode to spend more time with his wife after last episode’s issues.

One more thing, Brian had grabbed Kenny around the throat and pushed him against the wall, and I am not sure how he did not get charged with assaulting an officer. Kenny was fully in control of the situation though and wound up hitting Brian with the handle of his gun. Still, Brian should have faced charges. “Douglas Wambaugh for the police assaulter!”

Spoilers

“Thanksgiving”

Thanksgiving means family, but in Rome, Wisconsin, Thanksgiving means conflict.

This was the first of the annual Picket Fence Thanksgiving episodes that they would have every year and every year there would be a new chance for the Brock family and their circle of friends to argue, fight and eat turkey.

This first episode sees Jill’s father arrive with a brand new fiancé who just happened to be 26 years old. Jill can barely contain her opposition to the surprise that was sprung on her.

Other conflicts that were being contained within this Thanksgiving episode included Douglas Wambaugh, who had caught his wife Miriam in bed with another man, and Maxine and Kenny alone at the police station.

The master of dialogue, David E. Kelley, loved these kind of episodes that would split up the characters in different places around the Brock house (and the police station) and just had one on one conversations, dealing with the conflicts among them.

The episode laid some groundwork for a possible relationship between Maxine and Kenny, who have always been close. It started with Kenny calling Maxine “Supercop.” It ended with a passionate kiss under the “New Years’ Eve rule” which says that a kiss at New Years does not have to mean anything, just a way to satisfy curiosity.

Holiday episodes are a staple of this series and “Thanksgiving” is the first one to be seen. It is a style that this show will emphasized throughout it.

Spoilers

“Sacred Hearts”

Picket Fences was a very topic heavy show and one of the topics that David E. Kelley’s show covered a lot was that of assisted suicide/euthanasia. This was the first time the idea came up in Rome, Wisconsin as a singing nun, described by Maxine as a serial mercy killer, helped ease the pain of a leukemia patient by ending her life.

This topic is one that was extremely passionate on both sides and created a lot of uncertainty among all of the characters in Rome. This week, it was Judge Henry Bone who spoke about it on the bench as he made a shocking ruling in the case. Ray Walston was amazing in this performance.

The episode also dove deeply into religion and the questions surrounding what happens when you die, a question that was plaguing poor Zachary Brock after he had seen the leukemia patient’s dead corpse accidentally. His nightmares only confused him more with what Heaven, Hell or any kind of afterlife might contain.

As always, Jimmy is under the microscope as his own religious doubts are touched upon. I know that this is a theme that is returned to again over the life of the series. In this episode, Jimmy’s oldest son Matthew called his dad out on his own habit of breaking the 10 Commandments. This was a hilarious scene.

Picket Fences has never shied away from the controversial and this episode made that case clear. It is brilliant writing when you can take a controversy and make each side of the issue feel both right and wrong at the same time.

Another long term storyline is introduced here as Howard Buss, who made his first appearance recently, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease. Howard’s arc will continue for quite awhile and this is where he becomes a major character in the show.