WELCOME TO THE CLUB
Episode 1:01
San Francisco. While negotiating with a newsstand clerk for change, Detective Lindsay Boxer checks her messages on her cellphone. One message is from Theresa Woo, a tabloid reporter, scheduling the very meeting Lindsay has turned up for. As the message ends, Lindsay checks her watch. Theresa is late. Lindsay's cellphone rings, and is surprised that the caller is none other than Tom Hogan, her ex-husband. Just as she gets over her initial shock, Lindsay screams in horror as Theresa Woo's body falls from the sky and smashes down onto Lindsay's car.
Up on the roof of the building, Lindsay tells her fellow officers to check the blood spatter and footprints. She is met by her partner, Warren Jacobi, who shows his annoyance over Lindsay's decision to meet up with a reporter on a day she was supposed to take off.
Back on the ground, medical examiner Claire Washburn tells a forensic specialist to get a tow-truck to the scene to remove Theresa's body. Elsewhere, D.A. Jill Bernhardt moves under the crime scene tape towards the body. Asking a cop if the body is really Theresa Woo, he replies "it's a sad day for San Francisco". Jill starts to feel nauseas. The cop supplies her with a sick bag, something Lindsay recommended to give her. Lindsay, who has returned from the roof, cracks a smile at Jill's display of discomfort.
Lindsay, Jill and Claire meet together in the building. Claire tells the others that there'll be no struggle for suspects, since Theresa Woo exposed a lot of corruption and sex scandals in her work, and won many awards (and enemies) for it. Lindsay recounts what happened at the time of Theresa's fall, but Jill and Claire are distracted by the news of Tom calling. Lindsay tries to put the conversation back on track to the murder victim, but her friends are having none of it. Lindsay suggests that it may have been "a nostalgia thing", as their two-year divorce anniversary is approaching. Claire guesses that Tom's been missing his ex. Lindsay derails the conversation, questioning why Theresa was on the roof, when the phone message said to meet her in front of the newsstand. Jill says that Theresa was very secretive, and may have wanted to make sure she wasn't being followed. Lindsay comes to a conclusion that they need to find out who was making Theresa scared enough to call the authorities.
While searching through Theresa's apartment, Lindsay is distracted by the three missed calls from Tom on her cellphone. Jacobi tells Lindsay that Theresa's address book was a dead end. Lindsay realizes that Theresa called her because she didn't have anybody else to turn to. Jacobi notices Theresa was obsessed by her work. Lindsay tells Jacobi that she'll miss him when he gets his lieutenant promotion.
Theresa did all her work on notebooks, but they aren't in her apartment. Lindsay and Jacobi are forced to take Theresa's dog, and Jacobi isn't happy when Lindsay leaves him to deal with the animal. Meanwhile, Jill's boyfriend Eric tries to get her to move in with him. Jill is reluctant, telling him that she just wants to be in love, not be burdened with any deep commitment. Lindsay and Jill visit the morgue to find out the results of Theresa's autopsy. Claire reveals that Theresa was shot three times in the torso before she landed on Lindsay's car. Theresa's bikini wax hints that she wasn't a complete loner and had sexual partners, despite there being no evidence of a man living at her apartment. Claire theorizes that she must have gotten together with her boyfriend only recently.
Lindsay visits the newspaper where Theresa worked, and her boss explains that there were no men in her life, just work. He tells Lindsay that he had no idea what stories she was working on, and that she only presented them to him when they were ready to be published. As they talk, another reporter, Cindy Thomas, listens in. As Theresa's boss leaves, Lindsay tries to pick the lock on the victim's desk drawer. Cindy tells her that there's nothing inside. She already picked the lock and checked.
At night, Lindsay returns to Theresa's apartment, searching for the notebooks. She discovers an intruder: Cindy. She has found the notebooks, and hands them over to Lindsay. Cindy explains that she told the apartment super she was Theresa's (adopted) sister, and searched the apartment, finding the notebooks beneath the fake bottom in her desk drawer. While she doesn't admit it, Lindsay is impressed. The notebooks are written in some form of code. Lindsay hears noises, and draws her gun. Walking outside onto the roof, Lindsay spots a man attempting to flee the scene. She chases after him, but he manages to get away.
The next day, Lindsay is talking to Jacobi at work and tells him that after a whole night of trying to decode Theresa's notebooks, she's come up with barely anything. Jacobi is obviously upset, and Lindsay is quick to guess it's because she didn't go to the apartment with him the previous night, or that she failed to catch the perp, or didn't arrest Cindy. She soon realizes that it's because the new lieutenant has been named. And it isn't Jacobi. It's Tom Hogan, Lindsay's ex-husband.
Lindsay meets with the girls and tells them about Tom. Lindsay is sure that Jacobi should have gotten the job. Jill suggests that Tom took the job as a way to get back together with Lindsay. Claire brings up that the marriage broke down when Lindsay became obsessed with the "Kiss-Me-Not Killer", a psychopath who killed two women and sewed their lips shut. Jill, Cindy and Tom all gave up trying to catch him, while Lindsay didn't. Changing the subject, Jill reveals that she isn't moving in with Eric.
Jill receives news that years ago Theresa filed a restraining order against a man named Walton James, an order she kept active until last year. Lindsay and Jacobi head to James's apartment and arrest him. Lindsay discovers a wall of stalker photographs showing Theresa. Lindsay wonders why she let the restraining order lapse when James was still stalking her. Jacobi discovers that James was a protester who was made "famous for a day" by one of Theresa's reports. In turn, James made Theresa into a victim for five years. Lindsay and Jacobi interview James, who's clearly obsessed with conspiracy theories. They show him Theresa's body. He breaks down at the sight of her.
Later, James's lawyer Hanson North meets with Lindsay, Jacobi, Jill and Tom, accusing them of "torturing" his client. After he leaves, Tom tries to talk with Lindsay, but she blows him off. Lindsay tells Jill that she doesn't think James killed Theresa. Lindsay resumes questioning of James and tells him that as much as he cared about her, she cares as much about catching her killer. James says that he knew somebody was following Theresa, but only has her license plate number.
Jill returns to her office, to discover Hanson waiting there. He tells her that she's stopped returning his calls, and tells her to dump Eric. Jill says that she loves her boyfriend, but she and Kyle proceed to have sex on her desk anyway...
Lindsay and Jacobi trace the plate number to Dr Raine Van Aiken, who tells them she's glad Theresa is dead. She tells them that Theresa was sleeping with her husband. Dr Van Aiken explains that she followed Theresa and told her to stay away from her husband Miles, and that was it.
Lindsay seeks help from Cindy in order to decode Theresa's notebooks. Cindy reveals she has an eidetic memory, which means she can remember almost everything she has read or found out about. Cindy tells Lindsay she's read a lot about serial killers, especially the Kiss-Me-Not killer. Lindsay threatens Cindy, telling her that if she writes a story about the info in Theresa's notebooks without her go-ahead, she'll arrest her.
Lindsay and Jacobi interview Miles Van Aiken, who blames his wife's busy work schedule on driving him to an affair. Miles says that Theresa was a workaholic too, which turned him off her. He blames her murder on Walton James, who he says Theresa was terrified of. Cindy visits Walton James's apartment, and finds him hanging from the rafters. The cops arrive, and Tom discovers a suicide note. Tom says the case is closed, but Lindsay disagrees, saying things still don't make complete sense. Tom agrees to let the case stay open, but only if Lindsay will sit down and talk to him after she finds satisfying answers. Lindsay apprehensively accepts.
Claire analyzes the body at the morgue, and finds evidence that James was strangled and then hung. Since there is no sign of a struggle, Claire guesses that he was struck first. Cindy arrives. She has brought in a homeless man who got to know Theresa after she exposed an underground "bum-fights" ring. The man, Martin, explains that he fell and hit his head while with Theresa. They went to the hospital where Dr Raine Van Aiken works for help but she accused him of faking his injury in order to get drugs. Claire performs some tests on Martin, and they come back clean. Dr Van Aiken was lying about his illnesses. Jill explains that they've got Dr Van Aiken for charges of fraud and malpractice, but not for murder.
Dr Van Aiken and Miles Van Aiken are brought into the station. Jacobi tells Miles that they know the Van Aiken's scheme. Miles's failing restaurant business forced Raine into submitting false medical claims for homeless people at work, billing the government and using the money to save her husband's restaurant. Jacobi tells Miles that they've worked out that Theresa was using him for the story, and was about to expose their scheme. Miles then killed her to stop the truth from being revealed. Raine, who is watching the interview, begs Jacobi to stop. She then confesses to killing Theresa, and that Miles knew nothing about it. She tried to pin the murder on Walton James, threatening his dog and forcing him into writing a fake suicide note, before killing him and staging his suicide.
Lindsay goes to Tom's office, and tells him that she doesn't need to talk with him about their relationship. Tom reveals that he's getting married to a kindergarten teacher named Heather. Lindsay congratulates him, and exits the office sadly.
Claire returns home to her wheelchair-bound husband and children. Cindy writes a report on Theresa's murder, crediting Theresa for the story too. Jill meets with Eric, and tells him that she's decided to move in with him. Lindsay rests at home with Theresa Woo's dog, which she's adopted. She gets a phone call. Lindsay turns up at a crime scene, where Tom says that he's assigned a new case to her. The Kiss-Me-Not killer has struck again...
Originally aired: Friday October 12, 2007 on ABC
Writer: Elizabeth Craft, Sarah Fain
Director: Greg Yaitanes
Show Stars: Angie Harmon (Lindsay Boxer), Tyrees Allen (Warren Jacobi), Laura Harris (Jill Bernhardt), Aubrey Dollar (Cindy Thomas), Paula Newsome (Claire Washburn), Rob Estes (Tom Hogan)
Guest Stars: Coby Ryan McLaughlin (Eric Bowen) , James Huang (Officer Sam Cho) , Kyle Secor (Hanson North) , Judith Hoag (Dr Raine Van Aiken) , Marc Vann (David) , Nathan Baesel (Walton James) , Paul Hipp (Miles Van Aiken) , Jonathan Adams (Ed Washburn) , Drew Matthews (Nate Washburn) , Eddie Mui (Clerk) , Jeris Lee Poindexter (Martin) , Neilen Nenvegnu (Derek Washburn)
Production Code: 101
a
BuddyTV