Life: The Fallen Woman (Episode 105)

Charlie's at home when he gets a call from Constance, who sounds upset and scared when she asks Charlie to come to her office. He drops everything to rush to her but, if I'm being honest, that probably wasn't much. Maybe eating some fruit or listening to coyotes. Anyway, when he gets to the office, it's completely trashed and Constance sits huddled in a chair, her face turned away from the light. Charlie asks her what happened and when she turns around, he sees that she's got a bloody lip. He folds her in his arms and she tells him that Neil Cudahy attacked her. Charlie makes sure that Cudahy didn't rape her and Constance explains that Cudahy wanted the same kind of money that Charlie got and turned violent when she told him that wasn't going to happen. Charlie holds her and looks troubled as she cries and says that she wanted Cudahy to be her new Charlie, since Charlie wasn't hers anymore.

Outside of the Knickerbocker Hotel, passersby stare in wonder at white feathers drifting down from the sky. But their wonder turns to horror when a body plunges from the sky and crashes into a car. Later, Charlie and Dani arrive at the scene and stare at the victim, a beautiful young woman wearing a black minidress and white angel wings. I know they were going for a specific visual style here but, um...there's a noticeable lack of blood and mangled bones here. Charlie, the believer, is all too willing to accept it's a dead angel but Dani, the skeptic, points out the harness for the fake wings. "Maybe she's a real angel with fake wings," Charlie retorts. Dani starts to ask why a real angel would have fake wings, then stops herself before she can get trapped in a circular Zen argument. Heh. Bobby Stark joins them and says there's no ID on the victim. Dani spots curtains billowing out of a window and thinks it's where the victim came from. She heads inside to check it out but Charlie hangs back to ask Stark for a favor, but we don't get to see what it is. Inside the room, the manager insists the computer indicates the room was vacant and there are no personal belongings. On the TV, a reporter talks about the "angel" and Dani groans about the media circus.

A shrine has already been set up, complete with a mural painting of the victim. At the station, everyone is dealing with crazies and rubberneckers, all wanting a piece of the hot angel action. Too crass? Sorry. Dani talks to one couple who seem reasonably normal and, after confirming that the victim is not their missing daughter, the wife asks Dani when she lost her faith. Charlie looks over, interested, as Dani squirms and says she'd prefer not to talk about it. The woman kindly states that Dani wants her faith back and it's there waiting for her whenever she's ready. Dani tells Charlie she's taking a break. When she walks past the line waiting to talk to the cops, Charlie sees a man who keeps letting people go in front of him. Stark comes over and jokes about the freakshow, then tells Charlie he's got what he needs. He did some research on Cudahy and learned he's disappeared from his home and job, but got a list of known associates. Stark asks if Charlie needs help tracking anyone down and Charlie says he'll take care of it, then Dani pulls him away because they've got another victim. She's curious about what Charlie's up to with Stark but he brushes her off, saying Stark wants to start a bowling league.

On the drive, Charlie and Dani banter about angels. Dani says she's reasonably sure she's not an angel and Charlie tells her that's the kind of humble thing an angel might say. Dani rolls her eyes and when Charlie sticks a plastic angel on the dashboard, she grabs it off and throws it in the backseat. He thinks that was hostile but she informs him he hasn't seen hostile yet. They pull up and it turns out that their second victim is a mannequin dressed as the real victim and thrown off a building as a prank by a couple of fratty jokesters. Charlie is willing to go with a "boys will be boys" excuse and let them off but Dani snaps that they wasted her time when she's trying to solve a real murder and insists they be arrested. "That was hostile," she tells Charlie.

Documentary: The interviewer asks Constance if saving someone's life was a big responsibility and she jokes that it was a lot of paperwork. She's asked if Charlie owes her his life and she insists she was just doing her job, but when the interviewer wants to know if Charlie was like any other client, she admits he wasn't.

Charlie hands a $100 bill to a convenience store worker and when the guy says he can't make change for that, Charlie tells "Ron" that he's not looking for change. Wary, Ron asks how Charlie knows his name and Charlie tells him that he knows Ron knows Neil Cudahy. Charlie reaches out to hand another bill to Ron and when Ron takes it, claiming he doesn't know where Cudahy is, Charlie quickly grabs his hand and dislocates his finger. Gasping in pain as Charlie keeps twisting his finger (insert your own "pull my finger" joke here), Ron repeats that he doesn't know where Cudahy is but can make some calls and find out. Pleased, Charlie snaps Ron's finger back into alignment and gives him another bill. Ron wants to know what he should tell Cudahy if he asks who's looking for him. "He'll know," Charlie says cheerfully, then departs.

Charlie and Dani work at their desks, frustrated that they haven't been able to identify their victim. Charlie says it's like she's no one and Dani replies that no one's no one. Charlie, grinning, says Dani is starting to sound like him and she demands that he take that back. Hee! They notice the guy still letting people move past him in the line and decide it's time to talk to him. The middle-aged, dumpy guy introduces himself as Jasper Willins and when Dani asks why he keeps letting people go ahead of him, he says he's afraid. Charlie understands that Jasper is afraid of what he'll find out and Jasper nods, saying he's the guy who always get the bad news. He shows them a picture of himself looking very cozy with a young woman who looks a lot like their victim, and says he think the bad news he'll get this time is that the victim is his wife, Lena.

In an interview room, Jasper says he came home from work the night before and Lena, who made dinner every night, wasn't there. When he saw the picture on the news, he knew it was her. Dani asks if anyone would've hurt Lena and Jasper, looking down at the table, tells them that "he" said he would hurt Lena if Jasper didn't pay. He admits that Lena was a Russian bride he met a club that specialized in introducing lonely older men to beautiful young Russian women looking for a better life. He says that he didn't have to pay at first, not until after he and Lena got married. Getting agitated, he insists he has to go and belligerently demands to know if the door is locked. Calmly, Charlie asks him what happened after he married Lena and Jasper, starting to cry, sits back down and tells them that "he" came to their house and demanded $10,000 a month or he'd take Lena away, beat her, and cage her with his dogs. Dani asks for a name but all Jasper can do is wail that he paid every month so why was Lena taken from him? Charlie repeats Dani's request for a name and Jasper, looking terrified, gives them the name "Roman."

Outside of the station, Dani and Charlie tell Lt. Karen Smith that all they've got is a first name and Roman is a common Russian name. Karen says Lena was a "Natasha," the name for Russian women used in scams to shake down wealthy American men. She warns them to be careful with the scammers, because they're dangerous. Charlie and Dani get into their car and Dani sees the plastic angel back on the dashboard. She tries to snatch it off again but it's stuck, thanks to the industrial glue Charlie used. If he really wants to annoy Dani, he should start singing the "Plastic Jesus" song. As they drive over to the club where Jasper met Lena, Charlie's back on the angel thing and Dani thinks it's against the rules for an angel to be a prostitute. He says he knew a prostitute in prison whose name was Angel and Dani is surprised, so he clarifies that Angel wasn't a woman. "And just to make it clear, I didn't know her. Him. But she did make a nice carrot cake." Hee.

At the club, Charlie thinks he should go in first, see if he can get picked up by a Russian hooker, and promises to be back in 10 minutes. A lot more time than that passes until Dani gets irritated and, letting her hair down so she looks more like a single girl at a club than a cop, heads inside and sits at the bar, where she can casually observe Charlie chatting it up with a girl. The girl, Julia, tells Charlie that she can read men easily and Charlie challenges her to read him. She says he's wealthy, which he retorts was obvious by his expensive watch, but she adds that it's new money and he doesn't know what to do with his wealth. Julia asks if Charlie wants to know what else she can tell and he does, so she leans forward and says she can tell he's a cop. Dani, too. Busted! Their cover blown, Dani joins Charlie and Julia at their table and shows her the picture of Lena. Julia says she knew who Lena was but hadn't seen her in a while, and when asked about Roman, insists it's a common name. Charlie tells her that he can read people as well and thinks she's sad about Lena and knows exactly who Roman is. She laughs and, a bit fearfully, says nobody really knows Roman, except that he's not like any criminal they've ever dealt with. Dani asks how they can find him and Julia assures them that once Roman knows they're looking for him, he'll find them, but they won't be able to hold onto him.

Constance's office. Charlie knocks and enters, observing that she's packing up everything in her office. He notes that she didn't file a report on Cudahy and she says she's done with it, then asks Charlie if he's done with it, too. He doesn't respond to that but asks her about the boxes. She says she's leaving tomorrow for New York, to sit in on a big case for her firm. She says she needs to get away from everything for a while and Charlie, unhappy but understanding, asks if she needs help packing. She says her husband is coming over to help and Charlie realizes he needs to leave.

Dani has identified Roman and he's been under investigation for years for a variety of crimes, but he's never been indicted. Charlie remembers what Julia said about not being able to hold onto Roman and Karen advises them to take backup when they bring him in. She says Lena may not have been an angel, but if Roman killed her in his city she wants him to pay for it. Later, Dani, Charlie and a backup team surround the club and get conflicting reports about whether Roman is there or not and, if he is there, whether he's still in the building. Realizing they can no longer wait, Charlie and Dani head into the club and are a little freaked out when they see it's empty. Their weapons drawn, they head into the kitchen where they find a man, dressed all in white, sitting facing away from them. His dog growls as they move in closer and he lights a cigarette then turns around. Gazing at them impassionately, he calls Charlie "Officer New Money" (what Julia called him) and raises his hands to be cuffed.

Roman sits in interrogation, staring at the camera as Charlie, Dani, and Karen watch him. Karen says Interpol has him as a suspect for five murders in Russia, including two hockey players found dead in his basement after he left the country. Dani wants to know how Roman was able to get into the US and asks Charlie what he's thinking. Charlie says, "We were looking for an angel, and now we're staring at the devil." Oh, ouch. Please, Life writers, don't make Charlie or any of the other characters say such clunky lines anymore. You're better than that.

Interrogation. Roman knows who Charlie is and asks, "just between me and you, you really did kill that family, didn't you?" Dani shows Roman the picture of Lena, asking if she belonged to him, and Charlie says they have a witness who implicates Roman in human trafficking. Roman says he won't testify and, ignoring Charlie's "Why not?", asks Dani how rehab is working for her. She's startled and he digs the knife in a little deeper, revealing that she got hooked while working undercover and also had a junkie lover. Dani, getting increasingly rattled, tells him several times to shut up but he doesn't until Charlie slams his hand on the table and tells Roman to look at him. Roman does and says that if Lena was one of his Natashas, he wouldn't kill someone who was bringing in money for him. He turns back to Dani, who's struggling to regain control of herself, and tells her that she should call him if she wants to make any extra money. His lawyer arrives and, since there's nothing connecting him to Lena's death, Roman is free to go. Charlie follows him to the elevator, shaking his hand in a clear message that he's not going to drop his investigation. Roman returns the shake, basically telling him to bring it on, and asks Charlie if he's ever considered that anyone in his department could be the one who set him up.

Their investigation thwarted in one direction, Dani and Charlie decide to go back to the hotel and look for more clues. In the car, Charlie asks Dani if she wanted to shoot Roman when he said those things about her, then asks if she saw herself shooting Roman. She says yes to both and Charlie replies, "Me, too." He thinks she lost her faith because of her lover, not the drugs, and she says she lost her faith so long ago she doesn't remember when, or if she ever even had it. In the hotel room, they try to figure out how Lena was in the room when it wasn't registered to anyone and Charlie gets an idea. He talks to a maintenance worker, who was fired for stealing at his previous jobs. The guy admits to giving his friend, Oliver, a room key.

Charlie and Dani go to the tattoo parlor where Oliver works and talk to the owner, who flirts shamelessly with Charlie, much to Dani's annoyance. Heh. The owner asks Charlie if he wants a tattoo but he says he's already got some. She shows him to Oliver's work station, which has a clear view of Roman's club, and tells them that Oliver hasn't been to work in a few days. They get Oliver's home address and head out. On the drive over, Dani asks Charlie if he really has any tattoos. He offers to let her see them and, after considering it briefly, she replies, "Absolutely not." Speak for yourself, woman! I would be more than willing to check out Charlie's ink. Purely for reseatch purposes, of course. I want to be a thorough and accurate recapper, after all. There's no answer at Oliver's apartment and, after Charlie and his ridiculously tight pants bust through the door, they see the place is filled with angel statues, figurines and other iconography. In the bedroom, there's also a large photo of Lena, in her angel wings, on the wall above the bed.

Charlie plays with an angel snowglobe as he and Dani try to figure out where Oliver is. They found his car near the hotel, mail has piled up outside his door, and he hasn't used his charge card since Lena died. Charlie says it's like Oliver is nowhere and Dani thoughtfully replies that no one's nowhere. Charlie: "Now you're starting to sound like me again." Dani seems a lot less disturbed by that notion this time. Charlie gets an idea and thinks since Lena was in her angel wings when Oliver took the photo, someone must've helped her put them on. I want to point out that Oliver could've put them on her but that kind of crazy sense-making thinking is why I'm not Charlie.

Julia sits in interrogation. Charlie and Dani walk in, put the photo of Lena in the chair across from her, then leave. They watch Julia from another room and hours pass as Julia stares expressionlessly at the photo. Charlie and Dani are impressed by her toughness but eventually they see Julia show some reaction, as she starts to cry. Charlie and Dani head back into interrogation and Julia tells them that Lena may have been married to Jasper and working for Roman, but she was in love with Oliver. She was only 23 and wanted to be young. Lena was planning to leave Jasper and Roman to be with Oliver, and when Dani asks what Roman would do if he found out, Julia says he would have killed Lena to set an example for the other Natashas. As for Oliver, Roman would consider death too good for someone who tried to steal his property.

Jasper is brought back in for more questioning and they show him a tape of when he flipped out the first time. Charlie thinks Jasper was scared of being locked up and when he mentioned Roman threatening to beat and cage Lena like a dog, that actually happened to Jasper. He asks where the cages are but Jasper said he was blindfolded. The only thing he remembers is the strong smell of gasoline. Charlie remembers that Roman was under investigation for a gas scam and they head over with a SWAT team to the warehouse. Dani hears barking and she heads off, followed by Charlie and the team. They reach a large room filled with cages. There are barking dogs in all except one, where a beaten and terrified but alive Oliver crouches. After paramedics see to him, Oliver tells Charlie and Dani that Roman found them in the hotel room, where they went to hide before leaving town. Roman laughed at them and when Lena spit at him, he threw her out the window, then abducted Oliver and kept him caged with his dogs. Dani asks if he will testify to that in court and Oliver, shaken but fueled by fury, vows that he will.

Everyone in the station watches as Roman is brought through in cuffs. His face is bloody and battered, indication of some righteous police brutality as he was arrested. He's brought into an interrogation room and chained to the table where he sits and laughs, looking smug and evil. Smevil, if you will. Later, Dani and Charlie go in to question him but he's gone. They head to Karen's office, where she introduces a Homeland Security agent, who informs them that Roman will be set free because he's provided valuable information about drugs and arms trafficking. Charlie and Dani are both angry but Dani is more openly antagonistic, until Karen orders her to shut it, then tells the HS agent to take Roman and get the hell out. Charlie recalls again what Julia said, that Roman can't be held onto.

At some seedy diner, Charlie stalks towards Neil Cudahy, then forces him into the bathroom. He carefully removes his gun and badge, then beats the ever-loving shit out of Cudahy, easily dodging a knife and disarming him in the process. The manager comes into the bathroom and says he's called the police. As Cuday lies bleeding on the floor, Charlie collects his belongings and stares bleakly at his reflection in the mirror, trying to switch back from Charlie the ex-convict to Detective Charlie Crews. "I am the police," he says to himself.

Station. Charlie goes back to his desk, where he gets a phone call. It's Roman, and he tells Charlie to look into the Bank of Los Angeles shootout. Charlie says it was 15 years ago, but Roman says he should ask his partner what happened to the money. He hangs up and Charlie looks at his current partner, Dani, sitting across from him, and his ex-partner, Bobby Stark, standing nearby.

Donna De Lory's lovely cover of "In The Sun" starts playing and we see Constance's husband carrying boxes out of her office while she stares out the window. Oliver sits in the middle of his angel-filled apartment and gazes at the photo of Lena. Dani opens a jewelry box and pulls out a small gold cross. Julia, dressed like a normal young woman and not an expensive hooker, places flowers in front of the mural of Lena, then adjusts her backpack and begins walking. And Charlie, standing in front of his conspiracy wall, draws a line between an article about the bank shootout, where we learn 5 died and $18 million was lost, and a picture of Stark.