This Valentine Is A Scumbag!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                              This is J.P. Valentine, finally cornered for a murder he committed when he was eighteen, in the "Cold Case" episode, "Devil's Music."

                              At this writing, I am almost done with Season 5 of "Cold Case" episodes, and this much I can say--while there were no truly great episodes--like, say, "A Dollar, A Dream," oh my God!!!!!!!!!-- there have been a number of fascinating perps.

                             J.P. was a killing cousin.  His victim was his cousin, Bingo Zohar.  Bingo's parents were killed in a car accident, I think, and the young man was taken in by his uncle, Lloyd, and his aunt, Juliana.  They were real Fifties conformists, back in 1953; you have to be able to watch Julianna's speech to Bingo's fiancée, Miranda Allison, about how a woman depends on a man financially, and her place is in the home, without wanting to throw up, to get through this episode, set in 1953.  As I was born a year after this story, I can attest as to how it was!

                           Living in the same house, the cousins were pitted against each other.  Lloyd always favored J.P., his own son, who was just a dumb jock, who managed to get into Princeton on a sports scholarship.  However, the story does not say if he graduated there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                             The episode's title comes from the Right Wingers' reference to rock n' roll, then the coming thing.  Bingo is talented in it, and Miranda supports that dream, and wants to share it with him.  But then Aunt Juliana steps in, and, at first, ruins everything.  But it later backfires on her.

                              The night of the murder, Aunt Juliana comes through for Bingo.  It has been his dream to appear on "American Bandstand."  He had written to them, and was waiting for a letter that does not seem to come.  But it does.  And the aunt and uncle had been concealing it.  She has a change of heart after examining her own life, and finding herself unhappy with all its conformist pretensions, for which she gave up everything.  She hates her life, her husband, the town, everything.  She tells Bingo to follow his dream. He has just one day to submit.  He goes to his uncle's soda shop, where there is a record studio, to record his song.

                                However, entitled little snot J.P, overhears the conversation, and, typically adolescent, blames his cousin for the ruination of his family.  He murders Bingo while he is trying to record his song--couldn't he wait till completion?  Well, no, because that would have certified Bingo's talent, and J.P. did not want that, either!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  He murders Bingo in the store, but places the body somewhere else.

                               I love the arrogance of Peter White as the older J.P., in the interrogation scene. Still an entitled snot, thinking his age should get him off now.  Too bad these perps never realize there is no statue to limitations on murder.

                                 Now, this grandpa will see his American Dream crumble, as he is hauled off to the slammer.  I hope, after that night in 1953, Juliana slapped her husband across the face, and walked out on he and her son!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   And I hope the inmates knock grandpa's dentures out of his mouth.

                                   This was not a great episode, but had an important premise--familial entitlement does not always win out, in the end!!!!!!!!!--that needed to be exposed.

                                     And, of course, Lily's hair and make-up were just perfect!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!