TV Recap: Life - Shelf Life

Life sure is full of surprises this week; big surprises that make a little sense but are still a little fishy, too. Plus, it’s Charlie’s last week partnering with Bobby so you know this week’s case had to be a doozy, no?

A guy is stabbed on the boardwalk and nobody sees anything. But this isn’t just some random guy. He just returned from Iraq, where he actually saw quite a lot of combat. This is a trained military man who is stabbed in the heart from the front on a bright and sunny day. How does such a guy not see this coming? That’s the first question out of Crews’ mouth.

Turns out he wasn’t from LA. He was staying in a hotel with three of his friend, also vets on leave. At first glance it could be a jealousy thing because there’s one girl and two other guys. After meeting them all, though, you know that isn’t the case. They do, though, say they have no idea who could have done it but they were all hanging out by the pool together when he went for a run and was stabbed.

While the girl, Erin, said they were just there for a vacation, soon Crews and Bobby learned they were really there to moonlight as security guards. There’s this service (run by a geeky kid who was rejected by the Army) that hooks up enlisted soldiers with private security gigs since they make hardly any money on duty. The murdered kid was working on this crazy plane for a company called Chem-X-Tech. I’m still not sure what happens on this plane because it doesn’t really go anywhere and people show up dressed as cowboys, some in just suits, and every time you see them, people are simply talking. Very strange.

The guy who runs Chem-X-Tech isn’t much help. He’s all hyper and hard to understand, at least until Crews says he’s there to solve a homicide. That calms him down a little. He says the kid was helpful and he’s surprised that something could have happened to him. Crews thinks there could have been something that happened on the plane that he wasn’t supposed to see but the guy shoots that down. Of course he does, he wants everyone to know (or think) he’s innocent. Whatever. Crews is kind of at a dead end.

After talking a few things through with Reese, he looks through the kid’s duffel bag again. There’s lots of dirty clothes. There’s a medal of valor and there’s a really lightweight bulletproof vest. Why does he need a vest to do private security. I guess he doesn’t and when Charlie looks to see who made the vest, it’s…Chem-X-Tech. Yup, the same guys he was now working with were in charge of protecting him in Iraq.

The CEO tells Charlie that the vests are too expensive for the government to buy so they gave them some for a few select units. They’re supposed to be great, though, and to prove it, he takes Charlie to the testing facility. Instead of putting the vest on a dummy or something, he throws it over himself and proceeds to shoot himself 3 times directly in the chest. Absolutely nothing went through. Impressive, right? Suit guy says these vests are why the dead kid didn’t have a scratch on him after a two year tour.

If he didn’t have a scratch on him, though, where did that medal come from? With a little digging, Crews was able to find a 5th member of the squad that was killed in combat by a sniper. Shouldn’t his vest have protected him, too? Crews goes back to Suit Man to question him but finds one of the other squad guys standing watch in the hall. He and Bobby take him down (not kill him, silly) and bust their way into the office. The guy is still alive and Erin and the other squad guy have already left the office. They’re in the hallway waiting for Suit to come down so they can kill him. I guess revenge is always a motive.

According to the now caught squad guy, the member who died in Iraq was wearing his vest but it didn’t work because after two years, they stop protecting anyone. Suit, though, told the military they had a shelf life of five years. Crews and Bobby are pissed and they still can’t prove that this guy killed the original dead kid on the boardwalk yet so they scare a confession out of him. They tell him they’ll take him down the hallway but he can wear the dead kid’s three year old vest and he’ll be fine. Yup, out comes the confession and there’s the last murder solved by Bobby and Crews as partners.

As for the surprises…remember how Ted was all googly eyes over the gross private eye lady? Oh yeah, total set up by him and Charlie. Ted and her are at lunch when Charlie walks up and plops down right next to her. He wants to know everything she knows about Rayborn because he knows he didn’t kill him. She refuses and walks away. Later, Charlie and Ted invite her over to show her their new TV. The great thing about a TV is it’s really good for surveillance. Who are they surveilling, you ask?

Only every client on her confidential client list. Yup, sneaky little punks, aren’t they? She finally agrees to let him see her files. Looking through the million pictures she has of Rayborn, he spots one that’s quite interesting. Rayborn’s on his boat talking to Reese. Not Jack Reese, Dani Reese. Who knew they were buddies? I’m choosing to give her the benefit of the doubt and say she went to him to find her father but who knows? She was asked this week by the FBI if she knew Rayborn and she said yes but then we cut away from her. Agh. Why was she on that boat the day Rayborn was killed. Oh, did I forget to mention that? Yeah, it was on the day he went missing that the picture was taken. Fishy, indeed.

What will we find out next week besides the identity of Charlie’s new partner? Let the conspiracy theories begin….