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Description[]
A car is found at the bottom of a lake with the remains of a woman missing since 1999 inside. The detectives learn the woman had endured dire financial straits after her husband's death and was forced to live in the car with her two young daughters. Meanwhile, Jeffries confronts the hit and run driver who caused his wife's death.
Synopsis[]
An environmental group finds a car while testing the bottom of a lake. The Philadelphia police department takes over the case when a female skeleton and a bullet are found inside the car, together with some household stuff. From the car's registration plate, the detectives trace back the victim's identity. She was Marlene Bradford, mother of two girls, Abby and Natalie. After the girls' father died of cancer, they lost everything, including their home, to pay the medical expenses. Marlene and her daughters started living in their car. Then on Abby's tenth birthday, on November 17, 1999, Marlene disappeared; she dropped her daughters off at school and never came back. The girls were placed in foster care and soon separated.
The team starts the inquiries from Abby and Natalie. They had lost contact after being separated. Abby, the younger one, was lucky to land with a good family, but Natalie, since she was older, was bounced from one family to another, never landing a permanent placement. Besides, Natalie always thought her mother was a failure and was angry at her for supposedly abandoning them. Natalie also tells the team that at a homeless shelter, Marlene angered a woman named Vita who had tried to claim the bed they were assigned. The young woman had threatened Marlene and stormed off.
Marlene had a job at a local convenience store. Her boss, Mr. Patel, had given her a gun – the same with which she was shot – to protect herself and her kids. At the store, Marlene had met a homeless man called Vincent Hopper, who told her about a place in a nearby park where many homeless people lived. There was also a lake at the park; the same lake her car was found in over seven years later.
Marlene moved to the park with her daughters and their car. One night at the park while lamenting her situation, Hopper gave Marlene a lottery ticket he called the Hope Ticket. He told her that they would split the winnings evenly if they hit the $1 million jackpot. They were sharing their dreams when Natalie came screaming to her mother that their car, with Abby sleeping inside, was gone. Marlene panicked, and then realized it had been towed. Marlene and Natalie managed to find Abby and the car. Abby was quite scared but safe and sound. Marlene tried, without much luck, to convince the tow driver to give her the car, at least for the night. The driver wouldn't give it away without money but as she couldn't afford it, he made her understand he accepted other forms of "payment." Marlene wanted to keep her daughters safe so she agreed.
Later in the car, Marlene and Natalie had a tiff over what she had done. Natalie gave her mother some harsh words to which Marlene replied by slapping her daughter. Natalie ran away and Marlene couldn't stop her. Still, she went looking for her and found her at their old house. They apologized to each other. Marlene decided to try her luck with the lottery ticket. It came out to be a $25 win. They were happy because they could now afford a cake for Abby's birthday. Marlene told Natalie they would have a decent celebration for Abby's birthday when they came back from school but first, she had to pay a "finder's fee." Because of that detail, the police realized that Hopper was the last person to see Marlene the day she disappeared.
The cops realized that Hopper was lying all along and started questioning him. He confessed the crime; Marlene came back to the park saying the ticket was a winner and handed over his half of the money. He couldn't believe it was only a $25 win and all he got was $12. He wanted more; he wanted the remainder of the half-million dollars he thought they won and his dreams of reuniting with his family to come true. Marlene tried to remind him that it had been years and his son was now an adult but Hopper refused to listen. He started searching her car for the rest of the money, crushing the cake Marlene had just bought for Abby. She tried to stop him and make him see reason. Instead, Hopper lost control and shot Marlene with the gun he had found in the car.
The cops arrest Hopper for murder. The other suspects continue with their new jobs: Vita welcomes some customers entering a supermarket and Mr. Patel walks down to the side of the restaurant he's currently working at to give some food to a homeless mother and her two daughters who remind him of Marlene. Abby and Natalie meet each other after a long time in the park and they see the ghostly image of their mother smiling back at them.
Meanwhile, Jeffries confronts Keller, the truck driver who ran over his wife, in the pouring rain, while he is closing the diner. He puts his gun to Keller's chest and tells him about his wife, about the way she was left to die slowly and alone after the car crash. Later on, when Lt. Stillman visits Jeffries at home, he tells his boss what he did but that he couldn't kill Keller: his wife wouldn't come back even if he would've pulled the trigger. In the end, he sits in his room and listens to a Miles Davis record, his wife's favorite.
Crime Profile[]
Victim's File[]
| Identity | Name of the Victim | Age | Occupation | Last Seen | Perpetrator (Motive) | Cause of death | Portrayer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
Marlene Bradford | 35 | Former housewife who later became a grocery store clerk after her husband died. | at Fairmount Park | Vincent Hopper (Madness because he believed that he was deceived by her hoarding the prized money) | Gunshot wound in her chest using 38MM Gun | Paula Malcomson |
Probable Suspect/s[]
This is the profile of the following suspected people who had a close contact with Marlene Bradford before she was found dead.
| Past Identity | Present Identity | Name of the Suspect/s | Age | Whereabout Status | Occupation | Relationship | Last Seen by the victim | Portrayers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
 |
Abby Bradford | 9 (presumed 10 at her exact birthdate where her mother was killed) 16/17 (present age) |
Alive | Student | Younger daughter | Last saw the victim during a heated conversation between her and her sister, Natalie about their street life now. | Darcy Rose Byrnes (1999) Jennifer Lawrence (2007) |
 |
 |
Natalie Bradford | 14 23 (present age) |
Alive | Unknown | Elder daughter | Last saw the victim when Marlene found her at their old house after their fight the previous night, where they made up over their past arguments and misunderstandings. Natalie was the one who heard about "the finders fee" from her mother. | Channing Nichols (1999) Melinda Dahl (2007) |
 |
 |
Vita Chacon | Unknown | Alive | Currently a saleslady for Blue Mart. | Acquaintance (one time seen) | Last saw the victim with her daughters at a convenience store where Marlene worked, where Vita witnessed a heated argument between Marlene and her boss Anil Patel. | Gloria Garayua |
 |
 |
Anil Patel | Unknown | Alive | Former owner of a grocery store in 1999, currently a restaurant staff from Zinger's. | Former boss | Last seen confronting the victim about her car. Later, he gave his gun to Marlene as her first defense after he heard from Vincent Hopper on where she would be temporarily staying overnight (Fairmount Park, where her remains and her car were found). | Faran Tahir |
 |
 |
Vincent Hopper | Unknown | Arrested | Unemployed, living in Fairmount Park for 11 years. | Estranged friend and fellow street dweller. He was also the killer. | Last saw the victim when looking for her to give him the finder's fee he was talking about. On Marlene's first night in Fairmount Park, Vincent gave his Hope Ticket to her, which he thought would win $1 million dollars. But when he received his half of the payment from her, it was just a $12 win, since the ticket only got a $25 winning. Vincent believed that Marlene was deceiving him to keep the money for herself, which enraged him and sent him out of control. He shot Marlene using the gun which her boss gave her. | Holmes Osborne |
 |
 |
Tony | Unknown | Alive | Towing Service employee | No Relation | Last saw the victim pleading him to release their car as they didn't have any place to sleep that evening, and also tried to offer him her gun in exchange. However, with no gun in sight (Abby kept it), he made a dirty proposal to her in order to release her car without any extra charges. | Billy Gallo |
Cast[]
Main Cast[]
- Kathryn Morris as Lilly Rush
- Danny Pino as Scotty Valens
- John Finn as John Stillman
- Jeremy Ratchford as Nick Vera
- Thom Barry as Will Jeffries
- Tracie Thoms as Kat Miller
Guest Cast[]
- Paula Malcomson as Marlene Bradford
- John Diehl as Isaac Keller
- Billy Gallo as Tony
- Gloria Garayua as Vita Chacon
- Holmes Osborne as Vincent Hopper
- Faran Tahir as Anil Patel
- Jennifer Lawrence as Abby Bradford (2007)
- Melinda Dahl as Natalie Bradford (2007)
- Darcy Rose Byrnes as Abby Bradford (1999)
- Channing Nichols as Natalie Bradford (1999)
Co-Starring[]
- Verda Bridges as Social Worker
Notes[]
- Paula Malcomson and Jennifer Lawrence would later play mother and daughter again in the film The Hunger Games (2012). Coincidentally, both stories are about a single mother-two daughter family who fall into poverty and struggle to survive after the death of the husband/father.
- At 9 years old, Abby Bradford is the youngest suspect seen on the show.
- Faran Tahir (Anil Patel) and Gloria Garayua (Vita Chacon) went on to have guest roles in Grey's Anatomy - Tahir played 'Isaac' in a season 6 episode, and Garayua played 'Dr. Graciella Guzman' from seasons 4 to 6.
Gallery[]
Episode Scenes[]
Behind The Scenes[]
Music[]
Opening Song[]
Alongside Scenes[]
Closing Song[]
| Season 4 Episodes |
| Rampage | The War at Home | Sandhogs | Baby Blues | Saving Sammy | Static | The Key | Fireflies | Lonely Hearts | Forever Blue | The Red and the Blue | Knuckle Up | Blackout | 8:03 AM | Blood on the Tracks | The Good-Bye Room | Shuffle, Ball Change | A Dollar, A Dream | Offender | Stand Up and Holler | Torn | Cargo | The Good Death | Stalker |
