TV Recap: Life - Re-entry

Charlie Crews is back in action. Let’s have a little woohoo! It’s been seven weeks since he was shot at his front door, with no recollection of who did it, I might add, but now he’s all better and ready to not only solve that crime but also the murder of an ex-astronaut.

Crews wakes up in the hospital with Reese sitting next to him. He says he has no idea who shot him even though he not only saw the person but also asked them if they want to come in. Raise your hand if you believe him. Exactly. Tidwell and Reese have their hands raised, too, but what are you to do if a witness just won’t talk? Nothing, really. Which turns out to be fine because our dear Charlie takes care of it on his own. He keeps the bullet that was pulled from his shoulder and melts it down into a usable bullet. With it in his gun, he busts in on the FBI guy and shoots him in the leg. Turns out this guy is just doing what he has to in order to protect his family. Roman, the crazy evil Russian, is the one pulling all the strings so Charlie tells him to keep the bullet and leaves. Hmm.

He has a case to work anyway. See, there’s this ex-astronaut, Bull, who is now a multi-millionaire and planning to buy his way back into space. He was shot in a plane but there wasn’t anyone in the plane with him. Twisty, right. Crews and Reese follow the man’s fortune and come to his son, who works as the guy in charge of waste removal at the old man’s company. Guess they were never really that close because the kid was just an average kid and not a space man. Though he looks good at first, he’s alibied out because he was selling stolen rocket fuel to street car racers. Not the finest alibi but it works and he’s off the hook.

They return to the company and speak with another ex-astronaut who Bull gave a job to (okay, he wasn’t an actual astronaut because he was an alternate who never really made it to space but he did train at NASA with Bull). This guy seems genuinely sad that Bull is dead and helps them by telling them Bull has been different since he came back from his last K2 climb. He tells them he only ever goes up with one other guy but they both came back down. Searching Bull’s office, Reese and Crews find a sheet of paper tied around his climbing pick. Surprise, surprise, it’s a Buddhist flag for death. You know, you hang it if some one dies. According to this friend, though, no one did.

Crews and Reese decide to ask the friend who was actually on the mountain but he’s suddenly missing. This guy, the manager at a sports store, was an average guy up until about a year ago, right after he climbed K2. His wife said he just kind of changed after that but at least he does have a good reason. Turns out on that last climb, he lost his footing and was falling, pulling Bull down with him. Bull cut the rope and watching his partner fall to the ground. Luckily, the guy was okay, except for a little bit of weirdness that creeped into his head. Seems like a good motive, though. Get the guy who tried to kill you? Not only that, but he’s since been taking skydiving lessons and didn’t I say that Bull was killed in a plane but no one was with him? Yeah.

They find the guy on his way up to go skydiving, without his parachute but with a Buddhist death flag. They also find a gun in the hotel room he was staying in. Case closed, right? Not quite. This guy claims he begged Bull to cut the rope so he didn’t kill them both. He also says that now Bull is back where he came from since his death. Turns out this guy wasn’t mad, he just claims to have seen God on that mountain and now wants to return to him. But they do have the gun and a motive. What to do. Come on, we all know Crews and Reese aren’t going to let the wrong guy go to jail. What show are you watching?

They revisit the company and learn that the son didn’t inherit everything, the ex-astronaut friend did. Guess who can now afford to fly into space and “go back where he came from.” Yup. That’s what did the guy in. He said those exact words to Crews and Reese when they first met. He was clever about how he did it. He took skydiving lessons in Utah under a different name. The same name he bought the gun under. He waited until the last possible second and jumped out of the plane. Stupid guy. Why would you think you could get away with it when you have a huge motive, too. Whatever. Good thing is he’s going to jail and maybe, just maybe, the poor son will finally make more than minimum wage, which is what his Dad paid him because he had to start at the bottom.

Another case skillfully solved but are we any closer to figuring out the big conspiracy? Did we ever find out if crazy evil Roman is in on Charlie going to jail? We now know Jack Reese wasn’t involved but we know it’s all connected somehow. Guess I’ll just have to keep watching. Poor me, forced to watch one of the best shows on TV. So sad, right?