The Fifth Step

Episode Reviews (1)

63 votes
  • SORT BY:
  • 8.5

    A mystery full of fatal consequences compounded by layers of misdirection. Just a tad below the quality of previous episodes.

    By AvatarBlue, Mar 01, 2009

    When the wife of a LA criminal judge is brutally murdered, Raines realises he knows the victims husband. So begins an episode where Raines gets to know his victim life in order to understand the possible motives of who killed her. As before, Raines reconstructs the victim piece by pieces, but here there is a twist in that the victims face was blasted by a shotgun - gruesome.

    Essentially, the plot travels the familiar route of a mystery. Where characteristic and behaiour of the vicitm is examined in detail, revealing clues about her life and the possible reasons why she wound up dead. The story seems to be a revenge killing against her husband in light of his involvement in sentencing member of a race-hate white supremacy group - the Aryan Brotherhood. Evidence that points to this fact throughout most of the case until the screenplay reaches a significant twist that exposes enough of her personal life to provoke Raines (and us) into believing there maybe be a deeper motive at work here.

    Overall I found the story to have been well conceived. Logical and intresting in nature, and filled with enough diversionary strands to keep my logic guessing, it is better than episode two but not as good as 1,3 and 4. The screenplay was a little toned down, with adds to the slow feeling of progress. Though there are a few action scenes to provoke a rising of adrenaline and perk interest when levels may wane. As previously though, the real star, is Raines deciphering enough about the victim in order to paint his psyke's interpretation of her. In this case, I found the are elements of her life to be interesting enough to maintain my focus until the ending. There is a big twist in act 3, which was well played out. Leading to a satisfying ending laced with urgency, as the killer prepares to add another victim to their crime.

    Recommended watching if only to compare to previous episodes.moreless

    0 0