What Lies Behind Suburban Doors…

So, Ron Artest/Metta World Peace/The Artist Trying to Be Dennis Rodman was eliminated from Dancing with the Stars. And as he and Peta dance one last dance, we lead into Body of Proof!

Romeo and Juliet nearly get killed by a car careening through the woods. They get out of the way as the car hits a tree. A bright light transitions us to the next morning, where Megan Hunt is walking up a walk. She is taking daughter Lacey to school since ex-husband Todd needs to be in court early. There is an awkward moment as Megan’s boss Kate leaves the house. Todd and Kate race off as Megan offers to take Lacey out for breakfast. Her daughter turns her down as she needs to study for a science test. Lacey complains that walls in the house are paper thin. This gives Megan pause as her mind immediately goes into the gutter, but Lacey explains that it’s the TV that’s bothering her. Lacey then realizes what her mother thought she meant, scrunches her nose and says “eww.”

Megan meets with Peter at the crime scene. Let me just say one thing here. I caught one of the last Power Ranger series produced by Disney—Jungle Fury. I was interested in one of the actors and watched his work on the Australian soap “Home and Away” courtesy of the nice people on YouTube. And when I first saw Peter, I tried to figure out why he looked familiar. When I saw the name Nicholas Bishop, I instantly remembered he was on “Home and Away.” He played a cop whose name was “Peter.”

Anyway, Megan examines the body and asks for the cop duo of Sam and Bud. She tells them it isn’t a simple car accident, which they figured out as they work homicide. Megan points out that the man was dead before he hit the car, so someone killed him and strapped him into the car. She does have another concern—her phone fell into a mud puddle while her mother was calling her. Peter asks if her condition is acting up again, but she just blames it on her mother.

At the lab, Kate talks with Curtis about how she managed to find extra money in the budget for things he needed. He praises her as Megan walks by and she’s not pleased to hear it. She heads into autopsy and gives Ethan a task—fix her phone. She meanwhile conducts the autopsy and discovers that the victim’s immune system was depressed. They try to figure out why.

Megan and Peter go with Sam and Bud to the victim’s house. They break the bad news to the wife, who is distraught. She assures them that everything was fine and she has no clue who would want to hurt her husband. Megan leaves to find Peter flirting with a woman walking her dog. She pulls him away and looks at the neighborhood. She tells Peter she used to live on cul-de-sac like this. It was a nice wink to Dana Delaney’s time on “Desperate Housewives.”

She spots a damaged fence and remembers there was wood found in the victim. Peter and Megan go over to talk to the neighbor. The neighbor does admit to having had a fight with the dead guy. Neighbor thinks that Dead Guy poisoned his dog, who had to be put down. But he swears that Dead Guy was still Alive Guy when he last saw him.

They are puzzled by the strange marks on Dead Guy’s wrist. But Sam and Bud visit another neighbor—played by Danielle Bisutti, who I will forever know as True Jackson’s Amanda. So, Amanda says she knew Dead Guy when her husband comes home. He isn’t happy to find the police in his house and demands they leave. But Sam’s already found Amanda’s dirty little secret—her cabinet of BDSM devices. And one of the handcuffs match the marks on Dead Guy’s wrists.

Amanda and her husband are brought in for questioning. They reveal that the neighborhood is in an open relationship. Dead Guy had been sleeping with Amanda with her husband’s full consent. He even set it up. So that rules out anger over an affair. Megan wonders if he knew that Dead Guy may have been HIV+ and was upset that he had infected Amanda. But her husband insists that Dead Guy was clean. It was a condition of their agreement—blood tests every so often.

Meanwhile, Kate rushes to Lacey’s school. The girl is in the nurse’s office, having gotten sick in class. She asks where her mother is and Kate responds she is on a case, unaware that Megan’s cellphone is still under Dr. Ethan’s care. She takes Lacey home.

Back in the neighborhood, Peter is still flirting with the woman walking her dog. Megan recalls that Amanda told them that a neighbor’s marriage fell apart because of the open relationship the neighborhood had. She spies said neighbor, so she and Peter go to have a chat with him. He reveals that his marriage unraveled because he fell in love with Dead Guy’s wife.

They go back to ask about wife, but she says she was still loyal to her husband. She does reveal that Amanda was selling shares in a new timeshare place to be built. She reveals that Amanda is having a house party to discuss it and the wife has an invite. She says she can bring a guest. Sam is ruled out because she would be recognized. Megan volunteers to go.

Megan and the wife are greeted by Amanda, who gives her condolences to the wife. Amanda offers them drinks before launching into her sales pitch. Many of the women dab their eyes. After Amanda’s speech, Megan steps up. She reveals that everything Amanda said is grossly exaggerated and that the offer is a scam. She wonders if that’s why Amanda kills Dead Guy—he found out that it wasn’t real. Amanda then kicks Megan out of her house as the other women leave in disgust. Peter picks up Megan and notes that she is crying. She is surprised and collects some of her tears to be tested.

At the lab, Ethan still has no clue how to fix Megan’s cell phone. So Curtis does it for him. Megan thanks them and realizes that Lacey had tried to call her. She gives her tears over to be tested and rushes off to call her daughter. Kate intercepts and tells Megan what happened. She still calls Lacey and leaves a message, apologizing. Megan and Kate argue, with Kate telling Megan not to use her as an excuse to not figure out her relationship with Lacey.  This tense moment is broken whenl it’s revealed that Megan’s tears are natural. She goes to test them again.

Police descend upon the cul-de-sac. Turns out there is something in the air that is deadly. They start to evacuate the houses as Sam and Bud determine that there is a meth lab nearby. And guess who is running it? The neighbor whose marriage fell apart. He also lost his job and has been making meth for income. It’s why Megan started crying. It’s why the dog died. And it’s why Dead Guy’s system seemed depressed.

And so the case is solved! Megan goes to pay Lacey a visit, telling her about her broken phone. Lacey is cool with it. Megan asks how she is feeling and Lacey thinks it was something she ate. Megan knows that Lacey didn’t eat anything and realizes she was faking being sick. Lacey owns up to it, saying she was afraid to fail her science test. She didn’t want to disappoint her hot-shot doctor mother. Megan reassures her that she wouldn’t be disappointed and then notices the drawing Lacey was working on. She praises it and they talk as the episode ends.

I fell in love with Body and Proof last year when it debuted. I love Dana Delaney’s portrayal of Megan. I think she gives Megan enough humanity and vulnerability to save her from being a complete jerkass. I like her interactions with everyone in the office, even how Delaney and Jeri Ryan play the Megan-Kate tension. So, it’s a good start!

Quote of the Episode

"I watch telenovellas. You ain't sticking me in the middle. This story has an unhappy ending with no survivors." --Curtis about Megan and Kate's fight