REVIEW

TV Review: Painkiller Jane - "Higher Court"

Written by Temple Stark
Published June 20, 2007

Maureen is the emotionally scarred one in this episode. A guy she's getting close to, Tom Larsen, suddenly walks off the top of the building where she and the guy and 40 or so others are partying — if partying can be considered standing around on a rooftop with drinks in their hands.

Strikeforce Vicodin team leader Andre McBride refuses to believe it's a neuro case, getting quite pen-up-the-ass about it. That is until Painkiller Jane talks to a black guy at the same place, The Sky Bar — where Maureen's friend walked off the roof as casually as breathing. Jane's acquaintance is intense, as only a friend who's been through a lot can be. However, we get no indication of this. Jane gets the same vibes that he might try and walk on air so spends more time trying to protect him, including inviting him back to her place.

Whether he took her up on her offer (or what might have transpired if he did) remains unanswered. But her vibes set the ball rolling on an investigation. The guy who died has no identity, or rather one that should be as obvious as anyone else's. Riley pushes past what he calls the "all signal, no noise" to find the guy's real name — Gene Crowley, a former Mafia accountant.

We get flashes of this dowdy-looking guy in a green room. He has a slight Russian accent and he reads out the name of some other high-flying, BMW-driving suicide. That guy drives of a cliff without so much as a scream. We see him and it's clear he doesn't realize what he's doing. Turns out he's a contract killer.

Later, the neuro rubs his finger over a picture and it looks like the guy's daughter may have been killed, somehow, making him the avenger, but never as suave or playful as John Steed.

Michael Varga, a shoe store owner now, is another person who has turned state's witness and been given a new identity. A total of four have died in a variety of ways, but all suspicious; Kevin Moree, plane, Halle Watson, drowned. Officer Cook walks into the police department, keys jangling, and it looks like he's going to shoot himself, but he doesn't. We linger on Sheila in a cloudy evidence lockup room. Cook and Sheila know each other and swap a little flirtation. Then he gets called away. We suddenly see a blue-tinged hallways get all its colors back. The neuro literally materializes where Sheila is sitting and starts looking, through her eyes, at some case files in a briefcase. The neuro looks like a younger, less smug David Stern (NBA Commissioner).

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TV Review: Painkiller Jane - "Higher Court"
Published: June 20, 2007
Type: Review
Section: Video
Filed Under: Video: Action, Video: SF, Video: Television
Part of a feature: Painkiller Jane
Writer: Temple Stark
Temple Stark's BC Writer page
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