Up late at nights, I've become addicted to Cold Case reruns; tonight I fell in love with an episode.
The Cold Case episode titled Best Friends tells the story of two women in love in the early 1930's. As if that weren't compelling enough, one woman, Billie (played by Tessa Thompson), was black, the other, Rose (Samantha Streets played the young 1932 girl; Piper Laurie played her as a grandma), was white.
It would have been easy to make this show as corny & transparently emotionally manipulative as I find country music to be, full of easy clichés pulling at stereotypical sentiments. And maybe I would have cried too (Gracie can be made to cry, even when she sees it coming); but instead I found something better.
I found myself, mouth open, in that most beautiful of states, breathless in anticipation... spellbound by romantic eroticism... aching, wanting... And, yes, I cried. Big slow-as-molasses tears that moved down my face like lover's fingers.
From the opening scenes, I, like young Rose, watched Billie transform into her suit (she was not "dressing like a man", but "as a fox"), and became enthralled. I felt the pull of innocent love-lust unsure if that's what I was supposed to be feeling, but dammit-to-hell, I was.
Quickly, I was trapped by the knowledge of what would happen; this show would expose the darkness which would destroy such exquisiteness. Such bittersweet foreshadowing made me feel an actual loss for my voyeuristic love.
The acting was stunning, the lighting like makeup, accenting the glows & shadows of emotions, the scenes so tenderly intimate juxtaposed next to hard hatred. And then there was the poetry.
Spoken poetry, love letters, written first by Billie, the last one by Rose. I wanted them to be about me; even the ugly ones.
The Beginning
Sent that girl away a night ago,
and don't she know it's been ashes
Sent her away and
don't she know it ache
Heart of mine, throat of smoke,
I sent a girl away and
it's been hell opened up,
working on my skin
till it be bone.
The Loving: Three Words
Those three words I have never heard together,
before you made them in your mouth,
chewed them soft like sugar cane,
polished them with your tongue,
gave them to me sweet, and I swore I'd never get them lost.
Is it how I can't find sleep, or get fed, this thing you said?
Is it how my heart grows at the sight of you?
Then, baby, yes,
I love you, too.
The Fighting: My Body Broken
Tired, nickel-colored night
You can take my blood and keep it,
I ain't need it no more,
use my broken teeth to pave your street,
my splintered bones stomped for sand,
if this lead-footed man should once again leave me dead,
my body broken,
my soul would find a way,
oh, night, to dance with his girl again.
The Loss
I came up from the dark without you
and every day has been in shadow.
I have begged the tide to wash away my sin
and take me to you in the dark
but every day I surface again.
but in the spring, I am betrayed by the new earth
with you in my heart, I am born again a green bud,
I am born again blooming.
No wonder this episode won a 2006 GLADD Award. As the Cold Case DVD is a-long-time-comin' (held up, it seems, in order to get the rights to the music in the shows), you'll have to wait for episodes to rerun & watch like I did (on TNT) ~ but you really should. It's lovely.
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