Sleeping Beauty

This episode deals with a girl who was in a coma and has now awakened after eight years. The story opens with a young girl and her family going on the lam. We aren't told yet the reason, but the escaping family doesn't get very far. Their car is run off the road and down an embankment. Then the scene cuts to an older girl in a hospital, monitor lines taped to her head. She wakes, pulls them off and runs.

Blair is driving along in the Volvo. He's wearing is brown leather jacket, a nice blue shirt over a white v-neck t-shirt and khakis. The cute thing is that he's listening to Angie Ferris from Out of the Past on the radio. I like how the writers remembered this little tidbit. Suddenly, somebody runs right in front of him. He slams on the brakes and goes down the alley to find the scared girl huddled on the ground.

Jim is at home fixing a sandwich. He has on a nice tight grey t-shirt and dark pants. He also has a copy of a Jack Kerouac book on the table, along with bottled water. He just sits down to eat when Blair waltzes home. Jim is surprised, because Blair was going to the movies. In trails the girl, wearing Blair's jacket.

Jim takes in the girl's appearance and from the hospital gown says she must be an escapee from Engleman General. (Detail note-for fanfic writers, this is a local hospital apparently.) Jim calls the hospital and described the girl, but they haven't had any escaped patients. Blair wants the girl to stay, but in a strange Jim manner, Jim says she might be a mental patient or need medication. He also tells Blair to keep her off the furniture, like she's some kind of pet or something. Geez, Jim. Get a grip. LOL!

Jim gets called out to a stake out. Before leaving (and taking that sandwich with him, much to Blair's chagrin), he tells Blair to call missing persons. The next scene shows us it's morning. Blair is sleeping in the yellow chair and the girl is asleep on the sofa. A knock at the door shows us an adorable sleepy-eyed, mussed-haired Blair. Man, he is just too cute! Seems that the missing person report was fruitful. The medics from Somerset Hospital claim the girl is theirs and they none-too-nicely drag her away.

Blair is upset, telling them to be gentle. The girl is screaming and kicking. The men are dragging her around. Finally, Blair interferes once too often and one of the guys pulls a gun while the other guy takes the girl. They speed off. Blair is very unhappy, but luckily Jim happens to come home right that second. He shouts to Jim that they've taken the girl and they take off, sirens running. Jim follows by hearing the girl's cries. The girl is pretty smart. When they stop at an intersection, she leaps from the back of the van. One of the baddies tries to get her back inside, but she pitches a fit. They hear the sirens and finally hightail it away, leaving the girl behind.

Jim and Blair pull up. The girl is hysterical and finally passes out. Jim, being the nice guy that he is, catches her and they take her home. Simon and a doctor from the real hospital are there. The doctor explains about what happened. Stacy's parents were killed in the car wreck that left her in a coma when she was twelve. A month ago, after eight years, Stacy wakes up. She is receiving intensive therapy but still doesn't speak.

Simon decides she should stay in protective custody at the loft. The doctor agrees. Jim and Blair do too. This sets the investigation moving about why somebody would try to kidnap Stacy.

We see Jim in the bullpen. Jim is wearing his black leather jacket, burgundy shirt over a white t-shirt and those usual brown pants. He's pulled the records and tells Simon there was evidence that they were deliberately run off the road. Jim surmises that maybe Stacy can identify the perp and that's who's after her, trying to get to her before she remembers. Oh, in a very cute scene, while Jim and Simon are talking, Simon stops to buy something from the snack gal, but Jim nicely reminds his friend of his cholesterol problem. Jim is very sweet, isn't he?

Anyway, turns out Stacy's parents, the Newmans seemed to be pretty usual. The dad was an auto mechanic. When Jim went to talk to his old boss, the guy gave Jim an old notebook from Newman's locker. Jim hands it to Simon and they both agree it looks like rocket science. Cute exchange. Jim runs the Newmans through the computer, and it turns out the Newmans died years before Stacy's parents died. Bingo. The Newmans were using false identities. Which brings up the question, just who is Stacy Newman?

Jim and Blair take Stacy to her old house to try and jog her memory. For anybody who doesn't know it yet, Jim's license plate is 804GDT. I love trivia. Blair is wearing a brown plaid jacket, a tan button-up shirt over a white t-shirt and jeans. Jim is wearing the same thing from the earlier scene. They walk Stacy through the house but she doesn't seem to recognize anything. She wanders aimlessly until she sees a couple of kids playing dolls on the lawn. She runs out and joins them, touching one of the dolls.

Jim sees something suspicious. He zooms in and sees a guy with binoculars watching them. He tells Blair to stay with Stacy and tries to catch the guy. The guy sees Jim and runs. He takes Jim on a merry chase until he stops to pull his gun. Big mistake. The stupid idiot doesn't realize he's stopped in the middle of a street and a very large truck runs him down before he can shoot.

Meanwhile, the girls diss Stacy and leave. Then there are bells from the ice cream truck and Stacy finally speaks, asking Blair if she can have some ice cream. It is downright adorable when Blair looks shocked to hear her talk, but then gives her the usually one ratty dollar he has in his jeans. I swear that dollar appears all the time. Wonder if its the only cash he ever has!

Stacy can't remember much her parents or her life before the accident. The investigation continues. Jim finds out the dead guy is some local muscle who's available for hire to just about anybody. He decides his next step is to find out who was paying for Stacy's hospital care for eight years. Turns out it was a group called The Chadway Foundation, who funds scientific research and they funded Stacy's care since living that long in a coma is considered rare.

Jim, Blair and Stacy are leaving the hospital when a woman reporter tries to corner Stacy for an interview, which Jim doesn't look happy about. He hustles Blair and Stacy into an elevator and shuts it in her face. Good Jim. Oh, and the woman calls out something about this being a Sleeping Beauty story, hence the episode title.

In an adorable loft scene, Stacy is opening a box. Seems our Jimmy has gone and bought the girl a very pretty dress. She is tickled, hugging Jim. Blair has this look on his face, seeing Stacy's adoring look. You know he's dying to tease Jim, but he's fairly good about just making a remark or two. Man, I love Jim's smile, and good Blair close-up too.

The plot starts to thicken. I don't like dragging it out, so here's the lowdown. The Newmans are really Jack and Nora Strassman, researchers for Pacific Tech University, who had apparently disappeared nine years ago. Seems they were working on a source of light energy from sound. When Jim shows the PT guy, Van Zant, the notebook, the guy lies (Jim uses his senses to tell) about it being worthless equations.

Jim also finds out that the Chadway foundation funded the Strassmans' research. He gets the address for the foundation, and taking Blair and Stacy along, they go to a warehouse. Jim hops the fence and fiddles with the alarm. Seconds later, the Feds show up. Turns out the female reporter from earlier is really a Fed and is after the info that everybody thinks Stacy has. The Feds also think that the Strassmans were going to sell their research to the highest bidder.

In a great scene, the Feds are interrogating Jim when Simon shows up and takes him people out of there after reaming the Fed woman a good one. Go, Simon! Jim is very sweet when he goes over to Stacy and helps her up, asking her if she's okay. He also gives Blair this look – are you okay, partner? Well, I think it says, are you okay, honey, but that's another story.

Anyway, Jim goes back to Pacific Tech because he thinks Van Zant has more info he hasn't divulged. When Jim questions him about the Strassmans and their selling the research to another country, Van Zant admits that the Strassmans were peace activists who took off after they found out that the Chadway Foundation was really a government front. They refused to let the government have their research for weapons applications and decided to hide instead.

Jim brings boxes from Stacy's parents' house to the loft. They look through the boxes to help Stacy remember. She finds her lovey, Bowser, a stuffed dog, and begins to look through a photo album. Upset she can't remember, she runs into Blair's room to cry. Jim thinks Blair should talk to her but Blair shows Jim a heart he found showing that Stacy Loves Jim, so Jim agrees to talk to her. It doesn't go well. While he is sweet, Stacy thinks he thinks she is a child instead of a woman and tosses him out because he can't think of her that way. Then she takes off.

Stacy goes to the only place she can remember, the hospital. The good doctor turns out to be the bad doctor. He drugs her. The next thing we see is Jim finding the doctor's body in the trunk of his car and Stacy gone. Of course, the feds show up and everybody is yelling at everybody else. Jim sees a clue, Van Zant is always eating breath mints and there is one in the parking lot.

Van Zant has kidnapped Stacy and gives her a drug to help her remember, which she does. He wants the research, which he finally finds in the stuffed dog. But the bad thing is that she also remembers that Van Zant is the one who pushed her parents' car over the embankment. Turns out Van Zant was after the research to sell to the highest bidder and that's why he killed the Strassmans. Unfortunately, Jack Strassman had hidden the research so well, Van Zant couldn't find it, and waited eight years for Stacy to wake up and tell him.

Van Zant tells his sidekick to kill the girl, but of course, Jim shows up. There is a very stupid chase scene, as usual. Van Zant blows himself up when his vehicle smashes into gasoline pumps. The producers must have been happy that day. Geez, what is it with guys, and chase scenes, and blowing things up?

The tag is quite sweet. Jim is wearing a green button-down shirt over a grey t-shirt. Blair has on his black leather jacket, a pale blue shirt and khakis. Turns out Stacy is going away to a school to help her catch up n her school work. Jim is very nice, telling her to call if she ever needs a friendly ear. Blair is the one to take Stacy to the airport and after they leave, Simon offers to buy Jim a cup of coffee. Jim responds that he needs a double, because he's tired and could fall asleep right then and there. He then ends the episode with the remark that he'd not take a very good Sleeping Beauty.

There it is. Okay episode. Great scenes and the boys were together most of the time. Next we have the best episode in the entire run, Warriors.

The End

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