Pennies from Heaven
Welcome to another episode review of
The Sentinel. Lots of rambling about Jim and Blair's physical
appearance, and spoilers galore.
This episode involved money that falls from the skies. An armored car is shown zipping along, the tire blows, the back doors fly open, and cash flies out and over the overpass onto the neighborhood streets below.
Two kids are walking along right before the accident. One kid leaves and the other, Marcus, is almost under the overpass when the accident occurs. Just prior to the accident, he sees a local thug, Bert Unger, lurking in his car. He hears the accident and stands in surprise when the money rains down, which is promptly snapped up by the residents of the neighborhood, a depressed area of town.
We see our two yummy boys when Jim is lecturing Blair about the proper use of air freshener in their shared bathroom. LOL! Blair's hair is extra long and curly today. He's wearing his brown leather coat, jeans and the black and white plaid shirt from Blind Man's Bluff. Jim is wearing brown pants (URGH!!!), a blue knit shirt and a grey jacket. They go to the accident site and are treated to the citizens scavanging the cash that isn't theirs. As a side note, while they're walking toward the crowd, the same brown shaggy dog from several other episodes runs by.
Blair and Jim have several philosophical discussions about the reasons why people are taking money that doesn't belong to them. Very interesting. Jim thinks about the accident and finally wants to figure out if it was intentional after all. Oh, for you Rafe fans, he actually talks in this episode, proving that he is not a Ken doll after all! LOL! Just kidding. Poor Rafe, the man with no first name.
Anyway, Jim is questioning folks. He is given a lead about Marcus, so he talks to the kid. In a very annoying scene, Jim is chewing on a toothpick. I hate that. How rude! <g> The kid denies knowing what happened and to taking any of the money, of course.
Some cash has been turned in during the anmesty program provided by the police department. In a very cute scene, Jim is studying a hundred dollar bill. He asks Blair for his hundred. Blair is not happy turning over his emergency c-note. He claims it's not to impress girls with. Jim doesn't buy it. Jim discovers the money from the armored car is fake. He also figured out that since the money was on the way to be destroyed as old cash, the real cash was replaced with fake. So that the feds wouldn't see the fake money, the accident was staged so that the evidence would be taken by the residents and disappear.
One of the guards from the day of the accident calls Jim and explains that he thinks that one of the other guards was in on the heist. By the time Jim and Blair show up, the guard is dead. Meanwhile, Marcus goes to pay his and his dad's rent with the bad money, and the two guards who were also in on the heist go to collect their cut.
Jim gets to use his senses when they discover the guard's body. First he smells blood and cordite, then he finds an impression on the man's face of a Marine Corp ring. Imagine that, just like the ring one of the other guards happened to be wearing.
Jim and Blair go to the lab to inspect the tire from the accident. Jim is wearing an olive-green cable knit sweater over a green t-shirt and those sucky brown pants. Blair is wearing the blue knit shirt with the black diamonds over a black t-shirt and jeans. Jim finds evidence that the tire was wired to blow with a remote detonator. Blair informs Jim that he wants his hundred dollars back, but Jim says it's gone to evidence. Bad Jim! <g> He also tells his partner that the department will replace Blair's cash. Blair doesn't believe he'll ever see his money again.
There is a secondary story line of a slum lord who is not happy that the residents of his crappy building are refusing to pay the rent until the residence is cleaned and fixed. Bert Unger, the muscle from the armored car accident, also happens to be the muscle for the slumb lord, a British dude. Jim overhears Bert threatening Marcus' father and he intervenes.
When the two other guards go to collect their share of the cash, they get another surprise instead. They're blown to high heaven. No big surprise there. When Jim and Blair go to the crime scene, Jim makes a remark to Blair about where's standing, which happens to be inside the white outline of a dead body. Blair does a little hop out and says something about it being a fresh one. LOL! Jim smells something funny, other than the burnt stuff, and figured out how the bomb was triggered. He uses Blair's swiss army knife. Wonder what happened to Jim's pocket knife. He's used it before. Must have left it home that day.
As the story progresses, Marcus' father finds out that the kid has taken some of the money that didn't belong to him. He insists that the boy return it to the authorities. The kid's scared he'll be tossed in jail, but Jim is very polite accepting the cash and thanking the kid. Jim's attitude is enough so that the kid finally divulges that Bert Unger was at the bridge on the day of the accident, but that he threatened to kill Marcus and his father if he talked. Marcus does the right thing and a little while later, he sees Unger on the street. He calls Jim and Blair, who come to arrest Unger.
Unger sees Jim and floors the gas, running our poor Jimmy over. Blair scrapes Jim off the street and as Jim limps to the passenger's side, Blair gets to drive Jim's Expediton! They don't catch the guy and Jim gets to go to the hospital for x-rays. Oh, and when Jim gives Blair back his cash, Blair's upset that it's five twenties and not one hundred dollar bill. Jim is incredulous when Blair complains. Blair is silly, I think. Too funny. That was the only hundred left in the universe, I guess. LOL!
Anyway, the slum lord snags Marcus. Unger joins them. Jim and Blair pull up. Unger gets nabbed, but the slum lord runs. Jim gives chase on his bad leg, which doesn't seem to be bothering him now. They end up on the building's roof and in a fight, after which Jim drops his gun (what, eleven times now? I've given up keeping count.) Jim gets tossed over the side to dangle by his fingers. When the slum lord tries to kick him off, Jim pulls him over and drops him down four or five stories. In a scene reminiscent of the first one, the briefcast full of cash pops open, and the money rains down again. Jim pulls himself up and saves the day. Good Jim!
The tag is cute. Jim is in his black leather jacket, Jags cap, a blue cable knit sweater with a white snow-flake type design on it and yes, brown pants. Blair has on his other green and red plain jacket and jeans. After seeing how well the residents are renovating their building, and after thanking Marcus for his help, Jim and Blair walk toward Jim's car. Jim limps and Blair asks if his legs is till bothering him. Jim informed his guppy that he's not limping from his injury but from a splinter from the red cedar ships that Blair spread on the bathroom floor which should act as a nautral deodorizer. We see the boys leave while Jim tells Blair to just use the spray.
The End. Very cute one.