Directed by Jeannot Szwarc
Written by Tom Pettit
The team reopens the 1968 murder case of Sean Cooper, a cop who was shot dead in his patrol car. The episode is notable for having one of the first gay kisses on free-to-air TV.
Tropes for this episode:
- Bait-and-Switch: Several scenes imply that Sean and Eileen are having an affair, only for it to be with Jimmy.
- Bedroom Adultery Scene: A variant. Eileen witnesses Sean and Jimmy making out in the backyard of their home.
- Bigot with a Badge: Pretty much everybody in the force at the time except Sean and Jimmy, including the killer.
- Bury Your Gays: Sean is a gay cop, though his orientation isn't revealed until about midway into the episode.
- A Deadly Affair: Sean is murdered because he's carrying on a secret relationship with another man, earning the wrath of some bigoted cops.
- Dirty Cop: Tom McCree took bribes from the local drug kingpin and murdered Sean due to his sexual orientation. He was also planning to kill Jimmy but the latter took a different car that night.
- Dying Declaration of Love: A roundabout example. Sean reminds Jimmy, who refers to their affair as a "curse" in the middle of the episode, that among unhappy marriages around them, their love for each other is what makes them "the lucky ones", not cursed. Shortly before dying, Sean tells Jimmy over the radio that they're the lucky ones no matter what.
- Foreshadowing: Early in the episode, one of the cops, leading a suspect into the precinct, asks if it's okay to "beat up queers" as part of the interrogation. This seems merely to be demonstrating the political incorrectness of the time in a general sense, until the rest of the episode revolves around homophobia.
- Good Adultery, Bad Adultery: Jimmy is a married man with three kids but is in love with his partner. He tried to deny his feelings for years until the end of the episode where he admits he misses Sean, implying that he's still very much in love with him.
- "It" Is Dehumanizing: Young Jimmy called his and Sean's relationship a "curse" and a "thing".
- Slap-Slap-Kiss: Sean is beating Jimmy up in a dispute about the proprieties of morally grey policing when suddenly, he plants a kiss on Jimmy and they start making out.
- Splash of Color: The past scenes are black and white, except for Sean's car, and eventually his blood.
- Straight Gay: Sean turns out to be a gay man, as his partner Jimmy's wife at the time reveals to the detectives after spotting him kissing another man without anyone else finding out.
- Straw Hypocrite: Sean was gay but he also turned a blind eye on police brutality towards gay men.
- Title Drop: Sean says that Jimmy's baby son will be "Forever Blue"; a cop just like his dad.
