Directed by Chris Fisher
Written by Gavin Harris
"Pin Up Girl" is the ninth episode of the sixth season of Cold Case. Set in 1953, it entails the case of a popular cover girl, Rita Flynn, who was found murdered in her home.
Related Tropes:
- The Atoner: Lilly suggests that Betty Sue became a nun to atone for killing Rita.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: The killer always wanted to be in front of the camera and the center of attention, and she got it... during her mugshot (and the ensuing trial and the attention it will most likely bring.)
- Benevolent Boss: Monty is surprisingly progressive and compassionate for a modeling boss in the fifties. Most bosses in that era would react to Rita quitting modeling to switch to photography by laughing and telling her to “stick to being pretty”. But not Monty. He recognized Rita had talent, even saying himself to the detectives that she “had more talent behind the camera than in front of it”, and even planned to publish her shots himself.
- Celebrity Is Overrated: Implied with Rita. Although she liked the world of modeling, her life motto was "Ordinary life can be beautiful, too." She was just as comfortable with fans and strangers as she was with people in the industry and was more content with being behind the camera than in front of it.
- Dies Wide Open: How Rita ended up after being shot, owing to the shock and horror of her best friend killing her in a drunken and jealous rage.
- Friend to All Children: Several of Rita’s pictures are of random neighborhood children playing. At one point, she happily poses with a Black child and a Hispanic child, both of whom seem at ease with her.
- Green-Eyed Monster:
- Betty Sue, Rita's best friend, was jealous of her success and ended up shooting her over it.
- Rita's boyfriend was also jealous of her talent as a photographer and that she was a better one than he was.
- Hidden Depths: While Rita is a popular model/cover girl, she is also intent on becoming a photographer.
- Hiding Behind Religion: Present day Betty Sue. Even as she's about to be arrested for Rita’s murder, she tries to justify the means to an end by saying that as a nun, she's done "a lifetime of good work".
- I Remember Because...: The team is contacted when a new picture of Rita is released and provides a clue when viewed alongside with one of her old pictures. Gus, the man who has the old picture, says that he only remembered it because he carried Rita's picture when he was deployed in the The Korean War and his grandson was just deployed to the Middle East.
- Moustache de Plume: Rita uses the name "Stanley Nopel" whilst working as a photographer due to the sexism of the industry at the time.
- Parental Substitute: Rita's manager, Monty, served this role for her (as her own father was abusive and her mother was deceased). It was even him that her ghost appeared to.
- Parting-Words Regret: Rita's jealous boyfriend and photographer is deeply remorseful about how his last words to her were spiteful insults.
- The Pollyanna: Rita. Even with losing her mother at a young age and having an abusive father, she was able to make something of herself, see the good in people and be there for her best friend while she was struggling with her troubled life.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Rita accidentally takes a picture of one at Betty Sue's strip club, causing him to almost attack her. He was initially a suspect, but then he told investigators that he apologised to her and that she actually helped him with coping after the war, even accompanying her during her impromptu photography session taking various pictures around Philadelphia.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
- The Jerkass that Betty Sue thought she had a date with, who only went out with her to get Rita's autograph.
- Downplayed with Monty's uncle, due to how he left Monty a pistol which Betty takes to the strip club with her for protection. Consequently, she has a gun with her during the A Tragedy of Impulsiveness murder.
