Life Episode 2.14 Mirror Ball

At the Mayan nightclub, Crews and Reese investigate the death of Mitch Wagner, the lead singer of Hot Lead, a cover band for the legendary 70s glam band, Heavy Caliber. In full rock regalia and make-up, Mitch lies face down on stage, but there are no bullet wounds or signs of drug use. However, his make-up appears as if something was pressed against it. They notice a sheet of plastic stuck in a vent. Crews pulls it out and sees an imprint of Mitch's "death mask" on it, leading them to believe someone used it to suffocate Mitch.

Tidwell, Reese and Crews learn that Mitch fronted the cover band as Jude Hays, the original Heavy Caliber singer who died in the 70s. Tidwell and Reese disagree on how Hays died. Reese thinks it was a car accident, Tidwell thinks he drank himself to death. Mitch's wife was in San Diego at the time of the murder, and the Mayan staff said other three band members left right after the show. Crews refers to Reese as "Doc," a nickname he coined for her from her initials, "D.R." Tidwell likes it immediately, which angers Reese.

Band members Eric and Hal tell Crews they partied all night and then went home together. They say everyone changed out of costume before leaving the Mayan. Reese visits Dr. Stanton, self-proclaimed rock-and-roll dentist, whose lobby is populated with an attractive female clientele. She sees Stanton caress a female patient's face before she exits his office. In his office, Stanton takes a Sharpie pen and adds a mark to a wall full of hundreds of tally marks. All of the band members name Tyler Simms, the former "Jude Hays" for Hot Lead, as someone who might want to hurt Mitch.

The band fired Tyler after he caused a riot at a show by breaking format and singing his own song. Angered, Tyler showed up at a gig dressed as Jude and assaulted Mitch. He served prison time for it and no one has seen him since. Reese asks Stanton about the tally marks. He says the original Heavy Caliber bassist bedded 4378 women, so he's just being true to the music. He was with another conquest at the time of the murder. Noting he has some time between appointments, he asks Reese, "Should I uncap the Sharpie?" Reese tells him to keep his Sharpie capped.

Crews learns that Tyler got out of prison six months ago. After that, there are no records of him. Since they can't find Tyler Simms, they look for Jude Hays. Crews books a bunch of Hays impersonators to come to his house. As they show up, Hal and Eric look them over to see if any are Tyler. When a woman comes to the door dressed as Jude, Hal and Eric recognize her from when she tried to audition for Hot Lead. She becomes hostile and leaves. Hal and Eric admit laughing at her at the time. They didn't mention her before because they'd forgotten about her.

Frightened, Mitch's widow Emma comes to the station after Tyler called her and offered to sing to her as Jude Hays as a condolence. Crews and Reese trace the call to a construction site where the foreman recognizes Tyler's photo but says his name is Jude Hays. Tyler, who's legally changed his name to Jude Hays, admits calling Emma but says he didn't kill Mitch. When asked about Fresno, Tyler says he wrote a song that Jude Hays would have written had he lived. When he performed it, the small minded crowd rejected it and became violent.

Reese learns that the female Jude Hays impersonator is named Patty York, who works at the Mayan and has a master key. When they visit Patty, gone is the cocky rock star attitude she had in the Jude guise. In her place is a fidgety, meek girl who is a germaphobe. A huge fan of Heavy Caliber, she proudly says her mom was a groupie of Hays. Crews notices that everything in Patty's lunch is wrapped in plastic, even the plastic for leftovers. Crews takes some of it. When asked where she was during the murder, she says she was home with Winston, her pet rabbit.

Crews studies his conspiracy board when his father stops by. Ted meets Charlie Sr. for the first time and can barely feign sympathy when he says Olivia left him until he can make peace with Charlie. When Charlie Sr. asks Ted how he knows Olivia, Ted blurts out that he loves her. Charlie Sr. goes at Ted just as Patty enters as Jude Hays. Back in full Jude 'tude, she says she owes Crews a song he paid for. Crews drives her home and says her plastic didn't match the plastic used in the murder. Patty says to talk to Al, who knows everything that goes on at the Mayan at night.

The next day, Patty, back in her geek girl persona, takes them to see Al, a homeless man whom they find robbing Mitch's shrine of coins and food. Al says he saw Mitch and Stanton go in through the back door and Stanton leave alone. He remembers Stanton because he had really white teeth. At Stanton's office, Crews and Reese enter a room full of Jude Hays doppelgangers. Stanton exits his office in full costume and is arrested. Stanton says he was holding auditions for a new Heavy Caliber cover band, and that Al is lying about him coming back to the theater. The cops also find pain medication prescribed to different women.

At Tidwell's home, Reese wakes to hear Tidwell saying goodbye to all his liquor and pouring it into the sink. He says he doesn't want to go there if Reese can't come with him. She's touched, and invites him to bed. Next day, Crews and Reese question Stanton about the painkillers, more of which they found in his car. He says they're for his patients, but they say they checked and the women on them don't exist. Reese thinks he's trading drugs for sex. Tidwell says the plastic came back with Mitch's DNA and one other person, so he wants samples from all the suspects.

At the construction site, they learn that Tyler has taken time off so they get Emma to call him and say she wants him to take him up on his offer to sing to her. He meets her at a park where he's taken into custody. At the station, when Tyler sees the plastic, he says he has to get fan mail from his house. Tidwell, Crews and Reese go through it and find a letter with a warning. The letter reads, "Your face is not his face. Your face is a lie. Take it off." Also enclosed, a sheet of plastic.

They bring Patty to the station and go through the photos she took of the audience members at all the Hot Lead concerts. They're shocked to see Al in many of them, which Patty says were taken in three different cities. Crews wonders how a homeless guy could afford to travel all over the country. At the Mayan, they confront Al, who's in line for a "Jude Hays" concert. Crews asks him to settle a bet at the office. Everyone thinks Jude Hays died a different way. When he doesn't answer, the truth becomes clear. He didn't die. Al is Jude Hays and lured Mitch into the theater by revealing who he was.

At home, Crews is back in front of his conspiracy wall. Later, he talks to Ted and encourages him to tell Olivia that he loves her. Ted's amazed the real Jude Hays was living in an alley. Crews says he just spent time there but stayed in a bunch of hotels under a fake name. Ted tells Charlie he's proud of him, and that he doesn't need to drive a Maserati full of bullet holes. A woman drives up in Crews's old car, a Grand National. They're shocked to see she's painted it with a colorful hippie design and flowers.