Ep 10. Forever Blue

In the season 4 episode 10 of Cold Case titled "Forever Blue," the team reopens the case of a young African American police officer who was killed in 1932. The episode begins with shots of a present-day homicide detective giving a presentation about the fallen officer, Denny Padilla, to a group of young police recruits.

Flashback to 1932 Philadelphia, when the city was grappling with high unemployment rates and widespread poverty, and racism was rampant. Denny Padilla was one of the few black officers on the force, and his fellow white officers didn't hesitate to make his life difficult. They gave him all the dirty jobs and didn't back him up in dangerous situations.

One night, Denny and his partner, a white officer named Cal Lawrence, were patrolling the city when they came across a group of black men in an alley. Cal urged Denny to leave them be, but Denny felt duty-bound to investigate. As they approached the men, shots rang out, and Denny was hit multiple times.

The investigation into Denny's death was shoddy, to say the least. The white officers who were on scene weren't interested in solving the case, and no one bothered to question the black witnesses who lived in the surrounding neighborhood. Denny's mother, a strong-willed woman, refused to let the case remain unsolved, and she started her own investigation. But without any support from the police department or the wider community, she hit a dead end.

Back in the present day, the Cold Case team goes over the evidence, which is scant. They have a few eyewitnesses who saw a car fleeing the scene of the shooting, and that's about it. But as they delve deeper into the case, they start to uncover a web of corruption and racism that was rampant in the police department at the time. They find out that Cal Lawrence, Denny's partner, wasn't the upstanding officer he appeared to be. In fact, he had ties to the KKK and was involved in shady dealings with some of the city's wealthiest citizens.

The team also discovers that the police department had an unwritten policy of not solving crimes against black citizens. They were more concerned with protecting the wealthy white residents of the city, who made up the bulk of their political donors. It becomes clear that Denny's murder was swept under the rug because he was a black man, and his life was deemed less important than that of a white officer.

With this new information, the Cold Case team starts to piece together what really happened that night in 1932. They find out who the shooter was and why he targeted Denny. They also discover that Denny's mother, who died years earlier, was much more involved in the case than anyone knew. She had been working with a group of black activists who were trying to bring attention to the lack of equal justice in the city.

The episode ends with the present-day detective revealing that Denny's death, which was long considered a cold case, was finally solved. He holds up a photo of Denny in his police uniform, and the camera zooms in on his face, showing the resilience and determination that made him a standout in a time of extreme inequality and prejudice. The camera then fades out, with a sense of justice finally being served, even if it's taken nearly a century.