Battle Creek - Old Flames

The search into the truth about Milt's (Tad Hamilton) past is put on hold in an episode that hits home for several characters when Commander Guziewicz's (Janet McTeer) home is set afire with her inside. As suspects include criminals she put away, a long line of former boyfriends, and an estranged adopted son (Rotimi) recently returned to Battle Creek "Old Flames" gives us our largest glimpse into the life of any single character yet. Even if the explanation of what actually occurred that night is clumsily handled, the episode succeeds in large by focusing on Guziewicz's propensity for getting out while the getting is good, a trait she likely developed due to the struggle with raising a troubled boy on her own.

Of course it wouldn't be an episode of Battle Creek if a large portion of the show wasn't also spent in regrettable ways. First, the opening of the aftermath of Funkhauser's (Grapevine) bachelor party, complete with Russ (Dean Winters) doing his own ill-advised striptease to the cat calls of the other men of the department is as pathetic as it sounds. And second, the subplot of whether or not a drunken Russ is responsible for sending Holly (Aubrey Dollar) flowers takes far too much of an episode that actually has an interesting character-driven story to tell. Even with these issues "Old Flames" is easily the best episode of the series since its pilot episode.