Cut to a bratty little girl, Sarah, who appears to have some kind of poletergeisty powers, which is a bad combo with bratty child parent hatred.
In the meantime, Colleen has placed an ad in the paper for Vicki's agency, saying they specialize in paranormal cases, which of course Vicki isn't too thrilled about. And I think Vicki is wearing different glasses. They seem less obtrusive than the other ones. In any case, the case for the evening is the death of poltergeisty-kid's mom. Suspicion has fallen on the missing father, so the focus becomes finding him. Also, Mike is digging up info on Henry. Jealous much?
Since this is Blood Ties and not Law and Order, the estranged father is far too simple an explanation. The next likely suspect appears to be Sarah's stuffed Elmo. (Okay, it wasn't Elmo--his name was Buttercup, but he looked kind of like Elmo on steroids.) Before her death, the mother had been planning to move away, and Sarah had been drawing pictures of Buttercup wreaking bloody mayhem, as well as other violent pictures. Apparently Cobb, the headmaster of Sarah's private school, has been encouraging Sarah in her murderous paranormal talents, and Vicki must find a way to free her from his influence.
I like that this show can put together a solid paranormal story without a lot of flashy effects. Tonight's episode did have some fun CGI stuff going on, but only enough to tell the story. Of course, being on Lifetime they probably have a limited budget, but they've proven they don't need the effects to tell a good story. A lot of bigscreen producers could learn something here. I also like the way the show is developing overall. I'm liking the characters more and more each week, with the possible exception of Mike, who's still kind of annoying, and it's growing into a nicely entertaining hour of TV. The ending of this episode seemed a bit too abrupt, with Sarah's sudden epiphany exhibiting thinking that seemed too mature for a girl her age, but overall a good story.
Blood Ties on iTunes:
