Cold Case: The Brokeback Mountain episode

****WARNING: SOME PLOT SPOILERS**** Last night's episode of CBS's crime show Cold Case was remarkable for a slew of reasons. First off was the fact that it was a gay-themed episode, but as far as I know CBS didn't make a big deal out of it despite the fact that veteran television actor Chad Everett played one of the gay roles. The show also featured a passionate same-sex kiss that ten years ago would've had folks up in arms. Yet last night all of the above happened with nary a mention. It's great! The episode itself was also pretty darn good despite the fact it might as well have been called Brokeback Mountain: NYPD Blue. To nutshell the plot for you, you need to know that every episode of Cold Case opens with an unsolved murder that has gone "cold". When new evidence comes to light the "cold case" is reopened as the show's detectives try to solve it. In this case, the murder victim was a cop named Coop (Shane Johnson, pictured) who turns out to have been having an affair with another cop named Jimmy. (The Brokeback comparison is because Jimmy is married, but Coop wants them to move away and start a new life.) It turns out Coop was murdered by two other cops who couldn't stand the idea of a queer cop "disgracing" the force. I can already hear some folks saying, "Great. Another dead gay guy." But I think that would be seriously missing the point. First of all, it's the nature of the show that someone ends up dead. And I think ten years ago that criticism would have been valid, but now there is a whole range of gay storylines on network TV (if not enough lead gay characters). Just last week I wrote about gay plots on How I Met Your Mother and ER, in addition to the regular storylines on The Class, Help Me Help You, and Brothers & Sisters just to name a few. So I don't think anyone should be heaving stones at Cold Case over the episode. In fact, I think the opposite is true. I think it's a necessity for people to understand that gays and lesbians did--and do--get beaten and murdered just for being gay. (The show went out of its way to ask if things were really that much better for gay cops today.) Besides the aforementioned kiss, the show not only portrayed the two men as being deeply in love, but in fact being "the lucky ones" because they truly loved each other. The show also showed the horrible damage wrought by living in the closet. And despite Coop's death it even managed to end on a happy note as Jimmy, now an old man (Chad Everett) went back to where he had last been with Coop and saw themselves walking away together holding hands. It was quite touching and something millions of Americans tuned in to see without knowing they were going to. Three cheers for CBS for doing such a well done episode and for not making a big deal out of it. And three cheers to Rhonin for tipping me off about the episode!