THEORIES OF RELATEEVEETY: NICHOLS & RAINES

Criminal Intent ("Major Case"), July 26, USA:

Det. Zach Nichols (Jeff Goldblum) to Det. Eames: "I try to avoid transferential relationships with dead people -- it's always so one-sided."

Methinks maybe Det. Nichols had a half-brother Michael Raines on the NYPD, who eventually moved to Los Angeles and started having transferential relationships with dead people.

Enjoy,

Martin

I'm glad Martin, who runs the 'Columbo' fanfic site "Just One More Paragraph" (link to the left!), contacted me about this. I watched the episode when I got home in the morning, and even with Martin's head's-up, I could see how I probably would have let the Extra In-Joke reference slip by me; it was that subtle. (At least to me!)

Not sure Raines ever worked in the NYPD; I think he was always in Los Angeles (and in his rebellious youth, he protested outside the Suarian embassy there in an episode of 'Columbo'). But Zach Nichols may have learned his father had an illegitimate son, and that could have been one of the reasons which led him to take his seven-year sabbatical from the NYPD. During that time, he may have gone out to the 'City of Angels' and met his identical half-brother (the main character of an earlier NBC series, 'Raines').

And if so, that may have been on his mind when he made that quip to Detective Eames......

Thanks, Martin!

BCnU!