Rosewood - Fairy Tales & Frozen Truths - Review: “Family Lies & Saving Lives”

Rosewood - Fairy Tales & Frozen Truths - Review: “Family Lies & Saving Lives”

2.18 - “Fairy Tales & Frozen Truths”
Directed by Ian Toynton
Written by Megan McNamara
Reviewed by Kelly Anne Blount

“Fairy Tales & Frozen Truth” opens with a woman speeding to get to an unknown location. She calls 911 after arriving in front of an apartment complex.

Rosie knocks on Villa’s door bright and early. He wants to meet Marcos, Villa’s brother. Villa tells him it will have to wait; her little brother is on a run. It seems like she is putting off introducing Rosie to Marcos. Well, Villa’s plans just went out the window. Marcos gets back from his run early. He and Rosie are off to a great start, bonding over how long they run every day and Rosie’s car. Villa tells Marcos that their mom cut her vacation short, just so she could come home and spend time with him. Marcos doesn’t look comfortable with that news. He tells Villa he has a job interview, so he’ll just have to catch their mother later. Something funny is going on here!

Villa and Rosie pull up to a mansion on the water. There’s a dead body in a large freezer and the victim is dressed like a princess. The victim was, “either dead or incapacitated,” when she was put into the freezer.

Mitchie arrives on the scene. He points out that the victim is dressed as the old school Cinderella. Her crown was on a table in the other room.

The owner of the mansion found the body. She came home from a trip early. She tells Rosie and Villa that the victim, Ashley Morrison, dressed up as fictional characters for parties.

Rosie and Villa bring the body back to the lab where it can thaw out. Rosewood can’t move forward with the autopsy until her body is room temperature. NCIS recently did a great cryogenics episode where someone was freezing bodies. Check it out here!

Hornstock is back from the cruise early, because of Marcos. He still hasn’t met Villa’s brother yet. Slade is getting everything in order for the kidney transplant. Say what? Rosewood told him he didn’t want it last week. Slade says that Rosie needs a kidney and he’s going to be there for him when he figures out that Slade is his best (only) option! Slade is the best.

Villa and Hornstock interview Ashley’s aunt and cousin. They tell Villa and Hornstock that Ashley was a wonderful person who wanted to work with children. She was going to school for early childhood education. That’s sweet! I have my Master’s Degree in Early Childhood Special Education. I love my fellow Early Childhood teachers!

Ashley’s Aunt, Paula Benjamin, asks if the freezer wasn’t properly maintained, which resulted in her niece’s death. Villa breaks the news that Ashley’s death wasn’t an accident, that someone killed her. She has no idea who could have done such a terrible thing, because everyone loved Ashley.

Mitchie is in a special tent that is helping to thaw Ashley’s body. He’s found something! There’s a long blonde hair on her body and it doesn’t belong to Ashley. Pippy and her mom talk about her fascination with princesses as a child. Pippy tells her mom she liked them because they were pretty and every problem could be solved with a kiss! I love this scene! ROSEWOOD is a magically diverse show that brings real life family moments to the screen all while handling them respectfully and without stereotypes. WE NEED MORE ROSEWOOD AND MORE SHOWS LIKE ROSEWOOD!

Villa and Rosewood head over to Ashley’s apartment. Her cousin, Gretchen Benjamin, let’s them in. There are photos of Ashley and little kids everywhere, it’s obvious that she’s well loved. Hornstock shows up at the scene, he says that Ashley’s boss at Once Upon a Birthday, reported that Ashley got into a fight with Leanne, another princess, the day of her murder while working at a birthday party.

Villa, Rosewood, and Hornstock head over to a birthday party filled with princesses and fun! They want to find the woman Ashely got into a fight with the day of her murder. Hornstock tells Villa that her mother still hasn’t seen Marcos. Villa tells him that Marcos is avoiding their mother for some reason, but she’s not sure why. She tells Hornstock that he’s not to tell her mother that Marcos is avoiding their Daisie.

Villa isn’t playing nice with Rapunzel a.k.a. Leanne. She wants to interview her now! Rosie saves the day, because Rosie. He doesn’t want all of the little children at the party to have the princess magic ruined. They let Leanne finish her Rapunzel gig, then bring her in for questioning.

Once Leanne is in the interrogation room, Villa wants to know why Leanne was fighting with Ashley. Leanne says it was stupid. She asked Ashley to cover for her, because she was running late. She said Ashley refused, which wasn’t fair, because she covered for Ashley before. Villa wants to know how Leanne covered for Ashley, so she tells Villa that she saw Ashley flirting with one of the dads at a party they were working at and that Ashley gave her number to his daughter, so he could call her. Leanne says that Ashley, “pretended to be on a moral high ground,” but she was really just a gold digger. Yikes! That’s harsh! I’m thinking there’s more to this than meets the eye, but we’ll see!

Hornstock and Rosewood are watching from behind the glass/mirror. Hornstock tells Rosie that Slade is still planning on giving him his kidney. Rosie isn’t happy about it. Ira tells Rosie to “rethink” Slade’s kidney donation.

Villa snatches Rapunzel’s wig off of her head. She needs a hair sample to compare with the hair found on Ashley’s body. Leanne says it can’t be her hair, because she didn’t kill Ashley, and because there are loads of other Rapunzel’s running around Miami.

Rosie has bad news, the hair didn’t match. Villa has news too! She pulled Ashley’s phone records and found out that she called 911 the night before she died. Ahhh! So, the woman we saw in the opening was Ashley, I wasn’t sure if it was her or not.

Villa has a recording of Ashley’s 911 call; however, it’s not super helpful, as Ashley didn’t say anything once the 911 operator picked up. Wait! She did say something, but it wasn’t helpful. She tells the operator that she dialed the wrong number and then hangs up.

The team is able to pinpoint Ashley’s location based on the call. Ashley’s phone records show that she received three phone calls shortly before she called 911 and guess what? They all are from the same location as Ashley’s 911 call.

Turns out that the phone calls came Dale Bartram’s house. Dale has a record and has endangered his child in the past. The team hypothesize that Ashley gave her number to the little girl at the princess party because she knew the little girl needed help. She wasn’t flirting with the dad, perhaps she was sticking up for the little girl? Is that why Ashley went over there? To save the little girl from an abusive situation?

Slade wants Dale brought in immediately. He wants answers!

Villa exits to go find Dale, leaving Slade and Rosie alone. Slade is still planning on giving Rosie his kidney and he doesn’t care what Rosie thinks! Go, Slade, Go!

Back at the lab, Mitchie is finally able to draw blood from the victim’s foot. Mitchie is also running tests while Donna Rosewood watches over them. She says she’s there because she might need to be more present while Rosewood is recovering. Before Pippy can properly object, the doorbell rings. Guess who’s visiting the lab? Daisie Villa, Villa’s mother! This should be interesting! I don’t know which of the crew she’s met other than Rosie?

Aw, Daisie and Donna hug. Daisie is looking for her daughter. Donna reports that Annalise and Rosewood aren’t at the lab. Donna invites Daisie to have a cup of coffee and talk, she can tell Daisie is upset. Donna says she, “knows a thing or two about difficult children.” Ha ha!

Mitchie found something! Ashley had used pepper sprayed before her death and there is dye residue on her cuticles. That same dye on her hands is probably still on the killer as well, but invisible to the naked eye! Ooh, Mitchie for the win!

Rosie and Villa drive over to Dale Bartram’s house. Rosie asks Villa why she won’t tell her mom that Marcos is avoiding her. Villa asks Rosie why he won’t tell his mother that he isn’t taking Slade’s kidney. They decide to change the subject and move on to princesses. She says princess stories, “set women up for failure.” Then she says, “It’s not like every woman can have their own Rosie!” Rosie loves this and wants her to repeat it! I do too! #TeamRosilla

When they get to Dale’s house, he opens the door and looks nervous. He says he doesn’t anyone by the name of Ashley Morrison. When they show him a picture of Ashley, his wife comes around the corner and says, “What did you do now?” Uh oh! The wife says that Ashley worked a few parties that her daughter attended, otherwise they didn’t know her.

OH MY GOSH! Rosie turns out the lights and points a black light at Dale’s face, which is covered in dye from pepper spray! Dale is BUSTED!

Back in the interrogation room, Hornstock and Villa are reading Dale. #WelcometotheReadingRoom He says that it’s all a big misunderstanding. He tells them that his daughter told Ashley that her dad was hurting the nanny. Dale says that he wasn’t hurting the nanny, that instead, his daughter had seen him smack the nanny on the butt and misinterpreted it. Dale is sleeping with the nanny! Ugh! Ashley wasn’t aware of this, so she showed up to their house and demanded to see his daughter and the nanny. When Dale didn’t comply, she used her pepper spray on him. Dale says that Ashley pushed her way in after she incapacitated him; however, he quickly explained to her what was really going on and she left, completely embarrassed.

Villa gives Slade the bad news, Dale’s alibi checks out. He isn’t the killer.

Villa heads home and finds Marcos packed up and ready to go. She confronts him and wants to know why he’s leaving. Before she can get an answer, Villa’s mother walks in the door. Marcos looks super uncomfortable and bolts out the door. Is he going to his other house/apartment? The one where he has pictures of Villa and all of her friends plastered to the wall? Suuuuuper creepy!

Daisie tells Villa that Donna told her that Rosie pushes her away sometimes too. She admits that she told Donna that Rosie isn’t going to take Slade’s kidney. Villa can’t believe that she told her. Daisie says that Donna has the right to know, “This is life and death!”

Back at the lab, Mitchie is acting strange. He tells Rosie that he read through the victim’s file. Mitchie, who also lost his parents at a very young age, states that, “Ashley and I share a very similar past.” He wants to help catch Ashley’s killer, she deserves that justice. Aw, Mitchie!

Ashley’s body is finally thawed, so they start the autopsy. Eek! It gets graphic there for a moment! So realistic! Mitchie points out that she must have been killed before being placed in the freezer. Rosie finds evidence of a blow to the midsection and damage to her lung, which caused it to collapse.

Villa and Rosie head back over to the mansion where Ashley was murdered. Villa tells Rosie that her mother told his mother that he cancelled the kidney transplant. She is really worried about Rosie. She’s struggling to pretend that everything is “okay.” Before she can say anything else, Rosie finds a statue that could be the murder weapon. He picks it up, turns it over and finds beads from Ashley’s dress stuck to the bottom of it.

Rosie has an update. The statue in had traces of smoke and nicotine on it, so the murderer was likely a heavy smoker. Did the homeowner smoke? Was she really the killer? She did tell them that she came back in town because of a fire at her home business. Villa pulls footage of the woman’s business the night it was lit on fire. Ooh! They see someone breaking in and leaving the scene. The arsonist has a very specific bird tattoo. Guess who it belongs to? The homeowner! So, was the homeowner Ashley’s the killer?

Hornstock brings the homeowner into interrogation. He shows her the photographs of her tattoo found at the scene of the crime (fire). Behind the glass/mirror, Slade tells Rosie that he’s giving him his kidney and that’s that. There isn’t any time to find someone else and he isn’t taking no for an answer. I love Slade.

Hornstock asks the homeowner if she killed Ashley because she found out about her lighting her office on fire. She says that she didn’t. She says that Ashley recently came to her for money advice. She wanted to get money out of her trust early. During the interrogation, Hornstock gets a text from his friend Butters, I’m weak over that name! Ha ha ha! Anyways, it says that he knows Marcos’ location. Uh oh… I don’t think this is going to go over well.

Slade wants to know why Ashley needed the money seven months before her 25th birthday, when she could legally access it. They bring in Paula Benjamin, Ashley’s aunt and question her again. She admits that Ashley offered her the money to help pay for her medical bills. She says that she refused Ashley’s money. That money was for, “Ashley’s future.” During the interrogation, Villa gets a text message. Who wants to bet it was Hornstock sending her Marcos’ address?

Paula says that she has been sick for a while, but her doctors can’t figure out her diagnosis or pinpoint what could be causing her health issues. Rosie does a quick check and thinks he knows what’s going on with Paula. He asks if she’ll come to his lab for confirmation.

Uh oh! Villa shows up at the apartment Marcos is staying at, she’s a few minutes behind Hornstock. His roommate points her toward Marcos’ room. When she enters, she’s shocked! She finds Hornstock looking at pictures of the whole crew, which are plastered to Marcos’ wall. There are pictures and notes on everyone in Villa’s life. Turns out that Marcos has been living there for the last four months. He lied to Villa earlier, because he told her he just got home.

Marcos walks through the door as Villa and Hornstock are looking at everything. He tells them to get out, because it’s an “invasion of privacy.” Hornstock gets in Marcos’ face and tells him he cares very much about Villa and Daisie. He says that he’ll, “do anything to protect them,” even if it’s from “their own.” Hornstock storms out and tells Villa to, “Handle this!”

Villa is irate. Marcos says this is how he is getting to know the people in her life. He says, “This is the way my mind works.” Villa isn’t having it and she is extremely angry with her brother. She says that they’ve all changed. She also tells Marcos that he’s “acting like dad.” Without another word, she turns around and leaves Marcos’ room, slamming the door behind her.

Back at the lab, Rosie has Paula sitting down for her test results. Uh oh! Looks like someone has been poisoning Paula with nicotine! That’s the same substance that they found on Ashley’s body! Whoever killed Ashley is also trying to kill Paula! Rosie asks Paula who inherits her money if she dies and before Paula can answer, Rosie knows the identity of the killer.

Rosie and Villa visit Gretchen Benjamin at the nursery she works at. Turns out the nicotine from the murder scene came from a fertilizer Gretchen uses on the plants. Gretchen didn’t only want the money from Ashley’s trust, she was also incredibly jealous of how much her mother loved Ashley. They arrest Gretchen and haul her away.

Back at HQ, Villa tells Hornstock that she invited Marcos over for a family dinner. Hornstock is shocked that Villa is allowing him back into her life after finding all of the pictures and notes at his apartment.

Marcos shows up at Villa’s house, Daisie is beyond excited to see her son. She tells him that she knows he’s hiding something from them. She says, “You can talk to us. There’s no judgement here.” Marcos says, “Can’t go back to the Army. I messed up.” He admits that he was given a dishonorable discharge. Marcos says that he’s been in the Army for the past seven years. He says, “What am I supposed to do now?” He appears to be lost, but there’s something more. I think he’s hiding something else.

Over at Rosie’s house, someone knocks on the door. It’s Slade. He tells Rosie that he’s setting up a program with his father’s money to help boys that age out of the boy’s home he went to when he was younger.

Rosie tells Slade that he’s an important part of the family and that he would never let him risk his life, just to save him. Slade throws it down hard and says, “You’re mistaken if you think it’s your life I’m trying to save.” The writing and the music in this scene is incredible!

Rosie heads into the kitchen and comes back with a plate of food. He tells Slade, “If I’m going to take your kidney, you’re going to need to stay taking better care of it.”

My Thoughts:

YES! ROSIE IS GOING TO ACCEPT SLADE’S KIDNEY! That ending put a MASSIVE smile on my face! Woo hoo! #TeamSladie #TeamRoslade

This episode was fantastic! I absolutely loved it! The princess aspect was amazing! I had no idea the industry was so big!

Can we talk about Marcos? WHAT IN THE WORLD IS GOING ON WITH HIM? What is he doing? How is Villa okay with his wall of wonders a.k.a. creeping on his sister’s friends and family?

Excited wait to hear your thoughts on this episode!

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