Close to Home Recap: Land of Opportunity
This episode took a different tack, with the initial case being solved right off the bat. And when I say right off the bat, I mean right off the bat - it was solved, and the suspect arrested, tried and in jail within the first minute or so. But as it turns out, that was just to get things going.
The first suspect was just a mad client of a crooked appraisal firm, who had been over-inflating their appraisals, and when he went to resell his house, another firm revalued it for a whopping $83,000 less than the first firm. Naturally he did what anyone would do and drove his truck through the window of their office.
While this led to a quickly solved case, it also led Annabeth and the rest of the team to think something else might be amiss, and they started to investigate not only the firm, but the rest of those involved in the house - leading right back to the developer, who incidentally owned most of the other companies along the way, making money at every stop.
As it turned out, the brothers who owned the appraisal firm had been inflating his houses for a couple of years, and as each one sells, the "comps" for the neighborhood just keep inflating one another, making it easier to keep on keeping on. Until it starts to fall apart. Add that to the fact that one brother covets the other brother's wife, and you've got an interesting storyline.
Though it was a bit too cut and dry for my tastes. Perhaps I'm just getting used to the series. I'm not sure. Since the first season is almost over, I'm sure we'll be catching some reruns, so it will be interesting to see if the first few episodes, which I missed, have more of a "spark", or if it's just that I'm becoming jaded.
