Flashpoint in a Flash: Season 3 Episode 4: Custody

Today’s episode features one wicked, twisted, custody battle, and is infamous among Flashpoint fans because for nearly 2 weeks no one knew what the powerful song that played at the end of it was! Hit the jump for a full episode summary!



A man (Donald Mitchell) and a woman (Helen Mitchell) fight outside a courtroom over a custody judgement, and a lawyer tries to calm them. The man says he wishes that they both would have done better. She leaves, as her lawyer says to him to go sign some papers. At SRU HQ, Jules walks into the women’s locker room, and notices Leah’s scar. Leah shares her story , of how she tried to save a kid from a burning apartment building in High Park, but the stairs collapsed and only she survived. That night, she had a couple shots, jumped on her Harley, and got into an accident, where she survived but the Harley didn’t. Jules suggests that Leah go see a plastic surgeon to take care of her scar, but she keeps it as a reminder not to be an idiot. Jules quips she has her brothers for that! The alarm sounds. Inside an office building, Donald is holding his ex-wife’s lawyer at gunpoint. The SRU arrives on the scene and gets organized. They talk to people on the outside to find out what is going on, and start evacuating the building.
Donald continues to be harsh with his hostage. Wordy finds the lawyer’s office and puts a gadget up to the door to listen in on the conversation between Donald and the lawyer. Donald doesn’t want his ex-wife to take the kids to Ireland. The SRU wonders if the lawyer’s paralegal is inside too. It appears Donald has lost custody of the kids at first, but then we learn that his wife has kidnapped the kids. This just got more confusing. Roll opening!

Spike adds to the log as Ed is very confused as to why the husband is going after his ex-wife’s lawyer when he has won custody. Donald forces the lawyer to call his ex-wife, but she will not pick up. Greg dials Donald’s phone number and he tells him how his kids have disappeared from school. The SRU’s help isn’t good enough, and Donald wants to take matters into his own hands. Greg directs the team to try different avenues to find the kids, sending out amber alerts, and APBs to authorities and the airport. Jules heads to the school for more information. Greg tries to ask Ed what he would do if him and Sophie split up and she wanted Clark. Ed repeatedly says it wouldn’t happen. Jules arrives at the school to get more answers, and the episode cuts to a scene where they are fighting over custody outside their house. Helen lies and says the kids are asleep, as her new boyfriend (Jason) drops them off in front of them. Jules learns more about how Helen was lonely and longing for Donald. Helen shows up at the school, but surprise, surprise, she doesn’t have the kids! Commercial!

Jules makes sure that the kids are not at Helen’s house. Sam manages to drill a small hole in the wall and put in a wire camera through so he can see what is going on inside the lawyer’s office. They still don’t know if there is a paralegal inside. At the school, Helen gets into an argument with the principal, and we learn that someone else called the school and not Helen, saying a friend would pick up the kids. The SRU finds the paralegal hiding in a closet. They decide to go in the room hard. Leah still struggles with the balance of power in the SRU. Jules watches the school’s security tapes, and finds out that Jason has picked up the kids. Helen tells Jules that they broke up days ago, and that he didn’t take it well. Something is suspicious about this as Helen sort of refuses police escorts. Spike looks up some information on this Jason character, and finds that he has been charged with crimes before. Spike sends out an APB looking for the kids. Donald continues to argue with the lawyer thinking he conspired with her to kidnap the kids. The paralegal comes out of the closet to try to escape and a fight brews out. The SRU blasts through just in times and takes everyone into their custody. Ed tries to learn more from Donald about the situation . During the pretrial of the divorce, he remembers the lawyer saying they would do whatever it takes to keep the kids. Donald is fully convinced that the lawyer is at fault for this. Ed tells him that Jason has the kids now, and Donald freaks out. Jules is on her way back to find out where Jason is, and makes notes they found Spotty Leopard Jungle Nectar juice boxes (cheezy name, eh?). Greg asks the others about their kids. Jules and Sam track down Jason at a hotel, chase him onto the roof, and find out that he doesn’t know where the kids are either! Commercials! Closed captioning of this episode is brought to you by Hugh Dillon’s new album , Works Well With others.

Jules confronts Jason on the roof that they have evidence he has the kids, but he continues to stonewall. And now Helen is missing, so the SRU tries to track down her sister Colleen. Ed asks the paralegal if there is something that she needs to know. Jason cracks, and says Helen lied about their breakup, and that this is some distraction to buy her some time. Ed also finds that the paralegal is lying. Jules continues to ask Jason where the kids, and he finally confesses that they were dropped off at Colleen’s place. The paralegal says that she helped her forge a legal document allowing her to take the kids. She argues that Helen deserved the kids, but Greg maintains that he didn’t say if she deserved them one day or another. Leah arrives at Colleen’s apartment, and learns that Helen just picked up the kids from Colleen’s kids. Leah chases the red SUV as the other SRU moves in to join her. Greg wants to take the father despite Ed’s disdain. Ed, tired of being asked what his own son wants, snaps back and asks if this is what Greg’s son would want. Some police officers take Jason into custody on the roof of the hotel, and he says that if they find Helen they shouldn’t hurt her. Jules asks why, and he says there is a gun in the car. She responds simply with “awesome”. Commercials!

Helen is on the run in her SUV and playing the “beetle game” with her kids (she names a feature of a beetle and the kids name the species). One spills some juice , and she picks up a tissue from the glove comparment. We see the gun. All this time her cell phone is ringing with calls from the SRU but she refuses to pick up. Greg and Ed argue over how best to stop the SUV with the kids inside. Helen tells her kids they are going to Ireland. Using an onboard emergency communication system , Greg finally gets in touch with her and tries to get her to pull over. Helen just drives faster and asks to be left alone. This does not work, so the SRU stages a roadblock. They pass the same construction site used in One Wrong Move. Finally, they manage to stop Helen and she gets out of the car with the kids... and her gun. Greg talks to the kids to try to calm them down. Greg takes out his gun and puts it down and tries to negotiate with her. Greg tells them that once they got on that plane, they would never come back. The kids instantly wonder about their dad. Helen , terrified, speaks of the lies that Donald said in court about her being malicious and unfit. Greg asks her, if it was just his lawyer doing his job, just as it was the case with her own lawyer. Greg talks her down some more, and tells Ed to bring out Donald. The kids run to him. Helen raises her gun and Greg asks her to put the gun down. Donald says to Helen that he thought he was going to lose the kids, Helen cries “What have we done” and puts the gun down. The end of episode montage begins as both parents hug their kids and the SRU muses about the happenings of the day. Both parents are cuffed and taken away by the police. Helen’s sister Colleen will have custody of the kids, for now. Greg hopes that those kids get a second chance, but Ed sees that he is really thinking about his kids. Ed encourages Greg to give his son a second chance. The episode ends as the kids are put into a third police car and escorted to their aunt’s apartment. Greg looks at a photo of his son and thinks. The episode ends.

This episode was pretty good, but I’m catching that the show is using a lot of the same locations they used before. Surely there aren’t other hotels that could have been used? The Comfort Hotel on Charles would have provided a much scuzzier setting for Jason! Somehow the Fairmont Royal York seemed a little awkward for someone like him to be hiding out in.