During Season One Ted backed over Crews' first car with a tractor.  He gave away his second car to avoid pursuit by Conspiracy goons.  And his third (albeit "slightly" used) car was totalled by said goons (soon to be dead goons).  With that history, and everything else going on in his life, he can be forgiven for not rushing out to get Death Trap No. 4.  That changes in Episode Thirteen.

Last week, our intrepid homicide detectives dealt with a miserable, resentful man who killed the futures of those he perceived as being happier than him.  This time around, the pendulum swung as the scions of wealthy families prove just as selfish and destructive.

"Everything . . . All the Time" refers to the personal philosophy of Patrick, a member of the idle rich who feels like anything is his, should he choose to reach out and take it.  A genius-level playboy with a Svengali-like effect on those around him, Patrick seems to view himself as the king of his little society (Crews identifies him as the "alpha dog"), taking what he wants (including the body of his psychiatrist) but occasionally generous to his circle.  But one of those little fits of "generosity" - leaving one of his hangers-on alone in a room with a passed-out teenage girl - sets two murders in motion.  

Of course, Crews is never TOO busy with a homicide (even if it involves him deliberately provoking a steroid-crazed mammoth into attacking him) to pursue his side quest for justice, and lately that involves the treatment of the uncommunicative Rachel Seybolt.  Rather than taking her to her adoptive father, Crews aims at the nine-year-old girl inside by bringing back another figure from her past, his ex-wife Jennifer.  Jennifer is unable to generate much of a response by reminiscing about the days before the Seybolts were butchered, but nostalgia and remembrance does raise another ghost from the dead - namely their dead marriage.  Kisses lead to an impromptu makeout session in the backseat of her car.  Or rather, her husband's car, which apparently is the only thing stopping Jennifer from taking her first love right there.  Meanwhile Crews' search for a car of his own attains a sudden urgency.

The only other serious long-term development involves Ted, who is waylaid by Jack Reese and threatened with parole revocation if he doesn't become a double agent.  Ted seems troubled afterwards and quietly contemplates a possible four more years in prison, but maybe five of the series' several million viewers is surprised later when Crews pulls Jack over for a chat of his own.  Jack may think it's just a warning to stay away from Ted, but in reality Crews has slapped a listening device on Jack's car, and moments later we overhear the opening of a phone call between Jack and, for the first time, a second member of the Conspiracy.

Does anyone else think that maybe Jack isn't the brains of the operation?

It's nice to see the Main Story Arc moving along, but the episode itself was uneven.  The camera work and editing seemed jumpy and disjointed; there seemed to be eight or nine different scene changes in the opening few minutes.  And the new developments between Crews and Jennifer haven't sold me yet.  I'm not judging the pairing, their chemistry, or the overall likeability.  (Nor am I joining the Crews/Constance or Crews/Reese fan clubs.)  But this sudden leap forward seems unusually rushed, considering frosty relations between the married Jennifer and the hostile Crews only thawed in Episode Eleven.  When did Crews lose interest in Constance?  Why is Jennifer suddenly so receptive?  Until this makes a little more sense, I'm going to be a little thrown off by any further scenes they share.

And yet, when I say "uneven", that means there were strong points.  It's easy to demonize people like Patrick and his crew, since it's easy to be repelled by the Paris Hiltons and Nicole Richies and . . . . whassisname, the guy who coined the term "firecrotch".  They seem to think that their parents' wealth entitle them to anything they ever want, and their only ambition seems to involve indulging themselves.  But the use of Patrick's psychiatric files (while of questionable illegality) exposes the fact that our budding sociopath is still just a young man troubled by the desire to be more like his cronies, and feelings of fraudulence.  And he may think himself a criminal mastermind, throwing off Reese by showing up at her gym and undercutting attempts to get his confession, but he's no match for trained detectives.  His girlfriend seems to want nothing more than to escape his hypnotic stare, his attack dog pal is completely controlled by his steroid addiction, and his comic relief refused to exploit an unconscious young woman and called her father instead.  Looking glamorous in public, the foursome ends up looking sad and helpless.

Some other things I noticed:

- As someone who can still hum the theme to "Barney Miller", it was a pleasure to see Max Gail, aka "Wojo", as Patrick's father.

- I like Donal Logue, but he doesn't have the gravitas of a Robin Weigert.  He seems to be playing police captain.

- More than once, it occurred to me that this was a case for Veronica Mars.

- Episode Twelve earned a 2.8 rating among adults aged 18-49 on Monday.  While this couldn't compete with the inexplicable popularity of David Caruso and his magic sunglasses on CBS, the good news is that it topped Boston Legal at that same time, as well as the more heavily-promoted "Chuck" in an earlier time slot.  Or think of it this way - it performed better in that demographic than FOX's entire Monday night lineup.

The bad news is that at 6.9 million total viewers, it was down 30 percent from last year's premiere.  ("Boston Legal" had over nine million viewers, which suggests that it's the new "Murder, She Wrote".)  According to Entertainment Weekly, it's also down seven percent from the Season One average.  That being said, it's been noted that many shows so far have seen ratings down from last season.  This has been attributed to the writer's strike, the continuing emergence of basic cable as a prime-time alternative, the Internet, and Wall Street.  (Sure, let's blame 'em for this too.)  Heck, "Grey's Anatomy" saw a TEN percent drop compared to last year. 

What does this mean?  I'm not going to say "more ratings", because that's basically the obvious answer.  But the evidence does suggest that "Life" is far from the only show suffering at NBC.  "Heroes", "My Name is Earl", and "Law & Order: SVU" all saw their season premieres get hammered compared to last year.  And I've said before that Friday is not a night for high ratings expectations.  So "Life" may have a lower bar to meet.  That shouldn't prevent it from becoming a success down the road, though.  Especially once it hits its stride.  It could also conceivably benefit from the arrival of "Crusoe", which will take the 9 P.M. Friday slot away from "Deal or No Deal" on October 17th.

But more people need to watch, and more episodes need to be great, rather than good.