7.6/10965 votes#1 - Look Again
Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 9/28/2003
Lilly investigates a 1976 case involving a teenage girl who was beaten to death on a tennis court during a party at a plush estate.
Director: Mark Pellington
Writer: Meredith Stiehm
7.6/10752 votes#2 - Gleen
Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 10/5/2003
The fiancé of a fireman asks Lilly to help prove that a convicted felon, about to be paroled on an unrelated crime, is responsible for the murder of the fireman's first wife. The young mother was killed by a homemade bomb shortly before she was to testify in court against a man who exposed himself to her.
Director: Paris Barclay
Writer: Jan Oxenberg
7.5/10641 votes#3 - Our Boy Is Back
Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 10/12/2003
A serial rapist sends a letter to the squad announcing his return to Philadelphia after five years and his plan to strike again. Lilly's best hope of catching the rapist comes from a victim who is able to provide a composite sketch.
Director: Bryan Spicer
Writer: Stacy Kravetz
7.8/10677 votes#4 - Churchgoing People
Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 10/19/2003
Lilly re-investigates the case of a murdered church organist, when his Alzheimer's-stricken widow begins having flashbacks of the night in question.
Director: Mark Pellington
Writer: Meredith Stiehm
7.4/10610 votes#5 - The Runner
Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 10/26/2003
After a drug addict brings in an audio tape she found on which a fatal shooting is heard, Lilly reopens a 1973 murder case involving the death of a twenty-one-year-old rookie cop. The young officer was shot three times in the chest while responding to a call at a drug-infested housing project.
Director: David Straiton
Writer: Veena Sud
7.6/10654 votes#6 - Love Conquers Al
Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 11/9/2003
A petty crook, Ricky (Tim deZarn), hoping to get a reduced sentence, relates witnessing a young man washing blood out of his car the night a teen track runner was murdered. The young athlete, Paige Pratt (Summer Glau), was found shot, and her boyfriend Al Clarkson (Doug Kruse) was originally imprisoned for the crime.
Director: Greg Yaitanes
Writer: Kim Newton
8.4/10787 votes#7 - A Time to Hate
Season 1 Episode 7 - Aired 11/16/2003
Lilly investigates the case of Daniel Holtz, a college baseball player who was found beaten to death in an alley behind a gay bar in 1964. Daniel's mother comes to Lilly in the hopes that his killer can be brought to justice before she dies. Lilly discovers the maltreatment gay victims received in the 60's, when her investigation discloses that it may have been a policeman's nightstick that made the lethal blows.
Director: Deran Sarafian
Writer: Jan Oxenberg
8.2/10712 votes#8 - Fly Away
Season 1 Episode 8 - Aired 11/30/2003
When a young woman, Rosie (Laura Regan), wakes up from a coma, Lilly re-opens the fall in which her 6-year-old daughter Toya (Aynsley Lemon) died. Things get complicated when the mother remembers very little of that night, and Lilly feels especially motivated to find the killer, as Rosie was poor and living on welfare, reminding Lilly of her own past, and giving her an emotional bond to Rosie.
Director: James Whitmore Jr.
Writer: Veena Sud
7.5/10586 votes#9 - Sherry Darlin'
Season 1 Episode 9 - Aired 12/7/2003
Lilly gets an anonymous phone call from a man claiming he killed an elderly woman back in 1989 and buried her body in the basement of a house. When Lilly checks the dwelling, a body is recovered, but the alleged murderer refuses to identify himself.
Director: Rachel Talalay
Writer: Sean Whitesell
7.2/10529 votes#10 - The Hitchhiker
Season 1 Episode 10 - Aired 12/21/2003
Rush and Valens investigate the case of a cold-blooded killer who shot a young man trying to hitchhike his way home to Philly from Atlanta.
Director: Marita Grabiak
Writer: Sean Whitesell
7.7/10553 votes#11 - Hubris
Season 1 Episode 11 - Aired 1/11/2004
A college professor (Jeffrey Nordling), who lost everything − his career, his family, his reputation − after being suspected of murdering one of his female students (Kaitlin Doubleday) in 1995, offers new information regarding the case that he hopes will clear his name. He believes the student's death is connected to a copycat murder of a prostitute. Rush investigates the woman who was killed and the men in her life in order to discover which one of them killed her.
Director: Agnieszka Holland
Writer: Kim Newton, Stacy Kravetz
7.6/10534 votes#12 - Glued
Season 1 Episode 12 - Aired 1/18/2004
Det. Stillman asks Lilly to re-open a case he couldn't solve, wherein an 8-year-old boy, Tim Barnes, was murdered in 1980. The prime suspects included a catholic priest, three glue-sniffing teenagers, one elusive suspect, and the boy's own parents.
Director: Peter Markle
Writer: Tyler Bensinger
8.3/10626 votes#13 - The Letter
Season 1 Episode 13 - Aired 1/25/2004
Rush and Valens re-open the case of a 25-year-old black woman, who was murdered in 1939, after the woman's granddaughter comes forward with new information. The woman was assumed to be a prostitute murdered by a client, but letters written by the victim indicate that she was afraid of a milkman.
Director: Tim Hunter
Writer: Veena Sud
8.2/10667 votes#14 - Boy in the Box
Season 1 Episode 14 - Aired 2/15/2004
The 1958 death of an unknown 6-year-old boy found in a field inside a cardboard box is reinvestigated after a small suitcase with the child's picture and his old cowboy hat is left in front of a church. The new probe reveals that the rowdy boy lived at a Catholic-run orphanage and was adopted two days before his suspicious demise.
Director: Karen Gaviola
Writer: Meredith Stiehm
7.6/10553 votes#15 - Disco Inferno
Season 1 Episode 15 - Aired 2/22/2004
Construction workers discover a skull with bullet hole under the ruins of a disco club burned down in 1978. 22 people died in the fire. Rush and Valens come to the conclusion that the burning of the club was arson, meant to cover up a murder leaving them with not one, but 23 cold cases.
Director: James Whitmore Jr.
Writer: Tyler Bensinger
7.7/10579 votes#16 - Volunteers
Season 1 Episode 16 - Aired 3/7/2004
When the remains of a young black man and a white woman are found under the foundation of a building, Rush and Valens discover that not only did the two go missing in 1969, but that they may have been killed professionally for their work in an underground abortion clinic.
Director: Allison Anders
Writer: Jan Oxenberg
7.4/10489 votes#17 - The Lost Soul of Herman Lester
Season 1 Episode 17 - Aired 3/14/2004
When the son of a murdered high-school basketball star receives a death threat, Rush and Valens reopen the 1987 case of Herman Lester who was stabbed to death only hours after leading his team to win the state championship.
Director: Tim Matheson
Writer: Sean Whitesell
7.5/10469 votes#18 - Resolutions
Season 1 Episode 18 - Aired 3/28/2004
Lilly investigates an unsolved hit-and-run accident from New Year's Eve 1999 that left a man dead, after a recovering alcoholic comes forward and claims she is the one who hit him. But the evidence points to the guy being murdered, not accidentally run down.
Director: Alex Zakrzewski
Writer: Kim Newton
7.3/10477 votes#19 - Late Returns
Season 1 Episode 19 - Aired 4/4/2004
The shooting death of a man in his driveway is connected to the unsolved 1992 murder of a Democratic campaign worker whose lifeless body was thrown into a nearby river on election night. The investigation centers on the relationship the dead woman had with a present-day congressman. Apparently, the victim in the current homicide probed into the earlier slaying and discovered damning new evidence. Elsewhere, Lilly spies Kite flirting with a new ADA and gets jealous.
Director: David Straiton
Writer: Dan Dworkin, Jay Beattie
7.4/10479 votes#20 - Greed
Season 1 Episode 20 - Aired 4/18/2004
The team reopens the 1985 case of a wealthy stock broker. At the time it was deemed that Charles Danville was killed when someone attempted to steal his car, but new evidence suggests that he may, in fact, have been murdered.
Director: Karen Gaviola
Writer: Stacy Kravetz
7.7/10508 votes#21 - Maternal Instincts
Season 1 Episode 21 - Aired 4/25/2004
The 1989 case of a woman murdered in front of her 3-year-old son is re-opened. A psychologist asks Det. Rush to look into the case again when the son, now a 17-year-old teen, suffers from intense nightmares and troubled behavior.
Director: Kevin Hooks
Writer: Laurie Arent
8.0/10541 votes#22 - The Plan
Season 1 Episode 22 - Aired 5/2/2004
The 1999 drowning death of a military academy's swim coach, which was originally ruled as accidental, is reinvestigated after the homicide division receives a note that suggests it was murder. Back at the office, Valens searches for Elisa after she goes missing.
Director: Agnieszka Holland
Writer: Veena Sud
7.8/10537 votes#23 - Lover's Lane
Season 1 Episode 23 - Aired 5/23/2004
When DNA evidence reveals that a wrong man was convicted for killing 15-year-old Eve Kendall back in 1986, the team re-opens her case in an attempt to find the real killer.
Director: Nelson McCormick
Writer: Meredith Stiehm
The Best Episodes of Cold Case Season 1
Every episode of Cold Case Season 1 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of Cold Case Season 1!
The Philadelphia homicide squad's lone female detective finds her calling when she is assigned cases that have never been solved. Detective Lilly Rush combines her...
Genres:CrimeDramaMystery
Network:CBS
Season 1 Ratings Summary
"Look Again" is the best rated episode of "Cold Case" season 1. It scored 7.6/10 based on 965 votes. Directed by Mark Pellington and written by Meredith Stiehm, it aired on 9/28/2003. This episode is rated 0.0 points higher than the second-best, "Gleen".