'Life on Mars': Somewhere over the rainbow

Sam meets a fellow refugee from the future on Life on Mars -- and the guy says he's found a way home. Considering all the Wizard of Oz references, I'm thinking it has something to do with flying monkeys.

A raid on a no-tell motel brings in a raft of hookers and johns -- including crusading Councilman Prince,  who pisses people off by fighting for zoning laws and minimum wage and other weirdness. He's enlightened, he says, because he was transported to 1973 after someone bonked him on the head in 2009. He knows things -- like that the Red Sox have won the world series a few times, the Berlin Wall fell, and that Obama was elected. "It's hopeful," he says. "Not like here." Prince says he's found a way home. Too bad someone shoots him, right in the precinct. Gene puts the place on lockdown. No one gets out until they find the killer. One complication: Maria's there, too. Awkward!

Things get freaky for Sam when the phone rings and he hears Judy Garland singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" as the folks in the background superspeed around him. Sam figures out Misty -- purportedly a prostitute who had only met Prince a few minutes before the raid -- was actually Elena Kastin -- the woman who Prince signed his condo over to that morning. When he and Gene interrogate her, she references Somewhere Over the Rainbow, then tells Sam it's not his time yet. But Gene doesn't hear her say anything like that, nor does he notice Obama on the flickering TV behind Sam.

While the station is on lockdown, it falls to the only two cops outside the building -- Ray and Annie -- to investigate. Ray is not pleased that Annie wants to actually do her job: "You're a police woman. Emphasis on the woman." But Annie won't be deterred. She interviews Prince's secretary, and volunteers to stand in for the woman to pick up a package that Prince was expecting. But she's going to have to change into civvies, and she doesn't have time to get home and back. Ray tells her she can borrow some of his wife's clothing.

So we meet Ray's wife, and she's 1) a knockout, 2) an underappreciated housewife, and 3) one snide comment away from a consciousness-raising group, if there's any justice in this world. Ray belittles and mocks her, Annie tells her to cut her hair, and Ray hustles Annie out. Denise -- you're too good for Ray! You're young! You have skills! You can make it as a dressmaker! Get out now!

Annie manages to pick up the package(despite Ray's interference) and discovers a file with a cop's picture inside. The councilman was investigating corrupt cops -- that's what got him killed. The cop in the file, Russell, is actually at the precinct, posing as a tourist from Wisconsin (and if living in Chicago has taught me anything, it's to beware Wisconsin. Sure, they seem great, with their cheese curds and their beer brats, but watch out!) Gene and Sam flush him out but engineering a fight in the squad room -- Sizeable Ted hits on a pissed-off bride right in front  of her cheating husband -- and prompting him to reveal his police restraining technique. But Russell has a knife, and he takes Maria hostage. Fortunately, Ray and Annie are approaching from behind. Ray rushes Russell, and Russell is about to stab him when Annie conks the perp on the head and knocks him out. Score one for No Nuts! Everyone is impressed except Ray, who later snarls that "It don't matter what you do, it don't matter what happens. You'll always be No-Nuts Norris. The one that don't belong. The novelty. The party favor." Annie is taken aback, but she responds: "You do have to ask yourself, Ray, just what is it about me that scares you so damn much?"

When Misty/Elena leaves, she stops by Sam's desk and talks cryptically about going home. "I don't know if you really just said that or I imagined it," Sam tells her. "I said it -- and you imagined it," she replies. Oh, thanks -- that clears things up!

In the end, Sam is left with a postcard from the package Prince was waiting for, and multiple Wizard of Oz shout-outs. In addition to the music, Annie tells him to click his heels three times to get home, Maria quotes "If you want to find your hearts desire, look no further than your own backyard," and Gene pretends to call the Wizard of Oz when Sam requests that he get sent back home. So does that mean he was sent to the past by a Wicked Witch? Is he looking for a heart, a brain or the nerve? Who knows?

Highlights, thoughts and odds and ends:

• Thank you, show, for Ballroom Blitz. Yes, I know that it's not exactly a lesser known song of the 70s, but it's still awesome.
• Gene and Maria just don't do well together. Gene remembers the good times -- buying her a new lunchbox, playing hooky to take her to the zoo -- while Maria remembers the awful times -- getting her middle initial wrong, saying he loved her for the very first time only after she pleaded and begged and cried herself out when she was 19. Not true! Gene says. I told you that when you were in first grade. Maria is shocked -- but she's still not quite ready to open up to him.
• Councilman Prince has a chalkboard covered with the same theories as Sam's. Was I imagining things, or was there a star next to "Time Travel"?
• Jason O'Mara nailed the heartbreak this week -- crying silently when Elena talked about bluebirds in the interrogation room, shutting his eyes and preparing for transport when Gene called to transfer him out. Oh, Sam!
• Maria tells Sam that Annie is his heart's desire. Sam doesn't get it. "God made you cute, but he also made you a little dense," Maria says. Hee!