Serial Killer Recap: Rake (FOX)

“Rake,” starring Greg Kinnear as a rakish attorney named Keegan Deane, debuted on FOX on Thursday, January 23. The show was adapted from an Australian series with same name by the original’s creator, Peter Duncan. We can’t say how much is going to be devoted to Kee’s cases (Kee is Keegan’s nickname). The first episode, entitled Serial Killer, featured Peter Stormare as Jack, a guy who confessed to a bunch of murders he didn’t commit so that he could be somebody.

But it was more about getting to know Kee and the folks in his world, while trying to stay one step ahead of a serious beatdown for not paying his $59,000 gambling debt to Victor . In fact, the episode opens up with Kee having a friendly chat with Roy in a bar. Roy is Victor’s muscle and he roughs Kee up in the men’s room, then asks him where his dignity is. Kee insists that a client will be paying him $15,000 in the morning and he will pay all of that right away. Despite the blood on his shirt, the pretty lady who had been trying to catch his eye is still interested and he goes off with her, but gets side-tracked by a poker game. He wins big only to get stiffed by Jerry, the poker game loser. Jerry is also an attorney and gives Kee the serial killer client instead of cash. Kee calls Jerry the biggest deadbeat in the world and asks him where his dignity is.

The next day, Kee is sleeping on the kitchen floor at his best friend Ben’s house. Ben’s kids are all at the table and Ben says he can’t do this. He can’t have the kids seeing him like this. Drunk and hungover, the kids chime in. Pretty lady from the bar stumbles into the room and Ben has to get her out of the house before his wife, Scarlet, finds out. Too late on that.

Kee gets a call from Maddy about his promise to help get a driver’s license. Outside, he discovers his car has been towed from a no-parking zone. Scarlet lets him drive their SUV on condition that he drop the kids off at school and drives safely. A busted tail-light gets them stopped and Kee’s expired license gets the car impounded and the kids taken into custody, unless their mom can pick them up. All he can get is Scarlet’s voicemail.

At his office, Kee’s secretary, Leanne, informs him that he has been paid that $15,000 in a fishy way. Literally. But the good news is the fish is a big tuna worth more than $15,000.00 — it could fetch as much as $25,000! With no car to make the delivery to the fish buyers, he prevails upon his secretary to do it, promising her some of her back pay out of the transaction.

Kee meets up with Jack, the confessed serial killer, the client he won in the poker game and says he will answer 3 questions for the press on the way into court. Both he and Jack are stunned when the press ignores them. In court, the proceedings are held up because Scarlet is the prosecutor and had to go pick up her kids. (Kee and Scarlet have to be relatives, right? Look at the way they bicker.) Jack insists on changing his plea to not guilty. Kee can’t get the judge to let him off the case and he will be stuck working for free for months. He tries to impress upon Jack that pleading not guilty could get him the death penalty. But the “serial killer” informs Kee the confessions were all fake. He was given the confessions by an officer who is now Chief of Police, and told to copy them or he would get the death penalty. For some reason, Kee believes him and also sees a huge opportunity to sue for big money.

But wait — we have not met all the characters in Kee’s life by a long shot. Maddy turns out to be a psychiatrist and Kee’s ex-wife who still dreams about her charming ex. They have a son named Finn, who needs Kee to lie to Maddy about his whereabouts on a certain night but won’t tell Kee why (future drama). There’s also Mikki, a $500 an hour passive-aggressive prostitute, who is perfectly willing to drop the passive part in her relationship with Kee, but sticks strictly to the clock on that one hour.

“On The Record’s” Greta Van Susteren also made an appearance to interview Kee about his bombshell discovery after he impeaches the Chief of Police’s testimony on the stand. The mayor is plenty pissed that this went down on his watch and warns the Chief of Police that if it’s true, he’ll be taking that dive alone. He also tells Kee that he has no idea how hard Kee has made his life and he can expect reciprocity.

When Jack talks to Greta Van Susteren, he makes it sound like he was in on it with the Chief of Police and it turns out he was. Kee’s research reveals which confessions were written by Chief Michaels but there’s one that he knows Jack wrote himself. Jack’s letter to actor Mark Harmon (who once played serial killer Ted Bundy in the TV movie “The Deliberate Stranger”) gives it away.

And the tuna? Well after the mayor had Kee’s car crunched up into a little metal square, part of it ended up in the car of one of the impound officers who thought that was funny. The rest went on the grill at Ben’s house. Roy showed up to collect some money or put another hurting on Kee, but the sight of fresh tuna steak was too much for Roy and he joined them for dinner.

Who was in the cast of “Serial Killer”?

Greg Kinnear – Keegan “Kee” Deane
Chasty Ballesteros – Pretty Girl in Bar
Omar J. Dorsey – Roy
Bojana Novakovic – Mikki
John Ortiz – Ben
Miranda Otto – Maddie Deane
Ian Colletti – Finn Deane
Maura Soden – Judge
Tara Summers – Leanne Zander
Necar Zadegan – Scarlet
Greta Van Susteren – Herself