At a gala honoring New York’s philanthropic elite, a young doctor – by the name of Tyler Forester – receives an award for all the good work he has done. The man who hands Tyler his award gives a veiled threat of continuing to ‘do the right thing’. Scene switches to a Harlem apartment with the trophy now bloodied and lying next to the deceased Tyler.
Doctor Forester came from money beyond belief, but gave it all up to run a free clinic and proceeded to donate almost all of his remaining income to charity. His relationships with family and friends were all strained, distant. The only wrinkle to this clean cut and quiet man is a prominent tattoo on his chest of a date he seemingly didn’t want to forget.
Lab results come back revealing a few sparse clues. The trophy was coated in a fuel mixture for a small boat and a small fragment of hair from an unknown female is found on the body. Detective Martinez and Henry conduct a series of interviews with Tyler’s former high school friends who are all connected to the date on Tyler’s chest. They all deny any knowledge of that day.
A woman in his former group of friends, Cassandra, has woven a tangled web of relationships with all her male friends. Despite denying any involvement with Tyler, Henry is able to link her with a necklace that is an exact match to the one found on Tyler the night he died.
A confession video of Tyler apologizing to a Mr. and Mrs. Meachum provides a solid link to the tattoo date. The Meachum’s son disappeared two days after Tyler’s date and the fate of Robert Meachum is still unknown.
Henry suspects murder and, utilizing surveillance footage in combo with data from the cold case, he and Detective Martinez are lead to the forest grave site of Robert Meachum. The area around the site was recently disturbed, which leads Henry to believe the group attempted to move the body, but failed.
Tyler and all of his former friends are linked to the scene from DNA swabs matched from those taken during their time in high school. It appears Tyler’s murder was a simple cover up to keep him from confessing. All three friends are brought into the station and it becomes a race to see who will confess first. They all admit to a drunken escapade which lead to Robert Meachum’s death, yet they all say someone else was behind the wheel. In addition, each one adamantly denies any connection to Tyler’s death.
Taking a second look at Tyler’s finances, Henry discovers the gas station where Robert Meachum worked is the very same place where Tyler donated a large chunk of his income. The station sells the very same fuel found on the trophy and the chunks of gravel matches that found in Tyler’s appointment. It turns out the station attendant at the time linked Tyler and his friends to Robert’s murder and blackmailed Tyler over the years. When Tyler finally had enough and was going to confess to Robert’s parents, the attendant became enraged and killed him.
Martinez and Henry confront this man and Henry ends up shot in the arm. Despite concerns over her recent self-defense shooting, Detective Martinez is able to protect herself and Henry without killing the man.
This case makes Henry recall an incident of his own time as a doctor… A time when he ended up shot over witnessing a murder and chose to protect his secret over attempting to save the man. This is the defining event which lead him to become a medical examiner, so as not to have to break his oath in order to protect himself.
While not as gripping a story as last week’s mega-murder-mystery, ‘Forever’ continues to improve, especially in the realm of character development. With any luck, this trend will continue and will delve deeper into the mysteries surrounding Henry’s condition quite soon.
