“Everyone Knows It’s Windy” picks up where Life On Mars 1.15, “All The Young Dudes,” leaves off.  Detectives Carling and Skelton are being rushed into the emergency room after having been shot by the vile gangster Jimmy McManus, while Boss Detective Hunt and protagonist Sam mount a manhunt for McManus. Scarcely a commercial or two in, McManus is gunned down by an unknown cop.

Sam’s former undercover stint in McManus’ gang makes Sam a leading suspect in the McManus’ murder. The possibility of a hit by 125 precinct detectives attracts the attention of the Feds, who dispatch Special Agent Frank Morgan from Washington to investigate the McManus murder.

A search of Sam’s apartment by the FBI turns up incriminating evidence, causing Sam to question his grasp on his reality.  Sam ends up arrested in the 125′s clink, but Gene and the other detectives spring him so he can pursue McManus’ true killer–and the source of his torment.  Special Agent Morgan appears to know about Sam’s dislocation in time, and in a climactic rooftop standoff, attempts to trick Sam into leaping to his death in order to “return home.” 

Morgan knows most of the details of Sam’s situation from having read Sam’s psychological profile and ransacking Sam’s apartment, but manages to work in commentary about a distinctly 2008 detail, the lamentable fourth Indiana Jones movie. Morgan, as it turns out, killed McManus and is not an FBI agent but is connected to the toy company that makes the Red Rover mars robot that has appeared in previous Life On Mars episodes..  Morgan killed McManus because McManus had robbed the toy company. 

Which leads us to mythology: Morgan has something to do with Sam’s dislocation in time, (the Indiana Jones shout out is the giveaway) but in the eyes of the 125 detectives, he was a petty crooked thief.  But all mythology questions will be wrapped up next week in the series finale.

Meanwhile, the relationship between Sam and Annie heats up but stays chaste. Annie has come to realize that Sam is not crazy, and she even admires him for his courage in the face of torment.

It was an engaging, well-paced episode that hit a good blance of gripping narrative and believable but dramatic character development, earning it another solid 4.75 Harvey Keitel Fists of Fury. I’m going to be sorry to see this show expire.