It was a repeat but a key one. On "Without a Trace," FBI agent Jack Malone's father dies. But that doesn't happen before Malone tries to make an end run at a relationship with a man who wasn't there for his wife and Malone's mother. She committed suicide. The father was not around for Malone either, not before that tragedy and not after.
It's typical of Malone, who looks for love in all the wrong places and then can't even handle that, to attempt to "save" his father. The man is suffering from declining kidney function and impaired cognition. Malone wants to force him into treatment, even offering to take a leave of absence from the job he can't manage emotionally without.
On this episode the central plot line was of a daughter who loses her memory from trauma. Unlike Malone, she has a family who rushes to her aid.
Had "Without a Trace" not be canceled, we might still have hopes that Malone could somehow fix himself or, like in "Seabiscuit," have a group come together and fix each other.
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