Post by mlm828 on Oct 22, 2005 0:07:34 GMT -5
I am not one of those who wanted to see a Jim-Karen romance, but I still think the evolution of their relationship was one of the more interesting aspects of the series, and it gave us a lot of nice moments along the way. Here are some of them. Feel free to add others!
In the Pilot, Karen is not happy when she has to ride with Jim.
But they soon have a common cause when Fisk insists on assigning them to inconsequential cases and pulls them off the investigation of the Lynn Bodner homicide when he learns it is related to the “tongue collector” serial killings. In spite of herself, Karen is drawn in when Jim “bounces ideas” off of her. By the end of the episode, she believes Jim saved her life in Lyman’s kitchen, and she has seen what he can do in an interrogation. She has even defended him, for the first time. But she’s only willing to commit to a “day to day” partnership. Still, it's a lovely moment at the end of the Pilot, when Jim asks what she looks like, but Karen balks at telling him the color of her eyes, only to relent and tell him, "They're brown."
In “Four Feet Under,” Karen bristles at Marty’s “bottom bitch” comment, but calls Jim on his “bull in a china shop” approach. In a revealing turn of phrase, she tells him he needs to back off if he and the people who support him (is she including herself?) are going to survive. But she’s still not sure about Jim and whether he’s serious about staying on the job, and she tells him if he’s just trying to prove a point, he should tell her, because she doesn’t want to end up as “collateral damage.”
In “Rub a Tub Tub,” Karen and Jim’s partnership reaches a pivotal moment, when Jim tells Karen about his theory that Eric was in the Desmonds’ apartment, because he smelled Eric’s cologne there. By now Karen has an idea of Jim’s skills as an investigator, but this is asking a lot. She goes along with him only after he tells her it comes down to whether she trusts him, and if she doesn’t, there is no point in their going forward.
“Up on the Roof” is the episode where, I think, Karen accepts Jim as a partner, and as a person. If she had any reservations before, the events of these two days tell her what kind of cop, and what kind of man, Jim is, and she realizes, as she later tells him, that he is the kind of person she wants to work with. There is the amazing scene between them when they go back to the roof and, in spite of her skepticism, find Terry’s handkerchief with the powder burns.
And who can forget her thoughtfulness when she gives him the report with the Post-it
or her invitation to have a few beers, and maybe bowl a few frames?
“Marlon’s Brando” has an abundance of nice Jim-and-Karen moments. Karen is comfortable enough with Jim that she can suggest he, as a blind man, might be more effective interviewing Nancy Dressler.
She even seems to forget that Jim is blind and starts to draw him a picture of Nancy’s wound, until he drolly asks her, “You’re not going to draw me a picture, are you?” And one of my all-time favorite moments takes place when they come back to the squad after Condell’s suicide, and Jim talks quietly to a distraught Karen. He later tells Galloway he feels he “wasn’t there” for Karen, but he was in that scene. This is also the scene where Karen tells Jim he should be glad he couldn’t see some of the sights in this case. Even though she immediately adds “no offense intended," it’s still a measure of her increasing comfort level with Jim. (I don’t think she meant the statement literally. It was a comment on the horrific nature of the case, and Karen didn’t know that the pictures Jim “saw” in his mind were as disturbing as those she saw with her eyes).
“Seoul Man” has another moment that shows the continuing development of their relationship, when Karen confronts Jim and makes him admit he is “messed up” over losing the perp at the robbery/homicide the preceding day:
In the same scene, she not only shows empathy for Jim, pointing out that she would be “messed up” in his place, but also insists on making sure his feelings are not causing him to pursue a bad lead. It’s a measure of her growing trust in Jim that even though he admits to being “messed up,” she takes his word for it when he says he really thinks he heard a shell casing hit the floor.
“Leap of Faith” has another of those “Karen forgets Jim is blind” moments. As they’re leaving for Walter Clark’s retirement party, Jim asks Karen if she’s going home to change. When Karen asks, “Why, do I look slouchy?” Jim responds, “How would I know?”
But Karen suspects he does know – something.
Just when things seem to be going so well for the partners, they hit a major speed bump in “Past Imperfect.” Walter Clark has told Jim Karen’s new boyfriend, Nick, has priors and is under investigation by the FBI, and Jim proceeds to “take care of it” by talking to Nick instead of Karen. Nick breaks up with Karen on a pretext. Karen is devastated, and Jim tries to look surprised:
Of course, Karen finds out that the break-up was no surprise to Jim, and it hits the fan. She confronts Jim about his conversation with Nick and asks, “Don’t you know how wrong that is?” (No, he doesn’t).
Jim remains in the doghouse for most of “In Your Face,” resulting in some male bonding at Karen’s expense, and multiple humorous moments. One of the funniest is when Jim and Karen are speaking with Fisk in his office. The conversation is over, but Karen refuses to ask Jim to leave, so Fisk has to step in.
After Nick proves what a loser he is by asking Karen for inside information on the investigation, Karen accepts Jim’s apology. She admits to him that she has a “bad history picking guys,” and the fact that Jim knew about this one just made it worse.
In “Doggone” and “Dance With Me,” the focus shifts away from Karen and Jim. Their partnership now seems solid. She knows Jim well enough to know something isn’t right with him when he arrives at the crime scene at the beginning of “Doggone,” and she reaches over to straighten his tie:
“Dance With Me” gives further proof, if we needed it, of how far their working relationship has come since the Pilot. When Jim tells Karen he may need her help with something, she immediately responds, “Okay.” And when Karen tells Jim it might be better if she questions Meg Wheeler by herself, Jim says, “Go for it.”
One of the loveliest Jim-and-Karen moments takes place in “Under the Gun,” when Jim asks Karen if she’ll still be his partner, if he has to give up the gun:
She tells him he knows how to solve cases, the way he does it sometimes leaves her impressed, and he’s the kind of person she wants to work with. So, yes, she’ll still be his partner, no matter what.
Finally, who can forget the speed bag in “Fancy Footwork?” I especially like the way Karen (or should I say Marisol Nichols?) cracks up at the end of the scene. I always crack up with her when I watch that scene.
In the Pilot, Karen is not happy when she has to ride with Jim.
But they soon have a common cause when Fisk insists on assigning them to inconsequential cases and pulls them off the investigation of the Lynn Bodner homicide when he learns it is related to the “tongue collector” serial killings. In spite of herself, Karen is drawn in when Jim “bounces ideas” off of her. By the end of the episode, she believes Jim saved her life in Lyman’s kitchen, and she has seen what he can do in an interrogation. She has even defended him, for the first time. But she’s only willing to commit to a “day to day” partnership. Still, it's a lovely moment at the end of the Pilot, when Jim asks what she looks like, but Karen balks at telling him the color of her eyes, only to relent and tell him, "They're brown."
In “Four Feet Under,” Karen bristles at Marty’s “bottom bitch” comment, but calls Jim on his “bull in a china shop” approach. In a revealing turn of phrase, she tells him he needs to back off if he and the people who support him (is she including herself?) are going to survive. But she’s still not sure about Jim and whether he’s serious about staying on the job, and she tells him if he’s just trying to prove a point, he should tell her, because she doesn’t want to end up as “collateral damage.”
In “Rub a Tub Tub,” Karen and Jim’s partnership reaches a pivotal moment, when Jim tells Karen about his theory that Eric was in the Desmonds’ apartment, because he smelled Eric’s cologne there. By now Karen has an idea of Jim’s skills as an investigator, but this is asking a lot. She goes along with him only after he tells her it comes down to whether she trusts him, and if she doesn’t, there is no point in their going forward.
“Up on the Roof” is the episode where, I think, Karen accepts Jim as a partner, and as a person. If she had any reservations before, the events of these two days tell her what kind of cop, and what kind of man, Jim is, and she realizes, as she later tells him, that he is the kind of person she wants to work with. There is the amazing scene between them when they go back to the roof and, in spite of her skepticism, find Terry’s handkerchief with the powder burns.
And who can forget her thoughtfulness when she gives him the report with the Post-it
or her invitation to have a few beers, and maybe bowl a few frames?
“Marlon’s Brando” has an abundance of nice Jim-and-Karen moments. Karen is comfortable enough with Jim that she can suggest he, as a blind man, might be more effective interviewing Nancy Dressler.
She even seems to forget that Jim is blind and starts to draw him a picture of Nancy’s wound, until he drolly asks her, “You’re not going to draw me a picture, are you?” And one of my all-time favorite moments takes place when they come back to the squad after Condell’s suicide, and Jim talks quietly to a distraught Karen. He later tells Galloway he feels he “wasn’t there” for Karen, but he was in that scene. This is also the scene where Karen tells Jim he should be glad he couldn’t see some of the sights in this case. Even though she immediately adds “no offense intended," it’s still a measure of her increasing comfort level with Jim. (I don’t think she meant the statement literally. It was a comment on the horrific nature of the case, and Karen didn’t know that the pictures Jim “saw” in his mind were as disturbing as those she saw with her eyes).
“Seoul Man” has another moment that shows the continuing development of their relationship, when Karen confronts Jim and makes him admit he is “messed up” over losing the perp at the robbery/homicide the preceding day:
In the same scene, she not only shows empathy for Jim, pointing out that she would be “messed up” in his place, but also insists on making sure his feelings are not causing him to pursue a bad lead. It’s a measure of her growing trust in Jim that even though he admits to being “messed up,” she takes his word for it when he says he really thinks he heard a shell casing hit the floor.
“Leap of Faith” has another of those “Karen forgets Jim is blind” moments. As they’re leaving for Walter Clark’s retirement party, Jim asks Karen if she’s going home to change. When Karen asks, “Why, do I look slouchy?” Jim responds, “How would I know?”
But Karen suspects he does know – something.
Just when things seem to be going so well for the partners, they hit a major speed bump in “Past Imperfect.” Walter Clark has told Jim Karen’s new boyfriend, Nick, has priors and is under investigation by the FBI, and Jim proceeds to “take care of it” by talking to Nick instead of Karen. Nick breaks up with Karen on a pretext. Karen is devastated, and Jim tries to look surprised:
Of course, Karen finds out that the break-up was no surprise to Jim, and it hits the fan. She confronts Jim about his conversation with Nick and asks, “Don’t you know how wrong that is?” (No, he doesn’t).
Jim remains in the doghouse for most of “In Your Face,” resulting in some male bonding at Karen’s expense, and multiple humorous moments. One of the funniest is when Jim and Karen are speaking with Fisk in his office. The conversation is over, but Karen refuses to ask Jim to leave, so Fisk has to step in.
After Nick proves what a loser he is by asking Karen for inside information on the investigation, Karen accepts Jim’s apology. She admits to him that she has a “bad history picking guys,” and the fact that Jim knew about this one just made it worse.
In “Doggone” and “Dance With Me,” the focus shifts away from Karen and Jim. Their partnership now seems solid. She knows Jim well enough to know something isn’t right with him when he arrives at the crime scene at the beginning of “Doggone,” and she reaches over to straighten his tie:
“Dance With Me” gives further proof, if we needed it, of how far their working relationship has come since the Pilot. When Jim tells Karen he may need her help with something, she immediately responds, “Okay.” And when Karen tells Jim it might be better if she questions Meg Wheeler by herself, Jim says, “Go for it.”
One of the loveliest Jim-and-Karen moments takes place in “Under the Gun,” when Jim asks Karen if she’ll still be his partner, if he has to give up the gun:
She tells him he knows how to solve cases, the way he does it sometimes leaves her impressed, and he’s the kind of person she wants to work with. So, yes, she’ll still be his partner, no matter what.
Finally, who can forget the speed bag in “Fancy Footwork?” I especially like the way Karen (or should I say Marisol Nichols?) cracks up at the end of the scene. I always crack up with her when I watch that scene.
