Post by shmeep on Aug 3, 2005 14:38:37 GMT -5
For a second I think I’m watching a bad sitcom because of the perky opening piano music, but no. There’s Jim sitting in a café, seeming nervous as he toys with his coffee cup. Karen’s nefarious boyfriend Nick joins Jim, seeming ready for a friendly chat. He doesn’t get one. Jim is there to bombard Nick with all the facts he received about his shady past from “a phone call” (same story he told Mary Beth in Rub a Tub Tub). Why he tells Nick and not Karen is anyone’s guess at this point (and this has generated a lot of discussion in the past), but he corners Nick, saying, “Either you can tell her, or I can tell her.”
After accusing Jim of having a “thing” for Karen, Nick agrees to call off the relationship.
“I appreciate you coming to me first, you know?” he says with biting sarcasm that is shown more in his body language than in his voice.
Jim starts to nod his acknowledgement of the thanks, missing the hostility. Then Nick slams his chair against the table and stalks out, leaving no doubt now about his feelings toward Jim. Jim jumps, seeming as startled by the misread cue as by the sound.
He arrives at the scene of a vandalized car, where Karen is interviewing Ty Largent, a delightful man who immediately asks if he’s being “Punk’d” when he sees Jim. When it hits him that he is not, indeed, being “Punk’d,” he starts to take things seriously.
“As I explained to your partner,” he says to Jim, before interrupting himself and saying, “I’m talking to you sir.”
“Yeah, I know you are,” Jim says without any attempt at hiding his exasperation.
Turns out they are only on the case because the saintly Mr. Largent is friends with the deputy mayor.
At the station, Tom announces to Jim that an old friend is there but doesn’t bother to give any hint about this friend’s identity. Jim freezes as the friend greets him.
I don’t get this at all. Is it some kind of cruel test to see how good Jim is at out-of-context voice recognition? (“Ssshh! Don’t tell him your name. Let’s see if he can figure it out.” “Five bucks says he won’t.” “You’re on!”) Everyone watches Jim curiously as his war buddy friend, Greg Hermanson, says a few words to try and trigger his memory. After an awkward silence and lots of mental grasping on Jim’s part, Jim correctly puts it all together and the friends embrace. Everyone heaves enormous sighs of relief. Well, I would if I were there, but I probably would have told the blind guy his friend’s name up front and spared him the embarrassment of possibly not knowing who it was. What Tom and Greg did reminds me of those annoying people who come up behind you, cover your eyes, and say, “Guess who!” I’ve always hated that.
Greg is a little awkward at first, but Jim goes out of his way to put his friend at ease.
“Hey,” Greg says. “It’s really good seeing you again—I’m sorry. I shouldn’t say that.”
Jim ignores the awkwardness. “Hey, it’s good to see you too. I’ll call you.”
Greg waits in the squad in the care of Hank as Karen and Jim interview Mike Barreras, suspect in the car vandalization and brother of the lovely and talented ex-girlfriend of Ty Largent, Leticia Barreras. Mike gets a warning and then brings Karen’s Puerto Rican-ness to Jim’s attention. This revelation seems to cause Jim to re-set his mental image of Karen. I guess the word “brown” had triggered something completely different in his mind.
Greg is still lurking. He tells Jim he was held up and robbed and asks Jim if he can help.
“Hey, that’s what I do, huh?” Jim says with a laugh, flashing his gun.
Jim sets Greg up with some mug books, which doesn’t seem to involve the gun at all.
Marty and Tom go to Laticia Barreras to warn her about any further harassment. Leticia, memorable for being the only Blind Justice guest star without the ability to act, goes into a whiny rant about how Ty is trying to get custody of their son.
Later, Jim finds that Greg still hasn’t been able to identify his assailant. Fact is, he doesn’t even look like he’s trying, but Jim doesn’t know that. Jim starts to leave.
“Hey, Jim. I’m really sorry for what happened to you,” Greg says.
“Thanks,” Jim says, re-entering the room and closing the door.
“How you been doing, man?”
“I’ve been good. You know?”
It all seems strangely comfortable, now that Greg is clearly acknowledging the elephant in the room. “I know but I mean like how’d you bounce back from, you know, from losing your sight?” he says next.
“I’m still bouncing,” Jim says, almost apologetically.
“You don’t even know what I look like anymore.”
“But you know, when I run into people that I knew before I lost my sight, I just remember them the way they used to be.”
Greg tells Jim he is a sous chef in Spokane and that he’s been married twice.
“It’s not for everybody,” Jim says, laughing with unusual heartiness over that statement for some reason.
Jim tries to get Greg to finish up with the mug books and get out of there, but Greg seems bent on staying, asking Jim if his assailant could be Hispanic.
“I don’t know,” Jim says with that face shrug of his. “You tell me.”
So he sets Greg up with another set of books while he and Karen go to the pre-school of the unfortunate child of Ty and Leticia.
Ty Largent is incensed because Leticia has taken his son out of turn. He threatens to call the deputy mayor and refuses to listen when Jim tries to convince him to be rational.
Back at the station, Karen takes a call from Nick as Tom starts asking Jim questions about Iraq.
“Hey Jim, when you were out there, is it true they had camel spiders as big as hubcaps?” he asks.
“Oh, yeah,” Jim says, deadpan.
“Are you serious?”
“No,” Jim says. “Come on, hubcaps? They’re like the size of your hand.”
“My hand. That’s it, huh?”
He looks doubtfully at his own hand. Marty, seeming to be enjoying the exchange, holds up his hand in case Tom's hand alone isn't capable of getting the point across.
“Yeah,” Jim continues. “The snakes were much bigger.”
“See, here, don’t be talking about no snakes, now,” Tom says, seeming ready to scamper onto his desk, eying the room wildly.
“Sorry I brought it up,” Jim says, still with that deadpan delivery that has Tom so baffled.
“They really have snakes?” Tom pesists.
“No.”
Marty laughs, a rare showing of appreciation for Jim.
“A lot of scorpions, though,” Jim adds.
Karen returns from her phone call and tells them she has been dumped. Marty offers to slap Nick around a little bit. Jim looks uncomfortable.
Greg continues to lurk until Jim has no choice but to invite him to dinner.
Marty and Tom drag Leticia in, trying to get her to disclose the whereabouts of her son.
“It’s like I was just a vagina to him!” she says, refined as always. “Something for him to have his fun with and just spit out his baby!”
Marty and Tom calm her down and convince her to cooperate, telling her she’s doing what Ty wants. Ty shows up and takes his kid after promising not to press any charges.
Marty comforts Karen, telling her she’s a catch. “Even a blind man can see that,” Jim agrees in one of his cheesier lines. But it is sweet.
Over dinner, Greg and Jim reminisce over the good old (four) days of the Gulf war. Christie finds out that Greg had been wounded by an Iraqi who had killed their friend, Ken Middleton. They talk about Middleton’s widow, who lives in Staton Island. Jim senses that Greg has more on his mind and offers to go to a bar so they can talk, but Christie very kindly bows out, saying she wants to go visit a neighbor down the hall.
It comes out that Greg had made up his robbery in order to have a chance to talk. He admits to having frozen during the war, claiming he could have saved Middleton. He wants to go apologize to Middleton’s widow. Jim is doubtful about whether or not this is the best thing to do.
“I think you should absolutely let it go,” Jim says firmly. “Get it out of your head. You don’t need to be carrying this guilt around. You did nothing wrong. Don’t keep beating yourself up about this. You know, I’m really glad you came to talk to me and I’m telling you, let it go.”
Would he have made the same speech to Terry? Is he not seeing the similarity between Greg and Terry or has he moved past it to a point of forgiveness? And why can’t any of Jim’s friends have “balls of steel” like he does?
Ty Largent arrives at the station with his lawyer, ready to press charges against Leticia. Everyone is stunned and furious, which I love because each one of them gives Ty a satisfying pointed jab before the scene is over.
“Is this a joke?” Jim demands.
It’s not a joke.
“He feels terrible about the situation,” the snivelly lawyer says to the squad.
“Well now I know you’re lying, sir,” Tom says. “Because he doesn’t give a damn about anything but himself.”
Marty demands to hear from Ty rather than from the lawyer. “What, all the sudden you’re a shy little schoolgirl, Ty? Can’t talk for yourself?”
It’s already set with the DA’s office.
“Do us a favor, Mr. Largent,” Karen says as Ty and his lawyer are leaving. “Next time you’re out golfing with your deputy mayor friend, take out your sand wedge and shove it up your ass.”
“Is this going to get done?” the lawyer asks Fisk, presumably referring to the arrest and not the sand wedge ass shoving. “Or do I have to go over your head?”
“Oh it’ll get done, Sweetheart,” Fisk says, no longer seemingly concerned about the opinion of the deputy mayor. “Just keep walking.”
Leticia, in another fit of whining and bad acting, eventually succumbs to her arrest.
“I’m calling the police,” her co-worker says, demonstrating her keen intellect.
“We are the police,” Marty responds. But he does seem sorry. This episode shows a kinder side of Marty than we have seen up to this point.
Jim meets Greg, who confesses that he was the one who had mistakenly shot Middleton. He can’t handle the guilt any longer. Jim seems shaken by the news, but he assures Greg that there would be no charges and that it was an accident.
Greg is determined to confess to the widow because his life is a mess. Jim says Middleton’s family doesn’t need this drudged up. Greg leaves, agreeing to think about it but offering no promise.
In the locker room, Karen confronts Jim, who is in the act of pill popping. Turns out she found out about his little “breakfast” with Nick and is furious that Jim went to Nick instead of to her. Jim is completely speechless and sputters out his justification for his actions,
but Karen won’t have any of that.
She insists Jim should have come to her with that information first.
Still baffled by the turn of events, Jim shrugs and says, “All right. I’m sorry. I thought I was watching out for you.”
This, too, rubs Karen the wrong way. “By going behind my back and not giving me the opportunity to do anything about it.”
Their friendly conversation is cut short by Marty, who announces that Ty Largent has just been shot.
To everyone’s sorrow, Ty Largent is dead. Jim tries to talk to Karen as they pull up to the scene, but she cuts him off. “I do not want to talk to you right now.”
Marty tells the squad that Leticia’s brother shot Ty. Karen approaches Mike, leaving Jim behind. Tom, looking puzzled, gives Jim directions. Greg calls Jim on his cell.
Jim and Greg pull up to Middleton’s widow’s home. Even though Jim disagrees with Greg, he offers to go inside with him. They are greeted at the door by Linda, a smiling woman who is warm and happy to see them. Looking around, Greg is able to see that Linda, who has remarried and has two children, has a good life. He decides to pretend he was there to show her a photo of her deceased husband instead of confessing to having shot him. Jim relaxes, looking even dishier than usual.
At a bar, Greg and Jim drink beer together.
Jim starts speaking. “The picture I have of you in my head is when we first got over there and we were in trans-squad out in the dessert and all those guys were so scared. You just kept making everybody laugh. And we laughed so much that we almost forgot that we were there. I still see you that way.”
Greg smiles. They both drink.
Understated, but one of my favorite endings of the series.
After accusing Jim of having a “thing” for Karen, Nick agrees to call off the relationship.
“I appreciate you coming to me first, you know?” he says with biting sarcasm that is shown more in his body language than in his voice.
Jim starts to nod his acknowledgement of the thanks, missing the hostility. Then Nick slams his chair against the table and stalks out, leaving no doubt now about his feelings toward Jim. Jim jumps, seeming as startled by the misread cue as by the sound.
He arrives at the scene of a vandalized car, where Karen is interviewing Ty Largent, a delightful man who immediately asks if he’s being “Punk’d” when he sees Jim. When it hits him that he is not, indeed, being “Punk’d,” he starts to take things seriously.
“As I explained to your partner,” he says to Jim, before interrupting himself and saying, “I’m talking to you sir.”
“Yeah, I know you are,” Jim says without any attempt at hiding his exasperation.
Turns out they are only on the case because the saintly Mr. Largent is friends with the deputy mayor.
At the station, Tom announces to Jim that an old friend is there but doesn’t bother to give any hint about this friend’s identity. Jim freezes as the friend greets him.
I don’t get this at all. Is it some kind of cruel test to see how good Jim is at out-of-context voice recognition? (“Ssshh! Don’t tell him your name. Let’s see if he can figure it out.” “Five bucks says he won’t.” “You’re on!”) Everyone watches Jim curiously as his war buddy friend, Greg Hermanson, says a few words to try and trigger his memory. After an awkward silence and lots of mental grasping on Jim’s part, Jim correctly puts it all together and the friends embrace. Everyone heaves enormous sighs of relief. Well, I would if I were there, but I probably would have told the blind guy his friend’s name up front and spared him the embarrassment of possibly not knowing who it was. What Tom and Greg did reminds me of those annoying people who come up behind you, cover your eyes, and say, “Guess who!” I’ve always hated that.
Greg is a little awkward at first, but Jim goes out of his way to put his friend at ease.
“Hey,” Greg says. “It’s really good seeing you again—I’m sorry. I shouldn’t say that.”
Jim ignores the awkwardness. “Hey, it’s good to see you too. I’ll call you.”
Greg waits in the squad in the care of Hank as Karen and Jim interview Mike Barreras, suspect in the car vandalization and brother of the lovely and talented ex-girlfriend of Ty Largent, Leticia Barreras. Mike gets a warning and then brings Karen’s Puerto Rican-ness to Jim’s attention. This revelation seems to cause Jim to re-set his mental image of Karen. I guess the word “brown” had triggered something completely different in his mind.
Greg is still lurking. He tells Jim he was held up and robbed and asks Jim if he can help.
“Hey, that’s what I do, huh?” Jim says with a laugh, flashing his gun.
Jim sets Greg up with some mug books, which doesn’t seem to involve the gun at all.
Marty and Tom go to Laticia Barreras to warn her about any further harassment. Leticia, memorable for being the only Blind Justice guest star without the ability to act, goes into a whiny rant about how Ty is trying to get custody of their son.
Later, Jim finds that Greg still hasn’t been able to identify his assailant. Fact is, he doesn’t even look like he’s trying, but Jim doesn’t know that. Jim starts to leave.
“Hey, Jim. I’m really sorry for what happened to you,” Greg says.
“Thanks,” Jim says, re-entering the room and closing the door.
“How you been doing, man?”
“I’ve been good. You know?”
It all seems strangely comfortable, now that Greg is clearly acknowledging the elephant in the room. “I know but I mean like how’d you bounce back from, you know, from losing your sight?” he says next.
“I’m still bouncing,” Jim says, almost apologetically.
“You don’t even know what I look like anymore.”
“But you know, when I run into people that I knew before I lost my sight, I just remember them the way they used to be.”
Greg tells Jim he is a sous chef in Spokane and that he’s been married twice.
“It’s not for everybody,” Jim says, laughing with unusual heartiness over that statement for some reason.
Jim tries to get Greg to finish up with the mug books and get out of there, but Greg seems bent on staying, asking Jim if his assailant could be Hispanic.
“I don’t know,” Jim says with that face shrug of his. “You tell me.”
So he sets Greg up with another set of books while he and Karen go to the pre-school of the unfortunate child of Ty and Leticia.
Ty Largent is incensed because Leticia has taken his son out of turn. He threatens to call the deputy mayor and refuses to listen when Jim tries to convince him to be rational.
Back at the station, Karen takes a call from Nick as Tom starts asking Jim questions about Iraq.
“Hey Jim, when you were out there, is it true they had camel spiders as big as hubcaps?” he asks.
“Oh, yeah,” Jim says, deadpan.
“Are you serious?”
“No,” Jim says. “Come on, hubcaps? They’re like the size of your hand.”
“My hand. That’s it, huh?”
He looks doubtfully at his own hand. Marty, seeming to be enjoying the exchange, holds up his hand in case Tom's hand alone isn't capable of getting the point across.
“Yeah,” Jim continues. “The snakes were much bigger.”
“See, here, don’t be talking about no snakes, now,” Tom says, seeming ready to scamper onto his desk, eying the room wildly.
“Sorry I brought it up,” Jim says, still with that deadpan delivery that has Tom so baffled.
“They really have snakes?” Tom pesists.
“No.”
Marty laughs, a rare showing of appreciation for Jim.
“A lot of scorpions, though,” Jim adds.
Karen returns from her phone call and tells them she has been dumped. Marty offers to slap Nick around a little bit. Jim looks uncomfortable.
Greg continues to lurk until Jim has no choice but to invite him to dinner.
Marty and Tom drag Leticia in, trying to get her to disclose the whereabouts of her son.
“It’s like I was just a vagina to him!” she says, refined as always. “Something for him to have his fun with and just spit out his baby!”
Marty and Tom calm her down and convince her to cooperate, telling her she’s doing what Ty wants. Ty shows up and takes his kid after promising not to press any charges.
Marty comforts Karen, telling her she’s a catch. “Even a blind man can see that,” Jim agrees in one of his cheesier lines. But it is sweet.
Over dinner, Greg and Jim reminisce over the good old (four) days of the Gulf war. Christie finds out that Greg had been wounded by an Iraqi who had killed their friend, Ken Middleton. They talk about Middleton’s widow, who lives in Staton Island. Jim senses that Greg has more on his mind and offers to go to a bar so they can talk, but Christie very kindly bows out, saying she wants to go visit a neighbor down the hall.
It comes out that Greg had made up his robbery in order to have a chance to talk. He admits to having frozen during the war, claiming he could have saved Middleton. He wants to go apologize to Middleton’s widow. Jim is doubtful about whether or not this is the best thing to do.
“I think you should absolutely let it go,” Jim says firmly. “Get it out of your head. You don’t need to be carrying this guilt around. You did nothing wrong. Don’t keep beating yourself up about this. You know, I’m really glad you came to talk to me and I’m telling you, let it go.”
Would he have made the same speech to Terry? Is he not seeing the similarity between Greg and Terry or has he moved past it to a point of forgiveness? And why can’t any of Jim’s friends have “balls of steel” like he does?
Ty Largent arrives at the station with his lawyer, ready to press charges against Leticia. Everyone is stunned and furious, which I love because each one of them gives Ty a satisfying pointed jab before the scene is over.
“Is this a joke?” Jim demands.
It’s not a joke.
“He feels terrible about the situation,” the snivelly lawyer says to the squad.
“Well now I know you’re lying, sir,” Tom says. “Because he doesn’t give a damn about anything but himself.”
Marty demands to hear from Ty rather than from the lawyer. “What, all the sudden you’re a shy little schoolgirl, Ty? Can’t talk for yourself?”
It’s already set with the DA’s office.
“Do us a favor, Mr. Largent,” Karen says as Ty and his lawyer are leaving. “Next time you’re out golfing with your deputy mayor friend, take out your sand wedge and shove it up your ass.”
“Is this going to get done?” the lawyer asks Fisk, presumably referring to the arrest and not the sand wedge ass shoving. “Or do I have to go over your head?”
“Oh it’ll get done, Sweetheart,” Fisk says, no longer seemingly concerned about the opinion of the deputy mayor. “Just keep walking.”
Leticia, in another fit of whining and bad acting, eventually succumbs to her arrest.
“I’m calling the police,” her co-worker says, demonstrating her keen intellect.
“We are the police,” Marty responds. But he does seem sorry. This episode shows a kinder side of Marty than we have seen up to this point.
Jim meets Greg, who confesses that he was the one who had mistakenly shot Middleton. He can’t handle the guilt any longer. Jim seems shaken by the news, but he assures Greg that there would be no charges and that it was an accident.
Greg is determined to confess to the widow because his life is a mess. Jim says Middleton’s family doesn’t need this drudged up. Greg leaves, agreeing to think about it but offering no promise.
In the locker room, Karen confronts Jim, who is in the act of pill popping. Turns out she found out about his little “breakfast” with Nick and is furious that Jim went to Nick instead of to her. Jim is completely speechless and sputters out his justification for his actions,
but Karen won’t have any of that.
She insists Jim should have come to her with that information first.
Still baffled by the turn of events, Jim shrugs and says, “All right. I’m sorry. I thought I was watching out for you.”
This, too, rubs Karen the wrong way. “By going behind my back and not giving me the opportunity to do anything about it.”
Their friendly conversation is cut short by Marty, who announces that Ty Largent has just been shot.
To everyone’s sorrow, Ty Largent is dead. Jim tries to talk to Karen as they pull up to the scene, but she cuts him off. “I do not want to talk to you right now.”
Marty tells the squad that Leticia’s brother shot Ty. Karen approaches Mike, leaving Jim behind. Tom, looking puzzled, gives Jim directions. Greg calls Jim on his cell.
Jim and Greg pull up to Middleton’s widow’s home. Even though Jim disagrees with Greg, he offers to go inside with him. They are greeted at the door by Linda, a smiling woman who is warm and happy to see them. Looking around, Greg is able to see that Linda, who has remarried and has two children, has a good life. He decides to pretend he was there to show her a photo of her deceased husband instead of confessing to having shot him. Jim relaxes, looking even dishier than usual.
At a bar, Greg and Jim drink beer together.
Jim starts speaking. “The picture I have of you in my head is when we first got over there and we were in trans-squad out in the dessert and all those guys were so scared. You just kept making everybody laugh. And we laughed so much that we almost forgot that we were there. I still see you that way.”
Greg smiles. They both drink.
Understated, but one of my favorite endings of the series.
