Doggone

[kytdunne]

doobrah said:

I, too, didn't see Jim's actions in this episode as particularly fumbling, but I do think that the camera focuses on these little "tells" for a reason to imply that he's not holding things together as well as we're used to seeing him.

The camera lingers on Jim to show he doesn't put the phone back effortlessly. The camera purposely shows him a little shakey in the squad heading to the water cooler. It purposely shows him walking into the pole in the condo. It's just the director's/editor's way of betraying Jim's "I'm fine" facade but showing he not all fine. He's really coming apart inside. And who can blame him?

No doubt Dunbar's stressed over Hank being taken and he doesn't relax until Hank's back, but it just didn't translate to me as Dunbar fumbling or 'coming apart inside'.

Kyt

[kytdunne]

maggiethecat said:

The thing with the phone -- while it's true, yes, that he was leaning back in the chair and had a little farther to reach -- is definitely meant to underscore this, since Fisk notices it. And there's a tiny corresponding flicker of concern on his face when Jim doesn;t get the receiver back in the cradle on the first try. Jim's movements at his desk have always been precise. This isn't. And we're meant to notice. All leading to his statement to Christie later that night,"I don't know if I can even do my job without Hank."

Dunbar leaping across the table at Johnny pretty much underscored how stressed he was, in general, even if he was roleplaying at the time. I don't think something like not making a military-sharp cradling of a phone indicates anything Fisk doesn't already know clearly. I saw Fisk's concern as being a reaction to yet another failed phone call for Dunbar finding Hank.

Of course, I also don't buy for a moment that Dunbar hasn't ever stumbled at work, or missed a mark, or otherwise taken a split second longer to do something, for no other reason than the fact that he can't see.

Just a different take, as usual,
Kyt

[shmeep]

bjobsessed said:

Putting on the glasses signifies that he is now back in control and ready to work.

Interesting. I always got the feeling that putting the glasses on in this instance was also a way of preventing anyone from seeing his vulnerability at that moment. The range of emotions we are privy to as he stands at the cooler are suddenly shut off the moment the glasses are in place, indicating (at least to me) that what we just saw was very private and no one else was going to be able to sneak such a peek at his psyche. So...in control? Yes...as long as he's being sheilded by the glasses he's hiding behind so people will think he's got it together.

[bjobsessed]

Point well taken Shmeep. Never really thought of it that way before.

[shmeep]

kytdunne said:

I don't think something like not making a military-sharp cradling of a phone indicates anything Fisk doesn't already know clearly.

I may sort of agree with you. I agree with everyone else that that moment was emphasized for a reason, but disagree that it was supposed to be showing Jim's fumble as a sign of his mental turmoil. What always strikes me is, not the way Jim replaces the receiver, but rather his brooding expression as he does so and the fact that, until Fisk speaks, Jim believes himself to be alone. That slight start he does when he realizes someone has been watching him makes me imagine he has started going over his recent actions in his mind to see if he had been giving anything away in his expression or body language.

Again, a beautiful nuance! It must be very disconcerting when one is feeling something strongly and trying to hide it from others, only to find that someone has just been watching. It must feel like such an invasion of privacy. Were all these little moments written into the script or was Ron Eldard so in tune with what a blind person would be thinking and experiencing that he was able to just live the part?

[hoosier]

Thanks for the fantastic recap Mim!! My favorite ep too!

It seems here we see Marty really considering Jim a part of the 'team' for the first time. While he seriously considered Sonny's proposal he didn't like the idea of Jim doing it--too dangerous--and offered to take his place and only grudgingly went along with Jim going undercover. Then the guilt he took out on the chair when they hadn't been able to back him up and discovered that Jim had been left in a shipping yard and Hank was gone. When you consider going undercover, of course you pick the best qualified cops and while Jim filled the bill as the 'blind drug dealer', how was he going to pull it off? They all went on the assumption that Debbie would have the coke on her and didn't even consider that Jim would wing it and leave in the car. I think that Marty took it personally that it all went wrong--probably because he didn't voice his doubts loudly enough in the beginning. And then when Jim covered their collective rears with the Chief of D's, Marty saw that Jim was a team-player after all (even if Jim maybe did some of that to partially cover his rear with the Chief so as not to be assigned to permanent desk-duty after his 'road trip' to Hoboken!)

[mlm828]

kytdunne said:

Stumbling along the fence was dead on. It's not exactly a well-trimmed area, so yeah. And the sign, well since he'd passed others that weren't embossed, and finally came across an older one that was, I'll give them that. But it was a handy coincidence (though there are a couple coincidences that happened in the series that aided with solving the case, that stood out to me a lot more as Very Convenient). OTOH, I can just hear the audience's cries of outrage if he'd been able to read a sign with reflective letters stuck it - which also have depth, just not as obviously.

While I think finding the sign with embossed letters was convenient, I don't think it detracted from the story. Signs with that type of lettering aren't that unusual, so it wasn't far-fetched that he would find one. And I actually liked the fact that Jim was able to help the squad find him.

kytdunne said:

I also figure Dunbar was doing as much covering of his own behind as he was his squad members when he gave the Chief of Ds the altered version of events. Dunbar was not suppose to take off like that, and the Chief's got it out for Dunbar more than he does the others, so.... Dunbar gets credit for coming up with a very nice story that gets them all off the hook.

And last one that comes to mind: Russo. He's got a protective streak in him, too, and it came out the first day Dunbar arrived. The fact that he was responsible for backing up Dunbar and failed, was a huge part of his reaction. Didn't make a difference that he thinks Dunbar shouldn't be a cop, or shouldn't be a gun-wielding cop, not when things are getting dangerous and Russo feels he's dropped the ball.

Kyt

Good points!

[kytdunne]

admin said:

I may sort of agree with you. I agree with everyone else that that moment was emphasized for a reason, but disagree that it was supposed to be showing Jim's fumble as a sign of his mental turmoil. What always strikes me is, not the way Jim replaces the receiver, but rather his brooding expression as he does so and the fact that, until Fisk speaks, Jim believes himself to be alone. That slight start he does when he realizes someone has been watching him makes me imagine he has started going over his recent actions in his mind to see if he had been giving anything away in his expression or body language.

Again, a beautiful nuance! It must be very disconcerting when one is feeling something strongly and trying to hide it from others, only to find that someone has just been watching. It must feel like such an invasion of privacy. Were all these little moments written into the script or was Ron Eldard so in tune with what a blind person would be thinking and experiencing that he was able to just live the part?

Dunbar not realizing Fisk was there immediately seemed run-of-the-mill. Being startled would have carried more weight if he wasn't working in an open-office environment. I'd be hard-pressed to believe it's anything unusual for Dunbar (or anyone), sighted or blind, to discover someone's waiting for him and he hasn't instantly realized it. And it's usually easier to 'sneak up' if someone is otherwise preoccupied.

But the concern - both Dunbar's & Fisk's - that's what I get from the scene.

Kyt

[kytdunne]

mlm828 said:

While I think finding the sign with embossed letters was convenient, I don't think it detracted from the story. Signs with that type of lettering aren't that unusual, so it wasn't far-fetched that he would find one. And I actually liked the fact that Jim was able to help the squad find him.

I liked that, too. And yeah, it was convenient, but sometimes, things are. It's not like the rest of his day was going real smooth.

Kyt

[mlm828]

kytdunne said:

It's not like the rest of his day was going real smooth.

Kyt

You read my mind, Kyt. With the way Jim's day was going, it was about time his luck changed for the better.

I have also been thinking about recent discussions about Jim's state of mind on that day. Here is my two cents' worth.

When Johnny and Luis show up in Hoboken, Jim is in a tight spot, comparable to Lyman's kitchen or Condell's suicide. Both of those events left him shaken, and I think the same was true on this occasion. When Johnny and Luis show up, Jim goes on "high alert." He really is on his own in this situation. His back-up has not arrived and is not going to arrive, and he cannot expect any help from Debbie, an unknown quantity, or Sonny, whom he suspects of setting him up. We don't hear Sonny telling Jim that Johnny and Luis are "seriously armed" (although Jim later refers to this statement), but Jim certainly knows, at the very least, that they are two very bad dudes. When he tells Debbie and Sonny to stay cool and give Johnny and Luis what they want, he seems to be trying to exert some control over the situation but, realistically, there is not a lot he can do. I'm not sure what more he might have been able to do if he were sighted (unlike Sonny, I don't think he would have pulled out a gun and started firing), but not being able to see what was happening must have made him feel more vulnerable. So I think the encounter with Johnny and Luis, perhaps more than being lost, left Jim shaken.

Added to this is his anxiety over Hank. When one of my pets has been missing (fortunately, all returned home or were found within a short time), I was absolutely frantic. So I think Jim was in a state of high anxiety about Hank. And Hank is no ordinary pet; he plays a major role in Jim's mobility and independence. While I think Jim's primary concern was for Hank's safety and well-being, he must also have been thinking about how his life would change if Hank were not found.

[bjobsessed]

mlm828 said:

Added to this is his anxiety over Hank. When one of my pets has been missing (fortunately, all returned home or were found within a short time), I was absolutely frantic. So I think Jim was in a state of high anxiety about Hank. And Hank is no ordinary pet; he plays a major role in Jim's mobility and independence. While I think Jim's primary concern was for Hank's safety and well-being, he must also have been thinking about how his life would change if Hank were not found.

I totally agree. This is the only time I can think of right now that Jim lets everyone see him lose control. I know he had to make it look good, but I don't think he would have been pretending a whole lot in that scene. He was probably ready to tear the guy's head off in order to find out where Hank was. I would expect Marty may have really had to restrain Jim a bit. They all know he's upset about Hank. I forget which one of them asks them if he's ok after Mary escorts him out of the room. He regains his composure pretty quick after that though.

[kytdunne]

mlm828 said:

With the way Jim's day was going, it was about time his luck changed for the better.

No kidding.

mlm828 said:

I have also been thinking about recent discussions about Jim's state of mind on that day. Here is my two cents' worth.

When Johnny and Luis show up in Hoboken, Jim is in a tight spot, comparable to Lyman's kitchen or Condell's suicide. Both of those events left him shaken, and I think the same was true on this occasion. When Johnny and Luis show up, Jim goes on "high alert." He really is on his own in this situation. His back-up has not arrived and is not going to arrive, and he cannot expect any help from Debbie, an unknown quantity, or Sonny, whom he suspects of setting him up. We don't hear Sonny telling Jim that Johnny and Luis are "seriously armed" (although Jim later refers to this statement), but Jim certainly knows, at the very least, that they are two very bad dudes. When he tells Debbie and Sonny to stay cool and give Johnny and Luis what they want, he seems to be trying to exert some control over the situation but, realistically, there is not a lot he can do. I'm not sure what more he might have been able to do if he were sighted (unlike Sonny, I don't think he would have pulled out a gun and started firing), but not being able to see what was happening must have made him feel more vulnerable. So I think the encounter with Johnny and Luis, perhaps more than being lost, left Jim shaken.

Yeah, I'd rate the Luis/Johnny confrontation as far more stressful than being lost. While lost, he at least knew that his teammates were on the hunt for him (and at least a couple PDs - okay, maybe that's not an entirely relaxing thought once you get past the 'may survive after all' thought). It was draining, being lost, but didn't have the chaotic uncertainty that the confrontation did. His backup didn't show, his informant seemed to have set him up, he was abandoned, his dog was stolen, and a couple irritated thugs held a lot of potential for killing him, Sonny & Debbie. And just to sharpen the edge a bit more, add a few blows to the ego.

I didn't buy Sonny's O.K. Corral scenario, either. But it was great fun, especially with the looks from Fisk & Bettancourt.

mlm828 said:

Added to this is his anxiety over Hank. When one of my pets has been missing (fortunately, all returned home or were found within a short time), I was absolutely frantic. So I think Jim was in a state of high anxiety about Hank. And Hank is no ordinary pet; he plays a major role in Jim's mobility and independence. While I think Jim's primary concern was for Hank's safety and well-being, he must also have been thinking about how his life would change if Hank were not found.

I'd put Hank Missing as being *the* stressor for the day. The other situations were stressful while happening, but didn't really have the staying power that Hank's disappearance had. And I'd agree, too, that Dunbar's concern was first for Hank's safety, then for how he'd manage without him.

Kyt

[hoosier]

I know we have discussed Sonny's possible involvement in the drug deal but I had some more thoughts on it and came up with this scenerio--

1.Bud has the coke-Sonny knew he had it because he told Jim he would have told him about it eventually-yeah right!!! Sonny however didn't know how much or where, Bud was playing it close to the vest.

2. Did Sonny set up a meet with Johnny and Luis for Bud?Johnny said they had heard on the street about some coke to be moved, considered the people idiots.

3.Bud and Debbie knew where the coke was stashed. Bud took at least Rory Glann there to try and make a sell.

4. Bud is killed

5.Sonny sets up the deal with Jim as Ted to get the coke and press Debbie for details of Bud's murder. He can also get finders fee from police.

6.Johnny and Luis know Sonny as the go-between for Bud. Probably learned on the street Bud is murdered(Rory knew this already) If follow Sonny possibly find the coke since Sonny set up their deal so they figure he knows where it is.

7. at site-Johnny and Luis suspect Sonny of double-dealing them in "where is it?' and "you better not be messin' wit us Sonny boy". They don't know Jim or Debbie though probably suspect Debbie is involved since she was the driver. Maybe think Sonny moved the coke and will use Debbie as leverage to get info from Sonny. If they knew about Bud and Debbie wouldn't they have contacted Debbie or had Sonny contact her? If they thought Jim was a dealer, wouldn't they have killed him seeing him as competition or source of possible retaliation for moving in on his deal? Prbobaly didn't know he was a dealer until Debbie told them and it too late do anything. Like Tom said later, they wanted the dope and the only ones who knew where it was were Sonny and Debbie.

Would have loved seeing Sonny leap from that low-slung car!! He sure left Deb out to dry! With those flying bullets you would have thought someone would have called the cops or are all NYers so jaded??

Also--I think Jim passed at least 6 signs that I noticed before he found one he could read!

Loved how he told Marty he was fine and when Karen asked him how he was he caught himself before he repeated himself and changed it to all right!!!

[bjobsessed]

One thing I have never understood is why Jim turns his head when Johnny or Luis say "You better not be messin' with me Sonny boy," and then it keeps echoing. It's like Jim's heard the voice before, but I don't think they ever say he does. Can anyone explain?

[greenbeing]

bjobsessed said:

One thing I have never understood is why Jim turns his head when Johnny or Luis say "You better not be messin' with me Sonny boy," and then it keeps echoing. It's like Jim's heard the voice before, but I don't think they ever say he does. Can anyone explain?

I thought the echoing was because it was going into memory. Sort of an artistic device on the part of the director in order to help the viewers remember it. Also to show us that Jim was taking notice of Johnny's voice for future reference.