A medium approaches Danny and Baez claiming to know what happened to a woman who was found dead of an apparent suicide. Also, Jamie and Eddie help a woman who bought cheap insulin online that nearly killed her son; Frank goes against the wishes of the archbishop to take down a man he believes is laundering money from a charity; and Erin’s ex-husband asks her for help with an assault and robbery case, on BLUE BLOODS.
CBS Press Release
Initial Thoughts
These are my thoughts on the thirteenth episode of season 9. A lot of it is my interpretation of what is not said and may exist purely in my imagination. If you agree or disagree please let me know as I’d still love to hear from you regardless. I just ask that you’re polite. It’d be great to debate ideas and see what interesting theories emerge.
This episode doesn’t feel as well balanced as the previous episodes this season with Jamie and Eddie finishing their storyline two-thirds of the way through the episode. We’ll have to wait for the DVD release to get an idea of whether that’s because there was supposed to be another scene that was later dropped or their final scene was kept early during editing.
Scene by scene breakdown
In case you want to remind yourself of the scenes click on the heading for a link to the relevant clips on YouTube courtesy of Jamko4ever.
Wedding Dress Shopping
While it is a beautiful dress I’ll admit I felt it was doomed due to the amount of coverage it got in publicity photos ahead of the episode airing in the US. With it appearing so early in the episode it kind of confirmed that something was going to happen as it seemed a pretty good indication that it was going to be a MacGuffin. There are points during the scene where it feels that maybe it wasn’t such a good idea for Eddie to bring along the divorcee who has an ongoing problematic relationship with her ex, as this stirs up ideas that a couple that stops working together will end up with a failed relationship (although Erin is still a better option than Lena who could be expected to make any number of negative comments about Eddie’s appearance and choices). The failure of Erin’s relationship with Jack had a lot more to do with Jack’s apparent aversion to commitment rather than them not working together. Of course that’s why Erin is set against Nikki marrying before she’s 30 even though Erin was probably about 20 when she married Jack, although when Jack later says he was given a warning by all of the Reagans I got an amusing mental image of a teenage Jamie (possibly not only 13) trying to protect his big sister.
This is a very rare scene with it featuring only the female members of the Reagan family (there were a few occasions in the past where it was just Linda, Erin and Nicky but these certainly weren’t frequent). At least part of the conversation doesn’t relate to men, although it is about a wedding dress, but they do spend most of the scene talking about Erin’s relationship with Jack – I think it passes the Bechdel test but it doesn’t feel like a major win with most of the dialogue revolving around Jack.
12 David Revisited
The sequence in the RMP is slightly odd due to the setup, peering over their shoulders is a weird viewing position. I can’t think of any other time there’s been a car scene without a single shot from the front or side to at least providing an establishing shot of the two characters interacting. While looking through the windscreen means the viewer shares the shock of the mother running out did it have to mean that no other camera angles could be used? Consequently, there’s an increased sense that there’s a disconnect between Jamie and Eddie.
Following Erin’s words of doom has Eddie found a way to work with Jamie again (at least now he’s a sergeant she can be sure she’ll get to drive). It has to be due to what Erin said that Eddie’s worried about the potential impact to their relationship; it was Eddie who chose to stay at the 12th when Jamie transferred to the 29th and in Mind Games, there was no indication that the separation itself was what caused Eddie changing her mind. It appears that Jamie is disconcerted by this, he might be confused as to why Eddie’s suddenly chosen to ride with him, if she hadn’t even mentioned it as a possibility before then it might seem a little strange. Jamie is possibly picking up on the fact that something isn’t quite right but has no idea what it is. What’s great about that scene is that Eddie’s describing the dress to him safe in the knowledge that he doesn’t understand half of what she’s saying. Then after that reminder of the chosen dress, they’re helping the mother and child (did someone say foreshadowing?). It’s really pleasing to see Eddie and Jamie being able to help (a shout out for the chest compression acting, far more believable than some we’ve seen).
At the Hospital 1
OK, we know doctors see a lot of horrible things and are under a lot of pressure but this guy is so cynical, he’s not giving the mother the slightest benefit of the doubt even when she has no qualms about letting the police search her home. There’s definitely a sense that both the mother and her child are about to be sucked into the system and It’s fortunate that Jamie and Eddie are already involved and prepared to investigate what’s happened. Then again what would be the source of conflict for the drama if the doctor wasn’t being so stand-offish?
At the Hospital 2
So Eddie starts out wondering whether their relationship only works because they do the same job but when Jamie tries to check that he is correctly understanding whether she’s worried about it she says no, this probably leaves him a little confused. Then back to Dr Cynical again, who is more than happy to dismiss the existence of the vials – does he find it more likely that the mother has set it up to cover her tracks and pretend that she’s caring for her son? Thankfully Jamie and Eddie do not let his views colour their judgement.
The Interview
The interview with the mother is classic Jamie and Eddie on the job; the mother is defensive and scared that they’re going to be the reason she’ll lose her son. They then show that they are more than willing to listen to her rather than making snap judgements. Due to their willingness to provide her with that opportunity, they then get the info they need to arrest the people who are actually committing a crime.
Reagan Family Dinner
It was nice to see Eddie so relaxed at the dinner table, it appears that everything has now settled down and it’s her new normal (of course next week’s dinner scene will be anything but relaxed). This is one of those great dinner scenes where everyone gets to chip in in a way that provides some insight into the characters and also manages to provide some new details regarding the history of the family (OK so season 3’s Men in Black Henry said he only had 46 years with Betty but I think 50 years is a little more believable). In these situations, Jamie normally tends toward something to do with nature and the environment, although the dinner table is the only real opportunity we’ve had to learn that about the character. It doesn’t seem there’s been an awful lot of discussion regarding honeymoon ideas so far, maybe the suggestion that the whole family had gone on Erin’s honeymoon caused Eddie to put it on the backburner. Jamie seems surprised when Eddie suggests they could go to one of his bucket list place for the honeymoon – is it that he still doesn’t expect to be the one driving any of the big decisions relating to their wedding, that he just didn’t think their honeymoon would be focused on his dream destination, or did he get momentarily distracted by what they would likely be doing during their honeymoon? 😉
Thankful Hug
After the negative outcome when Jamie tried to help Art in Disrupted it’s a very welcome change to see him get a bit of happiness from helping someone. When you think back to what Maya implied in Trust regarding the local community’s view of the 2-9 and the distrust that existed this is another small sign of the positive changes that are being made there. Of course, the cause of this happiness is Eddie’s selfless decision.
Positive Outlook
A look into the possible future of Detective Eddie… I really hope they both get some recognition for the work they did leading up to the 14 arrests. And just in case we missed the signposts it’s confirmed that Eddie isn’t buying the dress, instead she’s generously donating the money to Mrs Rodriguez for insulin (although Jamie’s original suggestions for keeping costs low were too extreme this does show what can be done with the money if it’s not spent on the wedding).
It’s great that Jamie is able to reassure her that they will be OK. He has total confidence that their relationship can overcome all challenges, they are definitely not the same as Erin and Jack, and it shows that Jamie was paying attention to what Eddie said at the hospital. Jamie has to do it with a bit of humour so we at least get a glimpse of their old banter, this conversation feels a lot like their final scene in season 5’s Shoot the Messenger. It seems like a big thing that Jamie is saying why he loves her while they’re both stood next to the booking desk, it’s not exactly subtle. It appears that while they’re not actively telling people about the relationship they aren’t exactly hiding it away.
Final Thoughts
One interesting thing to note about the Jamie and Eddie storyline is that while all of the storylines were focussed on some form of fraud or mistrust Jamie and Eddie were the only ones who believed in the person from the start and helped catch the real frauds. This is in contrast to the others where Danny, Frank and Erin all spent most of the episode thinking that the person they were dealing with was performing some form of con.
What I like about this story is that it’s an external source that leads to Jamie and Eddie discussing an aspect of their relationship and getting a better understanding.
Thoughts on Jamko 