11×07 In Too Deep

After Danny witnesses a drive-by shooting, he butts heads with the detective assigned to the case. Also, a childhood friend of Jamie’s is convinced that she has single-handedly solved a cold case murder, and Frank struggles to trust an ex-detective when he brings forth information about a suspected crime ring, on BLUE BLOODS.

CBS Press Release

Initial Thoughts

These are my thoughts on the seventh episode of season 11. 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.

The title refers to someone being in a difficult situation that they cannot get out of; that’s definitely an accurate description of what Jamie finds himself faced with. This story was a lot of fun, although it was about a serious crime that wasn’t central to the plot. The victims are almost immediately forgotten; certainly, Alison’s behaviour at the end shows she’s more interested in providing entertainment for her followers than justice for the victims. Normally you’d expect to see something like this to balance out a more hard-hitting storyline, but really that didn’t seem to be the case in this episode, with the other stories being quiet introspective character pieces.

Scene by Scene Breakdown

In case you want to remind yourself of any of the scenes, click on the headings for a link to the relevant clips on YouTube

Baby Daddy?

This opening provides a rare but positive glimpse of Jamie being an approachable boss, it’s been a while since we saw this side of his role. The officer appears relaxed despite describing her embarrassment of the incident with her training officer and asking Jamie for guidance. In his typical way, Jamie corrects the officer while keeping it friendly and concludes the conversation just in time for the big arrival. The desk sergeant is so clearly feeling ‘I don’t want to be dealing with this’. It appears that there’s still tension between them after their fight in Vested Interests, but there’s no time to dwell on that as it leads to an introduction which quickly establishes Alison’s personality.

There are a few questions raised about Alison’s research. We’re quickly told that Jamie and Alison haven’t seen each other since just after he’d started Law School, so around 2005. Alison’s been able to find out that Jamie is working for the NYPD, and which precinct he’s working at, but hasn’t seen anything that suggests he’s married? Maybe it’s because of where she was getting her information from.

Catch-Up

Jamie really doesn’t want to involve Alison in his life so apart from making sure she knows he’s married (and why he didn’t find her joke funny) he’s not telling her anything else. He’ll realise later that this wasn’t enough to dissuade Alison. When Alison says she wants Erin’s help, Jamie looks like he’s caught between elation that he can pass Alison off onto Erin, and fear of what Erin might do to him.

Alison’s opening comment may have been about the case, but she’s as focused on the success of her podcast as she is on the details of the case. What’s noticeable is that while she’s describing what she’s found she keeps bringing it back to herself; the detective isn’t working on it because he doesn’t take her calls, and the suspect must be guilty because of how he responded to her. With how assertive she is, have to wonder why she limited herself to calling him. Whereas Alison apparently didn’t try to call Jamie, she just turned up at the precinct. It’s not that she’s being presented in a way that causes doubt about her investigation, but it does make you wonder what her motivation is.

Getting Re-inforcements

Have to assume that Erin remembers Alison and she’s taking no chances. While Jamie is very polite, Erin shows no compunction and is quite firm (seems like it’s a lesson she learnt a while ago). It really feels like Erin is taking the opportunity to get Jamie back for those times he talked her into a situation and then ran away, the most obvious examples being season 8’s Heavy is the Head and season 7’s Genetics. Erin’s not letting him drop Alison’s case on her desk. Jamie can’t get out of this because he’s a terrible liar, so isn’t able to justify why he can’t be assigned to help Anthony.

One detail we learn about Jamie is that he worked on the school paper while at high school. Really we know very little about Jamie before he went to Harvard.

Initial Investigation

While we all appreciate the chance to see Jamie back in his leather jacket, have to wonder why he’s gone from his uniform to casual clothes. This is supposed to be covered under an official request so why wouldn’t he be in smarter clothes? Does this indicate that Jamie is thinking of this more as helping out a friend rather than as a job?

There’s no question that Anthony is referring to Eddie when he mentions the “cuter” Reagan he sometimes works with. It feels like Anthony is somewhat off the mark with his comments about Alison, he’d already misjudged her with the Sam Slade remark, and it doesn’t make a lot of sense that she’s waited 15 years to contact Jamie if she’s so into him.

House Visit

The staging of this seems unusual; Jamie is the one who’s stood at the door, but it’s Anthony who identifies himself as a cop. Perhaps it’s a sign that Jamie isn’t entirely committed to the idea, he thinks Alison’s theory is plausible, but he’s got reservations and is worried that they’re harassing this guy.

Jamie and Anthony are so quick to leave that they don’t question the number of stairs in Boris’s house, despite him claiming to have been confined to a wheelchair for 8 years. It might be that they were allowing for the fact that being a wheelchair user doesn’t mean that someone cannot walk at all, and a difficult front entrance doesn’t mean there isn’t alternative access at the rear. But the very steep looking stairs within the house would make it a very challenging home for someone claiming to be stuck in a chair.

Surprise Guest

Eddie barely says or does anything when she meets Jamie at the door, but it’s enough for him to know something’s bothering her. Can only imagine that when Alison first turned up Eddie thought it might be quite fun to chat with an old friend of Jamie’s, Eddie could definitely deal with her if she’d felt the need, but then she ended up trapped with this force of nature. Does finding out Jamie had a mullet for a semester make up for the time she spent with Alison?

The situation is too risky for communicating purely with a look, so it seems like this time they’re using code words… When Eddie says ‘divorce’ it sounds like a sign to Jamie that if he doesn’t sort this out immediately he’ll be sleeping on the couch, Eddie’s actually trying to be polite and avoid saying “get this woman out of our home”. When Jamie says ‘date night’ it sounds like a very quick excuse for ejecting Alison, but also could mean ‘I’m so sorry, I’ll be treating you to make up for this’.

The whole scene does raise questions about Alison. Is she doing all of this to get Jamie’s attention as Anthony suggested? Is she showing stalker behaviour, like Boris claims? This does provide us with a reason to question where the story is going. Although with what we learn later, it’s more likely that Alison is just a very exuberant person who doesn’t view personal boundaries in the same way as most people.

Reagan Family Dinner

This is a family dinner which shows how much extra detail can be added to Jamie and Eddie’s relationship if we’re allowed to see them interacting at the table. Unfortunately, there’s a tendency to switch between an individual shot of Jamie and double shots of Eddie and Erin; as though they haven’t changed the camera positions from when it was Jamie, Nicky and Erin sharing that side of the table. It feels like the director deserves a round of applause for reminding everyone of what is possible.

Anthony is Right?

It seems Anthony has reason to like working with Jamie, just because he gets such a different response to what he’s used to. Sadly for Anthony, he can’t enjoy being told he’s right as his own investigation has shown that they shouldn’t believe Boris.

Time to Stop Hiding

We can only assume that the second visit from a cop was enough to make Boris consider that his time had run out and so he made a run for it. That Jamie didn’t identify himself as a police officer during the first visit gives Boris a reason to pause.

During the current conditions, the use of the screen door feels like a practical way of filming action while keeping some distance between the actors. The obstacle course of junk then maintains that distance for the chase. There’s a tradition of cyclists disrupting Jamie’s chases, like in season 4’s The Truth About Lying and season 8’s Friendship, Love, and Loyalty.

Concern and a Call

Jamie’s reaction to Anthony’s injury is the standard care and attention that all the Reagans pay to those they work with. However, while all the Reagans who work with Anthony would show concern there would be some differences in how they did it. Erin would chastise him for worrying her, and then possibly hit him. Danny would claim he’s only doing it for his own safety rather than admit caring about Anthony. While Eddie would be the same as Jamie, as it’s a way in which they’re so alike.

When Jamie receives a call from Alison are we surprised that he uses the default ringtone? The conversation between the three of them is quite fun, with Jamie and Anthony being concerned that Alison will do something foolish while Alison is already ahead of them. The story is heading to a quick conclusion, what is Boris supposed to think he’ll achieve by meeting Alison? Maybe he was considering a hostage, but that seems unlikely based on what happens next.

Desperate Meeting

At this point, we can only assume that Boris isn’t thinking any of this through. He’s just following his instincts, which seem to involve hurting women and that’s focused on getting revenge against Alison. Boris had to know that his time was limited, so he wasn’t going to gain anything by hurting Alison. There’s never any real risk, and he’s dealt with very quickly.

Case Solved

A reminder that Alison is more focused on her success and the reaction of her podcast’s listeners than the significance of proving Boris’s guilt. Erin definitely doesn’t have any concerns about being abruptly honest with Alison, although Jamie is still trying to minimise it and make Alison feel better. (By this point it seems like Jamie has developed a technique for escorting Alison out of places when she’s overstayed her welcome)

Final Thoughts

The Boris Vache story isn’t a particularly complicated plot, and the main interest is the personalities involved, but the characters are fun and engaging, ensuring that this is an enjoyable story. Vache has hidden in plain sight for years, running as soon as the authorities start to pay a bit more attention to him, but apparently never planned for this happening. After running Vache’s only aim is to take revenge on the person who he knows is responsible, although based on the nature of his crimes he’s definitely not going to take it well that a woman has identified him. He’d managed to avoid detection for several years, but that seems to have been due to luck.

The episode was successful in introducing twists that caused you to question the motives of Alison and Mackenzie. In other episodes, it can be that twists feel like a blatant plot trick. Here the twists are effective in creating uncertainty. Alison’s actions could look like those of a stalker, but mainly due to Anthony’s quick read of her that she was interested in Jamie (but he’d already been shown to make false assumptions about her). A 15-year absence didn’t make it seem very likely. Instead, Alison’s visit to the apartment could be an example of the same single-minded focus that she uses on her true-crime podcast.

Alison is a character with the potential to appear again, albeit occasionally. With her podcast as a starting point, she can allow a different type of story to be told. Her character brought a different energy to the scenes, providing something unique for the other performances to bounce off. Alison is a bold character, written to cause a bit of discomfort; just like Lena, Danny’s brother-in-law, and Frank’s old partner Lenny. Jamie is typically a quiet and reserved character, while his stories with Eddie will sometimes allow him to be shown in a different light it’s great to see something new and different. Alison was a constant source of embarrassment for Jamie, putting him in a position we haven’t seen before. It’s a challenge to be surprised by a character in a show that’s been running as long as this has, so the success achieved here is appreciated. During the current circumstances finding new types of stories to tell is necessary, and hopefully, there will be more opportunities for Jamie and Eddie to be shown in new ways.