Life: Three Women
Come on in and talk about Life!
You know, I really recommend watching these twice. Not just for the plot-impaired, like me, but for everyone. It’s better after it’s settled in your brain once. You see all kinds of stuff and the real beauty of the episode comes through.
Having said that, this wasn’t one of my favorite episodes. But, like any episode of Life, it’s better than almost anything else on TV. So I did like it just fine.
Ted! I like Ted as a sounding board for Charlie. They look at the photo of Reese and Rayborn.
Ted: “What are you gonna do? You gotta do something! You want me to do something. I can do something. You gotta do something! Don’t you?” Ok, he’s not so much helpful all the time. As, you know, crazy-making. But I like that he’s involved.
Hey, that’s Jason Beghe, who is a HITG of massive proportions. Seriously, you’ve seen him before, right? I think he’s fantastic in this! Especially in the scenes in the interrogation room.
I like the fight in the elevator, both because the cut to it is startling and because of the prison conversation. So right away, I know this is going to be a good Prison Charlie episode. It’s one of the brilliant aspects of this character, and used to great effect. I love it when he pulls that out, either to get the drop on a suspect (like the knife at the guy’s groin in that one episode) or just knowing what someone’s up to (like in the episode with the student prison experiment, where he knew the kid was inciting a riot) or as a way to connect to the suspect somehow and figure him out (as in this episode, where he knows that John is “that guy”).
John: “What years?”
Charlie: “94 to 06.”
John: “Attwater, 98 to 08.”
Jane: “Which one of you is Charlie Crews?”
Ok, is she just being witty or something? Because, as she’s about to reveal, she knows Dani’s name and Bobby’s name and she knows they were both his partners. She explains that she’s done her research. And she doesn’t know what Charlie looks like? Random girls on buses know what Charlie looks like! Pfft.
Whatever, the show redeems itself with Charlie’s line.
Charlie: “But just to be clear, you’re not.”
Jane: “Not what?”
Charlie: “My new partner. I have a partner. I have two partners!”
Yes YOU DO, Charlie. *makes face at Jane*
They interrogate John. Jane is trying to understand about the letters to prisoners. This is classic Life right here:
Jane: “Lots of girls do it.” (sarcastic)
John: “Lots of girls do it.” (truthful)
Charlie: “Lots of girls do it.” (light bulb)
I love this show.
And then he locks her out of the room! I love that too! Charlie: “You’re that guy.”
Ok, for the record, I don’t like the Jane character. Not like I was exactly predisposed to like anyone replacing Reese, but still.
I mean, I like what they’re trying to do with her: she’s the chipper, annoying overachiever. Good way to distinguish her both from Reese and Charlie. And I like how DL is playing off of her --- making Charlie sort of amused, baffled and irritated all at once. But I’m not happy with Gabrielle Union at this point. To put it succinctly, she’s over-acting. I hate over-acting.
I’m willing to give her a chance, though. Part of the weirdness is that she’s coming into an established show. Tangent: I caught five minutes of an old, old episode of ER yesterday. SO awful with the overacting. All of them (except maybe Clooney and I really don’t even have a crush on him, he just has an admirable restraint, somehow. Always has.) Same thing I noticed with the pilot of The West Wing which (as you know) is tied for my favorite show of all time. I started watching it at the start of Season 2, watched that season, then went back to the beginning on DVD. I tell you, the pilot was very weird for me. Everybody was like their character, only on way too much sugar. Punching every line, giving slightly bigger reaction faces, hitting these plump, rosy beats too hard, making it all too cute. Bouncy, bouncy music behind all of it (and you know I love Snuffy). That’s the feeling I get from Gabrielle Union, optimistically. Maybe it’s just beginner’s ick. Listen to her when she says to Tidwell, “I’m not a robot.” She looks right at him, smug face, then a big grin. MUCH too much. Now imagine Reese saying something like that. Better, right? Anyway, GU might get way better, way fast. Fingers crossed.
Reese. I feel so bad for her. She thought she was getting a great assignment and instead she’s living inside some nightmarish interrogation. If that woman says “I’m asking you to be a cop” one more time I’m going to lose my mind because NO YOU’RE NOT. You’re asking you to, at minimum, implicate someone she loves in a murder.
Storefront Church of Ewww. Christian Prisoner Fangirl: “Millions of his words he poured deep into me. They went right up into me. I’ve never been filled like that before. It was raw and hot. Filled me all the way up. It was like a wire humming up inside of me.”
Ok, I’m going to throw up. Might be morning sickness, cause I think I got pregnant just listening to that.
PANTS sighting, walking out of the church. Maybe there’s a wire humming up inside him. Nah, even thinking about Charlie, that’s still gross.
I liked this.
Tidwell: “Women write to you?”
Charlie: “Yep.”
Tidwell: “You write em back?”
Charlie: “Nooo.”
Jane is speed-reading.
Tidwell: “Maybe she’s a robot. Have you seen her blink? Robots don’t blink.”
They go into the room with Jane. Hello, Pants!
Charlie: “Blinked.”
Tidwell: “Saw that.”
Ha! I love how they played that scene and I loved that Charlie went there! He just went with Tidwell’s robot theory. That was so cute. I’m liking them together lately.
John’s back from the Lam he was on. They put him in the interrogation room. HOLY Mother of Pants look at Charlie leaning against the wall. Rewatch, I’m telling you.
I like how John looks at Charlie and says “She was the face I looked at when I was on trial.” I really love that he’s reaching out to Charlie and that Charlie understands just what he means. Again, Jason Beghe is great in this.
I also like how Jane tells John he’s going to prison for life but John asks Charlie whether that’s true. Charlie just blinks. If we didn’t already know John was not guilty (which, then shame on us) Charlie’s non-reaction would tell us. Nice job.
On the phone with Reese. Each is looking at a photo of the other one with Rayborn.
Reese: “So how’s she working out?”
Charlie: “Yeah, she’s doing ok.”
Reese: “Well don’t forget about me.”
Charlie (a touch ironically): “I won’t.”
Reese: “So he killed her because she was looking for the diamonds?”
Charlie: “Yeah, looks like it.”
Reese: “You don’t think so? ….Crews? Sometimes things are just what they look like, right?”
Charlie: “Yeah, Reese. Sometimes things are just what they look like.”
Aw, I’m sad, but that was a good scene. They’re still on the phone talking about his case all the time, which is nice. And she can tell by his voice that he doesn’t like John for the murder, but she’s saying what she would say if she were with Charlie, trying to help him close the case. That’s nice too. And yet, they’re both talking about each other --- trying to talk themselves into believing what they’re seeing. Trying to wrap their minds around the possibilities that they don’t want to face. Sad, but good.
Ok, I need help with this aspect of it, though. Charlie is very troubled by the photo of Reese with Rayborn. Reese is very troubled by the photo of Charlie with Rayborn. Am I stupid? /rhetorical, ok? Why are they so bugged?
Let’s take Reese first. If Reese talked to Rayborn --- and we know she has some idea who he is (friend of her dad, who had been linked to the conspiracy) --- why wouldn’t she think Charlie would talk to Rayborn? That’s all she has: Charlie talked to Rayborn. I get why she thinks Charlie’s capable of killing Rayborn, but she has SO little evidence and SO much trust in her partner that I really don’t get why she doesn’t just ask him. Unless her phone is bugged, which it really might be.
Now Charlie. He didn’t know Reese was involved in any way with Rayborn except that (as he must know) Rayborn knows Jack Reese. Why would he be so unglued that Reese had a conversation with Rayborn? He knows that Reese has been tormented by the idea that Jack was involved in the conspiracy. Wouldn’t Rayborn be someone she might talk to if she still had doubts? Even if that’s not plausible to him, all he has is that photo. All he knows is that they had a conversation. Why wouldn’t he just ask her? Unless his phone is bugged, which it really might be.
What I would like is precisely that. That each of them thinks there’s a small chance that the other one killed Rayborn, and they’re afraid to talk about it on the phone for fear that the FBI or Roman is listening and would hear damning conversation. Each doesn’t want the other arrested for Rayborn’s murder. But, see, that’s just my shipper heart talking, because I think The Show is saying that they don’t trust each other anymore. L
Anyway, Charlie’s question to Ted indicates that he realizes this FBI assignment has something to do with him or Rayborn or the conspiracy.
I like Charlie in the theater, interrupting the Lyle or whatever his name is. I like it when Charlie is goofy and dangerous at the same time. And Charlie watching Jane eat is funny.
Jane, Charlie and Charlie’s Paaaants! go back to re-interview Sally’s boss. This is not the best pants episode, but it’s not half bad.
Ok, I need more help. Lyle was arrested for attacking an LA detective at a theater? I’m so confused. So he was arrested for arguing with Charlie? Or he attacked Charlie when…Charlie went to arrest him?
And why did Charlie call Bodner? I knew he would call Bodner eventually, but I figured it would be about Roman. Because this: a) Roman made Bodner shoot Charlie. b) Charlie returned the bullet to Bodner by shooting him in the leg. c) Charlie told Bodner to keep the bullet. I figured that meant, “Keep it until we team up to go after Roman.” But he’s nowhere near ready to go after Roman, is he? Help?