Episode 30
Dear Season 2,
Stop being so good! It's very difficult to come up with a new way to say "I love this episode" every week.
Your Friend,
Rita
Synopsis:
While dealing with emotionally-charged cases, Reed learns the importance of an unbiased attitude.
The Story:
Reed and Malloy enter the station with a prisoner, who stops and takes a moment to take in his surroundings. He claims he has never been inside a police station before, but Reed knows this is not true.
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| Mr. Bates here has a package that is 2" thick, filled with crimes like lewd conduct and enraging public decency. Today he has hit the "big casino" with a charge of 288 PC (lewd acts with a child). |
Mac stops to ask if Bates is the child molester. Malloy confirms that their prisoner is the molester and he goes on to report that his latest victim is not doing so well. Reed feels the need to give Mac some more information on Mr. Bates.
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| "Right, Mr. Bates here is kinda rough on knee-high boys. Aren't you, mister?" |
Bates claims that he wasn't responsible for his actions, he had been drinking. His lack of culpability enrages Reed.
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| "Why? To get up enough nerve to enter that playground restroom? Or were you afraid that little 5 year old might have attacked you?" |
Let's take a minute here and appreciate this scene. This is some pretty graphic dialogue for a 1960's show. I wonder what the viewing public thought when this episode was first aired. Had they ever heard this type of language on television before? Kudos to Mark VII for actually talking about child molestation without using euphemisms or changing the true incident to a less-explicit crime.
OK, back to our story.
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| Malloy warns his young partner to take it easy. |
But, Reed is not done yet. He makes one more comment when Mac tells him to put Bates in the holding cell.
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| "Yes, sir. I'll have it fumigated when he leaves." |
Let's stop again and talk about Bates' haircut. I often wonder if this actor already had this haircut or if Larry Germain said, "No, he's not creepy enough, let's give him some bad bangs". However it happened, the hair fits the character perfectly. (I am deeply sorry if I've offended anyone who has this same haircut.)
After Reed's final outburst, Mac wants to have a word with Malloy.
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| Mac wants to know if what he witnessed in the hallway is Reed's "customary attitude". |
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| Using his freckled digits for emphasis, Malloy explains that Reed is a better probationer than he or Mac ever was. He describes his partner as "better trained, better educated, smarter all the way around". |
While Mac and Pete are having their discussion, Jim works on his arrest report and chats with another officer who recently completed his probationary period.
He tells Jim that his first year out of the Academy has been a rough one. He recounts a story about a particularly trying case he worked on. He and his partner had arrested a purse snatcher who also hit women. The ex-probationer wanted to hit the guy but instead just told him off. His partner reprimanded him for his treatment of the prisoner. This was when the neophyte officer learned about sick people.
So, this guy is telling Jim this story as a way of giving him advice on dealing with Mr. Bates and I'm not sure that I agree with it. I understand his intention, but I think better advice may have been, "treat this guy fairly or else you won't get a conviction". By telling a story about "sick people" as advice on dealing with a child molester, is he saying that Mr. Bates shouldn't be punished for his actions because he is sick?
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| Anyway, here's a cap of Jim listening to the story. |
When we next see our heroes, they are back on the street. Jim is glad to be out of the station. Pete praises him for his fair report and asks when his baby is due and if he is hoping for a boy or a girl.
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| Jim then tells Pete how he wanted a boy, but after meeting a neighbor girl he'd be happy with a daughter. Do you see that weird pink pattern reflected in the window? The script girl, Cynnie Troup (Can you guess who her father is?) used to lay down on the floor of the backseat and read the radio dispatcher lines to McCord and Milner during filming. Do you think this is a reflection of what she was wearing that day? I've read that she always wore black, but maybe one day she didn't? Or am I just seeing things? |
Pete goes on to address what happened back at the station and asks Jim if he was thinking of his unborn son when he was leaning on Bates. Jim admits that maybe he was and apologizes for his actions. He sheepishly asks Pete if he wants to trade him in.
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| "What for?" answers Pete. "You're the latest model, aren't you?" |
Before Jim can check his expiration date, the radio interrupts with a call of unknown trouble, possible DB (dead body).
They arrive at the call and meet neighbors Mrs. Cunningham and Mrs. Ryan.
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| I think Mrs. |
Mrs. Cunningham suspects that a family who used to live in the neighborhood, the Ashtons, have hurriedly moved after killing their young daughter. She wants them to investigate an awful smell that is coming from under what used to be the Ashton's porch.
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| Pete reacts to the smell. Jim doesn't admit that the smell is not coming from under the porch. |
Pete sends the ladies home then examines the area under the porch, he spies a sack that could be the right size for a child's body. Jim volunteers to go under the porch and get the sack, but Pete doesn't know if that is such a good idea. He asks Jim how many DB calls he's been on. Jim admits that he is only been on one, the one "back at the hotel" (meaning the DB call from Log 131: The Dicks Have Their Jobs and We Have Ours). Lack of experience does not deter Jim, though, he is going to get that sack.
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| Pete's still not so sure about this. |
Jim climbs under the porch and emerges, covered in dirt and cobwebs, with the sack. Pete opens it and reveals the contents.
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| "Pacific mackerel, fun to catch, hard to clean, and if you're moving; a great way to get even with your neighbors." |
Now Jim is angry. Pete knew all along what was under there, but he still let him climb under a porch, get his uniform dirty, and skin his knee; all for a sack of rotten fish. Pete knows he's taught his inexperienced partner a valuable lesson, now he'll know better the next time a busybody accuses recently vacated neighbors of murder.
They return to the station so Jim can get a fresh uniform. As he is changing, he has a question for Pete. He wants to why Pete has never taken the sergeants' exam, everybody says he would have done better than Mac on the test.
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| Jim then pats Pete's tum-tum and reminds him that he's not getting any younger. "When opportunity comes along, you gotta grab it." |
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| Pete is horrified by this brazen invasion of his personal space. "I like what I'm doing. Is that all right with you?" |
The light-hearted mood quickly changes when two other officers enter the locker room and begin talking about Bates' five-year-old victim. Jim silently listens to their conversation while Pete and Mac watch his reaction. One of the officers comments that the victim has died from his injuries. The news is too much for Jim to bear.
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| Look at Pete's face when Jim punches the locker. I would be eternally grateful if someone could make me a .gif of this scene. |
I wonder what happened immediately after Jim punched the locker. I imagine Mac ordered Grant & Benson out of the locker room. Then left himself, telling Pete that he was going to give him and Jim a moment but he wanted to see them in his office when they were ready. Pete nods at Mac, then sits in silence for a few seconds. He finally tells his partner that he knows it's hard but he has to pull himself together, if he breaks down every time something like this happens he won't be able to function on the job. Pete would then attempt a joke about Jim buying new locker doors for the entire room. He leaves the room and tells Jim he'll meet him in Mac's office.
Jim finally turns around after Pete is gone and reveals his wet, bloodshot eyes. He wipes his eyes, takes a deep breath to pull himself together then leaves the locker room and walks down the hall to the watch commander's office.
We next see Pete & Jim in the car, Jim worries about the locker door and if he'll make it through his probationary period. He doesn't believe it when Pete tells him that he has had to pay for a few locker doors himself.
They receive a radio call for a 459 at 1200 Loma Linda and something amazing happens.
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| OK, watch carefully. Here they are before the radio call. |
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| Then the call comes through and we see a shot of the radio. |
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| "1-Adam-12, roger." Wait a second! They were just wearing their class A uniforms, now they're suddenly in class C uniforms! |
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| They arrive at 1200 Loma Linda and they're back in their class A uniforms! I'm shocked that this mistake is not on the IMDB page for this episode. |
Mr. Plaid shirt in the screen cap above has called the police because his house is being robbed for the third time in four months. Today he caught the pair in the act. He let the phone ring so they would think he was not home, then the one and a half thieves got to work. That's right, one and a half thieves. He gets in the back of 1-Adam-12 to show them what is happening at his house.
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| Mr. problem. |
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| This is the half thief, he has entered the house through a doggy door. He gathers the loot then drops it over the fence where the one thief, his father, is waiting in the back alley with the getaway car. |
Malloy and Reed catch both of them, haul the father off to jail and take the kid to juvenile detention. (Sorry, I'm not gonna spend much time on this call. There's a lot to cover in this episode.)
Later, Reed and Malloy are in the car discussing the future of Johnny Standish, the half thief, when the male dispatcher comes over the radio with a call of a 211 at the grocery store, the two suspects with guns are there now. Pete speeds to the address, which is located in the Universal part of town.
When they arrive on the scene, the suspects are backing out of the store while firing their guns. Pete and Jim chase them on foot through the streets and into an alley that is blocked with a high chain link fence.
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| One of the suspects attempts to scale the fence, but he gets vertically tackled by Jim (or McCord's stuntman, but I want to believe that it is McCord). |
As soon as Jim pulls the surly suspect down from the fence, the prisoner starts hurling hateful language at the officer. Jim, having learned from his experience with Mr. Bates, keeps his cool and lets the abuse roll off of him like "water off of a duck's ass".
The insults continue after Pete reads them their rights, but Jim does not rise to the bait. A crowd gathers and Binger, the loud-mouthed suspect, tries to start an incident. Jim hiply warns him against it.
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| "Do all the talking you want, Binger, but don't incite a riot. You dig?" |
Binger is still heaping abuse on Jim as they walk to the patrol car. Some young men in the crowd want to join Binger in disparaging the officers. But one of them goes against the crowd and points out that it is Binger and his accomplice who have wronged the community today, not the police.
They finally arrive at the car where Mac and backup officers have also assembled. Binger is upset that the crowd is not doing anything about the "pigs".
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| "That's right 'soul brother'," says this young man. He was the one who pointed out earlier that Binger did not deserve the crowd's support. |
Mac announces that Binger and his accomplice, Vern Bayliss, are to be charged with two counts of 187 PC.
Binger is still shouting "Kill these pigs!" as backup hauls him away.
Vern Bayliss whines, "All we wanted was a bottle of wine!"
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| And Jim continues to look stunning. (Is Binger wearing the same sweatshirt with cut-off sleeves that Jim wore in Exactly 100 Yards?) |
The final scene takes place in the locker room.
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| Pete has something on his mind. |
He finds his partner and asks Jim why he was so quiet as they drove to the station. Jim explains that he was thinking about Bates and the five-year-old boy who was alive and well this morning. He wants to know if there is a "trick to it". Pete doesn't understand what he means.
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| "Putting him out of your mind. The boy, Bates, and the others; I still haven't learned to shut them out." |
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| "You will." |
At this point the young man who spoke in Reed and Malloy's defense during the 211 call enters the locker room. His name is Jessie Smith and wants to talk to the officers but he feels silly. Reed thanks him stopping a possible riot earlier.
Jessie feels that he needs to apologize for what happened earlier. Not for his actions, but for the actions of those involved with the crime. (I think.)
I'm confused here. Is Jessie apologizing for the actions of Binger and Bayliss because they are part of his community or because they are fellow African-Americans? Anyway, Malloy says he understands (that makes one of us) and then gives us the greatest screen cap ever.
Mr. Smith leaves and Mac enters the room. He wants to know how Reed is doing.
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| "That's a good question." |
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| "He's doing just fine." |
The End.
My Evaluation:
As you may have guessed, I love this episode! It touches on themes explored in other episodes, it's chock full o' action, and it has a glaring continuity error! What a wonderful gift!
Jim gets emotional after the death of a child and asks Pete how to deal with the unique stresses of their job, much like S1 E7 Log 71: I Feel Like a Fool, Malloy and S1 E17 Log 33: It All Happened So Fast. Anytime Jim is vulnerable, it just breaks my heart, but these are still some of my favorite episodes.
Just like the previous episode, Log 52: Good Cop Handle with Care, Reed learns that a good cop does not let his feelings get the better of him.
All of these episodes also illustrate the strong "brothers in blue" bond between the two partners. Which is why I love the entire show. Their relationship is a beautiful thing.
I'm going to have to give yet another episode of season 2 the rating of:
Do you agree?
Before I say "See you next time", I have to let you all know that I won't be posting next Sunday. I'll be traveling for work the majority of this week, so between meetings and long days I won't be able to devote much time to the adventures of Pete and Jim. So, I am sorry to say, "See you in 2 weeks!"
KMA-367
I enjoy your posts! Smart people like us like Adam-12.
ReplyDeleteOkay, there's a lot to unpack here, so let's go to work.
ReplyDeleteFirst, Bates: I like your comments on the hairstyle. One thing that interests me about it is that it's age-inappropriate, even for the time. He's not quite one of those middle-aged or older men who are trying to ingratiate themselves with those damned, dirty, violent hippies, but there's an unsettling sense that he's trying to look, maybe to be, younger than he is.
I also give serious props to the actor for his reading of the line about not being responsible because he was drinking. His pleasure in ducking responsibility for his crime is palpable, and we want to push his face in, too.
Malloy's scene with Mac is one of my favorites of the series. I've talked about this scene elsewhere: Malloy makes a great show, when he's in the car with Reed, of his seniority and Reed's "wet-behind-the-ears" juniority, but when push comes to shove, he defends Reed like a tiger, and makes it clear that he has absolute confidence in him. (I think this is important to bear in mind later on, when we get to the fish scene.) Malloy views Reed almost with reverence: The probationer is a treasure with which he's been entrusted, and he's almost in awe of that responsibility. That, to me, is the core of their relationship, and of the show.
Now, we move on to Reed's conversation with the recently-out-of-probation officer. I think his meaning in "That's when I learned about sick people" was a little different. I think he was saying he learned about sick people was more along the lines of "As much as sickos like that might disgust me, I had to treat them with the same respect as any other suspect. If I didn't, I wouldn't still be a cop." He's talking to Jim about safeguarding his job. Your mileage, of course, may vary.
Now we move on to The Great Fish Caper. I liked this scene a little more than you. This is where I think it's important to remember Pete's speech to Mac about what a great cop Jim Reed is. Here, we're seeing in action what Pete believes is his primary duty to Jim: Polishing this rough diamond into the shining cop he's destined to be. He sees that Jim has bought entirely into Mrs. Cunningham's version of events, and is emotionally-invested enough (and it's worth noting that it is, again, a matter involving a small child that's got expecting father Jim Reed all knotted up) to overlook a lot of important basics about police work. Reed's eager, insistent, to go under the porch and recover that sack. Pete already knows what's in there -- he recognizes the smell -- so he knows that there's nothing to be lost in investigative terms, letting Jim follow his impulses and then showing him where they led him astray.
It's important to note, I think, that Jim doesn't just dirty up his uniform going under that porch. As Pete points out, he's destroyed any physical evidence there is to be found there. If that sack had contained the corpse of a small child, Jim's actions in going in to pull it out without proper preparation and investigation could have gone a long way toward helping someone get away with murder. I'm with Pete here. His job, and it's a job he takes with utmost seriousness, is to educate Jim Reed. The lesson he administers here, the second time in a day Jim's impending fatherhood has caused him to let a child-related case get under his skin, is all the sharper, and all the more memorable, because he let Jim learn it the hard way...yet without endangering an actual investigation.
I really enjoy the bit with the father-son burglary team. Again, it's a child-related case, but I notice it doesn't seem to get under Jim's skin as much as it does Pete's. Pete's contempt for the father is withering and palpable, but still on the right side of the line. I also really like the homeowner, and his compassion for the child burglar.
(More to come)
First off, I want to thank you for contributing your great insight to my blog. You have done a better job at summing up each scene than I did. I wasted too much time on silly, superficial things like imaginary reflections in the the car window and fart jokes.
DeleteWe're on the same page with Bates' haircut. That haircut is very much like one that a young boy would have. My brother had the same haircut throughout elementary school.
You've shared your thoughts with me on Malloy's reverence for Reed before. I wonder when Malloy began feeling this way about Reed. During most of the pilot he doesn't want the responsibility of training or even to continue on the job. Was it during the final scene when the Lt. reminded Pete that he, too, was once a green rookie who made mistakes? Was it then that Pete realized that someone took the time to mold him and he should not take this responsibility lightly nor throw it away?
Pete will always jump to Reed's defense and I love that he always defends Jim "behind the scenes" and never holds it over Jim's head. He never says. "look I stood up for you, you'd better pull it together". He has complete confidence that Jim will pull it together without being ordered to do so.
Moving onto Reed's conversation with the new officer. I never thought of his "sick people" comment in the way that you have interpreted it. Makes sense.
I agree with everything you have to say about the "great fish caper", I glossed over this to spend more time on the locker room scene and the locker punch. It was not lost on me that this was yet another potential tragedy involving a young child that Jim let get the better of him.
Between the fish caper and the father-son burglary team comes the locker room scene and Pete's revelation that he, too, had to pay for some locker doors in his younger days. Somewhere in there is the turning point for Jim. Did the fact that he now has to pay for the locker door make Jim realize that he better straighten up? Or did he think, "Pete was once like me and now look at him. If he can do this so can I" after Pete shared his story?
Either way, you're right, he does a much better job of controlling his emotions during the scenes with Standish and son.
I don't think I did a better job, I just approached from a different direction.
DeleteAbout Pete's attitudes toward Jim, I think it was a combination of a number of factors during the pilot. Throughout that first episode, he's got that "eager young puppy" vibe, but he also shows a huge amount of promise as a police officer. Malloy sees him then and there as a diamond in the rough. Was his previous young partner as good? I'm guessing he wasn't -- not quite. Then, in the climax, Jim proves himself a grand slam redoubled in both cops and inexperience -- brilliantly capturing that armed gang, but doing so in a way that was unduly risky. All of that filled Malloy's mind with the specter of this rough diamond (a grand slam redoubled in rough diamonds? I may be going overboard with the card metaphors!) being shattered and wasted, if not handled properly during this last, most crucial and most dangerous, part of his training. Pile on top of that the Lieutenant's reminder that Pete was once just such an eager-beaver rookie, and became the cop he is because he had the right partner looking out for him and training him... I think all of that is what convinced Pete Malloy that staying on to guide Jim Reed into professional adulthood was the right thing to do.
Jim's kid-focused problems are now behind us as we move to one of the most interesting and troubling parts of the episode: the Robbery/Homicide in the grocery story at the Universal Back Lot (which I presume is playing Watts in this episode.)
ReplyDeleteI feel that Mark VII is often awkward at best in dealing with the racial politics of the time. Their heart's clearly in the right place, but it's clearly a case of a lot of white people trying to understand black people and it shows.
This sequence is a very mixed bag in that area. Vern Bayliss is problematic in one way -- he's a few steps above Steppin Fetchit, but that final whining cry of "All we wanted was a bottle of wine" is an awful stereotype of the ignorant, pleasure-loving darkie who falls into trouble.
Binger, who's a pretty two-dimensional villain, actually seems to have more depth, as he tries to manipulate the crowd into rescuing him from the cops. He knows in this neighborhood, it's "Us-Vs-Them," with the cops as "Them," and he tries to parlay that to his advantage. He certainly seems sincere in his disdain for Whitey, but I don't get the feeling he was acting out of any social agenda when they went into that grocery store: He just wanted to rob the joint. (And all Vern wanted was a bottle of wine.)
I'm not sure how I feel about his success in turning the crowd against the police. I wasn't ten years old yet when this episode aired, so I wasn't in a position to have really learned if the racial tensions between the LAPD and the black community in places like Watts were that strong.
But it's worth pointing out that the way young Jesse Smith defused the crowd was to point out that the grocers who were killed by Bayliss and Binger were black. He started out by pointing out that the grocers had been grubstaking the neighborhood for years, and Binger was able to undercut that by claiming out that the grocers were white. That seems like enough to keep the crown on Binger's side. Sure, he just killed a couple of inoffensive storekeepers who've been giving people credit and breaks on prices and generally helping the neighborhood keep their families fed, but if they were white people, well, so what? It's only when Smith contradicts him, and points out that the grocers were black, that the crowd turns against Binger.
Is that really how bad the racial politics of LA were at the time? Or is it how the white people making Adam-12 thought black people would feel? I don't know the answer, I ask the question.
In any case, I think that's what Jesse Smith is embarrassed about when he talks to Pete and Jim back at the station. I think that's what he was apologizing for: He's embarrassed that his neighbors were willing to stand and fight for a pair of no-good, murdering crooks, as long as they thought the murder victims were white. It's pretty clear that Jesse doesn't feel that way. To him, the first, most important thing was that the victims were valuable members of the community: people who'd been there to help when their neighbors were in need. But the crowd that gathered made it clear that even with all that, those lives only mattered to them when they remembered the victims were black. If they were white, the crowd wouldn't have cared.
As I said, I don't know if that's really a fair reflection of LA's racial divide in 1969... But it's pretty clear to me that it's what Jesse Smith felt the need to apologize for.
I do love this episode, even that racially-charged scene. It's a courageous piece of television that's clearly trying to grapple in a conscientious way with difficult, important issues. And, in the form of Jesse Smith, it does present a more nuanced view of that racial divide.
Since I was not even born in 1969, there is no way that I am qualified to comment on the racial tensions of the time. But, I do agree that a lot of Mark VII shows dealing with race relations do seem to be written by white people with their hearts in the right places.
DeleteI agree with all of your comments about Binger and you've made me see Bayliss in a new light.
I was confused by much of the conversation between the young men in the crowd. It never occurred to me that the other young men were not as familiar with the grocers as Jessie Smith was. I just assumed that they would have known that the murdered couple was black. But, maybe their mothers did all of the grocery shopping. The scene makes more sense after reading your thoughts.
I wish the lines that Jessie Smith delivers were more clear. I think he could have also been apologizing to the officers for the actions of Binger and the crowd.
This is a courageous piece of television that did try to deal with difficult issues. You, I and a few others know this. I wish others would recognize the importance of this episode, of this entire series. Thank you again for sharing your thoughts on this.
I'm not sure it's that the crowd wasn't familiar with the grocers, but that (as being portrayed by well-intentioned white writers) they weren't _thinking_ about them as individuals. Binger is trying to get the crowd to rescue him by framing his arrest as the Evil White Man oppressing the Poor Black Man, and the crowd, with its own longstanding issues with racial injustice, seems willing to go along with that.
DeleteWhen Jesse Smith steps forward and talks about what Binger and Bayliss have stolen from the neighborhood, generous businesspeople who've kept food on all their tables, Binger loudly proclaims, "Yeah, _white_ people!" The crowd doesn't seem to me to stop and say, "Heeeey... Waitaminute! They weren't white!"
So when Jesse contradicts him, whether he's telling them something they don't know, or reminding them of something they knew already, it's only when Binger's lie (It's obviously not a mistake: he could hardly not have noticed what they looked like when he was shooting at them) has been pointed out, and the crowd is specifically thinking that the people who were killed are black, that they really turn against Binger.
It's for that reason that I think what Jesse Smith feels the need to apologize to the officers for, it's a racial thing that's wider than just Bayliss and Binger. I think we can all agree that nobody expects thugs who'd kill elderly grocers in a robbery to behave well. But that the crowd was on the verge of siding with such a murderous creep just because of the color of his skin and that of the cops, I think _THAT_ was what Jesse Smith found so mortifying. I think Jesse also knows, and knows well, all the reasons why his neighbors don't trust white authority, why in that neighborhood, that passing black-and-white police car represents, not protection but an occupying force. But that knowledge also makes the shame he feels when the police who are actually working in the service of his community are endangered by his neighbors siding against them in support of a murderous creep like Binger all the more terrible.
At least, that's what I think.
Love your blog!
ReplyDeleteI was wondering if you could help me; I'd love a screen shot of Reed in this blue shirt with some sort of bird design? I loved it, hubby thought it was hideous lol
Thank you and keep up the awesome work! :)
Thanks! Glad you enjoy the blog! I know the shirt you're talking about. I'll be posting a promo for an an upcoming blog-a-thon I'll be participating in. I'll include your requested screen shots with in that post. I have to say I tend to agree with your husband on this one.
DeleteLol I'm just a sucker for far out mod fashions ;)
DeleteThank you so much! I'll definitely keep an eye out :D
I just found this blog a little while ago. Thank you, hearing all of these comments on this amazing show just makes my day! So, thank you! I particularly like this one as it feels...timeless. The approach to relations seems static when looking at 1969 and the present. It seems this theme is even carried over in newer shows like Aquarius. Is it accurate depictions of our society? Do people feel this way and did they behave like that? Or is it simply a writer's perception? Regardless I think we all wish that every police officer could act as professional and responsible as Reed and Malloy. They ARE the standard!
ReplyDeleteThey certainly are the standard. It reminds me of a story I heard Kent McCord tell once. After the show started some LAPD officers were a little upset because they now had to "live up to" the image of Reed and Malloy. McCord told them, "good".
DeleteSo glad you enjoy the blog!
I have a .gif file of Pete's reaction when Jim hits the locker, if you're interested. Thanks and all best. I adore your blog!
ReplyDeleteRegardling the "reflection" in the window I do not think it is someone in the floor of the backseat. I believe it is a reflection of Reed's hand on the seat bench.
ReplyDelete