Attraction




Once again we travel into the realm of TSdom to review another episode, Attraction. And once again, we have spoilers galore and plenty of comments about Jim and Blair's physical appearance, a subject about which I never tire of speaking. Onward.

Well, I am one of the few TS fans to admit actually liking Attraction. Me, I have a weird sense of humor and I find it pretty darn funny with Jim lusting after Laura like a dog on the prowl. Sorry about that, but you got to have a sense of humor about the writing in TS anyway. This is not at all like when Jim lusts after the Yucky!Alex later on.

Attraction is about a series of seemingly impossible jewelry heists. The police are stumped because they are performed in unconventional fashions and in unlikely places. Our guys appear first on the scene after one of these robberies has taken place in a high rise with no apparent means of entry other than a window on the outside of the building being broken many stories above the ground. Blair looks very nice in this first scene in that black leather coat he wears from time to time. I would like to see him in black leather pants too, but no such luck. Jim is in some nondescript outfit, but then again, Jim looks luscious just standing around reading a police file.

Jim and Blair are looking around when Jim perks up. Blair notices that something has grabbed Jim's attention and questions him about it. Jim says he's feeling really good and his skin is tingly. Blair's brain kicks into overdrive. He tells Jim to track around the room to see if he can pick up the good "feeling" any place else. Jim walks around and then one of the two robbery victims who is watching has an absolutely great line. When Jim calls Blair over by calling him Chief, the one old guy looks at the other and says, "Is he some kind of Indian?" Very cute line. Then the other victim watches as Jim walks here and there searching and says to his buddy something about Jim -- is he a cop or a carpet installer? Funny scene.

Back at the station Simon is going over the facts with Jim and Blair. They are looking for any kind of unusual criminals, ex-circus performers, that sort of thing. Simon sends them on their way but Blair hangs back. The look on Blair's face is like a kid in a candy shop. He is so excited when he tells Simon that something new has come up with Jim's senses. Jim immediately stomps on poor Blair's enthusiasm and Simon asks is this information will help with the case. Since the answer is no, Simon sends them packing. Blair is so disappointed! He's all excited about his Sentinel's abilities and Simon and Jim crush his feelings. Bad S and J.

Then we move onto the bar scene. Seems that Blair has set himself and Jim up with a couple of loser women, according to Jim. In walks the BOTW, Laura, who just happens to bump into Jim. Jim gets all focused on Laura and Blair pushes Jim in her direction with an admonishment to go and hit on her. Oh, whenever Jim feels the "feeling" there is a chimy sound on the sound track. A nice touch, I thought. Anyway, he's practically zoned on Laura and he follows her. She knows he's a cop already and she's been sent to keep an eye on him, BTW, just in case Jim gets too close to figuring out their game.

Anyway, I suppose you would say the scene on the pool table is sexy. Laura's talking away and Jim's zoned, wrapping her hair around his fingers and running a finger on her arm and chin. Jim does try to kiss her but Laura flees the scene before they kiss. Jim tries to follow her but she's gone. In the meantime Blair's gone home because the next scene shows Jim and Blair talking in evidence lock up at the precinct the next morning. Jim is telling Blair that he won't see Laura again because she didn't give him her last name. He says he doesn't really know what happened but that he didn't even realize he had driven almost to the Canadian border before he snapped back to reality. Blair drags out evidence from the robberies and has Jim go over them, looking for the "feeling", but nothing happens. Oh, cute thing, we find out when Jim asks how Blair got into evidence lock up, Blair admits that he is quite good at forging Jim's signature.

The next robbery occurs right in front of a huge party. The building across the street catches fire and a guard is killed. It seems that a mil in diamonds is heisted but no one at the party has seen a thing. Jim and Blair are checking out the room where the diamonds were held when Jim feels the tingly feeling again. Blair has Jim walk around the room to where the feeling is the strongest. Jim walks around and something causes him to look up. We then have a very slashy scene when Jim grabs Blair and pulls him to stand shoulder to shoulder with him. He shows Blair through the hole in the roof how the robbers got in through an unarmed skylight. They go outside and Jim figures out they walked a tight rope from roof top to the other to commit the robbery.

Jim and Blair go across the street to start cruising the people at the party. Jim is positive the robbers are still there. When they start to walk around, we find out that Jim did not feed Blair his supper that night because when they walk by a tray of hors d'oeuvres, he starts munching away. Then we hear the chimes when Jim spies (surprise!) Laura from across the room. Jim is immediately zoned on her and Blair once again sends Jim off after her. Simon tries to talk to Jim but he's oblivious to everything but her. When Simon asks Blair what's up with Ellison, Blair finally starts to put two and two together, realizing that indeed those senses are whacked somehow. (I wrote this review before I knew who Jason Carter was. Bad LilyK! Jason is wonderful, cute, adorable and incredibly sexy in this episode as the guest star bad guy.)

Jim and Laura end up making out in the coat closet (for heaven's sake! Like a couple of teenagers!). A fight breaks out and Simon yells for Blair to get Jim. Blair makes the mistake of going into the coat room and walks in on his partner and Laura all hot and heavy. Blair actually looks a bit embarrassed when he signals for Jim. As much as I don't like women touching Jim, I have to admit that if I had been in a coat closet with Jim Ellison, I'd have done the same thing.

Turns out the fight was with a couple of pickpockets working the party. Simon is a bit PO'd and tells Jim to wrap it up. Then Laura and another of the bad guys (Jason!) stage a bit of a fight for Jim's benefit. It works because Jim goes to her rescue and takes her home. Simon is worried and asks Blair what's up with Jim. Blair makes the statement that Jim's running on pure instinct.

We then have The Sex Scene. Believe me, I enjoy any opportunity for Jim to remove his shirt. The darned woman kept getting in the way of the camera. The next morning, our Jimmy comes home all humming and happy. We have an extremely sexy shot to Blair lying on his bed reading. He has his hair pulled back and has on his glasses. That always gets to me. He is just so yummie. Blair comes and stands looking very nice watching Jim pour coffee, which Blair informed him is old reused grounds. Yuck. Jim is grinning from ear to ear, trying to weasel food out of Blair. No donuts, no breakfast. All that exercise made Jim a hungry guy.

Oh, heavens, then we have a very nice loft scene. This is the best scene of this episode. First of all, we get to see Jim getting dressed. He's wearing blue and white striped boxers and his pants are unzipped. Then he puts on this great grey muscle shirt. Unfortunately he puts a long-sleeved shirt over that. Darn. Nice muscles. Blair is quite comfortable following Jim up to his bedroom and talking to Jim as he dresses. Go figure. <beg> Blair informs Jim that he's figured out the whole mess and Jim is attracted to Laura because of pheromones. Jim doesn't buy it. Blair tells him Laura is in on the robbery and Jim tells Blair to prove it. Blair hands Jim a wine glass wrapped in a towel and when Jim unwrapped it, the little chimes go off and he feels all tingly, the same sensation.

Jim is very disappointed. When Blair explains about the pheromones, Jim actually listens for a change. He is quite unhappy but he believes Blair when he's told all the facts. This is a nice scene with close-ups of each guy as they are talking.

In the truck on the way to nab Laura, Jim and Blair have a very nice discussion about Jim's feelings. I like that Jim says the feelings felt real and that Blair reassures him that they were real and that he's human in spite of the senses. Oh, and I also like when Blair explained to Jim about how people really do have chemistry with one another. So they're talking and stop at a stop sign. Jim sees Laura's car and sees a woman's legs, someone is sitting in the passenger's seat. The one bad guy (Jason, watch out!) goes around, gets in the car with (we assume) Laura, and the car explodes, killing Laura and the bad guy (poor Jason <sniff>) who is a brother to the other bad guy partner, BTW. Such nice families.

Jim is sad Laura's been blown to bits, but he's determined to catch the remaining criminal. Blair has on a very nice greyish-blue sweater in these scenes. Jim didn't wear anything particular exciting this episode except for those couple of mentions above. Anyway they go to the hotel where the baddies had been holed up and, as luck would have it, the last bad guy waltzes through the lobby as Jim and Blair are looking for him. Needless to say, he's caught in short order. I like the line when Jim catches up this the baddie, he tells him that he's never liked the circus and when whacks him. I agree, I never liked the circus much myself.

Jim goes up to Laura's room to look for the jewels. He walks in and sees the packed suitcases on the floor near the door. Then he hears a sound. It's Laura!! It's alive!! Now why in the heck didn't he hear her from out in the hall? I know he can hear a heartbeat a heck of a lot further than that. Anyway, Laura turns on the charm and tries to get our Jimmy to let her go with a promise of the jewels and her body. For a split second we are supposed to believe Jim's going to agree, but then he slaps the cuffs on her. I never believed he'd fall for it myself.

The final scene is cute. Simon, Jim and Blair are talking about the robbery and who did what to whom. An older lady of about 65 walks by and stops, turns and smiles sweetly at Jim. Jim acts all zoned when he looks at her. Then he turns to the guys and gives that killer Ellison smile, Just kidding, he says before he walks off. Nice tag. Not a great episode, but there are worse I think.

The End

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