Dead Drop

The episode being reviewed is Dead Drop. Following are the usual story spoilers and endless references to Jim and Blair's exceedingly yummy physical appearances.

Dead Drop opens with our sweetie, Blair, going to Wilkinson Towers to have a Chinese good luck artifact appraised for Rainier. Blair is wearing his brown leather coat, a black t-shirt and jeans. His hair is really long in this episode.

He is waiting to board an elevator and finally manages to get on one with four other people. Blair makes a cute remark about everyone in the 90s being "wired", in a hurry all the time. The man in a business suit exits and says to Blair that he has no idea how right he is about being wired and leaves. The elevator closes and starts down when Blair notices that the man has left his briefcase.

As luck would have it, the elevator stops between floors somewhere between and 31st and 30th floors. Blair nicely calms everybody down when this happens. At first it is thought that it is an equipment malfunction, but it's never that easy in Cascade.

Back at the bullpen, Jim is trying to get Blair on the phone since they're supposed to meet for lunch, but he's having no luck tracking him down. Jim is wearing his grey wool coat. Simon and Jim decide to go to lunch when Joel tells Simon to answer the phone, that a terrorist calling himself Galileo has taken control of an elevator at Wilkinson Towers and is threatening to drop it until he gets what he wants. And what he wants is 5Mil or he's dropping that elevator. He proves his point by dropping it the five floors.

Jim's phone rings and it's Blair. Guess where he is? On the elevator that the psycho is threatening to drop if he doesn't get the money. I love the "Jim is aggravated and pissed face". He knows Blair is in big trouble now. BTW, all of the scenes between Jim and Blair in this episode are done via the phone except for the tag, but this is really a pretty good episode so I don't mind that they aren't together.

Anyway, luckily, Blair has his cell and Jim breaks the news that Blair and the other passengers will be splattered from thirty stories unless the money is forked over by Wilkinson.

I have to mention that none of the time deadlines and timing of the drops matches. Several things are said and never happen and the time isn't running true to form. It's a bit confusing, I can never figure out when the deadlines are coming up or when the elevator is going to drop. I would have at least attempted to use the deadlines that were mentioned, but then I didn't write the episode.

I should mention that this is the episode when Jim makes another often-quoted statement: "Hey, Simon, is it me or is Cascade the most dangerous city in America?" He is so right. I like that the writers took a little poke at themselves. I also like it when Jim calls Blair his partner like he does in this episode. Jim is wearing a black t-shirt and dark olive khakis and he wears Kevlar through the rest of the episode. I'm in heaven.

The building is searched for Galileo since the cops have deduced that for him to operate the elevator, he must be in the building. In a stupid move, Brown and a group of officers search the utility room and don't find the suspect. Since the building has been evacuated, a couple of good police dogs would have found that bugger in about two minutes. Oh, then the episode would have ended too early!

Wilkinson refuses to negotiate with the terrorist even after he finds out that his daughter is in the elevator. Seems that father and daughter are on the outs because of a poor decision the girl has made regarding her choice of husbands. Her father disapproved so now they aren't on speaking terms.

One of my favorite scenes is when Wilkinson finds out his daughter is pregnant and still refuses to negotiate. Jim is all over him like stink on a skunk. He threatens to reveal Wilkinson's lack of compassion to the world if he doesn't comply with the demands. Jim huffs off and Wilkinson asks Simon what the hell is wrong with him. Simon is really cool when he tells Wilkinson that Jim's friend is on the elevator and if Wilkinson cared half as much for his daughter as Jim did for Blair, the whole incident would already be over.

Jim comes up with the idea of welding the car to the beams to that it can't fall but this doesn't work when Galileo figures out what they are up go. I do like that Blair and his fellow hostages sing and dance the macarena to cover the sounds of the welding. Galileo is really irritated because he had said no rescue attempts. He lets the cops know that the emergency hatch is rigged with C4 and then he proceeds to drop the elevator five floors with Jim on the top of it. Jim has a very wild ride. He's a bit queasy after the little fall.

Things stall on the negotiations. The cops decide to kill the power to the building so that the car can't fall since it needs electricity to do so. Once this is done, the interior of the elevator car is dark. The workman has a flashlight and I really like the shots of Blair by flashlight. He looks exceedingly handsome in subdued light. Oh, heck, he looks handsome in any light.

Did I mention that the briefcase left on the elevator by the businessman in the first scene is full of C4 and is now ticking down? Also the businessman turns out to be the bad guy. He has pretty much known what steps the cops will take and how negotiations will go because he just happens to be the son-in-law of Wilkinson, the rich dude.

Blair was none too happy to have had to open the briefcase and see all that C4. Needless to say, the people on the elevator are freaked. Jim is freaked that his Blair is going to be in little bits. He is searching the building himself and hears a noise on one of the upper floors. He manages to figure out which floor. Turns out there is a bullion exchange and Galileo is breaking into it. I wondered if it were chicken or beef. Darn, I'm a bit tired so forgive the bad jokes. I know it's the wrong kind of bullion! Also, Galileo, a.k.a. Frank Rachins, has dragged his little brother into the evil plot, along with Wilkinson's daughter (his wife). It's all been a big set up, except for one thing.

The little brother, Ronnie, and his wife, who's in the elevator, have been having an affair behind old Frank's back and the baby belongs to Ronnie. Frank decides to get a divorce and get rid of his little brother at the same time.

In a daring escapade, Jim propels down the side of the building and shoots out a large pane of glass, crashing into the room where Rachins is drilling out the door to the bullion vault. Rachins has by now shot his brother and Jim sneaks in, only to be drawn down on by Frank. They fight and Frank shows the detonator. He can remotely blow up the briefcase. Jim is not very happy by now. Luckily, during the scuffle, a gun is kicked close to Ronnie, who lies injured on the floor, and he shoots his brother. Frank manages to push the detonator and all Jim hears is the explosion. Jim's face is priceless. Man, is he pissed! He just knows Blair is dead and he let's Frank have it but good.

What Jim doesn't know is that Blair used a blowtorch from the workman's toolbox to cut a hole in the elevator floor and dropped the briefcase down the shaft. It fell just far enough away so that no one was hurt. Good Blair!

The tag is kind of cute, although there should have been at least a bit of a reunion between Blair and Jim. Joel helps Blair out of the shaft instead of Jim, darn it anyway. Luckily, Blair and Jim leave the building together with Jim admonishing his partner that he needs to have that good luck piece from Rainier re-appraised, but Blair thinks he should use the stairs instead of the elevator

A pretty entertaining episode and it's also responsible for some very cute blooper cuts with "Jim" sweet-talking his "Blair". Man, I love those guys. Next up is Red Dust.

The End

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