His Brother's Keeper

This episode brings us a big surprise. We meet Jim's younger brother, Steven, and a bit of Jim's family history is revealed.

The episode opens with a night-time view of a horse-racing grandstand. A guy digs through a trash dumpster, takes out some materials apparently left for him, but before he can get away, he is murdered by an unknown hand. This fades out into the next shot, where we discover that Simon is now the owner of a race horse. Seems his uncle died and he inherited the animal. Rather than sell it, Simon's cigar club, consisting of Simon, Rafe, Brown, and Joel, decide to put the animal into a trainer's hands and make some cash.

We meet the two old guys, Herman and Ben, horse race trainers. After many disparaging remarks about the nag, they agree to give “Little Stogie” a go. Jim and Blair show up to see the horse put through his paces. Jim is wearing khakis, a navy sweater with a white snowflake-like design on the chest, and his black leather coat. Blair is wearing jeans, a dark henley, and one of his plaid jackets. His hair is nice and long, blowing in the breeze.

In a very cute exchange about the “sport of kings”, Blair regales Jim with the history of horse racing, something Jim seems to think isn't all that cool. Blair thinks the “putting out to stud” idea is great. While they're watching the horse and talking to the gang, Jim hears a weird sound. He describes it as “rice krispies in a bowl of milk, only softer”. Blair muses it might be the track vibrations from the horses and they move on.

The next scene is priceless. Jim and Blair in tuxedos. Simon, too. Boy, do they look snazzy! Woohoo! Jim has been dragged to the Policeman's Benevolent Association benefit on the story that the mayor needs security. Surprise! It's really because Jim is being named Police Officer of the Year. Jim is none too happy with being hoodwinked, but Blair and Simon are so tickled, they high-five each other. I love seeing Blair and Simon working together. Too cute.

The party moves along. Jim, Blair and Simon are chatting when Jim does his thing. He stops, walks a few steps and listens. Blair knows something is up but before they can do a thing, a body falls by the window where they're standing. Turns out it's Ben, who has apparently jumped from the upper balcony, or so the cops think, except for Jim. He heard something above him before Ben “jumped” and he thinks the guy was pushed. Simon isn't happy to think that somebody was killed at a place that was crawling with cops and tells Jim to keep a lid on it until he has proof. Jim sets off to find proof.

While the body is being examined, a crowd has gathered. Blair sees Jim talking to a stranger and when he asks who it was, Jim says, my brother. Blair is surprised to find out Jim has a brother, who happens to be working for the company that runs the racetrack. Jim is very cool talking to Steven Ellison, so we know something is up right away. Blair wants to test Steven to see if he has sentinel abilities. Jim makes a quip about okay, drop him in Peru for eighteen months, and then we'll see. Funny, Jim.

Oh, we have also met Pat Reynolds, a gal who is the VP for the company. Remember this for later. <eg>

There is a videotape of the balcony and the angle doesn't show the suicide, but it does show a glass door with a reflection on it. Blair and Jim give the videotape to Serena in Forensics to clean up. Blair is wearing his black and white plaid shirt from Blind Man's Bluff and black jeans. Jim is wearing a grey cable-knit sweater.

The guys to back to the race track to investigate. Blair is now wearing his brown leather jacket and Jim has on his black wood coat. When Herman overhears Simon and Jim talking about Ben's suicide because of cancer, Herman says no way. He knew Ben for fifty years and says the guy would never commit suicide. Jim seems to agree.

As we move along, Blair has figured out a way to handicap the ponies and he's placing bets. In a very strange phone call to Jim, Serena modems the pic from the glass to Jim's laptop. Strange because Jim never had a laptop before this episode and never has one after. Blair has one, but Jim's disappears. Anyway, the pic in the glass happens to be his brother, Steven.

Jim goes to confront his brother. He is cold and not very nice to his little bro after fifteen years. The boys exchange words, needless to say. Meantime, Blair collects his big winnings on his bet, which wasn't on the horse that Simon owns. In a very cute scene, the guys want a word with Blair. Apparently they want to use Blair's handicapping system to win some cash to feed their new horse. In a very cute scene, Blair hides behind Jim and needles the guys about winning. Jim is funny when he remarks about how he'll remember to use Blair during hostage negotiations. He walks off, leaving Blair with a panicked look. The guys (Simon, H, Rafe, Joel) snag Blair, take his paper, and go off to bet. Jim wanders off, looking Sentinel-like. Blair follows. Jim hears the noise again and yells at some woman with a kid to look out. A column bursts open (literally) and when the dust settles, surprise -- it's a dead body. Remember the guy from the first scene? Here he is.

Pat Reynolds insists that Steven resign since he was in charge of the renovations. Steven is pissed but he agrees even though he said he didn't put the body in the cement. Pat says she doesn't want anybody “tainted” in the organization because of a multi-million dollar merger that is in the works. Steven leaves and she makes a phone call to meet with someone (ah, wonder who? <beg>) later on that night.

Back at the bullpen, Simon and Blair are shocked when Jim reveals, without so much as batting an eyelash, that his brother is the prime suspect, even though it's only circumstantial. When Simon questions Jim, he is surprised that Jim doesn't believe his own brother's story. Jim kind of shrugs off their concern, saying he doesn't really know the guy. Blair is very worried over Jim's apparent lack of emotion over the entire thing.

Pat, meanwhile, is handing an envelope stuffed with cash to some slime ball with the instructions to kill Steven. The slime ball reveals that she's had Ben (the old guy) and Winslow (the guy in the column) killed already. So now we know.

In a very sweet scene, Jim and Blair come into the loft. Blair is very concerned about Jim's attitude toward his brother. Jim isn't interested in discussing it but Blair bugs him until he finally talks. Jim then reveals that his father pitted the boys against each other all during their childhood to “toughen them up”. Seems the thing it did was make the boys distrustful of each other. The dad would promise one boy something and if the kid made any kind of small infraction, he would then take the other kid to whatever had been promised to the other, making them dislike each other. The final straw was when Steven took a crow bar to the father's special car. The father blamed Jim. Steven kept quiet. Jim didn't rat his brother out and instead, joined the army.

In a very cute story during the above scene, Blair tells about the time he shoplifted a microscope from a store and how quilty he felt when confronted with it. He admits that he was a science nerd! Blair is anything but nerdy, believe me. He's downright adorable. Just ask Jim!

Anyway, Steven calls Jim and asks him to meet him at the racetrack. Seems Steven has found all the evidence that Pat has been gathering to prove Steven is embezzling. It's kind of confusing what happens in the parking garage. Jim pulls up, turns off his headlights. He walks toward Steven's car. The headlights come on, blinding Jim. Bullets are fired from over the car's roof. Jim fires back, hitting the windshield. We can see someone in the driver's seat, but even without Sentinel sight, even I can tell that's not who's shooting. The shooter takes off, stealing Herman's car. (He happens to be there feeding Little Stogie.)

Jim runs over to the car and opens the door. Steven is slumped over, blood on his forehead. We don't know if Jim actually shot him or if flying glass cut him, and we're not told either. Jim does call for an ambulance, stating that there's a gunshot victim.

In the bullpen, Jim and Steven, with a bandage on his head, are talking over the case. Jim explains how quilty Steven looks. Steven agrees. Jim is wearing a blue and grey flannel shirt over a grey t-shirt and dark pants. Steven then explains how Pat is the one in charge and he thinks she's the one setting him up. She's been skimming money, substituting inferior construction materials and putting the cash off-shore. Jim explains that even though Pat's stock options will be worth millions after the merger, Steven's will also.

After Steven leaves, in a very nice scene, Jim is trying to figure it all out. Simon says what does your heart tell you? Jim finally admits that his heart says Steven is his brother and he wouldn't commit the crimes. Simon, Blair, Jim and Herman come up with a plan to smoke out the real killer. Oh, Blair is wearing a nice red shirt, unbuttoned, over a white t-shirt and jeans. Herman has picked the shooter from the other night out of the mugbook and he agrees to be bait. They set up a scene at the racetrack to catch the killer. They figure if he knows Herman can identify him, but hasn't yet, he'll try to get to Herman.

At the racetrack, Blair is wearing his green and red plaid coat, an olive green shirt over a white t-shirt and jeans. Jim has on his Jags cap, his black wool coat, brown pants (UGH!) and a red plaid flannel shirt over a black t-shirt. When Jim, on a balcony, sees the killer coming through the crowd, he drops down on top of the guy and they tussle. Shots are fired down onto them, and the killer takes off.

Blair and Simon run up, trying to figure out what went wrong. Jim tells them that there's a second shooter, and he sees blood. Pat, meanwhile, shoots the killer herself and stashes the gun in her purse. In a very good Sentinel moment, Blair tells Jim to smell the gunpowder and track Pat's gun. It works. Jim follows the woman, who tosses her purse into the trash and runs out onto the track. She grabs a horse and takes off. In the worse blue screen this side of Hollywood, Jim pursued her on Little Stogie. The chase is horrible. Fast forward.

In a very cute tag, we have all the boys (Jim, Blair, Simon, Joel, Rafe, Henri and Herman) dressed in tuxedos. Even though Blair and Jim aren't “together” for the last few minutes, I forgive them this once. The group is singing off key and loudly, the theme to “Mr. Ed”, substituting Little Stogie's name for Mr. Ed's. Jim gives his cop of the year plaque to the horse, telling the nag that he's the true hero. Then Jim sees Steven standing off to the side and goes over to him. In a nice scene, Jim explains that their father was the reason they have been estranged all these years. They reconcile. The boys start singing again in the background, and Jim asks Steven if he really wants to be seen with those clowns. Steven says yes. Smart Steven. They go and join the group, arms around each other, to have some fun.

Nice episode. I like that we find out about Jim's family a little bit more.

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