Inside Man
This is not that great an episode Jim and Blair wise, because they're not together nearly enough. It's very good Jim wise since we get Jim without his shirt. Always a plus.
The episode opens with our guys on a stake out on at the waterfront. The set up on this story is is about the Mafia-type organize crime family. They're watching the don, Dominic Lazar, and a kid, his grandson, Edward. The BOTW, Michelle, widow of Dominic's son, Vincent, and mother of Edward, shows up also. It's raining in Cascade. Big surprise, so Jim is actually using an umbrella. I don't remember him using one before this. Hmmm. Have to think about that one.
We meet Jim wearing a brown jacket, a tannish shirt and dark pants. Blair has on a very ugly brown striped sports coat, burgundy shirt and khakis. Jim refers to the bad guys as the Lazar crime family. And Jim calls Blair, "Kemosabe" when he realizes that Jim is very interested in this family for some reason other than putting the bad guys away.
So the kid wanders off. Jim saves his life from a falling pallet at the docks. In a great slo-mo scene, Jim tackles the kid just in time. Go, Jim! The widow is very grateful. Very. <snicker> She takes Jim to dinner and he meets Dominic. He makes a spur of the moment decision: when Dominic offers him a reward, he asks for a job. Then he tells Michelle he's an ex-con and needs a break. Now Jim is undercover as a crime family flunky without clearing it with the brass first. Bad, Jim.
Simon and Mulroney (the fed) let Jim go in. Blair isn't happy about it, worried that Jim will be in too deep. I love how whenever they leave the room, Jim always says, Let's go, Chief. He makes sure Blair is at his side. This is where Jim spills the beans about Jimmy Fennetti, a cop who was killed while undercover with the Lazars. Blair offers to go in with Jim, but of course, Jim turns him down.
So we are treated to Jim being macho with the hired help after being searched. He's wearing a white t-shirt, tan khakis and a brown coat. We then meet Erika, Dominic's daughter, and are informed that Jim is now Edward's personal bodyguard. Of course, the plot thickens. Some Asian guys are shown being given a hit on Dominic and Edward, but we don't know who's done the hiring -- yet.
Nice scene of Jim helping the kid become a good sport. He takes the kid to the park and shows him how to have a good time. I should mention that this kid actor has two looks: sullen and unhappy. He's not much of an actor, and is in fact, rather annoying. I like Jim hanging in the park eating popcorn. He looks very nice. The mother shows up and sees her precious baby playing football with the big boys and is upset. Jim nicely tells her the kid needs to play with kids his own age. Anyway, the kid scores a touchdown and at dinner that night, Dominic is very pleased. Of course, we have a few sparks starting to fly between Jim and Michelle. No big surprise there.
I think it's kind of nice that the family lets Jim have dinner with them, but otherwise, the story moves slowly. We find out that Erika wants to control the family, but her father wants her to get married and have babies. Jim does find out that something is being planned. Michelle isn't happy being in the family any more and there's an argument at the dinner table. We find out Dominic has more influence on his grandson than the mother does, a fact that makes her even more unhappy.
The next touchy/feely scene is between Jim and Michelle, who is crying. Jim is all sympathetic and offers her a way out. Meanwhile Dominic and Edward are playing video games when the Asian guys shoot up the place. Jim finally has a Sentinel moment when his vision starts to go whacky. Along comes Erika and kills both hitmen. Jim is wearing a different jacket than he had on earlier. This one is a dark sports jacket, along with dark slacks and a dark shirt. It's hard to tell the actual color, black or brown. Nice camera shot of Jim tapdancing about why he didn't kill the hitmen. He gives Erika the strangest look when he leaves, like, you're nuts!
Oh, and he goes straight to Michelle for another touchy/feely scene. He asks about the kid before he tells Michelle he'll get them both out. Then he kisses her. Typical Jim kiss, complete with hands in her hair. Jim hightails it to the precinct to talk to Simon, telling him he thinks that something's going on with the other organized crime bosses in the area. Then he says something about his whacked out senses. Blair goes ballistic. He wants a list of everything Jim's eaten or had to drink, and he wants to go in with Jim. Simon immediately refuses. Oh, Blair is wearing a black and white plaid shirt. It looks like the one from Blind Man's Bluff.
WooHoo! Next shot is shirtless Jim. God, but that man has a body! Guess who knocks at the door drooling, I might add? Ha! Michelle. So we get Jim in bed. All night long, apparently. The next morning we have Jim standing at the window in diffused sunlight and then walking across the room, buttoning his pants. Still shirtless and gorgeous. The muscles... The chest... The face... The man has it all. So now Jim is in really deep.
Blair finally manages to get onto the grounds by posing as the kid's new tutor. Jim is wearing a light brown jacket, dark slacks and a light brown shirt. I should mention Jim's clothes in this episode are awful, as are most of Blair's. Blair is wearing the only decent thing this go-round: his fifties silk shirt, kind of a greyish/tannish color with a two-tone collar, brown and white, and tan khakis.
Jim goes to check in with Simon and the fed guy, and it takes Simon two minutes to figure out that Jim's in too deep with the woman. And they show Jim a picture of Erika hiring the Asian guys for the hit. They figure she's trying to hit her old man to gain power. Jim refuses to be pulled out after Simon tells him it's over, and Simon knows why. He is not a happy camper.
Things heat up now. Apparently there is some big powwow of the crime bosses from far and wide. Jim and Blair are locked up in Jim's room over the garage, but of course, Jim needs to figure out what's going on. Blair is very smart when he figures out that Jim's whacked out reaction is to bottled water from Italy that has a high level of magnisium. Apparently, Sentinel senses are sensitive little buggers and react badly to this type of thing.
To make a long story short, Jim gets out to see what's going on. The dead son, Vincent, is resurrected to organize the crime lords, Erika is pissed she isn't going to be in charge, and the kid tells his newly-returned father that his mother and Jim are running away together, and that Jim is a cop. (He tells Michelle this and the kid overhears a bit earlier.) Jim manages to get caught skulking around and after a small beating, is reunited with Blair for what is supposed to be the final time. But as we all know, things never go as planned.
Vincent, Dominic, Erika, Edward, Jim and Blair all end up in the same room. (Are you bored to tears yet? I know I am.) Dominic plans on rubbing out Jim and Blair. And this is where we find out that Erika killed Jimmy Fennetti, who had the bad luck to fall in love with Erika, who took him out after she found out Jimmy was a cop. When Jim tells Vincent that Erika is the one who put out the hit not on her father, but on Edward, Vincent kills his own sister. The father freaks, Jim jumps Vincent, Edward picks up the gun, but can't shoot Jim even though his father orders him to kill Jim. Nice father, huh? Blair sits and watches! Oh, well. Vincent runs. Jim chases and they end up in the swimming pool. The calvary show up, of course, and everybody lives happily every after.
Oh, wait, wrong story. Anyway, we are treated to a wet Jim Ellison. He looks adorable wrapped in a blanket with a booboo on his face. Otherwise, a crappy tag. The show should never end without Jim and Blair together. Jim and the BOTW just doesn't work. But as luck would have it, the woman and kid are moving away! Yippee. One last kiss and she's gone. Thank heavens! LOL! Nice camera shot of Jim at the very end. Good profile of that purty face.
A so-so episode. Not nearly enough Jim and Blair, and barely any sight of Jim's senses.
Next up is Vendetta.
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