Directed by: Paul McCrane
Written by: Ralph Gifford and Carson Moore
First aired: July 8, 2013
A drug-dealing ex-convict turns up dead, leading to Major Crimes chasing a ghost, while Sharon Raydor has to deal with a surprise visit by her estranged husband.
In season 7 of The Closer we learned that Sharon Raydor has been married to a lawyer with a drinking and gambling problem for thirty years, twenty of which they have been legally separated. While he was mentioned very briefly at the beginning of season one of Major Crimes, we haven’t really learned much about him or this marriage that isn’t quite over yet, apart from the fact that the mysterious Mr. Raydor still has a suit hanging in Sharon’s guest bedroom closet. Remember how she mentioned that fact as though that wasn’t extremely odd? Well, hold on to your hats for even more oddness. Like Sharon Raydor’s estranged husband showing up at her condo in the middle of the night, unannounced, having let himself in with his own key, and casually putting his groceries into her fridge as if he just returned from work. WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK, SHARON??? Okay, I’m good. Mostly.
That first scene is so interesting for so many reasons. After Rusty wakes her up, Sharon makes her way towards the kitchen with her gun at the ready. Long before she sees who’s there, she hears him answer the phone, and we know that she identified the “intruder” as her husband. We know she’s all about the rules, and she spent most of her career dealing with cops misusing their firearms. And yet, she is pissed off enough to walk into the kitchen, kick the fridge door closed (*flails*) and point her gun at him even though she knows that he is no danger. Are we sure that’s allowed? But her facial expression when she realizes the person in her kitchen is Jack is absolute priceless. There’s relief at first, but it morphs into supremely pissed off right away. I wonder how much of her annoyance is about Jack showing up unannounced and how much of it is about scaring her half to death by making her think Rusty’s pen pal paid them a visit.
Also, how weird is it that she walks into her kitchen in the middle of the night to find her husband, from whom she has been legally separated for over two decades and who does not live in nor own the place, unpacking his groceries, and her main issue is that he didn’t call?? How often has he crashed at her place in the past twenty years? I mean, it makes sense that he would have stayed with her back when the kids still lived at home. I assume she still lived in the house they got together then, so Jack having a key makes sense, too. But the condo is obviously hers and hers alone, and it is too small for her to have lived there with Ricky and Emily. I think it’s safe to assume that she got it once the kids moved out, maybe as a last step to untangle her finances from Jack’s. So why does he have a key? And why does he feel welcome enough to just drop in unannounced with groceries for several days? And why does his suit live in her guest room closet? I have so, so many questions about that relationship!
I absolutely adore the ambiguity of that scene and the way it comes across mainly non-verbally. That’s some top notch acting right there, and the chemistry between Mary McDonnell and Tom Berenger is amazing. If you watch Sharon closely, she’s clearly frustrated and annoyed, but when Jack mentions that he’s back on the list of court-appointed attorneys, meaning that he’s moving back to Los Angeles and working, she sounds surprised, but sort of almost happily so. Also, there’s this little smile/smirk when he says that it’s difficult to be gluten-free in Nevada (let’s be honest, when he says gluten he means gambling, and Sharon knows that). I assume that she’s been there many times, with Jack coming home full of plans and promises. She even says to Taylor later on that he’s getting a fresh start “for the hundredth time” so she’s probably not holding her breath on the whole he’s going to get his act together thing. But in that moment, when he says that he’s back and working, there is something that looks a little bit like hope. Probably not for herself but surely for her two older children.
Sharon is very clear on Jack only staying two nights (“The two nights I usually give you”) and that he will sleep on the couch. Even when Rusty tells her that he wouldn’t mind giving up his bed, she insists. She very obviously doesn’t want Jack to get too comfortable. The contradiction here is so fascinating it almost makes my brain explode. So, she doesn’t want him so comfortable that he might not leave (Although, she’s a cop, she has a gun and, if necessary, she’d also have a Flynn and a Sanchez. Do we really think she couldn’t get him out of the house if she really wanted to?) but at the same time, she’s sort of okay with him being comfortable enough to drop by in the middle of the night and fill her fridge with his groceries (seriously, though…WHY DOES HE HAVE A KEY???). It’s pretty easy, really. If you don’t want your almost ex-husband to crash at your place, DO NOT GIVE HIM A KEY! No one would find it odd if she decided that he has no business entering her home whenever he pleases. One might even say that it’s pretty normal for people who no longer live together and who are legally separated to not have each other’s keys. So what made Sharon decide that, even with the kids no longer living with her or even in the same city, Jack still needs to stop by occasionally?
She clearly doesn’t trust his motives, and she says so openly when she talks to Rusty about not getting attached to Jack. She knows that he wants something from her, and in the end, he proves her right when he asks her to cosign for his apartment. She draws the line at that, because she won’t get involved in his finances anymore, but she still admits to feeling sorry for him. You can practically see how she’s waiting for the other shoe to drop as he’s packing up, and when it does, she is not surprised. She does use his predicament to maneuver him into calling their kids, though, and maybe that is the whole secret behind why she keeps allowing him to come back. If he wants something from her, she has leverage to make him at least pretend to give a toss about his kids.
It is really interesting to see how he waltzes into her life and acts like the fun guy around Rusty and her team, making everyone like him. Only Provenza obviously hates him, which makes me wonder how much of the Jack Raydor Show he witnessed over the years. He’s not exactly Sharon’s greatest fan, even though they have come a long way by this point, but in this he is clearly on Sharon’s side, while all the others are more than happy to laugh at Jack’s jokes. And everyone seems to know him. Andy and Provenza certainly do, and Taylor seems to know quite a bit about their relationship, as well. It must be so frustrating for Sharon. He blows into town from time to time, tossing jokes left and right, and everyone laughs and has a great time and thinks he’s a great guy, while reliable, dutiful and by-the-book Sharon gets to pick up the pieces once he’s gone again. I wonder if she ever felt like yelling at those people about how damn wrong they are.
Of course, he also gets Rusty on his side, and why wouldn’t he? He’s full of jokes and grand tales and card tricks, while Sharon is all about homework and bedtime and being safe. And he’s not above using Rusty to manipulate Sharon into letting him stay a little longer. Also, that joke about not having seen her put a toothpick in her mouth in thirty years? Why would you embarrass your wife like that in front of her kid? Because let’s be honest, he wasn’t talking about actual toothpicks, and Rusty obviously got that double meaning. Of course she doesn’t react to it. It’s probably not the first time someone has made a joke about the things she does or does not put in her mouth. Although, if he’s comparing it to a toothpick, it’s probably not really worth the trouble, anyway.
We also get a tiny glimpse at what it must have been like between them when it was good. He can obviously make her laugh (when he’s not busy being an inconsiderate ass), and I love that he still tries, although it is probably not just because he wants to see her happy. That scene where he’s putting on this whole act about his aching back and neck, hoping to get enough of her sympathy that she’ll let him sleep in her bed is great. Makes you wonder if he has reason to think that it might work, doesn’t it? Is that maybe part of why she came up with the two-night-rule? Whether or not it has worked before, this time it does not. But he does get her to laugh, and it’s so cute the way she tries not to but can’t help herself. Jack seems to be under the assumption that all he has to do to win a person over is make them laugh. He sure does it desperately enough, and as soon as Sharon cracks up, he approaches her as if he expects her to forget all the reasons she had for throwing him out. Sharon going from laughing to Darth in an instant gives me life, even though I hate that she has to do it. It must be exhausting to walk this thin line between the familiarity of a long relationship (and it is obvious that there’s still something between them) and protecting your feelings and the life you have built for yourself.
There is also the coffee in the morgue issue. WHY ARE WE DRINKING COFFEE IN THE MORGUE, CAPTAIN??? I mean, I get why it’s impractical from an technical and/or artistic POV to have them wear hair nets and masks on TV, but beverages in the morgue seems like a very stupid thing to do, and I’m reasonably sure that it is very much against the rules. It’s not even that the whole Sanchez trying to get Rios to date him by bringing her coffee thing is all that funny. We get it. He likes her. It’s adorable. BEVERAGES STILL HAVE NO PLACE IN THE MORGUE OR AT A CRIME SCENE!!! Seriously, what is it with these people and their inability to go without hydration for even a moment?
I’m so happy that you continue with your brilliant reviews!! I miss Sharon sooooo much 💔