Directed by: David McWhirter
Written by: Mike Berchem
First aired: July 22, 2013
What appears to be a gang-related shooting at a gas station brings Jack Raydor into the Murder Room not as a husband with boundary issues but as a court-appointed attorney for a witness with parole violation problems. It starts as a win-win situation for both Captain and Mr. Raydor, but turns into a confrontation soon after. Meanwhile, Rusty is trying to get out of dinner with Kris’ parents.
So, here we go with this season’s last round of Raydor v. Raydor. It begins rather domestically, over breakfast – more or less. Mostly less, as Sharon is pacing while trying to find a lawyer for her witness, Jack is on his laptop, seemingly looking for apartments, and Rusty is poking at his scrambled eggs, pretending to be sick. I love how Sharon is in full work mode, trying to put out fires over the phone while effectively deploying the maternal bullshit detector at the same time. Even Jack can see through Rusty’s sad attempt at playing ill, but while Jack goes for the obvious (wanting to skip a test) when he asks why Rusty wants to skip school, Sharon knows right away that it is the dinner with Kris and her parents that he wants to get out of. Jack’s surprised/impressed look is gold, btw.
Once Rusty is dealt with, we see her hesitate for a moment before she talks to Jack about him representing their witness. She approaches him very carefully as if she’s either not sure about his reaction or about asking him in the first place. I don’t know about the former, but the latter makes a lot of sense, considering how thrilled she seemed in previous episodes when Jack showed up at her workplace. I imagine that she is not too eager to get her work and home life mixed up even more. She seems a little surprised when he pretty much jumps into action before she has fully briefed him. That little smile when he’s rattling off what he needs to do to get ready looks almost fond, but the one at the end of the scene seems a bit more…conflicted? Like she has an inkling as to where their working together might lead?
It makes me wonder what her expectations are when she asks Jack to represent Speedy. I don’t think it is an act of kindness towards her struggling husband, because it appears as if he is a bit of a last resort and, as mentioned before, I doubt she would deliberately put herself in a position where even more of her home life gets dragged into the office unless it’s absolutely unavoidable. Is it simply the convenience of him being there and available? Does she think he will be considerate of her team’s needs because of their relationship or because he wants to stay on her good side? Maybe she even thinks he might be easy to lead because he hasn’t been working much recently. Or is she even more sneaky and figures that she knows exactly how to manipulate him into giving her what she wants? In the end, she is able to use their relationship to her advantage by revealing it to Speedy and getting him to fire Jack. Was that her intention all along?
But if she thought that Jack would be on her side in this, she gets disappointed right away. He might not have worked much in recent years, but he still is a lawyer who does lawyer things. It’s so much fun to watch Sharon be irritated by him.
Things quickly get worse when they interview Speedy and Jack insists on sticking to the pre-arranged questions, which, by itself, isn’t all that unusual, I guess. But he keeps bringing up their private relationship in little comments that seem accidental or as if he isn’t aware of how inappropriate they are. The first instance clearly surprises her, although I’m not sure if it’s the “I can’t believe you’re telling me to be professional” way or the “I didn’t expect you to bring our personal relationship into this” way. Her tone sure as hell means trouble. And can we talk about how giddy Provenza seems? Like he can’t wait to see his Captain rip her husband a new one. Once again makes you wonder what he knows that makes him dislike Jack so much.
But damn, when Jack mentions breakfast, Sharon looks like she’d very much wish to strangle him, but there’s also something else there. Maybe she’s disappointed that he would go there? Or even a little hurt? I mean, what kind of idiot says such a thing in that situation? His client is there, the DDA is there, her entire team is watching. How did he think it was appropriate to bring that up? He acts a little as if he’s still trying to find his footing, but do we really think he’s that stupid? Or is it maybe a deliberate tactic to try and rattle her, to embarrass her in front of the people she works with? If that’s the case, it’s such an asshole move, I don’t even have words for it. And if he believes that she will let him get away with it, he really is stupid. Her team obviously expects some kind of fallout.
Emma Rios is fun to watch in this scene, too. Her eyebrows practically merge with her hairline as Jack reveals their personal relationship. Although, did he not introduce himself? One would think that the question would have come up before when she realized they have the same name? The way Sharon shakes her head at Rios’ very curious side-eye is both amusing and sad, because damn it, she should not have her private life dragged into her work like that. Makes me wonder how often Jack has done something like that in the past, when he was still around and being “a great guy” with Andy Flynn and who knows how many other cops.
The true gem is the confrontation between Rios and Raydor outside the interview room. Sharon knows that it’s coming and looks like she can’t wait to hear what Emma has to say about the matter. I think when Sharon tries to explain her complicated relationship with Jack to Emma, a person who knows nothing of the backstory, it shows that this strange arrangement they’re having has been so normal to her up until more recently, that she hasn’t really thought about it in a while. The words of course I’m not sleeping with him, he’s my husband come out of her as if that’s the most logical thing to say, and it takes her a second to realize that, for a normal person, it is not even remotely logical. It’s closely related to the suit in the guest bedroom closet story and equally hard to explain to people who are not Sharon. Emma being all snarky about the whole thing does not help, of course.
Sharon Raydor would not be Sharon Raydor if she allowed Jack to win this game, though. She must go first, but she also always gets the last word. It’s funny how he thinks that he has the upper hand, but while trying to play it, he inadvertently lets slip that he knows more of the crime than he claims. You can see the gears turn inside Sharon’s head while he’s still talking, and then there is a moment when she made a decision and her expression says you’re already done, you just don’t know it yet and I’m so here for that. Especially when she gets up and walks past Julio with that little smirk, and she simply walks out with Julio and Emma on her heels without even questioning it. Jack used their personal relationship to embarrass her, but he underestimated how loyal her people are. It had no impact on her, except maybe make her uncomfortable for a moment or two. Now she’s about to turn things around on him, and he has none of the respect and trust to fall back on that Sharon has with her team. When she turns on him outside the interview room with that perfectly styled hair and that fire in her eyes, she reminds me of a lioness about to pounce on her prey, and OMG is Jack about to get killed.
When Jack makes all those little comments about their personal relationship, he shoots into the air, hoping to hit something. Sharon, amazing shot that she is (bean bag between the eyes, anyone?!), takes one shot and hits the bullseye. While her getting him that job surely wasn’t done out of the kindness of her heart, she gave him a chance. She treated him like she would any other lawyer (except, of course, for the briefing over breakfast), and she expected him to treat her like any other cop. I doubt that she expected him to go easy on her and her team, because that would not be the right thing to do, and Sharon is all about doing the right thing, even if it is inconvenient. The least he could have done is respect her and her work enough to keep things professional, but he doesn’t, and then he accuses her of taking advantage of their private relationship. I guess it is only fair that, if he already claims that she is trying to use their relationship to her advantage, she might as well do it.
The first shot is her calling him Jack, but not to his face. She did that before, during the previous interview. This time, however, she’s referring to him by his first name to Julio, instructing him to remove Jack if he interrupts her again. If that’s not a deliberate show of disrespect, I don’t know what it is. And then she informs Speedy that his lawyer is her husband, pointing out that it might present a conflict of interest. Again, I’m wondering why no questions arose at the same surname. Is Raydor that common a name? Or do people no longer introduce themselves before they start an interrogation?
But back to the important things—Sharon Raydor being an absolute badass. The cold, calculated way she reveals the connection to Speedy and the glare that goes with it, gives me chills, and Jack absolutely had it coming.
I have already talked about Provenza and his apparent dislike of Jack, but there’s one scene that is just too good because it is peak Provenza. I love the sarcasm, of course, but that last, offhand comment of like you really care shows us just how little he thinks of Jack (and probably lawyers in general). In later seasons we will see that Jack’s interest lies at least as much, if not more, with his own profit than with the constitutional rights of his clients, so Provenza isn’t exactly wrong here.
The final scene of the episode is rather heartbreaking. You can see the realization on Sharon’s face when she comes home and finds her living room dark and all tidied up (kudos to Jack for at least being a considerate house guest). She doesn’t look exactly surprised, but certainly disappointed. Maybe even a little hurt? Sharon told Rusty in the beginning not to get attached to Jack because he’d only stay as long as he needed to get what he wanted. But maybe, over the days (weeks?) that he stayed this time, cooking, helping her take care of Rusty, and actually being there, she got her own hopes up a little? As much fun as it is to play with the idea that Jack maybe didn’t spend all his time on the couch, I honestly don’t think anything happened between them. Not with Rusty in the house and Sharon trying very hard to show him what a home, and family, and responsible relationships should look like. To tell him that Jack isn’t trustworthy and then to hook up with him doesn’t seem like the kind of healthy and responsible behavior she would want him to learn. But that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a part of her that hoped he would stick around this time. You can’t tell me that you stay married to a man for 20 years, give him a key to your apartment, allow him to crash on your couch, and to leave clothes in your closet if there isn’t a part of you that still cares.
I wonder if, once she got Speedy to fire him and Jack left the PAB, Sharon expected that he might be gone for good. He doesn’t exactly strike me as a person who likes to face uncomfortable conversations (see his hesitation over calling his kids), so waiting around at home for his wife to come back and figure out how to deal with the fact that you just clashed rather spectacularly at work, might not be something he would be too eager to do. It’s probably also a case of bruised ego, considering he lost against his wife, who likes to point out that he hasn’t worked all that much in recent years. Also, Rusty low-key called him a bad/unsuccessful lawyer only that morning. So, maybe pushing him professionally, while mostly a tactic to crack their case, was a little bit about testing Jack, too. Either way, he failed. The way she looks at the envelope, disappointed but not surprised, and the fact that she tears it up without even opening it, makes me think that this isn’t the first letter he left her. She already mentioned to Taylor that Jack has had several chances before this one. But is this the first letter that she did not read? And does that already foreshadow the events of season 3? There certainly is some anger in her ripping. Is that aimed at him for vanishing again or at herself for getting her hopes up? I guess we’ll never know.
so happy that you’re proceeding with your reviews, they are brilliant ❤️