In this episode, there are three subtextual scenes:
1) Jack needs to know what happened when Lennie and Ed obtained information from a school counselor; he and Abbie are in Van Buren's office when Lennie and Ed enter. Jack's attention is focused on Ed. During the discussion, Jack clearly doesn't believe Lennie (who is lying), and waits for Ed to respond. Ed, clearly, doesn't want to lie to Jack, but finally does, to support Lennie, and Jack believes him. Subtext: Ed is emotionally torn between his partnership and Jack; Jack looks to Ed for honesty.

Click here to see screen caps of the first scene as a slide show (auto-scrolling)

2) Jack storms into his office, lashes out at Lennie alone, Ed keeps himself removed from the confrontation. Then Jack makes a cutting comment about something which happened two weeks before (Ed getting his picture in the paper), and then Ed steps into it, obviously hurt, and therefore angry. Jack can't meet Ed's eyes while he makes a few more cutting remarks (as opposed to Jack having no problem laying into any other cop); Ed replies with controlled anger and a couple of well aimed criticisms. They end up in a stare-off. After it's broken, and Jack turns away, then Ed lets his anger show, fully (final screen cap in below slide show). Subtext: Gah, where to start? Ed is emotionally hurt by Jack's remark; Jack has held onto the fact that two weeks before this Ed's photo was on the front page; Jack is restrained, almost uncomfortable, when fighting with Ed; Ed is restrained from showing Jack his full anger until Jack has turned away. In fact, in that last look of Ed's, he looks like he's thinking they're going to have a lot to discuss "later."

Click here to see some of the second scene

3) The day after the stare-off, Lennie and Ed are interrogating their only chance to make the case. Jack is on the other side of the mirror. After Ed saves the case, by convincing an angry father not to take his son--their only witness--home, Ed deliberately looks into the (one-way) mirror and meets Jack's eyes. Jack smiles and gives a short nod; Ed turns back to the interrogation. Subtext: That they meet each other's glance when that is impossible, that they appear to have worked through their argument of the day before, that Ed is doing his absolute best to do right for the case, and by extension Jack.... too much subtext to ignore.

Click here to see some of the third scene

There are other examples of subtext, starting with another episode during Ed's earlier years --

There are two scenes in this episode that give us Jack's attention drawn to Ed and Ed's attention focused on Jack. This is also one of those episodes where Ed's background in the Gang Squad, and the assumed "looser" adherence to the Fourth Amendment ;-), is shown, in my opinion. At least, that's how I always interpreted Ed's willingness to push things when he arrived in Homicide. So, after the evidence that Ed and Lennie obtained because Ed broke off a toothpick in their suspect's front door lock is tossed, Ed finds the weapon, hidden where the suspect had spent part of the day of the murders. He and Lennie bring the gun to Jack's office. Ed is shown, sitting on the table in front of Jack's desk, smiling down at him. It's an endearing smile. Jack seems to notice ;-). The other scene is the final one, and, again, Jack's attention is focused on Ed as Jack enters a crime scene. In fact, Lennie is in the background, as he is any number of times when the three men are together.

Click here to see screen caps as a slide show

Another scene in which Lennie is put into the background, leaving the scene to be carried by Jack and Ed. This has one of my favorite moments, that shows Jack giving Ed a look that is filled with pretty much any positive emotion you'd like to name. They're interrogating a guy, and they've got a huge lever that they're just waiting to use to force him to give up another guy. The moment that they're ready to use the lever, Jack looks at Ed with... you decide.

         

Aside from this episode having an adorable Eddie-in-the-closet bit, where he's asking questions of a guard in a highly flirtatious manner, to which the other man is responding in just as flirtatious a manner, this episode has a scene during which Jack appears to be feeling a little--wistful. Ed and Lennie are in Jack's office, telling him why they think a man shouldn't be charged with murder. Jack goes along with their assessment, Ed gives Jack a soul shake, waves, and he and Lennie leave. And Jack looks--wistful. That's the only word that makes sense, and Mr. Waterston is too fine an actor to buy that he just blew it here. What he's supposed to be thinking about is a pretty horrible political situation in Central America during the totalitarian regimes, an American killed by the army, etc. And yet, he looks like he might be thinking about something very different than that. My wife thinks Jack looks like he wishes he could have more from Ed than a long soul shake ;-).

Click here to see screen caps as a slide show

After testifying during the trial of a young, black man who shot a cop, Ed is cross-examined, and the defense attorney tries to make the case that Ed threatened the suspect while he was in the IR with him, alone. Outside of the courtroom, Ed and Jack have an emotionally charged conversation on the courthouse steps. A lovely scene, actually. The scene starts with Ed telling Jack that he didn't do what he was accused of, and it's obvious that Ed needs Jack to believe him. Jack doesn't even question Ed's honesty, he instead talks about how little difference the truth will make, and they get into it over the racial makeup of the jury. Ed wants Jack to fix the situation. Jack tells him he can't, because he has no other witnesses, but rather than snarking by this point in their conversation, his tone is conciliatory and almost gentle. Ed is upset -- he wants the perp to pay for shooting the cop. The scene ends with the two of them under the portico. One of my favorite Jack/Ed scenes, for the sheer difference in their dynamic, than in prior EADA -- Detective relationships.

Click here to see screen caps as a slide show

Well, I have no idea where to start with this episode. To say I was shocked by the subtext within it would be to understate my reaction to the 'nth' degree ;-). This is the season 15 episode in which Ed is shot. Once the shooting occurs, rather than the people canonically closest to him taking the emotional role (for the audience) front and center, like Van Buren, or Fontana, it's Jack's emotional reaction we watch play out. It's Jack who is keeping close tabs on Ed's day-to-day condition, since it's Jack to whom Branch asks all questions. It's Jack's emotional upset that builds up to the crescendo (accompanied by building music) for the final scene, outside of Ed's hospital room.

Personally, it was extraordinarily weird to see the final shots with only Jack, Ed, and Ed's mother center stage. I had written Inevitability the year before this episode, and carried it into a story mini-series a month or so before the episode aired. The series features Jack, Ed, and Ed's mother.

In the sequel episode, on Trial By Jury, Skeleton, the Jack/Ed subtext continues in the very first scene. Jack wants to be the prosecutor, and yet Branch tells him he can't because Jack has another trial starting soon. Since when does the EADA handle only one case at a time? Since never? Branch even says to Jack, very, very gently--when Jack is about to continue the argument about why he should keep the case--"Let's be realistic." Well, realistically, Jack would be the prosecutor, no matter how many cases he had coming up. Unless there's a more personal reason he should not. Jack reluctantly gives in. The entire scene is quiet, and filled with understated emotions, as Jack appears to wrestle with the urge to say something, and the seeming understanding that he can't push it. Why can't he?

The slide show here is a selection of seven caps, covering the second half of Tombstone, since I couldn't video the entire show :-). Oh, and btw, there is another Eddie-in-the-closet moment in Tombstone, in which Ed takes a second look at a gay man, after Fontana has walked away. But that's a topic for another discussion page.

Click here to see screen caps as a slide show

Another episode with an abundance of subtext, like Tombstone. It could be considered the height of insensitivity to talk about subtext for an episode during which one of the main characters--Alexandra Borgia, ADA--was kidnapped and murdered. I liked Borgia a lot, and was growing more enamored of her character as the season wore on, and was very upset at the method by which Dick Wolf got rid of her. But, blatent, charged subtext is impossible to ignore.

This time we have Ed's emotional reaction playing out in front of us, as he tries not only to find Alex after she's taken, and then find her killers, but at the same time he is trying to be supportive of Jack as a man, not simply the EADA going crazy with grief and anger. As a Jack/Ed fan, the scenes are almost heartbreaking to watch. In addition to Ed's angst, and Jack's angst, tptb gave us two lovely moments when Ed calls Jack, "Jack," for the first time in canon, with all of the gently intense emotions behind it that any slash fan could want.

I've put captions on the following screen caps, some of which are discussed in the scene summaries, some not.

The first scene is immediately after they think Alex has been kidnapped, due to her heading a case during which an accomplice's family was slain. The accomplice had come to her to deal; she had agreed and Jack had signed off. Once that investigation starts, the killers break into her apartment and take her. The caps for the first scene: Jack walks into the squad room with Ed as Ed tells him what they've found out about the initial case, since they all believe there's a connection. Jack replies with a frustrated demand that the PD keep everyone on the task of finding Alex. Ed reacts.

Click here to see scene 1 as a slide show

The second J & E scene is in Jack's office, during which Ed calls him by name and is trying to explain that they can find no evidence. Alex is still missing and there has been no ransom demand; Jack is highly upset; Ed is very gentle. As with School Daze, whenever Jack expresses his frustration toward Ed, he can not meet Ed's glance.

Click here to see scene 2 as a slide show

The third scene has both men front and center again. They're interrogating the man they believe is behind this entire thing: a DEA agent. Then word is given of a possible location of Alex's body. At the crime scene, the first thing to happen is that Ed intercepts Jack (arriving with Lieu), telling him, "She was beat up pretty bad," and obviously trying to keep him away from the trunk of the car. Jack brushes by him, saying, "I want to see it." And after Jack leaves again....

Click here to see scene 3 (a+b) as a slide show

The fourth scene was the one that got me in the solar plexus. Jack has come to Lieu's office to talk about the case. He sits in front of her desk. Ed appears almost immediately, coat in hand, nearly breathless as he conveys where they stand. It's what happens right after that that screams subtext.

Click here to see scene 4 as a slide show

The last time we see Ed in Jack's company, he seems to cross a line into personal territory. The episode gives us very complex legal maneuvering by Jack which I won't go into, but suffice to say that he pushes the envelope very far. The scene starts with Ed pleased with himself (and Joe playing the definite secondary role) -- because of his diligence, they've finally ID'd the killers. He shows Jack. But the DEA agent? They still have nothing on him, and they know he's behind it. Fontana asks Jack what he's going to do; Jack says he's charged the guy with murder. And Ed crosses the line, questioning Jack. Jack finally looks him in the eye while answering, to give him the, "I'm the lawyer here, Detective," typical Jack answer when he doesn't want to explain himself. Except -- the snark factor is absent. He looks pained, his voice is low, raspy, and as soon as he says this he walks out.

Click here to see scene 5 as a slide show

There are other examples of subtext, and of course, subtext is always interpret-able -- that's the point of subtext, in my opinion. With Jack/Ed there are, very often, implied interactions since the writers so rarely put the two men in the same room together, as opposed to the earlier seasons of L&O when there was more mixing between the cops and the ADAs. Another reason Invaders was so unusual. One of Ed's early episodes, Burn Baby Burn (1999)--the basis for Burning--has at least two subtextual scenes: one in which Ed hands Jack a cabbie's trip sheet, in court; and one outside of the courtroom in which Jack's eyes keep darting to Ed though he's talking to other people. Jack gives Ed one last eye blast before walking away. In Brother's Keeper (2001), another nice Ed episode, there's a scene in which Abbie asks DA Lewin for special consideration for Ed, and after she agrees, Jack smiles warmly at Abbie. Of course, I interpret that as him thanking her, on Ed's behalf :-). There's another scene in Vaya Con Dios in which Ed disagrees with Jack (very gently) and Jack, well, doesn't like it: gives him quite a look before ignoring what he said.

In Hitman, 2002, Ed gives Lennie a sincerely hard time for not believing that an intergenerational ("May-December") marriage could be based on true love; their "argument" continues into another scene in which Ed is left rolling his eyes at Lennie's sarcastic rejoinder that he was right all along. In Prejudice, 2001, Jack is disgusted with their perp for his hatred of interracial couples. In Genius, 2003, there is implied interaction between Jack and Ed: for perhaps the only time (at least that I've ever seen), Jack is drinking beer and Ed asks for Scotch, alcohols-of-choice for each other. In Gun Play, 2004, the episode in which Ed's longtime cop friend is killed, Jack displays quite a range of intense emotions: protective toward the cop who went undercover with Ed when she's on the stand (his testosterone laced "objections" were great :-) ); and at the end when Serena says there was another cop shooting, Jack looks stunned/shocked/upset and does not reply--the camera is on him for the final shot.

Even into this past season (16), there are a number of implied interactions, including Jack and Fontana confrontations in which it's easy to imagine that Ed's relationship with each man permeates the scene, even if he's not there. Jack veers between walking on eggshells around Fontana (or walking away from really nasty confrontations) to asking about Ed's role in Fontana's unethical actions. Not to mention the many times that the topic/issue/understanding of being gay, in all of its permutations, seems to travel between Ed and Jack, behind the scenes.

Etc., etc., etc.

Wanna email me? Write to cassatt 2222 -AT- earthlink -DOT- net, but know that flames will be blissfully ignored.

The site menu is up there ^, when you're ready to leave.