[picspam and thoughts] Let Her Go - 1x03, part II

[grimorie]

Oh, this scene is just a barrel of laughs but first off all I love that when it comes to walking Reese can sometimes outpace Charlie and/or keep up despite her little feet *g*.

Reese: Buscando Maldito?
Maldito: INS hiring models these days?
Charlie: [about to say something is suddenly distracted by--]
Maldito: Yo, don't you look at my ride.
Minion: Do not look athis ride!
Maldito: You cannot handle my ride.
Minion: Cannot handle his ride!
Maldito: Turbo, baby, board out. Custom gears, performance chipped and a hand build throttle box.
Minion: Hand built throttle box!
Maldito: That was pimped that(?)
Charlie: [smiling like a loon] Does it have GPS?
[Maldito and Minion share a look, Reese is in the background just watching it all play out, probably thinking: boys.]
Maldito: You don't want that, The Man will track you like a dog with GPS.
Minion: Like a dog.
Charlie: [nodding] Yeah, you're right, I don't want that. Man, will track me that.
Reese: Crews, you are the Man.
Charlie: Oh. Oh, yes, I am the Man.

I love Charlie falling for the car and the music does make it even more hilarious, he's just like a kid in a candy store and Reese was probably rolling her eyes the whole time and thinking, Boys! Heh. For a few seconds the whole moment seems to have taken him back to a sort of convict mentality. And we see up to the part where he goes on a foot race with Umaga the mentality carries over.

Can Reese stare down with the best of them or not? I just love how she doesn't even back down and not at all intimidated when Maldito comes forward, she's not giving quarter one bit and I also love Charlie not going all Man, I must protect woman on Reese, instead he comes to Reese's side and mildly tells Maldito that it's a good idea if a woman with a gun and a badge ask him a question, he better answer it. Maldito is amused and even comments that in the partnership Reese was 'The Man'. Which, of course, is true.

We can see more of Charlie's ex-con mentality when Maldito suggests an ambush on Umaga and Charlie's response was, 'not a bad idea', of course, Reese's cop response was, 'Yeah, no thanks."

Kevlar, baby! Together with the SWAT team, the detectives storm Umaga's house, it's not all clear in the first photo but Reese is staying ahead of Charlie, because she's not intimidated by 500lbs of Samoan. Because she's badass, baby!

And here it finally plays out how much he's still in that convict mindset, the survival of the fittest mode and this time Reese sees.

They bring Umaga in and Davis reminds them they need the murder weapon to make the case iron clad, Reese looks disturbed and thoughtful, probably thinking of the missing gun and Charlie's earlier actions. I really like that she doesn't lash out at Charlie immediately that she weighs her actions first before pursuing it, she's careful at how to handle the situation. Charlie also seems to follow the same method when handling Reese, he's not going to pounce on her immediately, he's going to take his time before he questions her as we'll see later on in The Faller Woman, Powerless and A Civil War.

After a frustrating interview with Stillman, Davis and the detectives regroup, tossing around theories. We also see that besides reverting back to the prison mentality Charlie's picked up the Minion's parroting. It amuses me to no end that this scene confirms without a doubt he considers Reese the alpha in the partnership. It certainly gives credence to revelininsanity's The Fabrics series. Hee.

Davis: [incredulous] It's five hundred pounds of Samoan in the back of Stillman's car and he blocked it out? Am I the only one who thinks it's odd?
Reese: No. We think it's odd too.
Charlie: [off in his own world, repeats] We think it's odd too.
[Reese stares at Charlie and frowns]
Davis: So why won't Stillman ID Manny?
Reese: You think it was a set-up?
Davis: Stillman arrange to have his wife killed, hired Big Boy and make it look like a car jacking.
Reese: So, failing to ID the shooter is quid pro quo.
Charlie: [echoes] Quid pro quo.
Reese: Stop it!
Charlie: [startled from his thoughts] Stop what?

Then enter the conference room again and tosses the theory to Stillman, Stillman insists that he has nothing to do with the carjacking and asks if they want him to ID the shooter even though he's not sure Manny's the car jacker. Reese is frustrated but Charlie stops and looks disturbed because it hits a little too close to home.

Charlie: We got motive if Stillman wants out of the marriage but divorce isn't enough. We tie him to Manny we can take them both away.
[Reese following a step behind, looks thoughtful and comes to a decision.]
Reese: I want you to give me your knife.
Charlie: My knife. Why?
Reese: [deadpan] Because I want to swear a blood oath with you and I need something to cut my pinkie. Give me your knife or I burn you with IAD for not using your service weapon when you should've.
Charlie: [Looks at Reese, unsure]
Reese: [lowers voice]I need to know that my partner is a cop and not a con.
Charlie: [takes a breath, turns around and hands Reese the knife.]
Reese: [discreetly takes the knife from Charlie's hands.]

And OMG best partnershippery scene this episode! And setting up as payoff in Serious Control Issues.

You can see that this was building up and that Reese has this on her mind since the incident earlier, she's counting all the little things and doesn't like that Crews seems to backslide into the convict mentality by confiscating Charlie's knife she reminds him that he's no longer in prison and he doesn't need that mentality anymore. Also, I love this scene all the more because it shows that even though they are partners Reese is still his superior, when he's out of line and reckless she will call him on it and take action.

It's also a test of trust between them, Charlie trusting Reese with his knife and, in essence, his back and for Reese taking a chance to have Charlie as a partner in all sense of the word, that when things go hairy he won't resort to his old instincts.

Ha. Ha. This scene! It's like the meeting of the Misses and the Ex, only scarier. I love how uncomfortable Charlie was.

Also, this shows that Charlie isn't the only person in the partnership who likes messing his partner's head. The moment Reese saw how uncomfortable he was with Constance's arrival she played up the Alpha Female thing more then all but left grinning at how uncomfortable she made Charlie. Payback, baby.

I think this is the only time Reese ever refered to him as 'Charlie'.

Constance seemed amused with Reese too but also, I get the sense she was mildly threatened and not just because Reese was a woman but because Reese is Charlie's partner, she knows from this point on she really won't have Charlie as her own and walking in on Reese and Charlie after sharing the knife moment would bring that home more than anything. Anyway, Constance is at the station to warn Charlie from visiting Ames again.

Apparently Charlie manages to convince Maldito to sell him the care, known by most fans in TWOP as the Crewser and flags down his ex-wife's car. He evicts his ex-wife's husband from the car and proceeds to talk to Jennifer. I didn't like Jennifer in the pilot because Claudia Black was supposed to play her and couldn't help thinking how much more fantastic CB would be in the role but this scene managed to win me over because like Reese she seemed to know exactly how to handle Charlie. Constance, bless her, seems to be too gentle when she admonishes Charlie. Reese and Jennifer cuts to the chase much quicker and Charlie seems to respond to that better, not saying he'll actually follow but he's certainly more honest in his reactions.

Plus this scene shows how much there's left unsaid between them (bitterness, anger and broken promises) and if the whole murder hadn't happened its easy to see Charlie and Jennifer still together.

Reese and Crews interrogate Manny and Manny professes innocence to murder and when that doesn't work he proceeds to initmidate him with his conisderable bulk, Reese is not impressed and Charlie goes around the table to sit Manny down, Manny knocks himself on the table and gets a bloody nose.

Let's ignore the discrepancy between this scene and the scene playing in Davis' TV, 'kay? Editors suck at in episode continuity but are awesome with arc continuity so I forgive them this.

Reese and Crews end up in Davis' office. It's interesting that when confronted with Reese or her father Reese sort of looks like a little girl again, in this case she looks like she's in the principal office: she's restless, fidgeting with her hands, shoulders hunched and head down. Not a lot of people can do that to Reese and Davis and her father consistently seem to bring that out of her. Charlie just stands there, not really defiant but not backing down either.

Davis confronts Crews about the knife and Reese steps in and says that Umaga's full of crap and lies about the knife. Davis stares at her in disbelief, Reese sits back and sort of dares Davis to call her out. Charlie looked on in disbelief and this time he steps in and tells Davis that Reese was lying to protect him because they were partners now but that she should never have to do that for him. Reese only looks annoyed because she was trying to protect his ass and there he goes, interfering.

By the time Davis storms out of her office Reese looked ready to strangle Crews.

But this set back only seemed to galvinate the two and as Manny leaves they give him the look, the we'll get you sooner or later look.

Charlie's day only becomes worse when he goes home and finds that he's being fenced in. I just love that at first Ted was oblivious to it all but once he stepped back, looked at the fence and realized: 'Uh. I seem to be back in prison.' And quickly dismantles the fence. Oh, Ted.

But Charlie with his face and his hunched posture, oh, Charlie...

I really do love that the creative team tries to bring the detectives out of their office and uses more of the outside world, this more than anything makes Reese and Crews as detectives more realistic to me. Plus, the candy scene with the: Are you really Zen? And Crews' I'm Zen-ish and his 'You want in on this' and Reese's expression and... *pets scene*.

They confront Stillman again about his story and Charlie pushes him (literally) until Stillman slaps him, Reese watches this play out, concerned even to the point where she has her hand in her holster ready to pull out her gun if Crews gets even more out of line but amazingly she' doesn't interfere. They finally get the truth and Stillman breaks down again, revealing that it was his wife who stood up against Manny and he was the one quaking in his boots.

Reese: You know, I bet he lived his whole life thinking that if it ever came down to it, he'd be the hero.
Charlie: Don't you think like that?
Reese: [ignores him] Even if he IDs Manny it's not going to stick. A jury's never going to believe him, he's changed his story too many times.
Charlie: [off in his world again, echoes] Too many times.
Reese: [slightly annoyed] Our killer's going to walk.
Charlie: [echoes again] He's going to walk.
Reese: [really, really annoyed] Didn't I tell you to stop that? Didn't I? Tch. [walks out]
Charlie: If Manny walks away, we might as well give him a ride.

I can imagine Charlie keeping up the repeating parrot thing for a whole week, would drive Reese batshit. Hee.

Its interesting that Reese ignores Charlie's questions about Reese's thoughts on her own bravery, I think back before the undercover assignment Reese did use to think that way but now Reese has no illusions about herself, of course we know she's all kinds of awesome and very brave but maybe because of how things went down in undercover Reese stopped thinking she was a hero.

Really liked Reese and Crews using Maldito to get Manny, also like fourteenlines said these two have, like, the most awesome 'gotcha' faces EVER. They really love it when they get their guy they almost always have that triumphant grin in place when they finally get their man. It's really the thing that binds them together the desire to close cases, see justice down and bring down the bad guy. This attitude and the way team Reese and Crews keep closing cases are, I think, one of the factors why Davis has backed off from booting Charlie, that and the guilt she may drive Dani back down the road of addiction.

But again, I say, these two just... awesomecakes and they really do fight crime!

Just really like this scene and love the lighting for Charlie's face.

Things I like:

- Reese and Crews acting more and more partner-ly
- The detectives actually doing some detecting
- Creative team remembering there is an outside world and using it to their advantage.
- Crews falling for the Crewser like a ton of bricks.
- The Reese and Maldito stare down
- The Chase scene
- Reese confiscating Charlie's knife and Charlie letting her because it's all about trust, baby!
- Crews' parrot act confirming beyond shadow of doubt he thinks Reese is Alpha Female of the group
- 'Are you really Zen?'
- Team Reese and Crews triumphant grin/smirk

Things I didn't:

- They kinda suck at in episode continuity or editing or whatever it's called.