Straight recap of the WaT episode "John Michaels"
I got asked to do another recap, so here goes... (I also added a review at the end.)
The scene opens on an old man carrying a bad of groceries slowly up a long flight of stairs. He goes up to the roof. (A David Bowie song is playing in the background.) The man walks slowly but determinedly to the side. A teen boy is inside a pigeon coop on the roof. A hotel sign can be seen in the background, but I’m pretty sure it is an apartment building that they are on. The old man and the teen look at each other. (With the close up, you can see that the old man is played by Anthony LaPaglia in makeup.) The old man walks to the edge of the roof, pauses for a bit, and then fades out.
The scene shifts to Jack’s apartment, where he is asleep on the couch. The phone wakes him up. It cuts to the bag of groceries, which has been dropped, causing the bag to split and the eggs to break. The camera pans up to reveal Vivian. She walks over to Jack, and he asks her what she is doing there. She replies, “My doctor cleared me last night. I’m good.” She tells him not to worry. He says, “I can’t help it, I do.” She replies, “That’s all you do. You gotta take up a new hobby.” She tells him that the missing man’s name is John Michaels. Jack then sees the teen being questioned and asks who he is. The boy’s name is Robert, he lives downstairs, and he is the one that called in the missing person’s report. Vivian tells Jack that he might want to talk to Robert himself. Jack agrees and goes over to talk to him. We see a flashback as Robert says that the man went over to the ledge and was about to jump, but then he saw a dark sedan with two people, and he changed his mind. John dropped his groceries, walked downstairs, talked to the people, and got voluntarily into the car.
Jack is in John’s apartment. It’s a mess, with boxes and papers everywhere. There is a Scrabble board on the table (with the words “Maria”, “mother”, “name”, and “alone” spelled out on it). There are two military medals displayed. A record player is still spinning, but the music has ended. Jack moves the needle back to the beginning, and jazz starts to play. He sees two black and white pictures: one is a woman with dark hair, and the other is of two little girls. Jack envisions John sitting in a chair and smoking. Danny interrupts the reverie. He tries to give Jack a cup of coffee, but Jack says that he is good. Jack then tells Danny that the missing man is 71 and recently retired from an insurance company, after working as a claims investigator for 38 years. Before that, John was a soldier in Korea and received two medals. He’s divorced, with a couple of grown daughters. Danny comments, “End of his life and this is all the guy’s got. It’s sad.” He then asks whether the boxes are John’s old files and says that if those are the old claims that he investigated, they could contain the names of people who would like to hurt him.
Jack then goes outside, where Martin greets him. He tells Jack that John has lived in the same apartment for 12 years, but no one can even recognize him, let alone remember seeing him get in the car.
Back at the office, Jack asks Samantha where the bag of groceries is. She tells him that it was sent to forensics so it can be dusted for prints but they have photos, which she gives to him. Jack says that he doesn’t understand why a guy would go shopping right before he was going to kill himself. Samantha suggests that he didn’t know that he was going to kill himself, but something happened to trigger it on the way home from the market. Jack then asks if they were able to track down the daughters. Samantha says that they were not able to do so, but they were able to track down the ex-wife through phone calls that John made. He made two one-minute phone calls on consecutive days.
The scene shifts to the ex-wife’s house. She says that she doesn’t know anything. He called and left a couple of messages, but she didn’t return them. Jack asks why she still holds a grudge if they have been divorced for 21 years-if it was because he cheated on her. She says that John did cheat on her with his secretary, but that the animosity is due to more than that. Samantha then asks if the ex can tell them exactly what John said in his messages. She says that John told her that he wanted to talk, and when she didn’t return his calls, he came over. There is a flashback of John trying to talk to Martha, but she isn’t interested. He wants to apologize for not being much of a husband, but she refuses to forgive him. He also wants to talk to Helen, but Martha hasn’t heard from her in a couple of years. He asks if Katherine would know how to contact Helen, but Martha says that Katherine doesn’t know anything more. Samantha confirms that Helen and Katherine are Martha and John’s children. Jack asks how to contact Katherine. Martha says that Katherine is a lawyer in Philadelphia and won’t know anything, but Jack insists on getting her number. Martha leaves, and Samantha turns to Jack saying, “You were really hard on her.” Jack responds, “Yeah, well, she was really hard on him.” Samantha retorts, “Well, sounds like he deserved it,” and then she walks away.
Back in interrogation, a man says to Vivian, “Do I wish the old bastard was dead? You bet. Did I do something to him? No I didn’t.” Vivian inquires as to his whereabouts at the time of John’s disappearance. On the other side of the glass, Danny tells Jack that the man’s name is Barry Mashburn and, about a year ago, his wife was burned to death in a fire in their house. John was the investigator of the insurance claim and denied payment on the claim. (Isn’t Barry Mashburn the guy’s name who held the people hostage and shot Samantha in “Fall Out”?) Barry confronted John at the insurance company. Danny says that he is going to check if Barry could somehow have accessed a dark sedan, and then he leaves. As he leaves, he passes Martin, who is entering. Martin says that he has an idea of what might have gotten John into trouble. The past week or so, John has spent a lot of time and thousands of dollars at a strip club in Jersey. Martin suggests that he take Sam to the strip club to investigate. Jack tells Martin to stay here and investigate John’s daughters, while he will take Sam to the strip club. (He winks as he says the last part. He looks odd...almost lecherous...pretty out of character.)
At the strip club, Jack tells the hostess that they would like a table. Jack orders a scotch on the rocks, while Samantha orders a club soda. When the hostess leaves, Samantha turns to Jack and asks him what he is doing. He says that he is just getting the lay of the land. A stripper comes over to their table and asks if they want a dance. Samantha says that she’s not interested. The stripper continues, saying that they have a private room upstairs and she has a special rate for couples. Jack turns to Samantha and says, “What do you think, hon?” Samantha whips out her notebook and tells the stripper that she would like to ask her a question. She shows the stripper a picture of John and asks her if she has seen him. The stripper asks if they are cops, and when told they are FBI, she says that she can’t speak to them and doesn’t know anything. All the while, she is staring at a guy arguing with a girl. Samantha and Jack notice this and turn to look at the guy. Jack reiterates that he is just getting the lay of the land, and Samantha says that whoever the guy is, she seemed pretty scared of him. Jack then notices one of the strippers and says that he knows why John Michaels came there so much. One of the strippers (“Hope the Hot”) is John’s daughter.
The scene opens with Helen saying that she doesn’t care where the hell John is. Jack says that he didn’t ask her if she cared, he asked her if she knew what he was doing there. She says that he wanted to talk. Jack asks how John found her, and she replies, “He’s an investigator. I think it’s his job.” Jack says that John was there the day he disappeared and he wants to know what John wanted. She says that he was trying to save her. The flashback of that day shows her arguing with her father about her life choices. Her “boyfriend” (the guy the earlier stripper was scared of) interrupts, asking what is going on. John says that he paid for his time, so he gets to talk. He tells Hope/Helen that he has arranged everything so that she doesn’t have to stay there. He grips her arm, which upsets the boyfriend, who yells. John then pulls a gun, and Hope/Helen tells him to just get out of the place and out of her life.
When the flashback ends, Freddy (the “boyfriend”) asks, “So, Hope told you that?” Jack says, “Never mind who told us what. Just answer the question.” Freddy says that John is a crazy old bat waving a gun around, so no wonder something happened to him. Samantha says that according to the parking attendant, Freddy followed John. She asks him to tell them about it. The flashback shows Freddy asking John what’s going on. John says that Freddy is the reason she is the way she is and he wants to save her. Freddy tells him that every girl in there has a daddy complex and thus it is really John’s fault that she is there, and he turns and walks away. Then Jack says, “Then three hours later, two guys show up to his apartment and shove him into a car that looks suspiciously like this one.” Freddy says that it is just a coincidence. Samantha says, “Then I guess you wouldn’t mind if we processed your car for prints.” Freddy doesn’t mind and hands over the keys. After Samantha leaves, Jack glances at Hope/Helen and then gets right up in Freddy's face and tells him, “I am gonna nail your ass to the wall.” He stalks away afterwards.
He follows Hope/Helen into her apartment. It is a mess, complete with cocaine on a mirror. She asks him if he is going to arrest her. He asks, “Do you think that little of yourself?” She responds, “Don’t go psychoanalyzing me, Pops.” She then takes off her shorts. Jack asks what she is doing. She says that she is taking a shower and asks if he would like to join her. He asks her if she thinks this is some kind of game. She responds, “Isn’t it?” While she strips and goes into the bathroom, they discuss whether Freddy’s speech about Daddy complexes or her kicking him out of the club could have caused this mess. While she is in the bathroom, Jack pushes play on her answering machine to listen to the saved message. The message is from her father. As his voice starts, it switches to a flashback. He says that he just called to tell her that he is sorry for everything he did to her and that he should have been there for her. He says that he changed his life insurance policy so that if anything were to happen to him, she would get half. He wants her to use the money to clean herself up and for her not to waste the rest of her life to punish him, because it isn’t worth it. He says, “I know that it’s hard to believe, but I love you.” As he hangs up, the camera pans to his picture of the girls. The scene then cuts back to Jack, who asks Hope/Helen why she didn’t tell him about the call from her father. She says that if Freddy sent anyone after her father, she doesn’t know anything about it. The door then opens, admitting Katherine, who asks what is going on. Hope/Helen retreats to the bathroom, while Jack says that he is the one who called Katherine. Katherine asks why Hope/Helen was half naked (clad only in a towel) and Jack says that is how she spends most of her life. Jack says that Hope/Helen needs help, and Katherine says that she has tried. Katherine says that they had an emotionally unavailable father, a frigid mother, and lousy stepfathers, and Hope/Helen took all the crap. Jack asks if John had contacted Katherine, and she says she hasn’t heard from him since a birthday card six months ago. Jack gives her his business card and leaves.
At his office, Doris is looking at pictures of his daughters. She asks about his divorce. He asks her what she is doing there. She says that some people (whom she won’t name) are concerned about him-between the job and the personal stuff. He says, “Just let me take care of my personal stuff.” She responds, “Is that any way to talk to your boss?” (I thought that Van Doren was his boss. Has that changed?) She says that all she is saying is that he is not alone, and then she walks out. As she leaves, Danny enters. He tells Jack that he is not going to believe the information that he has-John Michaels and Jack’s father knew each other and have been talking over the past couple of weeks.
Cut to Jack’s dad’s apartment. Jack asks Frank about John Michaels. Frank says that they were old army buddies and that John was having a tough time adjusting to retirement. John came to visit a couple of days ago and mostly talked about his daughters and the tough time they were giving him. Jack asks him what he means and his dad says that no matter what you do, your kids end up hating you. Jack asks if that is what he thinks about their relationship. Jack’s cell phone rings. A woman says, “She’s dead.” It is Katherine, and she tells Jack that her sister is dead. Jack says that he’ll be right there.
He bursts through the door of Hope/Helen’s apartment and finds her on the floor with a bloodstain on her chest. Katherine says that she went out for 20 minutes to get groceries and found her like that when she came back. Katherine is crying and then leaves to retch in the bathroom. As Jack kneels down next to the body, her eyes open and she asks, “Where were you?” Her eyes then close again.
Jack is in his apartment and looks upset. Samantha walks in and asks if he is all right. He says that he just came back to freshen up. She tells him that preliminary forensics show that John was not in Freddy’s car and that Freddy was in the club when Hope/Helen was killed. Jack says that Freddy could have sent someone. Samantha says that she doesn’t know why he would when they are breathing down his neck, so something else must be going on. Jack is blaming himself; he says that he should have sent protection. Samantha says that he doesn’t seem like himself lately. She notices the sleeping pills and tells him that they are all concerned for him. He puts his arm around her and pulls her in for a hug. Then he tries to kiss her, but she pushes him away, looks pretty outraged, says his name, and yells, “What are you doing?!?!” The phone rings; it’s Martin, calling Samantha to ask how Jack is doing. She says he’s okay. Martin says that John Michaels had two insurance policies. One was split between his daughters. The beneficiary of the other was a woman named Susan Smithwick. Samantha asks who she is. Martin tells her that Susan worked at a company named Kenosha Securities. (I’m pretty sure that Kenosha is the name of the town that Samantha grew up in.)
The scene cuts to Susan telling Jack, “I’m sorry to hear that. Since when?” Jack tells her that two men were seen shoving John into a car. She says she knows nothing about that, or about the insurance policy. He came to see her a week ago, and they talked about old times. In the flashback, she is telling him why she was attracted to him when she was his secretary. John apologizes if he hurt her. She says that she moved on, married a wonderful man, had children, and is going to be a grandmother soon. John congratulates her, but looks pretty sad/devastated. She apologizes because John seems sad. He asks her if she remembers the first case they worked on together. He can’t get it out of his head, even though it happened thirty years ago, because they never solved it. Back in the present, Jack asks her what the case was. She says that it was an insurance claim of a woman who gassed herself in her car. Jack has flashes of a car with a hose running. John was convinced that the woman’s husband killed her and made it look like suicide, but he could never prove it.
Jack is now at the office, frantically moving John’s boxes. Flashes of his mother are interspersed with the action. He opens the box labeled 1974 and finds a file labeled “Doris Malone.”
Jack pounds on the door of his father’s apartment. When his father opens it, he yells at his father that he lied to him. Jack says that John came to confront his dad about the case. His dad says that John has nothing on him and that he’s crazy. Jack says that there is a bunch of stuff in the file like Jack’s dad’s affairs and a police report from the time he broke her arm. Jack says that is why his father sent two men to pick up John and the same two men to kill Hope/Helen. His father says that he doesn’t even know a Hope, but Jack won’t let up, still pressing about the two guys and about his mother. He seems almost on a mission, beside himself with emotion. Jack’s dad says that he didn’t do anything to his mother because he loved her and his life ended the day she died. Jack arrests his father anyway.
At the office, Samantha confronts Jack. She says that they found a boy in John’s neighborhood who took a picture of the car that day-Jack’s car.
Jack confronts Danny, Martin, and Vivian about his car. He asks them who took it and used it to get John Michaels. He's quite persistant. Martin tells him that he is asking the wrong questions. Jack asks, “What questions should I be asking,” but is interrupted by Doris telling him to stop it now. He asks what the heck is going on. She says that the case is closed because he is a lost cause. “But it’s not too late for you, Jack.” Jack asks what the hell is wrong with everyone. Vivian takes John’s picture off of the whiteboard and tells Jack to go home.
He does. He enters with a bag of groceries-the same ones that John Michaels bought. He lines them up on the coffee table, along with some Scrabble tiles. He places the tiles over the table, spelling the word “beginning.”
Jack then is walking up the stairs of John Michael’s building to the roof. He walks to the pigeon coop. John Michaels is on the roof and tells him, “You’re late.”
“I’ve been looking for you.”
“Well, here I am.”
“I thought they took you away.”
“Not yet.”
“Well, I don’t understand.”
“You will.”
“What did you find out about my mother?”
“I found her suicide note.”
“What did it say?”
“This is not about her, Jack. It’s about you.”
“What did it say?!?!” (Jack is looking quite angry.)
“It said to let go.”
“Let go? Let go of what?”
“Just let go. Reach out to the people close to you.”
“I don’t need anyone.”
“You happy with the way your life’s turned out so far?”
“And who the hell are you to judge my life?”
“You know damn well who I am.”
“I have no idea who you are.”
“For the record, I want you to state your full name.”
“What?”
“Come on, Jackie boy, state your full name.”
“No!”
“Oh, are you afraid?”
“Afraid of what?” John pulls out a gun.
“Let’s have it.”
“What the hell do you want?”
“Just your name.” Vivian shows up with her gun drawn and tells John to drop the weapon. Jack asks what she is doing there and tells her to get out of there because this is his business. She says that his business is her business. John says, “Sooner or later, you’re gonna to have to face the truth, Jack. This is who you are. This is who you’re gonna to be.” He then turns and fires at Vivian, shooting her in the side. Jack says that she is going to be okay, but she shakes her head no, saying “my heart.” She asks him why he wouldn’t let her help him. He responds that she is the one dying; he should be the one helping her. She closes her eyes and dies. Then, Danny arrives, with his gun out. He asks Jack what he did and tells Jack to put his gun down. Jack says that it was John, but Danny still insists that Jack needs to put the gun down. John says, “All you have to do is say your name.” Jack still protests, so John takes out his gun and shoots Danny. Jack turns and empties his gun into John. John asks, “Did you really think that you were going to get rid of me that easily?” Jack keeps firing the gun, despite it being empty. While he is clicking on the empty chamber, John says, “For the record...state your full name, please. Just admit to who you are...or this is what happens. Say it. Just say your name.” Jack finally says, “John Michael Malone.” As the David Bowie song plays again, John asks him if it was really that hard. Jack says that it wasn’t, “But now I am alone.” John has become another Jack, who now says, “No, you’re not. Like I said, all you have to do is let go. They’re waiting for you.” Jack (the original) eyes the edge of the roof. After thinking for a moment, he walks towards the edge. He sees the teen boy and steps up to the very edge. He sees the dark sedan with the two people (now recognizable as Samantha and Martin) next to it, down on the road. He spreads his arms, closes his eyes, looks almost at peace, or resigned, and throws himself off the roof.
He awakens on his couch, with the David Bowie song playing. He has flashes of the case/his dream. His cell phone then rings as the screen goes to black.
Okay, I thought the episode was very strange as I was watching it, because the facts and characters didn't add up in my mind. While watching, I didn't think I liked it, because I was having such trouble reconciling it with a typical episode. Looking back on it, I see how well they were able to get the whole thing to work. I like that it seemed as if it were really something that Jack would have really formed in his subconsious. First, a few of the characters had roes parallel to those of their "real" lives in previous cases. This is true even of the minor characters like Barry Mashburn. In his original episode, "Fall Out", he flipped out after he lost his wife and became upset. He took revenge by kidnapping the person he considered responsible. As far as Helen/Hope and Freddy go, in their original episode, "The Line", she was in trouble because of her questionable job (bounty hunter), he was her boyfriend, and Jack threatened him to get information about her condition, despite the fact that he wasn't the one who actually hurt her (it was two other guys). Then, we get the characters that Jack created, such as having his mom be his boss in the dream. Considering in real life, he often acts like he is ruled by memories of his mother, that is very appropriate. I also like that even in his mind, he is guilty over his past relationship with Samantha as acted out by the John/Susan relationship and Samantha's unwillingness to kiss him in his dream.
The scene opens on an old man carrying a bad of groceries slowly up a long flight of stairs. He goes up to the roof. (A David Bowie song is playing in the background.) The man walks slowly but determinedly to the side. A teen boy is inside a pigeon coop on the roof. A hotel sign can be seen in the background, but I’m pretty sure it is an apartment building that they are on. The old man and the teen look at each other. (With the close up, you can see that the old man is played by Anthony LaPaglia in makeup.) The old man walks to the edge of the roof, pauses for a bit, and then fades out.
The scene shifts to Jack’s apartment, where he is asleep on the couch. The phone wakes him up. It cuts to the bag of groceries, which has been dropped, causing the bag to split and the eggs to break. The camera pans up to reveal Vivian. She walks over to Jack, and he asks her what she is doing there. She replies, “My doctor cleared me last night. I’m good.” She tells him not to worry. He says, “I can’t help it, I do.” She replies, “That’s all you do. You gotta take up a new hobby.” She tells him that the missing man’s name is John Michaels. Jack then sees the teen being questioned and asks who he is. The boy’s name is Robert, he lives downstairs, and he is the one that called in the missing person’s report. Vivian tells Jack that he might want to talk to Robert himself. Jack agrees and goes over to talk to him. We see a flashback as Robert says that the man went over to the ledge and was about to jump, but then he saw a dark sedan with two people, and he changed his mind. John dropped his groceries, walked downstairs, talked to the people, and got voluntarily into the car.
Jack is in John’s apartment. It’s a mess, with boxes and papers everywhere. There is a Scrabble board on the table (with the words “Maria”, “mother”, “name”, and “alone” spelled out on it). There are two military medals displayed. A record player is still spinning, but the music has ended. Jack moves the needle back to the beginning, and jazz starts to play. He sees two black and white pictures: one is a woman with dark hair, and the other is of two little girls. Jack envisions John sitting in a chair and smoking. Danny interrupts the reverie. He tries to give Jack a cup of coffee, but Jack says that he is good. Jack then tells Danny that the missing man is 71 and recently retired from an insurance company, after working as a claims investigator for 38 years. Before that, John was a soldier in Korea and received two medals. He’s divorced, with a couple of grown daughters. Danny comments, “End of his life and this is all the guy’s got. It’s sad.” He then asks whether the boxes are John’s old files and says that if those are the old claims that he investigated, they could contain the names of people who would like to hurt him.
Jack then goes outside, where Martin greets him. He tells Jack that John has lived in the same apartment for 12 years, but no one can even recognize him, let alone remember seeing him get in the car.
Back at the office, Jack asks Samantha where the bag of groceries is. She tells him that it was sent to forensics so it can be dusted for prints but they have photos, which she gives to him. Jack says that he doesn’t understand why a guy would go shopping right before he was going to kill himself. Samantha suggests that he didn’t know that he was going to kill himself, but something happened to trigger it on the way home from the market. Jack then asks if they were able to track down the daughters. Samantha says that they were not able to do so, but they were able to track down the ex-wife through phone calls that John made. He made two one-minute phone calls on consecutive days.
The scene shifts to the ex-wife’s house. She says that she doesn’t know anything. He called and left a couple of messages, but she didn’t return them. Jack asks why she still holds a grudge if they have been divorced for 21 years-if it was because he cheated on her. She says that John did cheat on her with his secretary, but that the animosity is due to more than that. Samantha then asks if the ex can tell them exactly what John said in his messages. She says that John told her that he wanted to talk, and when she didn’t return his calls, he came over. There is a flashback of John trying to talk to Martha, but she isn’t interested. He wants to apologize for not being much of a husband, but she refuses to forgive him. He also wants to talk to Helen, but Martha hasn’t heard from her in a couple of years. He asks if Katherine would know how to contact Helen, but Martha says that Katherine doesn’t know anything more. Samantha confirms that Helen and Katherine are Martha and John’s children. Jack asks how to contact Katherine. Martha says that Katherine is a lawyer in Philadelphia and won’t know anything, but Jack insists on getting her number. Martha leaves, and Samantha turns to Jack saying, “You were really hard on her.” Jack responds, “Yeah, well, she was really hard on him.” Samantha retorts, “Well, sounds like he deserved it,” and then she walks away.
Back in interrogation, a man says to Vivian, “Do I wish the old bastard was dead? You bet. Did I do something to him? No I didn’t.” Vivian inquires as to his whereabouts at the time of John’s disappearance. On the other side of the glass, Danny tells Jack that the man’s name is Barry Mashburn and, about a year ago, his wife was burned to death in a fire in their house. John was the investigator of the insurance claim and denied payment on the claim. (Isn’t Barry Mashburn the guy’s name who held the people hostage and shot Samantha in “Fall Out”?) Barry confronted John at the insurance company. Danny says that he is going to check if Barry could somehow have accessed a dark sedan, and then he leaves. As he leaves, he passes Martin, who is entering. Martin says that he has an idea of what might have gotten John into trouble. The past week or so, John has spent a lot of time and thousands of dollars at a strip club in Jersey. Martin suggests that he take Sam to the strip club to investigate. Jack tells Martin to stay here and investigate John’s daughters, while he will take Sam to the strip club. (He winks as he says the last part. He looks odd...almost lecherous...pretty out of character.)
At the strip club, Jack tells the hostess that they would like a table. Jack orders a scotch on the rocks, while Samantha orders a club soda. When the hostess leaves, Samantha turns to Jack and asks him what he is doing. He says that he is just getting the lay of the land. A stripper comes over to their table and asks if they want a dance. Samantha says that she’s not interested. The stripper continues, saying that they have a private room upstairs and she has a special rate for couples. Jack turns to Samantha and says, “What do you think, hon?” Samantha whips out her notebook and tells the stripper that she would like to ask her a question. She shows the stripper a picture of John and asks her if she has seen him. The stripper asks if they are cops, and when told they are FBI, she says that she can’t speak to them and doesn’t know anything. All the while, she is staring at a guy arguing with a girl. Samantha and Jack notice this and turn to look at the guy. Jack reiterates that he is just getting the lay of the land, and Samantha says that whoever the guy is, she seemed pretty scared of him. Jack then notices one of the strippers and says that he knows why John Michaels came there so much. One of the strippers (“Hope the Hot”) is John’s daughter.
The scene opens with Helen saying that she doesn’t care where the hell John is. Jack says that he didn’t ask her if she cared, he asked her if she knew what he was doing there. She says that he wanted to talk. Jack asks how John found her, and she replies, “He’s an investigator. I think it’s his job.” Jack says that John was there the day he disappeared and he wants to know what John wanted. She says that he was trying to save her. The flashback of that day shows her arguing with her father about her life choices. Her “boyfriend” (the guy the earlier stripper was scared of) interrupts, asking what is going on. John says that he paid for his time, so he gets to talk. He tells Hope/Helen that he has arranged everything so that she doesn’t have to stay there. He grips her arm, which upsets the boyfriend, who yells. John then pulls a gun, and Hope/Helen tells him to just get out of the place and out of her life.
When the flashback ends, Freddy (the “boyfriend”) asks, “So, Hope told you that?” Jack says, “Never mind who told us what. Just answer the question.” Freddy says that John is a crazy old bat waving a gun around, so no wonder something happened to him. Samantha says that according to the parking attendant, Freddy followed John. She asks him to tell them about it. The flashback shows Freddy asking John what’s going on. John says that Freddy is the reason she is the way she is and he wants to save her. Freddy tells him that every girl in there has a daddy complex and thus it is really John’s fault that she is there, and he turns and walks away. Then Jack says, “Then three hours later, two guys show up to his apartment and shove him into a car that looks suspiciously like this one.” Freddy says that it is just a coincidence. Samantha says, “Then I guess you wouldn’t mind if we processed your car for prints.” Freddy doesn’t mind and hands over the keys. After Samantha leaves, Jack glances at Hope/Helen and then gets right up in Freddy's face and tells him, “I am gonna nail your ass to the wall.” He stalks away afterwards.
He follows Hope/Helen into her apartment. It is a mess, complete with cocaine on a mirror. She asks him if he is going to arrest her. He asks, “Do you think that little of yourself?” She responds, “Don’t go psychoanalyzing me, Pops.” She then takes off her shorts. Jack asks what she is doing. She says that she is taking a shower and asks if he would like to join her. He asks her if she thinks this is some kind of game. She responds, “Isn’t it?” While she strips and goes into the bathroom, they discuss whether Freddy’s speech about Daddy complexes or her kicking him out of the club could have caused this mess. While she is in the bathroom, Jack pushes play on her answering machine to listen to the saved message. The message is from her father. As his voice starts, it switches to a flashback. He says that he just called to tell her that he is sorry for everything he did to her and that he should have been there for her. He says that he changed his life insurance policy so that if anything were to happen to him, she would get half. He wants her to use the money to clean herself up and for her not to waste the rest of her life to punish him, because it isn’t worth it. He says, “I know that it’s hard to believe, but I love you.” As he hangs up, the camera pans to his picture of the girls. The scene then cuts back to Jack, who asks Hope/Helen why she didn’t tell him about the call from her father. She says that if Freddy sent anyone after her father, she doesn’t know anything about it. The door then opens, admitting Katherine, who asks what is going on. Hope/Helen retreats to the bathroom, while Jack says that he is the one who called Katherine. Katherine asks why Hope/Helen was half naked (clad only in a towel) and Jack says that is how she spends most of her life. Jack says that Hope/Helen needs help, and Katherine says that she has tried. Katherine says that they had an emotionally unavailable father, a frigid mother, and lousy stepfathers, and Hope/Helen took all the crap. Jack asks if John had contacted Katherine, and she says she hasn’t heard from him since a birthday card six months ago. Jack gives her his business card and leaves.
At his office, Doris is looking at pictures of his daughters. She asks about his divorce. He asks her what she is doing there. She says that some people (whom she won’t name) are concerned about him-between the job and the personal stuff. He says, “Just let me take care of my personal stuff.” She responds, “Is that any way to talk to your boss?” (I thought that Van Doren was his boss. Has that changed?) She says that all she is saying is that he is not alone, and then she walks out. As she leaves, Danny enters. He tells Jack that he is not going to believe the information that he has-John Michaels and Jack’s father knew each other and have been talking over the past couple of weeks.
Cut to Jack’s dad’s apartment. Jack asks Frank about John Michaels. Frank says that they were old army buddies and that John was having a tough time adjusting to retirement. John came to visit a couple of days ago and mostly talked about his daughters and the tough time they were giving him. Jack asks him what he means and his dad says that no matter what you do, your kids end up hating you. Jack asks if that is what he thinks about their relationship. Jack’s cell phone rings. A woman says, “She’s dead.” It is Katherine, and she tells Jack that her sister is dead. Jack says that he’ll be right there.
He bursts through the door of Hope/Helen’s apartment and finds her on the floor with a bloodstain on her chest. Katherine says that she went out for 20 minutes to get groceries and found her like that when she came back. Katherine is crying and then leaves to retch in the bathroom. As Jack kneels down next to the body, her eyes open and she asks, “Where were you?” Her eyes then close again.
Jack is in his apartment and looks upset. Samantha walks in and asks if he is all right. He says that he just came back to freshen up. She tells him that preliminary forensics show that John was not in Freddy’s car and that Freddy was in the club when Hope/Helen was killed. Jack says that Freddy could have sent someone. Samantha says that she doesn’t know why he would when they are breathing down his neck, so something else must be going on. Jack is blaming himself; he says that he should have sent protection. Samantha says that he doesn’t seem like himself lately. She notices the sleeping pills and tells him that they are all concerned for him. He puts his arm around her and pulls her in for a hug. Then he tries to kiss her, but she pushes him away, looks pretty outraged, says his name, and yells, “What are you doing?!?!” The phone rings; it’s Martin, calling Samantha to ask how Jack is doing. She says he’s okay. Martin says that John Michaels had two insurance policies. One was split between his daughters. The beneficiary of the other was a woman named Susan Smithwick. Samantha asks who she is. Martin tells her that Susan worked at a company named Kenosha Securities. (I’m pretty sure that Kenosha is the name of the town that Samantha grew up in.)
The scene cuts to Susan telling Jack, “I’m sorry to hear that. Since when?” Jack tells her that two men were seen shoving John into a car. She says she knows nothing about that, or about the insurance policy. He came to see her a week ago, and they talked about old times. In the flashback, she is telling him why she was attracted to him when she was his secretary. John apologizes if he hurt her. She says that she moved on, married a wonderful man, had children, and is going to be a grandmother soon. John congratulates her, but looks pretty sad/devastated. She apologizes because John seems sad. He asks her if she remembers the first case they worked on together. He can’t get it out of his head, even though it happened thirty years ago, because they never solved it. Back in the present, Jack asks her what the case was. She says that it was an insurance claim of a woman who gassed herself in her car. Jack has flashes of a car with a hose running. John was convinced that the woman’s husband killed her and made it look like suicide, but he could never prove it.
Jack is now at the office, frantically moving John’s boxes. Flashes of his mother are interspersed with the action. He opens the box labeled 1974 and finds a file labeled “Doris Malone.”
Jack pounds on the door of his father’s apartment. When his father opens it, he yells at his father that he lied to him. Jack says that John came to confront his dad about the case. His dad says that John has nothing on him and that he’s crazy. Jack says that there is a bunch of stuff in the file like Jack’s dad’s affairs and a police report from the time he broke her arm. Jack says that is why his father sent two men to pick up John and the same two men to kill Hope/Helen. His father says that he doesn’t even know a Hope, but Jack won’t let up, still pressing about the two guys and about his mother. He seems almost on a mission, beside himself with emotion. Jack’s dad says that he didn’t do anything to his mother because he loved her and his life ended the day she died. Jack arrests his father anyway.
At the office, Samantha confronts Jack. She says that they found a boy in John’s neighborhood who took a picture of the car that day-Jack’s car.
Jack confronts Danny, Martin, and Vivian about his car. He asks them who took it and used it to get John Michaels. He's quite persistant. Martin tells him that he is asking the wrong questions. Jack asks, “What questions should I be asking,” but is interrupted by Doris telling him to stop it now. He asks what the heck is going on. She says that the case is closed because he is a lost cause. “But it’s not too late for you, Jack.” Jack asks what the hell is wrong with everyone. Vivian takes John’s picture off of the whiteboard and tells Jack to go home.
He does. He enters with a bag of groceries-the same ones that John Michaels bought. He lines them up on the coffee table, along with some Scrabble tiles. He places the tiles over the table, spelling the word “beginning.”
Jack then is walking up the stairs of John Michael’s building to the roof. He walks to the pigeon coop. John Michaels is on the roof and tells him, “You’re late.”
“I’ve been looking for you.”
“Well, here I am.”
“I thought they took you away.”
“Not yet.”
“Well, I don’t understand.”
“You will.”
“What did you find out about my mother?”
“I found her suicide note.”
“What did it say?”
“This is not about her, Jack. It’s about you.”
“What did it say?!?!” (Jack is looking quite angry.)
“It said to let go.”
“Let go? Let go of what?”
“Just let go. Reach out to the people close to you.”
“I don’t need anyone.”
“You happy with the way your life’s turned out so far?”
“And who the hell are you to judge my life?”
“You know damn well who I am.”
“I have no idea who you are.”
“For the record, I want you to state your full name.”
“What?”
“Come on, Jackie boy, state your full name.”
“No!”
“Oh, are you afraid?”
“Afraid of what?” John pulls out a gun.
“Let’s have it.”
“What the hell do you want?”
“Just your name.” Vivian shows up with her gun drawn and tells John to drop the weapon. Jack asks what she is doing there and tells her to get out of there because this is his business. She says that his business is her business. John says, “Sooner or later, you’re gonna to have to face the truth, Jack. This is who you are. This is who you’re gonna to be.” He then turns and fires at Vivian, shooting her in the side. Jack says that she is going to be okay, but she shakes her head no, saying “my heart.” She asks him why he wouldn’t let her help him. He responds that she is the one dying; he should be the one helping her. She closes her eyes and dies. Then, Danny arrives, with his gun out. He asks Jack what he did and tells Jack to put his gun down. Jack says that it was John, but Danny still insists that Jack needs to put the gun down. John says, “All you have to do is say your name.” Jack still protests, so John takes out his gun and shoots Danny. Jack turns and empties his gun into John. John asks, “Did you really think that you were going to get rid of me that easily?” Jack keeps firing the gun, despite it being empty. While he is clicking on the empty chamber, John says, “For the record...state your full name, please. Just admit to who you are...or this is what happens. Say it. Just say your name.” Jack finally says, “John Michael Malone.” As the David Bowie song plays again, John asks him if it was really that hard. Jack says that it wasn’t, “But now I am alone.” John has become another Jack, who now says, “No, you’re not. Like I said, all you have to do is let go. They’re waiting for you.” Jack (the original) eyes the edge of the roof. After thinking for a moment, he walks towards the edge. He sees the teen boy and steps up to the very edge. He sees the dark sedan with the two people (now recognizable as Samantha and Martin) next to it, down on the road. He spreads his arms, closes his eyes, looks almost at peace, or resigned, and throws himself off the roof.
He awakens on his couch, with the David Bowie song playing. He has flashes of the case/his dream. His cell phone then rings as the screen goes to black.
Okay, I thought the episode was very strange as I was watching it, because the facts and characters didn't add up in my mind. While watching, I didn't think I liked it, because I was having such trouble reconciling it with a typical episode. Looking back on it, I see how well they were able to get the whole thing to work. I like that it seemed as if it were really something that Jack would have really formed in his subconsious. First, a few of the characters had roes parallel to those of their "real" lives in previous cases. This is true even of the minor characters like Barry Mashburn. In his original episode, "Fall Out", he flipped out after he lost his wife and became upset. He took revenge by kidnapping the person he considered responsible. As far as Helen/Hope and Freddy go, in their original episode, "The Line", she was in trouble because of her questionable job (bounty hunter), he was her boyfriend, and Jack threatened him to get information about her condition, despite the fact that he wasn't the one who actually hurt her (it was two other guys). Then, we get the characters that Jack created, such as having his mom be his boss in the dream. Considering in real life, he often acts like he is ruled by memories of his mother, that is very appropriate. I also like that even in his mind, he is guilty over his past relationship with Samantha as acted out by the John/Susan relationship and Samantha's unwillingness to kiss him in his dream.