Episode Notes: Sentinel "Spare Parts"
That squeaking sound you hear, as I'm getting prepared for watching here, is me flossing all of my preconceptions about Naomi right out of my head. I'm trying to go into this episode without *anything* cluttering up my reading of her here. So ::squeeksqueek::, I'm forgetting everything that comes up in later episodes, fanfic, etc
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OOooooo! You're so smart! I hadn't thought of that as a logical corollary! Mmmm! :)
Nice!
it's pretty easy to narrow down the window of conception to a rather specific timeframe, and the fact that were STILL "a lot of candidates to consider"...she was really gettin' around... (And part of me wonders if she really does know and never wanted to tell Blair for some reason or another)
I think Naomi knows, or at least has a suspicion, and doesn't want to explore the question more deeply because she doesn't really want to know the answer. But that's just me and probably influenced by Candy Apple's "Outside Influences". :) Or maybe she doesn't want Blair to know. She wants Blair all to herself, so she gives him no connection at all to his father.
I'm not at all certain that in Blair's family they would bother or care about a license for Blair to drive it.
I don't know that a trucker can afford to play fast and loose with the law on that. If they lose their license they lose their livelihood. And really, even at 18, it still works pretty well. Blair didn't have an expedition that summer so he spent it seeing the US with his Uncle. And, being Blair, he probably got a paper out of the community of truckers and so on. :)
All the calling is to set up the idea that Naomi is really a meddling busy-body
Makes her seems like a stalker to me, but maybe I'm just cranky that way. :)
I don't think her reference to pigs was a slip at all...I think she's staking out her territory (Blair), and that's what all the sage and the furniture moving and shit is about.
Oooh, that's an *interesting* interesting thought!! Oooo! I like that. I definitely got the fact that they were both doing loyalty tests at the station. But I hadn't figured on them starting their territorialism had started so soon.
Unless Cascade is home base for her, and she has a car, and probably an apartment there?
Well canon tells us this is unlikely--because if she lived in Cascade, she wouldn't have to stay with Jim and Blair. And if his mom had a place in town, Blair wouldn't have had to impose on Jim for a place when his warehouse blew up.
OR - friends who are willing to loan her a car...
Maybe, but again, that would have been another alternative place for Blair to stay after The Debt and Blair certainly made it sound as though Jim was his only resort. Which isn't *conclusive*. And if Blair knew Naomi had friends that close in town mightn't he have suggested she stay there rather than just completely waving away Jim's objections to her staying at the loft?
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I think Naomi knows, or at least has a suspicion, and doesn't want to explore the question more deeply because she doesn't really want to know the answer. But that's just me and probably influenced by Candy Apple's "Outside Influences". :) Or maybe she doesn't want Blair to know. She wants Blair all to herself, so she gives him no connection at all to his father.
I think you're very right on several of these points, and the big mystery here is part of why I actually like Naomi. I know this can be read in a lot of ways, but my over all impression of her after reading all the transcripts was that she's the new-age flake, who is capable of being very very shrewed when she wants to be, but has clearly breezed through life on her good looks and allure with men, so she hides that behind a veil of sage smoke. I think she's been through a lot of shit in her life (much of it probably her own fault) and she's a survivor. I think she really does love Blair, and I know Blair adores her.
You're right too, about my car theories :) I knew I was really stretching there, but it had never occured to me about the car and sticker, and it's just so freaking DUMB on the part of the writers.
Oooh, that's an *interesting* interesting thought!! Oooo! I like that. I definitely got the fact that they were both doing loyalty tests at the station. But I hadn't figured on them starting their territorialism had started so soon.
I actually kind of like to think that this was big part of why she came in the first place. She's been hearing about this unknown cop from her baby boy, who clearly adores this guy in a way she hasn't seen him do for anyone else, and she's concerned - both for Blair, and for herself and her own relationship with Blair. I think she was feeling threatened already. And THIS might explain the car - maybe she DOES have friends in town, but she wants to check out this cop and just decides to stay with them regardless of having anywhere else to stay...and Blair, loving his mom and wanting to have her stay with them too, goes right along with it. Hence the story to Jim that she has no where else to go.
I really actually like the scene at the end, where she and Jim seem to have some to some kind of understanding and are bonding over their love of Blair. Because in spite of all the flirting, and the little "Want some more tongue, Jim? *gigglesnortheeheehee*" that scene really doesn't read at all seductive or sexy or flirtatious to me. They've been sitting there talking about Blair the whole time...and I can even imagine some kind of more serious head to head talk about what's best for Blair, etc, that ultimately led to them reaching some kind of peace.
(Now I'm going to post this before I lose it all again...)
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Oh, moop!! Well, we're even because I just had a finger slip and I closed the browser window I was typing my reponse in. So I lost about half of my response. D'oh!
I know this can be read in a lot of ways, but my over all impression of her after reading all the transcripts was that she's the new-age flake, who is capable of being very very shrewed when she wants to be, but has clearly breezed through life on her good looks and allure with men, so she hides that behind a veil of sage smoke.
I can actually see that. Hell, I could see that the entirety of the New Age flake thing is basically an act (she's not very good at it for one thing) and that she's really just shaping her life around moving her way to an increasingly secure position on the social ladder by sleeping with richer and richer men. Or something like that.
I knew I was really stretching there, but it had never occured to me about the car and sticker, and it's just so freaking DUMB on the part of the writers.
Well, I think their idea was to give a visual clue that it was Naomi's car. I actually don't hate the alternate reading of her--that she's pushy and self righteous and puts bumper stickers for Important Causes that Everyone Should Support on, you know, rental cars and stuff. Hell, she may walk through shopping malls and just slap them on cars as a form of social protest or something.
An alternate, and more charitable, reading is that it's not really stuck on, just taped in the window and when she returns the car to the rental place she'll reclaim her bumper sticker out of the window.
She's been hearing about this unknown cop from her baby boy, who clearly adores this guy in a way she hasn't seen him do for anyone else, and she's concerned - both for Blair, and for herself and her own relationship with Blair. I think she was feeling threatened already.
I think you've got a very good point. Feeling threatened and like her place in her baby's life is being taken by another--but you'd think she'd come in being a little less *Naomi*...On the other hand, she probably wasn't driving *Blair* as crazy as she was driving me and (maybe) Jim. Oh, and that explains why she was going all out with the tongue and the "I'm not going to let you out of my sight for two days" and all that crap.
::hugs::
You so smart!
I really actually like the scene at the end, where she and Jim seem to have some to some kind of understanding and are bonding over their love of Blair.
I do love that for all the innuendo of them being up in Jim's room they're totally takling about Blair. :D
(And I *adored* Jim's line, after it cut to the credits, "Next we'll have some esophagus." So he may be eating the tongue, but he's still a littke wigged about it maybe. :) )
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I think Blair's father is Brother Marcus. And the reason Naomi won't tell anyone is because he's a monk and would get into trouble. :)
Do we really know that Naomi flew into Cascade? I always had the impression that she'd driven up, but I may be wrong. I really can't recall any mention of flying or airports.
Liz
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A nice sentimental thought. :)
But monks don't get in trouble for sex they had before they were monks, do they?
On the other hand, Jackie Kosinkski was a mobster and maybe Naomi didn't want Blair to have any connections to that world.
Do we really know that Naomi flew into Cascade?
Oh, good point!! I would have *sworn* I heard "She's flying in" at some point, but apparently not. On the other hand, from LA to *anywhere* in Washington State is at least two days of driving, maybe more, and she's going on *somewhere* beyond Cascade. That's a hell of a schlep. But you've got a very good point.
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I don't think they do, but I was thinking that Naomi met Brother Marcus after he became a monk. I can't remember whether we were ever told how long he'd been a monk. If what Blair said was true that every man she met fell in love with her, maybe Brother Marcus just couldn't resist her charms. Besides the obvious physical resemblance, Blair seems to have a special bond with Brother Marcus that he doesn't appear to have with the other monks.
On the other hand, from LA to *anywhere* in Washington State is at least two days of driving, maybe more, and she's going on *somewhere* beyond Cascade
That's true, but Naomi doesn't strike me as the kind of person that's in a hurry to get anywhere. She even wanted to stay longer to help Jim and Blair with their case. I know that in Private Eyes she says that she and Charlie drove up from Big Sur, so she's apparently not bothered by a long drive.
Liz
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I don't have any faith in a sort of mystic parent/child bond. Blair and Marcus get along well and are closer than the other monks and that is cool and cute and worth exploring in any number of fics. But Blair doesn't know who his father is so he doesn't know that Marcus is, so their getting along has nothing to do with parentage. To me. But I know other folks do have more faith in that mystic parental bonding thing.
Somehow I don't see St. Sebastian's allowing female visitors anyway, though there's no reason to think that Brother Marcus has always been at St. Sebastian's.
I actually really think there's a *lot* of meat in the idea that Naomi was hooked up with some mobsters at one point.
That's true, but Naomi doesn't strike me as the kind of person that's in a hurry to get anywhere.
This is very, very true. I think you have solved the conundrum of the bumper sticker. :) (Though I'm bummed to lose that little bit of insight into her. :) )
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Now you've got me wanting to go back and check the actual transcripts again, too, because WOW what an interesting point about Naomi - and I can't remember either. Man, I love this stuff :)
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(One branch of Abner's family were hooked up with the mob at one point, and the family jokes about Abner's godfather the Godfather. So it can happen even to the nicest people.)
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