Without A Trace 3.22 "John Michaels" Review

                                                             
The scene opens with an old man carrying a bag of shopping to the roof.  He stands on the edge of the ledge of the roof before disappearing after he drops his shopping bag.  He is watched by a young boy.  Jack (Anthonly LaPaglia) is alone, asleep at his apartment where he receives the call about the old man.  Viv (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) is already at the scene, she’s been given the all clear by her doctor to work.  The boy is Robert and lives in 2A.  He saw him being taken away in a black 4 door Sedan.  Maybe he knew the men since he stepped off the ledge.  They talked and he went in the car.  Jack investigates the old man’s apartment.  He was John Michaels, 71, an insurance claims investigator and kept his case files at home.

Danny (Enrique Murciano) brings Jack a cup of coffee.  He worked in the same place for 30 years and was in 2 campaigns in Korea.  He was divorced with 2 daughters.  Martin (Eric Close) tells Jack, John lived in the apartment for 12 years and no one recognizes him or saw him get into the car.  Sam (Poppy Montgomery) tells Jack forensics were sent and Jack wonders why he went shopping if he was going to kill himself.

John called his ex-wife Martha Scoggins (Rosemary Forsythe) twice on consecutive days.  They were 1 minutes calls, Sam thinks they were probably messages.  They were divorced 21 years ago and Jack comments that’s a long time to hold a grudge.  Martha calls him selfish.  He showed up at her house and apologized for not being much of a husband.  She couldn’t forgive him.  He wanted to contact Helen (Susan Misner) his daughter.  Helen was in Newark 2 years ago and her boyfriend did drugs.  Katherine (Sarah Brown) his other daughter doesn’t know much.  She re-married and at least her new husband is around.  She hasn’t seen John in 16 years.  Katherine’s a lawyer in Philadelphia.

Viv interviews a man Danny names as Barry Mashburn.  John was investigating the claim of a his wife who died in a housefire.  He didn’t pay the claim since an electrician found problems at their house before the fire.  He confronted him 3 weeks ago at Farber.  Barry doesn’t have a car and is bankrupt.  He had to sell everything.

Martin tells Jack about the strip club in Jersey where John went.  Jack takes Sam there and orders a scotch on the rocks.  Helen tells him he wanted to talk.  He was there on the day he disappeared and wanted her to leave here.  She told him it was too late to be her father now.  He called Freddie her pimp and John had a gun.  The strip club is called Déjà Vu.  For obvious reasons, cos we've seen it all before in some form or another. Freddie (Michael Cudlitz) told John all his girls have a father complex.  Jack tells him 3 hours later John was taken in a car like his.  Sam wants the car processed.

Helen takes Jack to her place.  There’s a message on the answer machine from her father and he apologizes for everything.  He’s changed his life insurance policy and she gets half which he wants her to use to clean herself up.  There’s no point in punishing him and he loves her.  Jack tells Katherine that Helen spends most of her life half naked.  Helen’s in trouble and Katherine says she’s done everything to help her. She hasn’t heard from their father since June, 6 months ago.

 Jack tells Danny he’s been doing this job for 14 years.  Danny tells him John and Jack’s father, Frank (Martin Landau) know each other.  Frank says they were army pals and he was there a few days ago.  His daughters blame John for everything that went wrong in their lives.  Katherine calls Jack, Helen’s dead.  She came back and found her.  Helen asks Jack “Where were you?”

Sam visits Jack at home, his door’s open. She tells him preliminary forensics show John wasn’t in Freddie Katan’s car and Freddie was at the club when John disappeared.  Jack says he should’ve sent protection.  Sam tells him not to blame himself he didn’t know.  Sam finds the pills prescribed by Lisa.  Jack tries to kiss Sam who pushes him away.  Her phone rings.  Martin tells her John took out 2 life insurance policies, one for this daughters and one for Susan Smithwick (Veronica Cartwright) who works at Kinosha Securities.  It was for half a million and he changed it 4 days ago.

Susan tells Jack he was here a week ago, talking about old times.  Susan told him she was young and stupid and didn’t know how to look after herself.  She’s going to be a grandmother soon.  Hence she had the affair with him.  John didn’t re-marry.  They worked on a case together and never solved.  He can’t forget it even though it was 30 years ago.  That’s how they got involved in the first place.  A woman gassed herself in her car.  She had life insurance and John was convinced her husband killed her and made it seem like suicide.

Jack checks the files at the office and has a flashback to his mother.  He finds the file on Doris Malone.  He then confronts his father saying he lied to him.  Everything’s in the files, all the affairs his father had; the police report where he broke his mother’s arm.  He says it was an accident.  There was a new note in the file.  He tells Jack he thought about leaving her but he loved her.  He has a photo of her, their wedding photo and tells Jack his life was over the day she died.  Jack arrests his father.

Sam shows Jack photos of a car and the number plates.  It belongs to Jack.  He angrily confronts the rest of the team and demands to know who took his car.  Doris tells him the case is closed.  Viv tells him to go home.  He’s tired.

Jack brings home an identical bag of shopping to John and scrabble letters.  He unscrambles them to spell BEGINNING.  He finds John on the roof.  He found her suicide note.  This is about Jack and he tells him to let go.  Jack tells him he doesn’t need anyone. John asks him to state his name.  John pulls a gun on Jack.    Viv turns up and John shoots her.  Jack takes his gun out  She dies.  Danny sees Jack with the gun in his hand and tells him to put the gun down.  John shoots Danny.  Jack fires at John but nothing happens to him.  Jack finally says his name.  John tells him they’re waiting for him.  I.e his team.  They watch from below as he steps to the edge and jumps with open arms, watched by the boy who is young Jack.  Jack wakes up in his apartment.  He was dreaming and the phone rings as the scenes play back…

A chance for the show to take a different approach to stories in its third season and be daring.  A surreal-ish episode in which as soon as you recognize Jack as the old man you know something’s not quite right, but it's obvious what's happening.  Also the younger boy is young Jack, as seen in season 2 episode 5.  Anyway this episode has quite a lot going on especially as far as Jack is concerned and his life, work and affair with Sam.  Unless you’re a fan of the show and have seen every episode from season 1 onwards or at least the important ones mentioned in this episode, you won’t get the references to past episodes and to what has been happening between Jack and the others.

That coffee gag between Danny and Jack must’ve been running from episode 21.  Jack still didn’t want any of Danny’s coffee even though he didn’t make it himself.  Danny: “Morning I figured you could use one of these.”
Jack: “Oh, no thanks I’m good.”

As for Danny getting shot – not knowing what was happening was a bit silly.  Maybe’s Jack’s premonition leads up to the season 3 finale and season 4 opener, so maybe Danny gets shot, or not.

When Jack asked who took his car they all looked guilty of something didn’t they?
Where did Sam disappear to.

Viv: “My doctor gave me the all clear I’m good.”  Again you know this isn’t true.
Jack: “I can’t help it I do [worry].
Viv: “You’ve gotta take up a new hobby.”  Which is why he got this storyline about himself.  Recall Viv telling Jack’s father in episode 10 how he never tells anyone his problems.

Danny: “Company man.”  Just like Jack.  He’ll probably work in the FBI for a good 30 years too.  He’s halfway there now, almost.

Jack: “I don’t know it’s been playing since I got here.”  Then he put it on again.
Danny: “End of his life and this is all the guy’s got. Sad.”
Jack: “somebody’s gotta know him.”  Well, nobody really knows Jack either.  Wonder if his neighbours know him.

Jack: “Why?”  When Sam tells him the bag is at forensics.  Like he doesn’t know why it would be there.

Martha obviously a substitute for Maria and yes, she married her sleazy lawyer, Bernie Scoggins.  (See episode 10.)
Jack: “…cheat on you?”…with his secretary.”  A direct reference to him and Sam, though she’s not his secretary, they do work together.
Helen is Hannah and Katherine is Katie, Jack’s daughters. So Katie followed in Maria’s footsteps and became a lawyer; or maybe she didn’t have any other choice.

Martha: “At least he’s around.”
Sam: “You were really hard on her.”
Jack: “Well, sounds like she was really hard on him.”
Sam: “Well, sounds like he deserved it.”  Would she really say that about Jack; especially since she was the one who had the affair with him.  Oh the clichés.  Jack has no sympathy for Maria and going back to episode 10 and the way she treated him just for revenge, it’s no wonder why.

Danny: “Barry Mashburn.  His wife dies about a year ago.  She was burnt to death in a fire in his house.”  Barry was in the season 1 finale Fall Out Parts 1 and 2.  His wife died in the WTC in 9/11.  He was bankrupt and he did own a van.  Farber. Name of Syd’s firm?

Jack: “I’ll take Sam to the strip club.”  Then winks at Martin and proceeds to order scotch whilst on the job.  The club happens to be called Déjà Vu and that’s exactly what’s been happening in this entire episode.

Katherine: “…not happy till she kills herself.”  A mirror of what may happen in Hannah’s life, early signs of her getting a boyfriend and not telling Jack.

Katherine; “It’s a cliché.  Unemotionally unavailable father, uptight, frigid mother.  Divorced.  Lousy stepdad.  Younger one survives, older one takes on all the crap.”  Word for word Jack’s own family.  Also re Danny and his brother where he was the younger one and he made do whilst his elder brother had to put up with the beatings and the crap.

Doris: “…there are some people who are concerned about you…and with everything that’s going on in your personal life…is that any way to talk to your boss…all I’m saying is that you’re not alone Jack.  You should know that.”  Doris, his mother, his boss.  Maybe it’s something he needs to be told over again, that he’s not alone.

Jack: “I’ll believe anything.”

Jack’s father’s comment about his daughters blaming him for everything going wrong which is not entirely his fault.
Jack: “dad, I don’t hate you.”  Jack thinking his father is inadvertently having a go at him.

Sam mentions Freddie Katan, re season 1 episode 18 The Source, Freddie was responsible or the disappearance and murder of the reporter Delia Rivers.  He had  a black car and threatened Jack’s daughters and wife, hence Jack’s comment here about offering or providing protection.

Sam: “Can I just say you don’t really look like yourself lately.”
Jack: “I really don’t feel like myself lately.”  No he doesn’t he feels like John Michael's and the combination of lack of sleep and pills.  Also Jack is a shortened form of John.
Jack: “You one of the people concerned for me.”
Sam: “We’re all concerned for you.”  Just as Jack tries to kiss her, the phone rings and lo and behold it’s Martin!

Susan Smithwick a pseudonym for Sam Spade.  Sam hails from Kinosha.  (season 2 episode 16 Risen.)

Susan: “You were smart and charismatic and the boss of course, that was sexy.”
John: “and I was married.”
Susan: “That was sexy too.  I’ll admit it.”
John: “If I ever hurt you I’m sorry.”
Susan: “…married a wonderful man and had children.”  A reversal for Sam as she said she doesn’t want children.  (season 2 episode 1).  We take it she married Martin.  So Sam must have thought all those things about Jack, but how was him being married sexy since she didn’t want marriage?  Cos he was unavailable.

John: “never had the stomach for it…[re marriage.]”

When Jack rummages thorough the files the names Sydney Harrison (season 1 finale) can be seen; she was Barry’s wife’s boss, the woman he kidnapped.  Also Scott McCallister, the fireman, from season 2 episode 8 Trip Box who went missing and was found dead.

Deep down you think Jack blamed his father for his mother’s death but here it’s taken a stage further to where he actually thinks he physically killed her.

Jack: “Who took my car…stole my car and they took him?”
Martin: “I think you’re asking the wrong questions.”
Jack: “What questions should I be asking?”  Martin's right about Jack asking the wrong questions, like asking Sam why the bag was sent to forensics in the beginning.  They all had a guilty look on their faces when Jack confronted them and where did Sam disappear to?  I know I've said that before.

Doris: “…not too late for you though.”

John: “…this is about you…it said to ‘let go’, reach out to people close to you.  You happy the way your life’s turned out so far?”
Jack “Who the hell are you to judge my life?”
John: “You know damn well who I am.”
jack: “I have no idea who you are.”
John: “For the record I want you to state your full name.”

Viv: “Your business is my business.”

John: “Sooner or later you’ve gotta face the truth Jack, this is who you are.  This is who you’re gonna be.”

Viv: “No, my heart.  Why didn’t you just let me help you?”
Jack: “You’re the one who’s dyin’ I should be helping you.”
Danny: “What’d you do to her Jack?”

John: “All you have to do is just say your name.”
Jack: “Danny, this isn’t what you think!”

John: “Just admit to who you are or this is what happens.”  Points to Danny.
John: “Say it, just say your name.”
Jack: “John Michael Malone.”
Jack: “No, now I am alone.”
John: “No you’re not – like I said all you have to do is let go.  They’re waiting for you.”

So will Jack learn from this dream and change his ways, only time will tell.  Will he realize he’s not alone?
Susie Misner and Michael Cudlitz guested in season 2.14 The Line.
This episode was Veronica Cartwright’s third appearance as she also appeared in season 1’s There Goes The Bride episode and in season 2.20 Shadows, about Martin’s missing aunt.

You either loved this episode or you just hated it.  At least it was a change from the norm and in a roundabout way shows how Jack is suffering in silence since he won't talk to anyone about his feelings or the trouble he's going through,

Music: David Bowie Space Oddity