So I FINALLY got around to re-watching Child's Play.
-Poor, poor Danny. I felt so sad for him throughout the entire ep. I had tears in my eyes in that scene when he goes and tells Rikki what happened, I just felt so sad for them both. Rikki sends her son out with the sweet cop down the hall, probably thinking he was totally safe, and he dies. Danny feels responsible for Ruben's death. As to whether he IS responsible...I don't know. Ruben's death occured as a result of a series of unforseen events and one woman's unthinking actions (firing into a crowded street). In a legal sense, Lucy is to blame, and Ollie too IMO because he robbed the store and started the whole thing. So in that sense, of course Danny isn't responsible. But he says to Mac that he wishes he'd taken Ruben home. Maybe if he had, he could have gotten Ruben to a hospital when he collapsed, but even if he had, there's no gurantee Ruben would have lived. He could certainly STILL have died on the way there, or on the op table, couldn't he? Danny DOES seem to blame himself, though, and I can see why he would. I personally think he shouldn't. poor baby, but he does. I'm really interested to see how this will affect how Danny works cases. He's always gone on instincts, and it was his instincts that told him to get Ruben out of the crime scene area ASAP. So how will Danny react the next time his instincts tell him to do something? He's learnt the lesson that you can't always trust your instincts in a very sudden, and very hard way. I really hope TPTB develop that.
-I liked Mac's reaction to Danny and what happened to Ruben. Mac does struggle with showing emotion, but I think in his own way, he tried to offer comfort to Danny. Like many people who have friends/colleagues who suffer a sudden loss, I think Mac didn't really know what to say. He tried his best to comfort Danny by telling him he did 'the right thing'. That may not be true, I certainly don't think Danny thought so, but it was sweet of Mac to try. What he said to Danny in that scene maybe wasn't the best, or even the right thing to say, but how many people know the exactly right thing to say to a friend who lost someone? How many people offer condolences like 'Maybe it was their time' or 'They're in a better place' or 'It wasn't your fault' to a friend in Danny's position, genuinely trying to help them,and just not? I think that's a problem that many, many people have. It's a flaw of humanity. No doubt Mac received such condolences after 9/11. After that scene, Mac continues to try, in his own way, to help and support Danny - he works on the case and does find who's responisible, and I think he did that for Danny, he was trying to give him answers to Ruben's death, though doubtless Danny will never get any real closure over that. And he let Danny be there while he and Sheldon were talking bullet trajectories, even though Danny probably shouldn't have been there as he knew the vic. Mac broke protocol because he probably understood that Danny needed to work to take his mind off of what happened. I think Mac must know all too well what it's like to not want to go home, because someone you care about it gone.
-I actually didn't mnd Lindsay in that scene where she told Mac she didn't know how to comfort Danny. I didn't see it as her being all 'Me, me, me', just as her being genuinely confused as to how to help someone she cares about. Maybe Mac wasn't the best person to talk to (I would have said Stella for something like that) but Mac was there, and she trusts him, so I can see why she asked him. I also think Mac's advice wasn't bad. When he told Lindsay just to tell Danny she wasn't good at that sort of thing, I think what he was really trying to say was that she should just be there for him, even if it was hard for her, just to listen to him vent or whatever. What annoys and confuses me, though, is that Lindsay never went to Danny, and in the next scene, she's laughing and joking with Flack. Even Mac, who as I said above, was in pretty much the same position as Lindsay in that he wasn't sure how to be there for Danny, at least TRIED to do so (see above point). Why is it that Danny's boss makes more of an effort to comfort him than his alleged girlfriend does? If the writers wanted to push D/L, or make Lindsay likeable, why wasn't there a scene with Lindsay even TRYING to be there for Danny? It wouldn't even have mattered if it didn't work, or if he told her to get lost, seeing her TRY would have been nice.
-Flack was great! In an ep that was really very serious and depressing in it's content (the deaths of two innocent children) he offered a great light/comic touch. He made me smile in every scene he was in, and honestly, it wasn't
just 'cause he was looking hot as ever.:devil: I loved the scene with the guy from the club when he held up those handcuffs (*pauses while wicked Flack-related thoughts to do with fun with handcuffs run through mind:devil
and did the twirly 'turn around' gesture with his hands. Loved his scene with Lindsay talking about his obsession with comics and Laughing Larry stuff as a kid, and his disappointment when it always turned out to be crap. I think many people had experiences like that as kids. Loved the way he was a bit pissy with Laughing Larry, most of all his snarky lines - 'I'm going to shtick you in jail' and the look on his face when Larry squirted water on his tie.:guffaw::guffaw::guffaw:
But BAD BAD Larry for saying the guy who gave him the cigar was better looking than Flack!
I liked the scene where Mac took Lucy to see Ruben's body, and made her face up to the consequences of her irresponsible actions. While I do blame Lucy for what happened to Ruben, I felt a bit sorry for her in that scene, she's gonna feel guilty about that for the rest of her life.
I felt sad for Benjamin and Larry. I can understand why Benjamin would blame Larry for his childhood friend's death. But though Larry shouldn't sell crap like that submarine, he seemed genuienly sad and shocked that his toy had caused the death of an innocent young girl.
Sid and the itching powder was funny!:guffaw:
Adam!!!! Loved his scene with Sid.
The eyeball tattoing thing was gross!