Sorry to be so late chiming in – I don’t have to deal with finals week, but it’s been a very hectic week, nonetheless.
Patcat said, “Not much angst for Goren and Eames in this episode, but it did offer a great demonstration of their teamwork.”<br>
I agree with the second half, but I think the first part depends on how you’re using the word “angst,” which some people seem to use for any intense emotional reactions.
Goren had intense, though strongly controlled, emotional reactions at least twice in this ep. Once when he realized that the Don was having his own son killed. The other time was at the end, when, after dissecting Chops’ pain and using it against him in surgically precise ways, he finally acknowledged it.
Ironically, rage *was* the appropriate emotion – though Chops had displaced that rage for years – and rage (when not purely biochemical) is a secondary emotion. Where there is rage, it is a mask for fear or pain. Eames was talking about Chops needing that rage in prison, but Goren was acknowledging that Chops was already living in hell.
Eames also had a bit of an intense reaction at one point, when Deakins, always a bit protective of cops, says, “A lot of cops manage alimony without taking bribes.”<br>
Eames responds, “Hey, the Damianos have their hands in a lot of pockets.”<br>
She says that with controlled but intense emotion in her voice, enough so that Goren pauses and looks at her in a way that indicates to me that he’s learning something.
To me, this scene indicates a number of things.
First, I take it as further evidence that Criminal Intent is staying close to the way the real NYC police department is organized, which means that the Vice Squad started out focusing on prostitution and other “moral crimes” but then shifted so that it now focuses almost entirely on organized crime. Eames *may* have busted some Johns when she first started with Vice – though that may just have been the dirty undercover agent’s way of insulting her when he found out she worked Vice. But by the time she transferred to Major Case, I’d say she had spent some serious time dealing with organized crime.
Another thing it indicates is that because of her time in Vice she knows for a fact that there are dirty cops in NYC, on mob payrolls – and it makes her furious.
And a really nice thing it demonstrates is the way Goren pays attention to her. He hears the sound in her voice, and for an instant he stops multi-tasking and just focuses on her. No doubt he filed away that bit of information about the Damiano family. But he also seemed to be learning a little bit more about Eames and her past – which serves the second purpose of helping the viewer notice that Eames was having a pretty strong, personal reaction there.
I hope the people who keep asking for more information about Eames were paying attention!
Domenicaflor,
Nice catch, about the sexual connotation of figs. I’ve been doing a bit of googling, trying to figure out why “Fig of the Head” meant “Fig of the Don” (“Capo” – “Head” – seems to be used frequently in Italian to refer to what we would call a Mafia Don – as in, Head of the Family). While I was Googling I ran across a reference about “fig hand.” As I understand it, it’s a hand gesture, meant to imitate the shape of a fig – and therefor the shape of male genitalia.
As far as I can find, it was originally a gesture for warding off the “evil eye.” The “evil eye” was considered to wither reproductive prowess, so the fig hand invoked fertility, perhaps in a way linked to very old “pagan” Earth-based religions. Protective amulets were made in the shape of the fig hand, as well as in the shape of the horned hand, which had the same purpose, but may have referenced the well-known prowess of a male goat (something still referenced when an older but still randy man is sometimes addressed as “you old goat!”).
Nowadays, though, the fig hand seems to be roughly the equivalent of giving someone the finger. I ran across this on one obscure bulletin board exchange that seemed to be about Roman practices:
“One might also recall "Henry V" with Kenneth Brannaugh (sp.) when he is touring the encampment the night before the battle and he and Pistole exchange words, with Pistole replying (with appropriate gesture) "A figo for thee."”<br>
Which made me think of the expression, “I don’t give a fig for [whatever].” I think I’ve always just assumed it was a euphemism for something else that starts with an “f,” but I wonder now if it didn’t evolve separately, though with similar meaning.
How’s that for “more than you wanted to know” ??
Elena,
As I’ve said before, I always learn from your posts... but this time I have to say that I don’t always agree.
I could see at least ironic humor being intentional in But Not Forgotten – especially with Carver pointing out the operatic quality, and you giving literary references I would never have caught.
In this episode, though, I saw only the absurdity innate in certain tragic human patterns. I saw too much grimness and pain to believe that this was meant as even dark humor. Ah, well, I guess if Metella and I can agree every third or fourth blue moon, you and I can disagree now and then, as well.
Speaking of disagreeing with Metella... (pause to say that I do hope the protein gel worked better the second time around, and that finals week was a successful one for you!) ...but speaking of disagreeing, I have to say that I’m more in agreement with Trisha on this one.
Chops’ mom didn’t just give him up for adoption. He might have survived that. Instead, she reacted to him with revulsion, gave him no chance for initial bonding, gave him to someone she despised, and then – since they lived in the same neighborhood – pointedly rejected him, remained unresponsive when she saw him beaten up (and he would have known she saw it), and offered him no protection or nurturing as he was growing up.
He showed no sign of being genetically pre-disposed to being a sociopath – and when CI wants to show that type, they’re good at it. So it seems to me that he was very accurately portrayed as a product not of nature, but of an aggressively active refusal to nurture.