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brightknightie) wrote2015-10-10 10:10 pm
brightknightie) wrote2015-10-10 10:10 pm
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Let's chat about FK's "The Code" (just for fun!)
The random-number generator determined that "The Code" is the episode to rewatch and chat about, just a little, desultorily and casually, as discussed in my previous post.
Come and play! No pressure. Why not pop "The Code" into the DVD player or stream it? Why not share a thought, memory, question or joke?
In other costuming and hairstyling/makeup blurbs, I personally thought that Natalie looked particularly nice, Nick looked unnecessarily worn, Schanke's brown suits are magnificent choices for all the characterization and cultural context they imply, and I was reminded once again that absolutely everyone wearing blazers all the time everywhere is so, so, so '90s.
Not costuming, but setting: That's the same hot dog stand as in "The Fix," surely! Fun. :-)
Either way, "The Code" comes after "Be My Valentine" (and therefore after the Schankes' Hawaii trip); it's just a question of how long after. In production order, 24 "The Code" comes immediately after 23 "Be My Valentine," and Schanke's "I hate winter!" mood could perhaps be seen as in some ways as post-vacation blues. And surely Schanke's seasonal grumps (and plan to purchase cross-country skis per Myra) would be more suitable in February (immediately following when "Be My Valentine" is set) than May (when "The Code" aired).
It's nice at the end that Nick loans Schanke the Caddy without conditions — unlike "Close Call." I'd like to think that this means Nick regrets abusing his hypnotism power over Schanke in that way in "Close Call," making Schanke wash the Caddy for him, but while that's a valid interpretation for production order (where 22 "Close Call" immediately precedes 23 "Be My Valentine" and then 24 "The Code"), it breaks for aired order (where 25 "Close Call" comes after 21 "The Code"), and so aired order would suggest that Nick is moving the other direction.
(Decisions, decisions! Second season order giveth and second season order taketh away. Do we want "Crazy Love" or "Blood Money" to be the last straw before Janette leaves? Do we want the Schankes' Hawaii trip in "Be My Valentine" to come before or after "Partners of the Month"? Do we want Nick and Natalie in "The Fix" to come before or after Nick and Natalie in "Be My Valentine"? These are rhetorical questions, of course, just illustrating that second season order matters to interpretation. Naturally, always pick whichever order amuses you most!)
Having Schanke's car break down — and then get hit! — naturally means to symbolize all Schanke's personal and career frustrations at this point, when all these difficulties are coming to a head. It's after both "Partners of the Month" and "Be My Valentine," in either order, so he's reconciled with Myra over whatever was so stressing them in this year — and what was that? wish we knew! — but perhaps the lifting of the weight of that personal family struggle has just made the weight of the other frustrations more clear.
"The Code" is to Schanke, in so many ways, what "The Games Vampires Play" is to Nick. I'm not sure that's ever struck me so forcibly before! But I've been having a very tough year in my own workplace, and perhaps that led Schanke's frustrations to hit home with me in new ways.
I wish that Schanke weren't wrong in the episode. The story punishes him, in a way, making him make the wrong deduction and stick by it; making it on the word of a sleazeball that Schanke makes a break for what looks like a brighter future, and then he's back almost where he was, and apologizing to Nick to boot. I wish that the episode had let Schanke figure out the answer by observation and not by coincidence, and sooner than or in tandem with Nick and Natalie. I wish that Schanke had... won.
I don't feel like I got all the pay-off I could have hoped for with this sudden appearance of Schanke's childhood best friend, first roommate, five years' partner (though not first partner, as that was Jim Anderson, per first-season's "Hunters" — aside that Patrick claims he taught Schanke everything Schanke knows, while Schanke credits Jim with being his model). Maybe it's just that Patrick died at the end of the episode and was never mentioned again, in the way of '90s syndicated shows, but...
"The Code" bristles with small call-outs to previous tidbits about Schanke, such as Schanke's conflicted relationship with his father (cf. "For I Have Sinned"), his need to get away from home (cf. "that wild bicentennial summer" from "Dark Knight"), and coming from a less than privileged background and rising on hard work and merit... well, Schanke rose on merit (this Delahanty guy lost his moral compass, if he ever really had one, and rose without merit by some point). Remember how "Hunters" ends, with Nick listing off heroic things Schanke has done as an officer (clearly having read Schanke's file at some point, if not just then for the first time). Schanke was firmly identified in canonical text as "a good cop" long before the phrase became a controversy and mockery in fandom for poor Tracy.
Yeah, although second season does have Nick show less respect for Schanke than in first season, and though it uses Schanke as more of a comic foil than as Everyman, and though "Curiouser & Curiouser" makes explicit that Nick feels guilty for not giving Schanke his due... I still feel that something is not quite right about the depth of the disconnect between Nick and Schanke in this episode. Is it because we're seeing it more from Schanke's perspective, and we usually see it from Nick's?
(In aired order, "Curiouser & Curiouser" comes immediately after "The Code," as if in cause and effect. In production order, "Curiouser & Curiouser" comes five episodes before "The Code." Oh, second season.)
Patrick Delahanty, whomever he was with Schanke in their pasts, looks initially like he has made it much further, higher than Schanke. It might have been good, for Schanke's sake, for the story to point out, on the other side, that Delahanty — perhaps? — has no Myra, no Jenny, as Schanke does (in addition to not having a functional moral compass), and that Nick and Cohen do respect Schanke, and Delahanty's "colleagues" don't respect him.
I think that we could have won back precious seconds by cutting much of the model's overdose at the beginning, and then spent those seconds on fleshing out whatever Nick was doing/seeking in the flashback, and/or the aftermath of Schanke's friend's death.
What do you think?
Come and play! No pressure. Why not pop "The Code" into the DVD player or stream it? Why not share a thought, memory, question or joke?
"It's the suit, Schank, the suit!"
Have you ever noticed that there's a plain-clothes officer in the squad room through most of the episode, whom we see only from the back, who is wearing the identical '80s-pop-style jacket that Natalie wore in first season's "Dying to Know You"? Of all the things to have actually survived the eighteen-month hiatus between seasons, the switch between networks, and all the rest... good grief! :-)In other costuming and hairstyling/makeup blurbs, I personally thought that Natalie looked particularly nice, Nick looked unnecessarily worn, Schanke's brown suits are magnificent choices for all the characterization and cultural context they imply, and I was reminded once again that absolutely everyone wearing blazers all the time everywhere is so, so, so '90s.
Not costuming, but setting: That's the same hot dog stand as in "The Fix," surely! Fun. :-)
"I hate winter!"
"The Code" aired on May 13, 1995, as second season's 21st episode, and IMDB and Amazon streaming list it in that order. But it was filmed as second season's 24th episode, and it appears in that production order on the DVDs.Either way, "The Code" comes after "Be My Valentine" (and therefore after the Schankes' Hawaii trip); it's just a question of how long after. In production order, 24 "The Code" comes immediately after 23 "Be My Valentine," and Schanke's "I hate winter!" mood could perhaps be seen as in some ways as post-vacation blues. And surely Schanke's seasonal grumps (and plan to purchase cross-country skis per Myra) would be more suitable in February (immediately following when "Be My Valentine" is set) than May (when "The Code" aired).
"I'll get your heater fixed; it's on me."
Continuity kudos for remembering from way back in first season that the Caddy's heater is broken — humorous that it's still/again broken? Nick babies that car, yet doesn't get the heater fixed... because he doesn't feel the cold? or perhaps a more car-related reason? — and plugging that into Schanke feeling cold (and Nick not), and Schanke offering to get it fixed on him, and Nick objecting over the cost to Schanke. (Additional continuity kudos for all the "Partners of the Month" call-outs! Not just the physical plaque reappearing. And the "If Looks Could Kill" echoes.)It's nice at the end that Nick loans Schanke the Caddy without conditions — unlike "Close Call." I'd like to think that this means Nick regrets abusing his hypnotism power over Schanke in that way in "Close Call," making Schanke wash the Caddy for him, but while that's a valid interpretation for production order (where 22 "Close Call" immediately precedes 23 "Be My Valentine" and then 24 "The Code"), it breaks for aired order (where 25 "Close Call" comes after 21 "The Code"), and so aired order would suggest that Nick is moving the other direction.
(Decisions, decisions! Second season order giveth and second season order taketh away. Do we want "Crazy Love" or "Blood Money" to be the last straw before Janette leaves? Do we want the Schankes' Hawaii trip in "Be My Valentine" to come before or after "Partners of the Month"? Do we want Nick and Natalie in "The Fix" to come before or after Nick and Natalie in "Be My Valentine"? These are rhetorical questions, of course, just illustrating that second season order matters to interpretation. Naturally, always pick whichever order amuses you most!)
Having Schanke's car break down — and then get hit! — naturally means to symbolize all Schanke's personal and career frustrations at this point, when all these difficulties are coming to a head. It's after both "Partners of the Month" and "Be My Valentine," in either order, so he's reconciled with Myra over whatever was so stressing them in this year — and what was that? wish we knew! — but perhaps the lifting of the weight of that personal family struggle has just made the weight of the other frustrations more clear.
"We met earlier."
What's up with Patrick Delahanty having met Captain Cohen earlier that evening, doubtless looking for Schanke at the precinct, and progressing to a mutual first-name basis — and flirting? — in that time? I think that this is supposed to prove that he's very, very charming (the script certainly tells us repeatedly that he's very charming, or at least that Schanke believes that his friend must be very charming), but... is he?"I would have eaten glass to hear that."
"You guys are chasing rainbows and I'm splitting from Oz.""The Code" is to Schanke, in so many ways, what "The Games Vampires Play" is to Nick. I'm not sure that's ever struck me so forcibly before! But I've been having a very tough year in my own workplace, and perhaps that led Schanke's frustrations to hit home with me in new ways.
I wish that Schanke weren't wrong in the episode. The story punishes him, in a way, making him make the wrong deduction and stick by it; making it on the word of a sleazeball that Schanke makes a break for what looks like a brighter future, and then he's back almost where he was, and apologizing to Nick to boot. I wish that the episode had let Schanke figure out the answer by observation and not by coincidence, and sooner than or in tandem with Nick and Natalie. I wish that Schanke had... won.
"Dogs go to the end."
It's heartbreaking what Schanke says with his dead friend's body warm in his arms: "Friends. Who needs 'em. Right, Nick?" The rules of '90s syndicated TV shortchange this experience for Schanke and for us.I don't feel like I got all the pay-off I could have hoped for with this sudden appearance of Schanke's childhood best friend, first roommate, five years' partner (though not first partner, as that was Jim Anderson, per first-season's "Hunters" — aside that Patrick claims he taught Schanke everything Schanke knows, while Schanke credits Jim with being his model). Maybe it's just that Patrick died at the end of the episode and was never mentioned again, in the way of '90s syndicated shows, but...
"The Code" bristles with small call-outs to previous tidbits about Schanke, such as Schanke's conflicted relationship with his father (cf. "For I Have Sinned"), his need to get away from home (cf. "that wild bicentennial summer" from "Dark Knight"), and coming from a less than privileged background and rising on hard work and merit... well, Schanke rose on merit (this Delahanty guy lost his moral compass, if he ever really had one, and rose without merit by some point). Remember how "Hunters" ends, with Nick listing off heroic things Schanke has done as an officer (clearly having read Schanke's file at some point, if not just then for the first time). Schanke was firmly identified in canonical text as "a good cop" long before the phrase became a controversy and mockery in fandom for poor Tracy.
Yeah, although second season does have Nick show less respect for Schanke than in first season, and though it uses Schanke as more of a comic foil than as Everyman, and though "Curiouser & Curiouser" makes explicit that Nick feels guilty for not giving Schanke his due... I still feel that something is not quite right about the depth of the disconnect between Nick and Schanke in this episode. Is it because we're seeing it more from Schanke's perspective, and we usually see it from Nick's?
(In aired order, "Curiouser & Curiouser" comes immediately after "The Code," as if in cause and effect. In production order, "Curiouser & Curiouser" comes five episodes before "The Code." Oh, second season.)
Patrick Delahanty, whomever he was with Schanke in their pasts, looks initially like he has made it much further, higher than Schanke. It might have been good, for Schanke's sake, for the story to point out, on the other side, that Delahanty — perhaps? — has no Myra, no Jenny, as Schanke does (in addition to not having a functional moral compass), and that Nick and Cohen do respect Schanke, and Delahanty's "colleagues" don't respect him.
"Terrible likeness, really."
Oh, yeah, and there're flashbacks. Set in Arizona, a la MarrowComp and Schanke's friend's boasts of Scottsdale. With curare ("harmless if taken orally" in the real world, btw). And a horse! And the actor who will later reappear in "Hearts of Darkness" as the abusive, adulterous, hockey player; he does a really excellent job here as the bounty hunter, I think. Yet that has got the be the most passive Nick flashback ever, good gravy. Yikes. I suppose that the betrayal by a supposed friend (and rescue by a "real friend"?) are the parallels, past and present, and that's enough, but I nevertheless find the lack of contextualization somewhat unsatisfying.I think that we could have won back precious seconds by cutting much of the model's overdose at the beginning, and then spent those seconds on fleshing out whatever Nick was doing/seeking in the flashback, and/or the aftermath of Schanke's friend's death.
What do you think?
no subject
.... even though the events of the episode underscore the opposite (and more optimistic) reading just as strongly, if not more so. In the flashback, Nick is betrayed by a brand-new "friend" but saved by an old one; Schanke's childhood friend turns out to be a bad guy, but his actual friendship for Schanke is genuine; Nick and Schanke are both obviously bothered by the rift between them, enough that both of them apologize at different points in the episode to try to repair the friendship. It's actually a very optimistic episode on a subtextual level, even if the characters themselves don't seem to realize it. Yet the episode still felt emotionally incomplete to me. Despite the continuity callbacks, it felt like the episode would have benefited from having the emotional plot drawn out over several episodes -- more time to set up Schanke's hitherto-unseen childhood friend, more time for his rift with Nick to develop naturally, and more time to repair it. It felt like Nick and Schanke should both have had more faith in each other, by this point in the series, than they seem to; the "argue-rift-repair" theme is pretty well established for them by now, and with this episode coming so late in the series, they just don't seem to have learned anything from past rides on that particular roller coaster.
On a different tangent, I love how well, for its era, this show delivers competent, professional female characters. Cohen was one of very few female bosses in genre TV at the time; Nat was one of a relative few female series regulars with scientific jobs, who was regularly seen doing her job and being respected for it in the show. (The "Amanda ... Patrick" thing did feel somewhat out of left field in this episode, though. It felt like it was leading up to something that never quite materialized.) There was not a whole lot of Natalie in this episode, comparatively, but I enjoyed the scenes she was in; we got to see professional Nat, and Nat attempting to troubleshoot Nick and Schanke (or, at least, tell Nick when he's being kind of a jerk to his partner).
I never could figure out if the running joke about Nick's heater being broken and Nick not being bothered by the cold is another vampire trait that his co-workers don't recognize (which has implications for fic!), or if a joke is just a joke ...
Nice choice of episode, though, and it was fun to revisit the show. It really has been a long time since I watched it. I'm glad you suggested it! :)
the dual apologies
That's a good point. The mere fact that there are two -- Nick's to Schanke and Schanke's to Nick -- resonates, and should inform the story structure.
Nick was prodded to his by Natalie; Schanke may or may not have been prodded to his by anything besides circumstances.
Schanke pre-emptively accepts Nick's apology even as Nick is still trying to articulate it; Nick accepts Schanke's apology by chalking up the incidents to "temporary insanity." Both of them seem to want to give apologies when they owe them, and both of them seem to want to shortcut accepting apologies when they're owned them.
The dying Patric Delahanty also apologizes to Schanke... sort of. Patrick says: "I'm sorry you believed in me."
the three codes
The "dogs go to the end" code between Schanke and Delahanty.
The code "of the West (one of them, anyway)" invoked in the flashbacks, in which Nick owes the man who saved his life.
That Lacroix will always know where to find Nick ("That's our code").
Re: the three codes
Momentary bit of cultural disconnect: when Delahanty told Nick that Schanke was "his dog", it wasn't until he started actually explaining the in-joke to Nick that I realized "dawg" (for a male buddy) actually wasn't slang yet in 1995! At least, none of the characters seem to recognize it as such; it's a reference to something totally different. For the most part I don't really find myself feeling that aware of the different time period of the show, but it's those little things that are a bit startling.
... also, speaking of time period, I JUST realized that in the FK fic I wrote for fkficfest years ago, I had made their lack of cell phones a plot point -- but in this episode, they have them! Oops! I guess that's a case of thinking the show was longer ago than it actually was.
Anyway, on the actual topic of the comment, I kinda feel like one of the reasons why the episode feels a bit scattered, thematically, is because it never really nailed down exactly what "Code" it was referring to -- code of the West, vampire code, code of friendship, Schanke and Delahanty's personal code. None of these are quite the same, thematically, and so the episode wanders from one to another, without a tight through-line between them.
cell phones
If I remember correctly, Schanke has to pull out the antenna of his cell phone before he uses it to call Myra in "Dying to Know You" (he uses a pay phone to call Myra in "For I Have Sinned"). And in some episode that's slipping my mind right now, Schanke says that he "can't believe" that Nick is letting Schanke use Nick's "car phone" to make long-distance calls because they're so expensive that way. :-)
Re: the three codes
If it were "Codes," the title would encompass all three codes, and it would also encompass things like jargon and in-jokes, communications under people's noses, things misunderstood without the keys to decode them...
FK's quiet feminism
Yes!!!
For all the "neck of the week" action and "damsel in distress" detours, FK's simple respect for its women characters -- recurring and guest, human and vampire, present and past -- was astonishing in its day, I think. Maybe even unrealistically so... idealistically so... for some of the cultures depicted?
Natalie and Grace represent Science, and the consulting science experts (e.g. the ballistics examiner who tries to hit on Schanke, the medical examiner who kills the man who murdered Natalie's goddaughter, the third-season computer technician) are almost all women, too. The exceptions are two male lab techs (one of whom proves to be a murderer) and two male computer technicians (also one of whom turns out to be a murderer).
The show (and therefore the Nick character) almost always (especially in first season!) assumed that women were competent, diligent and intelligent, and that if this was blocked or stymied, it was because of things in the way -- cultural things, psychological things, plot things on which the story could turn -- never because of inherent gender traits. Schanke's occasional forays into demeaning women are uniformly exposed as idiotic (if not potentially fatal), and otherwise only bad guys demean women (at least until the haystack and bar scenes in "My Boyfriend is a Vampire;" poor third season has many problems, include sad retrenchment on FK's fundamental quiet feminism).
I appreciate Saint Joan's role in FK in this context.