This was some standard Crossing Jordan. No major trauma to any one of our main characters—just your standard two cases, and the team working to solve them with their personal life intermingling in the cases. I kind of miss the simplicity of those older episodes. You know what you were getting. And while this did pull on everything that’s happened this season from Ivers to Lily to Jeffery it was still ‘normal’.

The logistics of Jordan’s case are somewhat questionable, but I think the enjoyable part wasn’t really about the case—you knew the husband was guilty—it was more about the dynamics of Jordan and Ivers working together. The roles were reversed—and our dear little ‘pain in the backside’ Ivers was suddenly on the other side of the fence. Garret: The man has a hard time admitting an error.

Yes, he does. I thought it was entertaining that Ivers was brought back into the morgue dynamic. I thought we’d seen the end of him after Isolation. I like the continuity of characters coming back. Ivers had to deal with the circumstance of returning to the morgue. It’s fun to see character development in the minor characters like that. Just like the continuation of Seely. Granted we don’t see much of him, but there’s a dynamic between him and the members of the morgue…and that’s built on each time he reappears. Okay, it’s official. I’ve totally abandoned the J-W Ship. I’ve got a new couple that I’m absolutely crazy over: Nigel and Kate! The best parts of the episode for me were the Nigel/Kate interactions. They have the dynamic I once loved about Jordan and Woody. Kate—flirting with Nigel! My favorite moment of the entire episode. It was perfect, Kate straightening his bow tie and then untying it. Totally a ‘Kate Moment’. What’s so nice about the two is neither of them are afraid to speak their mind to one another and it creates some of the most delightful scenes between them. They’re growing on each other. Have you seen Kate smile so much? And 95% of the time, Nigel is the source/cause of her smiles.

Lily giving birth in the morgue. I knew it was coming—that said I didn’t believe it—the scene was just not quite right. 1) As much as I ADORE Kate, and thought she was great in this scene, she was the WRONG person to be there. If the writers were going to do a touchy-feely moment like that it should have been Jordan delivering Lily’s baby, with Nigel, Bug and Garret there. That’s the family dynamic. I have to say it was amusing though to hear Lily mutter she wasn’t giving birth in autopsy. And both Bug and Kate saying they need a doctor and Lily telling them they are doctors.

Wow Lily and Jeffery—anyone with eyes can see they don’t belong together. I was a bit shocked at how bad they were to each other. Jeffery has no backbone (I’ve said that from the beginning). If he’d been a stronger man, they might have had a chance together. The scene at the precinct when Jeffery tells Bug to get out of Lily’s life because he loves her and Bug responds that he loves her too was one of the few Lily Bug moments I’ve truly loved. There was no thinking involved, just pure spontaneous reaction. I wish Lily had been there to hear that.

Did Jeffery get what he deserved? I can’t say I felt sorry for him. Sad, but not sorry. Missing your child’s birth was a moment he’ll never get back, but he brought this upon himself. I believe the law is that Jeffery has no rights when it comes to the child. He and Lily aren’t married, so basically Lily has control of the situation. She tried to do the co-parenting, but it didn’t work. It didn’t work because Jeffery let his mother rule his life.

This was an odd episode. Odd can be good though.

It was a one of those episodes when I heard/read the description it made me leery. It’s a well known fact I normally don’t like military based episodes. CJ has had a few and I’ve liked none of them—too many times the military or the government gets ‘less than flattering’ portrayal…and the episode becomes more a political statement.
That said I did like this episode. I do wonder why they felt the need to do a ‘terrorist’ plot, but at least it was handle decently enough. The system isn’t all bad, but it’s not perfect either—at least that message was portrayed. It’s not black and white…but many shades of gray.

Normally you always see the gang fighting for Jordan; it was a nice change to see their support behind Bug. Jordan took a back seat—or I should say Kate filled in, allowing the others to focus on Bug.

I do wonder what effect this will have on Bug. He was (for all practical purposes) kidnapped, held against his will, terrorized, and threatened with torture—all this for having done nothing wrong. The look on his face at the end told us how badly he was affected. He was treated unjustly—and yet there’s almost nothing he can do. That’s tough to deal with. I hope there’s some ‘side effects’ in upcoming episodes.

Jordan and her hallucinations…I can tell you right now the opening scene freaked me out. Too…too morbid for my taste. The bathroom hallucination (with Bug, Nigel and Kate) made me laugh. The others just made the whole episode odd. It was definitely an interesting format for the episode—sometimes different is good though.

Woody – I’m not even going to bother commenting on him, because I obviously have no clue what the heck is going on in the writers mind on this topic…Let me just say I expected more—much more. No idea what’s going on inside his head. And I really don’t care anymore. And may I say the eggshell hallucination wasn’t anywhere close to right. More like he should have been walking blindfolded…that’d have been more appropriate symbolism. What little interest I had in him has been chucked out the window. I’m going to enjoy the other characters. May I use that as a lead in to Kate.

I love Kate. I know I’m sounding like a broken record, but she’s amazing. I love what the writers are doing with her, and I love how Brooke portrays her. Absolutely wonderful. And no I can’t promise that I won’t rave again about Kate, because if she keeps up this way I’ll be saying it many more times before the season is up.

Kate is practical. We know she (puts up a front that she) doesn’t car what people think about her. She doesn’t seem to care if she fits in or not. She’s basically a hard-ass. Then she does something that completely shocks you. Who’d have thought that the two alpha females in the morgue would get along? I didn’t doubt Kate’s sincerity for one moment when she was with Jordan—helping her in the shower, and playing card games with her. Their parting comments, when Kate was leaving, were one of my favorite moments of the episode.

Side note: Kate is an A-Type personality. I recognize fellow A-types. I too would have been cleaning…or doing something to keep busy while Jordan slept. Don’t ask me to sit still…obviously Kate suffers from the same syndrome.

Notes on continuity:
- Renee—it’s been great to have her back. She’s one of those antagonist that you need in the show. She’s good, but she causes heartache—mainly to the morgue. I’ve loved seeing her back. - New Cop—It’s been a long time since we’ve had a new cop. I think Seely could have filled this roll just as well, but I had no objections to the new guy.

- I loved Amy. It was so nice when they brought her back up. It’s amazing what continuity does for an episode! I wish she and Bug had hooked up.

So, why did I like this, rather weird, episode better than last weeks? I think it was more because I had high expectations for last week and the episode didn’t live up to them, where this one I had no expectations and so it surprised me…sometimes quirky works. This was one of those times.

Okay, my thoughts finally. I liked this episode, but I didn’t love it. Truth be told I thought last weeks was the better episode. I felt this episode had two problems with it.

First—it was anticlimactic. There was so much build up to this point (Jordan’s surgery) –to the point where you expected the entire episode to focus on Jordan, and then we ended up with only a portion of the episode focused on Jordan. I actually didn’t have a problem with the format of the episode. I think the build up to this episode was misleading and hence I didn’t get what I expected which is why I say it was anticlimactic.

If the preview for Sleeping Beauty had been about the case, with just a small mention of Jordan I think my reaction to the entire episode would have been completely different. It (probably) would have been a much more successful episode. If you give a person more than they expected chances are they’ll walk away happy. Hype up something and then you don’t live up to it and ‘anticlimactic’ is what you get—and you leave us with this uneasy feeling of disappointment.

Second—Woody’s case. I actually really liked the case, and that was my problem with it. The case was too good, too strong to be a B-plot line. This case should have been the focus of its own episode. I felt we had two A-plots competing against themselves in this episode. And unfortunately Jordan's story won out (for my attention) but it (in my opinion) happened to be the weaker of the two. A lose-lose situation.

What interested me most about this episode was how the four men in Jordan’s life each reacted to her surgery. I loved the way everyone's story line really revolved around how they were handling Jordan's surgery. MJ and I were talking about this throughout the episode and a little afterward. And I saw one post on the CR that mentioned this too (sorry I don’t remember who’s post it was…I was tired Wednesday night, and I never got a chance to read through all the responses either).

--> When I look at this episode on a whole what really pops out at me—we could call it the theme of this episode—is ‘How each individual deals with tragedy.’ Everyone deals differently and that was really well portrayed.

Garret: Garret takes the bull by the horns (if I may use such a cliché). He faces the problem head on. If he could physically do the surgery my bet is he would. He wants to be active—needs to be active in helping Jordan. Garret feels completely helpless (they all do, but it’s most evident in Garret and Nigel’s actions) and what makes it worst is the only thing he can do is sit and wait.

Bug: You know Bug cares, but he doesn’t wear his emotions on his sleeve. He’s quiet/pensive dealing internally with Jordan’s situation. He doesn’t display his emotions and he has a hard time dealing with Nigel who is a complete wreck. There’s no doubt that Bug is worried, but he’s able to remain calm (or at least give the outward appearance that he’s calm).

Nigel: Nigel is a doer. He wants—needs to do something for Jordan. Being active, keeping positive help him keep the panic at bay. However once he’s done everything he can think of doing he can’t hold back the panic. The initial bad news about Jordan and returning to find the fish dead push him over the edge where he then lashes out (deservingly so) at Woody.

Woody: Avoidance. He does everything he can to not think about Jordan. The irony of it is he’s reminded about Jordan constantly (Renee, Tracey, Jordan’s office and the flower, Nigel…). If he doesn’t see how sick Jordan is, then he doesn’t have to accept that she’s really sick and could die. I don’t think Woody could handle Jordan dying. He can barely handle her being sick. Going to the hospital opens those flood gates that he’s trying so desperately to keep close.

I also wonder how much guilt comes into play. I’m sure he still vividly remembers his own stay in the hospital and the visit he had from Jordan. While, Jordan probably wouldn’t tell Woody to get lost, you do wonder if she’d shrink away from anything more than a ‘caring friend’.

I can’t say I was mad about how Woody acted. Last week when he let Jordan walk away it showed just how shaky the ground they stand on is. If Woody had shown up before Jordan’s surgery I think at best we would have gotten an awkward hug that neither would know how to deal with. I’m more interested to see where he goes from here. He did show up at the hospital. The real test comes in what he does during her recovery.

Kate—I’ve said it countless times and I’m saying it again. I love the addition of Kate. It was so funny when she smiled at Nigel early in the episode. I had this urge to go up and demand why she was smiling. Our Kate doesn’t smile (usually). What I loved about the smile—it was another sign that Kate is starting (in very small baby steps) to find her place within the morgue dynamic. I think she will always be contrary and difficult (but hey, can’t we say that about Jordan—yet we still love her) but she’s starting to find her place, fit into the rhythm of the morgue.

Things that made me smile:
- Renee guest staring.
- “Have a wonderful Brian Surgery” card.
- The ending shot—all four of Jordan’s men there for her.

There were many moments I liked in this episode, but it fell short of my expectations.

The Case: Not sure about the actual case, but I love the reactions that were caused from the ripple effect of the murdered pregnant woman. And not to be technical…but could you see the sister honestly cutting her sister open (without hurting the baby) and removing the baby, and knowing what to do? And doing this without passing out? Then there’s the husband giving her up—weak personality trait. Obviously the wife ruled the roost. However it wasn’t quite believable that he’d give her up so easily. I think he needed to be portrayed even ‘weaker’ (in character) when we first met him, so we’d believe he’d break under Jordan and Woody’s pressure.

Hate the sin, Love the Sinner. How many knew it was the sister when she uttered those words? I did. After completely missing last week’s killer… Woody’s harsh comments to Jordan when he called her to come to the car— “I think he was a little angry.” That was posted on the CR in respond to Woody’s phone call to Jordan. A little angry? You think? :) I’d go with completely pissed off. I liked that moment though. Jordan hasn’t let him in on her illness, and so Woody assumes it’s an amateur mistake—that opens a can of worms he doesn’t even want to begin to deal with.

This is three episodes in a row that Woody has asked if Jordan was okay. This is…good, but not great. Obviously the two still aren’t back on the same wave length. Woody can recognize something is off, but he’s not sure what or how serious. I think a past Woody would have demanded to know what was wrong until Jordan told him. He’s watching where he steps right now—still too afraid to over step any boundaries.

(TOTALLY RANDOM THOUGHT: Whatever the last season of CJ is, if the bring Woody and Jordan together, could they bring back the ring from season 4. Wouldn’t it be symbolic if Woody had held on to it all this time, and not have returned it… Okay, random thought over.)

Jordan’s running out of choices. Garret is no longer covering for her. Nigel and Bug are bound to put two and two together and come up with four instead of five this time. And I think Woody’s through asking what’s wrong and is going to start demanding to know what’s wrong.

"My Life. My brain. My decision." I’ve got news for you Jordan—it doesn’t work that way, not when you’ve got family looking out for you, and dear you might have a small family, but each and every one of them loves you.

Nigel. That says it all. I absolutely adore his character. He brings humor to a situation that’s not funny at all, and he does it in such a sincere way. Love him. I think Garret needs that hug Nigel was going to give him.

Garret and the juvenile delinquents were a wonderful B story. It wasn’t a murder case and it wasn’t about a dead body. It was about keeping these young kids from ending up in the morgue. Its focus was on life (saving life) and not about the dead/dying. It’s a nice positive spin. I was so happy when Garret took over for Bug, though it would have been interesting to see Kate deal with the kids. The teen that played the boy who clashed with Garret gets a thumbs up from me. I felt he sold the part and made me believe.

What Made Me Laugh:

- I found this too amusing…the church sign, where the message was posted “Hate the sin, Love the Sinner”, did anyone notice the times services were being held? 6am, Noon and 6pm on Sundays. I’d love to know who made up the sign :) I bet they don’t go to church that often. Maybe an 8am and 10am time would have been more believable. The sign just made me chuckle.

- Blonde hair boy passing out when Garret cut into the body.

- Garret’s name being misspelled (on the email to him from Dr. Sanchez). I thought the first time I saw the episode I just didn’t see it right, cause it was rather quick, then upon re-watching I found I had been right the first time.

Oh and one last comment. Now I’m not the die hard shipper that some are but the end scene with Jordan holding the baby and Woody standing right behind her. What an adorable family photo… (now I’ll just let your imagination run wild and take that where ever it may lead :)).

I was completely shocked by how much I liked this episode. From the previews I wasn’t too excited…other than Seely returning…it didn’t capture my attention. I was half out of it when I watch the episode the first time…and yet it still made an impression on me.

Emotions were pulled every which way in this episode. We laughed and we were sad. We were angered by actions, we were amused by actions, and we were misled by actions. So many emotions…and somehow it worked together. I think (personally) the overall feel of the episode was ‘sad’ in it’s entirely. It was the laughter, tears, anger, joking, and outrage combined that gave the end result, what made it so sad and so powerful. (Not sure if that makes sense, but I felt it was the combination of all the emotions that made it so powerful.)

I should have figured out who was guilty. It’s a golden rule that you’ll see the bad guy before the end. Never will it be a random person that hasn’t played into the episode—just basic story telling—it’s the same in books as it is in TV. I was so out of it the first time I watched though that I had no clue who was guilty.

Seely! I love him. For all Garret’s wrath, I think Seely was right. These parents had no clue about what was going on in their children’s lives. These parents should have had a clue. However, there was a time and place for it, and the first interview when the parents are grieving wasn’t necessarily the best time. I miss Seely. He adds a different dynamic to the show—always upsetting someone. He’s a great internal ‘conflict causer’. There’s always conflict around him—and conflict is the most important (and to me) intriguing part of any story.

I’ve said it from the beginning—I really like Switzer. I’ve also said there’s more to her than meets the eye. Brash, rude, rough, unlikable: it’s a façade. Don’t get me wrong—Kate can be a b*tch. But she’s not a heartless b*tch. Switzer has a heart. There have been small moments here and there leading us to believe so. This episode was full of moments. Kate was the enemy before the first strands of Metallica blasted through the autopsy room. She could have been the sweetest person on earth and the morgue staff still would have had a grudge against her. She was invading their territory. The staff still hasn’t warmed up to her, because she won’t let them. Raise your hand if you see traits of Jordan in Kate. There are so many. Kate, however, isn’t coming into a family that accepts her and thus is having a harder time with fitting in. I loved the ending scene—Kate placing the flowers on the coffin. It said more than words could. I can’t wait to see more.

Interesting dynamic seeing Bug and Kate rather than Nigel and Kate work together. I love Nigel and Kate, but was surprised by how well the Bug-Kate dynamic worked. Just on a professional level. Bug is most similar to Kate out of the morgue crew—when it comes to the science, and interests. I enjoyed them working together.

Woody acting like a teenager. Now normally this drives me crazy. Today though, I found myself laughing. Walking like a mummy and “Indiana Switzer”…only Woody could pull that off. Humor aside, I’ve actually liked Woody in the past three episodes. (Sometimes he can be too much for me.) He’s got his compassion back. He’s not mad at the world, out for revenge…he’s no longer thinking about the murderer, he’s caring about the victim. He’s not out for revenge, he’s out for justice. A much more human and caring Woody has been portrayed the past few episodes (throughout the season actually, but it’s really shined through in the recent episodes).

Jordan and Woody. Woody and Jordan. Just when the dust starts to settle and we think things are finally heading down a smoother path, something else happens. In this case Jordan gets sick. Kudos to Woody for picking up that something’s not quite right with Jordan and for caring, for worrying. However…

Anyone see a reversal of roles? Woody didn’t want pity, Jordan neither? Woody wouldn’t let Jordan be there for him in There’s No Place Like Home 2. Completely shut her out. And now Jordan is doing the same. She’s keeping Woody in the dark—because she doesn’t want his pity…though if either of the two opened their eyes they’d see the other was offering support, not pity.

Jordan asking “What else do I have.” It was such a sad and telling moment. What else does Jordan have outside of the morgue? If we answer honestly: Nothing. She’s put her life on hold...because of fear? She has plenty of reasons: Her mother, Max leaving, losing James, JD dying, losing Kayla (I still think Kayla would have completely changed Jordan’s life had she become a part of it). All of these events have hurt Jordan in some way. About the only place where she hasn’t been hurt is the morgue.

So it makes since that everything Jordan has is at the morgue. Her friends, her adoptive family—people that love and care for her. Then there’s Woody. She doesn’t have Woody—which is part of the problem. Yes they’re friends, yes there’s something special between them, but they’re not together. She hasn’t learned to let Woody into her life—to let him care and be there for her. (Pot calling the kettle…since Woody has acted the same way…There’s No Place Like Home 2…anyone remember that episode and the downward spiral from there?) Jordan’s kept everyone arms length away and she’s suddenly realizing it. Now it’s up to her to make the decision to change that and let people in. No one else can do it for her. She’s scared, but she doesn’t have to be alone—if only she’d realize that.