#not sure why my at-the-time devout catholic mother was letting me at 7 watch some punk pick up rattlesnakes but i love her for it.

[torchickentacos]

update: still in burnout/seasonal affective hell (and now i'm snowed in ✌️) BUT I have found out that I can watch various episodes of River Monsters, Mythbusters, and Kitchen Nightmares for free, completely legally (not sarcasm). so that's nice

[roslinadama-sinequanon]

Major Crimes-Sanctuary City Part 3

I’m not going to get into too much about the illness angle in this episode because I already did an in depth analysis on my different takes on what it could be, but I will of course touch on them.

I know there has been a lot of talk about the lack of any Shandy so far in these three episodes, and oh yeah, that is the truth. But it isn’t just a lack of Shandy. It’s a lack of any sort of connection at all between Sharon and Andy. And that leads me to--

What happened to Andy Flynn? I feel like they have taken Andy’s spark away. Where is the brash wise cracking guy or the one with a sweet charming smile to buck up his lady? They are giving Wes all the lines that typically would have been Andy’s and Andy just seems like he’s standing around with a serious look on his face going through the motions. What gives? Is it because they want to give the other actors more now, because Andy will be more of a focus in the wedding? I don’t know, but I’m not liking that.

I did like the pace of this episode and especially the tension between Sharon and Father Stan, though I am hoping they are able to work things out. I liked Stan. I hope I like him again.

On to the episode...

“I have to say, Sharon, this is not the way I expected to be treated.” “Obstruction of justice is an extremely serious charge.” “Attempting to break the sacred bond between a penitent and a priest is not merely sacrilegious it’s grounds for ex-communication.”

This is getting heated and as soon as it got emotional, Sharon had her first of what I’ll refer to as “episodes” with blurry vision. But it only lasted a few seconds. A check mark to all of us who knew episode 2 was just a red herring, lulling us into a false sense of comfort before we got hit in this episode--and while we have yet to get the final blow, we did get pummeled with seven “episodes” making it pretty obvious that this is not something that is going away. Anyway, back to Sharon and Stan. Tossing out the ex-communication to a woman that Stan knows as devout and faithful was a really low blow. Sharon flinched when he said that.

“Consider how ex-communicating the investigator responsible for finding the boys would sound to the media.”

Provenza doesn’t give a rat’s ass about religion and has nothing but contempt for the Catholic Church but the minute Stan suggests ex-communicating Sharon he jumps to her defense.

“Couldn’t fit all three bodies in the trunk?” “That’s morbid Sharon.”

We can see how pissed Sharon’s getting.  Until this point Sharon and Father Stan had been dealing with each other respectfully, but Father Stan’s defensiveness and condescension has gotten Sharon’s hackles up and she isn’t giving an inch. And instead of her team tossing off the pithy comments she has joined in.

“Julio, oh my goodness. You have five more days of bereavement left.”

It was great to see how happy everyone was to see Julio. I especially liked the way Andy lit up. Something has felt strange this season when it comes to Andy. I feel like he is being sidelined so they can focus more on Wes. Wes is given all Andy’s great sarcastic lines and Andy just seems to be standing around not doing much of anything or just being rather bland in the interviews. Where is the old Andy spark? Having Julio back might change some of the dynamic. At times, with Wes and Cami and the FBI agents taking up a lot of time, it hasn’t felt much like Major Crimes. But now with Julio back it’s feeling a little more like home.

And of course, I can’t not comment on Sharon’s big hug. The first time she hugged Julio(when she commented on the team having no sense of occasion) he was completely shocked and stiff. This time, he was a little stiff but I think he enjoyed it and has gotten used to Sharon’s warmth and affection. Who would have ever thought this about her when we first met her on TC?

“Having Mark ask me if any more boys got kidnapped. He’s afraid to go back to St. Joseph’s.”

How cool is it that Mark goes to the same school where Sharon’s kids went. Wonder if she recommended it. And I love the idea of Sharon and Julio sitting in church together since they attend the same church. I’d like to have a scene between Sharon and Julio about what is happening with their church and the priests and the case etc. I think Sharon and Andy could also have this conversation since Andy is also a Catholic, however, I have a feeling that Julio is probably more devout in the way that Sharon is.

“Are you a spy?”

I love how blunt Julio is. And why does Cami always have the same look on her face, as if she just smelled something bad.

“Are you okay?”

This is where we get Sharon’s second episode of blurry vision and this time Andy sees it. He even puts a hand on her arm. When Sharon starts to move forward, he actually steps toward her as if he was afraid she was going to fall or something, but she’s already perfectly fine again. It seems strangely out of character for Andy not to be more worried. He would protect her privacy and not say anything out there, especially because she was able to collect herself so quickly, but I would think he would pull her aside as soon as could and question her about what’s going on.

“One of the LAPD’s main missions is to stop teenagers from dating each other.”

Great line. It’s nice to see Andy interviewing with Wes, but why is Wes getting the lines that would typically go to Andy? At the very least, Andy would have grinned at the line, but he seems very serious lately. Is it all because he’s worried about Sharon? It makes me sad, because Andy was always such a vital character; it’s as if they took his spark away.

“This story is going to make the church very angry.” “What are they going to do, UN-Christen us?” “I’m not a Catholic.” “I am.”

This is the first time that Sharon has revealed some discomfort between her job and her faith. She has been able to keep them separated and has dealt with the church as she would any other organization that she was investigating, however,  I think Father Stan really got to her with the possibility of ex-communication.

“Why would he come back after getting away completely?”

I know this storyline is going to heat up, but right now, I just don’t care. We’ve pretty much been told it’s all going to be about Rusty so now I’m just sort of “meh” about it. And when it comes to serial killers, a lot of what they do is for the thrill, the game. They want to come close to getting caught, they want to taunt the police and the FBI so I don’t think it’s so strange that Stroh came back. He feeds off being one-step ahead of the cops and must have been bored in Europe.

“Father Jonas is a known mother-lover”

Again, something Andy would say. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind Wes getting a smart-ass line IF Andy still gets some. Right now it’s all Wes and zero Andy.

Interesting that they were all so convinced that Jonas was after the boys when he was really after their moms. Sharon had commented on the less than priestly hug Jonas gave one of the mom’s but no one really latched on to that.

“Who might only want out of his back child support payments.”

Here is Sharon’s third episode, rubbing her temple as if her head hurt. Was it a little Jack flashback?

“While we’re in the alibi business let’s get one more.”

Sharon episode four. She has trouble rising. Again, Andy is there and again, he has a tense face, but he does not express his concern or seem overly worried.

“In the name of the father, the son, the holy spirit, Amen.”

I love the visual of Sharon striding up the church stairs in her high heels, so determined. God, I wish I had her legs. Anyway, she had no problem climbing those stairs. Inside, she quickly blesses herself and starts off toward Father Stan, but then she stops and starts looking around the church. She focuses on the crucifix and the statue of Jesus and it’s as the wind goes completely out of her sails. She tears up and places a hand on her chest as if her heart is breaking and we move into Sharon’s episode five. She genuflects (the first time I watched the episode I thought she was collapsing.) Once down she has a little trouble rising and some blurred vision.

The confession-

I thought it was a little anticlimactic and that it was going to be a bigger deal. Really it was just a conversation that Sharon could have been having with Stan in her office. 

“Andy took me back to the firing range this evening.”

I would like to have seen a little of this father/son bonding. At least it would have given us some Andy.

“I’m going to write him a letter and put it in the mail like they did in the 1980’s.”

Rusty does actually listen and absorb things that Sharon tells him. A while back when he was fighting with Gus she had suggested writing him a handwritten note has it was more personal and meaningful. Letters seem to be a “thing” on MC. Jack’s letter to Sharon when he leaves her condo, Andy’s letter to Sharon when he was going in for surgery, a letter we’ve still not gotten to hear the contents of, and the two times Rusty has written to Gus.The one common denominator...Sharon.

I’m kind of surprised that Rusty is being as angsty over Gus as he has been. When Gus left, it was Rusty who said “Good bye” in way that made it pretty clear that he knew they were over. Now he’s spying on Gus, pining over Gus, wanting to know what’s going on with Gus, passively aggressively writing him a letter to say he understands etc. Hell we’ve gotten more talk about Gusty than we have Shandy and Gus hasn’t even been in any episode.

“Mom…Mom… Have you thought about staying home tomorrow just so you can sleep in?”

Sharon’s episode six. More blurry vision. This time Sharon gave a little start before her vision blurred. These blurred episodes only last a couple seconds, but they seem to be coming on in quicker intervals.

“Oh boy” “Are you sure tomorrow wouldn’t work without you?”

Sharon episode 7. This time she seemed a little dizzy but no blurred vision.

“I’m doing something outrageous.”

I love the way she says this. She doesn’t usually do things like this so she seems almost excited.

“Oh my God, Commander.”

Everyone is stunned to see the FBI with boys and they are all outraged when the agents returned. No one more so than Sharon.

“What I’d like is for you to collect your things and go. NOW. They go now.”

Sharon is so pissed. I love the way she is waving her finger at them and the look of derision and her tone. It is so nice to see her finally cut loose and just let someone have it for once. It would have been the perfect scene if it hadn’t continued with….

“This case is our jurisdiction. Any….any…any…Oh God…Oh my.” “Sharon... Sharon... Sharon.”

So, if I knew this was a panic attack or something related to stress I’d be excited to see something like that being handled. But after watching this a second time around (and hearing about the upcoming episode where Sharon’s health has a setback,) I’m leaning more into a brain tumor type of thing (it could be a benign tumor near the optic nerve or something). She just didn’t seem to have much trouble with her breathing--she ran right up those steps at church without a cough so I’m thinking no walking pneumonia and her episodes were mostly about blurred vision, she wasn’t having trouble in a panicky way like an anxiety attack. But I am no doctor and I’m not a writer for MC so they could be twisting symptoms around. I do hope it is some type of stress/anxiety thing because working with a woman like Sharon to stop repressing her emotions could be very interesting. We’ll know pretty soon. Crossing my fingers for NO SERIOUS ILLNESS.