Lara's Review - The Elephant in the Room

The Elephant In The Room – Review

This episode will definitely come to rate up there with my favourites. It was great, and contained all those elements that make Crossing Jordan such a unique show, which makes it difficult to know where to start, but let’s begin.

I thought it was great that the episode picked up the morning after instead of having ‘gap’ time, the Jordan and Woody relationship has become a huge part of Crossing Jordan and the events that occurred in ‘Loves Me Not’ has propelled it in to a whole new direction. While I was left feeling kind of strange after the events in the previous episode I really enjoyed watching the interaction between Jordan and Woody in this episode. Once again it was all in the eyes, and the looks exchanged between the two characters were so telling. I am looking forward to seeing where the writers take the relationship, we know it is not going to go smoothly and I can’t wait to see the twist, what ever it is, it is going to be great, you can feel it building.

I like that JD is still in the picture, in terms of what he has done for the characters I like him, and at the end of the episode I felt bad for him, the poor guy has done almost everything right in romancing Jordan, but he is going to get his heartbroken in a major way. Which brings me back to something I addressed in a previous review, Jordan has grown, over the last two seasons she has faced things that have caused her to face some of her demons, and I think it began with ‘Intruded’, after her night with Woody, Jordan addressed the situation, at least to herself, she told Woody she had a ‘problem’ to deal with, in the form of JD and while she did at times avoid JD throughout the episode, in the last scene it was obvious that Jordan and JD had to address the issue. But, I still don’t think Jordan is over her issues, not by a long shot, but we are beginning to see more developed aspects of her personality, and it is giving the writers a bigger scope to work with.

The last scene was awesome; it was one of those scenes that just work, there was so much tension between the two characters, and then when the musical soundtrack cut out and the last lines were done bare it heightened the tension, the unspoken words were louder than the spoken ones, the perfect ending.

Finally, Garret’s issues are being addressed, though I feel that this episode was just the beginning of a story arc that will continue throughout the rest of the season. I loved the interaction between Garret and Jordan, and Garret and Renee. I think Jordan always had to be the one who call Garret on his drinking, and it was good to see that, especially in the scene in Garret’s office, she gave him an ultimatum, one that I believe she would follow through on, it gives the storyline a good twist, can you see Jordan as chief ME?

I actually liked Garret in this episode; I thought that Miguel Ferrer was able to show a more emotional range, rather than the mostly distant boss he can be. And the poor morgue staff copped the brunt of his anger and frustration; I hope we get to see more of this side of Garret before his story arc is resolved.

I love Renee; she is one of the characters I will always love to hate, the walls she puts up are at times bigger than Jordan’s. While I think she will always care for Garret, I think that Renee’s priorities are her cases, and while she did get Garret off the hook for his DUI, it was to benefit her case rather than help Garret. I like how the writers have always maintained that distance between Renee and the morgue staff, she will always be the DA over a friend, even when she does help them out.

After ‘Loves Me Not’ I was dismissive of the Bug, Lily and Brandau threesome, but after this episode it has actually got me intrigued, I want to see where it is going, and how Lily will respond to Bugs re-declaration of his feelings. I really thought the issue had been buried in season two, but I like how it has resurfaced especially now Lily is finding happiness with Brandau, plus when you throw Matt Seely into the mix it adds a new dimension.

Seely is also another one of my favourite recurring characters, I like how he causes tension between the characters. He isn’t afraid of telling the truth, even if it means rubbing people the wrong way. Seely’s comments to Garret were great, and it was interesting to see him stick up for Bug, then work with him at the police station. Its like Seely and Bug have teamed together to get rid of Brandau, and then it will be all out war between the two for Lily’s heart.

My favourite thing about this episode was that the case storylines are back on track, they have waived of the past couple of episodes, and it has only been the personal storylines that have supported the episodes. I thought both case storylines in ‘The Elephant In The Room’ were great, they had the right amounts of intrigue, twists and compassion that makes the cases in Crossing Jordan unique. I was drawn into them, I wanted to know the back story, and I wanted to see the bad guy get his just deserts. It was also nice to see the traditional Cavanaugh re-enactments, they have always been one of my favourite parts of Crossing Jordan, and it was great to see it again. And this re-enactment served as a two-fold process, to not only ‘solve’ the case but also to heighten the drama between Jordan, Woody and JD. I particularly liked the bittersweet moment when Jordan commented to JD that what she and Woody were doing was ‘something the Cavanaugh family players used to perform back in the days of...well the Cavanaugh family’, it was almost like a realisation to herself that many things have changed in her life, and what they were doing was her way of reaching to that past that brought back good memories.

Once again the music in this episode hits the mark, music can make or break film and Crossing Jordan is lucky to have music editors who manage to complement and enhance the storyline each week. ‘Good Morning Starshine’ was a perfect song to open the episode, for me it highlighted things I had been thinking and feeling throughout the week about ‘Loves Me Not’. I loved the direction in this episode, there was so much compacted into the episode, I thought Bethany Roony did a fabulous job at keeping it at a fast pace while not losing any vital moments or essential storyline sub-texts.

I really enjoyed this episode, it was a throw back to classic Crossing Jordan, and I really hope that the writers keep up the fabulous job they are doing. This season has been one of the best so far, the writers, directors and producers are really raising the bar and pushing through boundaries they have always shied away from in the past, and it is great to see.