Plot Synopsis:
After rescuing a young woman's boyfriend from the young woman's psycho father, Gary spends the rest of the night stuck in a swamp. The following morning, Chuck suggests off-hand that Gary tell his parents about the paper. Chuck believes Gary's folks could help him with his burden, but Gary immediately scoffs at the very notion.
Apparently, though, Chuck is not the only one thinking along these lines, for when Gary goes out to extinguish a trailer fire, he's dismayed to discover that the trailer is his father's. We learn in the following scene that Gary's mother threw Bernie out about a week ago after Bernie got into a fight with her about her china. As Gary and Bernie talk, we get the sense right away that the exuberant Bernie is restless in his retirement. Gary calls his mother and tries to talk her into taking Bernie back, but he is quickly rebuffed. For the next few days at least, it looks like Gary will have a house guest.
Gary is determined to keep his father from learning about the paper, but it turns out to be a very difficult secret to keep. The following morning, Gary wakes up two hours late; Bernie, you see, turned off Gary's alarm clock at 6:30 and let him sleep. When Gary sits down to read the paper, he's horrified to discover that it is today's. When questioned, Bernie tells Gary he gave the one at the door to a homeless man because it was "cockamamie." Gary rushes outside and, to Bernie's amazement, hands fifty bucks over to the homeless man in question to retrieve his early edition.
Bernie would like to spend the day catching up with Gary, but Gary has other things to do. For example, he has to stop a kid from falling off a balcony and landing in the hospital in critical condition. It takes Gary a while to shake his father, but Bernie finally concludes that Gary has a job interview and leaves him alone. Running around the corner, Gary finds two brothers attempting to retrieve their father's Willie Mays baseball, which has fallen into the dumpster. In order to stop the older brother from lowering the younger brother into the dumpster on a makeshift rope, Gary agrees to look for the ball himself.
This is where Bernie finds Gary: hip deep in a dumpster. Gary, of course, has trouble explaining this - and it certainly doesn't help matters when Jennifer, the girl whose boyfriend Gary rescued at the beginning of the episode, runs into Gary and Bernie as they're walking down the street and gives Gary a kiss in thanks. This is when Bernie puts two and two together. He grabs Gary's paper, examining it closely for the first time. The front page reports that a poultry truck will crash and snarl up downtown traffic, and, sure enough, a few minutes later, this is exactly what happens.
Bernie is like a kid in a candy store. He's eager to jump in and help Gary, but at first, Gary resists strenuously. Bernie begs and pleads to be included, however, and Gary finally relents and allows Bernie to accompany him on several saves. Bernie absolutely loves the work; he tells Marissa later that he's never had so much fun in his life. Chuck, noticing Bernie's increasing enthusiasm, warns Gary that Bernie might be thinking of making this a full-time partnership, and Gary, alarmed, rushes over and takes the paper out of Bernie's hands. Gary starts to tell his dad not to consider this a permanent arrangement, but Bernie talks over him, suggesting that they should split up the saves the following day. Gary tells Bernie firmly that the paper is not something to fool with and extracts a promise from Bernie that he will leave the paper alone. Bernie crosses his fingers as he makes this promise.
The next morning, Gary wakes up several hours late again and discovers the paper lying open on the front stoop. Gary reads a report of a hostage situation at a video store, and heads over to the store right away, where he finds Crumb and his men setting up shop. Almost as soon as Gary arrives, the hostages rush out of the video store. They are followed by a triumphant Bernie, who tells Crumb that he sweet-talked the gunman into handing his weapon over. "I said, 'What good is a gun gonna do you? If you want people to listen to you, you have to think bigger than a gun,'" Bernie relates proudly. "So he handed me the gun, threw his laundry down, and we came out." Gary reads the paper and discovers that the "laundry" is actually a bomb. He hollers for everyone to get down, and the store front explodes.
After letting Gary squirm in the hot seat for a while, Crumb finally decides to let Gary and his father go. Gary, as you might imagine, is angry with Bernie, but Bernie seems oblivious to his son's growing irritation. Bernie swears he's learned his lesson and promises to let Gary take the lead -- with Bernie standing by as his back-up, of course. Gary finally loses his temper. "No more!" he almost shouts. Outside the police station, Gary declares his intention to pack Bernie's bags and send him back home. Hurt, Bernie replies that he will pack his bags himself and storms off.
Gary instantly feels guilty about his outburst. After walking around the streets of Chicago brooding for a while, he decides to stop Bernie from leaving, but Bernie pulls away in the Grey Ghost before Gary can catch him. As Gary stands there watching his father drive away, Jennifer's father, Nick, pulls up. Nick whips out a gun and demands that Gary get into his car. Nick, you see, believes that Gary was canoodling with Jennifer in the woods a few nights ago and seeks to make Gary "an example."
Meanwhile, as Bernie is driving around in circles trying to get out of the city, Cat jumps into the passenger seat of his truck. Bernie turns around and heads back to the Blackstone. Just then, he just happens to catch a glimpse of Gary in Nick's car and concludes that Gary is in trouble. Flooring it, he pursues Nick in a high speed chase. When Bernie finally manages to cut Nick off, he jumps out of the Grey Ghost and demands to know what Nick has in mind for Gary. Nick complains that his daughter never listens to him anymore, and Bernie sympathizes. As Gary looks on in shock, Bernie successfully convinces Nick to calm down.
The whole incident causes Gary to look upon his father in a new light. When Bernie finally mends the fences with Gary's mother and prepares to head home to Indiana, Gary even invites Bernie to stay a little longer. Bernie declines, though, stating that it is time for him to get back to building some shelves for his wife's china. Then Bernie tells Gary he's proud of him, and they embrace.
Overall: 8.8
And here, the writers give us yet another lovable recurring character in Bernie Hobson.
Writing: 8.5
The black comedy element in this episode - i.e., Nick the psycho father - works less well than the black comedy we find in, say, The Wrong Man, but the relationship Taub and Brush establish between Gary and his father makes such perfect sense that I find I mind very little the places where the script falls short.
One thing we notice about Gary right off the bat is that he finds it very difficult to express himself. This episode explains why. Bernie is a good man, but as you can see in the highlights below, he is such an overwhelming personality that conversations between him and his son often end up being rather one-sided. If I were Gary, I think I'd also get frustrated and stop speaking up.
It's the magnificently conceived dynamic between Bernie and Gary that truly drives the plot in this story. Bernie rushes headlong into everything he does, bursting with enthusiasm and affection. You can see that he means well. Unfortunately for Bernie, his son is very easily embarrassed - and also has trouble saying that he is embarrassed, sometimes because he just can't get a word in edgewise and sometimes because he simply feels guilty. So as Bernie pushes forward, happily oblivious to Gary's growing irritation, the tension begins to rise until finally, the last straw falls, and Gary snaps. The whole thing is a wonderfully realistic portrayal of a relationship between an extrovert and an introvert.
Acting: 9.0
Of course, even though the relationship between Gary and his father is impeccably written, it would not have worked half as well without Kyle Chandler and William DeVane bringing the words to life. DeVane is a real charmer, and Kyle is, as always, a master at conveying his character's thoughts non-verbally. Watch Kyle's face, for example, as Bernie raises a toast in an early scene to family members "who stand by you when you have no place else to go." The transition Kyle makes from frustration to guilt is absolutely classic - and he does it without uttering a single word. I say again - it's a travesty this man has never won an Emmy.
Message: 9.0
Any mother or father should surely appreciate what this episode has to say about the permanence of parenthood - and any child should surely appreciate what this episode has to say about the permanence of our roles as sons and daughters. Does the parent-child connection evolve as the child grows? Certainly! Can the adjustments required by this evolution be difficult to make? Of course! But as Gary learns, the rewards of keeping our relationships with our parents intact are infinitely precious. Even though we are grown, we should still seek out our parents for solace, friendship, and wise advice.
The Benevolent Hand:
"Your father may drive you crazy, Gary," says God, "but I have given him to you for a reason. Use him as you use your friends for moral support."
The highlights can be found after the jump!
Highlights:
Chuck: Want my advice? You need help.
Gary: What kind of help do you suggest?
Chuck: You need someone that you can talk to, someone that'll help you lighten the load.
Gary: I thought that was you.
Chuck: Someone you can trust.
Gary: Ah.
Chuck: Like your folks.
Gary: (suddenly straightening) What?
Chuck: Yeah. I mean look at you. You're pale. You're not having very much fun. Why don't you invite them down for the weekend? You can bond. I definitely think you should tell your folks.
Gary: You know what I think? (He plunks an extinguisher on the counter.) I think out of all the advice that you've given me, Chuck, that... that is the worst.
Chuck: In all this time, you've never breathed a word to them? Never even dropped them a hint?
Gary: You got it.
Chuck: That's a big secret to keep from the people that changed your diapers. (Indeed!)
Gary: What do you expect me to do? "Mom, Dad - I forgot to tell you, but I get tomorrow's paper today"? My dad, can you imagine him? First thing he'd want to do is help me. (He pauses when he sees the trailer across the street.)
Chuck: There it is.
Gary: All right. (He and Chuck run across the street toward the trailer.) Remember the paper route in seventh grade? Or how about that explosive science project? We were lucky to get out of there alive. (LOL!)
Gary: Dad, after 35 years, what did you do to make her so mad?
Bernie: You got me.
Gary: Dad. (Gary gives his father a Look.)
Bernie: Okay. I retired.
Gary: That's it?
Bernie: Well, that's my point, isn't it? Exactly. You spend your whole life on your job, and then all of a sudden, bam - that's it. You're finished, out of there. Well, not me. I've got a lot to do.
Gary: Well - like what?
Bernie: You sound just like her. That's exactly what she said. "Like what?"
Gary: And then what did you say?
Bernie: I said, "I am too young to spend the rest of my life building shelves for your china."
Gary: You said that to Mom? (You can see Gary mentally facepalming here.)
Bernie: I said that to Mom. That's when she threw me out. She said, "Come back when you've found whatever it is you're looking for."
Gary: This is today's.
Bernie: Of course it's today's. I got it fresh from the newsstand.
Gary: What happened to the one – the other - (He points towards the door.)
Bernie: Oh, I got rid of it.
Gary: You what?
Bernie: There was something wrong with it. It was cockamamie. Had the wrong headline, the wrong date...
Gary: What did you do with it?
Bernie: I got rid of it!
Gary: Where?
Bernie: I gave it away.
Gary: Dad, to who?
Bernie: Some old guy pushing a shopping cart.
(Outside, Gary counts out fifty dollars and hands it to the homeless man.)
Bernie: I don't believe this. Are you out of your mind? Fifty bucks for a newspaper? That's pretty steep, even at home. So what's the deal, you a collector or what?
Gary: Something like that, yeah. (LOL!)
Bernie: You're in trouble, aren't you?
Gary: No, I'm not in any trouble.
Bernie: Here's what I see, okay? I see a guy who buys a newspaper from a bum. (He slaps a piece of old lettuce off Gary's shoulder.) I see a guy who's in a dumpster up to his keister in orange peels. I see a guy who's in trouble and who's also hiding something from me.
(Just then, the girl from the woods runs into Gary.)
Jennifer: Excuse me. I know you, don't I? You're the one from the woods the other night, the one who snuck up on my car.
Gary: Ha, ha, ha.
Jennifer: I just want you to know that I'm sorry for how I behaved, but you were great. It's just my father, he's like some sort of madman. He follows me everywhere. You'd think he'd trust his own daughter, huh?
Bernie: How did she behave?
Gary: Dad, please –
Jennifer: Anyway, whatever you saw in that paper... (A light turns on. Bernie takes a second look at Gary's paper.) Thanks for rescuing me. Thanks.
Gary: Oh, yeah, you're welcome.
Jennifer: Thank you. (She kisses Gary on the cheek.)
Gary: Bye. (Then he notices that Bernie has snatched his paper.) What are you doing?
Bernie: Look at this!
Gary: You know how you got electric trains? That's your hobby, this is mine. That's all it is.
Bernie: Yeah, but this is some hobby!
Bernie: So you get tomorrow's newspaper... today. Comes in the morning...
Gary & Bernie simultaneously: With the cat.
Bernie: So you read a story in the paper, then you run out into the city and you save somebody's life, and then just like that, the story is gone?
Gary: Uh, some-something like that.
Bernie: Well, how do they do that, some kind of special ink?
Gary: Well, uh... I-I'm not sure. I, uh...
Bernie: I'll bet it's the ink. Disappearing ink. The army was working on a project like that when I was at Fort Briggs -- top-secret stuff.
Bernie: Did you know he gets tomorrow's paper?
Chuck: That was fast.
Bernie: Son, this is too much responsibility for one man! How long has this been going on?
Chuck: About a year.
Bernie: No wonder you look so tired. You're carrying the whole world around on your back! Where you going?
Gary: I'm going to call mom.
Bernie: Oh, put the phone down. Come on, put the phone down, will you? You want to know what I’m thinking here? I'm remembering that summer we went camping. You were around 10 years old, remember? You wanted to sleep outside in your sleeping bag. I wanted you in the tent, but you wanted to do what you wanted to do. So about 11:00, I get this feeling. I go out to see how you're doing, and there you are in your sleeping bag shaking like a leaf, scared out of your wits. But you didn't want to go back in. So I came out, and I stayed with you. I'm not saying that I believe in ESPN or anything like that –
Chuck: E-S-P. E-S-P.
Bernie: That's what I said. E-S-P.
Chuck: No, it isn't. You said ESPN.
Bernie: I know what I said!
Chuck: You said ESPN.
Gary: Guys!
Bernie: All I'm saying is, maybe there's a reason I’m here - a reason beside your mother's china. Maybe I can be of some help! Come on, Gar, give your old man a chance, will you? (Bernie really is a sweetheart.)
Bernie: Ha ha ha! You should have been there. It was such a trip!
Marissa: So you like this save the world stuff, huh?
Bernie: You know, I can't remember ever having so much fun.
Marissa: Fun? That's something we don't hear very much. (Heh.)
Plain Clothes Officer: We got someone on the line.
Crumb: Some nut with a grudge?
Plain Clothes Officer: Not the nut. Some guy named Hobson.
Gary: That might be my father.
Crumb: What? There are two of you? (Hee!)
Gary: Don't say anything. I don't want an explanation.
Bernie: I thought I could help.
Gary: You blew up a video store. What would Mom think about that, huh?
Bernie: She wouldn't like it.
Gary: No, she wouldn't like that very much, would she?
Bernie: For what it's worth, I think I learned my lesson here.
Gary I’m glad to hear that.
Bernie: This thing is nothing to be fooling around with. It won't happen again.
Gary: Good.
Bernie: From now on, I think you should do the life-saving stuff, and I'll back you up. Remember when you were about 9, we were playing softball --
Gary: (half-shouting) Dad! No more! (The officers in the lobby stare.) You understand? No more.
(Outside.)
Bernie: Gar... Hey, Gar, wait up! Gar! Gar, wait up! Where we going?
Gary: Home.
Bernie: Great.
Gary: I'm going to pack your bags, then I’m going to put them in the trailer. You're leaving. Not tomorrow - today. And I don't want any more stories about when I was 6 years old, all right?
Bernie: Remember that birthday party? We went to the circus...
Gary: Mom was right. You're trying to find yourself. That's fine. But don't try to find yourself in me, okay? (Ouch.)
Jennifer’s dad: You know what's wrong with the world today? People don't have any respect for their parents.
Gary: Look, mister, uh...
Jennifer’s dad: See what I mean? You're after my daughter, and you don't even know her last name.
Gary: I hardly know your daughter.
Jennifer’s dad: Is that why you were in the woods together?
Gary: No, no, that wasn't me. I mean, it was me, but I wasn't in the woods -- I wasn't there because I like your daughter...
Jennifer’s dad: You're not helping your case any.
Gary: No, I'm not, am I? (LOL!)
Gary: You can't spend the rest of your life trying to kill your daughter's boyfriends.
Nick: And why is that?
Gary: Well, because no matter how many of them you kill, there's always going to be more of them.
Nick: What?
Gary: Let me -- let me rephrase that. (BWAHAHA.)
Bernie: You all right? Who are you, and what do you want with my kid?
Nick: What does he want with my daughter?
Bernie: I asked first!
Nick: I'm older!
Bernie: Are you sure?
Nick: I've got the gun.
Bernie: You're right. You're first. (ROTFL!)
Bernie: Well, Nick, what's she like, your daughter?
Nick: What's -- she drives me crazy. I -- all I want is what's best for her, but she won't listen to me.
Bernie: They do that, don't they? How old is she?
Nick: She's just 20.
Bernie: I remember when he was 20. Wouldn't listen to anything I had to say. Then I figured it out. Somewhere along the line, he learned what I was trying to tell him. Remember when she was a baby? All those cries. One meant that she was hungry, and one meant that she was tired. You figured it out, right?
Nick: Yeah.
Bernie: Yeah. Well, see, it's no different now. She's grown up, yeah, but she's still your kid. Listen to her. She'll tell you what she needs. And they'll tell you what they don't need.
Nick: And what about me?
Bernie: Same as me. We're still their fathers... no matter what kind of asses we make of ourselves.
Bernie: Look, son, I know this is not easy for you. You've got a big job to do here. God knows, I couldn't handle it. I'm proud of you. (Awww.)
Chuck’s Closing Monologue: Thing is, you don't get to pick your parents. No one automatically gets the father they want. No one. Sometimes, however, if you're lucky - and if you're blessed - you get the father you need. That's the best you can hope for, and really...that's more than enough.
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