#nothingbutblueskies

Nothing But Blue Skies-- and Shipping Joy

It's hard to believe we've reached the last season of our rewatch of favorite episodes.  This entry in the Great 38 is Nothing But Blue Skies, the season seven opener.  It begins a couple weeks after the sixth season ended or, more importantly, two weeks after Jane admitted he loved Lisbon and we had the kiss squealed about around the entire world.  

After that season ending (and what many of us feared was series ending) kiss, the opener of season seven had a lot to live up to and in many ways it did.  We saw a transformation in the relationship of Jane and Lisbon.  She was relaxed and happy with him and he was definitely at peace with himself.  The looks they exchanged could have melted steel they were so hot.  Bruno Heller said that these were two consenting adults who had known each other for many years.  There had been no reason for them to wait to go to bed together and it was very obvious from the body language that it was true.  Would I have liked to have seen a kiss or a hug?  Sure, but I was grateful for what I saw.  

One of the great debates about the episode's opening scene has to do with Lisbon lying to Abbott about Jane's whereabouts when he was sitting right beside her.  Jane teased her and asked if she was embarrassed and her response was, "No!  God no."  I've read some who have said that she hurt Jane with this and if she did, I believe it was very inadvertent.  In fact, I can understand why she wanted to try to keep her personal life out of the office for a while.  She had been in a very public relationship with Flappy-Jacks and had accepted well wishes on her new life in Washington DC with him not more than two weeks before she was being called back in to work.  She wasn't embarrassed about Jane.  She was embarrassed about herself.  Now having said that she wanted "to keep her private life private for a little while," I also don't think she was naive enough to think that no one knew what had happened.  Abbott knew they were in love before Jane and Lisbon did and had talked to Cho about it.  (Although we discovered that apparently Cho has an odd idea about how brothers and sisters behave.)  Fischer had known and thus left Lisbon a note wishing her luck with Jane and even though we never saw it, I'm sure Wylie was also very aware of what had happened at the airport.  When you make a declaration that public and suddenly the woman involved is changing her plans, it's a rather open secret.  No, I believe that Lisbon was simply asking for time to be out of the office gossip spotlight and I'm sure a smart guy like Jane understood.  

Oh, and there was a case that they were working on, too.  It involved a murdered undercover FBI agent who had tracked gun smugglers through a bowling alley.  It wasn't a bad case, but it also never had a chance of keeping my attention from the most important part of the episode-- the Jisbon.  I did feel that there was some plot holes in it.  Among them, why was Geist's room untouched when Jane went to look at it?  It didn't appear that the Spackman's people had been there.  If they had, why would they have left his laptop sitting on the table?  

I'm afraid nothing about the case had me on the edge of my seat.  What did that for me was the confrontation with Scruffy Cakes Pike who returned to Austin for a deposition.  I hated that Bruno and the writers felt that we had to be "closure" there.  This we get a final resolution on but not the Blake Association?  Ahem.  Sorry.  It's a pet peeve.  I wasn't shocked by the snarky nature of Pancake's Pike's questions to Jane about his plans.  The guy knew that the only chance he had ever stood with Lisbon was to overwhelm her with the things he could give her or could do for her because he never had her heart.  What did surprise me was was that afterwards Jane admitted to Lisbon that he didn't have a plan.  I'm sure she was startled by that but I'm equally sure that she appreciated the fact that he believed that any plan was one they would work on together.  She had always wanted him to treat her as an equal partner.  

Well, I could go on and on here, but instead I hope you'll join us Tuesday, April 25th at 5pm DST eastern time zone USA for #NothingButBlueSkies.  We will be live tweeting our thoughts as we rewatch the episode.  If you're feeling shy, you don't have to send tweets but you can follow ours by looking up the #NothingButBlueSkies in the search field or visit my Twitter timeline @FineWineOrNot.  If you have never joined us before, I hope you will still consider it.  If you can't join us, I hope you'll get to watch it on your own.  

Take care and may you get to find origami swans in your pocket.