State of the #SHEA Part 30: ...And One More (Striped Tomato Joyride) For the Road ("We're All Crazy Sometimes")

 

A quick story for you.

When I was a little kiddo in the 70s, I often tried to hang out with my dad in the evenings as he watched TV. I say “try” because my dad was a big guy with an unusually deep voice who didn’t communicate particularly well, so whenever he did speak it often sounded like you had unwittingly angered him somehow… making “hanging out” a challenge, to say the least. Intimidating? Most definitely. But he was also very smart, and had a bone-dry sense of humor that intrigued me even at an early age. 

So I’d sit in our TV room with him, with Police Story or Cannon or The Rockford Files on the screen, and try-- usually in vain-- to follow the details of a detective/crime show that was way, WAY over my elementary school head. If I needed something explained to me-- something that had already happened in the episode, that is-- Dad would usually give it a shot (probably knowing I’d keep asking variations of the question until he did so). But other times, I’d get anxious about a storyline’s outcome and look to Dad for some straight-up fortune telling. “What’s gonna happen to that guy, Dad?” I’d beg to know.

“Who’s the lady in the fur coat?”

“Why did that building blow up?”

And without fail (also without any indication that he was kidding), Dad’s response was “I don’t know, Kel. I didn’t write this one.”

To be clear, Dad didn’t write ANY of them-- he worked at Sears Tower in downtown Chicago (you may know it now as Willis Tower; it will forever by “Sears Tower” to me), he took the “L” to work Monday through Friday, and while he was an excellent writer, I don’t think he got to use that particular gift very much down there. 

But over time, I think I’d ask him the unanswerable plot question just to hear him drop that one-liner. Whether he secretly liked to imagine himself a screenwriter, or not-so-secretly liked to monkey with my gullible head-- or maybe both-- it felt like our “thing,” one of our few weird little connections in the world. 

I tell you this now for two reasons: 

1. While every #Shea fan who got on the baby bandwagon ahead of last week’s “Crazy” episode has been giving mental high-fives and simultaneous sighs of relief that they FINALLY made an accurate prediction… and they’re actually very excited about this particular development for a change!... many are now sweating out the details via the promotional material we have thus far. My advice-- which is essentially please don’t sweat anything out yet; we just got here! Let’s enjoy the moment and all the wonder that goes with it!-- is going to fall on a lot of deaf ears. I know this. 

So if you ask me on Twitter (or the blog comments, or the FB page) about Shaun and Lea’s decision in the Teeny Blue Eyes episode... and I answer Sorry… I didn’t write that one… please know it’s more about the lack of information that we ALL have right now, and less about me being a wiseass. OK, maybe only a little less.

(It may also be because I’m trying to give you new things to read and think about in the next blog post. But you knew that, right?)

2. I also shared that story about my dad in an effort to segue between his 70s cop shows of choice, and a certain cop show from the same era that resonates with Shaun and Lea.

I will say just this one thing about #BabyShea’s future for now: I sincerely hope that the Striped Tomato continues to play a role in Shaun and Lea’s world, no matter what kind of ultra-safe family vehicle they end up purchasing.

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IN AN EARLIER LIFE… The Striped Tomato was the nickname given to the 2-door 1976 Ford Gran Torino frequently driven by detectives Starsky and Hutch in the ABC action drama of the same name; the TV series debuted in late April 1975 and stayed on the air until 1979. (Fun fact: from what I’m reading, the nickname came not from a line in the show itself, but from a comment made by Paul Michael Glaser (Starsky) on the DVD commentary many years later.)

ON THE GOOD DOCTOR… Lea’s version of TST debuted during the “Islands, Part 1” episode in S1… in other words, shortly before Lea headed back to Hershey, PA, and off the show for the remainder of the season. We actually saw Lea behind the wheel of a completely different (and much more contemporary) car during her second appearance on TGD (1.4 “Pipes”); while she explained to Shaun during “Islands” that this second car of hers was actually a gift from her late, beloved Grandpa Rod, nothing more was seen or heard about car #1 once TST joined the show. 

What does The Striped Tomato symbolize for Shaun and Lea?

Escapism-- when Lea unveiled it with a flourish in “Islands” (she had the vehicle under wraps in their parking garage), TST (and its owner) served as the vessel to take Shaun away from the pressure-cooker of a relationship he had at the time with Dr. Glassman.

A shared interest-- Shaun was familiar enough with Starsky and Hutch to recognize the car and call it by its nickname; this simple fact endeared him just a little more to Lea at the time. “Grandpa Rod would have loved you,” she marveled.

Fate-- Sure, Shaun and Lea were probably destined to fall in love… but if Shaun hadn’t lost control of TST while learning to burn rubber, it never would have hit that rock/needed repair/derailed their road trip. And maybe, just maybe, that first tequila-and-karaoke fueled kiss wouldn’t have happened! Perish the thought!

Independence-- When Lea first handed her TST keys to Shaun and let him get behind the wheel (during “Islands”), she allowed him to realize a dream that Dr. Glassman had kept at bay, and furthermore she did it when his relationship with Glassman was at a very vulnerable point. She didn’t know all the details of that at the time, of course. But come season two, after she’d left and come back and struggled to mend her friendship with Shaun, then struggled with the decision to become roommates, then struggled with actually being roommates… then they got back to the business of Shaun learning to drive. And ironically, this new skillset of Shaun’s proved especially useful when Dr. Glassman lost some of his own independence (forfeting his license when his battle with cancer kept him from driving). 

Incidentally, we didn’t hear much about Shaun actually getting his license (or driving) after all that. I’ve often wondered if the show was hesitant to fully endorse a character like Shaun as a licensed driver… but maybe a better argument can be made for the fact that Shaun’s either at the hospital or at home 98% of the time. They don’t need to show him driving, so they don’t.

A way to help Glassman at his lowest-- The last time we did see him drive, aside from the little race at Lea’s former workplace in 2.12 “Aftermath”, was when Shaun and Lea took an extremely reluctant (but eventually grateful) Glassman to a chemo appointment. Much of S2 dealt with Glassman’s cancer diagnosis, and when Shaun convinced (??) Glassy to give up his driver’s license because of memory deficiencies that were beginning to creep in… that’s when the Striped Tomato leaped into action again. Not just in the scene I mentioned above, but when Lea found herself driving Glassman around during the “Quarantine” 2-parter (Shaun was, for obvious reasons, stuck at the hospital). Consequentially, she was the one there with him when he initially thought his tumor had returned.

Their own relationship at its lowest (to date, and we hope never again)-- 

It wasn’t by happenstance that the writers chose to have an alcohol-impaired Shaun standing alongside TST around one year ago, baseball bat in hand, poised to destroy it as a horrified Lea looked on. For all the reasons I just listed (plus the understanding of how much Lea cherishes this car), it was the only scenario that could truly illustrate how badly things had deteriorated between them. As we said at the time-- if he’d gone through with it, I doubt that even the circumstances of the earthquake to come would have healed them. But the bat crashed down onto the pavement instead, Shaun blurted “I can’t,” and the rest is history.

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There was of course a more practical, real-life reason to keep TST in one piece… TGD saw a future for it! I’ve previously shared pictures here that blog reader Pamela (a Vancouver native) took while paying a visit to the park where Shaun and Lea’s “date night” happened last fall… here are some photos she shared from outside the Connaught apartments, where they likely shot both Lea’s flat tire scene from “Decrypt” and the opening tow-truck scene from “We’re All Crazy Sometimes” on the same day.

“I only got to the set after the shooting was done but still got to see the crew packing up, including the car and tow truck being loaded onto the big transport truck,” Pamela explains. “I did see the other Gran Torino that had California plates… 

 “One of the crew told us bystanders that one of the versions of the GT was the original Starsky and Hutch one (see the photo of car with door open and autograph in the door).”

It’s no wonder that they handle this classic/these classics with such care… check out this Autotrader.com link to see more about TST’s value!

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And now… BACK TO THE “CRAZY” EPISODE

Will Shaun and Lea’s recovery of TST prove to be their last great adventure as a relatively carefree twosome? 

It certainly felt like the culmination of all the Shaun-and-Lea-functioning-as-a-unit situations we’ve witnessed thus far in S4:

• Having to be physically distant for months (due to TGD’s version of COVID)

• ASD/NT communications 101 (Shaun overshares with “total honesty”-- in front of the Newbies-- to a point that’s hurtful and embarrassing to Lea)

• The decision for Lea to move back into the loft (arguably Lea did much of the heavy lifting on this decision, and without outside input…)

• The perfect “date night” that had to be scrapped due to Shaun’s work needs

• Shaun losing a patient

• Lea revealing that she’d been married, which prompted Shaun’s worries about their relationship drifting off course and ending “in disaster” (and prompted the addition of a cowbell to their home)

• Lea’s judgmental and short-sighted parents, who triggered significant anxiety in Lea when they came to visit

• Glassman’s lingering issues with both Lea, and Shaun/Lea as a couple

• Shaun’s fears of being attracted to another woman

• Lea’s need to feel respected by Shaun in terms of her career/line of work

Which brings us to “We’re All Crazy Sometimes,” which I’m just going to look at scene by scene.

ACT I

With Shaun and Lea discussing Lea’s heroic efforts of “Decrypt” as they left the apartment together, it would stand to reason that very little time has passed since then (or at least since the poker game we saw at the very end… maybe a week, assuming the poker game was the following weekend). So for those trying to make a baby timeline (!!!), take note of this… and also that this episode was originally slated to air on March 1st in the U.S.

Anyway, I took note of this too: when Shaun told Lea he’d talk
to Glassman about getting her a raise (for said heroic effort), she was in the middle of shutting that down with an I-can-handle-my-own-business-thank-you-very-

much when Tricky McMullet snagged her attention with his big mean tow truck hooked into the beloved Striped Tomato. Foreshadowing for the “my body, my choice” discussion to come? Eh, maybe. But I don’t think Shaun would have offered to try and help her

with the raise if not for his relationship with Glassman… in other words, he had a comfort level there. I don’t anticipate him trying to overtake the decision about Baby Shea. (Stating his wishes, yes. Overtake, no. There’s a difference.)

(And BTW… yes, I’m totally making up Tricky’s last name. As if his first name was legit! Heh.)

A bit of by-the-book Shaun and Lea conflict ensued once they got to the car; Lea with her white lie about the parking spot, Shaun outing her practically before the sentence even landed. 

ACT II

In a scene that was a little reminiscent of the time we were first introduced to Lea’s office (“Newbies”), Shaun came in annoyed by Lea’s seeming lack of punctuality. But the looks Lea shot his way-- and more importantly, didn’t shoot at all-- sent him into a remedial course in the importance of supporting your loved one, even if you’re not sure they are in the right.

Lea was apparently using her lunch break to do her research on Tricky’s complaints, and while that in itself might indicate she was spending a little more time on the problem than necessary (I don’t happen to think so; seemed like a very Lea thing

to do)... and “ghosting” Shaun for lunch effectively drew him to her office, allowing her to chew him out express her disappointment… it also kept her isolated and focused on something that wasn’t the fact that she was pregnant (which she’d

seemingly discovered that morning). For someone as unprepared for that news as Lea is, she may well have been too anxious to eat anyway. Or she might have already been unable to hold food down-- I thought of that too-- but in my own pregnancy experience, nausea doesn’t develop quite that quickly. And it’s already been made clear via the promo that Lea’s morning sickness hits in the next episode…

Big shoutout here to blog reader Syl, for making the following observation in the comments for my “Oh Baby!” post:

"It's also great that she explained to Shaun that she needed her boyfriend to have her back, because they are "a team working together for a common goal". It's cute that she used the word "team". I wonder why she paused when she said "and right now our goal......is to get my car back"...but I'm probably overanalysing again!"

I thought she might be overanalyzing too, to be honest. But NO… knowing what she knew, that was definitely a “pregnant” pause! 

ACT 3

By the time Shaun encounters Lea again that day and declares his intention of supporting her, she’s still pouring all her spare minutes into her mission to take Tricky down (at least it’s safe to say she earned the right to some spare minutes via the “Decrypt” all-nighter crisis). Now she needs Shaun’s phone
for “more IP addresses,” and she isn’t kidding. He reluctantly hands it over (and you KNOW how very reluctant that had to be for Shaun), and she keeps on keeping on without skipping a beat-- no “How’s your day going,” no “what are we doing for dinner tonight,” just GET TRICKY GET TRICKY GET TRICKY. Which prompted the OR conversation in the next scene (the one where Dannie Coma Woman woke up midway through!) which gave the episode its name. 

BUT, that’s the last reference to Operation Save Striped Tomato until the final segment of the episode when they show up at Tricky’s door. They talk later on about Lea acting crazy “the past 2 days”...  a pretty specific number, and yes, the car-napping had

indeed happened two mornings ago at this point, but we weren’t privy to any of Lea’s day two “crazy” until that evening. And arguably, Shaun was the one going out on a limb more than Lea at that point… at least, for him. 

SO, once again, I’m left wondering if perhaps there was a Lea scene (a brief one, maybe less than 30 seconds) illustrating more of her hyperfocus on the car that simply didn’t make it into the episode. Maybe not--all in all we got over six minutes with them as it was, nothing to sneeze at-- but my one small gripe with the Lea’s-gone-off-her-rocker thing is that it just didn’t seem all that “crazy” to me, given what we know both of Lea and of her car. 

Again, if it was Shaun doing all this over something precious to him that had been taken away, it might be alarming in a “Fixation” (3.17) kind of way (!!). But even though she didn’t say it outright in the episode, the Striped Tomato has been Lea’s “baby” up to now. An adopted baby, yes, but her most prized possession to be sure. So I tend to think she’d have fought like the dickens to get it back in any situation. And once Tricky started slapping on additional extra fees (I think the grand total was $600?), any chance of being treated respectfully by Lea went out the window because that’s who she is-- taking matters into her own hands, especially when she smells a rat, and certainly when it appears she can’t count on anyone else for assistance (ahem SHAUN ahem).

But then came that epic recovery scene, so let’s get to that.

ACT 6

Lea wasn’t flinching as she stood there “after hours,” ready to
put Tricky McMullet out of business by way of her own unscrupulous measures. But neither was Tricky (even calling Lea cupcake as he tried to call her bluff, ugh). That’s when Shaun made the unilateral decision to appear to give in while actually setting the stage for Lea’s very own “Starsky” moment.

And then, with Shaun dashing off, hurting his knee and everything as he got his “Hutch” moment riding shotgun… wow! What a perfect mini-homage to TST’s original TV home.

The best individual element of the scene itself (which I hope was as flat-out fun to shoot as it looked!)... was the music they chose. Including that siren-ish sound effect that went off when Lea realized Shaun had left her the keys on top of his backpack. Compare Shaun and Lea’s scene to the music used in the opening of the original Starsky and Hutch (where you can see TST in all its car-chasing glory too)...

Shaun and Lea getting the car back (jump 1:00 into the scene if you’re in a hurry)

Starsky and Hutch opening

“Okay, drive fast…”

“Oh my God, Shaun!”

They’re at the top of this mountain; all smiles for a minute, optimum “functioning as a unit” achieved. And in a show with as much to accomplish as TGD, the victory lap really did last only about a minute, for it was soon clear that #Shea now have bigger fish to fry. Much, much bigger.

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“We’re all crazy sometimes. Just takes the right motivation.” 

The only thing I want to add at this point is that “Crazy” writers David Hosleton and David Renaud faced an interesting challenge at the end of all this: how to bring all that “crazy” down to earth in the final 90 seconds of the episode?

The key was the fact that Shaun didn’t stiff Tricky entirely; he left him the original $250 requested for a legit error on Lea’s part. He was acting a little crazy himself, yes, but not so crazy as to contribute to additional trouble. Very smart, very rational, very Shaun. And Lea knew it, deep down, so how could she really argue?

“I needed to help you see what was right,” Shaun added, harkening back to Lim’s advice from the OR “crazy” discussion. Which was Lea’s cue to explain herself.

All happening above a sublime performance by Claire (Antonia Thomas), addressing her own crazy mom-related fears across town (nice parallel, TGD!)  as she performed The Highwomen’s “Crowded Table”. 

And since we all know no song on TGD is chosen by accident, I’ll get into those lyrics-- and the whole new world that is opening to #Shea-- next time!

(But don’t feel limited to discussing “Crazy” in the comments; we’ve got days of pre-”Teeny” discussion to go…)