"REVELATIONS" Profound Sadness November 7, 1997

by
Gordon Hom

Things move along with that NASH BRIDGES mix of crime drama, soap opera, and humor and suddenly BAM! An episode comes along that is serious and heavy (you know because the most humorous element of the show, Joe Dominguez, played by the funny Cheech Marin, is missing from "Revelations.") Joe's on vacation in Monserrat, currently the site of an active volcano that is slowly burying the island in ash.

Nash's worst fears are realized when his brother Bobby turns up as a mysterious figure involved in some sort of southeast heroin trade war. His brother has become a tragic figure with his family slaughtered. Bobby is a killer, for sure, though the drug part is not so certain. Their meeting at the end of "Revelations" resolves nothing or explains anything other than the fact that Bobby is alive after all this time. It is remarkably ambiguous and enigmatic, and the fact that Nash's guardian angel offers mystical solace doesn't offer much. We still don't know anymore about what has happened to Bobby except that it was real bad. What's left unspoken is that Nash may have to stop Bobby one of these days - Bobby's become a bad guy, possibly one of the baddest, and Nash may have to kill him.

The enigma of what has happened to Bobby is placed in the setting of San Francisco's Chinatown. Since the Jack Nicholson movie CHINATOWN (set in Los Angeles' Chinatown), the Asian neighborhood has stood for something impenetrable and difficult to understand. Hence the call to Nash from the reporter Emily Raskin when he is in Chinatown - this is emphasized when Nash and Harvey finish their meal there, and afterwards, Nash and Harvey settle a dispute between two Asian prostitutes. "Revelations" ends in Chinatown when Nash finally meets Bobby, who has been hiding out in Chinatown.

The appearance of Bobby is also impacted on father Nick, who suffers an emotional relapse of his Alzheimer's when he mistakes Nash for Bobby. The character of Nick has usually been the object of geriatric jokes. In "Revelations," Nick becomes a fully dimensional, meaningful character. The appearance of Jan Michael Vincent adds another dimension to the profound sadness of "Revelations." Vincent had a full career in film (in crime potboilers such as 1972's THE MECHANIC) and television as the star of mid-eighties series AIRWOLF before he fell on hard times. An appalling tabloid television interview appeared in which a tearful Vincent confessed he was a degenerate alcoholic, then came the auto accident. His appearance on NASH BRIDGES hopefully indicates his comeback. In "Revelations" Vincent's brief glimpse is a welcome sight, a sad remembrance of the once boyish charm than Jan Michael Vincent, like Don Johnson, exuded from every pore in their youthful prime.

For more, see synopsis for Episode 39

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