"CRASH AND BURN" Female Troubles April 30, 1999

by
Gordon Hom

A bunker mentality emerges in this episode and all of a sudden, it's the boys against the girls. A chill develops against Caitlin, which widens to all women. Right from the get-go in "Crash and Burn", it's back to Nash's core group of trusted boys - Joe, Harvey and Evan. They all sit around and have Chinese dim sum before going to confront a female gang of robbers. Nash kills the weak male robber who somehow drops his bag. The remaining three females are all super-tough, armored and fully automatic.

The distrust of females pervades "Crash and Burn." This view of women is displayed as a former leader of the crew is getting oral sex in a car. It is not suggestive - there is no doubt of what is occurring without revealing hardcore sex on broadcast television. This is what we get for the hyped-up May sweeps time of year once again. A hard-ass loathsome lawyer is portrayed by an Asian woman. Even daughter Cassidy betrays Nash in her resolve to deal with Nick, as Nash says to her: "Have you ever heard of Benedict Arnold?"

Least we think that some sort of anti-heroic militant feminist mini-movement is going on here with the robbers, the plot twist is that these women are doing it for their husbands. Ultimately they are doing it not for self-liberation, but to liberate their men from prison. These women betray even their own potential feminist souls.

The final capper is the betrayal inherent in Caitlin's report on the SIU. A stung Nash confronts her, and she can't take his chill. She buckles, and modifies her report. She calls for a truce because she wants to be close to Nash. She wants to kiss Nash (like she did last week), but he denies her. Any personal warmth between these two has evaporated. She wants it both ways - to be a woman good at her job, and to be the kind of sexy woman Nash is attracted to. It's the nineties woman versus the seventies cop, but neither Caitlin or Nash was ever that. But it might be bye-bye Caitlin from the show...

But wait - Nash does save Patty Rollins, driver of the getaway car. She's a bartender in a country western bar. Doesn't this prove Nash isn't a woman-hater - Nash saves Patty and the associated core of white conservative values. But wait - don't we see a casual shot of a black man dancing with a white woman to the tune of country music? And aren't one of the robbers black, married to a white woman? Ahhh, that's multi-cultural racially diverse San Francisco for you...

For more, see synopsis for Episode 76

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