Post by stargazer1682 on Nov 16, 2017 6:07:18 GMT
I t would be difficult to say that Abe is too far out of line about his response to Theo's shooting, but I do have a hard time getting behind a lot of what he's saying, in large part because of how it played out. Theo really was breaking and entering, and he was in fact carrying something that could be easily be misconstrued as a gun. Then, after fleeing police - and not just any police, but people he knew and ostensibly might have recognized their voice, even if I they couldn't identify him - and after said persuit turned to face JJ in a way that genuinely looked like he was going to shoot. By all rights JJ has every justification for using lethal force. The problem of course is that this more evident from the convenient perspective the audience was given, rather than how it might otherwise be experienced in the moment in real life; which invariably would be more chaotic depending on the points of view. And that first and foremost may be how they should have done it, making events more ambiguous and less straight forward, and have the characters and the audience put the pieces together to form their conclusion. Instead they gave us the answers up front and clear cut.
I'm really hoping they aren't going to backtrack though and suggest that somehow, on some level JJ did see or recognize Theo before he shot, as the flashbacks at the end of Wednesday's episode seemed to suggest. Yes, there needs to be an open dialogue about any abuse of power by people in authority, but putting someone like JJ into a position with a fairly reasonable cause to fire his weapon, then walk that back and suggest it was something else is not the way to explore that.
It's strange enough that people have to keep saying that JJ would never have shot Theo had he known it was him. I'm not sure what they're trying to say, but the literal idea that JJ would knowingly shoot Theo shouldn't have to be dismissed. The question of JJ might fire on someone's he knows to unarmed, or can't definitively be sure about, is a little more academic. Arguably, even if he wasn't holding something that looked like a gun, Theo's sudden turn could have still proven dangerous, as there's no telling what he might pull out or try do in that moment. That scenario might make JJ decision a little more questionable, but ultimately Theo did have something to give JJ more cause for concern.
I'm also having a hard time with Abe's response to the broader implications of him knowing the shooter and his entire family, and the personal nature it's taken on. Again, yes, he's a parent whose child has been seriously hurt, but I'm having a hard time sympathizing with him when he lashes out at Jen for showing any kind of concern; saying she has no idea what he's going through, and snapping at her when asking Lani is doing, paying no mind to the fact that JJ himself was shot in the line of duty, and Jen was right where Abe is now.
It really should have been either JJ shoots a stranger, which arguably should be more probable in the small yet sprawling metropolis of Salem. Or have Theo be shot by some other cop; someone who has no ties to him or Abe, and is a blank slate to the audience and could be anyone, thinking anything in that moment. And I think the topper would be if Theo hadn't actually done anything and was a case of mistaken identity, with him in the wrong place at the wrong time; making everything ambiguous and the answers more elusive.
I'm really hoping they aren't going to backtrack though and suggest that somehow, on some level JJ did see or recognize Theo before he shot, as the flashbacks at the end of Wednesday's episode seemed to suggest. Yes, there needs to be an open dialogue about any abuse of power by people in authority, but putting someone like JJ into a position with a fairly reasonable cause to fire his weapon, then walk that back and suggest it was something else is not the way to explore that.
It's strange enough that people have to keep saying that JJ would never have shot Theo had he known it was him. I'm not sure what they're trying to say, but the literal idea that JJ would knowingly shoot Theo shouldn't have to be dismissed. The question of JJ might fire on someone's he knows to unarmed, or can't definitively be sure about, is a little more academic. Arguably, even if he wasn't holding something that looked like a gun, Theo's sudden turn could have still proven dangerous, as there's no telling what he might pull out or try do in that moment. That scenario might make JJ decision a little more questionable, but ultimately Theo did have something to give JJ more cause for concern.
I'm also having a hard time with Abe's response to the broader implications of him knowing the shooter and his entire family, and the personal nature it's taken on. Again, yes, he's a parent whose child has been seriously hurt, but I'm having a hard time sympathizing with him when he lashes out at Jen for showing any kind of concern; saying she has no idea what he's going through, and snapping at her when asking Lani is doing, paying no mind to the fact that JJ himself was shot in the line of duty, and Jen was right where Abe is now.
It really should have been either JJ shoots a stranger, which arguably should be more probable in the small yet sprawling metropolis of Salem. Or have Theo be shot by some other cop; someone who has no ties to him or Abe, and is a blank slate to the audience and could be anyone, thinking anything in that moment. And I think the topper would be if Theo hadn't actually done anything and was a case of mistaken identity, with him in the wrong place at the wrong time; making everything ambiguous and the answers more elusive.