Essential Episode #10: Spare Parts

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We come upon Jim and Blair as they’re working on catching a car thief.  There’s bait – a black Ferrari – driven by a cop, and Jim is waiting for the trap to close to make the arrest.  Unfortunately for him, the thieves realize that it’s a trap when they catch the driver wearing a wire.  Two of the thieves escape in a BMW, but Jim manages to arrive in time to catch a third thief, who was driving a semi and couldn’t get away in time. 

 

 

Back at the PD, Jim and Blair are discussing the case with Simon.  Jim is frustrated because they didn’t catch the leaders of the car theft ring, but Blair and Simon offer reassurance that they’ll be able to get some information out of the driver, Tony DeLuca, as he has prior convictions and they can use the threat of the “three strike” law. 

 

The phone rings and Simon answers it, but it becomes clear it’s not for him, but for Blair.  He hands the phone over with an admonishment to Blair to not use his office phone for his dating attempts.  Blair protests mildly, and we find out why when he takes the phone from Simon – the woman on the line is his mom.  Jim looks alarmed.

 

A little later, Blair is trying to convince Jim to let his mom stay at the loft for a few days.  He explains that she’s just coming through Cascade on her way to LA for a spiritual retreat.  Jim is somewhat reluctant, but Blair assures him that his mom – Naomi – being there for a few days won’t cramp their style.  He explains that his mom is “one of the original hippies”, very open and accepting, and talks about how she used to live with Timothy Leary, whom he thought, at one time, might have been his father.  We learn that Naomi has had a number of short-term relationships, which Blair seems to regard as a good thing, as it apparently got him to a lot of sporting events. 

 

Back to the case at hand.  Jim sweats Tony DeLuca, who tells him that Francine Barrett is the head of the local ring, and that Bill Petrie is her boss.  Jim has heard of Petrie, who has connections to the mob and is suspected of a series of race car thefts.  He goes to Simon and proposes a plan whereby DeLuca, who can’t drive due to his broken arm, introduces Jim to Francine as his cousin and proposes him as a replacement.  Jim will, therefore, be in the perfect position to not just stop Francine, but also catch Petrie.  Simon is a bit dubious about Jim’s skill level for this, but Jim assures him that he can drive a semi, and Simon tells him to set up the  meeting. 

 

Cut to the PD impound lot, where Jim is mangling the hell out of the gears of a semi, and Blair is laughing at him.  Turns out that Jim drove a semi just once, in high school, and it didn’t have a trailer attached.  Blair gives him some pointers, and tells Jim that he once spent a summer driving across the country in his uncle’s rig. 

 

This adorable conversation is cut short when Jim’s cell phone rings.  He answers it, then looks confused – turns out it’s Naomi.  He hands the phone over to Blair, but the conversation – mainly around rearranging Jim’s furniture in line with the next harmonic convergence – doesn’t make him feel confident.  He offers to pay for Naomi to go stay in a hotel, but Blair waves him off.

 

They go home to the loft, and Jim immediately starts sneezing.  Blair tells him that Naomi is burning sage to cleanse the loft of “bad vibes”; he didn’t tell Naomi that Jim’s sense of smell might be too sensitive for that sort of thing.  She’s also cooking Blair’s favorite dish, which is tongue.  Naomi and Jim get introduced, but Blair explains that they have to leave right away for some “cop stuff”.  Naomi asks if she can go along, but Blair and Jim both say no.  As they’re leaving the loft, Jim comments on how attractive Naomi is.  Blair is not amused. 

 

Jim and Blair meet DeLuca for the introduction, but things don’t go as planned.  Jim is driving the semi with DeLuca, while Francine gets in the truck with Blair, pulls a gun on him, and orders him to drive.  Unbeknownst to both Jim and Blair, Naomi is watching from a distance and sees Blair get abducted.  As they drive off, she goes to the phone and calls the police. 

 

Jim and DeLuca arrive at the warehouse some time behind Francine and Blair.  Gary, another one of the thieves, is also there.  Francine is unimpressed with Jim’s driving skills (he’s still grinding gears), but Jim, thinking quickly, tells her that Blair’s the driver she wants, and the two of them always work as a team.  After some negotiation, Francine agrees.

 

No one appears all that happy with this arrangement.  As Jim, Blair, and DeLuca drive back in Jim’s truck, both Blair and DeLuca raise objections, which Jim pushes aside.  At the warehouse, Gary tells Francine he doesn’t trust her choice of drivers.  And, back at the PD, Simon turns out to be on Blair’s side – he thinks it’s too risky for Blair to be the driver.  Blair is usually eager to help out, but he says he has a bad feeling about this job.  Jim reassures him, though, telling him he’ll have his back.  He also tells Blair that if they back out now, any chance to get Petrie or these guys will be lost. 

 

Blair remains unconvinced, until he goes into Simon’s office and sees Naomi there.  Naomi is furious about what Blair is doing, the danger he’s putting himself into, and demands that he stop his association with the PD.  But Blair, bolstered by Simon’s support, refuses and says it’s his choice.  Naomi leaves in a huff, with Blair calling after her to remember to “Detach with love.”  There’s a really cute scene where Blair tries to hug Simon in thanks for his support, but Simon will have none of it.

 

Blair is still having second thoughts the next day at the warehouse, though, and this isn’t helped when Jim reveals that they actually do have to steal a car, and they might be undercover for as long as a few months, given that they’re trying to get Petrie.  Jim does try to reassure Blair, though, in his own unique way.

 

Jim, Francine, and Gary start the job off by blocking a guy driving a Rolls-Royce.  Jim pulls a gun on the guy and Gary pulls him out of the car, then gets in and gets ready to drive the Rolls off.  But Jim has noticed that the driver is having distress, and tries to help the guy.  Gary orders him to get into the car, but Jim refuses.  Finally Gary drives off.  Francine, in the other car, is furious, but Jim refuses to listen to her, and calls 911 for help.  As he hears sirens approach, he gets into the car with Francine and they drive away. 

 

Back at the warehouse, after the job, Gary is upset and arguing with Francine.  He has a bad feeling about Jim, but he can’t put his finger on why.  Francine stands up for Jim, pointing out that, if the driver had died, they’d all be in a lot more trouble. 

 

Sometime later, Francine is talking to Petrie on the phone.  She’s arguing with him that she hasn’t been taking any unnecessary risks, but he doesn’t sound entirely convinced.  Jim, with Blair at his side, is listening in on the conversation with his enhanced hearing.  Petrie wants Francine to shut down operations, but she tempts him by telling him she’s found a Lamborghini, a car Petrie wants badly.  She assures him that she’ll make sure of everything and nothing will go wrong. 

 

Jim and Blair head back to the loft and Jim checks in with Simon, who is worried about the potential for things going wrong, such as if the driver of the Rolls died.  Jim reassures Simon that he knows what he’s doing (and mentions that he was a medic), and that nothing else will go wrong.  Simon agrees, but reiterates that if there’s any sign of things going bad, for Jim, Blair, or anyone, Jim has to get out and they’ll let the Feds take over. 

 

Meanwhile, Naomi has been meditating in the living room of the loft – apparently for quite some time.  When she comes out, she tells Blair that she’s been working on processing her feelings about his police work with Jim.  She apologizes for being so rigid, although she continues to express some concern for Blair.  They hug, and everything seems fine, when there’s a knock at the door.  Jim goes to answer it, and Gary and Francine barge in, guns drawn.

 

Gary is concerned that Jim has been watching them, which might means he’s a cop.  Jim and Blair keep the ruse going, and Jim disarms Gary.  But then he returns Gary’s gun in an apparent goodwill gesture.  Gary doesn’t buy it and leaves in a huff, but Francine seems convinced that Jim and Blair are still on her side.  Naomi seems to find it all pretty exciting.

 

The next day, Jim and Blair are back at the warehouse.  Jim suggests that Blair get to know Francine a little better, as a means of getting more information.  Blair goes in and talks to Francine as she eats lunch.  She tells Blair about how she got into car theft, and he talks about how his dad and grandfather smuggled liquor and other contraband.  She gets a call from Petrie during the conversation, and Blair overhears her say that the Lamborghini is set up for the next morning.  Petrie doesn’t have a buyer yet, which makes Francine nervous, but she agrees to do the job.  Blair also hears that Petrie will be arriving personally to oversee the job. 

 

Back at Simon’s office, Blair and Jim fill Simon in on what Blair heard.  Since Petrie doesn’t have a buyer, this is a perfect opportunity to get someone from Cascade PD to be that person and catch Petrie.  Simon asks who they could get to be the buyer, and Jim gives Blair a look.

 

Later that evening, Gary is walking along the street when Jim and Blair grab him from behind and shove him into the back of a van.  Naomi is back there, playing the part of a head of an import/export company.  She tells Gary that she wants the Lamborghini, and, with Jim and Blair’s help, convinces him to cut Francine out of the deal.

 

Gary goes to the warehouse and tells Petrie and Francine about the offer (omitting the part, of course, where he’s getting a better cut than Francine).  Petrie agrees, but tells Francine she has to shut the operation down afterwards – he’s clearly not confident in her ability to manage the ring. 

 

At the loft, Jim is making final arrangements with Simon on the phone.  Naomi, excited by her brush with undercover law enforcement, asks Blair if he thinks she should stay around, but he convinces her to go.  Jim leaves to go to the warehouse to stall Gary, after telling Blair to wait for Simon to call about the money.  Blair takes Naomi down to her car, but before they can get there, they’re accosted by Francine, who has a gun.

 

Meanwhile, Jim is at the warehouse, trying to reassure an antsy Gary, while worrying about where Blair is.  Finally, Gary has had enough, and he leaves in the semi to get the car.  Jim runs after him.  Francine, with Blair and Naomi in another semi, plans to grab the Lamborghini and leave before Petrie can stop her.  Blair begs her to let Naomi go, but she refuses.  Gary tells Petrie that they’ve been double-crossed, just as Petrie sees Francine approaching the car. 

 

Francine forces Naomi into the Lamborghini and takes off, Petrie giving chase in his limo.  Blair gets out of the semi and chases after the Lamborghini.  Jim uses his truck to make Gary stop and then disables Petrie’s limo by shooting the tires.  The Lamborghini pulls up just as cops come swarming in from all directions.  Blair gets Naomi out of the Lamborghini as Francine, Gary, and Petrie all get arrested.  He’s relieved to find that Naomi is okay.

 

Blair comes back to the loft later that evening to find candles lit in the loft and laughter coming from Jim’s room.  He goes up to find Naomi and Jim, drinking wine and eating tongue.  Naomi is showing Jim some of Blair’s baby pictures. 

 

Why this episode is essential:

 

If Deep Water gives us a lot of backstory about Jim, then it’s Spare Parts that gives us a lot of backstory about Blair.  We meet Naomi, his hippie mother, and learn that he spent his childhood not really knowing who his father was.  We also learn a lot about Naomi herself – that she’s a vegetarian, follows a “New Age” spirituality, doesn’t like to settle down in one place, and has definite strong negative beliefs about police and police work.  These attitudes are often attributed to Blair, as well, although there’s rarely direct canon for it and often direct canon that contradicts it – for example, in this very episode Blair talks about how much he likes tongue, so he’s clearly not a vegetarian.  There’s also a lot of speculation about who Blair’s father is, a question that is never answered in canon, except obliquely by the Timothy Leary reference.  We also learn that Blair knows how to drive a semi, and there’s some speculation on the truth of what he tells Francine – that his father and grandfather were smugglers (he might know this as family history, despite not knowing exactly who his father is). 

 

There’s also the introduction of a potential attraction between Jim and Naomi, although most fans feel that there’s really more of a mother-in-law vibe between the two of them, and Jim is just milking this to annoy and tease Blair.  It’s certain that there are several adorable interactions between Jim and Blair about this. 

 

This is also the first episode where Blair starts to get some appreciation for what he’s doing for the PD.  Simon is (relatively) quick to come to Blair’s defense when they’re in his office with Naomi, and Blair is very appreciative of the support (perhaps potentially too appreciative for Simon’s liking). 

 

As far as Jim and Blair go, this is an interesting episode because it’s one in which Blair isn’t actually all that eager to help, in contrast to earlier episodes.  He doesn’t really want to go undercover, and Jim has to do quite a bit of work to convince him. 

episode-related fanfic

In addition to the stories linked above, you can find more stories about Naomi through the Naomi Sandburg tag at Sentinelficfind.  Be warned, these might not all be Good!Naomi stories… for reasons that will become clearer at the end of these essential episodes, Naomi is not always held in high esteem by some within the fandom. 

 

You can also check out TS All Stars, a LJ community specifically for fic and art around folks in the TS universe besides Jim and Blair.  There’s an index of stories here.

 

And, finally, here’s the Naomi Sandburg stories index on Magician's LJ.