Review of SECOND SIGHT

By Anne Taul

    

       If sight is part of our sensory perception of the world around us, then “second sight” is an enlightenment from a look inside ourselves. This becomes glaringly obvious in an episode of JAG in which both of the two main characters are confronted with life-altering insight into themselves. Harm gains a vision of his future by being confronted with the things that have been beyond his control—his health. Mac, on the other hand, learns about herself by challenging and moving past the pain of her past and the assumptions about what has happened to her and her family. She gets to confront both of her parents and realize that she may never really have had a clear picture of the formative experiences of her life. In this process she may gain better control of her life.

 

       In many ways, Mac’s chief emotion in this process is anger. Yes, she’s angry, and who could blame her? Her father was drunk and abusive. He ran her mother off. The fact that her mother left has always weighed heavily on her, but especially that her mother left her with her father. All of Mac’s life has been shaped by these events. Dysfunctional family life pushed her into alcoholism and out of control. She regained control through getting sober and succumbing to the orderliness of Marine Corps life. But now, when her new, improved life comes face to face with the demons of her past, what she’s left wit is anger. And her anger comes across in this episode in her dealings with all the people around her. Rage is a powerful emotion, both in thought and action. We see the impact of both these aspects very vividly and overwhelmingly in the movements and facial expressions that the masterful Catherine Bell used to portray them. So intense are her interpretations that I can almost share Mac’s anger and frustration.

 

        Her father’s abusiveness, drinking and taunting have left Mac cold toward him. She says, herself, that “He made my teenage years hell on earth. ”She doesn’t want to see him or be part of his need for forgiveness. Still, she goes to California. Her need is to vent her anger and let him know terribly he has affected her life. But he’s in a coma, so she doesn’t get that chance. Instead, she gets anger. She tries to shake his unresponsive form back into consciousness so she can express her hatred to him, but he’s not going to be able to interact with her. She must, instead, channel her anger into berating the priest and kicking the soft drink machine. We can tell from the incredible pain and despair on Catherine Bell’s face that Mac knows that this behavior can be nothing but inappropriate. That’s a very poignant emotion to be able to feel along with her.

 

       The Catholic priest has the unfortunate job of trying to buffer Mac’s rage. She reacts strongly to him. She sees him as an ineffective, naïve victim of his surroundings – everything she has worked so hard not to be. The tone of voice with which Catherine delivers Mac’s feelings toward the priest, as well as her expressions when looking at him, betray a whole gamut of emotions. She despises him, pities him, distrusts him, and, in the end, respects him. CB’s interactions with Stanley Tucci, as the priest, are powerful and highly charged. It is he who helps her learn the truth about the resentment she’s harbored against her father all these years. She realizes that she treated him as badly, really, as he had treated her all those years ago. By the end of this episode, Mac feels some gratitude toward Father Genaro for showing her that her father really did love her. When she praises the importance of his hospice work, she’s looking on him with the eyes of respect and genuine caring. These things are best seen reflected in the depths of Catherine Bell’s eyes. It is she, more than the dialogue or the situation, that shows us the transformation of Mac’s attitude toward everything going on around her.

 

        Her mother seems to be nothing at all like the picture Mac had carried of her in her mind all these years. This may be the reason for giving this character a less than glamorous appearance. A great character actress like Conchata Farrell can carry off that self-pity and “life has dumped on me” sort of attitude. But it’s in the way Catherine Bell interacts with her that we see the true dynamic of this strained mother-daughter relationship. Mac has carried around an image of her mother as a victim forced to leave her home, husband and daughter by an abusive, drunken maniac. When she’s confronted with the reality that her mother just can’t commit to staying anyplace for very long, the anger again seethes up to the surface. This time we don’t see it so much in action as in deep pain and feeling in Mac. Catherine Bell’s facial expressions show us the intense depths of this disappointment and hurt when she talks about the lost dog and when she realizes that she was abandoned without much thought. Then, when it hits her that this is exactly what she, in turn, also did to her father, we see a struggle play across Bell’s features and movements to allow us to experience the pain of this moment of truth to the character.

 

      Nothing is ever exactly as it seems to be. The paralleling of Harm’s misdiagnosis of night blindness with Mac’s misinterpretation of her family situation gives us the opportunity to watch them both recover from the obstacles that have shaped their lives. With Mac, confronting both her parents, witnessing her mother’s lack of true love and affection and learning to forgive her father for what he did and what she thought he had done, gave her renewed strength to face her current life. Because Catherine Bell can demonstrate the nuances and subtleties of her character’s emotions, we again see Mac’s anger. This time it’s a milder form of anger turned inward, toward herself. She’s angry for the mistakes she’s made, for the things she’s wasted and lost. But when it’s all internal, she can handle it better; she’s more comfortable with it. She says, herself, “I can control myself.” Now, we have a Mac who is finally ready to move past the constraints of her early life and learn to manage them.

 

       All of Mac’s anger and frustrations have played out in this episode through her interactions with the other characters. As viewers, we can follow them so well because Catherine Bell feels so intensely. In doing so, she expertly conveys all of Mac’s feelings to us. So we too can experience all the upheaval that Mac is going through in this episode. Thank you Catherine for allowing us to know Mac so well.