Flashpoint: Fit For Duty

Posted by: S.P. Young • December 1, 2012 @ 1:22pm

"I didn't take the shot."

"Fit For Duty," was one of those episodes where not shooting the bad guy right away actually made sense, as shooting him could potentially hurt the victim. In the case of this episode, the victim was a little baby, who had been kidnapped by a musician who was going through some fugue state. At the end of it all, the decision to shoot the bad guy was the right call, but Ed, due to the repeated stresses of the job, was unable to pull the trigger.

After two months of therapy, Ed had still not gotten to talk about shooting May in "Broken Peace." He was, however, able to talk about the ferry incident, but only because his shrink forced him to do it. It turns out shrinks can not break confidentiality like this, and sadly, the writers are too ignorant to consider this before writing a script.

As an aside, people that work in fields of confidentiality are only allowed to let a secret out only if their client is going to harm somebody, harm themselves, is in a medical emergency, or had disclosed information about a child being abused. What the writers are also ignorant about, is how medication for mental illness works. These medications do have side effects, but not as how they were portrayed in this episode. Going on medication helps in blocking out unwanted voices, but does not block out hearing music. Therefore, going off medication to hear music again is just plain stupid, especially as a plot device.

But this is Flashpoint we are talking about. The ultimate most wussy police television show ever, where even the bad guy is supposed to have some honour and decency in their motivations to commit crimes. But regardless of what some consumer survivor movement activists say, there really is no excuse for going off psych medication. It is ultimately the patient's responsibility for staying medicated and keeping everybody out of danger of their mental illness.

The episode was told in flashback, where Ed reluctantly and emotionally told of how he fumbled the case. All the snipings had taken an effect on Ed, making him unable to kill any more. Not even in the name of justice and protecting the innocent, hence, making him a useless cop, a husband that slept by himself, and a bad father who hated the piano.

So in order to deal with all his problems, Ed went to the shrink that do-gooder Greg recommended. The shrink herself had little to contribute, except for interrupting Greg over stupid little things, and blabbing about her own daddy issues. But worst of all, she did quite possibly the most incompetent move a shrink could possibly think of. Keep in mind, Ed is finally dealing with his severely bottled up emotions, and breaking down in the process. So what does the shrink do?

She took him to a rooftop.

The absolute worst place to bring a sniper patient that is trying to block out his pain. Look at Ed -- he can not even manage to stand on his own two feet.

What the hell was she thinking?

So Ed left therapy. Presumably, he made some progress, finally being able to talk about May. He talked with his team some more, and went home to stop being a piano hating father to his own kid. With just the two-part finale left to go in this series, expect Ed's mental health deterioration to come up again. With luck, the writers do not do anything stupid, like having Team One talk Ed down from his own stress, by telling him how great of a leader he is.

Tags: Flashpoint, Fit For Duty, Keep The Peace, Broken Peace, Hugh Dillon, Headstones, Person of Interest, Enrico Colantoni, Amy Jo Johnson, Power Rangers