For my first character musing here, I decided I
wanted to do it on this cutie, Captain Jack Scofield, from the Riptide
episode The Pirate and the Princess. Throughout the episode, the writers
do a great job of throwing both real and fake evidence at us concerning
Scofield’s true nature. It’s up to us to figure out the truth, something not
always so easy when there are so many red herrings being strung around the
place.
The basic plot of the episode has the three Riptide
detectives down in the Caribbean on vacation, visiting their friends the
Guirilinis. They become involved in a search the Guirilinis are on for a pirate
treasure rumored to be in the area. Meanwhile, a mysterious saboteur tries
everything possible to ruin the expedition. The crew of Guirilini’s ship the Arrivederci
has skipped out, certain that the entire expedition is cursed by the evil eye.
Riptide offers to fill in.
Right away, things go wrong when they search for
the missing remote-controlled mini-submarine and find it next to an eels’ nest.
Tony Guirilini ends up bitten by a huge eel that swims out to attack the
intruders.
Captain Scofield is meant to seem suspicious from
the get-go, paying off a local official to spy on the Riptide crew and also
engaging in a bit of that himself. It doesn’t help that while he sits on his
boat and watches the crew on the Arrivederci, he’s wearing what must be
diving gear. Could he have moved the mini-submarine so that it’s resting on the
eels’ home? Or could he at least have seen it there and not bothered to move
it?
That was one last question that persisted in my
mind even after I established Scofield’s innocence in the main sabotaging
adventures. The saboteurs were never after the treasure at all, but were only
trying to protect their smuggled goods hidden in the nearby area, and by all
indications, Scofield was not mixed up with them and really was trying to find
the treasure. I believe, however, that I have also vindicated Scofield of that
one last infraction. The real traitor in their midst, the boyfriend of the
Riptide crew’s friend Giovanna Guirilini, seemed to be the only traitor aboard
the Arrivederci. He was also a diver, so it was most likely he who moved
the mini-sub. Scofield, I’m guessing, was diving either for fun or while
looking for the treasure, but was not involved in any way with the moving of
the mini-sub and probably didn’t even know it was there. Him showing up in the
diving gear was a red herring, something else meant to keep the audience
suspicious of him.
One frustrating thing about the episode is that it
never clearly establishes Scofield’s real role in things. One is left to try to
piece together who and what he is based on the final evidence.
The main characters are divided on what to think
for most of the episode. Cody Allen and Nick Ryder do not like Scofield and are
suspicious of how he was watching their ship and turned up right during the
expedition, offering his knowledge of the waters for a share in the pirate’s
treasure they’re all seeking. They remain suspicious and eventually insinuate
Scofield’s involvement in a fire that happens on the ship after they find a rum
bottle near the fire. Scofield always carries one and drinks from it throughout
the day. Scofield is hurt and insulted by the accusations and accuses them of deliberately
trying to frame him to cheat him out of his cut of the treasure.
Murray Bozinsky, on the other hand, seems to be
perfectly alright with the man and believes in his innocence. He found
Scofield’s records from the Maritime Association and learned that he was an
upright freighter captain for many years and retired with a clean record. He
thinks Cody and Nick should stop worrying. Scofield, apparently realizing that
Murray likes him, and respecting Murray as well, later wants to work with him
on sorting out the pirate’s charts. Most of the actual examining of the charts
happens off-screen, but I imagine it was a very interesting conversation.
The climax starts when the Guirilinis and Murray
are talking and fantasizing and suddenly hear a horrific gunshot and a thump.
Running to the engine room, they find Captain Scofield shot and lying on the
floor next to a bomb. Giovanna’s boyfriend Guido says that Scofield was trying
to blow everyone up. But when Angelo Guirilini moves to radio for an ambulance,
Guido realizes the gig is up. He can’t let an ambulance or the police come.
Pointing his gun at Angelo, he reveals his duplicity.
We’re left to wonder, more or less, exactly what
happened. Was Scofield involved and he and Guido were arguing, maybe with Scofield
furious about being framed? More likely, considering the weight of the
collective evidence and Murray’s belief in Scofield and Scofield’s insistence
on his innocence, the truth is much more positive in Scofield’s favor. He was
probably trying to figure out who really had framed him and had gone to the
engine room looking for clues. It was his bad luck to have surprised Guido in
the act of planting the bomb. Realizing Guido was the real enemy, Scofield
tried to stop him and was shot for his efforts. Guido then decided to lie and
put the blame for the bomb on Scofield, hoping that his one last frame would
buy him enough time to set the bomb for real.
That isn’t the last we see of Scofield. He plays a
very important part in things and through his efforts, manages to rescue the
others.
After Guido’s smuggler employer boards the ship and
has Guido tie everyone up, he orders Guido to plant the bomb for real this
time. Guido goes to do so and is immediately greeted by a wounded Scofield, who
regained consciousness and struggled up with a knife. He will not let Guido
plant that bomb. We later see Guido on the floor, apparently dead from a stab
wound.
Scofield is barely conscious and probably doesn’t
realize the bomb has already been armed. If he does realize, he knows that he
can’t figure out how to stop it. He staggers down the hall, up the steps,
and finds his way to the main cabin where everyone is tied up. He brings the
knife, apparently to try to cut their bonds, but passes out again from the
wound before he can do this. Still, they are able to get the weapon from him
and cut the ropes. Thanks to Scofield and his knife, they are able to
temporarily stop the bomb and then send it to the smugglers’ underwater cave
via the remote-controlled mini-submarine.
We don’t see Scofield again, unfortunately, but the
epilogue tells us that he will live. He’ll be up and around in a couple of
weeks.
Seriously, that guy is tough. He has such a small
frame compared to pretty much everyone else in the cast, and he can’t stay
conscious for long after being shot, but not everyone could struggle up with a
bullet in them, stab somebody, and walk around a large ship and up steps while being
barely conscious in immense pain. You could see he was fighting for
consciousness by the time he entered the main cabin, and although he couldn’t
stay awake, he accomplished his mission by bringing the knife so everyone could
get untied. If he hadn’t been able to do that, Guido would have set the bomb
and everyone would have died. Rather interesting that they were all saved by a
man very few of them even trusted!
The characters repeatedly tell us that Scofield is
alive after the shooting. The writer clearly wanted the audience to know that
information, perhaps because Scofield is a decent person and is someone the
audience cares about. By all accounts, he is exactly what he presented himself
to be, a retired sea captain just looking for a treasure, and not trying to
harm anyone along the way except when he kills Guido in the defense of others.
Scofield is brilliantly played by Christopher Cary.
There is no lie in his face or his voice; he is adamant that he is innocent and
it is very difficult to disbelieve him. He freely admits to spying on the ship,
but only to see what they were up to, and he believes in a firm and honest deal
between him and Guirilini based on the trust of men and sealed with a handshake
and looking each other in the eyes.
It’s interesting how non-objective Cody and Nick
are. They don’t consider any other suspects, only Scofield. And some of the
evidence itself actually points to another solution. When the mini-submarine
malfunctions and Murray finds the source of the damage on the Arrivederci,
presumably on the remote-control, it’s before Scofield is staying on the ship.
Unless they think he sneaked onboard at some point, the more logical thing to
think is that someone already on the ship did it. But they never discuss that.
Naturally they wouldn’t think the Guirilinis would
be involved. By extension, they would trust Giovanna’s boyfriend too. But they
could have considered other crew members, at least. And there really should
have been some questioning of Guido, since they didn’t know him. Just zeroing
in on Scofield as the only possible suspect they could come up with, not to mention not considering the possibility that the real saboteur was deliberately framing him, was not very
good detective work!
I’m going to blame the writer for that more than
the characters. The writer seemed to be trying to trick the viewer all the way
along, presenting two sets of facts and leaving viewers to choose which was
true and which was misleading. The writer clearly wanted it to be a surprise
that the bad guy was Guido, so there was no suspicion cast on him beforehand.
I can’t be too annoyed at the writer, though, not
when such a great character as Captain Scofield was first conceived in that script.
I am absolutely thrilled with the character, his immense amount of screentime,
and Christopher Cary’s interpretation of him. He quickly became one of my top
three favorite Christopher characters.
As
for the others, well, just keep reading. ;)
