Your favorite Oklahoma City Detective and mine, Grace Hanadarko, has been through some serious crap this season. From catching Ronnie cheating, to having her family targeted by an old collar of hers, to, oh yeah, getting kidnapped and held hostage, one could easily say that she’s had a hell of a summer. This week, she let herself get beat to hell to put a murderer behind bars.
I’d said in the past that Grace would never really change. Sure, yeah, she’d mellow out a little, but the hard drinking, hard partying, hard living Grace we’d come to know and love? Well … I doubted that she’d ever really change. Now that she’s been through this season’s experiences, I’m not so sure.
Last week, there was a pretty telling scene between Grace and Rhetta. Rhetta, trying to cope with finding out about Ronnie’s cheating, basically went off on Grace for having slept around with married men in the past. When Rhetta demanded a promise from her to never to do so again, Grace immediately responded that she wouldn’t. I didn’t know then, nor do I really know now, whether or not that promise was sincere. I tend to believe, however, that it was, which signifies a pretty big change in Grace’s philosophy.
In a lot of ways, this season has carried an underlying theme of consequences. The effect of the death of Leon Cooley on Grace, and her relationship with both Earl and Neely; the attacks on her family based on her job as a cop; and in this instance, realizing the emotional devastation her best friend is experiencing, based off of the type of behavior that Grace herself reveled in in the past.
Grace has also been saddled with the concept that she will be the one to restore Johnny’s faith. I think it might have come as a surprise to her that he may have lost it in the first place, but how that has evolved this week with Johnny’s pursuit of Neely has frankly come out of nowhere, in my perception.
So will she ever change? Have we already seen the catalyst that will force her to rethink her outlook, or are more challenges in store?
(Ivey’s Dumb Question of the week: OK, so, despite the fact that I’ve been talking about this show all season, I think I missed a rather salient point. Either Ham and Grace stopped “seeing” each other, or Ham’s setting a date with the girl from last week’s case is a bit of out of character (or, you know not) cheating on his part. Did I miss something there?)
Clacked by Ivey West 
on Aug 13, 2009 @ 15:00 EST5EDT
I thought the priest was Johnny, not Tom.
I think Grace will change. I think that is part of the underlying theme of the show, but I would definitely expect to see more challenges. Even with the best of intentions, Grace can’t just change her whole life in the blink of an eye. She still has a long road ahead of her.
*POST AUTHOR*
Freudian Slip. The actor’s name is Tom Irwin. That’s twice I’ve messed up a character’s name in a Saving Grace post :(
I switched two Toms to Johnnys in paragraph 5. Is that it?
Speaking of dumb questions, I don’t even understand this whole Neely thing. Who is she? I mean, I know the beginning of her story, etc., but I have absolutely no idea how she fits into anything. What is her purpose? Just for Grace to find her? Who cares? She is no Leon Cooley, and without that tie-in, I’m not as interested in the “off story” that is supposed to be taking place.
I had no idea that Hamm and Grace stopped seeing each other. As a matter of fact, it was just the previous week he was stomping around her place in an Indian chief head dress, so I don’t think they are apart. When Hamm first interviewed that girl what, two weeks ago I think, I knew they were overly attracted. And I seem to recall him saying he couldn’t. When I saw that look on his face as he made the date, what came to my mind was “once a cheater, always a cheater.” I think that any progress she made will be wiped away if Hamm moves on. She doesn’t realize what an incredible rock he is for her, even though she would try to play it off as less.
I think Grace is Neely’s Leon Cooley. The same as when Grace ran over Leon Cooley, the first time Neely saw Grace was when she was shot in that dream that never really happened.
Is that as confusing as it sounds in my head?
Best wishes and keep posting.