S01.E11: Teacher’s Pet

[MyAimIsTrue]

An attorney for one of Bull’s former clients, Liberty Davis, asks him to consult on a couple’s civil suit against a teacher who had a sexual relationship with their son. However, his trial strategy suffers a major setback when the teen switches to the teacher’s side.

[marina to]

Yay to more Liberty!

[JessDVD]

Bull's team needed me on that jury, during the teacher's artfully woven story about the Brooklyn Bridge, I was rolling my eyes so hard they got stuck, as the jurors all ate it up.

I know 17 year olds are fully convinced that they are, in fact, adults - but I also have a hard time seeing a 17yo boy wanting to raise a child that's not his. Also, that the baby daddy is the ex-husband, not a surprise. 

Bull: What did Romeo & Juliet do when their love was threatened? (paraphrase)

Chunk: Killed themselves?

Bull: (deep sigh) Before that!

Cut to New Jersey, where everything is legal [except taking a minor across state lines to have sex].

This show is kind of dumb and I still am baffled at the technology that allows Marissa to say "We're losing Juror #6!" and yet here I am passing over NCIS to watch Bull on Tuesday nights.

[marina to]

Well that hit close to home. A few years ago I met a young man just out of his teens and lets just say I'm much older than him. I'd already owned my cougar side and had a hard rule of not going anywhere near someone under 20 and only having fun with someone under 25 because of the developmental issues the one expert talked about but this guy tested that. I really admired what he had already accomplished at his young age and I could see the kind of man he was going to become. It freaked me out how drawn I was to him because I knew about the power dynamic the other psychologist in the episode talked about. Lucky for me, he lives in a different city so I was able to limit contact with him to this year, a few months before his 25th birthday. At that point, I told him how I felt and that because of the power dynamic I wasn't going to make any moves on him. He didn't take me up on it because he had gotten involved with an 18 year old. And yes, he was aware of the power dynamics he was in too.

All of this is background to how I saw this episode. When she talked about it being true love, my thought was "wait until he's 25 then". I liked how the issue was looked at from all angles, and how having Danni with a younger man illustrated the other side. I was so afraid that they'd beat her over a stick for being with the young man and make a point that older women with younger men is a horrible thing but the question that Bull asks her was just the right thing to say. It was the same question I asked myself. 

I also appreciated that Bull's focus ended up being about helping the young man get his life back instead of showing how smart he is. He seemed more subdued here than we've seen him. I liked it a lot.

Edited January 24, 2017 by marina to

[Silver Raven]

OMG, they mentioned Hudson University!  Stay away from there, kid.  The murder rate is high.

[JackONeill]

Medical records are sacrosanct. Now I was preoccupied when Bull's private investigator/ex-cop (sorry, can't remember her name) was in woman's apartment and was trying to look at the person's medical records. Like I said, I was a bit distracted, but I hope beyond hope she didn't steal them or even look at them. That, my friends, is illegal and unethical, and I don't care how right you might think you are. So...

[HurricaneVal]

Oh, she looked at the ultrasound photo, for sure, and she snapped a photo and sent it to Bull too...  Yeah, this is part of that "fast and loose" stuff I'm trying to ignore and go with my "A-Team" coping mechanism.  Cable hacking into potential and sitting juror's private computing life also bothers me a lot as well.  It is one thing to look at public information such as unsecured Facebook accounts, public tax records, general google searches etc., but actually hacking into personal email accounts and credit card information is also illegal.  In fact, several of Bull's employees, not to mention their client's attorneys, are lawyers.  Aren't they, as "officers of the court" required to report criminal activity in the court proceedings if they become aware of it?  Hmmm...

 

"A-Team...A-Team...  This show is like the A-Team...."  Gaaaah, it isn't working!

[Sake614]

17 hours ago, Silver Raven said:

OMG, they mentioned Hudson University!  Stay away from there, kid.  The murder rate is high.

LOL! I thought the same thing. Pretty sure that diner was also the same one the L&O universe uses.

[Emma9]

Did I miss something, or did we never find out who hacked the video onto the scoreboard in the first place? I was expecting the big reveal to be that the teacher was the one behind it, since it gave her the opportunity to alienate the kid from his parents and get him out of school, but she didn't end up being shown in that kind of deliberately hostile light, so...?

Agreed that it was nice to see Liberty again.

So, considering that Secret S&M Juror's reactions were showing up on their data displays - aka, not just Bull reading microexpressions or whatnot - does that mean his mirror juror also has similar extracurricular activities? How convenient.

[shapeshifter]

33 minutes ago, Emma9 said:

Did I miss something, or did we never find out who hacked the video onto the scoreboard in the first place? I was expecting the big reveal to be that the teacher was the one behind it, since it gave her the opportunity to alienate the kid from his parents and get him out of school, but she didn't end up being shown in that kind of deliberately hostile light, so...? . . .

On this show, a viewer might think it was hacked by one of Bull's team so they could work the case (of course, the hacker and team's motives would have to be pure as driven snow).  Or, maybe the Russians? I'm not sure which would be more believeable.

Edited January 18, 2017 by shapeshifter

[hoopznyo]

So, Bull knows what the jurors are thinking without them ever saying a word and his team hacks into every conceivable data store known to mankind and not a one of them ever considered the husband was the father of the child...

And in the episode with the woman pilot, didn't Chunk say that the draft didn't go so well for him. I took it to mean he got passed way over and maybe wasn't even drafted. If you don't enter the draft, I suppose it wouldn't go so well either.

I need to stop thinking when I watch this show, maybe that's the secret.

I did like Christopher Jackson's coats all episode -- nice job wardrobe department

[marina to]

Christopher Jackson's wardrobe is one of the main reason to watch the shows.

[Bobcatkitten]

The stupidity of no one on the team thinking the HUSBAND could be the father was the worst writing I have seen in a long time. Ugh.

[backgroundnoise]

All it takes is one short conversation with Bull and the teacher sees the light and does a complete 180.  Really?

This was the weakest episode by far, IMO.

[sinkwriter]

Physician, heal thyself. For someone so attuned to others' emotional issues, Bull's awfully good at giving flippant answers about his own self. I want to see a crack, just even the smallest sliver, to see who the real Bull is.

[mtlchick]

On 1/17/2017 at 11:05 PM, Silver Raven said:

OMG, they mentioned Hudson University!  Stay away from there, kid.  The murder rate is high.

So are the assaults.  I cackled when I heard the name though. 

[lh25]

On 1/18/2017 at 10:59 AM, HurricaneVal said:

Oh, she looked at the ultrasound photo, for sure, and she snapped a photo and sent it to Bull too...  Yeah, this is part of that "fast and loose" stuff I'm trying to ignore and go with my "A-Team" coping mechanism.

I am too, but this may have pushed me over the edge.  I like Michael Weatherly enough to have stuck it out till now, but it may not be enough.

Not only did they totally and illegally violate her privacy, and by lying about being a government worker, but they assumed it was the 17 year old's kid and never once thought it might be the husband's.

On 1/18/2017 at 2:15 PM, Emma9 said:

So, considering that Secret S&M Juror's reactions were showing up on their data displays - aka, not just Bull reading microexpressions or whatnot - does that mean his mirror juror also has similar extracurricular activities? How convenient.

The whole "mirror jury" just seems so hokey to me.  The idea that people with superficial similarities like employment and family status will all react the same is silly.  IMHO of course