ship_manifesto

Title: It Is Over...Is It?
Author: Eolivet.
Series: Without a Trace
Pairing: Jack Malone/Samantha Spade
Spoilers: Through "Crossroads" (the S4 finale).
Acknowledgments:

chili_powda, whose corrections and suggestions were the polish this piece was missing. Intrepid, who generously transcribed S1-S3 of the show.

evidenceshows, for working tirelessly to provide the screen caps.

daygloparker, who got here first, but still gave her blessing. YTDaW, whose insights made me smarter.

And to Hank Steinberg…thank you for three amazing years of Without a Trace. We miss you.

It Is Over…Is It?: Jack Malone & Samantha Spade ("Without a Trace")

INT., DAY. An unsuspecting research assistant agrees to watch some Pilots on her lunch hour. The first one is "Without a Trace," from Jerry Bruckheimer -- the same person behind this research assistant's current favorite show, "CSI."

INT., NIGHT. 20 minutes into the show, the male lead is sitting at his desk, working. Enter the erstwhile female lead, who walks right up to him, standing with her hand on her hip...

Woman: Think a fresh change of clothes will make up for a lost night's sleep?
Man: Well, if I looked as good as you in black, I wouldn't need to change.
Woman: Jack...your collar.
(The woman moves behind the man to fix his collar, as he takes off his glasses and rubs his tired eyes)
Man: You're starting to sound like my wife.
Woman: You should listen to your wife.
Man: You do this for Dr. Fred?
Woman: Sure.
Man: How is Dr. Fred?
Woman: Busy and unavailable, just the way I like 'em.

Now, this type of sexual tension is par for the course on most dramas. Except the man (Jack Malone) was married and his co-worker (Samantha Spade) was clearly invading his personal space. There was such an ease about their rapport -- none of this unresolved awkwardness that often accompanies unrequited, unconsummated workplace crushes. Which led me to only one conclusion:

They were having an affair.

A major network drama, basically stating its two leads were having an affair in the Pilot episode? You mean we could skip over all the will-they-or-won't-they business, because they clearly were. The closeness, the intimacy...the chemistry between the two actors. It was one of the most inventive and refreshing things I’d seen on TV in a while. It wasn't exactly 'ship at first sight, but...'ship after the first 20 minutes? Absolutely.

Later, we would come to learn that the affair had already ended by the time the Pilot supposedly took place, but it was a bold statement the show's extremely talented creator, Hank Steinberg, had made with his script: there was something between Jack and Samantha, and he wasn't going to shy away from exploring it.

At first glance, Jack and Samantha's relationship is a social, and workplace, cliché: middle-aged male boss in an unhappy marriage has an affair with younger, attractive female subordinate. On the surface, Jack and Samantha do indeed appear to fill those roles:

Jack Malone:

"I can tell you exactly what I was thinking. [...] I was thinking that if I turned around and went back to New York, so Mr. Spaulding could consult with his attorney, Andy Deaver would be dead by the time I got back. I can also tell you what I was not thinking. I was not thinking about his constitutional rights [...] evidence suppression or even this trial. [...] because my primary responsibility was to save Andy Deaver. That's my job." -Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been

A Supervisory Special Agent in the Missing Persons Unit of the FBI's Manhattan branch, Jack is an extremely dedicated agent, and is willing to pull out all the stops (legal or not) to solve his cases. He has a dry sense of humor, and often uses it to disarm suspects. Most of the time, he keeps his temper in check -- unless suspects or witnesses are uncooperative. But he's also a gifted profiler, and can get inside a suspect's head to get the information he needs.

Jack has appeared married to his job -- which certainly put a strain on his actual marriage. His marriage to ex-wife Maria lasted over 11 years. She took their two daughters, Hanna and Kate, to Chicago when her law office transferred her there. Jack also recently lost his father to Alzheimer's. They had a somewhat strained relationship, most likely due to his mother's suicide when he was 16.

Samantha Spade:

"I ran away when I was her age [...] My mom tracked me down at the bus station the next town over [...] I remember when I saw her...just having someone look for me...that was enough to keep me from trying it again." -Victory for Humanity

A Special Agent in the FBI Missing Persons Unit, who has worked there since at least 1999, Samantha was born and raised in Kenosha, Wisconsin by a single mother, with most likely, an absent father. After a four month marriage at 18, she probably left home, and until about a year ago, hasn't really had much contact with her mother since.

Despite this, Samantha at times still seems to cling to her heritage. She is most impacted by cases involving missing girls, and seems to harbor some resentment for the trapped nature of small town life. While certainly a less experienced profiler, Samantha's talent often appears to be how she bonds with the victim's families.

The nature of Samantha's job, in combination with her brief marriage and most likely lack of a strong male role model, has led her to impetuous, if not awkward romantic pairings: her affair with Jack; the infamous Dr. Fred; the implied liaison between her and NYPD detective, Eric Keller. She even had a relationship with fellow agent, Martin Fitzgerald, but he broke up with her after it was clear she was not as committed as he was.

When looking at these characters and the emotional, stressful nature of their jobs, it's clear what might have attracted them to one another. Jack appeared to shut his family out of the stresses of his work, and it's clear he and his wife had communication problems. Both Jack and Samantha get extremely involved in their work, and develop similar emotional, irrational attachments to particular cases or victims. Both seem to lead with their heart, not their head. It's certainly plausible, especially with their unhappy personal lives, they might have sought solace in each other -- the one person who would truly understand their pain.

"It Hints at an Affair all the Time:" Season One

When the Pilot begins, Jack and Samantha's affair has been over for a year. Yet, it becomes clear throughout the course of the first season that their feelings for each other are nowhere near resolved.

Three Months (He Saw, She Saw)
After a case, which involved a woman cheating on her husband after they lost a child, simply because it seemed to make her sad to be around him, Samantha visits Jack in his office...

SAMANTHA: (concerned) Are you all right?
JACK: (confesses) Marie and I separated.
(JACK pulls off his glasses and rubs his tired eyes.)
SAMANTHA: When?
JACK: Three months ago.
SAMANATHA: Three months.
JACK: (nods) Yeah.
SAMANTHA: Well, I don't know what to say.
JACK: Well, you know, we were trying to work it out, and, uh we're in kind of, uh ... limbo.
(SAMANTHA nods her head. She looks at JACK. For a moment, they don't say anything, each with their own thoughts.)
SAMANTHA: I'm going to go home.

At first glance, the scene would appear to be nothing more than a concerned colleague comforting another colleague about a personal matter. But it's the reactions that provide the undercurrent of an untold story between these two. Why would "three months" seem to agitate Samantha? If it's purely colleague-to-colleague empathy, why does she repeat "three months" instead of saying "I'm sorry?" Why would she say "I don't know what to say" instead of "That's awful?"

In fact, Samantha never shows sympathy -- seeming more shocked than sorry. Furthermore, Jack can barely look at her when he tells her. Obviously, he could be upset -- even ashamed at the problems in his marriage, but he acts as if Samantha is going to take this news as his personal failure, and there's no reason he'd ever think that if they were purely colleagues.

What makes this clearly more than merely a scene between two professionals or even two friends is how much Samantha fails to comfort Jack -- almost going out of her way to be rude. If she was supposed to be offering support as a colleague or a friend, it's one of the worst jobs ever. This is one of the first scenes we're given after the Pilot that suggests if something did happen between these two, neither seems to have let go of it yet.

"You're Not Supposed to Get Used to This" (Maple Street)
Samantha has been up all night, looking through homemade videos of a missing girl, in an effort to find some kind of clue that might lead to her safe return. Enter Jack...

(SAMANTHA is up in front of the laptop. Behind her, JACK approaches carrying a cup of coffee for her. He puts it down on the table next to her.)
[...]
SAMANTHA: Ah. Thank you.
JACK: Looks like I should have brought you eye drops.
SAMANTHA: Yeah, and you look like a million bucks. […] I've been sitting here all night looking for clues, looking for suspects. I mean, I'm not just seeing her I'm seeing ... everything she sees and I keep thinking that if I get to know her maybe that'll help, you know? And then I think maybe I'll get to know her and it won't make any difference at all, it just ... (SAMANTHA covers her eyes with her hands.) ... God, I'm sorry.
(JACK rubs her back.)
JACK: This is ... well, you're not supposed to get used to this. You're not. (She nods.) When you do ... it's time to hang it up.

It's not a "romantic" scene on its face, but it reveals an intimacy to Jack and Samantha's relationship, and also proves how well Jack knows Samantha. He enters with a cup of coffee for her, without any indication she asked him for it. She breaks down, and he immediately comforts her by rubbing her back. He then combats her fears and doubts about the case with empathy about her situation by answering a question ("Is my emotion compromising my ability to solve this case?") she didn't even explicitly ask.

Jack shows particular empathy for Samantha and fellow colleague, Vivian, during this case, but Samantha is the only one for whom he brings coffee, and with whom he gets an extended scene that goes slightly beyond just professional boundaries. If anything, his comfort level with her, and lack of shyness at touching her and soothing her, provides more fuel to the fire for the yet-to-be-revealed affair.

As the season progresses, the audience -- who has not been formerly told about Jack and Samantha’s affair -- may begin to suspect something. In fact, the barbs and knowing looks between Jack and Samantha were so prevalent, it may have been hard not to notice. From Samantha's "When a marriage is not working, divorce is usually the answer" to Jack's "Just because a woman is having an affair with a married man doesn't make her a criminal," these two share a number of throwaway lines and knowing looks about marriage, infidelity and the wife being the last to know.

But by midseason, these references seem to stop. In Friendly Skies, it is revealed Samantha had a past relationship with Detective Keller. Several episodes later, the two indeed share some vaguely sexual banter, and Samantha receives flowers on her desk the next day (which Jack notices). In that same episode (The Source) we meet Jack's wife, Maria -- who disgustedly observes Jack perching on Samantha's desk. Yet another hint that something not only went on between Jack and Samantha, but the wife does indeed know about it.

"It's a Good Thing" (Victory for Humanity)
A young high school teacher has gone missing -- lured away by a seemingly false story of abuse from a troubled young female student -- who has seduced him into a relationship. Samantha becomes extremely invested in the girl, even convincing Jack to invest more FBI resources in trying to bring her home. After they find the teacher, but not the girl, Jack and Samantha return to Jack's office, where Samantha brings up her own past experiences, revealing that she, too, ran away as a teenager:

SAMANTHA: I remember when I saw (my mother) ... just having someone look for me, that was enough to keep me from trying it again.
JACK: It's a good thing.
(SAM looks up at JACK. Their look holds.)
SAMANTHA: (quietly) Yeah.
(For a moment, they look at each other. JACK looks away.)
JACK: I got to, uh, pack up.
LYRICS: I can live with my regrets ..
SAMANTHA: All right. Me, too.
JACK: Good night.
SAMANTHA: Good night.
(SAMANTHA stands up and leaves the office.)

Gazing at each other, underscored by Tom McRae’s “You Only Disappear”…there is no way this behavior is remotely professional, and it can't all be because of the story Samantha just shared. Why would that cause them to stare at each other? Even after Samantha leaves the office, Jack kind of looks after her before turning his attention back to his work. It's not been revealed yet, but it can't be said Hank Steinberg & Co. didn't warn us...

"He Asked Me About Us" (Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been)
Agent Jason Farrell from the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) is called to investigate Jack and his team. He questions each team member about their past performance individually. When he first interrogates Samantha, it's about the case in question. But just as she's about to leave...

JASON FARRELL: …Oh, oh, one other thing, Agent Spade. Have you and Agent Malone ever had a sexual relationship?
(This stops SAMANTHA cold.)
SAMANTHA: I beg your pardon?
JASON FARRELL: Unless you're going to go Clinton on me, it's a fairly straightforward question.
SAMANTHA: You have no right to ask me that.
JASON FARRELL: Actually, I do. Administrative Operation Procedures of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, section 23 ...
(FARRELL reaches for the manual and flips it open to the page.)
(SAMANTHA puts a hand to the bridge of her nose. She murmurs her incredulity at the man's audacity.)
JASON FARRELL: "A supervising agent--" that would be Agent Malone -- "is strictly forbidden from having a sexual relationship with an agent in his immediate reporting chain."
(He turns to look at SAMANTHA.)
JASON FARRELL: That would be you.

Samantha appears shaken and upset. But we do not hear her confirm or deny the relationship. Instead, she waits for Jack in his office:

SAMANTHA: He asked me about us. He had all this stuff. Um, security card access records of nights that we left together; phone logs.
(JACK sits down next to SAMANTHA. He sighs.)
JACK: And what did you say?
SAMANTHA: I told him it wasn't true.
(JACK turns to look at SAMANTHA.)
JACK: You have no idea of what he knows or doesn't know. That's his ace up the sleeve -- that's how he wins.
SAMANTHA: I was just trying to protect you.
JACK: Yeah, but you didn't have to lie. Even if he had hard evidence, there's nothing he could do about it.
SAMANTHA: We broke at least half a dozen conduct codes.
JACK: And lying to an OPR investigator could get you fired.
SAMANTHA: And sleeping with an agent under your command could get you fired. (JACK pulls back a bit.) I'm sorry I lied. I was just trying to save your ass.

The scene is tense and angry, and both Jack and Samantha seem jumpy and almost out of control. Even so, it's clear Samantha lied to protect Jack. She denied their affair/relationship existed, even though Farrell said she would not get in trouble. Though it’s masked as shock and disbelief, two things emerge from this scene: Samantha lied rather than get Jack in trouble and Jack would’ve rather gotten in trouble rather than have Samantha lie. They’re essentially risking their careers over an affair that was over a year and a half ago. If it was just an affair, their behavior doesn’t track.

Indeed, the incident appears to gnaw at Jack. Almost immediately after Samantha leaves his office, Jack confronts and threatens Agent Farrell about the personal nature of his investigation. Later, the pressures of the case and OPR actually cause Jack to write a letter of resignation. He contemplates lying under oath to cover up a mistake he made, but thinks better of it -- even though his confession will free a killer. As he's walking out of the courthouse, he sees Samantha waiting for him, and they retire to a nearby bench. This scene kind of speaks for itself. ;)

SAMANTHA: You were right, you know.
JACK: About what?
SAMANTHA: It was dumb to lie to Farrell […] You know, when Farrell asked me about us, my instinct was to tell him the truth ... because it's been really hard for me not telling anyone, ... being around you all the time and pretending like nothing never happened, you know?
JACK: (quietly) I know.
SAMANTHA: I don't think I was lying to save you. I think, in that moment, I thought maybe ... if I say this, if everybody knows ... then it really will be over.
(She pauses and looks at JACK.)
SAMANTHA: It is over, isn't it?
(JACK reaches out and lightly brushes his knuckles over the hair by her temple. He nods his head slightly.)
JACK: Yeah, it's over.
(SAMANTHA looks into JACK'S eyes, then nods her head also. She slowly leans into him and rests her head on his shoulder. JACK puts his arm around her and rests his cheek on the top of her head.)

So, that's it for Jack and Samantha, right? Not exactly...

"I Want Samantha!" (Fallout)
In the season's finale, a kidnapper takes an entire bookstore hostage, including Samantha. For a while, because Jack and Samantha are separated, it's not their interactions, but their reactions that speak to their relationship. For example: when Jack's boss, Agent Van Doren, arrives and asks Jack about the situation:

PAULA VAN DOREN: And Special Agent Spade is one of these hostages?
JACK: Yes.
PAULA VAN DOREN: Mm-hmm. […] Drummond should step in and be the negotiator on this.
JACK: With all due respect to you and Drummond, I am knee-deep in this […], not to mention the fact that there's one of my agents in that bookstore.
PAULA VAN DOREN: Which is what makes me doubt whether or not you have proper objectivity - particularly because it's ... this agent, Jack.
JACK: (lowers his voice) Which is exactly why I should do it. Because if she tries to communicate something to me covertly, I am the best one to interpret it. I know her. Drummond doesn't.

Of course, Jack’s assumption proves correct, as Samantha is able to covertly communicate the number of hostages, and one of their names to Jack over the phone. Everything is going at a surprisingly professional clip until Samantha accidentally gets shot by the kidnapper, Barry Mashburn.

It is here that Jack’s professionalism starts to crack - calling out “Sam” (revealing he knows her well) over the phone, and desperately trying to get any information he can about Samantha’s condition, even when it becomes clear he’s agitating the kidnapper:

BARRY MASHBURN: Somebody got shot.
JACK: Who?
BARRY MASHBURN: Samantha.
JACK: How bad is it?
BARRY MASHBURN: It-it was an accident.
JACK: (hard) I didn't ask you what happened. I asked you how bad it was.

Indeed, his sudden change in tone sends the kidnapper into a fit of anger, accusing Jack of “lying to (him) this whole time,” and refusing to let Samantha leave unless they send in a doctor - another potential hostage. But when Jack finds out about Samantha’s condition from the ones hostage who was released (“She’s bleeding all over the place…she’s going to die in there”), Jack can wait no longer:

(BARRY unlocks and opens the door and sees JACK standing in front of the store a good distance away.)
BARRY MASHBURN: (shouts) Who the hell are you?!
JACK: I'm the guy you've been talking to. (JACK takes off his badge and shows it to BARRY.) Jack Malone, FBI.
BARRY MASHBURN: Well, what do you want?
JACK: I want to come in.
BARRY MASHBURN: No way!
JACK: (coaxing) Yeah, yeah, come on, let me in ...
(JACK takes off his tie and throws it aside.)
JACK: Look, I got nothing, all right?! […]
(He takes off his jacket and drops it to the ground.)
JACK: […] No gun. I'm not wired ... […] Nothing, see?
BARRY MASHBURN: (yells back) What do you want?
JACK: I want Samantha!
(Camera cuts to: SAMANTHA on the floor, pale and shivering, fully aware that JACK is standing just beyond the door.)
BARRY MASHBURN: And why should I give her to you?
JACK: (shouts) Because she is bleeding to death ...
(JACK takes a cautious step toward the bookstore.)
JACK: ... and I know that you're not a murderer!
BARRY MASHBURN: Well ... what do I get in return?
(Without hesitation, JACK answers him.)
JACK: Me. You get me.

Now it could be argued that Jack would’ve done this for any team member. But, as Van Doren pointed out, it’s this agent. Unarmed, and against his boss’ orders, he asks the kidnapper to trade Samantha’s life for his life. His life, which includes two daughters and an (albeit estranged) wife…he risks it all. And there’s something about the intensity of his voice when he shouts, “I want Samantha!” that makes it clear there are personal feelings clouding his professional judgment. That his personal sacrifice is the only way he can guarantee Samantha's safety.

The picture speaks for itself as to how Jack rescues her, greeting her with “How you doing, sweetheart?” (again, not exactly professional - nor is the way she breaks down sobbing when he touches her cheek).

Indeed, Jack’s sacrifice is not lost on the kidnapper, who sums up what the audience has been viewing about Jack’s relationship with Samantha the entire season:

JACK: Every day is the same. […] And you just get a little tied up in your ... job, your kids, your life. Pretty soon you forget the last time you had a real feeling.
BARRY MASHBURN: What about, um ... what about Samantha?
JACK: What about her?
BARRY MASHBURN: Well, you seem to have a particular attachment to her.
JACK: That's fairly observant, Barry.
BARRY MASHBURN: Yeah. Is that why you traded yourself for her?
JACK: I don't know.
BARRY MASHBURN: You were willing to trade your life for her life.
JACK: In that moment, yes, I was.

Until now, we only really saw Samantha’s feelings for Jack, but this episode clearly indicates reciprocal feelings on Jack’s part. Because while he does go back to his family, “in that moment,” he trades himself for Samantha. He is more willing to risk himself than have her die. And Hank Steinberg, the show’s creator and writer of this episode - who knows these characters better than anybody - puts in this scene between Jack and the kidnapper, to seemingly emphasize the fact that what Jack did wasn’t just being a good boss. Samantha is mentioned in a conversation about Jack’s family.

Someone once noted that when Jack rescues Samantha, her blood gets on his shirt, and throughout the remainder of the episode, we see Jack’s completely white shirt with that little bit of Samantha’s blood on it. It could very well be a metaphor for all of S1: though Samantha is no longer with Jack, they have not left each other completely.

Season Two: Old Feelings Don’t Die

Jack is trying to make his marriage work, while Samantha begins a mild flirtation with Martin Fitzgerald. But the season is practically bookended by two episodes, which speak to the fact that though they may be with other people, the feelings between Jack and Samantha are still present.

"No One Has Lost Faith in You" (Revelations)
After Samantha shoots two suspects in the season premiere, she is taken out of the field, and restricted to desk work. At the conclusion of a case involving a missing priest with a questionable past, Jack returns to the office late at night, only to find Samantha still there. They have a confrontation about the shooting, and the repercussions from Samantha herself being shot:

SAMANTHA: (quietly, her voice full of hurt and uncertainty) I just feel like you've lost faith in me.
(JACK stares at SAM for an eternally long beat, then, he looks down at her hands. He reaches out and covers both her hands with his, hesitant to touch her yet unwilling to pull away. He looks down at their hands, then up at her.)
JACK: Nobody has lost faith in you. (beat) Least of all me.
(Instead of answering him, SAM reaches out and lightly fingers JACK'S wedding ring. JACK looks down at the motion.)
(He swallows.)
JACK: Come on, I'll walk you out.
(He stands up and waits for her. She grabs her jacket off the back of her chair, stands and they both head out to the door. JACK puts his hand lightly on the back of her shoulders to guide her out. He drops his hand back down to his side, then slips them into his pockets.)

There’s a lot of guilt in this scene - Jack, perhaps because of how he’s hurt Samantha by trying to make his marriage work - Samantha, for still feeling something, even though Jack has gone back to his wife. But it reinforces their dormant relationship - each assuring one another (Jack, through his words, and Samantha, through her actions) that their feelings are not completely gone.

Though that may be easy to forget as the season progresses. Samantha’s connection with Martin intensifies after his aunt goes missing, and she comforts him - and Jack is prepared to move to Chicago when Maria gets a new job in the season’s penultimate episode.

"What We Had, It Was Good" (Lost & Found)
Jack has told his team he is leaving, but that news is interrupted by another case. As the team works, Samantha is dealing with her own feelings of abandonment and loss - Martin not only catches her crying (to which, Samantha has no response), but later, she asks Jack a question ostensibly about work...

SAMANTHA: Aren't you going to miss this? (She glances sideways at JACK. He turns to look at her.) […]
(She turns to look at him fully.)
JACK: (eyes still on SAMANTHA) Yeah, I'm going to miss it.

Later, she has a conversation with Martin where she states old feelings “don’t die…they just fade. Then you feel bad that they faded…because you wonder what they meant when you had them.” But that is put into question when she visits Jack, who is packing up his office at the end of the episode.

SAMANTHA: I was just talking to (my therapist). […] About you.
JACK: (nods) Oh.
SAMANTHA: About us, I should say.
JACK: I'm afraid to ask.
SAMANTHA: Don't be. It's, um ... What we had, it was good. It was what we both needed at the time.
JACK: Yeah, I guess it was.
SAMANTHA: In another life, maybe?
JACK: Maybe.
SAMANTHA: Yeah.
(They're quiet for a moment.)
SAMANTHA: I, um ... (she swallows) ... I really hope that you and Maria will be happy in Chicago.
JACK: (sighs) I'm sorry if I ever hurt you.
SAMANTHA: Me, too.
JACK: I better keep doing this or I'm going to lose my nerve.
(JACK turns around and slowly walks back to the wall […])
(SAM watches him for a moment, then turns.)
(JACK takes the frame down then […] he looks over and sees SAM […] start to slide the books off the shelf, (she) stops and looks over to find JACK watching her.[…] Camera slowly pulls back on JACK and SAM standing over the boxes. They turn to look at each other before JACK goes to remove the next frame on the wall.)

Watching the scene, it seems Samantha has been fed the lines about closure by her therapist. She says it so clearly, like she’s reading from a script. It’s notable that they have this conversation after a therapy session: approaching Jack and trying to get some form of closure seems like something a therapist would suggest.

But Samantha betrays the advice by staying and helping Jack in the end. If she’s trying to let go, why would she stay? Both of them look absolutely miserable. Still, as we saw in S1, these two know each other too well. All it takes is that one admission that Jack is going to "lose (his) nerve," and Samantha stays to offer strength, support and help - possibly the most caring thing she can do. It’s very similar to “Are You Now or Have You Ever Been” -where both of them verbally admit their relationship is in the past, only to have their actions completely contradict their words.

Season Three: You Make Me (Un)Happy

However, in S3, Jack and Samantha’s relationship is almost non-existent: Jack’s wife has taken his daughters to Chicago after asking for a divorce, and Samantha has gone home with Martin on the night Jack was scheduled to leave. Samantha and Martin then begin a relationship, and Jack barely seems to notice - though he does have other problems.

Ghosts of the Past, Present and Future (Malone vs. Malone)
Jack and Maria are going through divorce proceedings at the same time as the staff Christmas party. A good deal of Jack’s past is mentioned, including his affair with Samantha, which we find out lasted “five months.” Meanwhile, Samantha is flashing back to considerably happier times, and somewhere in the middle of that time, she remembers one particular evening in her relationship with Jack:

But there’s nothing special about the scene - nothing even particularly sordid. It’s the first (and possibly only) glimpse of Jack and Samantha in a seemingly “normal” relationship. Their banter is mostly light - even lighter than their considerably loaded S1 exchanges. Only at the end of the scene does Samantha seem unsure (“What are we doing, Jack?”) - but it’s Jack who refuses to acknowledge their ideal world isn’t quite reality (“We’re laying on your bed, listening to the rain, doing a crossword puzzle, it’s nice”).

Still, the flashback is about the only time we see Jack and Samantha together. The other time is at the end of the episode, when Jack joins the team, who are playing cards with his father, and chooses the seat next to Samantha. Now, sometimes a seating choice is just a seating choice. But this season’s penultimate episode might argue otherwise…

Déjà Vu (John Michaels)
As the season progresses, Jack does find out about Samantha and Martin's relationship, but only tells Martin “good luck with it”. Samantha’s ambivalence about the relationship becomes more prevalent - and Martin eventually breaks up with her.

But the case of John Michaels calls many things into question. Especially because it’s very clear Jack is imagining this entire case - through a dream. “John Michaels” is a divorced insurance adjuster with two daughters. “John” also happened to have an affair with his secretary, Susan Stanwick, who has been added to John’s will as one of his beneficiaries. This acts as another insight into how Jack perceives Samantha, and their affair, for why would a guy add an ex-mistress as a beneficiary of his will unless she meant something more to him than just an ex-mistress? But the episode is not so much about Jack and Samantha’s relationship as it is how Jack perceives his life. In his dream, the affair still exists - but “Susan” has moved on, had a family and is happy:

JOHN MICHAELS: I'll never understand what you saw in me in the first place.
SUSAN SMITHWICK: You were smart and charismatic and the boss. And of course, that was sexy.
JOHN MICHAELS: And I was married.
SUSAN SMITHWICK: That was sexy, too. I'll admit it.
JOHN MICHAELS: You know, if I ever hurt you ... I'm sorry.
(She chuckles.)
SUSAN SMITHWICK: I was young and stupid and didn't know much about how to take care of myself. But I moved on. I married a wonderful man and had children. And I am going to be a grandmother soon. […] Did you ever, uh ... get remarried?
JOHN MICHAELS: Oh, no. Never had the stomach for it.
SUSAN SMITHWICK: I'm sorry.
JOHN MICHAELS: For what?
SUSAN SMITHWICK: You seem sad.

Her conversation with “John” is clearly how Jack is projecting Samantha herself is feeling - in the happy, stable relationship (unbeknownst to him, Samantha and Martin have broken up) he could never quite manage in his own life.

And lest we think this façade is only reserved for the fictitious foils Jack has dreamed up for himself and those in his life, earlier in the episode, the “real” dream Samantha comes over to his apartment while they’re both working the case. He puts his arm around her and tries to kiss her, but she angrily pulls away, and then gets a phone call from Martin. It is perhaps one of the saddest things about how Jack sees relationship with Samantha - that she has moved on, and is no longer interested in him. He doesn’t know she and Martin have broken up. He sees the dream Samantha, Susan, and John’s former wife, “Martha” as being better off without him. That leaving him has allowed them all to find happiness (the happiness, perhaps he believes he denied them).

Though the entire “case” of John Michaels was a dream, it is the last episode so far where there seems to be any hint of a relationship between Jack and Samantha. This is why it is important to remember how Jack perceived both her and himself in his dream: not only was she not interested, but offended that he would even make a move toward a relationship again. And if he sees himself as John Michaels, dragging down everyone around him, he would obviously stay away from Samantha for “her own benefit.” That may be the ultimate compliment to this seemingly clichéd workplace affair: if it was just physical, what’s to stop them, now that they’re both single? But not once in the past three years have we ever seen that side of their relationship.

Season Four: Forgetting Who They Are

Jack begins a relationship with Anne Cassidy, the widow of a fellow agent. There is one (yes, one) look from Samantha when she hears about it, and Jack isn’t even in the room. Jack and Samantha (when they share screen time at all) have gone back to being strictly professional. Their affair or relationship isn’t even mentioned in passing. Indeed, there is no indication it even existed.

The complete disregard for Jack and Samantha as a potential pairing may be due to the early S4 departure of the show’s brilliant creator, Hank Steinberg. His presence, in turn, gave Jack and Samantha a presence - for it was he who created the show and wrote the Pilot. It was he who dreamed up this complex, messy, emotional affair/relationship in the first place.

In the show’s season finale, a kidnapper tells Jack’s new girlfriend, “People don’t change. They just forget who they are.” Indeed, this is exactly what has happened to Jack and Samantha’s relationship. The show has forgotten who Jack and Samantha were, together. Whether their memory returns or the relationship has truly vanished without a trace remains to be seen.

Security Card Access Records, Phone Logs and Other Resources:

Fanfic:
There is lots of good Jack & Samantha fanfic out there, and I've tried to put a number of those stories in one place with my

rec50. These authors are the best of the best, and this is only a sampling of their brilliant work - the rest can be found through their fanfiction.net profiles, Web sites or Livejournals.
Also check out Fanfiction.net (Jack & Samantha stories)

'Shipper fan communities:
On the Web:
Your Tax Dollars at Work
Against Regulations: A Jack & Samantha Fan Listing

On Livejournal:

jackandsam_lca (Jack & Samantha: Love Conquers All)