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Love in the LAPD - The Life and Times of Rollo Tomasi

Title: The Life and Times of Rollo Tomasi
Fandom: LA Confidential
Pairing: Jack Vincennes/Ed Exley
Spoilers: Lots. Be warned.
Author: The Summoning Dark ([livejournal.com profile] the_summoning_d)

I want to say a big 'thank you' to [livejournal.com profile] ladyalcamy for the fic recs, the encouragement, and above all for letting me know I'm not alone in loving this pairing.

Hello boys and girls. I'm here today to explain to all you lovely people why I think that a relationship between Jack Vincennes and Edmund Exley of the LAPD is not only possible, but in fact very likely.

Anyway, let's meet the boys:

Good Cop

Lieutentant Edmund Exley (Ably portrayed by Guy Pearce) comes into the story as a straight-laced, by-the-book cop trying to live up to the legend his father left behind. He's a little awkward, a little uncertain, and generally either looked down on or ignored completely by his colleagues. However, even at the start of the film he shows acute political sense and a gift for manipulating people.

We know a little about his background. Ed's father, Preston Exley, was a well-known cop who died on duty when Ed was quite young. Ed went to college, though we don't know where or what he studied, and joined the LAPD when he was twenty-three. At the time of the film, he has been a cop for seven years.

Through the course of the film he loosens up consideraby, becomes more confident, and comes to realise that sometimes he can get better results by not following the rules. And maybe a 'shipper isn't the best person to decide how much of this is due to Jack, but it's certainly quite a lot.

Bad Cop

And then we have Sergeant Jack Vincennes (Played by the reliably wonderful Kevin Spacey), a flashy, cynical detective who spends less time doing his job than he does making extra cash from his various sidelines. He is the technical advisor on a TV cop show called 'Badge of Honour' - a fact which his colleagues tease him about mercilessly - and earns money on the side by making scandalous arrests for the benefit of a sleazy reporter.

Jack does have a nobler side, but it's deeply buried. Somewhere along the way he's lost sight of his duty - he admits himself that he can't even remember why he became a cop in the first place. We know almost nothing about Jack's past, but it hardly matters. Who he once was is irrelevant because he's been badly corrupted by life in the LAPD. But that more moral Jack is still in there somewhere...and for some reason it's Ed who brings him out.

The Plot

The main storyline of LA Confidential revolves around the efforts of three police officers - Bud White, Ed Exley, and Jack Vincennes - to uncover the truth behind several nasty murders in the City of Angels.

Ed initially comes onto the Nite Owl case thinking it's just a simple armed robbery gone bad. The suspects are captured but later manage to escape. They're tracked down and a shootout between police and criminals ensues. Ed emerges a hero, the only survivor. Medals and congratulations all round.

And if it was that simple, this would be a very short movie. But Ed realises that a key witness has been coerced into giving a false statement: the men they arrested, though admittedly criminal scum, didn't commit that particular crime. So Ed sets about trying to discover the truth. Eventually he realises he can't do it alone, and goes outside his department for help. Enter Jack Vincennes.

Formerly a detective, Jack had been suspended and demoted, relegated to Vice for his part in the 'Bloody Christmas' fiasco some months previously. He is investigating the murder of unemployed actor Matt Reynolds, and a mysterious agency called 'Fleur-de-Lis'. When Ed comes to him for help, he guesses that their two cases are connected. So they come to an arrangement and the plot moves inexorably ahead to its blood-spattered denouement. This fascinating parnership comes to an unhappy end when Jack is killed for getting too close to the truth, but he manages to pass a message on to Ed which enables him to work out the rest and save the day.

And a very different Edmund Exley rides limps off into the sunset with nice new set of scars.

Gathering the Evidence

The first canon interaction between the two is close to the start of the film. Jack has a lucrative arrangement with tabloid journalist Sid Hudgens, who slips him a nice little wad of cash in exchange for photo ops at juicy arrests. On this particular night Ed is the watch commander of the station. Jack tries to give him his cut - he refuses the money.

Jack: Exley [Puts the money on his desk]
Ed: What's that for?
Jack: Well you are watch commander tonight, aren't you?
Ed: Yeah. So?
Jack: Well that's your gratuity from Hush-Hush magazine, you know, buy yourself a new pair of loafers.
Ed: No thanks, Jack, you keep your payoff. I'm not interested [Jack looks like he's about to try to persuade him otherwise, but they're interrupted by the arrival of some very disgruntled Mexican prisoners]


At this stage, they don't think much of each other. Jack thinks Ed is naive and clueless. Ed sees Jack as a prime example of the blatant corruption which is crippling the police force.

The 'Bloody Christmas' incident - in which police are photographed beating up prisoners - follows. Jack initially keeps his distance but ends up getting involved anyway. Ed tries to stop it, and is locked in a cell by his colleagues for his troubles. It's interesting to see their different reactions: Ed tries being reasonable, which is utterly ignored. Jack fetches Bud, dryly commenting; "You'd better put a leash on your partner before he kills somebody," which might actually have worked if someone else hadn't then provoked Bud into continuing the fight. At this point Ed is naive - Jack is the one who actually knows how things work.

When their superiors are forced to discipline them Ed is the only person to testify willingly. The DA points out that they need another witness: Ed volunteers Jack.

From this it appears that they don't know or like each other, and prefer it that way. But even if you aren't looking for hints of anything deeper, you have to wonder; why does Ed know exactly how to manipulate Jack? How does Jack know, even with a one-way mirror between them, that Ed is watching him? And note the little interaction on the way out:

Jack: So you're the 'stellar witness'. I should have known. What's the chief throwin' you?
Ed: Throwing me?
Jack: Yeah, Exley, what's the payoff?
Ed: You're the payoff expert. I'm just doing my duty
Jack: Come on, you're playin' an angle here, college boy. You're gettin' something outta this, right, so you don't have to hob-nob with rank-and-file cops who're gonna hate your guts for snitchin'. Well if they're making you detective, watch out. Some bureau guys are gonna burn in this, and you're gonna end up workin' with friends of theirs.
Ed: What about you?
Jack: I'm snitchin' three old timers who're gonna be fishin' in Oregon this time next week. Next to you, I'm clean...and smart. [Ed starts to walk away] And remember - Bud White'll fuck you for this if it takes him the rest of his life.


That last line has spawned a plethora of Bud/Ed slashiness, but that's not why we're here. So the trial goes ahead with its two police witnesses. Ed is promoted. Jack is suspended.

Here we skip forward a bit. Jack's just come back from suspension when the Nite Owl case comes up, and the entire force is put to work following up a lead. Two-man teams are sent out to find particular people. As everyone heads off, Jack has some - actually rather good - ideas which his superiors just don't want to know about. Walking past, Ed overhears the conversation and quite calmly commandeers Jack.

The point is that following up outside contacts - according to his CO anyway - was exactly the sort of thing which got Jack in trouble in the past. Despite knowing this, plus the fact that they still don't like each other at this point, Ed trusts that Jack knows what he's doing.

The next scene they have is, to this fangirl anyway, a joy to behold. They question a contact, working together almost seamlessly. And it works - they get the information they want. Off they go to find the suspects, sneaking up to the house with guns in hand.

[Jack looks questioningly at Ed, who is going through his pockets]
Ed: My glasses.
Jack: You're kidding... Well just don't shoot me.


The next scene is a fan favourite, the scene where Ed masterfully interrogates the three suspects. Note the change in Jack's attitude just over the course of this single scene; from "Are you sure golden boy's up to the task?" to "Exley's good, I'll give him that."

You can see that by now they're starting to get used to each other, to the point that when he needs backup to go after the escaped Nite Owl suspects, Ed goes looking for Jack. And when he can't find him, he just takes the nearest random cop. As such he clearly wasn't looking for the most skilled or reliable, but for some reason Jack was still his first choice.

So the story carries on. Ed has something of a crisis of conscience when he begins to suspect that the men arrested over the Nite Owl case were innocent, and decides to look in to it more deeply. In another part of the station, Jack is having a guilt trip of his own over his part in the death of an unemployed actor named Matt Reynolds.

Having been down to harass the forensics people about the Nite Owl, Ed figures out that Bud is following the same trail and realises that he needs help. Whatever his reasons, he goes to Jack. And we end up having the famous 'Rollo Tomasi' conversation;

Jack: Why in the world would you want to go digging any deeper into the Nite Owl killings, lieutenant?
Ed: Rollo Tomasi
Jack: Is there more to that, or am I supposed to guess?
Ed: Rollo was a purse-snatcher. My father ran in to him off-duty...and he shot my father six times and got away clean. No-one even knew who he was. I just made the name up to give him some personality.
Jack: What's your point?
Ed: Rollo Tomasi's the reason I became a cop. I wanted to catch the guys who thought they could get away with it. It was supposed to be about justice. Then...somewhere along the way, I lost sight of that. Why did you become a cop?
[Long pause]
Jack: [Very quietly] I don't remember...


They come to an agreement (Personally I was very impressed that Ed managed to talk Jack round). Jack agrees to help Ed with the Nite Owl case in exchange for help finding out who killed Matt Reynolds.

And then we come to the Lana Turner incident. They come back to the car: Ed is cleaning himself off, Jack is trying without much success to conceal a smirk. As we've all seen, Ed is the sort of person who takes himself very seriously. Yet having just made a complete idiot of himself in front of a famous movie starlet, Jack still gets him to see the funny side of it and the scene ends with them both laughing.

The scene where they question Pierce Patchett is their last scene together in the film - note again how well they work together - and they part ways afterwards blissfully unaware that one of them is about to meet an unpleasant fate.

Ed's adventures that night are of little bearing on the essay, but Jack goes to meet the coroner and recognises the name of the corpse Ed brought in - 'Buzz' Meeks, an ex-cop with a bad reputation - and finds out he had a connection to Dick Stensland (Another murdered ex-cop) and Dudley Smith, the Police Captain. He goes to a bar to meet Ed like they arranged with the information, but Ed doesn't show up (thanks to the lovely Lynn Bracken). So Jack makes the massive mistake of going to ask Dudley about it.

We all know what comes next. Dudley subtly probes to find out how much Jack knows and who he's told...and then he shoots him.

And we come back to Rollo Tomasi. Some people call Jack's last words a deus ex machina - too convenient. But I call it blatant slash. As he's literally dying, his last thoughts and words are of something Ed told him. And he smiles and tries to laugh, because he knows that Dudley's going down and he'll never figure out how it happened. Some of the trust we discussed earlier is reciprocated; he knows that just from that name, Ed will figure the rest out.

The look on Ed's face throughout the briefing the next morning is heartbreaking. He looks lost, like he can't quite believe what's happened. Then when Dudley mentions Rollo Tomasi you can actually see Ed realising what's happened; his eyes widen, just a little, and then you can see his jaw working as if he's restraining himself with difficulty from killing Dudley on the spot.

And finally, we come to the tail end of the movie. Ed has been taken in for questioning following the shootout at the Victory Motel, and he tells his story in the interrogation room. All through the interview he is completely calm and collected, the same little half-smile hovering on his lips. When is the only time throughout this entire scene he falters even a tiny bit? Right. When he has to tell them that Dudley killed Jack.

Ed: Beginning with the incarceration of Mickey Cohen, Captain Smith has been assuming control of organised crime in the city of Los Angeles. This includes the assassinations of an unknown number of Mickey Cohen lieutenants, the systematic blackmail of city officials, and the murders of Susan Lefferts, Pierce Patchett, Sid Hudgens... [Here he hesitates] ...and Sergeant Jack Vincennes. [Another long pause before he continues]

Why These Two?

It's a reasonable question, especially given the dominance of Bud/Ed in this fandom. But fun as 'I hate you because I want you' slash can be (God knows I write it enough), it's nice to have a couple where there seems to be some genuine understanding and rapport.

You can see it all the way through the film: Ed brings out Jack's better, more moral side; and Jack is about the only person who can get Ed to loosen up and relax. They work well together, with plenty of banter ("Oh great - you get the girl, I get the coroner?"), and it's easy to imagine that carrying over to a more personal relationship.

And the relationship itself? As in any fandom, there are many different interpretations (Or rather there would be if more than a dozen people actually wrote Jack/Ed). I see it as a friends-with-benefits deal, but others may disagree. Really, there are three ways you can write it:

1 - Premovie: It would be possible to pull this off, since they do appear to know each other already in canon. The only proviso is that it would have to end badly to explain the vague unfriendliness between them in the beginning.

2 - During the Movie: Very possible, and when Tiriel's wonderful fic 'Made' is set. Really the only problem is time - there isn't long between them starting to work together and Jack dying. You can only really get PWP in here, since there just isn't the space for a relationship.

3 - AU: The easiest to write, the most obvious fic in this category is postmovie in an AU where Jack doesn't die. But the great thing about AU is that you can let your imagination run wild. Maybe the whole incident never happens. Maybe they aren't cops at all. Of course there are always constraints (For example, non-con would be impossible without serious OOC), but this is where all the potential is.

Recs

'Made' by Tiriel (NC-17): http://www.ravenswing.com/%7Etiriel/lac/made.html
My personal favourite, a nice little piece starting right after the Lana Turner incident. Jack/Ed with a side of Ed/Lynn and unrequited Ed/Bud (Slut!Ed is fun), and some lovely character-death based angst.

'Helping out Around the House' by G.B (PG-13): http://www.ravenswing.com/%7Etiriel/lac/housej.html
This one confused me a little since the AU wasn't explained very clearly, but maybe you'll have better luck than me.

Pathetic lack of fic, isn't it? Really, I'm writing this essay in the hope that anyone else with an inclination to Jack/Ed will realise they're not alone and start writing. It's an excellent pairing, sadly underrepresented. So I hope you enjoyed my manifesto...and get writing!
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