Wild Cards & the Symbolism of Daniel's Boat
While re-watching s2, it suddenly hit me that the boat = Cole. Specifically, Cole’s emotional state and health, particularly around Daniel's death. Which he hadn’t actually processed, or gotten closure on with the murder unsolved. Which is why, when the show begins, the boat doesn't boat. And why Cole first opens up to Max about Daniel while on the boat, after she first connects that it was originally his brother’s. Then later, s2 begins with a major break in the case of Daniel’s murder, putting into gear the storyline that will eventually lead to it finally being solved.
The boat metaphor really kicks in in 2x02, when a woman at the marina comes to warn Cole that “You need to clean out your scuppers. [...] Your scuppers are clogged up.” As in, Cole is emotionally “clogged”/stuck/stalled. And so, “The boat never leaves the marina”. Stagnating, when a boat is a vehicle, it's supposed to go. But to Cole, at this point, “it's fine” and “I’m good” as long as the boat doesn't go anywhere, anyway. Yet, hearing the woman’s last words of advice (which sound awfully like advice about mental or bodily health)— “...it's your home. Need to take care of it. Show it some love. Or it'll rot from the inside”—clearly got to him, because by the end of the episode he’s started reading the boat’s maintenance manual.
And calls Max, who acts as his “manual” through emotional vulnerability about Daniel, encouraging him to clean out his emotional scuppers, so to speak—i.e. to process his grief (and guilt) around Daniel's death. For one example, by passing on her and her dad’s remembrance tradition via Cole’s memory of Daniel’s birthday pizzas. Which happens right after he tells her he’s starting to get the boat back into travelling shape.
C: “I’m trying to repair the steering mechanism.”
M: “Wait, does this mean your boat’s gonna boat?”
C: “It’s a step towards the boat, boating, yes. The first of, like, a thousand, probably, but you gotta start somewhere, right?”
M: “Just the way Daniel wanted it. He’d be proud.” (2x03)
The metaphor comes back onscreen in 2x09, when Cole (and Marc) stays at Max’s place because “Apparently, the hull of my boat’s in worse shape than I thought,” so it's been taken out of the water for repairs. Max says that they can crash there “Any time. I mean, if your boat springs a leak or something,” —i.e., if he needs help expressing his emotions and thoughts—then proceeds to ask him if there's been any news on Daniel’s case. And he does open up to her some more, admitting that “It's even harder when we’re not working. That's why I’ve been fixing the boat so much.”—i.e., subconsciously working on himself internally—“I don't keep myself busy, my mind just starts to…”
Come 2x12, Cole re-starts the boat for the first time—and right then, Li calls to tell him Daniel's killer has been caught. Kick-starting the 2-episode storyline that fully uncovers the circumstances around Daniel’s murder, as well as triggers Cole to admit, process, and release the guilt he’d been feeling about it.
Season 2 was the season of Cole processing Daniel’s death and finally getting catharsis and closure on his murder, paralleled with Cole repairing, updating, and getting Daniel’s—now his—boat to boat again. So, by the end of s2, the boat is fully functional/healthy, while Cole, in turn, takes his assigned leave with grace, and agreement that it would be good for him to sail away for a while (far opposed to the circumstances of his demotion). To “finally take that trip Daniel talked about” (2x13).
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