Flashpoint: A personal view of Shockwave.

There is a plot line running through season 4 of the TV show "Flashpoint", concerning the character of Spike (Sergio Di Zio), and his fathers illness.
Spike is a bomb disposal expert, and his father never liked his career choice. The father is now dying, and his dying wish is for his son to give up the dangerous job. Spike is continually torn between upholding the wish and his honor to himself. He worked hard to get where he is, and doesn't want to throw it all away.

Now, this story line brings up all manner of emotions for me. My father recently went through a similar life-threatening illness.

I'm fortunate that my father never asked me to stop doing what I'm doing, or had anything bad to say about my career choice.
However, the moments when Spike is with him, brings home to me what it was like to see my Father like that.

Real emotion. Raw emotion. That's what I get from watching this. It is (In my opinion anyway) perfectly written, perfectly directed - and most importantly, perfectly acted by Mr. Di Zio.

Spikes inability to do anything to help his father mirrors exactly what I myself felt.
The scenes are never the focus of the show, never important to the overall plot. But they are important to me.

The most recent episode (Shockwave) had a certain resonance with me. Sorry to get all personal all of a sudden, but my Father was hundreds of miles away, so I only spent a short time with him, and the feeling when I wasn't with him, I would have given anything to be back there. So when Spike was trapped, I was so caught up in the moment of the episode, I think i went through every emotion right there with Spike.

So, to the writers, directors, producers, showrunners - and most importantly of all, Sergio. I thank you. This is what proper story telling is all about.