| Dr. Joe Bowman | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Vital statistics | |
| Name | Dr. Joe Bowman |
| Role | Psychologist |
| Gender | Male |
| First Appearance | “Jailbait” |
| Final Appearance | “By Any Means, Part 2” |
| Played by | Bill Brochtrup |
Dr. Joe Bowman, better known as just Doctor Joe, is a psychologist who works primarily with under-aged patients but who also occasionally consults for the Los Angeles Police Department. He also does evaluations for the court system, notably evaluating whether a person is able to represent themselves in court.
History[]
Dr. Joe treated Rusty Beck before and during the trial of Phillip Stroh.
Dr. Joe is a chess player, also a passion of Rusty, and often uses a game in order to center Rusty as they work in sessions. It also gave him a way of reaching Rusty when he was less able to open up. He also has a habit of ending sessions with Rusty being led to think of a question he wants the answer to, leaving Rusty to think about it himself rather than being given an answer or an important point he needed to consider, such as when he asked Rusty if he would choose to go with his mother if the opportunity arrived or remain with Raydor.
Following the trial, Rusty continued visiting Dr. Joe whenever he needed advice. Rusty and others also regularly waylay him in the hall when Dr. Joe visits the precinct, to which he is usually politely receptive, often repeating his technique of stepping into the elevator or otherwise leaving the person who came to him with a question or for his opinion with, instead, a new question, the answer to which usually helps him or her.
In “Two Options”, Dr. Joe is called in on Sharon's suggestion to help deal with the kidnapped young children, Henry and Mandy Collier, whom Sharon is aware will be traumatized after they are rescued. While preparing for the rescue mission, to pacify Deputy City Attorney Gloria Lim, Sharon asks Dr. Joe's opinion on whether they should try to negotiate with Paul Collier or catch him by surprise with a rescue mission. After hesitating to offer an opinion, Dr. Joe reminds the officers that Paul has had several years in prison to plan his revenge, was able to get an accomplice and has nearly succeeded in his plan already. Dr. Joe also states that he is worried that Paul has no apparent escape plan and implies that Paul may be on a suicide mission as a result.
In “Leap of Faith”, Dr. Joe is called upon by Sharon to help evaluate murder victim Annie O'Hara and her abilities given her autism. He later evaluates the daughter of sex offender Bill George for possible molestation, only for her to confess that Bill had asked her to keep secret that Bill planned to ask her mother to marry him. Dr. Joe later tells Provenza that he highly doubts that the girl was molested and offers suggestions about why Bill may have genuinely been with the girl's mother. Provenza also seeks his advice about Provenza's relationship with Patrice Perry.
During the trial of Slider, Dr. Joe was called in to evaluate him and testified at his sentencing hearing about Slider's lack of remorse in killing Alice Herrera. As part of his Identity story The Other Side of the Coin, Rusty interviewed Dr. Joe about the factors that could've led to Slider's life of crime.
In “Foreign Affairs”, Rusty talks to Dr. Joe through the hallways of the PAB about his mother having another child by Gary Lewis, attempting to seek his advice on the subject. Dr. Joe briefs Major Crimes on injustice collectors and states that their killer doesn't seem to match the profile of one despite the FBI's beliefs.
In “Dead Zone”, Dr. Joe is brought in by Sharon to tell Mark Jarvis that his mother is dead. Dr. Joe admits that he's aware of the devastation Dwight Darnell causes as he was used to evaluate the serial killer's mental state and determine his fitness to stand trial and Dwight has even called him as a witness for the defense. Dr. Joe recognizes how difficult the news will be for Mark, but also that he needs to hear it and promises to be as gentle as possible. Alongside Julio, Dr. Joe breaks the news to Mark.
While testifying in the case of serial killer Dwight Darnell in “White Lies, Part 1”, Dr. Joe was shot several times with Dr. Morales stating his prognosis to be 50/50. Believing him to possibly be the target of the attack, the Major Crimes squad and Dr. Morales reported him dead to the press to protect him. Rusty was deeply affected by the news of his "death", and Provenza could not reassure him when Rusty first arrived at the squad room, in part because he did not want to tell him that Dr. Joe was alive when they did not know if he would live. Sharon Raydor, arriving to find her son waiting in her office, and Provenza getting the call that he would live, is able to reassure him.
After Dr. Joe regains consciousness, he tells Amy Sykes about his sessions with Dwight and points her to his recordings and notes on his sessions as well as potentially important parts. During this time, Dr. Joe is extremely loopy from morphine.
When Henry Colson, a member of the Zyklon Brotherhood is given the list of victims from the shooting, he gives reasons why they were considered targets by the gang; he says his "justification" for Dr. Joe's "death" was that he is a homosexual.
In “White Lies, Part 2”, both Rusty and Provenza visit Dr. Joe who is much more coherent and jokes with Rusty about his condition. Dr. Joe tells Provenza more about his talks with Dwight and what he knows of Deputy Erin Simms and Dwight's father. Gus later expresses worry that Rusty is not upset at Dr. Joe's death as Rusty is unable to tell him that Dr. Joe is in fact alive.
In “White Lies, Part 3”, after the case is closed with the death of Martin Borja, Sykes states that she is now going to announce that Dr. Joe is in fact not dead, something that will make his family happy. Its also revealed that Dr. Joe was targeted because he learned that Dwight's father was not dead and the man learned of it since Dwight's court-appointed attorney was working for him and had access to Dr. Joe's confidential notes on his sessions with Dwight as well as the fact that Simms was working for him and was allowed to attend Dr. Joe's sessions with Dwight.
In “Sanctuary City, Part 4”, Dr. Joe is called in to treat Ryan Rojas, one of the St. Joseph's Three who is emotionally vulnerable due to his abusive step-father and the fact that he is still coming to terms with the fact that he's gay. While Dr. Joe has recovered from Dwight's shooting, he now requires a cane to walk. Dr. Joe makes it clear that his job is to help Ryan, not the detectives. Dr. Joe succeeds in getting Ryan to open up about his experiences, making him very emotional, before Dr. Joe is pulled out of the meeting. After discovering that the detectives were using him as a ploy to get Ryan emotional in hopes of learning something and were watching his session, Dr. Joe is left angered. After Ryan talks to his mother, Dr. Joe's request to return to his patient is granted.
In “By Any Means, Part 2”, Dr. Joe is called in to help speak with Phillip Stroh's mother, Gwendolyn, who has dementia, at the suggestion of Det. Camila Paige. Dr. Joe agrees to have Camila join him in talking to Gwendolyn and gives advice on how to properly elicit the needed information from the woman. Dr. Joe is reminded by Tao that his conversation with Gwendolyn Stroh is not bound by confidentiality and will be monitored. During the conversation with Gwendolyn, Dr. Joe silently reprimands Camila at times and at other times gives her silent nods of approval. Together, Dr. Joe and Camila are able to learn the story of Stroh's presumed first victim (Mary Wellington) and two possible other victims while he was attending law school.
While later observing the tape of the conversation, Dr. Joe admits that dementia is a convenient excuse, but Gwendolyn is not lying about her mental state. Dr. Joe suggests that her guilt helped bring on her current state.
In “By Any Means, Part 4”, appearing to know that Rusty killed Stroh instead of Provenza, a departing Julio urges Rusty to continue his sessions with Dr. Joe as Rusty will need them.
Known Patients[]
People who have been either directly treated by Doctor Joe or whom he has been asked to evaluate:
- Rusty Beck (“Jailbait”) - (“By Any Means, Part 4”)
- Rory Brooks (“Curve Ball”)
- Paul Collier (“Two Options”)
- Henry and Mandy Collier (“Two Options”)
- Slider (“FindKaylaWeber”)
- Mark Jarvis (“Dead Zone”)
- Dwight Darnell (“Dead Zone”) - (“White Lies, Part 3”)
- Ryan Rojas (“Sanctuary City, Part 4”)
- Gwendolyn Stroh (“By Any Means, Part 2”)
Trivia[]
- While unconfirmed, Doctor Joe may be gay. When coming out to Sharon Raydor in “Return to Sender Part 2”, Rusty states that he's like Wade Weller, Doctor Morales "and maybe Doctor Joe" in that he's gay. In “White Lies, Part 1”, when listing why the people shot in the courtroom deserved to die, Henry Colson called Doctor Joe homosexual.
- Given Doctor Joe's testimony in “White Lies, Part 1”, he initially acted in the role of a profiler to help the police capture Dwight Darnell in the first place. He was also instrumental in Dwight's capture by helping the Pasadena police narrow down where the next murders were likely to be in Dwight's killing spree. According to Doctor Joe on the stand, he was aided by the fact that in the end, Dwight just wasn't very original.
- In his appearance on Identity, Doctor Joe states that he often works for both the prosecution and the defense as an expert witness. Indeed, during the trials of Slider and Dwight Darnell in “FindKaylaWeber” and “White Lies, Part 1”, he has been called as a witness by both sides respectively.
- The events of the episode “Do Not Disturb” are presented mainly in the form of a story Rusty is telling Doctor Joe during a therapy session. Only the final scene of the episode appears to happen after the session.
- Though not seen or mentioned by name in the series, Doctor Joe has a family. In “White Lies, Part 3”, Amy Sykes remarks that his family will be relieved to find out that he is not dead after all.
- Along with working with adolescents, Doctor Joe apparently works with the elderly as well. In “By Any Means, Part 2”, Detective Camila Paige mentions that when she worked in Missing Persons she dealt with a lot of Silver Alerts, elderly persons who had wandered off. Doctor Joe was the expert that often helped her find them and was thus called in on her suggestion to help with Gwendolyn Stroh.
- Doctor Joe's preferred method of helping his patients appears to be that he gets them to a certain point, helping them figure out a lot of their problems on their own during the session and then abruptly ending the meeting without offering his opinion on a solution. In this way, he helps them understand their problems and leaves them with advice, but having to come up with their own solutions without his direct input impacting their decisions. Some of his methods are shown to include suddenly realizing a session is over as he is apparently about to answer and ducking into an elevator.
- Doctor Joe's injuries from the shooting in “White Lies, Part 1” were bullets to the right shoulder, left leg and head. The shoulder and head wounds appear to have been less serious than the leg injury. When he is in the hospital, a bandage is wrapped around part of his lower leg closer to the ankle than the knee. Doctor Joe makes a joke about telling it to his leg when Rusty brings up his legally dead status in “White Lies, Part 2” and he mentions having one more surgery to Provenza when he visits. After he returns to work, Doctor Joe is seen using a cane, suggesting that the bullet did some permanent damage to the leg. In contrast, he shows no lasting impairment from the head or shoulder wounds which resulted in him wearing a bandage around his head and a sling in the hospital.
Appearances[]
Major Crimes[]
Season 2[]
- “Jailbait”
- “Curve Ball”
Season 3[]
Season 4[]
- “Snitch”
- “FindKaylaWeber”