| Mark Jarvis | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Vital statistics | |
| Name | Mark Jarvis |
| Role | Julio Sanchez's foster son/legal ward |
| Gender | Male |
| First Appearance | “Family Law” |
| Final Appearance | “By Any Means, Part 4” |
| Played by | Henry Kaufman |
Mark Jarvis is the former foster son and now the legal ward of Detective Julio Sanchez.
History[]
In “Family Law”, DCFS social worker Cynthia offers Detective Julio Sanchez temporary foster placement of Mark while DCFS attempts to locate his missing mother as a way to earn permission to have permanent foster children. Julio accepts placement of Mark, but when Mark arrives, he quickly proves to be a racist who discriminates against Cynthia for being African-American and Julio for being Hispanic.
Mark's attitude quickly begins to grate on Julio's nerves, particularly his antics the first night in Julio's house which include being up at all hours, insisting that his mother speak English and calling immigration on Julio, resulting in immigration actually showing up at his house. When Julio goes to work, he leaves Mark in the care of his mother and her neighbor. However, Mark's continuing antics cause Julio's mother to decide she can't take care of him and send him to the PAB in the care of his neighbor. On the way, Mark continually tries to escape at every red light. When Mark arrives at Major Crimes, his attitude problems and demands for a lawyer cause Julio to threaten to handcuff Mark to a chair to get him to cooperate. Rusty Beck offers to babysit Mark which he accepts as Rusty is white. When Mark asks to watch SpongeBob, Rusty reminds Mark that SpongeBob isn't white to his annoyance.
Later, Cynthia arrives with the news that Mark's mother was murdered and has been dead for at least three days.
In “Dead Zone”, Mark is questioned for anything he might know that would help solve his mother's murder though it is decided to not let him know until the case is solved. Mark answers some questions, but mainly proves to be highly uncooperative until Captain Sharon Raydor brings in Mark's favorite book Make Way for Ducklings, retrieved from Ava Jarvis' car. Mark mentions his Uncle Henry giving him the book, but won't tell the police much about Henry aside from the fact that Henry is his mother's boyfriend and is supposedly in the Army. After finding out that the book is a stolen library book, the detectives manage to use it to identify Henry Colson.
The next day, on the suggestion of Rusty, Julio and Provenza suggest to Mark that his mother could be at Henry's house. As a result, Mark becomes far more cooperative and leads the police to Henry's house, disappointed when they park around the corner instead of taking him straight inside. Julio refuses to use Mark to get a warrant for the house, fearing for Mark's safety if the Zyklon Brotherhood learns that he led the police there. Instead, Sharon has the detectives check out Mark's former school which is close by to see if Mark's mailing address matches the house Mark led them to. Mark's former principal proves to have no problem remembering Mark or his attitude problems and gives them his mailing address which is Henry's house. As Julio goes inside, Mark warns him about the backroom where Henry doesn't like people going which proves to be a fortunate warning as Henry ambushes the detectives there.
After Julio returns to tell Mark that his mother wasn't there and to thank him for the warning, Mark loses his attitude completely and begs for them to wait for his mother to come back, claiming that she will arrive soon and promising to be good, upsetting Julio. After the murder is solved, Doctor Joe Bowman is brought in to break the news to Mark.
In “White Lies, Part 1” and “White Lies, Part 2”, Mark continues to reside with Julio as he has no family that DCFS can find. Since the death of his mother, Mark has greatly changed and Julio always tries to get home to read with Mark before bed with the two reading Make Way for Ducklings and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
In “White Lies, Part 3”, Cynthia reveals to Julio that DCFS has found Mark's grandparents and he will be transferred into their custody, greatly upsetting Julio as he has come to deeply care for Mark who has his own room in Julio's house and for whom Julio has recently gotten a bike. When Mark is brought to Major Crimes to await Cynthia, he is mentioned to have tried to run away several times and Julio speaks with him about giving life with his grandparents a try. When Jordan Graff arrives, Mark recognizes him and is visibly scared, causing Julio to tell Mark not to let anyone else know that he knows Jordan Graff.
When Cynthia finally arrives to pick Mark up, he has a heartbreaking goodbye with Julio who he has come to love. Mark has Julio keep Make Way for Ducklings as a reminder of him while Mark keeps the bike helmet Julio bought for him. Having completely lost his racist attitude, Mark apologizes to both Julio and Cynthia for his former behavior and remarks towards them both. Mark's departure leaves Julio in tears in the hallway.
In “Quid Pro Quo”, Mark is unexpectedly brought back to Major Crimes by Julio's neighbor. Mark reveals that his grandfather has had a stroke and he hasn't seen his grandmother much since. Running out of food and desperate, Mark ran away to find Julio for help. With no other choice, Julio calls DCFS about Mark.
In “Dead Drop”, Mark remains in Julio's custody and Julio reveals that Mark's grandmother intends to transfer permanent legal guardianship of Mark to Julio. Mark is angry and bitter about his grandmother's treatment of him after his grandfather's stroke, but Julio helps him to see that his grandmother is just scared and worried and meant him no harm. At the meeting with Mark's grandmother, she signs over temporary guardianship until a judge can confirm permanent guardianship. Mark's grandmother sadly apologizes to Mark for his grandparents' inability to take care of him and taking Julio's words to heart, Mark forgives her and promises to see his grandparents often.
In “Bad Blood”, a judge confirms Julio's permanent guardianship of Mark and the two celebrate with a game of mini-golf. Afterwards, Mark asks to call Julio "dad," but Julio explains that legally he is Mark's legal guardian, not his father. As Mark still wants to call Julio "dad," Julio compromises by settling on the nicknames of pato and patito, which is Spanish for duck and duckling like in Mark's favorite book, Make Way for Ducklings.
In “Sanctuary City, Part 3”, Julio returns to work early from his bereavement leave to help solve the disappearance of the St. Joseph's Three. Julio states that the case has make Mark nervous after seeing all about it on the news.
In “Sanctuary City, Part 5”, Mark acts as a ring bearer at the wedding of Sharon Raydor and Andy Flynn alongside Rusty. During the ceremony, Mark exchanges smiles with Julio.
In “By Any Means, Part 3”, Julio mentions he is looking for a new house closer to Mark's school. He is also contemplating a promotion to Lieutenant and a transfer to the Criminal Intelligence Division which is mentioned to be because working homicides is hard on Julio as a single father.
In “By Any Means, Part 4”, Mark attends Julio's promotion ceremony. During his speech, Julio states that one of things he got through his work with Major Crimes is a son. After the promotion, Julio and Mark depart together.
Personality[]
When Mark is first introduced, he is extremely racist and has a bad attitude that annoys everyone around him. He is vocally against "blacks" and "Mexicans," showing extreme disrespect towards his social worker Cynthia and his new foster father Julio Sanchez. His attitude problem is such that Mark's former principal is mentioned to remember both Mark and his attitude "no problem," suggesting that his attitude often got him into trouble in school. His antics in his first night at Julio's house alone are known to include staying up all night, stealing TV remotes, demanding Mrs. Sanchez speak in English and calling immigration on Julio who actually showed up. Even when Major Crimes were trying to find his mother, Mark was often rude and uncooperative.
Despite his racism and attitude, Mark sometimes acts like a regular little kid such as when he claims that he wasn't afraid that his mother left him but security footage contradictorily shows him desperately calling after her as she leaves. As his mother is gone for a longer period of time without Mark hearing from her, Mark loses his attitude more and more and becomes more cooperative, giving Julio a warning that proves necessary. When his mother isn't found at Henry Colson's house, Mark loses his attitude completely and becomes a scared little kid desperate to find his mother, apologizing for his behavior and desperately claiming that his mother will arrive soon and they should wait for her.
Following his mother's death, Mark changes completely, losing his racism and bad attitude. Mark begins acting like a regular eight-year old, developing a fatherly bond with Julio whom he had previously hated due to his racist beliefs. Mark was devastated to be forced to leave Julio and displayed remorse for his previous racist comments to both Julio and Cynthia. After Julio gains permanent guardianship of him, Mark is eager to be able to call "dad" as that is what Julio has become to him.
Trivia[]
- In “Cleared History”, Julio Sanchez is shown to keep a picture of himself and Mark on his desk.
- According to DDA Barry Rosen, Ava Jarvis had no idea who Mark's biological father was as she was "heavily trafficked" before Mark was born.
- In “Family Law”, Provenza tells Rusty Beck not to drop Mark off at the zoo no matter how annoying he gets, causing Mark to comment that he's sure his mother would find him there. Rusty's response is to tell Mark not to count on that. This is a reference to Rusty's own past where his biological mother dropped Rusty off at the zoo and never returned for him.
- Despite Mark's initial bad attitude, he occasionally garnered sympathy rather than annoyance from those he targeted. Julio's neighbor Mrs. Uzura, while annoyed by Mark's antics when driving him to Major Crimes after Julio's mother couldn't look after him, stated that if she didn't have so much to do she'd keep him herself and called Mark a "poor baby" and suggests that Mark is "probably just a little parrot."
- Mark's storyline has some similarities to Rusty Beck's in that due to a situation regarding their mothers abandoning them, they both came to the attention of Major Crimes, both ended up as an emergency DCFS placement for one of the detectives and both ultimately ended up with that detective as their parent. They both even had the same social worker and bad attitudes for different reasons. Additionally, both Mark and Rusty were mainly interested in finding their mothers when they first met the Major Crimes detectives.
Appearances[]
Major Crimes[]
Season 5[]
- “Family Law”
- “Dead Zone”
- “White Lies, Part 3”
- “Quid Pro Quo”
- “Dead Drop”
- “Bad Blood”