Jill Hennessy

Why did Jill Hennessy keep acting and Jacqueline not? I don’t know. Not that Jacqueline has never acted since Dead Ringers, the twins’ debut; for one thing, she filled in for Jill on an episode of Law & Order when Jill was in Baltimore filming a crossover episode with Homicide: Life on the Streets. She’s the narrator of a series called Holly Jolly Homicides—you’re welcome, true crime buffs. A movie written and directed by Jill. But mostly, she has not done much since portraying, you know, a sex worker alongside her twin.

Jill, though. Jill’s been working steadily since then. Six shows where she did ten or more episodes. And of course nearly seventy of Law & Order and well over a hundred of Crossing Jordan. She’s recorded an album. (I love her voice.) She speaks five languages. Oh, and she’s absolutely beautiful. You know, if that’s your interest. She’s incredibly talented, being noteworthy as two extremely different roles with extremely different personalities. And she’s equally believable as both despite the fact it’s impossible to accept Claire acting the way Jordan does and vice versa.

Not that we ever get to know Claire as well as we do Jordan. Claire is just starting to develop as a person when she gets killed off. I don’t know why. I know she was a finalist for the role of Dana Scully, at least according to Gillian Anderson, but since Hennessy left Law & Order in 1996, that can’t be it. Claire is mostly there to be an attractive dark-haired woman for Jack to yell at. There were three of those over the years, and while the departure of Serena was jarring, the fact that she was blonde was at least as much so.

But I’ll tell you, there’s something about Jordan. She’s a hot mess, Gods know. Unlike many other fictional characters, she gets at least a little therapy, but it’s from Wallace Shawn’s character, who is kind of creepy toward her. She doesn’t look for therapy outside the guy who appears to be employed by the City of Boston to be there in traumatic situations. She needs it from someone she doesn’t know personally. But I do think she is a fascinating character who finds closure in her own way, at least, and who is doing good because she’s a mess and uses that mess for good.

I discovered, while writing this, several other shows that I’m interested in seeking out. Not most of her movies, admittedly. I don’t want to watch Wild Hogs or Robocop 3. Chutney Popcorn looks interesting, though. At bare minimum, if I did watch, say, Madame Web, I’d be feeling sorry for her for being in it instead of something better. And sorry for us for not having the timeline where she’s in one of the good Spider-Man movies instead of the dire Sonyverse ones. You deserve better, Jill.