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RSS'In Plain Sight': Nice and neat
Tonight's installment of "In Plain Sight" left me wanting a little more complication, and a little less resolution. After last week's excellent installment, this week felt like a step back into the realm of plots that wrap up in neat little packages, rather than those that challenge the viewer. However, there were many redeeming factors, Martin Landau's moving performance and Mary and Eleanor's snippy banter among them.
Witness of the week: Joe Tank, played by Landau, is an ex-mobster who's been in the program for 30 years and wants out when his adult son dies and WITSEC won't authorize the expense of letting him attend the funeral. Bobby D., conveniently a patron at the bar where Joe works, puts two and two together and figures out who Joe really is once he sees him with Marshall. Aaaand he and Marshall decide to partner up off the clock and go to the funeral with Joe as his protection. Uh-DORable. The pieces continue to fall neatly into place at the wake, where Joe meets his grandson and daughter-in-law, who tells him that far from being despised for leaving, he was his son's hero and inspiration.
Things get interesting when Joe finds out that a wannabe mobster bragged about killing him, and Marshall and Bobby D. bust Joe as he has a gun to the wannabe's head. Marshall, of course, has to arrest him...until Joe reveals that the wannabe killed a couple college kids lo those many years ago, information Joe held back as a bargaining chip until now. With the wannabe behind bars where he belongs, Marshall and Bobby D. leave Joe as he looks at old family photos with his new family. It's all very...nice and neat and happy. Martin Landau saved it from becoming too sugary sweet, but instead of zigging and zagging this plot just kind of kept on zigging. That said, I hope it's not the last time Marshall and Bobby D. team up, because I like the dynamic there.
In training: The WITSEC training video is being updated, and the deputy director wants Mary and Marshall, "the best of the best," to serve as technical advisors. Mary is unwittingly pressed into service when Marshall has to help his mobster, and unsurprisingly, she doesn't love the optimistic tone of the script (or the terrible dialogue). The scene is about a WITSEC inspector who's having a hard time concealing what she does from her loved ones - Mary's view is that she should just suck it up and do her job. And she gets kicked off the set until a somewhat crazily (considering we're talking about a training video) passionate speech about doing things right inspires the director to take her advice and have the video acknowledge that everyone struggles, but that simply talking about that to your loved ones can help a lot.
In the meantime, Raph has taken it upon himself to fix Mary's wall. And has invited himself to move in. And has made a budget for them. Mary, for her part, isn't even wearing her engagement ring at work. Hmm. Raph explains that he wants to move on to the next part of his life, including a new job as a car salesman thanks to Brandi's boyfriend. He also explains that marriage is about compromise. Mary's face, however, indicates otherwise.
And hooray, because Peter's back! Seeing Joshua Malina on TV again just makes me happy, you guys. Even if he's just back to dispense jobs, extravagant gifts, and wisdom. He gives Brandi a car, and gives Mary a somewhat deserved talking to about treating the people in her life a little better, and talking to them about what she's going through. Hmm...that sure dovetails nicely with the WITSEC training video. In this episode's one real surprise, Mary takes Peter's advice to heart and tells Raph that she's a WITSEC inspector. Wow. I mean, there's still no way this relationship lasts, but that's definitely more than I thought Mary was capable of.
Favorite quotes:
"You're not a sports guy, are you?" -Bobby D. "I like to think I'm...sporty." -Marshall
"You know what your problem is? You've got integrity. The world hates integrity." -Eleanor to Mary
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Awww! I like Raph. I'm gonna miss him when he goes.
It's Joshua Malina, with an "A," and I agree...he's terrific!
what is your problem!! this was a great episode in that we started out thinking 'uh oh' mary's gonna be written true to form and things will not work with raph, and then the writers use the video to show mary getting some growth and telling raph what she does for a living, which i actually thought he already knew.
and peter is back, i agree, yeah. i like this foursome of raph, brandi, peter, and mary. we've got a great core group on this show now and i look forward to it every week.
oh another thing ... i love the way raph and peter both stood up to mary and said, 'we not taking your $hit #itch.' LOL
Mixed feelings about this one, but it ended great. Peter is such a welcome addition to the characters. And I love the fight
between Eleanor and Mary. But Mary seems more sniveling this season. She was tougher in season one.
I enjoyed Marshall's storyline in this episode. Martin Landau was great, I love the friendship between Marshall and Bobby D, and just in general I liked Marshall's kinder, gentler approach to his witnesses.
Mary's side of things - meh. The training video was okay, Raph was absolutely right in laying out what he wants, but Mary clearly isn't into it. Or at least, she really didn't think through what "engagement" meant when she accepted.
And I really think she broke a WitSec rule in telling Raph what she does. I think that was a big mistake right there.
@Penelope: Ah, of course. Fixed.
I love the interaction among all the characters. I don't know how they're going to resolve the tension between Raph/Mary/Marshall. I also think there's some good tension between Mary and Bobby D. I don't want to lose any of the characters. I'd really thought that Brandi would end up with Raph, but she seems to have a good thing going on with Peter. Yes, Bobby D. & Marshall have good chemistry, too. Is Eleanor married to the executive producer David Maples? It's cute how the real-life family members work so well together--Mary and her brother, Marshall and his wife, and Eleanor and her husband (I'm ***uming).
Like Renee I also thought Raph knew that Mary worked for WITSEC, but her revealing it did really surprise me. I heard something tragic is going to happen to Mary this year and I have a bad feeling it will involve Raph.
Oh and Martin Landau was terrific in this episode, and I liked the sappiness of his plot- the part when he found out his son loved him after all those years almost made me cry.