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RSS'In Plain Sight': Star-crossed lovers
Love is in the air on "In Plain Sight." Love, and boiled goat. We get a lesson in Shakespeare from our witness of the week, but Mary and Raph's romantic drama steals the show.
Witness of the week: Let's begin with the tale of romantic woe. (And no, surprisingly I'm not referring to Mary and Raph.) Our star witnesses are 18-year-old Olivia and her father Jesus, whose work for Felix Calderon's criminal organization in Miami got his wife killed, and got him and Olivia into the WITSEC program. Olivia, understandably, is not a happy camper.
Marshall, ever the pro at dispensing wise advice, convinces the controlling Jesus to treat Olivia like an adult, which goes swimmingly until she vanishes before his testimony. Well-played, Marshall. Turns out Olivia was having an online fling with with Cesar Calderon, heir apparent to Felix, which makes their "Romeo" and "Juliet" screen names very appropriate. Seems they've been in love for quite some time - enough so that Olivia is willing to leave WITSEC, and her father, in order to be with him.
Poor Jesus shows up to testify at Felix's trial only to see Olivia sitting with the Calderons, and he experiences sudden amnesia in order to protect her from any retaliation for his testimony. Happily, though, Olivia sees that she's being used and gets back on her dad's (and WITSEC's) team, allowing testimony to continue as planned and giving their tale a much happier ending than Romeo and Juliet.
"Hey Raph, it's an angry-looking Hispanic man!": Raph's mom pays Mary a surprise visit from the Dominican Republic, immediately insisting that Mary call her "Mama," which goes over about as well as you'd think. And I gotta say, this plotline was truly entertaining and spawned my favorite quote of the episode: "Holy Mother, there's a DOG in that pot! And God help me, it smells delicious..." -Mary, seeing the goat Raph's mom is cooking. You know, for their engagement dinner. [Sound of record needle scratching.] Yeeeah, Raph was too afraid to tell his mom that Mary said "no" way back when he proposed.
Jinx convinces Mary to go along with the fake engagement, which seems like terrible advice from a person who shouldn't be in the business of doling out advice at all. At the engagement dinner, Raph's mom waxes eloquent about the importance and joy of marriage, and Mary does the right thing and spills the beans. It's sad, but necessary - as she says, she didn't want to make a mockery of something so important. And Raph freaks the heck out on her. Oh, Raph. Unless your mom is terminally ill, that charade had to end ASAP.
He accuses Mary of being afraid of commitment (that old chestnut), but she says that on the contrary, she more than anyone on the planet ("with the possible exception of Marshall," which is totally telling, right?) believes in honoring her commitments no matter what. But then Raph breaks the news that he retired from baseball so he could move on to the next part of his life, and that he's known for a long time that he wants to spend the rest of his life with her. And OH MY GOD she accepts his proposal. But, but...what about Marshall? Nooooo! (Yeah, can you tell I'm totally on board the Mary/Marshall train?)
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I enjoyed this episode. I didn't quite get the ending of the witness of the week plot (though Francia Raisa from Secret Life of the American Teenager, who played Olivia, was quite good) until I read your recap. But that last scene between Raph and Mary was amazing. I figured they were either going to break up or get engaged, and until the very end I thought it was going to be the former.
I hated the ending. Have never seen the slightest chemistry between Mary and Raph, and thought it was really lazy writing that he was on the show at all, unless he was going to end up as a boyfriend for Brandi, with whom he does have chemistry!
Can't see her with Marshall either, but Detective Dershowitz? Oh yeah, um hmm.
Really enjoyed Raph's mother, played by Anne Betancourt who also has a small but memorable role on my soap; she has such presence. The goat thing was hilarious too.
C'mon, writers, ditch Raph! There are such great characters on this show that when they're bad, they're glaringly bad.
Really Jane? I love Raph! That's why I was so happy when they got engaged. Then again that's mainly because I love Cristian de la Fuente from his time on Dancing with the Stars
I was never aboard the Mary/Marshall train; they always seemed to have more of a Benson/Stabler relationship, where both knew getting personal would cause more problems than anything else. Marshall has also fallen for a couple of ladies during the series, including the psychologist this season.
The engagement was a pleasant surprise and has interesting dramatic possibilities. Raph, for example, now will be justified in asking Mary to take less risk in the job, and we can all imagine how that will go over. Maybe he also stumbles in finding the next thing in life. Is he a baseball coach? Car salesman for Brandi's boyfriend? Walter White's teaching ***istant (kidding)? If I'm a writer on the show, the job just got a whole lot more interesting.
I'm on the Mary/Marshall train, but even if I weren't, the engagement just seemed like such a bad idea. I like Raph, but I think they are just such a bad match, and the silly shenanigans leading up to the second (kinda) proposal just highlighted how many problems these two have. They clearly don't talk to each other or know each other all that well, and engagement won't fix those problems.
I could see Mary telling Raph that she'd like to try harder with him, but leaping into the engagement doesn't seem to fit to me. I just don't get what Mary was thinking.
Not a big fan of the Mary/Raph engagement either. (Make room for me on the Mary/Marshall train.) However, I wasn't a big fan of the Brandi/Jinx storylines last year -- and those paid off in a big way. So, I'm cautiously optimistic that the writers will do something similiar here.
Also, gotta say that I luuuuv the Mary/Eleanor interactions.
I like Raph's character but I'm sure he and Mary won't end up married. Mary & Marshall definitely deserve each other--but it's one of those Sam & Diane kind of things most of the time. Mary has this chemistry with Bobby D, too. I really think Raph has great chemistry with Brandi, too, and hope they'll end up together. Also loved the Mary and Eleanor by-play. Eleanor was a great character to add to the show. They've done a great job casting this show!
Yes really, MEL31602 (smile). To be clear, I don't have anything against the actor, just the characters together; they just don't fit and they haven't been developed. Every time he's in a scene (except when with Brandi), I think, WHY is he in this scene? Who the heck is he?
LOVE Eleanor also, and the interaction is subtly hilarious. That's why this show gets me sometimes. The writers seem really schizy - doing great, great work and then some of the Jinx stuff, and Raph, such poorer quality.
Does anyone know if Joshua Malina is coming back? He just kinda disappeared. And more of Bobby D, yes, yes, please!
i'm a huge fan of mary and raph. he's been there for her and her family. he truly loves her because he knows her as well as marshall does. cut back on the danger of her job? no way this raph would do that because he's the guy who put himself in danger to save her and her sister brandi from coke and lord knows what else charges.
with marshall mary would always have this sarcastic one up relationship. with raph she could learn to exhale. it's just up to the writers. i see them going for it. we may have an economic downturn and shows may need to hold down their budgets but we need the raphs and george's on shows like 'in plain sight.'
I agree that Mary and Raph don't have anywhere near the chemistry that Brandi and Raph do. Mary has more chemistry with Bobby D and with Marshall than she does with Raph. I didn't like Eleanor at first, but now love her.