INTELLIGENCE REVIEWS-SEASON ONE

• Review of Episode 10: Things Change

  Ian Tracey directs this week. This results in a lot of handheld camera work and a very fast, jazzy and pitiless pace (not to mention at least twice the legal limit of f-words). If you've seen either of Tracey's directed episodes from DVI, you'll know that his style tends to go straight from deeply compassionate to so cold and clinical it makes "The Shining" look like a romantic comedy--and back again. The switches in this ep are subtler, but they're still there.

  Klea Scott, in particular, flourishes in this ep, as Mary stealthily undermines an unsuspecting Royden. As we watch, the previous out-in-the-cold outsider Mary builds her campaign against Royden, turning the tables on him even as he thinks he still has the upper hand. She meets with one of the senator's people, a Roxanne Jameson (like the whisky, and how happy am I to see so many tough, capable women on this show?). Roxanne is played by the woman who played the female detective working with Leo in "Seven Tentacles" at the end of season six of DVI. She tells Mary a few bits of useful gossip about Royden--namely, that he's been under investigation before "on suspicion of dealing patent documents."

  Oh, my. Are Mary's investigation of Lee's murder and her investigation of the Chinese stealing patents from Canada about to collide? What timing, since Martin and his Russian partner are busy turning one of the Canadian agricultural scientists who were selling off the patents into yet another mole. Martin also comes on to his partner. It would be creepy if she didn't take it on board so nonchalantly. She doesn't seem at all unreceptive and I have to admit that, despite Martin's little power games, they make a good team.

  But Mary has a few more hurdles to clear and a few more pieces of wool to pull over a few more sets of eyes before she can sleep soundly. Mallaby visits her early in the ep and tells her that Royden is displeased with her, after complaining that Roger is kicking at the traces and refusing to go quietly. Mary, all injured innocence (this is really a very funny scene in a very cynical way), tells Mallaby that this doesn't change much, since Royden never wanted her in the job in the first place. When she asks Mallaby if Royden has anyone else in mind for the job at CSIS, he admits that Royden doesn't. She then asks Mallaby what will help her get back into Royden's good graces. He suggests that she give up her sources. At this point, she balks: "What am I without my sources? Out the door." She asks Mallaby to suggest one or two sources whose files she can give up, after which Mallaby waffles. The fun part of this scene is that we know Mary's submissiveness is all an act--she's the one who put Roger up to kicking up a fuss in order to buy them a few weeks' time while she gets everything into place.

  She also works on Royden directly, but not so that he sees it. She visits Katarina, walking with her and her mother and daughter, who have arrived in Canada. Katarina is, needless to say, feeling quite grateful to Mary for her part in getting Katarina's family over from Odessa. So when Mary asks her to seduce someone for her, Katarina agrees without too much hesitation. We find out much later that the object of this seduction campaign is Royden himself.

  And a campaign it is. First, Mary gets Roger (who is now so on her side that he's actually opening doors for her) to set up a meeting with Royden. She tells him to be there at a certain time and not a minute too soon. Late is even good. She then tells him not to interrupt whatever he sees when he gets there. Roger is nervous about being in the field for the first time in a quarter century, but Mary handles him as skillfully as she does any informant. Meanwhile, Katarina comes in, pretending to look for someone who is late and "accidentally" misidentifies that someone as Royden. They have a seat at the bar. Katarina orders a vodka martini ([snicker] I expected her to add "shaken not stirred"). She tells Royden that she works in the hospitality business; he tells her he knows a little Russian. She gives him her card. As Roger arrives, Katarina excuses herself, coyly agreeing to a possible dinner date. The bait taken and the hook set, she calls Mary and tells her, "Done."

  Mary also puts the screws to Randy. She picks him up in a car and asks him if he's holding out on her. Randy, of course, claims to not remember meeting any Falcone guy. Imagine his shock when Mary goes into explicit detail about his meeting on the boat from last week. After Mary explains to him that he's been keeping company with a DEA agent (George), she has to pull over so that he can upchuck out the door. She gets a little smile as he's leaning out that does not bode well for him. No surprise, then, that she threatens to throw him "to the sharks" if he doesn't straighten up and fly in the direction she wants him to go.

  Randy, ever attuned to who holds his leash, quickly falls in line. He picks up a huge order of guns and immediately brings the list to Mary. Mary is working with Eddie and Old Spy Guy, which results in a very funny scene where the three of them negotiate the price of the latter two's services before Eddie and Old Spy Guy ride off into the sunrise (because they're going to Alberta to grab some "scam artist" on the lam), presumably and hopefully not forever. Before they go, Mary persuades them to keep in place their surveillance so that she can figure out where the guns are going and whether George is really working for his government or freelancing in crime on the side. Either way, the situation presents a new out for Jimmy. Regardless of whether or not he's dirty, George is desperate for this gun deal to go through. And guess who's greasing the wheels and providing the transport? That's right--Jimmy. Should George succeed in putting Jimmy away, his gun deal will completely fall through. Oh, what will George do?

  Whatever it is, it's in the unknown future, because George is apparently as yet unaware of Jimmy's role in the deal. What an irony that something Jimmy never would have done if Mary hadn't cajoled and strongarmed him into it may save his bacon. At any rate, George is still aggressively going after Jimmy this week. Ted is getting twitchy (downing coffee cups full of Glenfiddich at one's desk will do that) and worried that Jimmy's bust will take too long to help him. Ted, poor sod, really believes Mary's promise that he might succeed her at the OCU if he only plays a good boy. As far as he is concerned, the timetable needs moving up. So, George tells Winston to sell Jimmy some coke to firm up the case against Jimmy.

  There are a couple of problems with this plan. First, expecting a straight-up marijuana dealer to suddenly start selling cocaine is probably not unlike expecting someone trading only in steel to suddenly start dealing in diamonds. The two industries, while generally related, are not the same and do not involve the same operators or sources. Second, and probably even more compelling, Jimmy loathes hard drugs. They nearly destroyed his family in his father's time and he's not about to start dealing in them again. Ted points out these problems to George, who assures him that Winston can close the deal. But Winston can already see this himself and tells George that it won't fly with Jimmy. George tells him to keep his mouth shut, then tells Ted that Winston is sure he can sell Jimmy the coke while Winston stands there, looking sullen. I'm really starting to feel badly for Winston. The guy just can't catch a break. Talk about having bosses from Hell.

  Sure enough, Jimmy digs in his heels at the mere suggestion of buying coke off Winston, even when Winston tries to pull a pot supply shortage on him and offers the coke as compensation. By the end of the ep, Ted pressures George to bust Jimmy's shipment south of the border, which George's people (the young woman who played a gangster's mole in season one of DVI, in fact) are keeping under surveillance. This shipment, masquerading as a lumber shipment from "Reardon Lumber Ltd" and shepherded by Bob's "counterintelligence" motorcycle buddy who also pays off a female border guard, arrives shortly before the end of the ep. We don't know yet if the bust is successful.

  But this may not matter, as Jimmy is willing to find Winston a very tasty substitute dealer--Dante. Oooer. Jimmy. That's definitely playing with fire, though naturally, Jimmy doesn't know that. But of course, getting rid of Dante couldn't hurt Jimmy overmuch. That said, we still see Jimmy come to an agreement with Dante (who actually comes to the strip club rather than the other way around). Dante wants the ATMs that Jimmy has at the racetrack, but Jimmy declares that he's "sick of these goddamn ATMs." Instead, he offers Dante a cut on his latest project. Remember how Jimmy's lawyer and banker wanted him to set up his own offshore account? Well, they've found a bank in the Bahamas that's floundering. For $50 million (good God, the figures these people toss around), Jimmy and his cronies can buy 45% of the bank. They could use it to wash all of their money for the next five or ten years before they had to move on. Jimmy only needs five to complete his switchover to legitimacy.

  But there may be a fly in the ointment--coke-snorting Kristina overhears the boyz planning (though Sweet may be on to her) and reports it to Mary. Later, she tries to keep the banker over at the end of a tryst with professions of love. He, very harried, is clearly getting to the stage in the affair where she is becoming more of a hassle than an obsession. Just as well for her, then, that it's all a ruse to make sure he leaves behind his briefcase. As soon as he rushes out the door, back to his wife and kids, she calls Mary who comes over to check out the briefcase. Ooops.

  No Francine this week, but of course, she is never entirely out of mind, especially when she's out of sight. Jimmy's lawyer tries to talk to Jimmy about the scalding incident last week and the ongoing problem of Francine's threats to blab to the cops. Surely, Jimmy is still shaken about that? Hmm. Maybe not. Jimmy assures him that, "it's all taken care of." Considering the previews for next week and the overall tone of this week, why does that not sound entirely reassuring?

  We began the season worrying about Jimmy and Mary and wondering how they could survive, let alone thrive, in such a shark-infested ocean. Nowadays, I'm starting to feel sorry for the sharks. Jimmy and Mary (Mary especially) are turning out to be extremely dangerous in their own right. Mary does this by being sneaky and cunning and building up her own power base of other outsiders (she gives the lovely Don, for example, a heads-up this week that he needs to decide whether or not to come over with her). Jimmy is more forthright and apparently open, but jumps so fast from one deal or project to the next that he's difficult to track, even by his friends. Or by Mary.

  For example, She calls Jimmy halfway through the ep and asks him to "take a meeting" with Randy. "You gotta do this for me." Jimmy says nothing one way or the other (which means "yes", of course), then goes into sending off a new ATM shipment, a discussion with his front man about Winston's shipment and then straight into a chat with a guy who is looking for boats and has a brother-in-law on the ferries. Jimmy is desperate to get in on something both lucrative and legitimate like the ferry business, but "they won't even return my calls. They contract out of the country." The guy assures Jimmy that he can get him into the business. Jimmy perkily thanks him (well...as perkily as you do when you're a West Coast good old boy) and immediately jumps feet first into a chat with Winston about dope. How can anybody keep up with this guy?

  Speaking of Sweet, Ronnie talks over his chat with her a couple of weeks ago with Jimmy. He says that Sweet insists on having the deed of any safehouse in her name. Jimmy shrugs and asks Ronnie if they can trust her. Ronnie says yes (he's probably right). Jimmy then says that as long as she knows the risks, he has no problem with it. You'd think that after the nuclear meltdown that was his marriage with Francine, he'd be a lot more cautious, but then, Sweet is a lot more stable than Francine. Jimmy then asks if Sweet might be willing to run money for them. Ronnie (having forgotten Sweet's complaints about wanting a space of her own) says he'll ask her. Ironically, they're probably both right in judging Sweet. What Sweet wants is in on the whole shebang and this will get her there. Of course she's not going to screw it up.

  Finally, Mike buys The 25 ("The Two Bits"--the jazz club from last week) with his partner. They work out a deal with the owner (played by the guy who received a mummified finger in the mail courtesy of Tom McBeath's evil ex-narc in season six of DVI). In passing, the owner mentions that a guy got stabbed in the washroom the previous week, "but we don't normally get that sort of thing here." Ahh, so that's what Bob did to the guy. No word on whether the guy lived, but knowing Jimmy's very precise ideas about revenge not going too far, he probably got more of a good scare and a trip to the hospital than anything life threatening.

  Then again, you never know.

  ---

  Next week: Eps 11: Nothing next week, since there's a break for Christmas until after the New Year. The next ep is January 9 and, Happy Day, we got previews for it. Francine gets busted and the cops (in the person of a sleazy detective played by John Cassini's brother Frank [sorry, it's actually one of his costars on Corner Gas who played Teddy Bear Guy on DVI in "Cheap Aftershave/Ugly Quick"]) offer her a deal--testify against Jimmy and get off. Winston finds himself tailed again by Jimmy's people. Jimmy and his cohorts go forward with the bank deal. Mary offers Jimmy complete immunity for a big operation. Katarina seduces Royden over dinner. Mike kicks in a few doors and beats in a few heads.

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This page was last updated on 12/14/2006