INTELLIGENCE REVIEWS-SEASON TWO

• Review of Season Two, Episode 19: Something in the Air

  This week, Jimmy discovers that the DEA kidnapping plot is heating to alarming levels and finalizes his bank sale; Mary gets a new assignment to investigate the sinister Blackmire group and works with Jimmy to thwart his extradition; Ted gets diverted off investigating Jimmy to investigating Dante instead; and Francine does a little research of her own, in her own warped way. Oh, and Winston still hasn't turned up (or is that floated back up to the surface) since getting smacked down by Bob and Mike two weeks ago.

  This ep is not quite as much fun as the two previous weeks. It has a similar feel to the middle episodes of last season. However, it differs in that we are introduced to at least two major new storylines that are bound to dovetail at some point. The ep is pretty much all set-up, but the payoff down the road looks to be good, so I'm not going to complain. You need these kinds of eps in order to set up long-game plotlines and this one is well executed for its type. And what little there is of Lorna shows her being peeved and outmaneuvered by Francine. I can definitely live with that. There is also the very last scene, which is chilling in an understated way.

  If you've nosed about the character bios at all (this is where all the juicy spoilers are on the official site), you've heard about the Blackmire group. If you've been reading along, spoiler-free, though, they will come as a big surprise in this ep. Mary first hears about them from a sinister government suit, named Jack Walters, from Financial Investigation, played by the same guy who played the pedophile Mick was chasing down on Da Vinci's City Hall. The character appears to be on the side of the angels, but the actor still manages to bring in some of the creepiness that he brought to his DVCH character. At first, it seems as though they are being investigated for other things (mainly massive tax evasion and keeping tabs on them for the U.S.). But Mary quickly learns from the Inspector General (making another welcome cameo appearance) that their director is a former assistant director of the CIA and that they are up to traitorous shenanigans. When she asks Walters why he didn't bring this up, he tells her he assumed she'd figure it out on her own. Mary seems to be running into that do-your-own-research attitude a lot.

  I have to admit that the groundwork for the Blackmire group was far more disturbing than the appearance of the group itself. Early on, for example, we see Ted having a conversation with Mary in her office. Mary's light reading for the evening is called "The War for Canada's Water". Having worked in community development (specifically, aquaculture) in Africa, I found this part of the plot most intriguing. Some have declared that the number one resource over which war will be waged in the future will be water. I'd say that throughout history, probably the number one resource over which war has been waged is water. Yet, it's completely ignored in most science fiction and technothrillers. It simply isn't "sexy". But reality is that whoever controls the water in a region controls the region. You cannot grow anything, you cannot even live, without water. If you own a piece of property without water rights, you might as well not have the property.

  Unfortunately, the plot then degenerates a bit into a xenophobic rant about how the Blackmire group is run by a bunch of American wingnuts who want to make the border disappear between the U.S. and Canada and essentially swallow up Canada as a 51st state. While I'm sure there are people who would like to see this happen, I wasn't entirely clear on how the Blackmire group hoped to effect it aside from the group's funding of Canadian puppet politicians (a clear, and probably deserved, swipe at Stephen Harper) and their main activity so far--dodging Canadian taxes. I found myself wishing they'd get back to the water, especially when we got a boardroom scene straight out of "From Russia with Love" where the group's members plotted and twirled their imaginary mustaches. Eh. Haven't we heard this same line from Americans screaming that the Japanese or the Arabs or the Russians or the Anarchists or whoever is taking over the U.S.?

  However, the way that Mary established her surveillance brought Katarina back into the picture and brought in yet another old flame, Dave Baker, looking to rekindle a wee bit of romance (my Lord, Mary sure has her admirers; power is definitely an aphrodisiac in her case). Baker is an interesting character with a shady past--now doing hotel security, he used to be in CSIS until they threw him out. He blatantly hits on Mary, who doesn't quite say no. This whole sequence was very cleverly done and fun to watch. Essentially, the sting runs like this: Mary's old flame is working security for the very exclusive Bancroft Hotel. Katarina has been wanting to get her girls in there for a while, but they keep getting thrown out. Mary introduces Katarina to the old flame and explains she's running an operation. He immediately agrees to let Katarina do business in there. Meanwhile, Katarina supplies the girls for the Blackmire group's parties--specifically, Julianna (as sullen as ever), to net the Blackmire's head honcho in a honey trap. Naturally, the girls are the pretty tinsel that distracts from all the wiretapping being set up by Martin. But also, they themselves are an integral part of the plot, gathering direct intelligence themselves.

  Speaking of gathering intel, Francine steps up her campaign against Lorna this week and goes through her coat at the club, stealing money and--more importantly--her keys. She then goes to Lorna's apartment and tosses it, finding a diary with Jimmy-obsession doodles (Jeez, Jimmy, you sure know how to pick 'em). Francine gets teary-eyed and then makes a very creepy phone call to Jimmy, inadvertently interrupting an interaction (it would be pushing it to call it a "tender moment") between Jimmy and Lorna. She doesn't tell Jimmy where she is, of course, but Jimmy twigs to something wrong. He can't put his finger on it yet, but he knows she's off--well, more off than usual. Lorna, meanwhile, remains as clueless as ever. She thinks that a coworker is stealing from her and complains to Ronnie. Ronnie reimburses her for the lost money (forty bucks) and promises to post a notice warning off whoever stole from her. This little triangle is going to get very, very ugly; I can just tell.

  But the ugliness is temporarily interrupted by a crisis--at the beginning of the ep, René worms his way deeper into the new DEA guy's good graces and discovers that the DEA plans to move ahead with the extradition sooner rather than later. "Sooner" being within a week or so. "I don't think they're gonna wait for the official extradition order," he tells Jimmy. "I think he [New DEA Guy] is here on a scouting party and he's ready to call in the troops." Jimmy's insistence that René get closer to the guy leads to some nice work for Michael Eklund as René gets to do something besides drive around looking ratty. The news results in scrambling and circling of wagons in Reardon Enterprises as Ronnie and Bob turn the Chickadee into a fortress (somebody's been watching too much of The Tudors). Bob is so paranoid that he even insists on driving Jimmy to a meeting with Mary, with Jimmy hiding in the backseat. Mary also meets with Phil Coombs again this ep. Neither Jimmy nor Mary seems to notice that Mary is getting cozy with an awful lot of Jimmy's top people. Things that one or the other would have balked at last season are now becoming almost second nature to them both.

  It's also interesting how attitudes have changed about Jimmy within his own organization. Last year, he was talking about retiring and the others were up for it. This year, the prospect of his forcible retirement to Costa Rica is chilling everybody's blood. Nobody wants this to happen as there is no one with leadership skills sufficient to take his place (Mike doesn't even appear in this ep). Jimmy has become the indispensable king figure. No one is questioning his leadership now. It's therefore fitting that at the end of the ep, Ronnie and Sweet willingly turn over their living quarters at the Chickadee to Jimmy, Francine and Stella--the royal family must be protected in the castle at all costs. The ep ends with Jimmy and his little clan staring grimly at the camera from inside the room, as if they've just been shut up in prison.

  Ironically, Jimmy's freedom looks increasingly in jeopardy even as he takes a major step toward respectability--he buys that offshore bank in the Bahamas. Gerard Plunkett's bluff Irishman, Evans, shows up again and, after a wee bit of fake bonhomie, tells Jimmy and Ronnie that they need to ditch Hogarty. Jimmy and Ronnie can scarcely contain their relief and glee as they assure their new partner that they can accommodate that request. But after Evans leaves, Jimmy says morosely about Hogarty, "We're gonna have to peace him off; don't want him freaking out."

  Mary finds out about the bank deal from Ted's surveillance of Dante. Dante has gone to Jimmy and cut a deal whereby he gets his emergency loan to Reardon Shipping paid back and buys Jimmy's ATMs in exchange for sending all of his money through the offshore bank. Dante is very impressed by this deal and flatters Jimmy (who appears to buy it, but probably doesn't): "Jesus Christ. The Bank of Reardon. Gotta hand it to you, Jim--smart move." I have to say that Affable Dante is even scarier than Bully Dante. The former surely won't last.

  But whether Dante will ever get a chance to turn the tables on Jimmy is another tale. Mary has sicced Ted on Dante, mainly to get Ted off Jimmy's back. An unexpected bonus comes when she finds out about Jimmy's bank deal via Dante's records. Jimmy is shocked when she reveals that she knows, but she tells him because she thinks she can use it get the Attorney General to refuse the DEA's extradition. You just know that this bank deal is probably going to connect somehow to the Blackmire group--especially when Evans mentions that the bank is in the business of helping people evade taxes. Big red flag there. Boy, Jimmy just keeps getting sucked in deeper with Mary, doesn't he?

  Anyway, Ted now is working his sleazy magic on Dante. And the cool thing is that he now has his own team. Yeah, yeah, I know. He's always has scuzzy handlers. But he's always been so hostile and hands-off that you couldn't call them a team. This week, he recruits a new OCU employee, a young, grim-faced woman who looks like she has quite the interesting backstory, and his usual surveillance guy to sneak into Dante's place and tape up the security system. Several times. There, they go through Dante's safe and filing cabinet for info, even bringing a portable photocopyer. It's kinda fun to see the tables turned on Dante this season. And Ted's new team is fun, too. It's not that Ted is acting any less sleazy, just that I feel a whole lot less sorry for the target this time round.

  Finally, Sweet's pregnancy continues apace. She has a pleasant conversation with Francine in the bar about it. "I'm go for an ultrasound tomorrow," she says. "But I don't wanna know, as long as she's healthy." I sure hope nothing terribly unfortunate happens so that Sweet has a miscarriage. I'm looking forward to seeing her and Ronnie deal with a new baby.

  ---

  Next week: A Sweetheart Deal with the Devil: Jimmy has to turn to Mary as the DEA puts him under siege and Mary gets in deeper with the Blackmire group.

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This page was last updated on 11/6/2007