INTELLIGENCE REVIEWS-SEASON TWO

• Review of Season Two, Episode 24/5: A Dark Alliance/We Were Here Now We Disappear

  Figured that I'd get good reception with CBC all season and tonight, the reception would be snowy--two hours worth of crap reception. Thanks, guys. Wouldn't surprise me if it were deliberate, though more likely, it was more of CBC's usual incompetence. Certainly, whoever thought it was grand idea to blotter insipid ads for new shows right over the dramatic musical cue in the ending credits should be sacked.

  But enough of the Network That Must Not Be Named. This week, there's chum galore in the water as Jimmy lowers the boom on the new gang from way down south, and somebody in the Reardon organization takes the hit. Julianna freaks out as the CIA blows her cover sky high. Mary discovers that Blackmire is a CIA dirty ops front and fields a beancounter from Ottawa. Jimmy discovers that the gang from way down south is a DEA dirty ops front. Francine, as usual, makes it all about her, as does Lorna. Jimmy tries to recover his relationship with Stella. Sweet's pregnancy comes to a sad resolution. And, of course, there is yet another enormous cliffhanger that will make fans scream for a third season. Hell of a Christmas present, Mr. Haddock.

  Incidentally, the first episode of the night is dedicated to Ross Filippone.

  Patrick Gallagher, as American gangleader Pete James, gets a lot of airtime today. He's always fun, though this is somewhat tempered by the fact that he's in full sonofabitch mode here. He does play a good one, though. We (and Jimmy) quickly discover that Pete is not only in cahoots with, but working for, Nick Jordan, the DEA guy who has had a hit squad going after Jimmy for most of the season. It's agent provocateur heaven up here in Vancouver these days, it seems. How late Imperial Russia.

  Jordan's motives are completely less than pure--he wants to take over the drug trade in Vancouver and Jimmy is the leader who keeps things together. So, naturally, Jimmy has to go. Pete tries first to intimidate Jimmy ("Lotta weed in this town; you can't control it all"), who responds by putting together a coalition of dealers, not just of pot but also of coke, and completely freezing the new gang out. "We're gonna turn off the tap for real?" Bob asks him. "Yeah," Jimmy says. "We're gonna turn off the tap." Whoops. Guess Jimmy can control all the weed in town. Pete complains to Jordan that they need to take Jimmy out sooner rather than later before his henchmen get bored and go back south. Jordan assures him that he's getting the hit squad together, a group of toughs ferried up over the border in a minivan. And considering the fantastically stupid move that they make at the end of the episode, chances are they won't make it back over the border, since they gun down the only guy keeping Dante and Phan from gunning for them.

  Yet Jordan is no longer operating under the radar, let alone with impunity, as he discovers to his great cost. The tipping point occurs when Pete decides to challenge Jimmy's authority by having five of Jimmy's, Dante's and Phan's dealers shot on the job. Jimmy doesn't respond quite as docilely as expected ("It's gonna get a little rock n' roll," he tells Mary), despite an uneasy ceasefire, and the trap that Jordan and Pete try to spring on him in a restaurant appears to remain unsprung. Ted, Ted's DEA contact, and René, who Ted has flushed out as Jimmy's informant and is forcing to play double-agent, scramble to placate lynch-and-kingpin Jimmy by taking out the DEA trash themselves. Ted grabs one of Pete's men and beats the location of Jordan and Pete out of him. In the closing ten minutes of the second hour, Jordan is nabbed by the OCU. All seems finally calm and quiet as Mary makes a call to Jimmy telling him the coast is clear.

  But there's a final victim in the drug war--Jimmy isn't answering his phone because he's just been gunned down by Jordan's goon squad in the middle of a phone call to his daughter. As he lies crumpled in the doorway of the Chickadee in soft focus, eyes wide, breathing shocky, the camera zeroes in on his still-ticking watch, which reads 11:30, just before the screen goes black to credits. Cue yet another hair-pulling cliffhanger season finale for Intelligence fans. And you just know that's Haddock's visual metaphor for the show's current condition, as well.

  Oh, but you wanted to know what else happened, right? I mean, we only had two complete episodes tonight. Well, the other big story of the night pops up when Julianna coaxes a bedroom confession out of Gordon Brown that he's really working for the CIA: "We do work for the Agency now and then." "I find it very romantic," Julianna burbles back with false cheer. Yes, all of that suspicion that Blackmire seemed a little too intimate with the CIA is confirmed as we discover that Blackmire is a front for the CIA, doing tricks that even they wouldn't do (or at least want to disavow). Despite her bravado, Julianna finds this all a little overwhelming and tries to do "a runner". Mary's spotter chases Julianna in a good, tense scene as she flees in a taxi, then tracks her down in a hotel elevator with the help of a street crew. There's a nice bit where Martin walks out of the hotel right past Blackmire's two tall, broad-shouldered thugs, completely unnoticed. Julianna is brought to the basement at the OCU, where Mary and Martin try to figure out what to do with her and Mary shrinks her head a bit. "I can't go on lying for every moment of every day," Julianna tells Martin. "Why not?" he replies. Lying, for Martin, is as easy as breathing. Always good to keep that in mind. I loved it when Julianna flipped the bird at Martin through the two-way glass as Mary finished up her pep talk.

  Things go from bad to worse, however, when Julianna goes back to Brown and he starts asking questions, even with the reconciliation brokered by Mary's new paramour Dave and Katarina (who coolly charms the pants off Brown, then quietly tells Julianna on her way out, "Good luck to you"). Worse, Brown takes away Julianna's passport and then wants her to go on a trip with him. Terrified, she goes back to her apartment to "pack", but calls Mary instead. Mary advises her to take off down the back stairs, which Julianna does, barely dodging Brown and being picked up outside by Martin in a car. This is a very tense scene--I was sure she'd get whacked. Meanwhile, Brown comes into her apartment, finds the surveillance and rips it out as Mary watches. Oooh, if looks could kill. Later, Mary advises Julianna to take a quiet vacation and smiles wryly when Julianna picks Paris as a good place to lay low: "Why did I know you were gonna say that?"

  Meanwhile, that Special Investigations tool, Cleary, from a few episodes back is sniffing around again, probably because Blackmire is stepping up its publicity campaign to make its acquisitions of Canadian water rights look legal and innocent. He "meets" with Julianna, who is being coached from behind a two-way mirror by Martin and absolutely refuses to testify against Brown. Mary is resigned to the idea that she is probably going to have to fall on her sword in the wake of finding out that Blackmire is a CIA front and Julianna having to leave town. However, Martin gives her some bracing advice and assures her she can still ride things out: "Governments come and go; so will this...All you need is a good story." And so far, she does, though she looks a bit shell-shocked. He also advises her to keep the Blackmire news from the Inspector General, to keep in the game. The Inspector General would be "obliged" to tell the Prime Minister, who would bring it up with the Americans and the CIA would tell her to take a hike. And so far, she does that, too.

  Francine is back to her usual demented self. Jimmy calls her early on, saying that he's going to pull Stella out of convent school because he can't get hold of her and he's missing his daughter. Francine accuses him of being smothering again as she sloshes around in the tub, snorting coke. Jimmy loses his temper and ends the conversation by smashing his cell phone on a table. Subsequent attempts to contact Stella eventually result in Jimmy realizing that Stella is rather happy where she is and changing direction to make plans to come up that weekend. Francine, ever one to horn in, gets wind of this plan and calls Jimmy early one morning wanting to go up with him. Jimmy is in bed with Lorna at the club (another series of unbelievably stupid moves on his part, especially since Lorna has turned into an even bigger whiner than Francine) and Francine marches over there, determined to catch them together. Because, hey, it's not like she declared that things were over between them a couple of weeks back. That sure didn't last. Frustrated in her attempts to catch Jimmy in flagrante delicto, Francine pilfers a bottle of champagne and tosses it at the window of the apartment, scaring the hell out of both Jimmy and Lorna.

  Sweet has to intercept Francine's rant, which is perhaps not the best of plans. Soon after, she starts having pains and Ronnie takes her to the hospital. Toward the end of the ep, she returns, looking sad, and she and Ronnie hug. So, I guess that means she had a miscarriage. That's a bummer, though I figured something bad was going to happen there. Difficult to say whether they'll stay together after this, though Ronnie is sympathetic and comforting, and they're still buying a house together (he also agrees to Jimmy's casual suggestion that they buy a casino; wonder where that might be going?). On the other hand, he doesn't actually 'fess up about his marriage to her until this week. In response (she thought he was divorced), she hauls off and smacks him upside the head--good for her! So, we'll see.

  Finally, just before Jimmy is shot, he has a conversation with Bob in the car about the future. Jimmy wants to pull back and concentrate on the bank. He asks Bob if he's ready to take over the business (the unspoken implication being that Ronnie clearly isn't up for it). Bob rather reluctantly says he'll "give it a go" and see what happens. I have to say that I found this a welcome development. Bob has really been stepping up to the plate this season, making major strategy decisions and attending all of Jimmy's meetings, and Jimmy has been letting him. It's a smart, albeit startling, decision on Jimmy's part and if there's a third season, it should lead to some very interesting developments in the business.

  ---

  Next week: There ain't no next week, friends. And if CBC have their way, there won't ever be a third season. So, write or call in and tell them you want to see Jimmy pull through!

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This page was last updated on 12/11/2007