INTELLIGENCE REVIEWS-SEASON ONE

• Review of Episode 6: Pressure Drop

  Good new frame things this week: previews for next week's ep, classier high-end ads indicating some possibly increased advertising interest in the show, and new "turning card" brief promos that focus on each character (particularly Kristina's "The Bait" one). Bad things: no more turning-cards with cool music intro kicking off the "previously on" segment at the beginning of the show, the previews for next week showed over the credits (and cool show theme music) so that you couldn't see who played what, and the midnight repeat cancelled on no notice. Though this last appears to be temporary and Friday night is still apparently on.

  Well, the days (and nights) are just packed this week. Mike gets attacked, Lee the Mole gets whacked and the bikers muscle in on Jimmy's ATM operation. The bikers, calling themselves the typically macho-moronic name "The Disciples" that you would expect from guys with more muscle than brains, are the big old villains this week, but there's a lot more going on. And dare I say, it sounds both scarier and more long-term than a bunch of good old boys on the Island with guns. Like the part of an iceberg that is above the water, the bikers are already too high profile to be the biggest threat around that could shipwreck everybody. It's the groups and individuals you don't see that are the most dangerous--like, say, Jimmy Reardon and his crew. Or Lee's crazy Chinese associates. Or the folks for whom Katarina is setting up a little party. But more on those last two groups later.

  Except for the pilot, where we saw Jimmy beat the hell out of two biker types snorting coke with his niece (maybe they were related to Dante in some way?), and other flashes since then, Jimmy has come across as a smart businessman who is maybe too soft for his job. But this week, these flashes start to coalesce into a very angry man. He threatens to give Rene his walking papers if he doesn't start delivering better info. Then, he turns around and uses what little Rene gave him (that Colin's death was definitely a hit) against Mary. Mary wants him to get into the gunrunning business with Randy, since the intel she's getting from it is great. Seems Randy is selling guns to Africa in exchange for "conflict diamonds" (diamonds illegally mined in and trafficked from failed states in Africa, usually by rebels or other criminal types to get money for their operations).

  Jimmy doesn't want to get into gunrunning and conflict diamonds and he's frustrated by Mary's (perfectly understandable) reluctance to give him the name of the guy who killed Colin and therefore be responsible for the hitman's death. Jimmy summarily ends their relationship. But I doubt that breach will last long--Mary later gets the name of the shooter out of Ted (some biker guy called "Villa Nova") and you just know she'll give it to Jimmy. There's also the fact that after this week, Jimmy will need her more than ever.

  It's difficult to tell whether or not Ted realizes that Mary is pumping him for info to give to Reardon. He's particularly opaque this week, though that doesn't necessarily make him a bright bulb. For example, he may be stringing Mary along about Colin's hit, but if he is, he's giving up an awful lot for no apparent return. We also see him trying to steer George the DEA guy into giving him more control over the Reardon operation. He offers (as a last resort, of course) to set up Reardon to be busted in Canada. The DEA guy agrees to it with a little too much ease and to back Ted's bid for CSIS. And if Ted really believes that George won't turn on him at the worst possible moment, he's even dumber than Mike.

  Also, when Ted is trying to goad Roger into going against Mary before she can consolidate her hold on Lee (and immediately after Lee is killed), it looks as though he might have set up Lee's hit himself. But you know, on second thought, I'm putting my money on Roger as the one behind that little fiasco. Assuming, of course, that it wasn't just an impulse thing by the brother. But while Roger has lately been floundering, he's too deadpan this week for it to be real. He's a canny old goat, so you just know that Ted is not the single source of info for Roger that he thinks he is.

  This week, Roger appears to be perfecting his bird-with-wounded-wing act as he revs up for round two with Mary. I gotta say, it's a good one. This is a duel to the death, reinforced by a chance encounter between Roger and Mary in an elevator. It's very uncomfortable and brittle between them, since Mary has just arranged through her secretary to meet with Roger concerning Roger's unexpected hiring of Lee five years before. Not only is she about to replace him, but she's investigating him now, too. With Lee turned, it looks bad for Roger. With Lee dead, it may still look bad for Roger.

  Meanwhile, Jimmy tries to negotiate with the bikers over the bank machines (against Ronnie's strenuous advice), but it comes to naught as the bikers' leader, Dante, is contemptuous of negotiation. When they ask him what he wants in terms of ATM territory, he replies with great arrogance, "Vancouver". I know that this is setting up a compelling reason for Jimmy to get medieval on the bikers, but Dante still comes across as bone stupid. He's the leader of a very visible organization (a clear target with easily traceable movements) and he has an overly large, unwieldy operation. He's incredibly vulnerable, maybe more so than Jimmy. So, why act like such a bully with the competition? It doesn't add up.

  Jimmy and Ronnie also have an interesting conversation in the club with their new Vietnamese friend, Phan (whom I can still only think of as Vin Tuan on DVI), that reinforces the bikers' vulnerabilities under their tough psycho exterior. Phan assures them that he and his buddies have no quarrel whatsoever with Reardon Shipping. All they want to do is good business with them. He then tells them that the bikers tried to push him and his buddies out of business by burning a few of their grow-ops. According to him, they responded by burning a few biker grow-ops, themselves, and the Disciples backed off. "The thing is, you gotta hit them hard," he says, "or they'll keep on coming back." You can see the wheels turning in Ronnie's head, assuming, of course, that their new buddy is telling the truth and not fronting for the bikers.

  But Jimmy is less convinced that killing is the answer (and I kinda hope that he will come up with something more creative than going in guns blazing. That's been so done). Sal tells Jimmy about a worrying trend on the Island where the bikers are intimidating Jimmy's grow-op people into turning over their crops or dumping them. Jimmy is sanguine, at first. He feels that their new Vietnamese connection will make up for the Island business and he'd just as soon throw the ATM machines to the bikers. The ATMs are a far bigger hassle than he had anticipated. If he doesn't give them a target, they can't hit him. It's a smart strategy when you think about it--there are signs that the bikers are overstretched, since they seem to be into everything on the street (though not higher level stuff like Randy's gunrunning). Letting them have an unwieldy operation like the ATMs bogs them down in a manpower-heavy operation even as they're congratulating themselves on their success in thug tactics.

  Pity, then, that Jimmy's zen plans are about to go sky high. And the spark is, naturally, Mike.

  At the end of the ep, Mike, who is being as obvious a target as Dante out trading off Jimmy's money in a guitar case switch on the street corner in full view of two narcs, gets his throat cut. The two cops watching him take off...after the money. Namely, the guys who cut him and boosted the guitar case. Forget stopping to help Mike, who is staggering back to the club, holding his throat. You gotta love the care for human life there.

  For those who were hoping to see Mike get whacked, the ep ends with him staggering through the club, one bloody hand against Jimmy's office window and a horrified Jimmy coming out to support him. But alas, if the previews for next week are any indication, he probably won't die. That guy has nine lives, I swear. He must have nicked them from a cat.

  Mary begins the ep herself in the catbird seat with info from Jimmy about Randy's op, Lee the Mole in her back pocket telling her about the dissident's hit-to-be, Katarina phoning her about an interesting party she's due to give for the Vice Consul of, I think, China, and her superiors all perky. Naturally, it is all about to go to a hot place in a wicker container with handles especially reserved for the severed heads of French aristocrats and in doing so, it shows some interesting vulnerabilities that make her a lot more sympathetic.

  First, she has her little spat with Jimmy. Then, the hubby accosts her in the street. He hits way below the belt, claiming that the reason that he cheated on her was because she was always busy and never had time for him. Well, of course, that makes it okay then. I'm sure that one's been used since Cro Magnon times, buddy.

  "We both worked hard. We both made sacrifices," she retorts. When he persists, asking her what she expected, she explodes: "I expected faithfulness. I expected to raise a family!" We realize that this is a true dream and not just something to throw in his face when he suggests that they do just that and she looks both shaken and tempted. Ahhh. So, the commiseration with Jimmy over his daughter wasn't so cynical, after all. Ultimately, though, she rejects hubby's offer as a false, untrustworthy one and immediately after puts a restraining order in the works, even as she holds back the tears. Dangerous ground, Mary. Stay away from that Reardon boy while you're feeling this vulnerable.

  Things seem to be going well with the surveillance and Lee's getting more about the hit on the dissident. But Martin, listening in, becomes concerned. The girlfriend's brother is getting really squirrelly and the girlfriend is telling him all sorts of untrue things--for example, that Lee is asking for the hit on his wife when it was the girlfriend's idea. There's an interesting bit where they are actually speaking in English on the wire (apparently so that we can understand what they are saying), but Martin is translating for Mary as though they are speaking in Cantonese.

  This situation blows up when the brother arrives early for a meeting with Lee and gets really drunk before Lee shows up. Lee arrives and a few seconds later, the brother unexpectedly puts a few shots in the back of his head. Mary, who is watching the meeting with Martin at the listening post across the street, is so shocked that she wants to go over immediately and make sure that Lee is okay (even though he clearly isn't). But as the brother and the girlfriend flee and Mary's people go after them, Martin steps up to the plate. He stops her at the door. "There's a guy we need to check on Lee...Stay here. It's not your job," he says firmly. This man goes over and confirms the obvious--"He's done," he says over the wire, shaking his head.

  Mary's obvious horror and Martin's cool support mesh really well to make them both very sympathetic. It's not her career that Mary cares about when she wants to rush over and help Lee and it's not just his career that Martin cares about when he stops her. Ted and Roger's unalloyed glee at the reprieve is rather less sympathetic, considering that Ted's colleague and Roger's former protégé has just been brutally murdered. But then, we never really expected Ted to care about anybody but himself and Johnny Walker. And Roger is...creepy. I'm sure we'll find out a whole lot more about his connections to Lee in the near future.

  The situation with Stella has stabilized for the best--for now. Stella is at Jimmy's for the week and obviously happy about it. But we get to see Jimmy be a gentle disciplinarian this week, not just a doting dad. Stella wants him to help her with her first period homework--as they're running through breakfast and out the door. For the homework, Stella is supposed to give good reasons for why Canada would go to war. And yes, this is rather obvious foreshadowing of Jimmy's impending war with the bikers as Jimmy protests that even in the event of an attack, one should exhaust all other options, first. When Stella complains that her teacher's going to kill her for not doing her homework, he says, "There ya go. War's what happens when you don't get yer homework done!"

  Francine appears at the office and she and Jimmy have a quiet talk on the dock (Francine, as usual, dressed trampy in jeans and a bra. Or whatever that leopard print top is). We find out a little bit more about their relationship. Francine was sixteen when they first met and Jimmy, she claims, was her first boyfriend. "Sure made up for lost time," he notes.

  "You had your affairs, too," she shoots back, before pointing out that she was home with Stella while he was running around building up the business. Though she may be overemphasizing her role and his neglect, since Jimmy looked thoroughly experienced and competent at parenting in his scene with Stella, not a guilty, previously neglectful dad (like, say, James Woods in "Shark") at all. This, naturally, makes him feel bad and sad, especially when she adds, "I feel like the Devil took my soul. And now I want it back."

  So, it's no real surprise that as she walks away, she smiles smugly to herself, certain she has him back. Poor Francine. So self-deluded. She will never get Jimmy back, no matter how badly she makes him feel. But it's still a good, elegiac scene that doesn't let either of them off the hook. Francine tells Jimmy, "You used to call me your 'wild child'." But as this scene makes clear, Maxine is absolutely right that Francine at her most apparently fragile will also always be Francine at her most manipulative and dishonest.

  Jimmy's banker, John Hogarty, makes a fool of himself over Kristina and gets a bloody nose after being pushed down the stairs by a club bouncer. Jimmy is outwardly sympathetic, but warns him that if he doesn't learn to control his rather obvious addiction to Kristina, he'll have to ban Hogarty. In the midst of this dodgy commiseration, Jimmy wangles a promise out of the guy to rethink rejecting the loan that put Jimmy in a hole last week. Kristina seals the deal by coming by and snarling at her would-be sugar daddy that she's trying to work here and not to screw it up for her. And just how far does that dress of hers go down in the back? The camera is coy about that, cutting off around her lower back with no end in sight--literally.

  Finally, Sweet shows up in Ronnie's office with flowers--for Ronnie's mum. Seems it's her birthday and Sweet wants to meet her. But Ronnie has apparently not told Mum that Sweet is a stripper, or black, and doesn't think it will be a good idea--ever. Whoops. I sense further sparks down the road in this non-relationship.

  Next week: Eps 7: Jimmy, enraged by the attack on Mike, goes after the bikers--which includes making up with his cop "girlfriend" Mary and pumping her for strategic info. Meanwhile, Mary pursues a lead that Roger is also a mole, a revelation that doesn't thrill her superiors at CSIS at all.

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This page was last updated on 11/15/2006