Okay, so that’s not literally true, but, how many surprises do we need in our guest star’s past? His best friend died in a boating accident; his best friend panicked, and our guy left him behind to save himself in a boating accident; our guy is the best friend, and he stole the other dude’s identity. So … we’re supposed to believe that James Frain’s real British accent was a fake? “Not bloody likely.”
The story was a bit contrived. Okay. The real loop I got thrown for was how poor Mary and Marshal suddenly are at controlling their witnesses. I’m sure I will get plenty of argument from Ryan, but the bottom line is that they had a total lack of control over NEW inductees into the WITSEC program. Mary didn’t have clue one what was flying, and I feel like our duo is becoming more detective than protector. Yes, the former is an important part of the job, but what good is entering The Program when those tasked to protect you are incapable?
TV is really digging deep with this whole new “ripped-from the headlines” story: financial ponzi scheme ruins lives. Just this week, we got it on The Philanthropist, Leverage, and now In Plain Sight (did I miss any?). As much as I think it a mistake to use an idea that requires the right amount of empathy to be thrown into the mix, In Plain Sight even did it poorer than just about anyone else.
With a financial scandal, executed by someone else, requiring Frain’s character to enter federal protection, the bad guy ends up being his brother, who’s blackmailing him for stealing some dude’s identity years ago? What a waste of a potentially enthralling story about an intrepid investor scorned, tracking him down and meting out justice through vigilante revenge. That could be an entirely new sub-genre of show (trademarked!).
And, the part about it not making any sense actually outweighs my qualms about the sensationalizing of these isolated incidents into a fearful and panicky perspective of financial advisors. The results will either be people claiming fraud at the hands of their competent, and honest, advisors, every time they lose money, or people shying away from professional investors, wading into the markets all alone, and burning their lives away faster than any long-term scam ever could.
Enough.
As much as I questioned Mary’s rationale for telling Rafe what she did for a living, it never dawned on me that she was violating Marshal’s trust, as well. He’s now been exposed, and the fact of the matter is, now I’m surprised at his restraint in dealing with what Mary’s done to him. I’d never suggest he report her, but I think he needs to re-evaluate this partnership, and maybe reconsider his plans to leave from last season. Personally, I think Mary should be the one to leave (the Marshal show!), but I’m betting that might not happen.
And, what, Mary’s upset that Rafe might be interested, and concerned, now that he knows what she does? I think she was projecting her anger at herself onto Rafe when she yelled at him, and questioned his ability to keep this secret. We didn’t see it on her inscrutable face, but I imagine the thoughts running through Mary’s head when Marshal called her out were a lot worse than, “Oh, crap!” She screwed up on that one, but she’ll never admit it. No surprise there.
And, the book at the end? I’m really not looking to pound on her every move, but I found it to be as emotionally empty a gesture as her getting into the shower with Rafe in episode two after realizing that he had saved Brandi last season, and her acceptance of Rafe’s marriage proposal just a few weeks ago. The arguments I keep hearing are, “That’s big for her.” That’s such crap, and I think we all know it.
We should all be held to the same standards, or else all it would take for a person to consistently be let to slide, is to consistently come up short. “You put your dirty clothing in the hamper today? That’s amazing! For the last thirty-five years of marriage, you’ve dropped everything that you’ve held in your hands exactly where you stood when you last needed it. You can’t help it; you’re incapable of cleaning up. But that must have taken a tremendous effort to carry your pants all the way to the laundry basket. Thanks so much honey! You’re the best.”
Or would you like me to exaggerate to make my point?
Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Aug 03, 2009 @ 14:00 EST5EDT
I thought the Marshall-Mary plot was very interesting– like you, I hadn’t realized her reveal would affect Marshall, and I’m glad that he let her know that. It’s about time for Mary to realize her personal decisions sometimes involve other people, as well. As for the book, I thought it was a nice compromise, but that book cover? That won’t fool anybody! :)
Your new show sub-genre was actually used this season on The Closer– sorry to break it to you.
*POST AUTHOR*
Can you prove I didn’t TM it before them? ;)
Sorry but the Closer beat you to your story line. I think it was two weeks ago?
Actually, it’s just one twist. We just followed the investigation that unraveled the various layers of deception surrounding the identity impersonation.
I enjoyed watching James Frain all episode, especially the stentorian monologue to the investor in the opening. As to the accent, Roy was at Oxford for two years before the accident, and virtually adopted by the Ashmore family in that time. However shaky his impersonation might have been, he had the PTSD period and all the years since to hone his performance. I was just sad that we didn’t get to see his attempt at a West Virginian dialect when Mary caught him in the end.
The story was very contrived, certainly. I’m not sure why you’re complaining about the kidnapper not being connected to the embezzlement, as that storyline was the red herring, and plenty of other shows are using it anyway. In fact, I appreciated that this episode wasn’t a ripped from the headlines, paint-by-number job.
Well, I simply fail to use evidence of the incompetence that disturbs you. As I’ve said before, limited manpower and funding and, in this case, imperfect information. Like a good social worker, Mary’s right on top of the Ashmores’ situation, even anticipating and warning Camille about possible future marital friction. Mary and Marshall have to work from the background in the file and what the witnesses tell them day to day. They don’t have the time to assume that everything a protectee says might be a lie worth investigating. And they were very quick to catch on to what was amiss when they brought the paperwork to Phillip’s door. In this case, they caught on to the missing wife, and subsequently her kidnapping, quite rapidly, but there was no way for them to uncover the identity assumption while in the midst of working the kidnapping.
I don’t think the confrontation with Marshall had anything to do with Mary blowing up at Rafe. He left his Google search page for WITSEC on an open laptop on the kitchen table (which is why Mary asked him if Brandi had seen him do it)! I couldn’t believe how stupid Rafe was being–talk about your most basic infosec violation. It was Mary’s fault, as obviously she hadn’t bothered to have the requisite conversation with him about secrecy and the seriousness of the situation. The book at the end was her apology, and the cover was a joke, not a real attempt at concealment.
There are people that just aren’t up to such stringent standards, and if you’re not willing to cut them out of your life, you have to try to work with them. Or at least understand their lives and experiences that damaged them so thoroughly.
With that said, I did enjoy the episode quite a bit, being a softy who usually dislikes the witnesses for being idiots and/or jerks. And it was weird watching drunk, unkempt Marshall playing online chess. Have we ever even seen him with his sleeves rolled up before, without a bullet in him? And “You, sir, are to be admired,” “Hello, dumbass.”
*POST AUTHOR*
I see it as one storyline with multiple twists; or maybe “layers” would be a better way to describe it. Either way, if each reveal caused them to do something different, there are definitely multiple parts to it.
Come on; a teen being in school in England does not make for a British accent. I’m not saying that he couldn’t get it down … I’m saying Frain’s natural accent is so great that you couldn’t build a back-story vast enough to support it being such a great fake. And yes, I too would have loved to hear Frain’s West Virginia.
I had a problem with the identity of the kidnapper because of how dumb it was. A red herring needs to be a hand well played, which this was not. It never occurred to me that it was a scorned investor, which means they didn’t build up that possibility well. They just mentioned in passing that he was in WITSEC because of how many of them wanted to kill him. It’s not that it wasn’t a good loop; it’s just that it was done very poorly.
While your rationale for all of the protection failure are all good points (seriously), imagine a world where you’re right; witnesses would be dying left and right, there’d be no faith in witness protection, no federal witnesses, and therefore no Marshals. It’s important to give the benefit of the doubt, but not with the best of the best. It’s like saying that it’s understandable when someone manages to get a shot off at the President … No it’s not! Secret Service uses the incident to recalibrate every element of his protection, and, while the agent involved isn’t fired, they certainly never get over their failure. This is life and death we’re talking about here. The only human error deemed acceptable is the one that happens in a blue moon, not multiple times on a case. I don’t think any federal agent would use lack of funding or manpower as an excuse for why their witness died, by the way. They accept that it’s on them.
What’s interesting that you mention is “Like a good social worker, Mary’s right on top of the Ashmores’ situation” which I find totally over-the-line. She has no right getting involved in their personal lives, and, quite frankly, should keep her big mouth shut. She should have been written up for saying what she did to him after he walked back into the office in the beginning. She’s there to PROTECT THEIR LIVES, not judge them.
Mary puts on a mask of infallibility, but she definitely realized just how dumb she’d been, and took it out on Rafe. Maybe seeing the search page was a catalyst (as it was), but there’s no way that that was anything other than her expressing anger at herself all over Rafe. She screwed up, and that’s how she flails herself. Blaming Rafe on that one, by the way, is just giving Mary another pass; if she didn’t give him any guidelines, he shouldn’t be expected to know them.
I think we have different standards when talking “stringent” standards; what you see as high level, I see as basic. Maybe the show sees things closer to you, or maybe they don’t but no one has yet to step up and call Mary on it. I don’t know. What I do know is that I can’t believe she gets away with what she does.
Marhsal’s great; too bad he spends a lot of screen time being marginalized. It’s be okay for there to be two major players on the show.
Layers is a good way to describe it, but I refrained since I had already used that term last week. :-)
You don’t automatically pick up the accent of the region where you attend university, but it can happen, and I saw this myself at school. Then factor in that Roy was actively trying to pick up the accent, was intelligent enough to be accepted at Oxford, on scholarship I believe, and could easily have spent whatever time he wasn’t in school at Phillip’s home with his parents, and it’s believable enough for him to have perfected his voice by now.
Well, you were arguing that Mary didn’t have a clue about the Ashmores and was incable, and I was simply demonstrating that there was no reasonable way for her to be more involved with their supervision, and that she and Marshall were very efficient at responding to the crisis.
Come on, they’re protecting a city full of witnesses, not POTUS. The dangers are scripted and heightened for dramatic purposes. In real life, there isn’t a stupid witness calling a contact from their old life every week, or a master criminal hunting down the first sign of them surfacing after eight months. Just as with the real military or real police work, most of the time nothing ever happens, which is why WITSEC doesn’t collapse under a torrent of attempted murders.
And Mary’s not the one making these excuses, I am in an attempt to convey to you that such ridiculous perfectionism where the hero never misses anything belongs in a Bourne film, not a moderately more realistic law-enforcement drama.
Mary doesn’t remind Rafe to tie his shoes or look before crossing the street either. There’s being unaware of official protocols, which is understandable, and there’s just being a careless moron, which Rafe was with the computer. I’m fine with laying most of the blame on Mary, but there’s no excuse for how stupid he was in that instance and no reason why she should have anticipated that depth of imbecility. Hopefully in the talk which will occur between episodes, she’ll use small words so he can understand.
*POST AUTHOR*
Okay; all I’m saying is Frain has a fantastic mother-tongue accent. It’s sacrilegious to be forced to imagine it a fraud. :)
I said it before: you give them way too much slack. I think it’s probably very dangerous for their witnesses on a regular basis, and if real WITSEC agents were that bad at the protection half of their jobs, there’d be a lot of problems in federal witness land.
I think you make a very black and white statement, leaping to “perfection”. Big difference from weekly occurrences of botched protection to perfection.
Step back time ;) – Let’s say that Rafe was researching the US Marshals, which everyone knows Mary works for. Most entries would involve WITSEC. Would that necessarily mean Mary was a WITSEC agent, or that he was trying to learn more about what she, and her agency, did, and that the search results skewed heavy on the exciting stuff? Rafe is far from dumb, and I don’t think it was careless on his part, but rather only on hers: if it’s do or die, make that abundantly clear. How else would someone know that?
I may be hard on Mary, but you’re WAY too easy on her. Crush?
Actually, it’s nowhere near that dangerous in real life, which is a point the actors and writers have made in interviews about the show, especially when talking about their unnamed former WITSEC inspector technical advisor. There are nowhere near this many breaches, so they have to juice it up for the show, as I mentioned before and as is true for many action shows: PI, police, military, you name it.
And your point about protection would be applicable in actual protection situations, where Marshals were escorting the witness 24/7. The long-term living situations we see on the show, often amounting to years or decades, are attended to as a social worker would, or a parole officer. They don’t fail at Witness Protection by not magically being present when a breach occurs, and have been pretty efficient so far at damage control and resolution.
Well from my point of view, you are asking for perfection, as I see very few instances of Mary & Marshall actually being the cause of said botches.
Again, you’re entitled to your personal perception of U.S. Marshals, but you shouldn’t assume that to be equivalent to the be-all, end-all reality of the situation. Again, the Marshal Service is a large organization and WITSEC is just one of its divisions. Try the search yourself; most of the entries are not all about WITSEC. Rafe zeroed in on it because he already knew what she did. As to Rafe’s intelligence, I suppose I could forgive him if he had never seen a spy/military/action movie or television show, because it is just that basic.
No crush, she reminds me of my older sister. I do think you’re especially unforgiving of her and seem to watch each episode anticipating her failures. I only defend her this much because some measure of your constant attacks seem unjustified to me. For me, she’s a very common cop archetype I’ve seen many times before, and I can enjoy watching her even if I’d never want to actually run afoul of that kind of cop in real life.
To Ivey below, I can absolutely accept the number of killers after the witnesses on the show. My point was that the magnification of the threat level is a Hollywood conceit that we just have to accept. It does not follow from that that the Marshals are incompetent just because they don’t head off this enormous number of threats before they occur.
*POST AUTHOR*
Clearly the action is exaggerated by the show, but maybe it’s not so dangerous in real life because real Marshals are better at their job….
Actually, even as a social worker, part of a Marshal’s “protection” role is to keep their witnesses invisible, and the witnesses themselves cooperating. Even if they aren’t physically surrounding them, they’d be expected to do more than run after a threat – let’s call it prevention.
It’s not about Mary and Marshal causing the breaches, but rather how far behind they are in order to catch up. They constantly seem too removed from the realities of what’s going on. They can’t be expected to be omniscient, but they just need to be more aware of what’s happening, at least for me to believe them in their roles – as they were last season. In amping up the drama this year, the writers sacrificed a bit of the pairs’ skill.
I’m not saying Rafe wasn’t searching for it, I was saying that, if Brandi or Jinx had seen it, that was a valid, and believable, explanation for the search results.
Honestly? I go into each and every week thinking, “this will be the episode they get back to last season’s high quality.” I guess the fall seems farther the higher up you are, and with Mary it’s obviously been more glaring, because she’s the star. On the other hand, I think, except for his frat-boy stuff, Marshal is very believable as an agent.
I imagine, by the way, that the threat is this high in real life, just not as visible and action-packed. You think it’s only Hollywood that imagines criminals wanting these people dead, or just Hollywood’s Marshal Service that isn’t sealed tight enough to keep them at bay?
That first argument seems a tad circular, and impossible to determine because of the secrecy in the real world.
Again, a point-of-view differential, as I’ve viewed Mary and Marshall at pretty good at managing their witnesses day to day and catching up and cleaning up the resultant messes from the flashpoints, those extraordinary instances, that set one witness off every week. Perhaps if they peppered in mentions of the unseen majority of witnesses that don’t get into trouble, it would change your perception of their effectiveness?
Oh, I thought you were arguing that it was true in the real world. I certainly agree that Jinx or Brandi would buy that (lame) excuse and never try to double-check it themselves.
Yep, I just never saw the drop between seasons, although I know how you feel. I know sci-fi’s not your thing, but I absolutely hated the shift in Eureka’s tone and quality and subtlety of writing when they changed showrunners. It took most of the following season for me to accept the new reality and start to enjoy the new show for what it had become, although it never did reclaim the heights to which it had once soared.
The potential threat is the same, of course, but from the interviews I’ve read, there simply isn’t the same level and frequency of threats and breaches in real life. I may be misremembering here, but apparently none of the witnesses in the real WITSEC have ever been murdered in connection with their former lives, at least up until the point the show’s advisor retired. In entertainment, remember that the criminal operation is just as glamorized and hypercompetent as its law-enforcement counterpart, with a mole in every office and taking immediate notice of any security breach on the other side. Sure, the mob would want to finish the job, but in combing through 300 million potentials without a clue of where to start, just how much of their resources do they devote to that quixotic undertaking rather than their current, profitable operations?
*POST AUTHOR*
Maybe. It could be good even just for well-roundedness sake to let us peak into their routines with other, quiet witnesses, but I felt that they handled their witnesses better last year. I don’t know how to explain it, and maybe the drama has just been increased this season over last so it’s due to man-made factors, but the two were a ton better at their jobs last season. In my mind.
It’s an interesting thing, each of our sense for change in something that we’re accustomed to. For instance, I never felt that Lost did anything different in season 4, yet everyone else cried that it had tumbled far downhill. I thought it was just as great as any season before or after. Like you said, its all about perception.
I’d imagine you’re right on the whole, but I also think that if you were, for instance, a member of the Philly mob in the 60s, and a rat sent you and your entire operation to prison, the only thing on your mind would be revenge. Especially today, when criminals have available to them just about everything that law enforcement does, in terms of technology? And, look, I haven’t heard the interviews, but I don’t imagine a loyal former Marshal admitting that they’d lost a witness, even just from a “don’t let potential witnesses question their safety” standpoint, let alone ego or confidentiality issues. I wouldn’t put much stock in that, or in us knowing if that hit and run accident in your neighborhood last night wasn’t really a “hit” on an informant. We just don’t know.
Nor do I necessarily care, but you get my point.
Wow, that’s really cynical. My thinking was that since it was an unsolicited and untraceable comment and it was so hard to believe that, perversely, it must be true, one of those stranger-than-fiction deals.
By the way, this is all secondhand from the actors, and we will never know who the former Marshal was, nor will he give any interviews. He was just there to advise them, and the funny thing was his answer for most of their questions was “I can’t talk about that.”
Hey, I totally agree with you about perceptions. I’m the only person I’ve ever met who will defend the whole of Buffy Season 6; all of my friends hate it. I recognize that the show changed drastically, but felt that the writing was as strong as ever. As the show was a metaphor for adolescence, we had reached the point after high school, after college, parents both literally and figuratively ripped away, where we were adrift, aimless, jobless, purposeless, and prone to ultimately bad decisions (Spike). It wasn’t fun to watch, but it was captivating and necessary. In comparison, I’ve already given up on reading Season 8.
*POST AUTHOR*
Wait; you’re reading Buffy?
Can’t you buy, as a convention of the show, that there are people trying to kill the witnesses in protection? If they had to spend X amount of time proving to the audience that fact, I think the show would get pretty boring.
*POST AUTHOR*
Are you asking me, or Ryan? Because I 100% buy it; I only said that the Marshals have been sucking at protection.
I was reading the Season 8 comic. It’s published by Dark Horse Comics, in canon, and is plotted, produced and partially written by Whedon. The balance of the writing is done by various television and comic writers, including some from the show itself. It should be completed in about another year.
Wikipedia Entry
There is also an official Angel continuation called “After the Fall.”