All the way to the grow-op
Intelligence review is coming tonight, but in the meantime, it sounds like CBC’s holiday programming will fill the gap it’s leaving in the schedule nicely.
TV Review: Intelligence – “Cleaning Up”
When the folks on Intelligence clean up, things get pretty messy. In “Cleaning Up,” an episode where Jimmy’s revenge supposedly comes full circle, a lot of loose ends remain. Good thing, because the season’s still got four episodes left. With all these spies, informants, and criminals relying on trust and loyalty in this episode, it’s even harder to believe things are getting cleaner.
Picking up from the dead body lying on the pavement at the end of last episode, Phan and friends take off from the botched currency exchange as he says in the flattest voice possible, “This is a real drag.”
Jimmy thinks it’s a bit of a drag, too, as does biker boss Dante, whose nephew is the dead body on the pavement. Mary thinks it could be a drag, fearing escalating violence, but she’s reassured by her prized informant that what went around came around. The revenge circle closed – supposedly – when Jimmy finds out that the nephew was carrying the gun that killed Colin, Reardon’s distributor on the Island, added to the fact that Mike’s attacker was one of Dante’s Disciples. The score is settled, Jimmy insists.
Mary’s machinations get a little messier, too. Her friend Eddie and his ex-CIA partner (Stuart Margolin, who also directed the episode) help her get intelligence on the cocaine dealer they’re tracking, Luiz Falcone, in exchange for her go-ahead for them to take him on her turf, despite the fact that under DEA protection. That leads her to stockbroker Randy Bingham, who’s supposed to be one of her informants, and another gun deal.
Plus, her supposed CSIS supporter James Mallaby lets her know Roger Deakins is finally out and her appointment to take his place is just a matter of Ottawa giving the okay. In the meantime, Mallaby’ll be taking over. And he has a bridge he’d like to sell her, too. She’s not buying, though, and continues to marshal support from a senator and her underlings, Martin and sneaky Ted, whose jaw must ache from all the talking through clenched teeth he does in this episode.
Mary suspects Richard Royden, the CSIS director, of being the high-powered leak, and even enlists Deakins help to expose him. Deakins is apparently on board to preserve his own reputation, but he points out “you do this and fail, they’ll have your head and mine on a stick.”
In another “devil you know” deal that means she’s playing with fire, Mary’s attempt to swap her old job for Ted’s loyalty starting now only results in sneaky Ted suspiciously fiddling with items on Mary’s desk – spying on the spymaster, maybe? – and accelerating the plan to snare Reardon in the DEA’s trap.
That plan seems to be working, too. Winston the undercover DEA agent managed to escape arrest by invoking Ted’s name, allowing Reardon to walk away from a potentially messy situation. Despite Ronnie’s protests that Winston obviously isn’t someone they want to get into business with, Jimmy is desperate enough for the supply that he continues with the deal. Some day Jimmy will have to hear a big “I told you so” from his partner, but for now the deal is done and the DEA plan to trace the shipment across the border.
While he unknowingly gets deeper into trouble, his banker and lawyer encourage him to go a little more legit (is that like being a little pregnant?) so he can invest in his own offshore bank.
Ex-wife Francine is causing deeper troubles as well, going into a jealous coffee-throwing fit when she discovers he’s sleeping with another woman while daughter Stella’s in the house – though the jealousy trigger is that she thought they were getting back together, not so much the impressionable Stella. The deluded woman implores Ronnie to help her get back in the family, leaving him with a threat of trouble if she’s left to “drown” on her own.
She’s got good reason to want back in, and not just because she’s still obsessed with Jimmy. Reardon is loyal to his family, so when a shaky Mike calls after running into his attacker in the nightclub he’s hoping to buy, Jimmy and his henchman Bob rush down to take care of business. So much for that closed circle and settled score. It’s all part of the job for Bob, and another glimpse into Reardon’s frightening underworld in a series that doesn’t judge Reardon any more harshly than Spalding. Neither of them are possible to fully root for, but it’s impossible to root against them, either.
The next episode of Intelligence – directed by star Ian Tracey – airs Tuesday, Dec. 12 on CBC at 9 p.m.
Jazz hands
Will over at Uninflected Images Juxtaposed poses a question about why Canadians don’t get jazzed over their own shows. And I can’t shut up about it.
TV Review: Intelligence – “Clean and Simple”
(Spoilers for the episode that aired Nov. 28)
Clean and simple is not a phrase I’d use to describe CBC’s complex crime drama Intelligence, with so many characters and plot threads that I’m almost expecting the characters to start wearing nametags in addition to appearing in those title cards. Even the dialogue and acting style is only deceptively simple, like we’re eavesdropping on snippets of conversation that are being steadily assembled into an intricate tapestry. An intricate audiovisual tapestry. Damned mixed metaphors.
However, “Clean and Simple” the episode is representative of the eye for an eye philosophy that underlies both Jimmy Reardon’s and Mary Spalding’s worlds.
Knowing the bikers were behind brother Michael’s throat slashing, Jimmy finally agrees with Ronnie that they should exact revenge to send a message that he’s not to be messed with. He wants and gets assurances that no one will be hurt, and of course when you ‘re combining guns, drugs, money, and bikers, I can think of no reason not to feel reassured.
Jimmy’s man Bob helps plan an interruption to the bikers’ currency exchange with a little robbery. After his cohort provides a detailed, complicated proposal, Bob gets clean and simple: “Why don’t we just steal the car?” “Or we could just steal the car,” the other guy nods, like that’s a pretty good plan B.
Mary eventually finds herself in an eye for an eye position as well. Her confidante and sometime lover, Vancouver cop Don Frazer, spells things out, pointing out that the old boys are never going to let her in, so she’ll have to kick the door down. “They fuck with you, you fuck with them. … That’s the only thing those guys understand.” Sounds like Don and Ronnie would get along well. It is definitely getting harder and harder to tell the difference between the bad guys and the good guys.
Ironically, the woman who’s selling her promotion to CSIS as an opportunity to build a spy agency that doesn’t rely on American intelligence must rely on a disgruntled former CIA agent to find out how intricately involved CSIS is with the Americans and other countries. The simple answer she gets to that convoluted question is: very. Ex-CIA guy uses a few more words, like telling her that CSIS bigwig Dick Royden, who we see coaching Roger Deakins on how to explain spilling the beans to the Chinese about Lee the mole, worked for the Americans.
In exchange for giving her bad news, ex-CIA guy wants to give her news she doesn’t want to hear: he’s on the trail of a cocaine importer, Luiz Falcone, and along with Mary’s friend Eddie, intends to capture him and bring him back to Mexico. She cautions him against getting caught with Falcone’s body in his car. “It’s not my car,” he says in one of the surprising laugh-out-loud lines that populate but never pierce the tension of the series.
Mary is covertly steering the homicide investigation into Lee the mole’s death, and discovers that others, up to the Minister responsible for security and his staff, know the contents of her secret files. Her biggest CSIS supporter, James Mallaby, encourages her to back off. (How did I not know Mallaby is played by the lead singer of Spirit of the West, John Mann? I guess because I’m clueless and it’s not mentioned anywhere on the website or press materials. Is it just the show rubbing off on me, or do I sense the work of the witness protection program here?)
Mallaby shows his teeth in a supposed smile as he tells Mary it’s time to start pushing her upstairs to that coveted CSIS role she’s been promised, while telling her she’ll need to hand over summaries of all her cases. After asking for support from an unseen senator and starting to secure the files for her prized informants, Katarina and Reardon, Mary is subtle but steely as she asks Mallaby when Deakins will be suspended, then refuses to pass on files until she gets an assurance that Deakins won’t see them. And Mallaby’s teeth suddenly look a lot more like a snarl. She also confronts Deakins head on with another subtle but steely challenge to expose himself with a public statement or prepare to slip away quietly.
If that weren’t enough, Mary finds herself roused by a 2 a.m. phone call from Eddie and ex-CIA guy, who think her unit is working an operation on their target Falcone. She lets them know the man with the coke importer isn’t one of her agents, but a DEA agent – meaning Falcone is protected, much to their annoyance.
Jimmy’s got additional problems, too. As we saw a couple of episodes ago, ex-wife Francine gave a lawyer the complete history of the Reardon empire, and now he’s contacted Jimmy’s lawyer to warn him. The lawyer, who’d earlier advised Jimmy to open his own offshore bank account to streamline his ATM business, now tells him they can direct that lawyer to take Francine on as a client, sealing that lawyer-client privilege, possibly containing Francine’s big mouth, but also showing Jimmy’s disturbing level of control.
Francine’s indiscretion gets Jimmy even more antsy over getting a safe house to stash their truckloads of ATM cash, which leads to an appallingly insensitive Ronnie offering Sweet a luxury condo. Only when it’s hit her that he’s making an enormous gesture does he burst that bubble and let her know it’s business. She negotiates to get her name on the deed instead of one of Reardon’s holding companies, which she explains as insurance – if she’s going to take the risk she wants the reward. I’m not so sure it’s much of a reward to have her name tied to the illicit dealings, but I’m no expert in illicit dealings and plausible deniability.
Mary’s undercover stripper seems to be causing her more problems than Jimmy, since she’s avoiding Mary’s calls again, despite overhearing his plot to hit the bikers. Her silence causes Mary to pass on a message through Katarina: another warning means a deportation order. Martin’s casual observation about helping with visas to one of Katarina’s girls, who’s working with him on the case of the biotech engineers who are trying to sell secrets to one country while unknowingly having them stolen by another, is a demonstration of that team’s disturbing level of control in those women’s lives.
The final minutes of the episode ratchet up the tension through the driving music and short scenes cutting from the currency exchange hit to Jimmy accepting that drug shipment from the undercover DEA operator. The eye for an eye in the biker wars results in the loss of another eye as the robbery goes wrong, shots are fired, and a man lies – dead? wounded? – on the sidewalk. At the same time, the car carrying Jimmy, the DEA operator, and a trunkload of pot catches the eye of the police, who arrest DEA guy and confront Jimmy as he sits waiting for his day to get even worse.
TV Review: Intelligence – “Love and War”
A lot of pieces to the detailed puzzle come together in the “Love and War” episode of CBC’s Intelligence.
Mary Spalding (Klea Scott) gets some answers about who might have been responsible for the death of Lee the mole, whose turning she celebrated for about two minutes before he was shot for being a rat. From mole to rat to a body shoved in a washing machine carton – poor guy. But as Martin the polite pig comforts Mary, “it’s the cost of playing, isn’t it?”
Spalding learns that someone in the Hong Kong police called the guy who killed Lee shortly before the shooting, and by the end of the episode, she discovers that CSIS slimeball Roger Deakins was the one who placed that call. Or at least the call was placed from Deakins’ phone, but my suspicions about Mary’s deputy slimeball Ted are somewhat allayed by the fact that I’d hope it would be very difficult for a CSIS office to be broken into, or cell phone stolen.
In any case, Christmas comes early for Ted, who thinks Mary’s chances of the CSIS promotion are kaput, and who has been hoping – and likely plotting – Deakins’ downfall, too.
The penny also dropped when it comes to something Ian Tracey said during our interview several weeks ago, something that didn’t make it into the final article. I had asked what Reardon’s biggest vulnerability is, and hesitating a bit because he didn’t want to reveal details that would spoil episodes that hadn’t yet aired, he said: “He’s not walking the fence, but reaching a crossroads – are you in or are you out. It’s a hard thing to get out of. You can’t just walk away. His vulnerability is probably his uncertainty for the future.” At the time, the reason for that answer wasn’t apparent onscreen, but suddenly it’s crystal clear.
Jimmy has already told Mary that he plans to go legit in five years, but we’ve seen no evidence that he’s winding down, and much evidence that he’s widening his business on more and more fronts. Yet as Ronnie points out, Jimmy needs to decide if he’s going to retire so his successors can carry on with a parceled-off business, or decide “what we’re willing to fight for.”
“I feel an anthem coming on,” says Mike, who besides a hideous cut hidden under his bandages, seems none the worse for the throat slashing of last episode – except for concocting the most disgusting meal out of blended fried eggs and tomato juice, which turned my stomach far more than the blood from that slashing and from Lee’s shooting combined.
In fact, the attack seems to have increased his brain power a little. Jimmy refuses to enter into a war with the bikers without proof that they were behind Mike’s attack. He’s apparently an advocate for empirical gangsterism. Mike agrees with Ronnie that they need to fight for their empires, but backs his brother up: “I want to bury the right guy.”
Before I get too full of praise for screw up Mike, Jimmy’d better hope he’s just inept and not a traitor. It seems Mike helped set up the meeting between his brother and a drug distributor who is actually the DEA operator we’ve heard so much about. Jimmy’s suspicions seem to have been raised, however, since he instructs his man Bob to get the guy’s car followed.
Everyone’s suspicions are confirmed when Jimmy meets Mary, who wants him to help newly turned rat Randy Bingham to set up another gun shipment. In exchange, she tells him that the bikers were behind the attack on Mike. Assuming Reardon trusts Spalding – and while we know it’s true, her tip that the Vietnamese were behind the attempted hit on Jimmy and Ronnie didn’t pan out – he now has his proof that the bikers have declared war behind Jimmy’s back, despite scary biker boss Dante having agreed to Jimmy’s Christmas-sounding plea for peace and prosperity.
With war declared, whether Jimmy likes it or not, the threat of violence hangs over the Reardon empire more than ever. Vic, the vending machine entrepreneur who’s been fronting Jimmy’s ATMs, begs to be let off the hook after the bikers come after him, and he fears for his family. Before that, Jimmy’s unstable ex-wife Francine had come to him asking him to consider sending their daughter Stella away to school. He objects, causing her to demand whether he can guarantee Stella’s safety. The woman has a good point. Which must mean she’s got some other agenda.
The episode ends with Jimmy and Mary proving what a bad day it’d been for them. Jimmy finally plans his attack, a retaliation on the bikers with the help of his new Vietnamese connections. How bad has Mary’s day been? She flashes her badge in order to get into a closed liquor store. Funny, but probably not smart.
The next episode of Intelligence airs Tuesday, Nov. 28 at 9 p.m. on CBC.
TV Review: Intelligence – “Pressure Drop”
(Spoilers for the episode that aired Nov. 14)
The latest episode of CBC’s Intelligence leaves maimed and dead bodies in its wake and proves that intelligence is a cold, cold game.
Mary Spalding (Klea Scott) continues to be fearless in taking risks, but cautious about counting on what the payoff will do for her. Good thing, too.
She gets warm fuzzies from CSIS over her success in turning Lee, the mole in her wireroom, much to the consternation of her deputy Ted and the man whose job she’s poised to take and who hired Lee in the first place, Roger Deakins.
“She’s gonna have your job in about five minutes if we don’t do something to rip the rug out from under her,” Ted subtly taunts Deakins.
Those fuzzies are bound to turn frosty when word gets out that Lee is killed on her watch – literally, as he’s shot in cold blood before her eyes. Hmm, just how much of a nasty bastard, is Ted, anyway?
Nasty enough that he’s sold his soul to the Americans, who have agreed to snare Jimmy Reardon (Ian Tracey) and help install Ted as the head of CSIS’s western and Asian region instead of Mary or Roger. “Anything I can do for you?” Ted asks his DEA contact. “Not yet. The time will come,” is the reply.
Mary’s relationship with informant Jimmy is threatened through her own actions – or, more accurately, inactions. She wants him to not only help stock broker Randy Bingham free his arms shipment that’s stuck in Panama, she wants him to agree to get involved in the next arms deal.
He’d like to see some useful information from her for a change, and she’s stonewalling him on information about Colin’s death and its connection to the bikers. “Nice knowin’ ya,” he calls to her before driving away from their meeting, causing her to go to Ted for information on that case. Their man on the Island has a suspect, though not much hope of a conviction. Also, as Ted says, “he thinks Reardon is losing control of his organization, and it’s a matter of time before someone offs him.”
Things do seem to be spiraling out of control in Jimmy’s army. The Vietnamese deny any connection to the shooting in his nightclub. The bikers are muscling in on his drug trade, but are also laying claim to the illicit bank machine business in Vancouver. This show is really making me look askance at the ATM when I draw cash.
In a nice little domestic scene that mirrors Reardon’s professional woes, we see Jimmy in dad mode. In what he fears is the calm before the storm, Francine has let Stella stay with him for the week, and she needs help with her homework.
“Should we go to war?” is her social studies question.
“What, the country?” her dad asks. Focus here, Jimmy. You thought your 13-year-old daughter who doesn’t know what you do for a living was talking about the bikers?
Her assignment is to find good reasons to go to war, and the only one she can think of is for protection against an attacker. Jimmy only offers reasons not to go to war, touting negotiation as the first line of defense.
Meanwhile, in Jimmy’s own battlefield, Ronnie is the more cynical and pragmatic of the two, insisting that Reardon needs to respond to the opening salvo of Colin’s assassination with a shot of his own. Instead, Jimmy insists on negotiation over the bank machine territory. So they meet with scary biker leader, who went to the my way or the highway school of negotiation.
Neither Jimmy nor Mary seem to be winning the battle on the personal front either. Mary’s husband Adam accosts her on the street, hoping to work things out without resorting to lawyers. “You sacrificed me. What did you expect?” he asks about his affair. “I expected faithfulness. I expected to raise a family,” she replies. She also expects to get a restraining order to prevent him from contacting her again, though I wonder if she’s genuinely afraid of the man or if she’s exerting her power over him.
Jimmy’s own personal wild card, ex-wife Francine, shows up at his lumber yard to reminisce about old times, when he proposed, when he left her alone with baby Stella, when they had adulterous affairs. Gee, no wonder she thinks it was a match made in heaven. He apologizes for his part in their rocky relationship.
“I feel like the devil took my soul and now I want it back,” she says, and before I can wonder if she’s calling him the devil, she kisses him and says, “You’re a good man. I miss you.” To add to the mixed messages, she flashes a devious smile as she walks away. Definitely the calm before the storm.
Another storm is brewing, though. Mike Reardon, Jimmy’s over-eager puppy dog of a brother, has gotten deeper into the business, making a connection with some growers and running the money for the bank machines. And while Ted’s surveillance team looks on, he gets his throat slashed. They go after the slashers and leave Mike to crawl to the Chickadee for help. Cold.
The next episode airs Tuesday, Nov. 21 at 9 p.m. on CBC, replaying Friday at 11 p.m. Check out the Intelligence website for a video mashup contest, with a grand prize of an Apple MacBook Pro and a copy of Final Cut Studio.