The ethical debates abound as the search for the “One Ring” presents the quandary: are we the Gollums of the world or the Frodos? This weeks episode title, Out of the Sky, refers to more than a bag of jewels dropping down from no where, but to the emergence of a long lost partner/friend, and how quickly a person can fall to the “dark side.” The story was fast-paced, full of nice character driven plot points, growing teamwork, and had a parade of hilarious one-liners. The parallels in the story aren’t very subtle (we get it, everyone has to chose right or wrong), but they are--more importantly--effective. This episode manages to epitomize Voltaire’s statement, “Judge an [episode] by [its] questions rather than by [its] answers.” Let’s be honest, there wasn’t much doubt that Danny’s former partner, James Belson (Coby Ryan McLaughlin) was involved, but when a story is well told then I feel engaged, and excited to see how it will all play out, and that is how I felt watching this episode.
Writer Christopher Silber and director Nathan Hope are a dream team of subtle emotional manipulation. We feel the first moments of intensity as an obvious gang member places the gun he used to murder someone on the coffee table of his up-scale, wealthy lawyer, Roland Carson (umbrageously played by TV veteran Gregory Harris) as they discuss the legality of Carson keeping the weapon. This would be interesting enough as its own plot point, but intersperse their conversation with a helicopter hovering above the building and two men in black garb dropping down Mission Impossible style, and it is clear things are about to get a whole lot uglier. We again see this form of storytelling as Hawkes and Mac first discuss Belson’s guilt, only this time Silber and Hope improve upon it, using two distinct devices: a flashback showing Belson’s involvement and slow motion Danny walking towards an empty hospital room, essentially having three different scenes playing on top of each other. (A nod to those in the editing department; that couldn’t have been easy. Plus I love slow motion. You know something's about to go down when the slo-mo action starts.)
The story moved quickly through competent scene changes and snappy dialogue, maintaining a great pace. This is definitely an improvement from last weeks heavy handed jargon and boring moments. The dialogue was razor sharp at times. Mac accuses Carson of no longer wanting to be his clients’ errand boy by saying, “Maybe you got sick of carrying their water,” or how about in the same scene when Mac returns with a witty “They’re a little bit dead right now”? Adam joking about “ass dialing” an ex-girlfriend, Flack interrogating a suspect and citing him for having a knife to which the suspect responds, “Not my knife” prompting Flack to humorously reply back with the line, “It was in your pocket when we picked you up” are just a few examples of Silber making the effort to not only give us something to watch but to give us something we can actually enjoy watching, allowing the audience to move through drama and comedy effortlessly . Hope then adds depth to the language by using more than stationary camera shots. As Flack and Hawkes discuss petty thief Arnold Vonley’s (Mike Foy) inability to preform the heist, they are walking down the halls of the precinct, moving around corners and negotiating through co-workers--a classic West Wing-esque “walk and talk.” This scene very easily could have been filmed with them standing still, but the extra work paid off and the scene is much more memorable.
On top of the “who done it?” scenario that is playing throughout the episode, there is also an underlying character driven arc; Good Danny versus Evil Danny. (Anyone else find the light haired Messer/dark haired Belson difference to be interesting? Not sure if they meant that metaphor to be present, but it is immediately what I thought about.) Belson is an ex-cop, has a failed marriage, kids live thousands of miles away from him, and he is stuck working for the “bastard Carson.” Danny is questioning fate and luck, being forced to face what his life would have been like if he had made the same mistake Belson had. This also brilliantly adds believability to Danny’s reaction in the first season episode On the Job when he is accused of fatally shooting a cop. We gain insight into where Danny’s paranoia extended from, and why he was so concerned about what people were saying behind his back and the way they were looking at him. Danny was clearly effected by what had happened to his former partner, and Belson cleverly plays into that. When Danny first questions Belson in the hospital, Belson offers to help get Danny a job in the “private district” prompting Danny to respond, “I don’t plan on retiring anytime soon.” Belson then abruptly replies, “Yeah, well, neither was I if you remember.” This, of course, immediately brings that memory and its associated emotions to the forefront of Danny’s mind, which is established by Danny’s now reticent and withdrawn behavior, effectively distracting Danny and allowing Belson “off the hook” long enough for him to get out of the hospital and begin his rampage of killing. However, we see Danny’s growth as a character when he powerfully tells Belson at the end of the episode that it’s time for him to take responsibility for the life of crime he has created while at the same time we see Danny taking responsibility for the life that he has chosen to create.
This was a strong episode for many of the actors and characters, and Carmine Giovinazzo really stepped up to very tenuously show a range of emotions, including a slightly vulnerable side of Danny. Likewise, we saw both a tender and hard-nosed version of Flack, wonderfully delivered by Eddie Cahill (I was reminded why he was so successful on Friends; the guy has great comedic timing), and a chance to reconnect with light-hearted and clever Lindsay--who shared a few nice moments with Jo. Again, an episode that included every member of the team working together to solve crimes, and to help each other. The episode was sprinkled with great personal conversations that really helped to connect with the audience. I also appreciated Silber treating the audience with some modicum of intelligence. I was ready to go crazy over Belson noticing a little ring missing from a duffel bag full of jewelry, and him being willing to go back to the apartment and murder again for it. I was up in arms over how ridiculous I thought that was, but Silber efficiently solved that problem for me by having Carson explain to the audience it’s worth and importance. This is a type of detail that tends to get over looked on the show, the writers just expecting the audience to “go with it.”
A few flaws keep the episode from being perfect, having worked in the alarm industry I know for a fact you cannot disable an alarm by simply cutting a wire. Also, the thieves broke into the safe using the code so why didn’t anyone immediately wonder if this was an inside job? And if the water splashed on the guy’s clothing as he was walking home from work, and he was taking the duffel bag to the police the next morning, why was he wearing the same water splashed clothes when he was killed? I am also curious if it would have had more impact to show the girlfriend standing at the fountain with the ring in her hand, and end with us wondering what choice she made rather than show her tossing the ring into Fount(ain) Doom, but these are pretty minor issues in an otherwise excellent episode. So which is? Do you return the jewelry or keep a ring or two? You ponder on that while I take a quick trip to New York. There’s a fountain near Lucy’s I gotta go digging through...my precious...
Highlight of the episode: Lindsay dancing in a purple shirt.
Guilty Pleasure: Danny in glasses! (Yes, I actually squealed when I saw them). Although a close second would be Lucy’s--I know they were talking about the restaurant, but that’s how desperate I am for a mention of our girl.
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