Mary Shoots, Scores 'In Plain Sight'

You have to love the dichotomy that is Mary Shannon. She has a huge heart and a sharp tongue. Which one you get depends on which side of her you fall on. The brother team she was protecting this week fell on the huge heart side while the bookie who was trying to ruin Chris's basketball future fell on the sharp tongue side. Sarcastic Mary is hilarious, so naturally, I loved her scene with the neighborhood bookie at the end. She cheered, played it cool and then laid the truth out there for him right before the police got there to arrest him. Funny stuff! And just to prove that it has a more emotional side to go along with its funny one, this show gave us a powerful, heartbreaking scene with Mary at the end as she shared the painful memories of her gambling father and his decision to walk out on the family. She was in tears as she spoke in front of the support group. It had to feel good to finally let out all of that pent up hurt and anger, though. Once again, Mary's past had me thinking about Cold Case's Lilly Rush. And while I knock In Plain Sight for copying pages from that character's playbook, I have to say, at least they're doing it better. Mary has shown more growth, self realization and taken more steps in the right direction in 6 episodes than Lilly has in 5 seasons.

On a side note, it seems that Marshall has found himself too much woman. That former TA from college had quite the umm... how should we say... appetite, if you will. After accosting him in the bathroom, she turned to dirty text messages! Of course, all of this was great fodder for Mary who didn't waste the opportunity to give him a hard time ("You're that flexible?"). I guess it's safe to say that this flame gave a whole new meaning to "teaching assistant."

In Plain Sight airs Sunday nights on USA Network. If you missed this week's episode ("High Priced Spread"), check it out for free at Hulu.com.