Tuesday, March 17, 2009

A 'Grace'ful Turn of Events

By LillyKat
PTR Senior Staff Writer


So, Abbey was IA?

And Captain Perry is still involved WITH Mr. Boss IA?

And now Bobby's cover is blown? (And given he's in a pretty a bad way, tweaked out from his deep cover gig running a sex salve operation, he thinks Butch has stepped out on him with his family???)

And Leon Cooley would rather stay on death row than be granted clemency?

This week's ep of Saving Grace was awfully good.

Like, wow good.

Seriously, I have not enjoyed the show this much in consecutive viewings EV-ER.

I so did not see the Abbey IA thing coming nor did I think Captain Perry was still dating Mr. Boss IA. Since we hadn't seen much of that story since the very beginning of the season, I confess I thought they dropped it ('cause, hey, Cold Case wrote the book on that approach).

Thankfully, that would be a big no.

Not only that, tying the Perry/IA story to the Abbey Charles character was brilliant. I feel like Creator Nancy Miller gave us more with Christina Ricci in three episodes than we got with Grace in the entire first season.

So.Well.Done.

Given the choice to go the IA route with Abbey, I now have no idea how they would bring her back without having it be confrontational bad juju vibe given she IS Internal Affairs.

But I still hope they do.

I just loved what she brought to the show. She held her own in the best possible way. And she made Grace better - even though Grace now wants to wash herself off in a saline solution for having been THAT close to a rat.

And how about Bobby? During our visit to the Saving Grace set last summer, Gregory Cruz told us he wouldn't been seen a whole lot until the second part of the season - but he didn't tell us how or why.

Boy, now do I get it.

Not only does he seem creepily disturbed from his deep cover assignment whereby he set up meetings in an underage boys/sex slave operation, he is peeved (or perhaps delusional) that his ol' partner Butch - whom he asked wholeheartedly to keep an eye on his family whilst he was undercover - took it a little too far.

As in, started having an affair with Bobby's wife.

Now, I think Bobby is suffering from some post-traumatic stuff, and thus, is making a whole lot of assumptions that are not valid. Butch has never struck me as that kind of guy nor would he ever step out on his partner in that way. If anything, Butch is the guy you can count on (give or take his past romps with Grace, which are probably more Grace's fault than his).

Still, Bobby has always been the calm, cool collected presence in the squad. It was a nice turn of events to see the character go a little dark, a little uncertain, a little tweaked. Good for Gregory Cruz.

And Leon ... Leon, Leon, Leon.

Now we know for sure why he's ended up on death row - and, more importantly, why he should NOT be there.

In jail for killing a girl with his car but of whom actually stepped out in front of the car - on purpose. Mom just didn't want to admit that on the stand, and instead, wanted Leon to pay for her own denial.

Okay, bad enough.

But had he not been in prison for that charge, he would've never killed a prison guard WHILST inside - which is the kicker in the case.

I love that Rhetta is taking the bull by the horn, trying to help Leon (alongside Grace's brother, Father John), whilst Grace just remains steadfast in denial. Rhetta has always been such a strong character for me, and any time she gets to hold Grace accountable is a pleasure to watch.

I half think she should get to meet Angel Earl just for being such a good sport.

All in all, this was a great episode. I may even consider it for our PTR Best Ep countdown in the summer - and THAT would be a first.

New episodes air Mondays at 10 p.m. on TNT. You can watch full episodes of the show anytime over on the show’s official Web site. You can also visit EmbraceYourGrace.com to share your stories of how you embrace your inner-Grace.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

RE: Leon. He wasn’t arrested because he killed the girl. He was arrested for killing her while driving drunk. Even if she did commit suicide by auto accident, he was still driving drunk.

It would be fun to have Rhetta meet Earl, but I doubt she will. She doesn’t need a last chance angel.

I liked the episode and I also want Ricci to return.

I didn’t care for Grace’s return to prior season’s antics at the bar in the beginning of the show. That was the only negative for me.

I do wonder how much we know of Abbey is real. When Grace confronted her about being IA, Abbey’s personality shifted a bit. She became less tentative and more sure of herself. Also she said she busted a couple other crooked cops before this (and yeah to that!). If she had been working for IA before, how come no one knew? If she had been pulled of patrol duty for a 28 day rotation elsewhere and she busted bad cops, people would know. Even if IA kept her involvement quiet some cops would wonder and then when she gets jumped over others to be assigned to Grace’s squad there would be more speculation.

How did Perry think this was going to end with him and Captain Perry? If you put a spy in her group she is going to be pissed at you, even if you had knowledge of criminal actions. When it seems more like a personal vendetta and the major complaints seem to be conduct unbecoming, then there is going to be hell to pay. And that doesn’t take into consideration that Grace is a friend of the Captain.

They could have Ricci return, but it would have to be an out in the open IA investigation, probably not of Grace or a personal friend. They would be flat out enemies in that case. It would be more interesting to have Abbey investigating someone not associated with Grace and Grace would be a very reluctant ally. Grace wouldn’t tolerate and out and out crooked cop and probably would cooperate, unhappily.

Or they could have Abbey back in a year or two after she moves to the FBI and it is joint Federal OCPD case.

Anonymous said...

By the way, did it sound to you like Bobby actually arranged some of the pedophile/child purchases? It sounded like that to me. If so, that it unconscionable (and, I hope, illegal even for an undercover cop). An undercover cop arranging a small drug deal to solidify his cover is one thing, to arrange for child rape is another thing altogether.

LillyKat said...

Yes, Bobby was the guy that actually set-up the meeting/purchase of the young boys, which is why I believe he is so disturbed and/or suffering from some sort of post-traumatic stress. I don't recall we, the viewers, being given much clue as to what his deep cover assignment would be - just that he was going, he'd be out of sight/out of touch, etc. I wonder if, from the fictional story perspective of the character, he was also not told by Perry et als the fullest extent of what he would be doing given the repulsive nature of the assignment - and his sure objection to it if he knew the truth. Hard to say.

I'm not an expert, but I don't believe there is a limit on what undercover agents/cops/etc. are allowed to do, how far they are allowed to go, how deep they are allowed to penetrate the darkest corners of society. That is, after all, why they go undercover - to break in and stop this sort of thing. It's a harsh reality, but a necessary evil - no matter how it may look to us on the outside.

Anonymous said...

I am not an expert in the legal limits on undercover work either, but I assume there must be limits. Can they murder a witness to get in good with a crime boss? I doubt it. And it should be illegal to set up children (or adults for that matter) to be raped.

I am not arguing with you. Neither of us claim to be experts.