According to In Plain Sight's outgoing showrunner David Maples, this week's episode of the hit series was not intended to be the finale. He told E! Online's Watch with Kristin that he had intended for last night's outing to be the second to last episode and the conclusion to be the finale, but creative differences with the network led to his departure and a bit of a re-work for the end of the season leaving all of us in the lurch until spring. Of course, I'm not worried about Mary (Cold Case already played this trick on me with Lilly), but I am curious to see how the show writes itself out of Mary being unconscious and facing the possibility of some brain damage and how they're going to proceed with the Marshall/Mary/Raph/Brandi love situation (square?). And with the departure of Maples, means the show is transferring to someone else's hands. This makes me a little nervous, especially since I think the show is coming off of it's strongest season. But, as How I Met Your Mother's Marshall would say, that's a problem for Future TVFan to worry about because it isn't happening until next year. Let's just stick to the episode that was and how it worked as the second season finale. As much as I dislike cliffhangers, I have to agree with the network in that they work better for a finale. I'm not sure, however, how I feel about using this device when the show is off the air for 8-10 months in between seasons. My life is jam-packed and I'm not going to be as invested in Mary and co. next spring as I am right now, which may make the conclusion feel a little heavy-handed. We'll just have to see.I kinda knew what was coming with this story line -- I just didn't know how it was going to go down. Even though I knew, I still thought the actual shooting was pretty shocking. Maybe it has to do with what Marshall and Stan said: you never worry about Mary because she always seems like she's the stronger contender, like she always has the upper hand even when she shouldn't. And the truth is, she did this time too. Someone sucker-punched her while she was making sure Det. Dershowitz wasn't ambushed and also maintaining a safety net for her witness. It's hard to imagine the mighty Mary being felled by something as small as a single bullet, but then again, nobody is a match for gun powder and lead.
There were more allusions to Marshall's feelings for Mary this week. His full-fledged waterworks when he saw her on that stretcher and his "primal instincts" to find the person responsible and make them pay (as well as his "loved ones" discussion with Raph) drove it home. Both of which could easily be interpreted as friendship and his close relationship with his partner until you take a few weeks ago into consideration. As I said, I'm not worried about Mary -- I know she'll pull through. The real cliffhanger is whether or not Marshall will if Mary ultimately ends up with Raph. Next season suddenly began to feel a little further away.
In Plain Sight will return next spring on USA Network. If you missed this week's finale, check it out for free at Hulu.com. And for more on the show, visit USANetwork.com.
In Plain Sight will return next spring on USA Network. If you missed this week's finale, check it out for free at Hulu.com. And for more on the show, visit USANetwork.com.
3 comments:
I am not much of a fan of cliffhangers and when the cliff is 8-9 months tall, or long, I am even less happy. And we have a cliffhanger where we know the ultimate outcome – Mary well survive and recover which makes it kind of worthless for suspense, but does interrupt the story.
I too worry about replacing Maples. The show is going great, why mess with success? I read the Watch With Kristin story and it still doesn’t make sense. I guess part of it is that we have partly conflicting reasons for the change.
On Burn Notice, in the first season, the lead character had annoying/dependent mother and brother. They then made them much better and basically wrote out the brother. In Plain Sight seems to be following the same path, except here the mother is leaving. Jinx had improved a lot, but I can see where they might not have enough stories where they can really use the character.
As for the Bobby Dershowitz character leaving, I have no problem. I like the actor, but they really only use him as a local police contact and that really doesn’t require a series regular. I know some fans are Mary/Bobby shippers, but I don’t see it. And Mary is so screwed up it, is a stretch that she would have both Marshall and Raph in love with her, to have Bobby as well would be too contrived.
As to this week’s story, I found the protectee as annoying as any we have seen.
“…for gun powder and lead.” Is this a Miranda Lambert shout out? It is a great song. Maybe we haven’t seen Marshall crazy yet? We have seen Mary though, I think.
I think "love rectangle" has a certain ring to it.
RichE.
Kathryn Morris UK
John: Totally a Miranda Lambert reference. Nice catch!
A little further removed from the episode, I feel pretty confident that the cliffhanger served little purpose and left even less suspense.
RichE: I have to agree with the "love rectangle" idea.
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