My tastes and values in dramas have changed over the years, such that I now value episodes more for the exploration of the psychology of the Crockett and Tubbs targets and witnesses than I used to. The best detective shows - Maigret in France, Montalbano in Italy, for example - use the detective's investigation as a way of presenting us with a portrait of the psychology and character of the people being investigated.
In this episode, the most interesting character is Mary, played by Maryanne Plunkett. She is the girlfriend (most reviews say fiance but there is no evidence of a marital engagement) to an older wealthy man who has a son by a first marriage, the son being much more age-appropriate for her than is the father.
She is cultured and well-educated, clearly comfortable in the father's social class (he is of an old money family). The father can include her in his social world without any embarrassment or discomfort.
But she has to chart the difficult emotional and behavioral path of being attached to the older man, while constantly in the company of the more age-appropriate younger man, the son.
To the father, she is a kind of resuscitation of affection: he will never again have the physical and emotional comfort and enjoyment of such a young woman, with genuine feelings for him, ever again, if he loses her.
Ms. Plunkett plays this just right - showing the son care and affection but never indicating sexual interest in him, saving all of that for the father.
She is thus fundamentally a kind of calculating person - yet she never appears calculating. We wonder: is she playing a game, or is she following genuine feelings?
The vice detectives through a phone tap hear the girlfriend choose a warehouse to receive a shipment of some goods on behalf of the father. She is then caught at the scene of a huge cocaine sale, and it becomes clear that she is handling the father's secret drug business. The father blurts out to a flunky (not recorded) that he has just lost 5 million dollars. But neither she nor the father know about the phone tap, and thus the father thinks there is no evidence connecting the father to the drugs - except, possibly, her own testimony.
Ms. Plunkett's final scene is in the chauffeured limo with the son, coming back from jail after being bailed. She is nervous, but trying to pass it off. She resolutely encourages the son to support the father. Dropping the son at the mansion, the limo leaves, supposedly to take her to her apartment - but then the door-locks slam down on her. The father has ordered her killed.
Her brave-front nervousness, her attempt to maintain her attitude of class while in the limo with the son, is a masterful performance.
At the end, the father breaks down over what he has done - he has killed the last chance at love and affection that he will ever have. He has suddenly realized that his attitude of exalting hardness and determination has caused him to destroy his own love.
This kind of insight into human nature is what makes this an excellent episode.
In this episode, the most interesting character is Mary, played by Maryanne Plunkett. She is the girlfriend (most reviews say fiance but there is no evidence of a marital engagement) to an older wealthy man who has a son by a first marriage, the son being much more age-appropriate for her than is the father.
She is cultured and well-educated, clearly comfortable in the father's social class (he is of an old money family). The father can include her in his social world without any embarrassment or discomfort.
But she has to chart the difficult emotional and behavioral path of being attached to the older man, while constantly in the company of the more age-appropriate younger man, the son.
To the father, she is a kind of resuscitation of affection: he will never again have the physical and emotional comfort and enjoyment of such a young woman, with genuine feelings for him, ever again, if he loses her.
Ms. Plunkett plays this just right - showing the son care and affection but never indicating sexual interest in him, saving all of that for the father.
She is thus fundamentally a kind of calculating person - yet she never appears calculating. We wonder: is she playing a game, or is she following genuine feelings?
The vice detectives through a phone tap hear the girlfriend choose a warehouse to receive a shipment of some goods on behalf of the father. She is then caught at the scene of a huge cocaine sale, and it becomes clear that she is handling the father's secret drug business. The father blurts out to a flunky (not recorded) that he has just lost 5 million dollars. But neither she nor the father know about the phone tap, and thus the father thinks there is no evidence connecting the father to the drugs - except, possibly, her own testimony.
Ms. Plunkett's final scene is in the chauffeured limo with the son, coming back from jail after being bailed. She is nervous, but trying to pass it off. She resolutely encourages the son to support the father. Dropping the son at the mansion, the limo leaves, supposedly to take her to her apartment - but then the door-locks slam down on her. The father has ordered her killed.
Her brave-front nervousness, her attempt to maintain her attitude of class while in the limo with the son, is a masterful performance.
At the end, the father breaks down over what he has done - he has killed the last chance at love and affection that he will ever have. He has suddenly realized that his attitude of exalting hardness and determination has caused him to destroy his own love.
This kind of insight into human nature is what makes this an excellent episode.
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