(S01E06) I thought this was one of the best In Plain Sights so far. It wasn't the case, it was the character, in particular Mary's. We got major character development from the leading lady, the key to what she's all about and how she's come to where she is.

Episodes like this just make a show; they really do. In Plain Sight is about Witness Protection, yes, but it's more about Mary Shannon.

Mary doesn't go looking for this case, she's just bringing in her crap car for service. Her mechanic is Scott, who it turns out, was Mary's very first WITSEC client. Mary gave Scott and his 10-year-old brother, Chris, new lives after they witnessed a bookie murder another bookie.

Parenthetically, Scott invites Mary and Marshall to watch Chris play basketball at the university. The kid's got mad skills and is projected to be an NBA star, natch, but something's amiss. Chris is hitting up Mary for $3,000, which we learn is out of bounds for decade-long WITSEC clients.





Stan's advice to Mary is to turn her back on them, but Marshall says that Mary can't and won't do that.

The case becomes subordinate somewhat when Jinx receives a letter from the FBI. Her missing husband of 27 years, Mary's father, is going to be declared dead. As her voice over points out, it is coincidental that Scott and Chris's troubles with gambling comes just when she's reminded that her Dad was a serious gambler.

The two best scenes in the episode were are the Gam-Anon meeting. Ostensibly, Mary is there for Scott because she's certain that Chris has gambling issues. Mary's face at the meeting, listening to the stories and hearing phrases like "shutting down emotionally," "the only time I feel alive is when I'm in the middle of a crisis," "let go of the anger" hit her like a ton of bricks. They're describing her life and she's overcome.

Very quickly, Marshall and Mary wrap up the case, confronting the pasty bad guy with the white picket fence house -- your standard change of pace villain -- prompting him to kidnap Scott on the day of the big game. Will Chris do the gambler's bidding? Will Scott be found? Why are there so many shots of the mascot? I kept expecting the guy in the tiger suit to be Scott who didn't want to miss the game but didn't want Chris to know he was there. No, the tiger shots were a red herring.

The finale has nothing to do with Scott and Chris; supposedly they're all better now that pastey faced bad guy is arrested. No, the big moment is the revelation about Mary's life; how her father abandoned her two days before her seventh birthday. She loved her father, Dad, Daddy.

Her tears were fresh, like his leaving her was yesterday. When she says she has never been happier than when being at her father's feet, picking up busted tickets at the track while he placed a bet, it's a heartbreaking image. "He's the reason I am who I am today," she confesses, and that's all the good and all the bad, too.

This made sense to me; Mary's not the type to go to a therapist, or to open up to Marshall or Raphael or her family. She can't. She's emotionally stunted because of her father. Within the confines of room filled with anonymous faces, she can bear her soul. Mary's damaged and that's what makes her fascinating to watch -- and now we know why.

Finally, what about Mary's father? He's been gone 27 years, but are we going to find out that he's not dead? Maybe he's in WITSEC and Mary doesn't know it. That would be something, don't you think?

Other points of interest

--The story starts in Detroit ten years ago. I was looking for Eminem; you know 8 Mile? However, when Chris mentions that he was getting $20 allowance from his parents, I was like, "Really? Are you kidding me?" Is that really typical of 1998 pre-teens in the inner cities?

-- Love it when Marshall talked about his shuttlecock injury from badminton. His scatological humor is getting better and better. He also gets some action, the hottie prof. She was a nice distraction from the main plot and gave MM a chance to prove that he's not gay. (He did reject the hottie from last week, or so with think.)

-- When Mary realizes that Chris is lying, she explains to him, "I have a finely honed crap detector."

-- Marshall teaches Mary about gambling on basketball (she didn't know?) by referring to the movies. "Back to the Future; it you haven't seen it in a while, do yourself a favor because it really holds up." I love the reference to Biff Tannen and gambling on games, but that was in the sequel, Back to the Future 2, the weakest of the BTTF trilogy. Marshall should have said that because it would have been accurate and even funnier.

-- We now know that Mary hates time travel movies because they never make sense. I guess she isn't a fan of Star Trek 4.

-- There was one oblique zinger taken at the NCAA; Chris can't make any income while he's on scholarship or lose his scholarship, but he's still supposed to keep up with fellow students socially. How?

-- Out of necessity, considering Mary's major revelation, for the first time, Jinx and Brandi showed some human dimensions. Hallelujah!

-- Good snarky line from Brandi about "Tripping down tortured memories lane."

-- I guess Marshall and Mary will never deal with the emotions of his shooting. They're back to being just buddies.

-- IPS is not a serial so episodes don't always pick up threads from the previous shows, I get that. That's likely why there was nothing about Raphael in this episode.