POI 2x20: In Extremis
Apr. 30th, 2013 08:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
arduinnaMan, we are just zooming for the finale.
Holy crap that was a stressful episode, from beginning to end. I love this show.
Since they started with Fusco, so will I. We've known all along that Lionel was a bad cop who did bad things; we met him when he was a straight-up cold-blooded murderer, ready to shoot John in the head and bury him at Oyster Bay to protect the corrupt group of cops he worked with. He was so comfortable with his role that he was perfectly okay with talking to and joking around with John on the trip; he had zero reservations about what he was about to do. So none of this was a surprise, except the part where wow, John nailed it when he said Fusco was there for loyalty, not from an innate tendency toward being a bad cop.
Except now it's clear that it wasn't just his loyalty (which is vast and sincere). He got steadily boundary-pushed by a predator who knew exactly how far to push it at every step. Stills must have been over the moon when that drug dealer came out of the closet to rush them with a gun; Fusco's shooting him was 100% justifiable and IAB would have cleared him, no question. But he was at the scene of actual murders by cops, and Stills got to twist it into "now you're one of us", instead of "you had to defend yourself during this legal operation".
And at that point, he was in too deep to be able to get out cleanly, so instead started justifying his actions to himself to maintain his view of himself as a good person, or at least reasonably good. So by the time John met him, he was a full-fledged part of the corrupt crew, actively working with them.
I was all "aw!" when he started sobbing across Stills' dead body in the grave he dug him, even -- the man was a bastard and had been using Fusco nonstop for years, but Fusco's notions of loyalty and friendship clearly run very deep; after all that, he still considered Stills a friend, and he still cared about him.
I saw someone saying how stupid it was for Fusco to go to the other HR cop (whose name I can never remember) and calling him out for Beecher's death, finally making it clear that no, he really doesn't work for HR anymore. And yeah, in one sense, it was. But watching HR take out a good cop, especially in a way that hurt his friend and partner -- he has a completely different kind of backbone now, in addition to the one that let him be a very good very bad cop (the one he drew on to threaten Beecher a few eps earlier). It's not that he's weak; it's that he's a follower. A really strong follower. (And I don't think he would ever have been okay with taking out a good cop; he was part of that crew because they were "cleaning up the streets", not just randomly murdering whoever got in their way.)
And that vast, unshakeable loyalty is still in place: he hasn't given John up at all, not even to Carter. She would have believed him if he'd said "I didn't kill Stills -- Mr Happy did." But that's not his truth to tell, so he doesn't say anything but "I didn't do it". He owns all the bad things he did do, and I think he was (and really, is) prepared to go to jail for them, even if he's not going to help anyone put him there by confessing. He wasn't asking for help from anyone -- I don't think he was even looking for help from Carter. I think the scene where he wanted to tell her what was going on was him just wanting to tell the truth, so she heard it from him instead of from anyone else.
And Fusco's story leads directly to Carter's.
I've been fascinated with her storyline this season; it's all been about finding out her lines aren't as strong as she always thought they were. That actually started in first season, when she crossed some of her own lines to help John and Harold; this season got more explicit, when Harold sat down with her and basically said "I don't want you to have to cross any lines" and she handed over the evidence she'd falsified to help John, saying she'd already crossed them, basically without a blink. Then she deliberately sought out someone to drug him and steal DNA that she could plant to protect John. But the entire season's been like that, overtly or not, especially in the face of her realizing that the rooting out of HR was just the surface; there's still lots of corruption, and it intersects with and affects the things she does.
She's been choosing where her lines are, and everyone's been respecting that -- everyone is still respecting that.
This time she couldn't hand the more morally ambiguous things over to John and Harold -- she tried, with both of them, and they both just put the ball squarely back in her court. This was actually very much what Harold did with her when he pointed her at John's past: here's the information, do what you will with it. Choose which path you're going to take.
I think they would have been fine with her not helping Fusco; he was a bad cop despite his recent change of heart, and they've always been very aware of that. They like him, but he's still a tool in their toolbox.
But there was more going on here than just "Carter suddenly finds out Fusco is a bad guy." She knew that, even if she didn't want to know just how bad. She also knows that back when Elias was on the loose and attacking mafia dons, Fusco was the only cop she could trust to have her back (when every cop she brought with her to help protect the dons just left, leaving her entirely on her own). He backed her every play during that, even as Carter was walking a narrow line between trying to do what was right and trying to protect her son; if John hadn't been in her ear promising with all his heart to save Taylor, I don't know that she'd have held as strong against Elias.
Fusco's the one who found out for her that Beecher wasn't on the take. And it was right after Beecher's death that Fusco "broke the code", according to the crooked cop in prison.
There's a lot of personal stuff happening here, and like I said before, I think Beecher's death was the push to get her committed all-in to this motley little crew. I think it was a really hard decision to make, and it's one she may second-guess herself on, but when she handed Fusco the Beecher file to help her with, that pretty much summed it up: they're aligned on a personal axis now, regardless of how much or little their professional pasts line up. If she'd had more time to think about it she'd have been happier, and maybe even would've chosen differently, but her hand got forced when they said they were going out to Oyster Bay; if she wanted Fusco to have a chance to explain, or make up her mind based on more facts, she needed to get him out of the immediate jam he was in.
(I do have some logistical quibbles with her moving that body on her own with just Bear, even just finding it -- he's not a cadaver dog, and Oyster Bay is huge. The thought that they both came back from that clean and fresh-smelling other than a bit of discreet mud on their boots that didn't come off or dry up in the nice long car ride back is... yeah, no. But *handwave*.)
And one of the really fascinating things about this whole thing was HR cop's expression when the grave turned out to be empty. He knows there's someone protecting Fusco now, and has no idea who, and that seems to be justifiably freaking him right the hell out. Elias clearly has a hand in it, since he got the in-prison cop from to either shut up or recant (can't remember which offhand), but either way, there's a new player messing with HR.
On to John and the number of the week, which was violent and vindictive like we haven't seen in a while. I think John had finally let himself believe Harold's promise that they would be there in time to save people and he'd turned that into his sense of identity: he's the guy who shows up in time, takes out a few kneecaps, and saves the day. And I think the sudden inability to do that is shattering him, making him revert back to his last "solid" state, as the assassin who'll do anything to carry out a mission. I think it was really telling, that he said to the doctor "You can't die yet - we've got one more mission to finish" -- he really is back in that mission-centered mindset, where any casualties are acceptable.
I did appreciate him pointing out to Carter that he's really not a good choice to look to as a moral compass; Tumblr doesn't call him the Violent Amoral Unicorn of Justice for nothing.
I also think that while he prefers to identify with Carter (military backgrounds, both idealists in their own way, both convinced that being part of the system meant you were working to make the world a better place, both disillusioned but still trying to make a difference), there's a lot of him that identifies with Fusco. They both wound up in the wrong place for the right reasons, doing things that made them into bad men despite their generally good hearts; they're both trying for redemption, but they both know they also deserve whatever's coming, if it comes. He can't just tell Carter "yes, protect him at all costs" because he'd never think anyone should protect him if there was a cost.
I have no idea if that's making sense yet; it's just some thoughts trying to gel in my head.
Harold - oh, Harold. Your BABY! I was so stressed out by the end of this ep I can't even. I know it will be okay. I hope it will be okay! But watching that barrage of glitches, seeing it unable to determine who was what, watching those screens go dark and then flash that red "signal corrupt" and emergency shutdown AIIEEEE I am stressed. out.
I can't wait for next week. Maybe I'll take a sedative first, though.
Holy crap that was a stressful episode, from beginning to end. I love this show.
Since they started with Fusco, so will I. We've known all along that Lionel was a bad cop who did bad things; we met him when he was a straight-up cold-blooded murderer, ready to shoot John in the head and bury him at Oyster Bay to protect the corrupt group of cops he worked with. He was so comfortable with his role that he was perfectly okay with talking to and joking around with John on the trip; he had zero reservations about what he was about to do. So none of this was a surprise, except the part where wow, John nailed it when he said Fusco was there for loyalty, not from an innate tendency toward being a bad cop.
Except now it's clear that it wasn't just his loyalty (which is vast and sincere). He got steadily boundary-pushed by a predator who knew exactly how far to push it at every step. Stills must have been over the moon when that drug dealer came out of the closet to rush them with a gun; Fusco's shooting him was 100% justifiable and IAB would have cleared him, no question. But he was at the scene of actual murders by cops, and Stills got to twist it into "now you're one of us", instead of "you had to defend yourself during this legal operation".
And at that point, he was in too deep to be able to get out cleanly, so instead started justifying his actions to himself to maintain his view of himself as a good person, or at least reasonably good. So by the time John met him, he was a full-fledged part of the corrupt crew, actively working with them.
I was all "aw!" when he started sobbing across Stills' dead body in the grave he dug him, even -- the man was a bastard and had been using Fusco nonstop for years, but Fusco's notions of loyalty and friendship clearly run very deep; after all that, he still considered Stills a friend, and he still cared about him.
I saw someone saying how stupid it was for Fusco to go to the other HR cop (whose name I can never remember) and calling him out for Beecher's death, finally making it clear that no, he really doesn't work for HR anymore. And yeah, in one sense, it was. But watching HR take out a good cop, especially in a way that hurt his friend and partner -- he has a completely different kind of backbone now, in addition to the one that let him be a very good very bad cop (the one he drew on to threaten Beecher a few eps earlier). It's not that he's weak; it's that he's a follower. A really strong follower. (And I don't think he would ever have been okay with taking out a good cop; he was part of that crew because they were "cleaning up the streets", not just randomly murdering whoever got in their way.)
And that vast, unshakeable loyalty is still in place: he hasn't given John up at all, not even to Carter. She would have believed him if he'd said "I didn't kill Stills -- Mr Happy did." But that's not his truth to tell, so he doesn't say anything but "I didn't do it". He owns all the bad things he did do, and I think he was (and really, is) prepared to go to jail for them, even if he's not going to help anyone put him there by confessing. He wasn't asking for help from anyone -- I don't think he was even looking for help from Carter. I think the scene where he wanted to tell her what was going on was him just wanting to tell the truth, so she heard it from him instead of from anyone else.
And Fusco's story leads directly to Carter's.
I've been fascinated with her storyline this season; it's all been about finding out her lines aren't as strong as she always thought they were. That actually started in first season, when she crossed some of her own lines to help John and Harold; this season got more explicit, when Harold sat down with her and basically said "I don't want you to have to cross any lines" and she handed over the evidence she'd falsified to help John, saying she'd already crossed them, basically without a blink. Then she deliberately sought out someone to drug him and steal DNA that she could plant to protect John. But the entire season's been like that, overtly or not, especially in the face of her realizing that the rooting out of HR was just the surface; there's still lots of corruption, and it intersects with and affects the things she does.
She's been choosing where her lines are, and everyone's been respecting that -- everyone is still respecting that.
This time she couldn't hand the more morally ambiguous things over to John and Harold -- she tried, with both of them, and they both just put the ball squarely back in her court. This was actually very much what Harold did with her when he pointed her at John's past: here's the information, do what you will with it. Choose which path you're going to take.
I think they would have been fine with her not helping Fusco; he was a bad cop despite his recent change of heart, and they've always been very aware of that. They like him, but he's still a tool in their toolbox.
But there was more going on here than just "Carter suddenly finds out Fusco is a bad guy." She knew that, even if she didn't want to know just how bad. She also knows that back when Elias was on the loose and attacking mafia dons, Fusco was the only cop she could trust to have her back (when every cop she brought with her to help protect the dons just left, leaving her entirely on her own). He backed her every play during that, even as Carter was walking a narrow line between trying to do what was right and trying to protect her son; if John hadn't been in her ear promising with all his heart to save Taylor, I don't know that she'd have held as strong against Elias.
Fusco's the one who found out for her that Beecher wasn't on the take. And it was right after Beecher's death that Fusco "broke the code", according to the crooked cop in prison.
There's a lot of personal stuff happening here, and like I said before, I think Beecher's death was the push to get her committed all-in to this motley little crew. I think it was a really hard decision to make, and it's one she may second-guess herself on, but when she handed Fusco the Beecher file to help her with, that pretty much summed it up: they're aligned on a personal axis now, regardless of how much or little their professional pasts line up. If she'd had more time to think about it she'd have been happier, and maybe even would've chosen differently, but her hand got forced when they said they were going out to Oyster Bay; if she wanted Fusco to have a chance to explain, or make up her mind based on more facts, she needed to get him out of the immediate jam he was in.
(I do have some logistical quibbles with her moving that body on her own with just Bear, even just finding it -- he's not a cadaver dog, and Oyster Bay is huge. The thought that they both came back from that clean and fresh-smelling other than a bit of discreet mud on their boots that didn't come off or dry up in the nice long car ride back is... yeah, no. But *handwave*.)
And one of the really fascinating things about this whole thing was HR cop's expression when the grave turned out to be empty. He knows there's someone protecting Fusco now, and has no idea who, and that seems to be justifiably freaking him right the hell out. Elias clearly has a hand in it, since he got the in-prison cop from to either shut up or recant (can't remember which offhand), but either way, there's a new player messing with HR.
On to John and the number of the week, which was violent and vindictive like we haven't seen in a while. I think John had finally let himself believe Harold's promise that they would be there in time to save people and he'd turned that into his sense of identity: he's the guy who shows up in time, takes out a few kneecaps, and saves the day. And I think the sudden inability to do that is shattering him, making him revert back to his last "solid" state, as the assassin who'll do anything to carry out a mission. I think it was really telling, that he said to the doctor "You can't die yet - we've got one more mission to finish" -- he really is back in that mission-centered mindset, where any casualties are acceptable.
I did appreciate him pointing out to Carter that he's really not a good choice to look to as a moral compass; Tumblr doesn't call him the Violent Amoral Unicorn of Justice for nothing.
I also think that while he prefers to identify with Carter (military backgrounds, both idealists in their own way, both convinced that being part of the system meant you were working to make the world a better place, both disillusioned but still trying to make a difference), there's a lot of him that identifies with Fusco. They both wound up in the wrong place for the right reasons, doing things that made them into bad men despite their generally good hearts; they're both trying for redemption, but they both know they also deserve whatever's coming, if it comes. He can't just tell Carter "yes, protect him at all costs" because he'd never think anyone should protect him if there was a cost.
I have no idea if that's making sense yet; it's just some thoughts trying to gel in my head.
Harold - oh, Harold. Your BABY! I was so stressed out by the end of this ep I can't even. I know it will be okay. I hope it will be okay! But watching that barrage of glitches, seeing it unable to determine who was what, watching those screens go dark and then flash that red "signal corrupt" and emergency shutdown AIIEEEE I am stressed. out.
I can't wait for next week. Maybe I'll take a sedative first, though.
