5: "The Fallen Woman," 10/24/07
Micky DuPree
in.
PROLOGUE
00:00
Title card:
"The Fallen Woman"
GRIFFITHS: [Over phone] Charlie?
CREWS: [Into phone] What's wrong?
GRIFFITHS: [Into phone] I didn't know who else to call.
That looks really bad. If it's a police matter, Constance should call
911. If it's a personal matter, she should call her husband. Deciding
that she's all alone in the world and that only Charlie will do to rush
to her side looks extremely infantile and manipulative.
STARK: Witness says she just fell out of the sky.
Hello again, Bobby. Fancy meeting you here.
Reese and Crews never catch run-of-the-mill cases, but I guess if their
beat includes Bel Air, it's hard to define "run of the mill."
ACT I
6:43
"JOHN": It's the end --
"3:16": -- of the world.
"JOHN": When angels die --
"3:16": -- it's the end.
Charlie looks like he's finally exceeded his Recommended Daily Allowance
of flake.
WOMAN: Detective, may I ask when you lost your faith?
REESE: I'd rather not talk about my faith.
WOMAN: You don't have it anymore, do you dear? But you used to,
didn't you?
REESE: You know, we have a lot of other people to get to, so,
uh, if you don't mind ...
WOMAN: But you want it back, don't you? It's there, waiting for
you if you want it, whenever you want it. You know that,
don't you, dear?
REESE: [To Charlie] I'm taking a break.
A bit out of the blue since the subject hadn't been broached before, but
since they made such an in-your-face point of it, I guess we can count
on hearing about this again, probably so that Charlie can give her faith
back to her.
CREWS: Just because the wings were fake doesn't mean she wasn't
a real angel.
REESE: Isn't there an "off" button?
CREWS: I know she wasn't an angel-on-a-cloud-with-a-harp angel,
but maybe she was an angel in the way we all might be
angels.
REESE: We all might be angels? Crews, let me tell you
something. You know, there may be a few things that I
don't know about myself, but I'm sure I'm not an angel.
CREWS: See, that is exactly the kind of humble thing an angel
might say. [Sticks an angel figurine on the dashboard.
Reese pulls it off and tosses it aside.] That was very
hostile.
REESE: That wasn't close to hostile.
That was worth sitting through the faith entreaty.
REESE: [To pranksters] You know what I was doing before I got
the call to investigate this? I was investigating a
homicide. What you have done is waste my time.
Throwing that off the roof was a crime, but wasting my
time is what you both are gonna pay for. [To officers]
Take 'em in.
OFFICER: [To pranksters] All right, let's go.
REESE: [To Crews] That was hostile.
CREWS: [To himself] Maybe she isn't an angel after all.
Where does one get the _Golden Field Guide to Spotting Angels_ anyway?
I can't tell a Power from a Principality from a Throne or Dominion.
Some angels are supposed to be avenging ones, so he's got lots to choose
from.
INTERVIEWER: Is it a big responsibility saving someone's life?
GRIFFITHS: It was a surprising amount of paperwork.
lol.
GRIFFITHS: Several thousand pages.
INTERVIEWER: Does he feel in debt to you?
GRIFFITHS: Charlie? Detective Crews, he doesn't owe me
anything.
INTERVIEWER: He owes you his life, yes?
GRIFFITHS: I was just doing my job.
INTERVIEWER: So Detective Crews was just one more client.
GRIFFITHS: Nn-no. Of course not. I would never say that.
I wonder if they're ever going to bother telling us why Constance took
Charlie's case to begin with, and whether he ever threw any money at her
or at her firm after the settlement. (Are we supposed to believe that
Constance handled both the criminal and civil sides of Charlie's case?)
Right now the writers seem to be content with implying that he owes her
everything but is unwilling to pay her the only thing she wants.
CREWS: It's like she fell out of the sky.
REESE: She fell out of a window.
CREWS: It's like she's no one.
REESE: No one is no one.
CREWS: Now you sound like me.
REESE: Take that back.
CREWS: Would it be so bad?
I guess because no one minds.
ACT II
17:50
WILLENS: I, I own a company that makes industrial glues and
adhesives. We moved over fourteen million dollars
worth of product last year.
CREWS: That's a lot of glue.
WILLENS: Well, it's what holds us together. [Groans.] That's
our slogan. "It's what holds us together."
I suppose it did. The glue made the money that held him and his wife
together.
CREWS: [Reese grabs at the dashboard angel. It stays stuck.]
Industrial glue. It's what holds us together.
I had to wonder if the writer started with the idea of the dashboard
angel in his head, and worked his way back to the slogan, the glue, and
therefore what the profession of the widower had to be in order to get
the gag to work.
It struck me as naive that Charlie would try to get picked up in Roman's
club, and that Dani would accept this idea without comment. Most of
L.A. knows who and what Charlie is now, and frankly, even without the
money, he doesn't look ugly enough to need to buy a wife. I'd expect
him to walk into the club and be the only Damian Lewis type in a room
full of Jaspers. Even if Dani didn't want to admit it, I'd expect her
to reach the same conclusion. They really needed a non-celebrity,
ordinary-looking face to go into the club, someone like Bobby Stark
(except that Bobby's been in that documentary).
CREWS: Can you read me?
JULIA: Do you want me to?
CREWS: Mm.
JULIA: I can tell you have money.
CREWS: The watch told you that.
JULIA: I can tell it is new money.
CREWS: Now how did you know that?
JULIA: And I can tell that you do not know what to do with your
new money. Do you know what else I can tell?
CREWS: What?
JULIA: I can tell you're a cop. I can tell she's one too.
Heh, busted. I thought at first that Charlie's celebrity had made this
too easy, but when Julia pegged Dani too, I thought maybe she really was
reading them.
CREWS: I can read people too. And I think it made you sad when
Lena died. I also think you know the Roman my partner
asked you about.
JULIA: Know Roman? No one knows Roman.
REESE: All right, really. What is it with this guy?
JULIA: What is with Roman? He's not what you American cops are
used to. He was born in Russian prison. He's been to
hell and back.
A little cliched.
JULIA: Roman is not like the rest of us.
CREWS: Why is that?
JULIA: Roman has no fear.
Yeah, yeah, he's Keyser Soze. They're building him up into a cable
villain on a broadcast show. Unless they're willing to back that up
with his deeds, it just sounds like the hype it is.
JULIA: When you reach out for Roman, he's not there.
She seems remarkably comfortable talking to the cops about Roman, and in
a place where his people can see and hear her do it.
GRIFFITHS: I'm going to New York.
CREWS: When?
GRIFFITHS: Tomorrow.
Smart move, but I gotta wonder how well this is going to "take," if
Constance is supposed to be a regular character.
CREWS: For how long?
GRIFFITHS: A while. My firm has a big case there, and I'm going
to sit in on it.
This is the first mention I can remember that Constance isn't in law
practice alone. She seems to have an office suite all by herself in
L.A.
CREWS: New York.
GRIFFITHS: City that never sleeps.
CREWS: I been there. It sleeps a little. Naps.
Tell us about it sometime.
GRIFFITHS: I need to go, Charlie. I need to go away. My
husband ... I'm, I'm here with him, but I'm away
from him. And you ... I'm, I'm here with you, but
I'm, I'm not here with you. I need to go.
CREWS: Want some help with those boxes?
GRIFFITHS: No, my husband's on his way, and he's going to help
me ... pack.
So the husband's not going to New York with her? I wonder if he's going
to get tired of being the Other Man in his own marriage.
While I think Constance is an appropriately angsty problem for Charlie
(how many other ways can life kick the guy?), the character is really
starting to grate. She gets him out of prison, and then makes him feel
guilty for her feelings.
CREWS: A little freaky, right?
REESE: A little bit.
These lines didn't scan for me at first. I guess they meant that, as
they entered Roman's club, they expected it to be lively and open for
business as usual instead of empty and shut down, but if they had been
watching the entrances and exits for some time as the story implied,
they'd know that Natashas and Jaspers hadn't been arriving and leaving
the club as usual.
The detectives were working with SWAT to surveil Roman's club, but
somehow when the crunch came, the detectives were leading the charge
again. But weren't they a sexy Mutt 'n' Jeff stalking the devil with
the grunge-goth playing, and that's all that matters, innit?
The inter-commercial "Evidence of Life" spot this week:
INTERVIEWER: What's your theory about why Charlie Crews went to
jail?
I wish they'd stop using 'jail' to mean "prison."
EARLEY: For me, there's only and always one reason why
anybody does anything bad to anybody else.
INTERVIEWER: And what's that?
EARLEY: Money. You want to find out what happened to
Charlie, follow the money.
An appropriate answer for an ex-CEO, but there are also jealousy, power,
and revenge to consider.
INTERVIEWER: And where would that lead?
EARLEY: What LAPD scandals have any real money attached to
them?
ACT III
33:54
ROMAN: [To Charlie] Twelve years in prison, and you're still
walking upright. Just between us, you killed that
family, didn't you?
I gotta respect a guy who does his homework, but if Roman really thinks
Charlie did the murders, he can't be as good at reading people as he
thinks he is.
ROMAN: [To Dani] How's that rehab working for you? Down time's
the hardest. You have nothing to do. The muscles get
all twitchy. You can taste it in the back of your throat.
REESE: Shut up.
ROMAN: All the way down there in the back of your throat.
REESE: Shut your mouth.
ROMAN: Got hooked working undercover.
REESE: Shut your mouth.
ROMAN: Took a junkie lover, too. Whatever happened to him?
[Charlie bangs on the table.]
I'm not betting on Junkie Lover to finish the race.
Except when she got dusted with drugs in the pilot, this is the first
time I can remember Dani losing focus on the job. It was over
comparatively little, too. One bad guy says a few mean things, and
suddenly Dani's back in the schoolyard at the mercy of the big bad
bully?
On the other hand, unlike Charlie's celebrity, knowledge of Dani's
undercover stumbles are presumably restricted to Lt. Davis, IAD, Dani's
former boss in narcotics, and some of the people Dani met while
undercover. I could understand surprise at the level of LAPD security
Roman had managed to breach, but not so much Dani's off-balance
defensiveness. It does give credibility to the lead in the conspiracy
that Roman gives to Charlie at the end, though.
I was wondering what Our Heroes had to stick to Roman that all those
other investigations had lacked, and the answer turned out to be
nothing. So the whole stalking, apprehension, and interrogation of
Roman looked pretty pointless.
CREWS: It was a pleasure meeting you.
ROMAN: And you, Detective. What if it was one of them
[Indicates squad room.] who set you up?
A lot of homework. Evidently, Roman was just baiting Charlie when he
said Charlie committed the murders.
CREWS: When Roman said those things, did you want to shoot him?
REESE: Yes.
CREWS: Me too. Did you see yourself shooting him?
REESE: Yes.
CREWS: Me too. You lost your faith because of the guy, not the
drugs.
Maybe it's just me, but that was a non sequitur. Most of the people
that I've met who lost their faith did so at a younger age, and not
because of a lover or drugs. But I guess we're supposed to take it as a
given that Charlie's got x-ray eyes that see into the soul.
REESE: My faith has been gone for so long, I can't remember when
it was that I lost it. Or if I ever even had it.
STAN: Nothing's missing. I didn't steal nothing.
CREWS: No, you can't steal nothing. Nothing does not exist. To
steal something that doesn't exist, it ... Wait. Wait.
If it doesn't exist, then how can it be something? Ha!
I hate that. Don't you hate that? Uh, it's a brain fart,
right?
REESE: Crews!
Personally, I love it when he does that. I also get into a loop when
thinking about dead people, because if they're dead, they're not people
anymore.
REESE: Do you really have any tattoos?
CREWS: You wanna see 'em?
REESE: Absolutely not.
I can tell you where they aren't. They aren't in any of the same places
the 241 stitches aren't so far.
ACT IV
44:02
CREWS: This kid is nowhere.
REESE: No one is nowhere.
CREWS: Now you're sounding like me again.
REESE: Am I?
You don't have to understand nowhere to be nowhere.
When the detectives put Julia in the room with the giant angel photo, I
thought their next super-tough interrogation technique was going to be
the comfy chair. Both the cops and the crooks talked tough in this
episode, but their actions were pretty tame. I've been spoiled by
cable.
One lonely green apple during the Julia watch was all the fruit I saw
this time.
JULIA: But Lena was leaving. Lena and Oliver were leaving. She
was leaving Jasper. She was leaving Roman.
CREWS: What would Roman do to Lena if he found out?
JULIA: He would kill her.
REESE: Even though she makes him money?
CREWS: He'd kill her to set an example.
JULIA: That's right. To set an example.
The detectives couldn't have guessed at this back when they had Roman?
They don't watch enough TV.
REESE: And what about Oliver?
JULIA: I die, you know, as I say these things to you. These
words kill me.
She couldn't have thought of that back when she was talking to the cops
at the club? And for all the talk about Roman being the devil, Julia
looked fine at the end of the show.
CREWS: We can protect you.
He did NOT just say that. There have been times when Charlie couldn't
even protect himself.
WILLENS: [On recording] Is that door locked?
REESE: [On recording] You're at a police station.
WILLENS: [On recording] Is that door locked?!
CREWS: That's a lot of fear, Jasper, to be so afraid of
someone in the middle of a police station? That kind
of fear doesn't come from a threat. It comes from a
beating.
I don't think they played that recorded scene out well. Evidently, they
want it to be obvious that Jasper was afraid that Roman was going to
storm into the police station and get him if he talked further. While
Jasper did seem reluctant to talk, the shouting initially came off to me
like a citizen indignant about being held in an interrogation room in
violation of his rights, and the cops pretending to get tough with him.
SWAT goes into the dog kennels first. Nice.
Yeah, Oliver was in a dog cage, but he still had all his body parts. I
thought the actor who played Roman did a good affectless sociopath. I
thought the director who shot Roman made him look appropriately creepy.
But I don't think that the constrictions of American broadcast
television will allow Roman to be written as scary enough to warrant the
reputation they're trying to hang on him. He's not as scary as some of
the villains on _The Shield_, for example.
ACT V
54:05
BODNER: Roman Nevikov provides information about drug and arms
shipments between Russia, Mexico, and the U.S.
CREWS: "You reach out for Roman, but he isn't there."
Homeland Security is a nice disappearing act, but if the detectives were
determined to get Roman, how hard would it be to burn Roman with his
contacts and destroy his utility for the government? He was seen being
marched into the station. Special Agent Bodner of the Fatherland
Boondoggle Agency was seen in Lt. Davis' office shortly afterwards, and
Roman was free. No one was being particularly stealthy about any of
this.
I think it's time we at least heard who Lt. Davis reports to. Shouldn't
that station house have a captain?
CREWS: I'm trying to forgive you, Cudahy, for what you did to
Constance.
CUDAHY: I just wanted what you got. They paid you that money
just to shut up.
It's probably a common perception among the general public.
CUDAHY: Why shouldn't they pay me too?
CREWS: I know I'd be a better person if I did forgive you.
I can't swear to it, but I don't think that's Zen, not even in theory.
After all, in Western spiritual conceptions, even God isn't said to
forgive until there's repentance, which is completely lacking here.
MAN: I've called the police.
CREWS: I am the police.
Moment of consciousness for the self, or warning to others listening? I
could make a case either way.
ROMAN: [Over phone] Detective, I have something you might be
interested in.
CREWS: [Into phone] Oh, yeah? What would that be?
ROMAN: The Bank of Los Angeles shootout.
CREWS: How 'bout it?
ROMAN: You should ask your partner about the Bank of L.A.
shootout.
CREWS: That was fifteen years ago.
ROMAN: I know. You should ask your partner. You should ask
your partner what happened to all that money.
Why does Roman want to pass along intel to Charlie? To get Charlie in
trouble? To get the department in trouble? To sow unrest and distrust
in the department? A favor from one old prison hound to another?
What's Roman's interest in this?
Of course Dani looks at a cross on an old necklace of hers before the
episode ends.
Headline on a newspaper clipping on the conspiracy wall:
Five Dead, $18 Million Missing
in Bank of Los Angeles Shootout
Charlie draws a line from it to the photo of Bobby Stark.
--
"Everyone smells him and no one believes in him. Sublime
subtlety of the Devil."
-- Baudelaire
Jeremy Billones
> The inter-commercial "Evidence of Life" spot this week:
Was there one in the 11/14 episode? I didn't see any heads-up notes at
the beginning of any of the commercial breaks.
--
Jeremy Billones
Micky DuPree
: On 2007-11-16, Micky DuPree <MDu...@theworld.com.snip.to.reply>
: wrote:
I'll let you know in a couple of days.
Does anyone out there have a network copy of the pilot to _Life_
complete with commercials? If so, was there an "Evidence of Life" spot
in one of the commercial breaks? (My copy is a commercial-free advance
copy off of Comcast On Demand.) I'd like to compile transcripts of all
of these "Evidence of Life" spots and archive them for reference at:
<http://world.std.com/~mdupree/life/>
-Micky
Adam H. Kerman
>Does anyone out there have a network copy of the pilot to _Life_
>complete with commercials? If so, was there an "Evidence of Life" spot
>in one of the commercial breaks? (My copy is a commercial-free advance
>copy off of Comcast On Demand.) I'd like to compile transcripts of all
>of these "Evidence of Life" spots and archive them for reference at:
> <http://world.std.com/~mdupree/life/>
I really don't recall one. Didn't those begin with the third episode? I
think someone at the network figured out a way to sell more commercials.
Are we ever going to see the damn documentary?
Micky DuPree
: Micky DuPree <MDu...@theworld.com.snip.to.reply> wrote:
:: Does anyone out there have a network copy of the pilot to _Life_
:: complete with commercials? If so, was there an "Evidence of Life"
:: spot in one of the commercial breaks? (My copy is a commercial-free
:: advance copy off of Comcast On Demand.) I'd like to compile
:: transcripts of all of these "Evidence of Life" spots and archive them
:: for reference at:
::
:: <http://world.std.com/~mdupree/life/>
:
: I really don't recall one. Didn't those begin with the third episode?
Nope. There's one in the second episode. I didn't start transcribing
them word for word until the fourth episode, when I decided that the web
site probably wasn't canon, but that the inter-commercial spots were
probably being treated as canon. I'm going to be more systematic about
those spots now. I'm hoping someone out there can check a network copy
of the first ep. to make the collection complete. I need to whip my
notes for the eighth episode into shape first, though.
Oh, and Jeremy was right. There is no "Evidence of Life" spot in the
eighth episode. Without getting spoilerish, I don't think they needed
one.
: Are we ever going to see the damn documentary?
You can see bits of it at nbc.com. It would be interesting if they
turned the documentary into a whole episode at some point, as long as
there was a lot of new footage. It would give Lewis a break from
filming. He's in most of the shots of the series, but so far hasn't
shown up in the documentary.
When I checked a while back (I don't know if they update it), a lot of
the documentary footage on the web site was just stuff that had already
been run on the air, but there were a few exceptions. For example:
Spoiler for the web site documentary footage:
.
.
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.
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There's a short clip from the woman who claims to have been Charlie's
first sexual partner post-prison.
-Micky