In Plain Sight "Stan by Me" (2008)

The first part of the two episode finale finds Brandi's troubles reaching an all-time high, as Mary is kidnapped by Spanky's (Mark Boone Junior, Detective Flass in Batman Begins) men who think she is Brandi. Stan, Marshall and Dershowitz all mobilize to find her while Special Agent Robert O'Conner (Will McCormack) digs into Shannon family history in an effort to link Mary and Brandi with the drug dealers. After seeing Mary in complete control and having every situation well in hand all season, it was an effective switch to have her kidnapped and unsure about how to best escape. Her resourcefulness comes to rescue as she remembers she has her spare gun in her ankle holster and is able to unscrew the hook her hands are tied to. She also inflicts considerable harm on the her abductors and Marshall calls it when he bets Mary broke the nose of one of them. Mary McCormack's acting was first rate in this episode, as she continues to convey a considerable array of emotions just using her facial expressions. From her outright confusion when Jinx berates her at the theater, to her steely determination to unscrew the hook by turning her entire body and to the subtle fear that she is about to be raped and killed while still maintaining her usual bravado and great sense of humor.

The love for the Mary character by the audience is best exemplified in the men in her life, with the obvious exception of Raph. All three are determined to find her before it's too late and manage to put all their differences and hostilities aside in an effort to locate her. Even after they are all booted off the case by the FBI, they head back over to the Marshal's office to continue the case. It was great to see even Stan join in the frantic search as everyone pulls together to search for our favorite Marshal. Their desperation and concern in Mary's well-being drives the search for Mary and makes it seem like her life is really in danger despite the fact that she is the lead and probably will end up safe. It's difficult to do in a television series to place main characters in believable peril but here they succeed admirably with the combination of worry from the guys and the fear from Mary. In fact all the characters give great performances with Marshall's stiff upper lip a truly heartbreaking moment when he realizes what has happened.

Jinx and Brandi are not a part of that praise I spoke about regarding the characters. I was starting to like Jinx and then they had her disappear for a few episodes. Now she's back and apparently crazy again as she goes completely nuts when she sees Mary at her audition. I was completely with Mary during her little rant, what the hell was she talking about? She sees Mary in the theater and just completely flips out claiming Mary is there to ruin her big chance because she wants to see her fail. How is that possible Jinx if she didn't even know what you were doing there? She just walked in to see what was going on and you lost it and probably may have blown the audition as well. There was no call for those harsh statements she made to Mary about how she wants her family to fail so she can gloat. This is a woman who has taken you in, invested in your career and you throw it all back in her face in public. Jinx is a freeloader and it seems all the progress she has made to change her ways was lost in a few minutes in this episode.

And Brandi, oh God, just when I thought she couldn't get any worse, she continues to be so selfish and completely self-absorbed. Her sister is missing and has the FBI and the Albuquerque PD inquiring about her whereabouts and she won't give up any information because she's afraid she'll get into trouble. She just sits and watches the time to Spanky's deadline approach and pass while O'Conner interrogates her. Even though he said no cops, if he's holding her she should have said something as time got down to the wire. Brandi has no redeeming qualities and Jinx is only bearable when she is berating Brandi about her behavior. These characters need to go, I'm sorry. I understand the need for comic relief but these characters are just groan worthy and rarely get any laughs. I'm sure the producers wanted to show the way Mary is by displaying how screwed up her family is, but come on here both of them have sunk to new lows and need to be removed from the series. Family drama can be done well, hi Burn Notice, but here you only try to understand why Mary still enables these freeloading losers.

It looks like Mary's troubles are not over as O'Conner is looking to dig deeper into this whole drug business and is even questioning how Mary could have gotten into the Marshal's service with her family history of crime. It looks like even she has a record which has a few items on it. Spanky is also still at large and I'm sure will return sometime in the future to cause more trouble. For now Mary's future as a Marshal is in question and it looks like Brandi is still going to be causing trouble for her a bit longer. I think this show is great, with mostly funny and interesting characters and a superb balance between comedy and drama. We just need to eliminate a few unneeded accessories, like the family members, and I'm sure this show could reach even greater heights.

Favorite moment: Stan and Marshall were excellent in this episode with both getting great moments to stick it to Special Agent O'Conner. Marshall knocks the file with the Shannon criminal records out of his hand after being ordered off the case and Stan locks O'Conner in a room at the Marshal's office when he is intent on questioning Mary so soon after her rescue. They're great comedic moments but also continue to highlight how much they care for Mary and want to look out for her. Wouldn't you do the same for Mary Shannon?