In Plain Sight "To Serge with Love" (2008)

Well I can tell what the biggest shock about this week's episode was: the fact that there are only two episodes left to this show. I was getting so into it, I forgot that cable series tend to abbreviated, especially in their first season. I certainly hope that it gets renewed and I'm sure it will seeing as how the series premiere was the highest rated episode ever for the USA network. It's been a very entertaining show and none of the episodes have fallen flat.

Tonight's was no exception as two witnesses accidentally begin dating which leads to some complications for M&M. I was wondering if something like this would happen. Is it standard practice for a unit of the Marshal's service to be based in a major city? New witnesses are coming in every week (technically we don't know how much times passes between episodes) and it's obvious to local law enforcement there are witnesses throughout the city. It seems to me that would call attention to their location. If you can track down one, there's a whole mess of them people would probably be interested in knowing where they are. I'm wondering if this a future story where someone discovers the Albuquerque witness stash and tries to sell off the locations. Just imagine what Mary would do to that person.

Mary's Ukrainian witness, Natasha, who we haven't seen since "Pilot" makes a return appearance with her new breasts courtesy of the Marshals as Mary discovers that she is dating Sergei, a Russian con man who was also just recently processed into the program. M&M are not too pleased to see that their two witnesses are dating one another with Mary especially wary of Serge who she doesn't trust with her innocent witness. As usual Mary's gung-ho, bullheaded approach to resolving the situation angers all around her including Stan and Marshall (S&M?), but luckily she turned out to be correct. Mary always tends to be right and it's only a matter of time before something like this blows back in her face. I love Mary but she's definitely not a people person and she's bound to rub someone the wrong way and not be able to resolve it by proving she was right. It does demonstrate how excellent her instincts are about people that she can make calls like this although it's possible she was just allowing her general dislike for Serge to cloud her judgment.

It's becoming increasingly obvious that the Albuquerque branch of the U.S. Marshals only consists of these three agents. They do make a mention of IT so I guess there has to be at least one other person working in that building. Stan and M&M also tend to just act like a family with Marshall and Mary as squabbling brother and sister with Stan as the beleaguered father. The scene where Mary reveals she downloaded Serge's hard drive to as USB port has Marshall quite angry and the two of them fight over it like a toy before Stan has to step in and settle everything. It was a comical scene to be sure but one hopes for a little more professionalism from the agents charged with protecting people in danger of being killed.

Brandi finally leaves Albuquerque, or so it seems when she has Mary drop her off at the airport to return to New Jersey. She's actually off to her drug deal which I thought would go in a different direction. Once we find out that loser boyfriend Chuck was having Brandi take all the risk and doing the deal alone, I naturally thought her life would be placed in danger and Mary would have to ride in like the gallant heroine she is. Instead, Brandi has a change of heart after seeing the couple she is supposed to make the deal with, creepy man and touchy-feely woman, have a baby which they decided to bring to their drug deal. In a truly sensible moment, probably her second of the series, after throwing away the drugs, Brandi decides to rat out the bad parents and return, not so sensible, to Raph's for comfort. What should have been a tender moment and also one of redemption is bogged down since Brandi is just not at all endearing. In fact I was angry at this turn of events since it means we'll be stuck with her for a bit longer. She then compounds her overstayed welcome by going to see Raph which of course Mary walks in on. I was hoping they would be having sex because I'm just over the Mary/Raph romance. Of course, she's just asleep next to him which means he'll probably get to make things up with Mary again. Move on from the high school b.s. people!

Favorite moment: Mary, never one to quit and we'd be shocked if she did, decides to pay a visit to the dating service which hooked up Serge and Tasha. Playing a woman heavily into Eastern European guys, which does not include Japan apparently, she is able to discover that Serge has many lady friends from the dating service. Heading straight over to tell Tasha, she bears witness to Serge using his game to assure Tasha it was only because they couldn't be honest with each other about being witnesses. Now that they can, it's only her he wants. Cue some hilarious reactions from Mary who always seems to get a scene in each episode where she gets to react to another couple with comically incredulous expressions. Mary McCormack certainly deserves a nod in the Emmy race. I'm not sure if the show was eligible this year but that means there's no excuse for next year.