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Post by queensgirl on Apr 21, 2006 14:59:04 GMT -5
“Love God and do what you like," runs a well-known saying of St. Augustine. Both issues will be the source of much difficulty for the characters in this episode.
A priest is distracted while serving food at a soup kitchen. He helps one more person, then runs out across the street and into church. There he meets another priest, Fr. Estevez, and asks permission to hear confession even though he is running late. Estevez balks but is persuaded.
Fr. McDonovan takes his place in the confessional booth. People ramble on about their problems, some mundane, some more serious, and he forgives them all. Then someone walks up with a distinctive stride. It’s a woman, and she says he knows her.
She apologizes for being absent last week. Her next news is far worse. The woman says she wants to die.
McDonovan warns against it. He begs her to tell him what’s wrong. What could have pushed her to this point?
She insists, however, that her plans can’t be wrong, because she may be forgiven.
It’s not hers to decide when she should go, McDonovan cautions. Murder is a mortal sin.
She counters that someone who “throw a bomb into a building” could be forgiven, so why not someone struggling with depression?
McDonovan, distraught, asks what she wants to hear from him. She wants to know what will happen to her soul. God doesn’t seem to have heard her prayers.
That’s not true, the priest promises. “He has. He will.”
McDonovan begins the prayer of absolution, but the lady flees. The priest rushes to follow the sound of her footsteps. They lead outside, where the woman gets into a cab. It’s a red one, and he gets a good look at the paint and plates.
Meanwhile, someone who is not very worried about propriety at all is having a pretty good time. David Addison is spying on a neighbor across the way. He has company on the fact-finding mission: some of the other guys from the office. Maddie walks in, and needless to say, is none too thrilled. She takes the telescope and lambastes the chuckleheads for their crude diversions. A few seconds later, Addison makes sure the coast is clear, and resumes his surveillance with binoculars. And is promptly busted again.
This time Maddie is good and torqued. She is even less pleased, if such were possible, when David calls the woman, on Hayes’ orders to apologize, and the target actually returns his sleazy attentions.
A livid Maddie is probably on the verge of showing David what the word ‘defenestration’ means, when a client interrupts the fray. It’s the good father, polite but very worried.
Fr. McDonovan says he wants to find the woman to whom he spoke. Not just to help solve her troubles, but because he loves her, and wants to get married.
David is, to say the least, taken aback. “Far be it from me to tell anyone how to live their life, Father, but don’t you think you ought to try living together for a while first?” Here he is being sarcastic, but we are about to see that there is much more bubbling under the surface.
It is a little strange, not that McDonovan wants to help her, or even that he feels affection for her, but that he jumps from wanting to talk to her about her problems, to this. To say the least, it’s an unusual solution.
Later, the detectives leaf through cab company logbooks, looking for anyone who left from the church block at about the right time. David is seething, and Maddie can tell it’s about something more than the dull chore at hand. Nevertheless, although the bomb is ticking, it won’t detonate just now.
Bert comes in with more fare logs. Agnes brings in pizza. She stops in her tracks to stare at Bert. In the previous episode, she had her first run-in with Mr. Viola, and it ended, to say the least, rather unpleasantly. Although Maddie, in a good mood, offers to share the pizza, both of the subordinates turn her down. Still smarting from her failure with Viola, Agnes follows Bert out into the foyer.
“You don’t have to leave on my account,” she explains.
“I wasn’t,” Bert says quietly. “Look, I don’t hate you. I know you think I do, but I don’t.”
“No. I don’t. I don’t think that. And besides, it doesn’t matter,” Agnes rebuts. “Because I hate you.”
“Uh-huh,” Bert mumbles.
“Goodnight,” Agnes snaps, and walks out.
Stung by the bitterness of the remark, Bert nevertheless watches her go. He’s still attracted to her, in spite of their problems. And he still has hope.
Meanwhile, Maddie has tracked down the note that relates to the cab stop. She wakes up David, who has sacked out on the couch. Addison is in a rough mood, and it’s not just from being groggy. “We’re messing with things that we shouldn’t ought to be messing with!” he protests. He has a big problem with the priest wandering off the path, and thinks that working this case will contribute to the dilemma. David even thinks the Man Upstairs might look askance on their intervention.
“That’s absurd,” Maddie says, but to Dave it isn’t so funny. He doesn’t want to take the case. Hayes, on the other hand, may not feel so disturbed by this issue because she isn’t religious. Is her opinion due to a lack of connection, antipathy, or just commitment to getting the job done? Note also her continuing change in ability to accept cases of people with ethical lapses.
Is it fair for David to be this worked up—should he, also, try to be detached and approach it from a strictly professional point of view? Why does he feel so strongly—is he trying to compensate for his own moral shortcomings?
In any event, he smothers his objections long enough to accompany her on a spying trip to the woman’s place of residence. It’s an upscale apartment, and Alicia Adamson can be seen with her husband, doing something that makes her appear rather mentally—and physically—healthy indeed. David scoffs at Maddie for being eager to use the binoculars in this incidence, when she’d called the same thing crude before. (He fails to note that Maddie isn’t doing this for thrills, isn’t forcing her attentions on someone in order to enjoy their discomfort, and in this case it’s part of their job. Not that Addison should be telling someone how to be moral, exactly.)
That night’s work complete, it’s back to work the next day. David wonders why Fr. McDonovan believed the woman was depressed. He warns Maddie not to call and say they found Mrs. Adamson. What burns him most is that Adamson is married.
Maddie, in turn, finds it pretty funny that David sees himself in the role of ethical guardian. He’s no one to talk. In effect, he is advocating concealing the truth—if the marriage is at this point, being honest may actually be for the best. Why force Alicia’s husband to continue living a lie with someone who wants to be unfaithful? The dilemma is more than the black-and-white division it first appeared to be.
David fumes that he “find this repugnant. A priest is going to break up a marriage, and we’re going to help him!”
Maddie says she thinks they ought to give McDonovan the benefit of the doubt. “He’s a priest,” she reminds him, oddly having more confidence in the man’s ability to resist temptation than David does. David is thinking of the immediacy of love and attraction, and the likelihood of people to give in to the flesh. Strange how Maddie is the one who holds the priest in high regard, while David will accuse her of not understanding or respecting his religion.
“He’s our client. We owe him the truth,” Maddie urges. They head out to meet him. In the car, the debate takes a turn for the worse.
“You don’t have to come if you don’t want to,” Hayes offers.
“It doesn’t matter whether I go or not. What matters is what’s said once we’re there,” David replies. He doesn’t seem to credit Maddie with the ability to talk to someone in a religious crisis. Either he is angry with her for being an atheist, or he thinks she just wouldn’t care about the subject matter.
“He’s a big boy, David,” Maddie assures him.
“Oh, right, I forgot,” David snorts. “I’m talking to a heathen.”
“Look, I’m not saying there’s a supreme being, and even if there is, tell me the world’s a better place because of religion.”
“The world’s a better place because of religion.”
David insists that the church has “enriched his life.” He sticks up for the holidays, such as Christmas: “Hell, I still got Jewish friends that are bent out of shape because their ancestors didn’t think of it first.” (If he told them something like that, I’d be surprised if he still had Jewish friends.)
“Take confession,” he carries on.
“You take confession,” Maddie rebuffs. “I don’t know, David, it sounds too easy.”
Dave insists telling someone your most private thoughts and issues isn’t easy at all. He rambles off on a tirade that before she “goes casting aspersions,” she should try taking part in a religion. “You could use a little introspection yourself.”
This is only one of many frankly nasty and outrageous things he says during this episode. I’m surprised he ended it with his employment, not to mention his jaw, intact.
Maddie says she prefers to consult a psychiatrist, although she’s stopped that as of the moment.
“You graduated?” David laughs. “Dr. Ruth gave you a diploma?”
(Again. Grrrrrr.)
Maddie admits to an unfortunate incident that caused her to stop going. Pity for the humiliation—her shrink fell asleep.
Never one to pass up an opportunity, David finds this pretty darn amusing. Maddie probably wishes she could crawl in a hole in the ground. The real world, however, offers no such relief. There’s still work to do.
They arrive at the rectory. McDonovan offers them the check for part of the fee. Maddie tells him the woman is married. David says he should have figured that out himself—after all, he is a priest, and supposed to be concerned about her. If he didn’t ask enough questions, it means the man was only thinking of what he wanted to know, namely, how to get into a relationship with Adamson (thereby destroying her marriage). David resents the implication McDonovan really used the detectives to help him track the woman down so he could make his move.
McDonovan says he needs time to think. He still wants to help her—“I just need to figure out if I should.”
This makes David even more irate. He thinks of it as ambivalence; in fact, it may be a sign of great turmoil, even an inclination, as Maddie predicted, to drop the whole thing. But David doesn’t see it that way.
“Yeah, you figure it out,” he sneers. They move to leave.
“Wait. You forgot this.” The priest holds out the envelope with the check.
Addison makes no move. “Put it in the poor box.”
He strolls out, following Maddie into the main room of the church. He claps with scathing contempt. “You just couldn’t help yourself, could you?”
Maddie balks at the shot out of left field. Addison plows on, accusing her of sticking to the case when he knew it would turn out badly. She never trusts him, and what’s worse, she thinks she knows better about this very personal matter.
In all fairness, with the exception of her remarkable and somewhat ironic trust for the priest, Maddie has done little to take sides or get worked up about the case, and David has in turn much made fun of Hayes’ own deeply held opinions. Sometimes you just have a job to do. Cops, lawyers and many other types of professionals must simply learn to deal with people at their worst. Private detectives are no different. In some fields you have to check your personal caveats at the door.
David says Maddie could have taken an active part in warning Fr. McDonovan from his reckless course of action. She didn’t talk much in the encounter just past, which David took as some sign of not caring or even approving. Actually, Maddie could simply have been said to let the client speak for himself. He is an adult and it’s not really Maddie’s job to baby-sit for him; the man is to blame for his own actions. David is angry that Maddie didn’t agree with him and pitch her camp on the same side of the fence.
“I didn’t know we were getting involved with someone who was capable of adultery,” Hayes objects.
“’Cause you didn’t listen!” David shouts. “I don’t even think you know how!”
Oh jeez.
“You were warned!” he continues the harangue. “I warned you! But did you pay attention? No!” He says she had to take the case and have it her way—his opinion was irrelevant to her.
Well, it is her company.
I have half a mind that much of his antipathy toward her comes from the fact that she walked in and displaced him, and he’s no longer top of the totem pole. He never got over being boss prior to her arrival. Leave aside even the considerable anger of this case—he’s always had a problem with her authority.
Usually he’s the one who will accept a case no matter what, even including the fact that many if not most of the clients or targets have horrible ethical lapses. Now the shoe’s on the other foot. Addison is playing the role of the moralist, and he’s the one who doesn’t care how much the other one thinks the case is worthwhile.
He accuses her of thinking she knows it all. “Why am I wasting this on you? You know everything, right?”
M: Where are you going?
D: Back to the office.
M: I have the keys to the car.
D: I’ll take a cab.
Oh dear. If this keeps up, we may have to put on Kevlar suits.
Hurt, and looking for something to do, Maddie figures she’s already in the right place for what she plans anyway. She ducks into the confessional booth and, what do you know, figures she’ll try this on for size. She begins to talk. And a few minutes later, is greeted by the same insulting snores she got at the psychiatrist’s office. She can’t buy a win.
Eventually she makes it back to the office, and stops to see Dave. “For what it’s worth,” Maddie says, in a conciliatory mood, “I know I don’t know everything.”
But Dave does not turn around or smile. His chair is tilted and he stares in a disconsolate mood into the distance. The office is dark. Bad news.
“Alicia Adamson just blew her head off with a shotgun.”
They go back to the Adamsons’ place. Alicia’s widower, Ray, says they just removed the body. Oddly enough, he looks drab to the point of being downright unemotional. There is a difference between shock and an unhealthy lack of caring. It should be an easy call here. It’s not.
Ray says McDonovan is in the master bedroom, praying for Alicia’s soul. Adamson talks with some weariness. “Isn’t that what we’re supposed to believe?” he says—perhaps tarring him with the same brush as the skeptical Maddie. All of a sudden, he puts on a great show of sadness.
The detectives go to see the priest. McDonovan is idling around the room. “This is where she lived,” he ruminates. “I never even saw her face. Now she doesn’t have one.” He says he believes Ray loved Alicia, and that it was McDonovan himself who hadn’t done enough to help her. “It doesn’t matter now. Her suffering is over. For the people she left behind, it’s just beginning.”
On the drive back, David is considerably more subdued. He says, from deep melancholy, “You know, I’m probably closer to you than anybody else I know out here. My family’s back east. All my friends are back east.” David says he’d have to depend on Maddie to take care of his effects if anything happened to him. This is as near as he’ll get to an apology for his many contemptible statements of before, and it’s quite a serious tribute.
Eventually, thoughts return to the case. Ray had said the marriage was bad. Then why the scene in the window?
Time waits for no one. Next day at the office, Agnes is all serious, bent on work, piling on the tasks as if to finish a million things at once. Oh, and she took time to write up a staff recommendation, having squared it that the good ship Blue Moon has one hole in its shell. Named Bert.
Dave is not ready to concur with the report. He sails on into Maddie’s office.
Where she has taken a new approach to arguing with him. One that could send him to the hospital.
Hayes is toting a genuine shotgun. “Put this gun in your mouth and pull the trigger,” she advises. Rather startled, Addison freezes.
But Maddie isn’t about to open fire. She is instead trying to see if she could reach the trigger from the alleged position of the gun when Mrs. Adamson used it. It would never work. As Maddie is somewhat taller than average, it is presumed that Alicia couldn’t have done the act either.
They rush off to tell Fr. McDonovan the news, which should be a relief. He in turn wants to tell Mr. Adamson. The priest guesses Alicia may have interrupted a burglar.
David decides to do a little extra investigating. Maddie and Fr. McDonovan follow. He walks into the other room to see Janine Dalton, Adamson’s mistress, who was the person they saw in the window. She was also the one who pretended to be Alicia at confession, to build up the disreputable theory that the woman was suicidal. McDonovan is deeply hurt they would think of a scheme like this. He had felt so sorry for the family.
Evil people don’t give up that easily. Ray flees upstairs. David charges after.
The way leads to a balcony. Ray turns around to battle David. It’s pouring rain, a nasty electrical storm. The fight begins.
Ray avails himself of the tv antenna, swinging it in deadly chops at David. Addison manages to duck out of the way. Barely. It looks like David, with only his two hands for safety, hasn’t got much time. Then a streak of lighting arcs out of the clouds. It spikes the antenna in Ray’s hands. The jolt roasts him to death. David turns his eyes skyward. “Nice shot!” he yells in thanks. Maddie and Fr. McDonovan echo the words.
A day later, in the comfort of the Blue Moon office, the three have time to discuss the results. “I don’t know whether to thank you or beg your forgiveness,” says McDonovan.
“Hey, what are you talking about?” David says. “All’s well that ends well, right, padre?”
Maybe, maybe not. The priest says he wants to leave the clergy. While he’ll never get to be with Alicia now, he realizes his former rank is no longer for him. “I can’t go back.” He’s not sure what’s coming next, but a change seems right. “God bless you both.”
McDonovan has implied that both the detectives are worthy of good things happening for once. (Quite apart from the negative and combative way they usually view one another.) Maybe he really does see what others can’t. (As is often true, it takes an impartial third observer to pick out the truth—that this couple really are suited for each other.) He is soon on his way.
There is an unstated but demonstrable difference in the atmosphere. David no longer jumps to blame Maddie for the crazy course of events, nor her views on religion. Maddie, in turn, does not put David through the wringer for the very rough way he treated her during the case. They forgive and forget.
David reclines on the couch and Maddie begins to explain that maybe she did tip her hat, just a little bit, toward his way of doing things. She’d been to confession, and despite the end, thought it hadn’t been so bad. Maybe it’s good to get things off your chest. Maybe it is “good for the soul.”
Zzzzzzzzzzz…Uh-oh.
“Fine. Great. All of you, go to hell,” Maddie says, and storms out. Wouldn’t do to get too many things right at the same time.
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Post by Frontier on Jul 8, 2007 10:47:53 GMT -5
Another episode that carries on religious issues like the ones we've seen in "In God we strongly suspect", only this time we get some info what each character finds correct and not correct. As usually done in Moonlighting, both of them are correct and wrong at the same time. I did like the binoculars scene, the 4th wall look of David in Maddie's car and the chase scene at the end: 'Right attitude, wrong position' / 'We have to get an illustrated manual' - great lines ;D Maddie's confession to David at the end was so revealing about her feelings towards him, a pity David was asleep  I'd give it an 8+ |
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Post by dedaved on Jun 28, 2012 10:35:56 GMT -5
Rating: 6
One thing worth noting is that this is the final truly episodic "formula" episode of Moonlighting showrun by GGC (save for Poltergeist III-Dipesto Nothing). The show doesn't reset completely till "The Color Of Maddie." After this episode Moonlighting practically becomes an infinitely ambitious anthology show of sorts with Big Man, AS, IAWJ, Straight Poop. Then following Poltergeist we get the game changing episode Blonde on Blonde that (whether you like it or not) transformed the show completely. This was the last PURE episodic, case driven, D/M adventure done on Glenn's watch.
There are a some funny scenes in what is overall a moderately entertaining episode. A lot of mileage was gained from a delightfully cruel running gag involving Maddie putting people there to listen, console and advise to sleep. Sorry Maddie, i'd listen to you till the cows come home but this was just too funny! ;D An early scene involving David, a pair of binoculars and a woman in the next building also manages to start things perfectly. It's one of the great "D/M fighting in the office before the episode really starts" scenes. But this one never really seems to shift into high-gear and the moral quagmire of temptation they clearly want to explore is mishandled. A scene involving a sanctimonious David chewing out Maddie in a church feels calculated and tacked on while the resolution of the case is (even for this show) beyond an after thought.
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