Wanted
Rubbing One Out
Episode 1.3 - Aug. 14, 2005
As Eve says in her splendid,
snarky re-cap, "This episode has more meat, but a little
less Lee. But they pair him with Gary Cole, and the two have a great
rapport."
The episode opens with Rose (Gary Cole), Drake
(Lee) and McGloin (Ryan Hurst) giving chase to a long-haired
fugitive. This must be one of those scenes that prompted Lee to
comment in a TNT publicity interview:
-
"It’s like when I was 8 or 9
years old, running around my backyard with a fake gun. It’s
really funny to be older and to be playing it out in a much
grander scale. When I’m working, I really get in touch with
that. It’s so real and at times scary and physically
demanding, but when I was a kid, I wouldn’t have stopped until
my mom called the third time for dinner."
There’s a point in the chase where a bunch of
kids point Lee in the direction the fugitive ran. Next thing you see
is Lee running down the sidewalk, big grin on his face, with his
tongue fully unfurled, just having a hoot!
The scene culminates with Rose, McGloin and
Drake lamenting that the bad guy must’ve gotten away. But
they’re just goofing around, having a laugh at the
dumb criminal’s expense. The bad guy’s hair is sticking out the
door of a shed. They yank the guy out, cuff him, and bond over the
capture of Wanted Man No. 28.
Later, there’s more bonding as the team gives
advice to the heartsick Gronbeck (Josey Scott), who has the hots for
the lady D.A., Mariah
Belichek (played by Karen Sillas).
"You look like you could bite the head off bats
but when you get around her, you’re all Jell-O. That’s bad.” Merced
(Rashida Jones) actually agrees with him. “Women like
power. Period. Hunters not gatherers. … It’s all about
confidence.”
Enough levity, it’s time to chase another bad guy. This time
it’s Jin-Lee, the leader of the K-Town Warriors (a gang in Los
Angeles’ Koreatown). He has been arrested and jailed for rapes and
burglaries, but he escapes while being transported in a police van
that’s ambushed by other K-Town Warriors.
Drake surmises that someone at the courthouse
tipped off the gang about the route the van would take. With
glee, Drake suggests, “I say we pull all the guards and clerks in
a room. Get creative. See who wets their diaper first.”
Rose: “Sounds like fun. You and I’ll take
that.”
So Drake and
Rose round up a roomful of nervous-looking guards. Drake is intense,
prickly and pacing. Rose is calm yet intense. Trying to sniff out
the snitch, they tell the guards that the gangsters are planning to
kill the one who leaked the information. Drake, dripping with false
sincerity: “If you were involved, better step forward now for
protection of you and your family.”
Later, a guard comes forward and tells Drake
and Rose that the bad guys paid her $1,000 to tell them the route
the police van would take. She’s on the verge of hurling, worried
that the gang has put a hit out on her. Drake and Rose assure her
she’s not a target, but Drake says, “You are under
arrest.” For second-degree murder in the death of the two guards
in the transport van, Rose tells her. The guard has a nauseous look
on her face. Drake has a maniacal look on his: “Are you going to
puke?” Apparently so. As the guard dashes off, Drake is not
sympathetic. “Jiggle the handle! It sticks!”
Drake and Rose head to a shop in Koreatown to
follow the guard’s tip. The escaped bad guy is headed that way,
too, but a kid warns him the cops are around. The chase is on.
They catch up to him in a crowded marketplace
in a narrow alleyway. The bad guy turns and starts firing, mowing
down everything and anyone in sight. Drake’s on a fire escape and
has a clear shot, but Rose calls him off, worried about the
civilians.
Back at headquarters, Rose gets into it with
Drake. “You disobeyed my orders in a stand-off and I shouldn’t
even be giving you a warning.”
Drake is (rightfully) incredulous: "I could’ve taken
him down without incident!" Doesn’t matter, according to
Rose: "It’s not your decision to make! I say, ‘Back up,’
you back up."
After a few more in-your-face, teeth-gritting
exchanges, Rose softens and Drake surrenders. Rose: “You’re a
hell-of-a-cop.” Drake: “And you’re the boss.”
But that’s not quite the last word. Rose
says, “This is the only way I know to run a team.” Drake snarks
back: “The way you’re talking, it doesn’t feel much like a
team, lieutenant.”
The final bit of action comes when Rose hatches a plan with the bad
guy’s father. They fake his death to set up an ambush at the
funeral home. Drake is undercover, washing a car across the street.
When the bad guy shows and the tear gas and
bullets are about to fly. Drake and the crew don gas masks. Their plan
works and they round up the bad guy and his cohorts.
In a show full of light moments and heavy
action, the wrap-up features a quiet montage of individual members
of the task force reflecting on the conflicts of the day. Drake is
seething by the roadside on a busy city street, brooding over his
run-in with Rose.
It was one of several questionable decisions
and actions by Rose in the episode. Undoubtedly, these will be
fodder for conflicts to come.
|