Graceland - Episode 11 - Recap - Happy Endings

Graceland - Episode 11 - Recap - Happy Endings

We pick up in this week's episode of USA Network's new (is it still new after eleven episodes??) crime drama Graceland very close to right where we left off. FBI Agent Paul Briggs (Daniel Sunjata) is still distraught over the discovery that a masked man he accidentally killed was in fact an undercover superior of his at the FBI named Juan Badillo (also the agent heading up an investigation on Briggs). Mike Warren (Aaron Tveit) is still passed out on the sofa from his injuries sustained in prison at the hands of the recently-betrayed drug boss Bello. With just one episode after this, it's all coming to a head!

Bright and early after finding out Badillo's identity, Briggs asks DJ for help disappearing Badillo's car. They head out in DJ's truck on some unrelated finish up on a previous case of DJ's (remember the bird smuggling?) and DJ recounts his B-plot from last episode. After that time-filler is done with, they head to where Badillo's car was, but some broken glass in the grass indicates it's been stolen. DJ gets suspicious that Briggs needs something out of the car, and pushes until Briggs comes clean. I'm really surprised at this, since Briggs usually plays it pretty close. This is some serious trouble he could be in here, like life-in-prison trouble, and he actually confides in his partner. Briggs asks for help and is totally honest. I'm starting to think he's not a bad guy, not even with the Odin stuff. They head off to see some guy named Clayton, who is in charge of smash-and-grab car stuff nearby apparently. After trying to reestablish some kind of working relationship (Briggs and Clayton know one another already, it seems), the pair in interrupted by the appearance of Mike. Mike ends up as Briggs's partner for Clayton's smash-and-grab, and the two have words outside. When setting up the takedown, Briggs tells DJ to take Mike down just a little bit early so Briggs can grab Badillo's radio. The armed robbery starts up, goes off without a hitch, and then on the escape, Mike handcuffs Briggs to a pole. It's a brilliant move; before Briggs can make whatever move he's planning, whatever move Mike hasn't been able to anticipate, Mike just ends it. Mike doesn't have to wait for Briggs to do something unexpected, because he prevents Briggs from doing anything at all. Mike Warren does the impossible here by outmaneuvering Paul Briggs, who has spent the entire season one step ahead. DJ frees Briggs, and admits that he's beat. Briggs heads back to Graceland, where he gets a go bag out of the wall and preps to leave forever (the episode actually ends on a neat shot where Briggs literally vanishes, in a neat little David Lynch op-out effect). Meanwhile, back at the crime scene, Mike goes into Badillo's car to find the recorder, but the recorder is gone.

Running parallel to the DJ and Briggs scheme is a counter scheme from Mike and Paige. The dynamic duo place a tracker on Briggs's car (which Briggs sidesteps by riding along with DJ). They scour security cam footage and eventually find the car at a nearby gas station. Then they... follow some kind of lead... where Paige pretends she's pregnant with a church dude's kid?? I... I have no idea what this is about. I guess he's... a gang guy? He's the guy from the gas station security footage, Clayton, but I don't get the pregnancy thing. After the church encounter with Clayton's mom, they head to Clayton's restaurant where Briggs and DJ are already. Paige spots DJ's car, then Mike confronts DJ, then Mike goes into the restaurant and... well, I recapped this part in the last paragraph. So go back up and read that.

Through the art of starting-the-day montage, Charlie's Mexican federal agent partner is confirmed as being the cartel's insane knife murder known only as Jangles, but come on, we all knew. The two meet for drinks. They drink and drink and drink, then head back to Jangles's hotel to talk shop. Charlie's saved by the bell when Johnny calls with a lead on an old heroin case (remember Quinn, from the episode where Charlie shoots up?) they'd been working. Charlie wants to bring Jangles in on this case, but Johnny's clearly suspicious, and crashes their meeting. Johnny sits in the car listening while Jangles ("Raphael") and Charlie ("Katie") go to meet with Quinn. Quinn clears the room and put the moves on Charlie, but she kicks his ass and ruins the meet, much to Johnny's chagrin. This plot was weird and seemed unnecessary, though I do like Charlie and Johnny, so it was nice to see them exist in the episode at least.

This episode was another one with the same problem as last episode: Half the hour is spent on a B-plot I don't care about. The thing with Charlie is so tangential to the main Mike v. Briggs conflict that I find it very hard to care about! I do love how much movement was made on the main plot, though, especially with just one episode left. It's just strange to watch a show that takes this much time on stuff that is obviously filler, since my main shows I watch just for my own viewing pleasure are a cartoon that stuffs summer blockbuster plots into eleven minutes and Breaking Bad, which is basically a film school lesson in suspense every week. Graceland has a lot of good bits each episode, very very good bits, but the time allotted to good bits in the show's 44 minutes is just oddly low. It's clear the writing team knows how to write some compelling TV, but they almost seem hesitant, like quality is a scarce resource that they have to save up! Anyway, I'm hoping the writing feels less restrained in the show's season finale and inevitable second season, because I like Graceland's style and it's characters a whole lot. Check back here next week for this season's final recap!