The Bridge - Recap: Head Case
Recap and review of The Bridge - Season 1 Episode 4 - Maria of the Desert:
When The Bridge has focus, it's unlike any other show on television in Narrative Efficiency Department. Everything in "Maria of the Desert" is singularly geared towards finding Maria, left out in the desert to die as a martyr for the killer's cause. While the story pays lip service to catching the killer, we know well enough that the mystery of the big bad's identity isn't going to be solved this week, so the story instead focuses on the one solvable crisis for our detectives: finding Maria before she dies of exposure in front of a worldwide internet audience. It's fantastic stuff, and just about every scene has a purpose in the larger framework of the episode.
Take, for example, the character whose significance is least apparent from the past three episodes: Charlotte (Annabeth Gish). She's still doing a lot of hand-wringing over the presence of a tunnel on her property, and she's even more freaked out that somebody was able to break into the stables, hang a horse and escape unnoticed. She also has to deal with her angsty stepdaughter, who's obnoxiously smug about discovering Marco's wallet in the guest bedroom. So it's not exactly a good week for Charlotte. But her decision to finally allow the tunnel to be reopened is what allows cartel leader Fausto Galvan (Ramon Franco) to get the ransom money to Marco (Demian Bichir). We also get brief plot movement on the Steven Linder (Thomas M. Wright) story, as he finally gets Eva across the border, and only asks for a kiss in return. Could he really only be doing this out of the goodness of his weird, creepy heart? It remains to be seen at this point, and I get the feeling that his primary function in the story, at this rate, is to serve as our only viable suspect in the overarching mystery. But even then, it seems a bit too easy for the killer to actually be the creepiest guy in the room.
Of course, while the show has plenty of thriller aspects, I'm not sure it's even concerned with the who of it all as much as the why. Marco, Sonya (Diane Kruger) and Lt. Hank Wade (Ted Levine) all recognize that it's not about the money. Hell, even Daniel Frye (Matthew Lillard) knows the killer doesn't really want or need the million dollars. It's simply a means to an end. In his attempt to illustrate how the murder of Mexican women goes largely ignored by American authorities, he's placed young Maria out in the middle of the desert to die, while requesting an obscene amount of money simply to see if the cops are willing to pay for a hostage that isn't some pretty blonde co-ed, as Frye puts it. The killer is engaged in a matter of principles, and while his methods are undoubtedly twisted, the episode makes it clear that he's not necessarily wrong to think that Americans primarily look out for their own before anyone else. But then, so does Marco, who insists on being taken along on the drop-off despite not being authorized to carry a weapon, simply because the victim is Mexican. Marco is undoubtedly invested in the case, procuring the $1 million from ruthless cartel head Fausto Galvan as a last resort, after the Federal Reserves take the better part of forever in coming through with the cash. Ramon Franco is terrific as Galvan -- while he doesn't immediately look the part of a threatening cartel head, his body language and general comportment communicates all the menace and terror of a truly powerful man.
Credit: Prashant Gupta/FX Network
However, while Marco is intent on solving the case, Sonya is even more focused on finding Maria, insisting that there has to be some clue in the live feed that will alert them to her location. Sure enough, her persistence pays off, as the usually omniscient killer made a vital mistake that allows Sonya to deduce Maria's resting place. It's a great bit of characterization for Sonya, as her dogged determination reminds us that, despite her social foibles, she's still a hell of a detective. We even get a bit of backstory on her, as well. As she and Hank drive to rescue Maria, Sonya recalls her late sister, and breaks down upon telling Hank that while she visited her sister's grave site, she just couldn't think of a happy memory to help her through the grief. Worse still, she's been visiting the home of the person responsible for killing her, and while Sonya states that she hasn't been able to get out of the car once she gets there, it feels like only a matter of time until she confronts the person responsible, regardless of how her sister died (whether via car accident, homicide, reckless endangerment, negligence, etc.). The scene immediately makes Sonya feel more relatable and less alien (for lack of a better word -- I just hate using the term "robotic" to describe her, because I feel Kruger is doing more than that with the character). Sonya gets to Maria just in the nick of time, as the girl is unconscious but still alive. One problem down, one to go.
The drop-off is set to be made by a nervous Federal Agent named Gedman (David Meunier). The killer asks to know the name of the agent making the drop-off, and it immediately becomes apparent why, in addition to why Gedman is so nervous. The killer apparently had dirt on him, leaving a cell phone for Gedman at their agreed-upon meeting point. Whatever Gedman sees on the cell phone freaks him out. He removes his earpiece and heads out to meet with the killer. But when Frye receives a text message from the killer some time later, informing him to check a dumpster around the corner, he discovers that this killer likely had no intention of picking up the money. Inside is, presumably, the headless corpse of Gedman, whose head is left in the suitcase of money, from which the killer didn't take a single bill. Despite being unarmed, Marco tries to track down the killer in the warehouse where he's supposedly hiding, but the mysterious assailant gets the drop on him, knocking him to the ground and putting a gun to his head. However, before the killer can pull the trigger, Marco pleads with the assailant to spare him, for his family's sake. This commitment to family is apparently what saves Marco, as the killer opts simply to knock Marco unconscious. When Sonya and Wade discover him, Marco is just coming to. They discover Gedman's head in the bag, in addition to the cell phone that triggered the dead agent's fears: on the phone is video of Gedman with Cristina Flores, the Mexican prostitute who was the lower half of the corpse discovered in the pilot. And the plot thickens.
Credit: Prashant Gupta/FX Network
"Maria of the Desert" is a lean, fierce episode that keeps the plot moving at a breakneck pace, and it's something that I could really get used to. It probably wouldn't work as a weekly template, but there's something really compelling about Sonya and Marco's remarkable determination and efficiency. The Bridge is still a young series, but I feel as though it's already left a considerable stamp on the summer TV season.