DA VINCI'S CITY HALL REVIEWS-SEASON EIGHT

• Review of Episode 109: Gotta Press the Flesh

  One more correction--it's the Prime Minister who arrives in town this week, not the Premiere. I do know the difference (contrary to some opinions), but assumed that little old Vancouver would not interest the PM enough for him to show up. For you American readers, the Premiere of a province is the equivalent of a governor of a state and the Prime Minister is the equivalent of the U.S. President (though probably with more brains). The Canadian system, however, is closer to the British parliamentary position than to the two-party American system. In the Brit system, a Prime Minister is the leader of the majority party, though this doesn't have to be an actual majority of the vote, just the largest number of votes of all of the parties. If the party has more votes than any other party, but not a majority of the national vote, this forces the leader of the party to forge a coalition with the other parties to get a majority vote on issues. This is why, for example, the leader of the Conservative Party, Stephen Harper, was able to crash the Canadian government and force a new national vote this month.

  What does that have to do with this week's ep? Quite a bit, actually. Bill and Charlie, as usual, are trying to derail Da Vinci (yawn), this time by getting their story to the P.M first. However, they are hampered by one big problem that becomes clear to Da Vinci (but not them) late in the episode--the P.M. doesn't give a damn about little fish like them. He's come to meet the Mayor, primed by his friendship with pal Lloyd Manning. Da Vinci's strong popularity polls have attracted the P.M.'s interest. His party's popularity is weak in western Canada and he wants to bolster it by recruiting Da Vinci, possibly for B.C.'s premiere or even higher. The obvious allusion to Da Vinci model Larry Campbell's recent appointment to the Senate opens up some future plotlines for the writers. Da Vinci, however, is not happy with the idea at present. "Nobody's grooming me for anything," he says. He's so determined to stay a local politician (i.e. mayor) who's loyal to the constituency that voted him in that he may screw himself with the P.M.

  This possible misstep becomes more urgent when Da Vinci makes the apparent coup of persuading the P.M. to go for a tour with him of the redlight zone over the strenuous objections of Bill--and the episode ends when a murder cuts the tour short. Whoops. Cliffhanger time.

  One of my favorite moments comes early on, when the female Dom minion, Rita, tells Da Vinci in the limo that he can't get a copy of the P.M.'s schedule from the Chief of Police due to security considerations. "Total horseshit," Dom growls. "That's horseshit, apparently," Rita smoothly paraphrases over the phone to Sam, the male Dom minion. Dom gets his way, though Charlie balks until the schedule appears in the paper. Once again, Bill and Charlie act Dumb on Cue and irritate their boss for no apparent gain. I really wish these guys would get at least one working brain between them.

  This is a week of transition. As such, this ep is not especially satisfying in and of itself, but it sets up things that hopefully will be wrapped up down the road. This has become a given for the show, now, that some eps will have beginnings, some middles and a few ends. But almost none will have all three for one story in the same ep. However, since there are only four eps left, we should be seeing a whole lot of endings from here on out. This affects how the events come across in this one. Earlier in the season, a lot of these things would be more likely to be unrelated. But now, it's looking like everything is in the middle of something else.

  Da Vinci's mutual wooing of the PM and his feud with Bill and Charlie, for example, are bound to clash and clash big. The stabbing murder that closes out the ep is probably just the beginning of that. Da Vinci temporarily gets the upper hand when the Dom minions have a little meeting with the PM's handler, Sanjay (who first appeared last season) and drop the name "Lloyd Manning". "We know he's [the P.M.] gotta press the flesh a little," Sam says, uttering the title line about halfway through. But they want a redlight tour with the P.M. for Da Vinci. Da Vinci wants the PM to tour the redlight district, as well. Bill fights this vigorously, of course, citing security issues and balking at handing over the P.M.'s schedule, but he ultimately loses that round.

  Not everything goes well for Da Vinci, of course, though some things go better than others. He and Manning have a serious falling out after Da Vinci discovers that Manning is "flipping" the racetrack back to Roger Woo. When Manning tells him, "All I did was what any good business man would do", Da Vinci furiously tells Manning that he betrayed Dom's trust and not to ask any more favors from him: "You screwed me and I'm not gonna forget it." Manning later tries to mend fences with Da Vinci by offering to bring a professional basketball team back to Vancouver. Da Vinci plays along, but this time, he's playing Manning.

  Dom's change of heart and falling out with Manning occurs after Da Vinci's measure on the slot machines goes down in flames. The opposing city councillor who was supposed to be out of town shows up unexpectedly and two of the councillors that Rita thought she had in the bag vote against the resolution. These are the ubiquitously irritating Sandra Felinger and Ben Solomon, the weasely looking guy who showed up a couple of eps ago. Cast against type (the actor usually gets stuck playing the nebbishy little guy who gets eaten first in SF monster flicks or shot dead at gas stations in noir offerings; he must be thrilled to be on the show), Solomon is a passionate opponent of gambling.

  Da Vinci, needless to say, is pissed at the both of them and convinced that Manning influenced them to change their votes. He calls them into his office to rip them apart. But then, they show up with a plan to turn the racetrack into a heritage site. This means that the city could subsequently take over the racetrack and run it, with no outside interference or dependence upon self-interested, concession-demanding types like Manning or Woo.

  When Da Vinci calls in his minions and they both allow that it's a good plan, his mood changes, especially once Sam finds out that Manning and Woo conspired together to juggle the racetrack between them so they could sink it and get gambling concessions for Woo's new track in Delta. Da Vinci goes along with the new plan. At a later secret emergency meeting (for which Da Vinci stands up a thousand-dollar-a-plate dinner with the P.M.), Julia the City Administrator even assures Da Vinci that they can keep the jobs down there in the short term by applying to the province for a special gaming license, or take over existing ones. Dom swears everyone to secrecy saying, "If this thing goes sideways, there's gonna be blood on the floor."

  But, he warns Felinger and Solomon, if this goes sour, "I'll be asking for both your resignations." It seems clear that a little conspiracy to give the Mayor what he wants in order to save everybody's head is going on. But it also shows how much his power has grown. No longer are his handlers handling him, so much as the other way around. You see this after he leaves the room following Ferlinger and Solomon's giving him their proposal. The camera lingers on the two councillors--instead of looking smug at pulling one over on Dom, they both exhale as if they just had a close shave with the King's chopping block. And at the end of the emergency meeting he tells Sandra calmly, "Sandra, I'm still pissed." In this ep, we really see Da Vinci begin to feel the extent of his power, and even abuse it a bit.

  But that power still has limits, even if they're fuzzier than before. Last week, the police were harassing a confused prostitute, herding her toward the redlight zone, then telling her she couldn't troll the streets until after nightfall. The frustration of the prostitute last week appeared to segué into the suicidal despair of the crackhead woman, Carmen, who begins this ep by jumping (or was that falling?) off of a building to opera music while her boyfriend and the police try to stop her. The police tell Mick that a ladder truck might have saved her, but it arrived late. The fire department officers tell Mick that they were called after the woman jumped. Despite their different stories, both police and fire are remarkably friendly and cooperative with Mick, compared to the previous investigations where Bill and Charlie got involved and tried to stir the pot. Nothing gets otherwise resolved from the case in this ep. It could be that the case is meant only to bookend with the stabbing at the end, since both occur in the redlight zone and Da Vinci arrives in his limousine immediately after both incidents (guess Mick will be meeting the P.M. next week).

  This is an ep where it's more difficult to tell the motivations of the good guys than of the bad guys--though I still can't figure why Charlie doesn't realize that hooking Constable P.E. up with Mick as the police liaison to the Coroner's Office is such a bad idea. That's just Dumb on Cue and makes me more irritated with Charlie's characterization than I think is strictly necessary. At any rate, we have Da Vinci trying to influence the Police Complaints Commissioner, Kaspar, into the grow-op shooting, despite Bob, Sanjay and others urging him to back off. This is no surprise--he's a bull in a china shop. What is the surprise is that he's urging the investigator to go easy on the police. This seems odd, considering that he's been plotting to get rid of Bill and Charlie all season. But it looks like a clumsy attempt at reverse logic. He's certainly influencing Kaspar to go against anything he says that he wants and he's right that Bill is furious when he finds out about the investigation. But Da Vinci's also angry with the fire department for insisting on the investigation in the first place. He tells the FD Chief that he needs to get his people behind the investigation, now that the department has insisted on it. If the way the ep begins is any indication, it looks as though we are moving toward a reopening of the Coroner's Inquest and putting Mick back into the hotseat between police and fire.

  Speaking of Mick, he continues wooing Brian, who basks in it, even using his new "witness" to bust a cold-eyed man in an SUV and try to make him look like a colleague of Dubreau's (codeword="blindfold"). Brian is now telling street people that Mick "is a friend of mine" and Mick isn't doing anything to correct that impression. He meets with the young man, Andrew, that Brian has suborned to say that he met with some men who blindfolded him and took him to the Century Club. Andrew doesn't mention Dubreau's name, so it's difficult to tell just how much Brian has suborned him. It's also difficult to tell just how much Mick believes the boy. The first part of Andrew's story sounds very coached, but the part about what happened once he got into the room reverts to much the way he told Brian, even contradicting the previous coached part. He even mentions a name, "Eric", that isn't Dubreau's. Also, just as Mick got Brian to admit to being at the scene of Manny Zapata's assault, he also gets details out of the boy that Brian probably gave Andrew. So, if Mick gets Andrew to admit that he was coached, that begs the question of how Brian got those details.

  This investigation isn't doing wonders with whatever relationship is happening between Mick and Kosmo, or between Kurtz and Bill, for that matter. Kosmo is clearly still angry with Mick, apparently convinced that he is allowing Brian to snooker him. Bill starts pushing to arrest Dubreau immediately, against the advice of everyone in Homicide, including (ironically enough) Kurtz. He's determined to use the investigation to get some good press for the police department. Mick protests to Kosmo and Joe that he's not ready to arrest Dubreau. He wants to investigate things further, since he's convinced that the case is still too weak and that Dubreau is only one of a much larger group of pedophiles. "You should get into it with him [Bill], then," Kosmo sourly tells Mick. "We're way down the food chain." Nor does she look especially pleased with him when he immediately has Claire set up a meeting with Bill, even though he's following Kosmo's suggestion.

  Meanwhile, Kurtz is trying to tell Bill that the investigation is premature. They show no signs of their relationship, but since they're on the street for most of the conversation, that doesn't say much. They were meeting in parking lots and out-of-the-way hotel rooms last season. They're not going to acknowledge each other in public. But it is significant that this time, we see Kurtz arguing in favor of Mick's position and against Bill's instead of undermining her detectives the way she did last year. In fact, when Bill digs in his heels, she shakes her head as she turns away.

  Mick manages to talk Bill into giving him a few more days. Mick puts forth his arguments about there possibly being others, but Bill is not convinced. It's not until Mick mentions his new witness and explains something that Claire discovered while tracking down the kid's story that Bill relents. At Mick's behest, Claire has called the Century Club and discovered that the only room rented out on the date the boy gave was for the B.C. Judicial Committee. Bill perks up at this news, sensing even bigger fish than Dubreau. But is the boy telling the truth or is Brian blowing more smoke? It's really hard to tell. The boy did tell Brian that he went with two old men who rented rooms at the Century Club, so he's a witness to something that's still going on there. But does Mick believe this witness (and as such, Brian), or is he just using anything that will convince Bill?

  I'm leaning toward the latter scenario. Mick seemed just as gullible with Lila, his friend's gangster girlfriend, last season, and it turned out he was having Brian's partner Marla run a sting on Lila. Plus, Mick's poker face always makes it look as if a village somewhere is desperately missing its idiot. He did not mention Brian's name when talking to Bill and last week, he appeared to agree with Kurtz about not going after Brian. Yet just a few weeks ago, he swore that he would take Brian, Dubreau and the whole shebang down. He's a very patient man. There's no reason to believe that he's changed his mind or suddenly taken a stupid pill. But I have to admire Ian Tracey's continuing ability to make us wonder if Mick has somehow lost one hundred I.Q. points from the last time the writers sprung a "Does Mick Leary look stupid?" storyline on us. It's really amazing. He's so convincing about it and then I always feel like a putz when it turns out Mick was snowing the suspect all along.

  Speaking of snow, Bill, Charlie and Inspector Arkin from the Organized Crime Unit are all scrambling to cover their asses when Kaspar comes to call. Charlie, of course, talks Constable PE into refsuing to cooperate with the investigation. Bill and Charlie meet with Arkin and tell him the same thing. But Arkin sees a snag. He feels that Chick is "not on board" with the rest of them as far as the evidence. This is just about an admission of guilt that all three of them conspired to plant the evidence at the grow-op. Arkin has the bright idea of pinning it all on Chick. The Police Chief, his familiar and a dirty cop from the OCU versus an ex-CSIS spook/experienced forensic anthropologist. Hmm. My money's on Chick. Let the games begin.

  Finally, the love starts to fade between Friedlander and Zack (incidentally, Charles Martin Smith directed this week). Last week, Zack tried to extricate himself from his undercover assignment by saying that he wanted to go back east for the winter and visit friends. But Friedlander persuaded him to stay a bit longer. This week, Friedlander scared off a drug dealer by warning him that the cops were going to raid Crab Park. But just as he was savoring his little win, he saw Zack having a good-old-boy chat with a uniformed officer. Whoops. Zack is so busted. Next week should be interesting, since Friedlander and Zack both have a lot to hide and both now know it.

  Next week: When the Horsemen Come Looking: A murder in the redzone puts all of Da Vinci's plans in jeopardy when the city gets sued. Da Vinci gathers evidence against Bill when Bill obstructs Kaspar's investigation. The girl who got busted on the gay bashing (who claims this week that two men did the killing, not her) tries to sell her story to the cops.

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This page was last updated on 1/19/2006