My poor beloved Wallace, or Lawrence (played by Percy Daggs, Veronica Mars) if you’re talking about this week’s episode of In Plain Sight. He was gunned down by one of the country’s most notorious gangs in the first few minutes of the show prompting his girlfriend, Iris’, family to be shipped off by Marshall and Mary to sunny and exciting Albuquerque. The worst part about the shooting; it was a random act in South Central LA (where the girl wasn’t even supposed to be) and the family relocated was an accomplished, completely innocent one.
This last part was the main conflict throughout the episode. The family was taken aback when Mary told them they had to enter the program to stay alive. The father, in fact, was so filled with rage he told Marshall he couldn’t even look at his daughter for putting him in such a position. He was a very well respected OB/GYN and now he couldn’t practice the one thing he was good at. He’s so understanding. Really, just a teddy bear of a man. So the family moves but all the while the father is putting them in danger by trying to continue to practice medicine. He even went so far as to whine that he wasn’t at a game he had season tickets to. Wow. That’s all I could say. Marshall, on the other hand, went into ass-kicking mode and said exactly what needed to be said to such a stubborn person, to say it nicely. I just fell even more in love with a certain U.S. Marshal named Marshall.
Meanwhile, both daughters and the wife of this sweetheart are totally aware of how he’s dealing but also know they don’t want to be separated, no matter what. At least one parent wasn’t acting like a spoiled two year old. Iris is still head over heels for Lawrence and Mary surprises them with a quick visit when Iris goes to LA to identify the shooter. They plan their lives together once they turn 18 and are unfaltering in their belief that the universe wants them to be together. This faith in love shakes Mary a little and she finally visits Raphael and is ready to get down and dirty with him again, a sin she hasn’t committed since he asked her to marry him.
That is, until they’re interrupted by Brandi, who has been seriously flirting with her sister’s boyfriend while taking him to physical therapy for his hurt knee. I guess it doesn’t help that when Brandi called her loser boyfriend, the one whose drugs she’s been stashing, a random girl picked up and then the line went dead. So she’s trying to seduce Raphael but he wants none of it. His heart is stuck on the sister who isn’t so easy to give herself up to love. When Brandi showed up and Raphael began to defend her, Mary stormed out. So come morning, Mary’s still mad and now Iris is missing. What is a girl to do when both her professional and personal life are crumbling? If you’re a girl like our Mary, you always salvage the professional life.
After speaking with Iris’ sister, everyone learns she was visiting a crush from school in South Central and Iris came to get her. The father finally feels the shame he should after learning the daughter he all but disowned was acting as a hero to her younger sister and leaves with Marshall and Mary to pick up his daughter, who had run away via bus back to LA. When they find the girl, she confesses she heard her now caring father say that when she goes off to college, the rest of the family should get out of the program and never contact Iris again. This next exchange actually seemed heartfelt. Daddy dearest apologized and was sincere. The two ended in a hug and Mary pondered forgiveness. Maybe it wasn’t something that was just tossed around after all. Maybe it was something that came from deep inside. Huh, who knew?
The family ended up all together and Mary went back to Raphael’s arms. And finally, finally there was something to really love about Brandi. She tossed the suitcase into the river and resolved to not have contact with her boyfriend anymore. I love it when they figure it out and make a move in the right direction. At least, until next week when everyone inevitably ends up falling back into their stupidity. Ah, but what a splendidly entertaining stupidity it is.
