“Ruthless is not cruel. Ruthless is doing whatever it takes.” – Kale Ingram
We now have momentum going on multiple storylines, and deeper into the labyrinth of Rubicon we head. I found the scenes involving Kale Ingram (Arliss Howard) and learning more about how he sees the world to be the most interesting.
He certainly appears to be an independent player, and one who sees himself as a protector of Will Travers (James Badge Dale). “Believe it or not, I’m Will Travers’ guardian angel,” he tells Maggie (Jessica Collins). We also know that both Kale and Will are intelligence operators who thrive on looking several steps ahead. Poor Maggie… does not. She’s a pawn in the greater works, The scene in which he methodically explains to the baffled secretary that he told Will of her activities because she liked him too much and would eventually lie to him on his behalf (which seems perfectly reasonable given what we know) is hilarious and cutting and particularly pays off because so little of what we see and hear on Rubicon is the unvarnished truth.
What’s so fascinating is the amount of revealing that Kale does this week. He lets the cat out of the bag that Maggie has been spying on Will, and then goes further in separate chats with both Will and Ed Bancroft (Roger Robinson) in explaining how much he knows about their relationship. Why is he being so “honest” all of the sudden? To protect Will and to keep him investigating who is behind David Hadas’ death, but there’s more there. I think we see Kale at his most honest when he tells Ed, “Will’s stumbling through a mine field. I don’t want him to step wrong.” His allegiance is to himself and also to API, with perhaps some jaded notion of patriotism thrown in for good measure.
Speaking of jaded notions of patriotism, a much less interesting plot line this week had Miles (Dallas Roberts) and Tanya (Lauren Hodges) flown to an “undisclosed location” to verify info about Kateb, the target they were analyzing for a hit a few episodes back. They see a man tortured (which is “okay” because its by Jordanians and not U.S. spooks) who could lead to Kateb’s current location and are clearly disturbed by it, and it all turns out to be a big “game” to prove out that Tanaz, another intelligence asset Will’s team has been studying, is a double agent who has been feeding the CIA false information. “Interagency cooperation at its finest,” Truxton Spangler (Michael Cristofer) ends up saying smugly.
We also learn that Tanya has failed her drug test and will be ushered into a treatment program specifically tailored for the intelligence community. If that’s the only payoff to the weeks of seeing Tanya sneaking around with pills and alcohol, it’s a bit weak.
Much more engaging is our new insight into our first extended look at a meeting of the “shadow cabinet,” for lack of a better term, which includes Spengler and James Wheeler (David Rasche). They mention “managing their interests” in troubled global hotspots like Nigeria and shipping lanes prone to Somali pirate attacks. It would seem their “interests” have to do with money or power or some notion of protecting the United States’ “real” national security needs or some combination of the above. I like very much how the vibe of the meeting is very low key, buttoned down, old money, nearly boring and offhand conversations alluding to these extraordinary concepts.
Will’s investigations reveal that the front organizations associated with the shadow cabinet include senators, generals, and intelligence community leaders. I have a feeling that he’s going to a rough time simply pointing these guys out to the cops and saying, “They’re bad, arrest them!”
Wheeler meanwhile may be on the outs with the shadow cabinet, possibly because he’s protecting his friend, Katherine Rhumor (Miranda Richardson). Looks like he’s being watched and later, he leaves a message with her apologizing for being a bad friend, and then mails her an old photo with a four-leaf clover drawn on the back. Is Wheeler about to off himself (or be offed) as well?
Other thoughts on this edition of Rubicon:
- Love the title of the episode just because!
- “It’s safe to say they have eyes on you.” – Will to Ed
- “Look for the patterns.” – Kale “Patterns. That’s it?” – Will
- Nice Cisco product placement during the teleconference scene