“It’s complicated.” – Will Travers
I’d classify the first four installments of Rubicon as solid, with the occasional slow patch that made you hope that things wouldn’t drier in the weeks ahead.
“Connect the Dots” is the first really good episode, one where the dots that have been tossed over a pretty broad corkboard (whiteboard would be far too modern an analogy for this purposefully low tech and old school pot boiler of a show) start to get connected just enough to reveal exciting potential and payoff down the line for all that has been building (and yes, slowly at times) up until now.
It all came together for me while I watched Will Travers (James Badge Dale) tail mysterious figure Donald Bloom (Michael Gaston), who ended up at a lunch with Will’s boss, Kale Ingram (Arliss Howard). The encounter brought together a number of different questions, some of which were addressed by the end of the episode while many others were not. That, it should be noted, almost always means we’ve just watched a great hour of television.
For instance, at the lunch we learn that Bloom and Ingram have quite a history together, including being lovers and CIA assassins in Beirut back in the “good old days.” Bloom thanks Ingram for the “gig,” which could mean one of a number of things: was he hired by Ingram to be a red herring that Will can chase about while satisfying his interest in the death of David Hadas (Peter Gerety)? I then considered that Bloom’s evasive maneuvers were very light — taking one wrong turn on a department store escalator. And ex-intelligence analyst wizard Ed mentions to Will that Bloom shows “hubris” in staying at the Waldorf under his own name. Take that together with his lunch with Ingram in broad daylight near the front of a restaurant (or at least with visibility from the door) and you’d think that Bloom is either not concerned about being seen with Ingram or it’s some kind of game (or rubicon small “r”?).
And then of course you start to wonder: why did Hadas have to die at all, and did he truly know he was going to be involved in that horrific train accident, and with enough time and wherewithal to leave delicious little clues about for Will and Ed to pick up on? And how does this fit into the big picture of the crossword puzzle clues and the fourth branch of government business with the four-leaf clover and such?
It’s this kind of thought process that makes Rubicon a rewarding show for the careful and observant viewer. By the end of the episode, we learned a lot and were presented with a whole new slate of questions about the interlocking relationships between the higher ups at API, the intelligence agency that Will and Ingram and crew work at. What’s cool too at this point is that we don’t know who the “big bad” will be at this point amongst Ingram, API director Truxton Spangler (Michael Cristofer) (who we learn has been bugging Ed’s house in a big reveal), both, or neither.
And the best touch in my view is that it seems that Ingram isn’t privy to all the goings on with Truxton’s operations. It’s a great sign that there’s not simply your typical blanket conspiracy going on where Will can’t trust anyone while everyone working for The Man is out to stop him. It’s a more complex world than that, with information at a premium for everyone and each principal playing their own angles and interests.
Then there’s a ton of other stuff going on at this early date, including the hunt to find information on mysterious European criminal and possible terrorist George Beck, API team member Tanya’s (Lauren Hodges) dealing with an alcohol problem while struggling to keep steady on the job, Maggie’s (Jessica Collins) duel role as Will’s friend Ingram’s informant, and a whole subplot that there has been quite a bit of time invested in involving Katherine Rhumor (Miranda Richardson), widow of a guy who killed himself, hunting for clues surrounding her husband’s shocking death (she discovers an odd newspaper clipping citing a CCNY professor death being ruled a suicide this week, for example).
Where’s it all going? I don’t know, but I have more confidence than I did early on that the writers and producers know where we’re going, which leaves us safe for the time being to sit back and enjoy the chase.
More thoughts on “Connect the Dots”:
* Rubicon is shot a very unique and specific way. I keep thinking that the atmosphere is both low tech and chilly, like it’s meant to have the look and feel of a highbrow 1980s Cold War spy thriller.
* Great example of the above: when Truxton shreds a file called The Houston Problem, I was thinking: <em>where’s the electronic copy</em>?
* Also: notice how nobody at the office has a computer on their desk, and how even in the file room there are dummy terminals that would look modern circa 1983?
* “Bad fear doesn’t make you a bad person. It just means you shouldn’t be working here.” — Will to Tanya
* “Ed, we got the wrong Donald Bloom. It’s not him.” — Will
* “We are both going to stand down because we have both gone overboard.” — Will
* “I strongly suggest you stick to the analysis side of things. I would hate to see you involved in any mayhem.” — Ingram to Will
* I’m more impressed with Arliss Howard’s acting each week. His portrayal of Kale Ingram is at turns sinister, sarcastic, and brooding. There’s always something going on beneath the surface with this guy.
* After Will clears his head post-sighting of Bloom with Ingram, he decides to break Ed’s heart and “stand down” their growing guerilla intel operation. For the first time, I was reminded a little bit of McNulty and Freamon’s way-off-the-grid operations during the final season of The Wire here, except the pathos was acute when Ed breaks down (probably for the first time) and truly mourns the loss of his best friend, David Hadas.
From Around the Web: Rubicon, “Connect the Dots”
* TV Fanatic: The scene were Will was forced to lie to Ed in order to prevent another breakdown by the retired API employee was one of my favorite to date. The former fought back tears as he watched the latter practically fall apart in front of his eyes.
* Alan Sepinwall: If “Rubicon” wants to have a long-term future (and the ratings haven’t been great so far, so we’ll have to see how patient AMC is willing to be), it’s going to need to find a balance between big stories like the crossword conspiracy and smaller ones like Will learning how to be a boss. This episode was a strong example of that.
This review originally appeared on TV Geek Army.