A Shard of Ice

Chiara | 30 | Italy | Speaks Italian and English

[pastelsuits]

favorite miami vice episodes: (1/?) Made For Each Other

- season 1, episode 18

“The guy’s too good. It’s his problem. Here’s someone who can crush your head in his bare hands, and cares that your eggs are done just right. Y'know what I mean?”

[mitochondriaandbunnies]

Miami Vice S2E15 One Way Ticket

A DA is murdered at a wedding, and Sonny suspects a lawyer ex-friend may be involved.

Boy is there more going on with this one that it looks like on the surface, so prepared for a long one! The first half of Season 2 of Vice is basically all classics, and then after the halfway mark, there's a bit of a shift to Cool On The Surface But Nonsense In the Middle Vibes Episodes, where it seems like the staff have kind of bought into their own hype. Sure, Vice is a show that relies heavily on its vibes, but those vibes are supposed to enhance the storytelling, not be the storytelling. Coming on the heels of the meandering, vibes-over-coherency Definitely Miami and Yankee Dollar, I had misremembered One Way Ticket as another "too cool for plot" episode, but it's a solid, character-driven effort with a lot of interesting societal and interpersonal meat.

Interestingly, this is one of only three Vice episodes written and directed by the same person; this one is helmed by Craig Bolotin, and I suspect that consistency of purpose with the writing and directing might be part of why it feels as solid as it is. (Although, the other two-- Stone's War and The Afternoon Plane-- both written and directed by David Jackson, certainly don't fare as well on that front, so maybe not!)

We open on an incredibly 80's wedding, replete with dresses that look like they're made of tinfoil and so, so much Big Hair.

Sonny and Rico are in attendance, sitting side by side. We learn shortly that the wedding is for someone Sonny knows and Rico does not, which means that Rico is abso-fucking-lutely there as Sonny's plus one.

I'm of the opinion that One Way Ticket is the point of a relationship upgrade for the pair of them, especially given their behavior in the last few outings leading up to this one. (See how in sync they are in Back in the World, Rico's weird possessiveness in Phil the Shill, the Public Horny Foreplay Talk and incredibly heartfelt "head and heart/please come back alive" conversation in Definitely Miami, and uh. Last week's "I am at work and I want to fuck you" threesome invitation in Yankee Dollar.)

A man in a suit that brings "Joker" to mind dons a Spirit Halloween wig and moustache and pretends to be a waiter

Jan Hammer is the DJ for this wedding (really)

After the ceremony, Sonny and Rico hover awkwardly at the edges; Rico, despite being the outsider at this wedding, gently insists that Sonny cannot leave until he says goodbye to his friend. Sonny goes to speak with the father of the bride, Richard, who is surprised to hear they're leaving early; Sonny looks incredibly awkward and Rico makes a joking excuse to get them off the hook.

Rico is in full Sonny-protective mode this episode, but not in the brittle, "oh god if I don't intervene Sonny will implode" way that he'll shift into in Season 3. Rather, it is gentle, honest, and familiar-- his behavior is spousal rather than "unlicensed therapist attempting to prevent disaster and not even getting paid for it."

His excuse-- "Can't have too good a time. Everyone back at the monastery gets jealous" is the right balance of genuine and cute, but a man we have not been introduced to yet watches him and Sonny with a look of pain and intense melancholy. Noticeably, the camera cuts to this man right as Rico says the word "jealous."

Two bridesmaids drag Robert's away and the Very Sad Man steps closer and asks, "How are ya', Crockett?" Sonny gives him a deeply bitchy look, says nothing, and leaves. Rico, following Sonny's lead, looks the man up and down with disdain and does the same.

The fake waiter kills Assistant DA Richard Langley by firing indiscriminately into the wedding party; he escapes, and we next see Sonny looking forlorn and shellshocked in front of a wedding cake with evidence tape around it.

The Sad Man from before approaches again and asks if Sonny could use any help; Sonny declines and heavily implies that The Sad Man got someone named Grainy killed in front of him. Rico shows up behind the Sad Man and the Sad Man, on the border of tears, complains that Sonny's "partner has great timing" and departs.

I cannot overstate the extent to which Thurmon, played by John Heard, looks like he's about to erupt into a wet pitiful crying jag. You could argue it's because of the man who just died in front of them, but.... he didn't not look like he was going to cry before the shooting, too. Whatever his relationship is or was to Sonny in the past, he is clearly incredibly upset about it, and wants to repair whatever was broken, whereas Sonny is just angry.

It makes no statistical sense that Sonny has so many traumatized needy ex boyfriends, but goddamn, he just fucking collects them, doesn't he? Every self-hating, self-destructive closet case in Miami is in love with Sonny Crockett, and Sonny "King of Closet Cases" Crockett is not remotely equipped to deal with that.

Rico gets down on his knees crouches beside Sonny and asks if he can fill him in. Sonny takes a beat and then answers, fully and honestly. As with other post-Bushido episodes, they are totally on the same page-- this is not Evan, this is not Buddies-- Rico doesn't need to pry, and Sonny just tells him without getting defensive.

Grainy, it turns out, was a rookie who had been partnered up with Sonny; on his first week under, he was shot and bled out in Sonny's arms. (What is Sonny's hit rate for dead partners, here...?) Sonny arrested the shooter, but Thurmon, a lawyer, defended the shooter and a mistrial was declared.

Rico suggests they leave the wedding, and Sonny agrees, still on the same wavelength. Rico now looks like he is going to cry, and he pats Sonny on the arm once, thinks a moment, and pats him again for good measure.

Also, I think this might be the first instance of Rico calling Sonny "Sun" (as a shortening of Sonny, obviously, but he's not calling him "Son" like "my dear son Jimmy") as a nickname, which is cute as hell

In one of the only scenes featuring the rest of Vice Squad, we learn that the murdered DA was pretty much universally beloved; I note this mostly because, despite being given such a tiny sliver of the episode to work with, the cast does an absolutely amazing job of selling that idea. Each character is sitting with this sorrow in their own way, and the scene reads as emotionally completely real. You can surmise what each detective's relationship was with this guy we met for 30 seconds, and you buy everyone's hurt and disgust as genuine.

Larry still has his Bad Hat from the previous episode

I can't recall if the various French crime syndicate folks in this one are supposed to be France-French or Quebec-French but boy do they all have Quebecois accents

The shooter from the wedding-- Phillippe Sagot-- has a ridiculously low, gruff voice that does not match his face at all. He threatens a man named Marcel with a fork, and Stan and Larry arrest him and taunt him about being French.

Sagot, who was arrested for possession, not murder or being a suspect (at this point they have no connection between him and Langley), is a blithering idiot and mentions to his lawyer--Thurmond-- that something people like Langley just get shot. Bro. He wasn't talking to you about Langley! He mentions, also, that "twins are bad luck," about the two girls who were shot, and Thurmond realizes this guy had to have been at the wedding, because the papers never mentioned that the deceased girls were twins.

Also I have some concerns about the staff of the Miami Standard.

Headline: "Chief Prosecutor Richard Langley Murdered" /Immediately Beneath that: "Planners Outline Zoning Purposes" /Beneath that Again: "23 Killed, 35 homes destroyed, [X]51 damaged" / Presumable Other Article Headline: "Safety System Failed"

Why did zoning kill so many people

Thurmond goes to see Jean Faber, the French crime lord Langley was in the process of taking down, with the intention of questioning him about Sagot.

Jean, who is walking his daughter around a paddock on her horse, is equal parts sleazy and charming. He tells Marcy that "Popcorn wants you to tell him what to do, just like all your future boyfriends," and then greets Larry Thurmond.

There is some amount of clear friendship and intimacy between Jean and Larry T.; Marcy knows Thurmond and greets him, and he calls her "princess," and then Jean tells Thurmond how happy he is to see him and mentions he doesn't come back often enough anymore. When he clasps Larry T. around the shoulder, you get the sense that he is truly and genuinely fond of him-- he gives him a once over and then slides in with their faces parallel, almost like he's going to kiss him.

My tinfoil hat theory: the reason Larry T. is working for a mobster even though he knows it's wrong is because he and said mobster are (or perhaps were) Very Special Friends. Unfortunately, while Jean did not call for the killing of Langley, he also insists that Thurmond defend Sagot anyway despite Thurmond's insistence that he is quitting being his lawyer. Jean speaks to him through the bars of the paddock, leaving Thurmond quite literally caged as he walks away.

The next morning, Rico comes in and notes that Sonny is in early; he asks if Sonny slept at all last night. Sonny waxes philosophical about what a good man Langley was, and how screwed up everything is, and Rico asks him, "You get any breakfast?"

Talking to the Vice Discord folks, I mentioned how sweet this was, and the illustrious @wanderosed summed it up best-- these kinds of questions are relationship markers. "Are you taking care of yourself?" is one of the ways we say "I love you," especially to people we consider part of our families/households.

Rico tells Sonny they have a briefing, and Sonny asks if he can handle it-- this, like his immediate disclosure about Grainy, is a sign of how high Sonny's trust in Rico is right now. He would not have asked Rico to be the mouthpiece for what he witnessed about a friend's death at an earlier point in the series. Rico says yes, if he has to, but wants to know what he should say if Castillo asks after Sonny specifically. Sonny, a paragon of mental health, tells his partner to tell his boss that he went "to his therapist."

His therapist is his gun, y'all.

I cannot begin to describe how much I want Thurmond's car, a (genuine, unlikely Sonny's car) Ferrari Daytona in schoolbus yellow

We get nearly a minute and a half of Thurmond flying an airplane and then another nearly minute and a half of Sonny at the gun range and Thurmond flying interspersed, because a) someone needed to justify the cost of filming the airplane, and b) they are both so, so mentally healthy

I love Tommy (played by Annie Golden of Hair fame) and her mechanic business so much; she is such a clearly sketched and seemingly perfectly integrated into Vice sort of character that it feels like this must be a full-on recurring role and not one of her two appearances. If you asked me off-hand how many episodes Tommy was in, I'd probably have said at least six. It's just this one and Florence Italy! She mentions that a "high price lawyer" is also getting his car fixed, and that she's charging him more than Sonny.

Rico's level of Sonny-watching in One Way Ticket is at like a 12/10, and he just keeps looking at Sonny with such goddamn tenderness, ugh

Sonny gets an anonymous call on his car phone that the killer was Phillippe Sagot, and Tommy's detail from before about the lawyer becomes clear-- Thurmond must've seen Sonny's car at Tommy's and realized he would be able to send a message to him that way without revealing himself. Sonny and Rico tell Castillo what they learned, and Rico's eyes remained absolutely glued to Sonny throughout. After they leave Castillo's office, Rico, always the one who picks up on the details in their case files, tells Sonny that Thurmond is Sagot's lawyer.

Also can I just say. No one in this episode pronounces Sagot the same way. At all. I was convinced it was Segaux/Ségault/etc. (or the distinctly non-French Saigo) for most of the time I was watching it, and one guy straight up Eastern-European-ifies him and calls him Zsergo. "Sagot" would not have been in the running for me based only on pronunciation.

I need Zito's shirt

Thurmond visits his ex-wife and strongly implies to her that he's going to die, and also it is made clear that she is aware of the Sonny/Thurmond drama.

Did they get divorced because she was like "you are in love with that cop who hates you, sweetheart"

Sagot, concerned that fellow Faber employee Marcel might've snitched on him, kills Marcel in the shower in a very well filmed and surprisingly bloody sequence that leads to a wonderful graphic match between the architectural glass in his bathroom and the architectural glass in Castillo's office

Once again Rico's eyes are on Sonny, this time quiet and surreptitious

Jean Faber tells another goon to kill Sagot; Thurmond goes flying again; Stan and Trudy (where has Gina gone since the opening of this episode?) chase Sagot down; looking sweaty and sad, Thurmond appears to purposefully crash his airplane

There's a moment where Rico says something to Trudy, and a third unseen character says something too muffled to make out; Trudy reacts with "keep dreaming," and Rico laughs hysterically-- I wish I could figure out what was being said, but alas

They trace a second call from the anonymous tipster to an apartment building where the landlord, a genuine Crazy Cat Lady, lets Sonny and Rico in. The woman abruptly hands Sonny a whole ass cat like it's a bag of fries, and Sonny briefly appears distressed by this until Rico presses one finger to his lips, brings the same finger to the kitty and scritches her with it, and then gestures between Sonny and the kitty with his chin coquettishly tucked and a little smirk on his face. Sonny starts smiling as soon as Rico transfers his little fingertip-kiss to the cat, and quietly laughs as Rico mouths something inaudible to him over the cat while he gestures between them.

They're dating, y'all

Unfortunately, the trace is a bust; the hotel room has no tipster in it, just a recording hooked up to a phone

The varying types and levels of despondency here is really something

Also. KNOCK

Sonny points out that if Sagot leaves the country, he's gone for good and they'll lose whatever evidence they have for the case, and Castillo simply says, "then he's gone," which is to say, ah, that's the Castillo we know, versus that weird "made up charges are good, actually" imposter from the end of Yankee Dollar

There's a chase sequence where the Daytona follows Sagot's speedboat (yes, the car chases the boat), which sounds like it should be really stupid, but which in practice feels like a persistence predator slowly stalking its prey-- he cannot get away from them, even though they should be at a disadvantage

Tommy, cooking fish in her garage, tells Sonny and Rico that all she'll be eating for a week is "trout and white wine." Sonny asks if anything weird happened with regards to the owner of Thurmond's car, and Tommy says, pointedly to Sonny, that yeah, the owner paid in full up front; Sonny, a man on a public employee salary trying to get service done on a supercar, rolls his eyes

It turns out Thurmond left a package for Sonny and Rico in his car, with everything that could convict Faber; Rico jumps to the conclusion that that means he's alive (and like, he's right) but it's a weird conclusion to jump to because Thurmond easily could've set that up before he died

What is Thurmond's ex-wife's blouse.... doing

Why does it have a whole normal collar and a chest hole

Based on his wife waxing philosophical about the "last time Larry was happy," Sonny and Rico go to Rum Cay and stumble upon Thurmond, who is fishing

Despite having everything they need to convict Faber, Sonny tells Thurmond that he has to come back with them and testify. Very specifically, he says, "you know what they say in law school: nothing beats live testimony," which is fascinating, because as a lawyer, Thurmond would certainly know the burden of evidence required for conviction better than Sonny-- which is to say, it is very clear that Sonny is only pressuring Thurmond to return with them as a form of punishment. He's still angry at him and feels that Thurmond hasn't suffered appropriate consequences for what he's done.

Thurmond doesn't really argue; he explains that basically, yeah, he knows he fucked up and he has hated himself for it, and that he always knew Sonny was a good man, and that he'll go with them if they need him to. He resigns himself to whatever his fate is.

For one brief moment, Sonny flares up with anger again, asking Thurmond if he thinks this "makes them even," and Thurmond says no, it was just "the best I had to offer." Sonny takes a beat, puts his sunglasses on, looks off to the side, sighs, and forgives Thurmond the only way he can, giving us the absolutely incredible freeze frame ending of "ah, to hell with it. You wanna be dead? Bang. You're dead," as he points at Thurmond with his hand imitating a gun. If Thurmond is willing to give up everything and go into hiding to help convict Faber-- to live as a dead man-- Sonny is going to let him.

This is probably one of the most upbeat Vice episode endings-- there is a real likelihood they'll convict Sagot and Faber, a witness does not end up getting badgered into testifying against people who will probably kill them, Sonny and one of his troubled ex-friends are parting on very nearly decent terms, and Sonny is given a reason to believe that maybe not everyone and everything is so bad as it might seem, and that people who have made the wrong choices can turn around and choose what is moral and ethical again. Of course, much like in The Home Invaders, another episode with a surprisingly positive ending, this kind of "win" can seemingly only be pulled off by way of divestiture from the system-- Malone retires, and Thurmond fakes his own death.

I wonder if that could be foreshadowing or something

Nah

[birf]

the People pleaser in me setting exactly one☝️ boundary

[wikilistoflongestwalks]

now see him gliding serenely

[mitochondriaandbunnies]

Miami Vice S2E13 Definitely Miami

A shady couple entraps people into a twisted murder game while the DEA attempt to placate a potential informant.

I am aware that this is a very well-rated episode and that many are fond of Definitely Miami, but my feelings about it are that it's approximately 1/3 of an excellent episode, and 2/3rds loosely plotted nonsense. Charitably, it could be called impressionistic-- it "runs on vibes," and those vibes are pretty good. Less charitably, it could be argued that the writing staff wrote a really awesome opening and ending, and then realized they had to fill the middle in with something but really wanted to go home for dinner. There are scenes and moments in this episode I genuinely love, and other parts that just... make me feel the need to rub at my temples a little.

A major conceit of the episode is that it's HOT AS BALLS, so we open on the actual sun-- not like, the sun in the sky above a beach, but rather a telescope shot of the sun doing some solar flare kind of business. HOT.

AS BALLS.

A Porsche and its murdered owned are buried in the Miami Sand Pits(TM) by Ted Nugent; this is the cold opening of the episode and it is truly shocking and inexplicable to a first time viewer-- it is perfect Miami Vice ominous weirdness.

The post-themesong opening of this episode is fantastic, and also insanely horny and because of that I guess I have to do a close reading of it. With incredibly romantic music playing in the background, Sonny and Rico sit at a table by the pool, under a pink umbrella, and order drinks from a sweaty blonde hunk in tight white pants. Sonny puts his sunglasses on to watch the hunky waiter walk away, as if the shades over his eyes will cover the turning of his head and neck. That trick only works if you're only using your eyes to track the departing ass cheeks, Sonny.

Rico's hair is a bit of a mess, which is really cute-- everyone in this episode is sweaty as hell, but either it was genuinely more humid than usual or they did less to tame his curls-- he truly looks like he's been out in the heat all day

Sonny says he feels like a character in a Beckett play, clearly referencing Waiting for Godot, and Rico questions whether Sonny knows Beckett. Very quickly, Sonny clarifies that he's talking about Charlie Beckett, the shoe shine guy who writes plays on the side.

One: Rico, you are still a bitch

Two: Sonny absolutely knows who Samuel Beckett is and is taking the piss, here. He's talking about being stuck, like Vladimir and Estragon, waiting for someone they've never met and don't know if will even show, and on top of that, even if Charlie Beckett the shoe shine guy does write plays, why has Sonny read enough of them to have a good sense of Charlie's recurring thematic references?

You get the sense that this has become a little bit of a game with Sonny and Rico. The undercurrent of cruelty Rico had when disparaging Sonny's supposed lack of worldliness and intelligence in Nobody Lives Forever is gone, replaced with a teasing smile, and Sonny is obviously playing along with his response. They both turn away grinning at the end of the exchange-- Rico knows Sonny is pulling his leg about "Charlie," and Sonny knows his joke has landed.

Sonny takes his sunglasses back off to look at a beautiful blonde woman down by the pool, because unlike the waiter, that is socially acceptable

Sonny and Rico's gentle, vaguely flirtatious ribbing of one other (set, still, to the same romantic music) continues; seeing the same woman, Rico grins and tells Sonny she's "too conservative" for him. Ignoring the obvious joke (she is half-naked and peacocking for the whole poll), there's a lot going on with this statement-- it's a) his usual attempt to gently swat Sonny away from women, b) a fascinating bit of reversal, since Rico historically has a tendency to go for CRIMINALS while Sonny's taste actually is a bit more conservative, and c) also another little call back to Nobody Lives Forever and Brenda and Sonny's conversation about what kind of love life Sonny can have, and the idea that Sonny doesn't quite know how to have a love affair that isn't somehow a "fantasy."

Sonny's response to this-- purposeful and targeted, as he waits a beat, looks directly at Rico, and then speaks-- as with the Beckett conversation, making it abundantly clear they're joking around together, having a little lark-- is "I have these occasional urges for stability in my life." Rico laughs almost maniacally, and tells Sonny he "needs to see someone about that."

HA HA Aha ha so funny ha ha oh god that's the whole thesis of Sonny's love life for the whole show oh no

We get an extended Sexy Pool Lady cheesecake scene, which seems fairly racy for the time period, but also I can't help but notice that this woman is allowed to have like, pores and fine hairs on her body and we see this up very close and it's positioned as being very sexy and oh god why are we actually somehow so much worse than we were about women's bodies now than in 1985

The sex talk between Sonny and Rico that follows this display also seems surprisingly racy for NBC in 1985; it is very frank, and hard not to read as them purposefully riling each other up using this woman as a proxy to talk about their boners together in public.

Like, Rico tells Sonny to stop eyeballing her before he strains something (this is very similar to something he says to Sonny in the airport at the beginning of Milk Run), and in contrast to Sonny's fairly tame response in that Season 1 episode, Sonny says here that a strain in "the right place" never hurt anyone. He then, again, pauses for a moment, looks Rico directly in the eye, and appends, "as long as it's just a strain."

Rico, in response to this, fiddles with the hem of his shirt and leaves his hands in his lap, leaning back and looking at Sonny with absolute adoration.

Surely this means nothing

He then continues the "we are just guys being dudes talking about sexy ladies and this is absolutely not a way for us to get each other publicly hot and bothered" conversation by telling Sonny he'd prefer to wait until it cools off to fuck the sexy poolside lady so she "wouldn't confuse the humidity for his sweat," and runs his fingers down his neck while continuing to look directly at Sonny.

Sonny is clearly aroused-- we hear him breathe in sharply, and he licks his lips and stutter-starts slightly before he begins talking again. He puts his sunglasses back on in order to be able to continue looking at Rico, his body language angled in towards his partner, legs slightly crossed.

At the beginning of the scene his legs were crossed in the opposite direction, away from Rico-- now, despite the fact that they're both supposedly looking at a woman in front of both of them, he has pointed himself towards him.

Rico continues to touch at his... waist region, and continues to look at Sonny with a coy little tilt of his head. Note the placement of his hand.

Totally normal way to sit and look at your coworker while you're talking about sex, nothing to see here, Rico is absolutely not down bad

Callie, the Sexy Pool Lady, comes over to interrupt their foreplay and starts flirting with Sonny (Rico, notably, barely glances at her during this whole sequence-- his eyes are locked on Sonny, watching his partner's responses to Callie's come-ons)

She is also a FUCKING CRIMINAL and takes an ice cube from Sonny's drink and rubs it all over her chest and neck and then puts it back in his drink despite having just OILED HERSELF UP in the previous sequence

Sonny, describing himself as "immune" to Callie, then picks up the the same ice cube and puts it in his mouth. I believe you, suntan-oil-mouth. Totally immune.

He then tells Rico to "give Marty his love," and Rico responds to that with "if he looked like that, I'd give him mine," because this whole fucking scene is so horny they even have to involve a completely absent Castillo.

The zoom on Ted Nugent that follows is a powerful boner-killer, however, not only because it's Notably Terrible Man Ted Nugent, but because a) the wind is blowing like crazy, and Ted's hair is very long, and b) because he is sitting at a silly little wave, meaning we get an ominous music cue and then a sudden zoom onto THIS

I don't know about you, but I'M threatened

And then, unfortunately, we get into the Plot of the episode, which is mostly not very good. There are two main threads in this one-- the feds are trying to placate a crime lord so he'll turn states, and Sonny is independently doing an investigation of Callie, who he's concerned could be either a criminal or a battered wife.

The fed plot is thematically fine (the justice system doesn't work, even non-corrupt officials are more concerned about their status than real justice, etc. etc.-- it's Miami Vice) but too loosely sketched and a bit too reliant on contrivance to really work the way it ought to.

The Callie plot relies entirely on Sonny continuously making the worst possible decisions he could in any given situation, and on our ability to believe that it's 100% fine for Sonny to fuck off in the middle of a work day to pursue a personal and unsanctioned investigation into a matter he has only a vague gut feeling about and that Castillo (and uh, everyone else, including Rico, who is suddenly left working the fed case alone) are absolutely cool with this. It is a "stupid boner decision" plot, which like. Is fine if you're writing a sex comedy, but is not enough meat to pin a crime plot on.

The Callie plot also involves multiple instances of lampshading the fact that it's not very well written (Sonny offers help to get her away from her shitty husband, she asks why, and he responds with "do I have a choice," which. He does! He initiated this whole thing! No one is making him do this! Later on, when Callie tells her patently and clearly untrue sob story, she asks Sonny, "You really believe that?" and like... it's fairly clear that he doesn't, but just goes along with it anyway-- pointing out that your writing choices don't make sense doesn't make them suddenly make sense!!)

Callie also has a whole sequence where she tells Sonny she "knows him," and did from the moment they met, and says that she knows he's "restless, hungry, lonely," and, my favorite bit of bullshit, "has dreams," which like. Is SUCH a bit of Tarot Reading "you are... worried about... your family" scammy vagueness that it would be hilarious if it weren't played so straight. She is an actual scam artist and Sonny is obviously thinking with his penis, and yet this is presented as somehow a profound statement on his character and not just what she says to every drug dealer she and Ted Nugent are going to murder in the Sand Pits.

You HAVE DREAMS, Sonny

No one else has those, just you, and I, Callie, have noticed this oh-so-special and entirely individual trait of yours

(Part of the issue here is that I don't think Arielle Dombasle, Callie's actress, really has the chops for this, at least not in English-- she was mostly only in French-language productions before this. Her line delivery is not particularly natural or interesting, and I think we're all supposed to be so blinded by her beauty that we don't notice this. For full disclosure, I am aware she is objectively beautiful, but she is beautiful in that too-perfect tall skinny hyper-symmetrical Victoria's Secret model way, which is basically the one type of woman I have zero innate attraction to. I just do not find her compelling as a character, and I think that really undermines the entire episode for me.)

Meanwhile, Rico meets Agent Dalva, played by Albert Hall. Upon first seeing him in Castillo's office, Rico seems genuinely pleased to meet him-- he smiles almost with recognition or relief, and offers his hand to shake. Immediately, Dalva explains that he is going to compromise the safety of someone in witness protection, and Rico's face falls, and he proceeds to move closer to Castillo.

Dalva is a fucking dick; after explaining his decision to potentially get a federally protected witness murdered, he laughs in a brash, off-putting, callous way, and Rico looks to Martin for the correct response. Martin looks at the ground.

Sonny and Rico meet back up and take a walk together on the beach, continuously bumping into each other and touching arms.

Rico asks if Callie is in love with him; Sonny says, "yes, with Burnett," which

AKJDSKLKLDSDS

SHE'S A) KNOWN YOU FOR LIKE 8 HOURS, AND B) YOU HAVE EXPRESSED VALID AND SENSIBLE CONCERN THAT SHE IS A SCAM ARTIST/INVOLVED IN CRIME

SHE'S NOT IN LOVE WITH YOUR DRUG DEALER PERSONA AND YOU KNOW IT, SONNY

Ten seconds later he tells Rico that ten years ago, he would have trusted the feds and "bought this woman's whole schtick," so again, while he clearly cannot make up his mind about whether she is a a con artist or not, the writing also doesn't really acknowledge that turmoil, it just flip-flops on it from moment to moment instead

Rico asks Sonny if he'll see Callie again, and he doesn't answer

Dalva manhandles a lawyer while Sonny and Rico watch with increasing concern; a dog leaps out of the lawyer's car to attack Dalva, and when they realize the dog is leashed and that they won't have to spend the afternoon pulling teeth out of a federal agent's ass, they react with relief--

--and Sonny, very briefly, puts his hand on Rico's hip.

Callie attempts to seduce what I would describe as a "minimally-willing" Sonny, and Ted Nugent appears out of nowhere from a darkened corner of the room (??? the closet??? out from under the bed?? he apparates like Nightcrawler???) and straight up skips across the floor to deck Sonny, and there's some really terrible foley and overdubbing and Sonny essentially gets punched straight out of the room somehow. I think it might be the worst choreographed fight scene in the show.

Rico's line to Sonny, "it's one of the things I really like about you, Crockett, you attract some of the weirdest women in the western hemisphere" slays me for so, so many reasons. Oh Rico. Something is so wrong with you.

Monitoring the meet up with Clement and a dupe posing as his sister, Gina and Trudy are so fucking gorgeous, like, truly one of the most beautiful shots of them in the entire series, they are windswept and beautifully dressed and beautifully lit

But also for some reason it is evening only where they are standing, and everyone else is in broad daylight

Clemente is, uh, weird about his sister. He secretly wants her killed, but all of his dialogue about why he wants to see her is... it's not really brotherly. Let's put it that way.

Far too much of this episode involved Nugent silently lurking in a corner only to abruptly reveal himself, Fabio-on-a-romance-novel-cover style

Maria, the sister Clemente is weird about, points out to Dalva that she testified against her brother, so of course he wants to kill her, and Dalva basically threatens her with removal from witsec if she doesn't comply, meaning she's pretty much dead either way. Stan watches this with increasing horror, but does not push back.

When Callie gets into the meat of her scam, telling Sonny about the coke she needs to sell to prove to Ted Nugent that she wasn't cheating on him with Sonny, his face is incredibly resigned-- he has been hoping against hope that his gut feeling about her being shady was wrong, but now he knows for certain that she's in on it and not a victim

Okay. I mentioned there are a few scenes I really love-- there's the opening and the ending, but I also adore the bit where Sonny is preparing to go make the buy from Ted Nugent

As he's strapped with a wire, Rico comes in and lurks in the back, watching the other agent tape him him up, and quietly tells Sonny he wishes he was going with him. Sonny agrees, still as resigned as he was when he learned Callie was dirty.

Rico takes what is theoretically not an uncommon aspect of police work-- that multiple busts are occurring in the same night-- and turns it a little mystical, stating that there's a "symmetry" to his and Sonny's cases wrapping up at the same time. It feels like he's attempting to put them back on the same page (as they were at the start of the episode) after having been pulled in opposite directions throughout the dueling plots-- making it almost fated that this would happen the way its happening. Sonny is dismissive and facetious, stating that it's good to know there's a little "poetry left in the world."

Rico doesn't let this slide, seeing the black mood Sonny is in. He cautions him to be careful, and then says, "You haven't seen everything." This, foremost, is pushback against the poetry line-- Rico is assuring him that actually, maybe there is still real poetry left in the world, and that there's more out there than con artists and dangerous busts. This aligns with Rico's general attitude about being a Vice cop-- it simply isn't everything to him. However, I think it's also a slightly more dire warning than that, as well-- Sonny is behaving like a man on his way to the gallows, and I don't think that escapes Rico. He is cautioning him that there is more to see, period, in life and the world-- that he cannot go into a situation like this with that level of resignation and come out safely. He is sweet and soft as he speaks, his head once again gently tilting as it was at the start of the episode. Sonny, though not yet in the borderline-suicidal place he'll be in later in the series, nonetheless dismisses Rico's attempt at cheering him.

He then declares to Rico, "The head and the heart, Rico. I'd sure like to get 'em together just once." I think, given the inconsistent writing in this episode, there is a possibility that this was meant to imply that he has genuine romantic feelings for Callie (his heart is with her even though his head knows not to be). However, I find that difficult to buy both because the writing is so inconsistent (does he trust her? not trust her? like her? think she's a con?), and more acutely because Don Johnson's acting throughout this episode doesn't reflect that kind of sentiment. He is wary and sad around Callie more than amorous, and despite his obvious physical attraction to her, doesn't seem to actually like her all that much. As a result, a better and more character-appropriate reading of this line might be that his heart wanted her to be innocent, for her to be someone he could actually save-- but that his head knew from the beginning that something was off about her and her story, and that that's why he pursued the case to begin with.

One might also suggest that, given the flirtatious start to the episode, he could also be talking about his fondness for his partner versus his understanding of the societal rules that govern being a man and a cop

Rico gently touches his arm but can't seem to come up with a response to this. He goes to leave, but Sonny stops him.

He waits until Rico has turned around to face him and then assures him, "I'll see you tonight," a promise that he isn't going to let himself die tonight, regardless of his disillusionment. Rico cracks a little smile, shoots Sonny a finger-gun, and tells him to count on it-- a promise of the same. It feels also like a reaffirmation of their importance to one another: not exactly a date, but an implication that they'll see one another outside the context of cops at a later point tonight.

Poor beleaguered Larry witnesses this awkwardly, looking at the table with his hands sort of itchily swinging at his sides, like, "jesus fucking christ, every DAY with these two"

Rico and Gina confront Clemente's incredibly twitchy messenger together, and there is a funny little moment where Rico asks him a question in English (which... we know the messenger speaks), and Gina translates it into Spanish (which... we also know Rico speaks.) I like to believe maybe both Gina and Rico consistently forget the other speaks Spanish for some reason and do this to each other constantly.

Maria stabs her brother Clemente because she (rightly) knew he was going to try to kill her; she is then shot by Clemente's sniper. Womp womp.

Sonny pulls up to the Sand Pits in exactly the same way as the Porsche from the beginning of the episode; Nugent appears from the dunes and attempts to shoot him, but the bulletproof suitcase Sonny brought protects him. He and Larry, hiding in the dunes himself, shoot the hell out of Nugent, and in the background we start to hear the strains of Godley & Creme's Cry.

If you're not familiar with Cry, or don't recall its usage from the episode, give it a listen-- the lyrics are hurt and regretful, but the melody and instrumentation are shimmery and nostalgic, mesmerizing like a guitar being played on a porch swing, driving like a road trip through the summer humidity. This contrast between the lyrics and audio profile of the song is rendered stark and disarming by the further contrast with the visuals-- Sonny and Larry exhausted and vibrating with adrenaline, looking over a dead body in a wasteland of sand; a defeated Agent Dalva sitting limply on the ground beside Clemente and Maria's bodies; Castillo looking at Dalva with utter contempt; Callie callously and childishly recreating the sand pits where her boyfriend has been burying their murder victims as a sandcastle; the police digging car after car out of the sand pits; Sonny sending Callie off with the police as she immediately tries to flirt her away out of it with the arresting officer. I suspect a decent percentage of the esteem this episode gets is because of this incredible ending sequence-- it is pure, distilled Vice, sweetness and longing and menace in equal parts, all tied up in a ribbon of regret and disillusionment. It's up there with In the Air Tonight and All Night Long in the pilot as one of the best music video sequences in the show.

As he did at the beginning of the episode, Sonny uses his sunglasses as a shield when he brings Callie to the other cops-- he disguised his gaze with the waiter, dampened his look at Rico, and now, when Callie tries to suggest they two of them could run away together, he averts his eyes from her and hides them with his sunglasses, creating a physical and emotional barrier between them. If, as the lyrics suggest, she-- or perhaps more honestly, what she represents-- makes him want to cry, neither she nor we get to be privy to it.

[mitochondriaandbunnies]

Something something Miami Vice Discord talking about Sonny's oral fixation

[alugerr]

I'm just trying to force myself to draw again.

[rosemarycorpse]

posting a twitter trend on tumblr😟 (og pic below)

they’ve been on my mind ever since they broke up in sword of destiny pls stop

[judelaw]

Is Lenny actually God in The New Pope (without knowing it)?

contains small spoilers for The New Pope (Episode 2+7).

Watching Episode 7 of The New Pope I found myself wondering if Lenny is not only the pope and the closest person to God but actually God himself - and the more I thought about it, the more it made sense.

Continua a leggere

[velvettodraws]

Well of course Geralt finds him endearing no matter how much fur or sharp teeth he has.

[stonkart]

3 Yens are better than one

[icpe]

Witcher 3, doodles #308

Patreon | Ko-fi

[noodlart]

Lodge of Sorceresses in Montecalvo (Philippa Eilhart, Margarita Laux-Antille, Fringilla Vigo,  Assire var Anahid,  Sheala de Tancarville, Sabrina Glevissig, Keira Metz, Triss Merigold, Ida Emean aep Sivney, Francesca Findabair)

[acicueta]

Denis Gordeev -  Vilgefortz and Geralt of Rivia

Time of Contempt

[gayregis]

vilgefortz’s minions: sir!! there is a giant fucking bat flying around the castle and killing us please help

vilgefortz: that sounds like some stupid fucking bullshit. dumbasses

vilgefortz: [sees regis just fucking swoop in in bat form]

vilgefortz:

vilgefortz, internally: what the fuck… what the fuck

[drawinglinestoconstellations]

I spent the entire day trying to do a color test on this page and I failed miserably. I lost count of the amount of times I had to start from scratch :/ but I don’t hate this Half finished Dandelion so I thought I’d share

[watchmebitch]

oh my god she fuckin scalped him