The trouble with being five months behind...
...Is that I'm not really sure anyone will remember the thing I am outraged about.
But anyway, for the last few days I have been catching up on the latter half of the second season of The Mentalist. In nine episodes Jane has gotten punched once, slapped once, had a saucer thrown at his head, been fined for contempt of court repeatedly, charged with assault once, been locked in a storage container, has had Lisbon's career explicitly made hostage to his good behavior, and has interacted with two babies and one small child. In case you were curious about the highlights. Oh, also Jane agreed with the assertion that he is a "mean, irresponsible sadist," and what no I am not writing fic about that. Yet.
And then there was episode 5x22, "Red Letter."
And you know, when I say it like that, "a plotline involving human trafficking and prostitution," I bet you all, because you are thinking humans, you think that I meant that those two things were, like, causally related in the plot, right? Women being trafficked into prostitution. Because, you probably know this but I will just go ahead and reiterate, that is a very lot of what trafficking is, it's women and children being sold into sex slavery as prostitutes.
Yeah, no. Instead it was about this guy who is a big crusader/investigator/etc. against human trafficking who just has this one vice...
...which is that he fucks a lot of prostitutes.
OKAY BUT WAIT, IT GETS WORSE. On the face of it, okay, that's sort of an intriguing character, somebody who fights against trafficking but on the other hand is supporting or participating in it. Maybe he's a terrible hypocrite, maybe he's sincere but terribly flawed. Maybe he somehow thinks these prostitutes are different, or his treatment of them is, or maybe in some twisted way he thinks he's going to save them. He's the murder victim, so we really don't get to know what he thinks, but...
...the initial motive suspected in his murder is the fact that he was about to expose a fellow anti-trafficking crusader for participating in trafficking. And this other guy's guilt is in fact proven, when Cho and Rigsby discover a group of women packed into the back of a truck who blah blah plotcakes clearly this guy was involved in trafficking them (we never see them again or hear any of them speak beyond screaming when they're discovered, so it is not wholly apparent where they came from, what's already happened to them, what was about to happen to them). So! This suspect is a guy who's fighting against trafficking while he also participates in trafficking! What an interesting parallel!
Wait, no, that guy is a scumbag, but the murder victim, the good in him outweighs the bad. Uh. Okay. Sure. We're obligated to think the murder victim is worth worrying about so... on we go.
Okay, so the victim was lured to his death by a text message signed "Carmen", and the team tracks down two women named Carmen: a prostitute named Sally Alvarez who used the name Carmen professionally, and a women named Carmen Reyes who claims to be the murder victim's illegitimate daughter. Carmen Reyes is in her twenties (the actress is about 27) (I mention this because the actress playing the murder victim's widow is about 38, and therefore the odds are that Carmen was conceived during an affair that predated the victim's marriage; for a while jealousy was bruited as a motive on the wife's part).
It ultimately turns out that the victim's (young, male, African American) research assistant, who procured prostitutes for his boss in between doing research on human trafficking for his boss, had hooked his boss up with Sally, having her pose as Carmen Reyes, to persuade the victim that he had had sex with his own daughter. But the victim had realized it was a ruse when the real Carmen Reyes made contact with him, and the assistant had killed him and then killed Sally Alvarez as well, presumably in an effort to cover his tracks.
And, okay, I really thought it was going to come together after they arrested the assistant. They asked him why, and I really thought the themes of prostitution and human trafficking were going to unite. The assistant opened his confession with "Did you know I've been running numbers on trafficking for Brava, and setting him up on his 'dates,' for like five years?"
And I--okay, you know what, I am just going to assume that the actor SAID THE WRONG LINES. HERE ARE THE RIGHT LINES:
And do you think that he ever, ever showed that he understood that he's one of those guys we research? Not once. These women who get sold, who he says he advocates for--they're going to brothels, or to pimps, or to men who own them and use them however they want. That's what human trafficking is. I took this job researching for him because I wanted to fight that. And here he is screwing women who were probably trafficked themselves--every prostitute in the bar downstairs is here on some kind of shady visa, it's not any different just because they dress nice and drink cocktails and aren't chained to a bed in some hellhole brothel.
But he never got it. He never got it, and he made me a part of it. He was taking me down with him into his cesspit. So when I got the letter from Carmen, I kept it from him. She was better off without a father like him. I got in touch with Sally--I knew her because of work I'd done with trafficked women in the area, and I asked her to help me destroy this hypocrite. I thought, when he found out he'd had sex with his own daughter, that his own daughter was a prostitute--I thought it would make him understand. Every trafficked woman is somebody's daughter. Every prostitute is somebody's daughter.
But he was just mad that I lied to him, that's it! He still didn't get it, and I couldn't take it anymore. I killed him. He deserved to die.
I--I didn't mean to kill Sally, but when I told her what happened, she freaked out, and I couldn't let her go to the cops. I'd already pointed them at Lynch, he had motive and he deserved to go down, too, he was even worse than Brava. I didn't mean to kill Sally. I just--she wouldn't listen, and I hit her, and... I'm sorry. I'm sorry about Sally.
But Brava got what he deserved.
Ahem.
Yeah, because the next line on the actual show was "And do you think that he ever, ever thanked me."
FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIL.
I have thoughts about Jane and Kristina, but ... they do not even begin to belong in the same post with the rest of this.
This entry was originally posted at http://dira.dreamwidth.org/549311.html. There are currently
comments there.
But anyway, for the last few days I have been catching up on the latter half of the second season of The Mentalist. In nine episodes Jane has gotten punched once, slapped once, had a saucer thrown at his head, been fined for contempt of court repeatedly, charged with assault once, been locked in a storage container, has had Lisbon's career explicitly made hostage to his good behavior, and has interacted with two babies and one small child. In case you were curious about the highlights. Oh, also Jane agreed with the assertion that he is a "mean, irresponsible sadist," and what no I am not writing fic about that. Yet.
And then there was episode 5x22, "Red Letter."
And you know, when I say it like that, "a plotline involving human trafficking and prostitution," I bet you all, because you are thinking humans, you think that I meant that those two things were, like, causally related in the plot, right? Women being trafficked into prostitution. Because, you probably know this but I will just go ahead and reiterate, that is a very lot of what trafficking is, it's women and children being sold into sex slavery as prostitutes.
Yeah, no. Instead it was about this guy who is a big crusader/investigator/etc. against human trafficking who just has this one vice...
...which is that he fucks a lot of prostitutes.
OKAY BUT WAIT, IT GETS WORSE. On the face of it, okay, that's sort of an intriguing character, somebody who fights against trafficking but on the other hand is supporting or participating in it. Maybe he's a terrible hypocrite, maybe he's sincere but terribly flawed. Maybe he somehow thinks these prostitutes are different, or his treatment of them is, or maybe in some twisted way he thinks he's going to save them. He's the murder victim, so we really don't get to know what he thinks, but...
...the initial motive suspected in his murder is the fact that he was about to expose a fellow anti-trafficking crusader for participating in trafficking. And this other guy's guilt is in fact proven, when Cho and Rigsby discover a group of women packed into the back of a truck who blah blah plotcakes clearly this guy was involved in trafficking them (we never see them again or hear any of them speak beyond screaming when they're discovered, so it is not wholly apparent where they came from, what's already happened to them, what was about to happen to them). So! This suspect is a guy who's fighting against trafficking while he also participates in trafficking! What an interesting parallel!
Wait, no, that guy is a scumbag, but the murder victim, the good in him outweighs the bad. Uh. Okay. Sure. We're obligated to think the murder victim is worth worrying about so... on we go.
Okay, so the victim was lured to his death by a text message signed "Carmen", and the team tracks down two women named Carmen: a prostitute named Sally Alvarez who used the name Carmen professionally, and a women named Carmen Reyes who claims to be the murder victim's illegitimate daughter. Carmen Reyes is in her twenties (the actress is about 27) (I mention this because the actress playing the murder victim's widow is about 38, and therefore the odds are that Carmen was conceived during an affair that predated the victim's marriage; for a while jealousy was bruited as a motive on the wife's part).
It ultimately turns out that the victim's (young, male, African American) research assistant, who procured prostitutes for his boss in between doing research on human trafficking for his boss, had hooked his boss up with Sally, having her pose as Carmen Reyes, to persuade the victim that he had had sex with his own daughter. But the victim had realized it was a ruse when the real Carmen Reyes made contact with him, and the assistant had killed him and then killed Sally Alvarez as well, presumably in an effort to cover his tracks.
And, okay, I really thought it was going to come together after they arrested the assistant. They asked him why, and I really thought the themes of prostitution and human trafficking were going to unite. The assistant opened his confession with "Did you know I've been running numbers on trafficking for Brava, and setting him up on his 'dates,' for like five years?"
And I--okay, you know what, I am just going to assume that the actor SAID THE WRONG LINES. HERE ARE THE RIGHT LINES:
And do you think that he ever, ever showed that he understood that he's one of those guys we research? Not once. These women who get sold, who he says he advocates for--they're going to brothels, or to pimps, or to men who own them and use them however they want. That's what human trafficking is. I took this job researching for him because I wanted to fight that. And here he is screwing women who were probably trafficked themselves--every prostitute in the bar downstairs is here on some kind of shady visa, it's not any different just because they dress nice and drink cocktails and aren't chained to a bed in some hellhole brothel.
But he never got it. He never got it, and he made me a part of it. He was taking me down with him into his cesspit. So when I got the letter from Carmen, I kept it from him. She was better off without a father like him. I got in touch with Sally--I knew her because of work I'd done with trafficked women in the area, and I asked her to help me destroy this hypocrite. I thought, when he found out he'd had sex with his own daughter, that his own daughter was a prostitute--I thought it would make him understand. Every trafficked woman is somebody's daughter. Every prostitute is somebody's daughter.
But he was just mad that I lied to him, that's it! He still didn't get it, and I couldn't take it anymore. I killed him. He deserved to die.
I--I didn't mean to kill Sally, but when I told her what happened, she freaked out, and I couldn't let her go to the cops. I'd already pointed them at Lynch, he had motive and he deserved to go down, too, he was even worse than Brava. I didn't mean to kill Sally. I just--she wouldn't listen, and I hit her, and... I'm sorry. I'm sorry about Sally.
But Brava got what he deserved.
Ahem.
Yeah, because the next line on the actual show was "And do you think that he ever, ever thanked me."
FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIL.
I have thoughts about Jane and Kristina, but ... they do not even begin to belong in the same post with the rest of this.
This entry was originally posted at http://dira.dreamwidth.org/549311.html. There are currently
comments there.