Photo Courtesy of USA Network
Graceland, Season 1, Episode 9: “Smoke Alarm”
Written by: Aaron Fullerton
Directed by: Paul Holahan
Airs Thursdays at 10 pm (ET) on USA
On this week’s Graceland, Charlie makes a new friend, Briggs recuperates, Mike struggles with his undercover mission(s), Paige proves to be a flighty ally, and a killer comes to town.
At this point, Graceland‘s become quite the pro at shocking reveals–Briggs is an ex-heroin addict and possible criminal drug lord, Mike’s control officer is a potential vengeance-seeking lunatic, and Jangles is…well, his identity’s still up in the air, but, in true Graceland form, that reveal will undoubtedly be a shocker. The above examples beg the question, are all or any of these people truly villains? Or are they simply posing as such to achieve justice? As Briggs tells Mike re: Bello and Odin, “sometimes it’s all about using one monster as bait to get the other monster.” Of course, this seemingly applies to Briggs himself. Presumably he’s only playing at being a monster to bring down bigger enemies, but doesn’t it seem as if he’s only partially playing at being a monster? Every new episode strips aside a new layer of Briggs’s increasingly-unstable psyche, and “Smoke Alarm” is no exception–turns out, Briggs was a member of a pre-Graceland house called “The Estate,” which burned to the ground and killed every agent inside, sans Briggs. Suspicious, right?
Mike’s control officer certainly believes so, and his angry convictions are enough to make Mike doubt his undercover status at Graceland; Mike thinks his control officer is simply in a position to seek revenge on the close friend he lost in the house, and, with no one else to blame, he’s apparently chosen Briggs as his target. Later, Mike runs into trouble at Bello’s new safe house when a man, claiming to be Jangles (the guy who originally got Briggs addicted to heroin), attacks Bello and stabs Mike in the stomach. Though Jangles is announcing war on Bello’s turf, it’s the war brewing inside Graceland that is more worrying.
The lies inside Graceland are breaking down both Mike and Charlie, so, in a moment of weakness, Mike confesses his job investigating Briggs to Paige–who, despite claiming Mike can trust her, calls him a “rat” and flees his hospital bedside–and Charlie runs into a fellow cop searching for Odin and chooses to team up with him to bring the drug dealer down. Oh, and Briggs is falling apart because of the lies he’s shouldering; when Jangles, or possibly faux-Jangles, confronts him as he’s simultaneously crying and drinking on the beach, the consequences might be fatal.
With only three episodes left in the season, Graceland‘s first season isn’t winding down so much as hurtling toward the finale. Ever since unveiling Briggs as Odin, the show’s been releasing a string of excellent episodes, and it doesn’t hurt that one of the show’s main protagonists now firmly straddles the line between “hero” and “villain.” Crime dramas are much more fun when the true monsters might be right in front of the audience’s, and the characters’, eyes, and Graceland is definitely no exception.
Last week’s episode review can be found here.
