If a television show improves and no one watches it, does it really matter?
Those people still watching The Cape are doubtless asking that question. Its ratings continue to dwindle (the cruel irony is that it’s Monday night’s #1 DVRed show among ages 18-49, which doesn’t really hold much sway).
As a result, the abbreviation of its episode order not only means the show is likely dead after its tenth episode airs, but also that the show, which has already stopped production, won’t air any sort of finale episode. The subplots and character threads established and cultivated thus far will go unresolved. Maybe if we’re lucky, we’ll get a comic out of it. A fan can dream, right?
It’s a shame, because if the last couple episodes are any indication, The Cape might be crossing the line into good television.
First up, we have “Goggles and Hicks,” in which the Tarot–a secret society of assassins frequently employed by Peter Fleming–returns, this time with a pair of codependent hitmen played by guest stars Pruitt Taylor Vince and Chad Lindberg. The cold open is surprisingly effective in introducing them and their methods: Goggles is the hunter an info-hound who serves as a sort of anti-Orwell; whereas Hicks is the skilled, stealthy killer, who nonetheless introduces himself to his prey before he kills them.
If nothing else, they’re unfailingly polite.
We learn more about them as Fleming meets with the pair to commission them for a job. No two words about it, he wants the Cape dead. This is easily my favorite scene, as a confused Goggles, upon receiving an issue of the comic enclosed in a file folder, asks if Fleming wants the creators of the book dead. He also expresses some remorse at the prospect of doing it, asking the ARK head, “Have you seen their work in Retroman?” This actually settles one of the questions I wanted answered most, about the status of the actual Cape comic book character in the universe of the “real life” hero.
Of the two, Goggles is the most interesting character, in large part due to Vince’s performance. The rotund, wheelchair-bound brain of the group is a jovial presence, expressing noy only a genuine love of his profession but also a wide-eyed curiosity toward his victims. They only strike after they’ve gotten to know every aspect of the target, and Goggles keeps a flash drive containing that information as a trophy.
For Vince, this is a pretty bad time to have a contract out on his life. He has a pair of broken ribs, which leads him to listen to Max’s advice and take the day off. Orwell, on the other hand, exhorts him to action, especially when she intercepts word that Scales wants to broker a meeting with him in order to turn informant on Fleming. This is, of course, a trap, and when Vince takes the bait, he ends up tagged with a tracking beacon that broadcasts his location and vital signs to Goggles.
Over the course of the day, as Vince tries to relax–and also stalk his family–Goggles learns more about him, until he finally pieces it all together and learns the Cape is Vince Faraday. That’s when Goggles and Hicks decide to strike.
We also have two family subplots and the requisite Faraday flashback. We learn that Vince is baby-crazy, having suggested to Dana they have a second child. It leads to one of the worst lines in the history of ever. (Dana: “How do you like your eggs?” Vince: “Fertilized.”) In the present day, Dana decides to confront Marty about the trainyard derelicts he had arrested, believing they could have exonerated Vince. The problem with that is that she does it at a party celebrating his promotion to ARK Chief of Police. Meanwhile, Trip makes a new friend, the weird kid who just moved in downstairs. The less said about that, the better, but it’s nice to see Dana still trying to fight for Vince. I just wish I knew where the show was going with that.
After Vince and Orwell turn the tables on Hicks in a deserted, darkened theater (a result of Goggles taking out Palm City’s power grid), the two capture Goggles. Hicks is helpless without his bespectabled brother, seeking aid from Fleming, who dismisses him before the assassin can hand over the thumb drive with the Cape’s secrets. He then finds Vince and Orwell, offering him the thumb drive, and his family’s safety, in exchange for Goggles’ whereabouts. It’s Orwell who accepts the deal on Vince’s behalf, afraid of what the Tarot could do to ruin Vince’s life even more than Fleming has already done.
An episode of The Cape is as strong as its villains, and after the misstep that was Dice, Goggles and Hicks are a much better pair of antagonists. Hicks would be almost disposable muscle if not for his partner, and the two remind me just a little of Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd (though Hicks does refer to Goggles as his brother, in order to ensure there’s nothing extra between them). Peter Fleming is used sparingly, which I don’t mind, as it allows us to focus on these additions to Vince’s rogues gallery. In a perfect world, we’d be seeing them again next season.
But what about an episode where you don’t even see the villain until the end?
This week’s episode, part one of “The Lich,” attempts a more layered narrative with the extra time afforded. It’s actually a pretty rewarding episode in itself, proof that The Cape can tell longer, more thoughtful stories without resorting to breakneck, sloppy plotting.
The first sign this isn’t like the rest: Tom Noonan and Illeana Douglas guest star! Noonan appears right from the start, as a man who tries to rent a truck. When the rental agent discovers his ID belongs to a dead man, he claims he is dead and blows a powder into her face, paralyzing and presumably killing her.
As it turns out, the rental agent used to date Rollo, so he and Max enlist Vince the detective to help figure out who stole her body from the grave. Vince deduces, fairly easily, that she dug herself out, and it doesn’t take long to find her, disheveled and disoriented, muttering gibberish and chanting “I worship the Lich.” For Vince, this is bad news. The Lich has long been the Palm City Police’s go-to boogeyman, a file they keep for any unsolved murder or disappearance that appears supernatural.
Fortunately, the writers deflate any actual supernatural activity right away, explaining that Rollo’s friend is under the influence of a neurotoxin that creates the appearance of death and induces a highly suggestive state. (Max says he saw this toxin before in sub-Saharan Africa, and in Haiti–if you’re not paying attention, it would sound like he’s saying Haiti is in Africa, but you’d be mishearing.) Hypnotist Ruvi is brought in to bring her out of it, and from her, he learns where the Lich has set up camp, in Palm City’s trolley tunnels.
In a parallel plot, Orwell comes to the aid of Patrick Portman (recurring guest Richard Schiff), who is trying to block an attempt by Peter Fleming to buy his own port, which he could use to traffic munitions and biological weapons into and out of Palm City. Portman learns that the Chandler family, founders of Palm City, have a lost heir named Conrad whose paperwork was altered in order to hide his existence. Orwell finds him hidden away in a sanitarium, aided by his nurse (played by Illeana Douglas) who contacts the technosleuth.
Orwell finds that Conrad is beset by spinal degeneration, the result of childhood abuse, and a desire to remain hidden. Much of this storyline takes place in Conrad’s room, as Orwell tries to convince him to emerge from his shell and reclaim the Chandler empire in order to block Fleming’s continued attempts at privatization. It’s good to see Glenn Fitzgerald, of the late, lamented (at least by me) Dirty Sexy Money, doing solid work, playing Conrad as an awkward, quiet man who conceals a world of conflict beneath his obsessive, twitchy demeanor. Summer Glau is also in top form here, bonding with him over their shared family tragedy (though hers is only implied in a line about being an orphan).
There’s even something for Marty to do! Vince discovers that the Lich plans to dose Palm City with his neurotoxin during the Founders’ Day Parade, so he approaches his ex-friend as the Cape with the evidence. Marty wants to do the right thing, but Fleming forces him to arrest the Cape, which he does. However, he secretly lets the Cape free, before the hero realizes that the Lich has already taken control of Marty’s men and repossessed his truck full o’drugs.
Things come together in the end when Vince and Marty take on Tom Noonan, discovering that he is, in fact, not the Lich, but the sanitarium’s director acting under his influence. Meanwhile, Orwell learns that Conrad is really the Lich, but too late, as he doses her with the neurotoxin before she can escape. Vince and Orwell spent the episode playing phone tag with each other, the only real clue that their cases might be related. Until the end, I really wasn’t sure where the Chandler plot fit in the overall narrative, but that cliffhanger worked so well at putting everything into perspective, and justified the story’s doubled length.
We still get a moment lacking all subtlety, in the form of a dream sequence: Vince dreams he’s at home with Trip and Dana, only neither of them notice he’s there, driving home the whole “dead” theme. There’s a thuddingly stupid act break where Vince, Max and Rollo narrowly escape getting hit by a truck. And the writers again try to make a case for Chess being an alternate personality of Fleming, rather than just a secret identity. But for the most part, this is kind of a legitimately good episode of The Cape. (If nothing else, you get Tom Noonan being creepy as only Tom Noonan can.)
I really think it’s a shame the show is (more than likely) clocking out, especially as it seems to be hitting some sort of stride. The Cape is more often than not an entertaining series, but if the audience isn’t there to watch, then what does it matter?
F13’s rating: Goggles and Hicks – 4/5 The Lich, Part One – 4/5
