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Episode 106: High Priced Spread
In Plain Sight: High Priced Spread Recap
USA Network’s new original series In Plain Sight without a doubt is one of my new favorite shows.
As the season has progressed, we’ve already seen quite a bit of character insight into Mary (Mary McCormack) and Marshall (Fred Weller) especially.
In the most recent episode on Sunday, Episode 5: “High Priced Spread,” Mary learns that her very first witness, NCAA basketball star Chris Worley (Derrex Brady), has a gambling problem.
The episode starts as with the young Chris and his older brother Scott hustling a game on a neighborhood basketball court, ending with the two witnessing a murder of a low-grade hustler and ending up in the WITSEC program.
Speed ahead to the present, where Mary drops off her piece-of-junk car to Scott, who is now a mechanic who owns his own shop, learning of Chris’ success in college basketball. Invited to watch Chris’ game, Mary and Marshall run into Marshall’s former college professor Dana Collins (Elizabeth DeCicco) whom he obviously has plenty of chemistry with (she now teaches at the college). Mary even seems a little jealous as she watches them flirt. Across the court Dana walks out of the gym and Marshall follows, telling Mary to meet him at the car if he’s not back by the end of the game.
Proud to see Chris so successful, Mary congratulates him after the game. When he asks if the U.S. Marshal Service can give him $3,000 for books and computer, Mary says it’s been too long since he’s been in the program. Walking to the car, Chris then asks if Mary can give him the loan, but she says it’s against their code, and he tells her his brother can’t give him the loan because of financial problems. Perfect timing as Mary and Chris discover Marshall and Dana steaming up the windows of Mary’s backseat.
Cut back to Mary’s house as Jinx (Lesley Ann Warren) and her sister Brandi (Nichole Hiltz) are reading the morning newspaper as Mary prepares for work the next day. When Brandi hands her an envelope, Jinx throws it in the trash without opening it, peaking Mary’s interest. Getting it out of the trash, Mary sees it’s from the FBI and demands that her mother open the envelope. When she refuses, Mary opens it up to find a letter from the FBI, notifying her that on the upcoming 25th anniversary of her father’s disappearance, he will be declared legally dead. (Who thinks the dad may be showing up in future episode?)
Returning to Scott’s shop to get her car, Mary asks Scott about his finances, learning that he just gave Chris $3,000 the week before. Realizing that Chris lied to her, she confronts him on campus, where Chris tells her he has a slight gambling problem, but to stay out of his business. As he walks off, Mary catches Marshall shooting mouth freshener on his way to see Dana. Mary, of course, can’t help herself and makes fun of Marshall. Minutes later, she stops a bookie’s thugs attempting to beat up Chris over his gambling debt.
Wanting to help Chris, she brings both Chris and Scott into her office. Chris makes excuses about why he gambles, while his brother tries to tell him he can be suspended. Chris even goes so far as trying to make his brother feel guilty for not providing him with enough money. In truth, Scott has given him enough money, but Chris has gambled it away. Saying he still owes $3,000, Scott gives his brother a check against Mary’s wishes, thinking it will end the problem if he gives him money one more time, feeling Chris has learned from his mistake.
Returning home, Mary finds her mom still in her pajamas looking at old photographs from her life with her husband. When Mary asks her how she dealt with his gambling, Jinx said she cried, broke things and drank. Asked if she ever tried to get help, Jinx said she didn’t need help, but she did go to a gam-anon meeting a few times after the organization was mentioned to her by a concerned neighbor. Asked if it helped, Jinx says the group was for “whiny losers” and she didn’t have time for it while trying to raise two young daughters without a husband.
Meanwhile, Marshall and Dana go out to eat, but end up having a quicky in the men’s restroom.
Deciding to take Scott to a gam-anon meeting, Mary ends up being the one who runs out and breaks down, as the stories she hears mirror her childhood with her father.
Back in the car, Scott gets a call from the bank telling him his brother was trying to cash the check he gave him, but had changed the amount from $3,000 to $13,000. Mary tells him to not allow them to cash it, and stays with him as Chris tries to confront him. Scott feels guilty because he taught him how to hustle money on the playground. Mary locks the door to the shop, forcing Chris to yell at him through the door, telling him the bookies will kill him if he doesn’t have the money, and that $3,000 was his weekly payment, that he really owed $30,000. Turning against his brother for no longer enabling him, he tells Scott he is jealous that he has the talent, calling him a loser. This scene emotionally is great. Scott is torn apart and in tears because he wants to help his brother, but with Mary by his side, realizes that he can no longer enable him to gamble. Mary promises she will protect Chris, and works with Marshall to find his bookie.
Tracking down the clean-as-a-whistle bookie through phone records, Mary and Marshall confront Bill Donner, who says he has forgiven Chris’ debt but threatens to let out Chris’ secret if they do anything to him.
Thinking the threat is over, Marshall explains over lunch what point shaving is, telling Mary there are other ways that Chris can still “help” his bookie by throwing the game within a certain point spread.
Confronting Chris in the locker room before the game, Chris brushes them off, but Mary is suspicious. Watching the game, she sees the bookie sitting happily across the court as Chris misses two free throw baskets on purpose.
Going back to talk to Chris at half time, she learns Scott has been kidnapped by the bookie’s thugs. Not letting the bookie know, Marshall tracks down Scott and gets him safe while Mary goes and sits by the jerk bookie throughout the rest of the game. When Chris gets the signal that his brother is safe, he uses the last few minutes of the game to win the game for his team, pissing off the bookie, who is arrested as he attempts to leave, now that he has a kidnapping charge to his clean record. Chris does get suspended from the team, but will be able to return in his senior year.
The episode ends with Mary telling her story at the gam-anon meeting, spilling tears at the podium as she tells them her father was a loving and funny man though a serious gambler, and left her family two days before her seventh birthday.
Though this episode didn’t touch my No. 1 favorite In Plain Sight episode “Trojan Horst,” this episode was pretty good. Mary McCormack and Fred Weller rock!
Speaking of Fred Weller, he cracks me up. First, check out this interview about his character. Then match wits with Marshall in a game of useless trivia. I love how he reacts to the answers.
Photo: Frederick Weller as Marshall Mann, Mary McCormack as Mary Shannon. — USA Network Photo: Michael Muller
Tags: in plain sight, in plain site series, mary mccormack, frederick weller, high priced spread recap, high priced spread
Pretty weak episode, I give it a C.
Recycled story line and LOTS of filler… it felt like the last half of the ep was of the game, but given how this show always wraps things up neatly, you KNEW the outcome before the tip-off.
I was originally attracted to show because I wanted to see more of Mary McCormack, but I’m less impressed with her as time goes on – when I sum up her notable characters (Alison Stern, West Wing, In Plain Sight) I’m now seeing a pretty one-dimensional actress who isn’t compelling enough to carry a series.
If the next ep doesn’t rate at least a B+ I’m done, and I’m sure a lot of viewers feel the same. Sadly, I don’t see this show making it to a 2nd season.