photo: fox
Minority Report
Honor Among Thieves
Original Air Date: Nov 2, 2015
Vincent Chia – Sr. Reviewer
vincent@thetwocentscorp.com
Like last week, tonight’s episode was also a bit more about character development than solving a crime of the week. Though, I thought there were a couple of relatively significant plot holes.
We start with a flashback to when our three precogs are initially let out of their precrime chamber. They go through physical rehab to learn to walk again and use their various muscles. Eventually, they are told a couple of government officials that they are free to go. Their eye-dents have been erased from the computer systems. For the pre-cogs own safety, they are urged to live an anonymous life and to not tell even the government officials themselves where they plan to live. The DIA director is also present, saying what a waste it was to left the precogs go.
In the present, Dash and Vega reach a murder scene but they arrive too late. They had only 40 minutes to figure out the crime. Vega is saddened. She had forgotten what “losing” felt like since she and Dash had been on a hot streak lately.
Dash goes to Arthur for help with getting the name of the perp but Arthur tells Dash he should let the “post-crime” division of the police take care of the investigation. As “pre-crime” (or, I guess, Hawkeye??) division, Dash should move on. Vega tells Dash the same thing but Dash conducts his own little investigation behind Vega’s back.
A curious Vega asks a police colleague about the murder that occurred yesterday night, but he says that no murders have been reported and no paramedics have reported picking up a body. Ooohhh…. A mystery! I was thinking a government involved conspiracy, perhaps by a secret intelligence agency of some sort? This might be how the precogs get caught! Meddling into things they shouldn’t and interfering with national security. But it later turns out that this is not the case.
Dash figures out that the victim was Henri Nellis and goes to his apartment to investigate. There, he meets Mrs. Nellis and is shocked that she had not been notified by the police that her husband is dead. But it turns out that the woman isn’t Mrs. Nellis at all. She first appears to be distraught but then places a tiny device on Dash’s hand that knocks him unconscious.
Detective Vega goes looking for Dash. She goes to the apartment that Dash looked up the address for. She finds some of Dash’s blood on the floor. Vega goes to Arthur for help. Arthur had tried to steer Dash away from investigating the murder because Arthur knows who the victim works for.
A kidnapped Dash is interrogated by a gangster-type person and his two hench-people. The gangster is looking for two things: his banker and his money. Dash says he doesn’t know anything, but the gangster says Dash knows at least one thing. The gangster found Arthur’s business card in Dash’s wallet. When Dash says that Arthur is his brother, a smile comes across the gangster’s face.
Arthur explains that the gangster is Luca van Zandt, who is known to be very dangerous. Vega wants to call in a SWAT team, but Arthur thinks van Zandt will kill Dash if he smells cops. Arthur approaches van Zandt alone at an upscale restaurant. Van Zandt thinks that Arthur took his money. Fifty million dollars, to be exact. Van Zandt knows of Arthur’s reputation in the black markets for forging identities.
Arthur relays the information to Vega, who suggests they find Henri Nellis’ murderers in order to find the $50 million. Art confesses that the fake paramedics that picked up Henri Nellis were actually his people. Arthur then pretended to be Henri and emptied the bank accounts of Luca van Zandt’s money. Vega punches Arthur in the face. She gives him only one hour before she calls in SWAT.
Arthur meets with van Zandt henchman Malik. Malik gives Arthur one of Dash’s fingers in a box. Arthur attacks Malik, but Vega talks him out of it through the radio.
Vega calls Blake for SWAT back-up while Arthur goes to van Zandt to try to buy more time. Cleo, the woman who Dash mistook for Nellis’ wife but was really a van Zandt soldier confronts Malik about her murdered husband. When Dash first met Cleo, he had sensed that she felt the loss of her husband, which was partially why he mistook her for Mrs. Nellis. It turns out that Malik was in love with her and killed her husband. It was a murder that Dash had a vision of and was one of the sketches in his book. Cleo saw the sketch. She holds Malik at gunpoint and when he confesses, she kills him. A few minutes (??) before she kills him, both Dash and Arthur go into a trance. Arthur sees the names Cleo Witcher and Malik Aziz. He relays the names to Vega and Vega finds a property in Cleo’s name. Vega and the police arrive and save Dash.
So here, I thought there were two unexplained holes in the plot. The biggest one being: how did Vega explain Dash’s kidnapping to her boss Lt. Blake? Just that a gang boss kidnapped him for no apparent reason? The second is I was wondering why Arthur and Dash didn’t see the Malik’s murder earlier. It also seemed strange to me that Arthur was so worried for Dash but he never had a premonition with Dash’s name. Though, I guess it was said earlier that the precogs can’t read their own futures.
So, Dash is saved, but the more interesting twist comes soon. Arthur meets with van Zandt and tells him that he knows van Zandt stole his money from his business partners in Asia. With Art are four armed Asian businessmen. Since Arthur gave the money to the Asians (minus a small finder’s fee), van Zandt is murdered. So Arthur is a criminal mastermind and now seemingly a crime boss!
Happy ending: Dash gets his pinky finger reattached. Arthur hugs Dash.
Interspliced throughout the episode were flashbacks to the first days of the precogs’ newfound freedom. Arthur flirted with a waitress. He almost gets into a bar fight with a local “regular.” As Dash and Arthur run away, they get a vision. It is the waitress that Arthur was flirting with. Arthur wants to go save her, but Agatha and Dash hold him back. When Arthur runs back to the bar, she is already killed. Dash and Agatha eventually apologize for holding Arthur back, but he says he’s okay. This is seemingly the event that makes Arthur “cold” towards saving the victims in their visions, and it is arguably Dash’s fault. (Though, Dash’s concerns were somewhat understandable.)
The flashback was only slightly interesting to me, though it was good to see a naïve and grinning Arthur. He got the waitress’ telephone number! He doesn’t know what that means, but he presumes it’s a good thing and he likes her smile. The more interesting thing was Arthur developing into a crime boss. What do you guys think? Does Arthur have the stomach to be a crime boss? One that might involve killing opponents? How would Dash react? Would the precogs even get those visions (since they technically are not able to see their own futures)?