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One Big Heat Run. Retrospective: Graceland – “Goodbye High”

Season 1, Episode 7

Air Date: Thursday, July 25, 2013, 10/9c on USA

Rating: ★★★★★

“Your secrets are your burden. Mine are mine.” – Briggs

Who is the real Paul Briggs?

“Goodbye High” picks up right where “Hair of the Dog” left off with Mike (Aaron Tveit) following Briggs (Daniel Sunjata) to an unknown building only to discover it’s a Narcotics Anonymous meeting. Much to Mike’s surprise, Briggs confesses to the group he is a heroin addict.

After the meeting, Briggs explains to Mike how he became a “smack head” at the hands of the Mexican Cartel. It’s a great story but doesn’t feel believable, despite how well Sunjata carries off his role. If this really was an effort to discredit Briggs and all the cases he has worked on, why no anonymous tip called into the Bureau? Instead, years have passed and nothing has happened so Briggs just simply went on with his life. As the lies pile on, layer by layer, you almost have to wonder if the real Briggs even exists anymore. “Goodbye High” takes me back to the Pilot when Briggs said, “Your lies are your life.”

Jakes (Brandon Jay McLaren) makes a return after several episodes of being AWOL after busting drug runners who used children’s toys to stash and ship their drugs. Johnny (Manny Montana) likes the now empty toys and asks Jakes: “This safe to give to my cousin?”

Jakes: “Yeah, the drugs were vacuum packed. Are you really that cheap, Johnny?”

Johnny: “The drugs ain’t in there anymore, right?”

Jakes: “You’re cheap.”

Although pointing out how cheap Johnny is, Jakes thinks nothing about taking one of the empty drug robots to his son. Yes, you read that correctly… Jakes has a son who we’ve never heard anything about. Jakes takes the toy to the house of his former girlfriend, Cassandra (Ciera Payton), where it is painfully obvious that he is not welcome. On top of that, the kid has no idea Jakes is his father so Jakes decides to stalk Cassandra’s current boyfriend to learn more about the son he misses. While it’s nice to have more of a back story for Jakes, it’s just too little, too late. Who is this woman? How did she and Jakes meet? Instead, what could have been a subtle, intriguing buildup over the course of a few episodes is merely tossed in, and it takes a minute or two to even realize exactly what’s going on.

I did find the conversation between Charlie (Vanessa Ferlito) and Briggs interesting when she tries to find out more about Briggs’ CI whose house she recovered at after shooting up heroin. Did she really want to thank the CI or did she suspect the house and the drugs belonged to Briggs?

After setting up a great and powerful story arc over the last two episodes, Graceland had a chance to hit it out of the park with “Goodbye High.” Instead, they struck out. The problem with a show full of secrets and lies is after a while you get tired of feeling like you’re being lied to also.

In almost every episode so far, Graceland has relied on a shocking twist in the final 30 seconds in an effort to entice you into watching the next episode. Half the time, these twists seem to fizzle by the start of the following episode, like when Briggs pulled the gun on Mike at the end of “Guadalajara Dog, “making us fear for Mike’s life, and then within seconds of the opening of “Heat Run,” we learned pulling his gun was Briggs’ way of creating a distraction to save both their lives.

Relying on shocking twists can work a few times over the course of a season but to do it episode after episode? I find myself not trusting anything that happens. Is Abby (Jenn Proske), Mike’s girlfriend, who she says she is? What about Mike’s caseworker, Juan (Pedro Pascal)? There is something way off with him and his investigation of Briggs.

Bello meets Odin

So we learn Briggs is the mysterious drug lord Odin, or so he says. But why should we invest any time believing him? Briggs has a history of made up on the spot moves. We spent a week thinking Briggs was going to shoot Mike because he figured out his secret. For a few minutes, we thought Johnny had been killed when the bomb went off in “Hair of the Dog.” At this point, Graceland feels more like a series of bait and switch moves rather than an honest story that builds from week to week. Since this series is supposed to be based on actual events, are we to believe all these last minute cliffhangers?

Is Briggs really Odin? It would explain the house and the drugs. On the other hand, maybe he is claiming to be Odin to get close to Bello (Gbenga Akinnagbe). After all, he was upset that Bello chose Mike and not him. Maybe this is his way of getting back in. And then, there’s the story to Mike about being captured. Was that real? Honestly, it doesn’t matter because the next shocking twist will throw us in a totally different direction. Even the teaser for the next episode shows us there is a twist we will never see coming.

In “Heat Run,” the term was described as a series of random turns to throw off anyone who might be following you. Sadly, Graceland seems to be falling victim to its own heat run.

Follow the stars of Graceland on Twitter: @DanielGRACELAND, @MannyMontana, @SwanSerinda, and @brandojay.

LIKE Graceland on Facebook.

All photos © 2013 USA Network, a division of NBC Universal, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

 

Greg Staffa

I provide testosterone to the site. You won’t be reading about how nice a actress looks in a dress or how much of a hunk Matt Bomer is in my reviews. I describe colors using words like brown, not taupe. My twitter name is @staffaroadtrip because I love road trips and have done two different 48-state road trips since 2008. My favorite show is White Collar.

Greg Staffa

I provide testosterone to the site. You won’t be reading about how nice a actress looks in a dress or how much of a hunk Matt Bomer is in my reviews. I describe colors using words like brown, not taupe. My twitter name is @staffaroadtrip because I love road trips and have done two different 48-state road trips since 2008. My favorite show is White Collar.