RUBICON: "The Truth Will Out"

I enjoyed Monday’s “Rubicon,” though I wasn’t quite on the edge of my seat the way I have been the last 2 weeks. This episode, “The Truth Will Out,” slowed the pace of the story down so that we could get to know our characters a little better. A mole hunt, in which each character is forced to answer a series of personal questions while strapped to a polygraph, is a perfect device to accomplish this.

“Everybody has secrets,” Maggie tells Will at the end of the episode, and the desire to keep those secrets is what this episode was all about.

Each character was terrified that some piece of baggage from his or her past, something about them, would signal them as the guilty party and cause their downfall. Tanya was so nervous that the polygrapher had to ask her what her name was several times before he could get an accurate reading. She was terrified her substance abuse would be exposed. She makes it through the polygraph because the question she is asked, "Have you ever used any illegal drugs," allows for the possibility that it was all in the distant past. But she may not make it through the drug screening Will set up for her (if indeed that hasn't happened yet off-screen?). Either way, protecting this secret is going to be an ongoing problem for Tanya.

Miles is so paranoid and self-deluded that he actually thinks he might be the mole the FBI is looking for because he accidentally left a file in a cab. Rather than getting to know “facts” about Miles, as with his two colleagues, we got to learn what it was like to be inside his head, and it was not pleasant. Miles lives in a constant state of anxiety. He always feels that in some way, shape, or form, the sky is going to fall on him. I loved the shock on Miles’ face when he was informed he would only be suspended for about a week, and he realized he wasn’t the mole. Miles is definitely someone in danger of becoming like Ed and letting the codes crack him.

We learn that Grant may have cheated on his wife. He insists the machine is wrong, but the polygrapher tells him that even if he didn’t cheat, he’s going to and is already thinking about it-otherwise the needle wouldn’t have jumped. And this comes in the middle of a day in which Grant has already been obsessing about unintentionally letting down both his wife and daughter. Whether he has cheated or not, it’s clear that his exchange with the polygrapher left him shaken to the point where he was afraid to go home after the FBI left. Let’s see if this was just a random bit of character insight or if it comes up again, because Grant struggling with monogamy might not organically mesh with the central plot lines of this series.

The only two people who are not remotely nervous for their polygraphs, Kale and Spangler, are probably the two people with the most to hide. But because these two are so experienced and formidable, they know they’ll have no problem beating the polygraph no matter what they’re asked.

Overall, this was a good episode and I was happy to take some time to get to know these characters. But I wouldn’t mind if the focus now stayed on our central plot lines for the remainder of the season, and the story was allowed to build as much momentum as possible without slowing down. That's not to suggest that I don't want character moments, just that I'd like them in the context of the serialized story we've been watching for the home stretch.

Other thoughts:

-Katherine Rhumor’s scenes were even more noticeably separate from the rest of the show than in episodes past. There was no cross-over between the two storylines. And I couldn’t even figure out what Rhumor was doing during her scenes. It seems like she figured something out, I’m just not sure what.

-Miles finally admits that he’s separated, even if only to the polygrapher. Then we see Julia cross his path again…looks like that relationship might actually be heading somewhere.

-Very suspenseful scene where Will switches out the CD in Spangler’s office. He’s taking a lot of chances. But it seems he finally realizes Spangler is the big bad he’s been looking for.

-Spangler got to be awesome and intimidating once again. Loved the line, “The FBI couldn’t find a mole if one was in a cardboard box at their doorstep!”