Pointer

I need a second opinion on this because I'm unable to find anything on it at all on the internet so far: Either I've gone nuts, or there is a portrait of CSA general Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson hanging in the staircase of the Underwood White House - you can see it quite clearly at about 26min into this episode, when Claire takes her shawl off at the top of the stairs, just after her run-in with Doris Jones. The portrait in question is, I belive, this one, with one or two inches cropped off the bottom. I've cross-checked with a couple of sources listing the artwork in the White House, and the only other portrait picture I could find of a man in unform (as the picture in this episode clearly depicts one, even if it happens to not be Jackson) would be the presidential portrait of Zachary Taylor - and it definitely isn't that portrait, or an alternate one of Taylor (wrong type of beard). Should this indeed be Jackson, what is the intention behind it? Some in-joke I (as a non-american) am not getting? The two pictures at the bottom of the staircase were Washington and Lincoln - something to do with Emancipation? I fail to see a personal connection to president Underwood, as general Jackson has, to the best of my knowledge, no connection whatsoever to South Carolina (he was a Virgina-man pretty much all his life). Is this simply the set-design people having a laugh? Anyone? Also: who is the gentleman on the picture next to the alleged Jackson portrait - it looks vaguely familiar to me, but I can't, for the life of me, figue out who that is. Then again, I'm not really very firm in US history, compared to educated "natives".

Well, I'll be damned. I really liked this finale, rushed as it was, and am now at a point where I'm sad to see this show go. Great performances by everyone this episode, Good and especially Valderrama explicitly included. If you compare epsides one to three and eight to ten, the difference in overall quality in pretty much every aspect (story, dialogue, acting, soundtrack, cinematography, subtlety of nods to the movie) is like night and day. What a shame the series started so mind-bogglingly weak, campy and unintentionally juvenile. I can't help but geuninely ruminate on whether or not Wally will be okay, for how long and where to the pre-cogs will run and if Vega will abandon her job (or what's left of that at this point) and more importantly her family to run with them - or probably Dash, more specifically. As I'm a secret sucker for happy endings, I'll go with: "The congresspeople are so grateful and Arthur's underworld contacts so extensive that Wally will receive the lightest sentence possible and gets to live out his life in peace, Arthur will return to his job as an "estate planner" in DC within the year, Agatha finds a nice horse farm (and corrsponding single horse farmer) on some other secluded hippy island, Vega will take a pay cut and demotion but be able to get back to her job and Dashiell Parker, who had gotten cold feet after seeing so much blood on the job and handed in his resignation mere days before the "Memento Mori Scandal" was leaked to the press; decided after a couple of months "back in the private sector" that preventing future scandals of that caliber by helping the police perfect Hawk-Eye outweighs occasionally being spattered with chopped/shot kidnappers after all."

Well, we got Dash's word on his first murder from the pilot an episode later - he litterally said he felt nothing, just numb. Then we have him orchstrate/provoke the murder of one of the people who hold him captive by the other one in order to promt a vision for Arthur that includes his name and location two episodes ago. And don't forget him going walkies with a gun pointed at his head so another captor gets a face full of drone, which leads to antoher shootout where several other people end up dead. To me, Dash seems to be eerily (unreflectedly) fine with, at the very least, 'bad people' finding their demise through his direct involvement. Is that because he's generally numb after watching so many people die throughout his entire life so far (has he become a "murderer sociopath", so to speak - a man who lacks empathy for murderers through conditioning), or because he's got psychopathic tendencies on the whole (is there something intrinsicly wrong with his brain) but only lets them shine under those very limited conditions? Sadly, we won't see that explored. I wouldn't be surprised if it was. I'm also pretty sure that the initial press kit for this episode listed Zane Hall, the kid who plays Vega's little brother, on the casting sheet. Tied to the line from last week's press kit about the assasination attempt tying into Vega's personal life, I suspect that there was a different arc planned (most likely involving Vega's father's death, possibly tied to Blomfeld and his designs on the precogs) that had to be cut out due to time constraints. Reed Diamond was great, as were so many other guest stars on the show.

Allow me to use this as an in to shamelessly promote Generation Kill - a 2008 HBO miniseries about the Invasion of Iraq (OIF I) based on the book by the same name, brought to TV by the producers of The Wire. Treat yourself to seven episodes of great television and watch Stark Sands give one of the two stand-out performances of an alltogether incredibly talented cast (Alexanders Skarsgard is the other standout with arguably the best work he's ever done anywhere) as the leader of a platoon of Marines who is forever stuck between the rock of War and the hard place of Command and gets ground down by the hard moral choices he constantly has to make for both his men, their mission and the civilians they meet, while neither ever breaking nor losing his moral compass along the way. The man he portrays (as every other person in the series - it's a pretty much verbatim portrayal of the experience of an embeded reporter who was with that unit) is one hell of a person and as "bada$$" as any of these type of Ivy League types ever get. And Sands absolutely nails him. I've read the books (both Generation Kill and the book Sands' character wrote about his time in the USMC), have watched several security policy talks/lectures by- and been a great admirer of the man - Nate Fick - long before I watched the TV series and was utterly convinced that they wouldn't find an actor who could do him justice. And while Sands looks next to nothing like Fick (who has several inches on him in both directions), he absolutely became the man - from the bearing over the inflection right down to the bloody way he tilts his head and smiles at people. Absolutely uncanny. But apart even from that, the arc he takes the character on, especially in the later episodes, is one of the most interesting aspects of the entire show. And nothing close to the way he portrays Dash. Okay, save for the ten second scene where he punches Arthur after seeing Vega get murdered in episode five (I think it was): the look on his face and corresponding line 'I'm not in the mood for glib today' was so Nate Fick I could barely kep myself from shouting 'oorah!' at my TV screen.

excellent point, Netfoot. retired colonel and West Point lecturer Dave Grossman has an interesting take on this in his (at least in civilian circles) most well-known book "On Killing": the 'Sheep, Wolf, Sheepdog' typification of people - you may have heard of it in/from military/law enforcement circles or seen an overly short, simplistic allusion to it in American Sniper. Interesting stuff, for sure. As someone who grew up firmly around "sheep"(who I can completely understand) but has come to increasingly deal with a lot of "sheepdogs"(who I can't help but greatly respect and admire on the whole), I can definitely attest to the basic intrinsic mindsets/hardwired personality types existing, though perhaps not as clear cut/ starkly differentiated as the original analogy implies. While I've certainly met many a pure-bred sheepdog and an overwhelming number of sheep, I've also come to meet quite a few people who I'd categorize as somewhere between sheep and sheepdog, depending on the situation. If I had to categorize myself, I'd fall in there as well - my insticts and initial reactions in immediately threatening situations have (so far into my life) been decidedly on the sheepdog side, much to the consternation of most of the genuine sheep in my life who care about me. But so far, all my actions in those situations were, both initially and retrospectively, justifiably calculated risks appropriate to the first impression of the threat level as well as my "problem-solving" skill set. I've never tried to insert myself into situations/play the hero when I knew I'd absolutely be in over my head. Would I tackle a suicide bomber with the near-certain chance of death from this encounter, but knowing I'd also be certain to save the lives of at least half a dozen bystanders like Adel Termos did in Beirut two weeks ago? Damned if I know, honestly. But I can certainly see Dash being a rabidly convinced sheepdog "puppy"/untrained sheepdog. I've seen people with exactly that kind of extreme sheepdog reflex, both apparently intrinsic to their personality and honed to that degree as a result of past experiences.

And another (relatively speaking, but certainly for this show on the whole) strong episode of Minority Report. However unrealistic the science (many thanks for some great insight, Latverian Diplomat!) I liked the moral dilemma/questions it posed. Good and Valderrama, performance wise, managed to clear the bar of "good-enough-to-not-immediately-break-immersion" with some of the strongest acting we've seen from them throughout the show. For the first time this season, I actually find myself actively curious about the course of the storyline and invested in the fate of all the characters. Good job, show - had you managed that a bit earlier (say, about five episodes earlier) you might have had a fighting chance for survival. Some issues/questions I'm left with: Stark Sands said in a teaser interview for the episode that he couldn't disclose the title of the song we'd hear Dash sing, because it would be a spoiler for important plot points. Is there some meaning/association with Sexual Healing non-Americans/people who didn't conscioulsy experience the early 80s don't get, or is it more likely that they've switched the song on him at the last minute/after he gave that interview? Am i the only one who thinks that particular song was a pretty odd choice for a character like Dash to begin with? The episode summary from the press kit claimed the the political assasination that was at the heart of this episode had ties to Vega's personal life. I can't, for the life of me, figure out where. Was there supposed to be a tie-in with the dead father and the whole thing became a jettisoned plot point in order to hve enough time to bring the show to a satisfactory conclusion? I absolutely hated the excessive use of lens flare this episode. I actually thought my old TV had finally died on me proper until I switched channels and found everything else to be fine and the issue with Minority Report alone. I suppose it's almost a metaphor for the show on the whole - they think they are so darn clever, they completely overdo what might actually work as a subtle nod: the cinematographic effect of lens flare harking back to select scenes used for dramatic effect in the original Minority Report movie here, just like the obnoxious, lingering close-up of the cannabis breath strips in episode 3 and the ham-fisted, preachy world building (genetic engineering in agriculture, climate change and its implications, average products of contemporary pop culture being classics in 2065) throughout the series. That and the writing (of a show that has generally struggled to find its tone throughout its run) make the whole thing so gratingly juvenile I'm struggling to work up a great deal of regret over being rid of it in a week. Lastly: several insiders (the showrunner himself and Laura Regan/Agatha) said that the Memento Mori story arc would be concluded next episode, but that there would still be a (big) cliffhanger overall. With a show that has seen the writing on the wall regarding its pretty much inevitable cancellation for months, and seeing how they were still shooting scenes until last week (the cast was/is pretty active with posting behind the scenes stuff on social media and substiancial parts of what turned out to be this episode's Meat Factory scene and an outdoor chase involving Blake and Vega next episode were shot as late as then) I'm not sure I'd appreciate that. I'm going to pepare myself for the pre-cogs voluntarily going into the milk bath for one "session" in a one-off deal to save humanity from Memento Mori with Vega watching on, while the last scene we get will be Blomfeld and the DIA/ Blomfeld's new civilian contractor friend walzing in at the last minute and force Vega/Wally at gunpoint to keep them under for reasons of national security. Another random observation: the interior of the Meat Factory was also very obviously the heavily remodeled set of Dash's apartment and the corresponding hallway - the basic layout, that big window and the peculiar color scheme and texture of all the walls were the same, everything else was gutted/redesigned. So they're obviously scrapping/repurposing key sound stage sets - further evidence that nobody is under any pretenses that the show is effectively dead? Also - am I the only one who thinks Arthur's apartment was very different from what we've seen in all episodes before? It's like they're not even trying anmore, heh. On a positive note: at least one of the actors, Li Jun Li (Akeela), seems to have found new work already - she's been confirmed to become a recurring character for the "return leg"/ back order of Quantico. Looks like a rescission on contract for the Minority Report cast, then. Why not confirm the termination? Anyway, I'm very happy for the actress, who turned into one of my favorites on this show, even with how little she's been given to work with.

Many thanks for clearing up all my questions on the matter, mate! :)

I'm with you in terms of prior assumptions as to how Precrime could attain legality in the first place. Though I've never read the original short story and last watched the movie about half a decade ago. And this is the point where I need to make clear that the last time I took a closer look at the 14th Amendment was during the single year of American Government eductation I received back in '03, when I was an exchange student. What I remember boils down to "drafted and enacted in the direct aftermath of the Civil War, deals with citizenship rights ['privileges and immunities' I think the term is] and due process and was the basis for many of the big landmark rulings that shaped modern American jurisprudence/government like Brown v. Board of Education and Roe v. Wade". I actually presently knew that DC was under federal jurisdiction, but completely failed to make that connection to the applicability of the amendments. I really need to revisit that. So, being a territory under federal jurisdiction would mean that the 14th doesn't apply to DC and all citizenship rights would be directly covered by the Bill of Rights? Does the Bill of Rights cover all necessary issues? *sigh* Sorry mate. I REALLY need to take another close look at US constitutional/legal history - this is shameful. is it actually formally canceled yet? The executive producer seems to (at least pretend to) hold out hope for a possible second season, though Murdoch jr. calling your show out by name as the big disappointment of the year during some kind of official function is even more of a death sentence than the abysmal ratings, I suppose.

This was my immediate assumption also: a more European-style ius sanguinis determinator for citizenship as a trade-off for the legalization of 10 million illegals. Implying that the scuttling of the entire 14th Amendment is what gave us a 2050+ with civil rights and liberties being what they are shown to be under first Precrime and then Hawkeye would be an awesome idea, but seems way too subtle to me for a show that is as blatantly obvious with the steady stream of its myriad of other (let's call them liberal progressive) political messages. that is actually a very valid point!

Ha! Poe didn't even cross my mind in that scene - I saw him deliver that line while nodding at his glass and taking a drink and immediately went for "beverage hipster" instead of "literature geek" my bad!

Word! Good to know that they actually have ONE guy who knows how to do proper police work at Metro PD. Indeed. I am wondering about that scene as well: could it be that a barely-drugged-clearly-distressed Dash was so out of sync with his siblings during that incident, that they weren't getting the proper vision? Was Dash, whose reply to Blake's later 'confession' that he was about to commit the crime was "I remember", actually correct and would have qualified as a Minority Report in that situation? Amen to the entire paragraph. The way Vega is written continues to be my main issue with character writing on this show. It would take one hell of an actress to pull off a believable interpretation of this particular character at any rate, Good with her somewhat limited range (or at least not hard-nosed cop compatible range) is a hopelessly lost cause in that regard, even though she has somewhat improved over the course of the show. I still can't belive the network picked up a show with her in that role in the first place (especially after the way the pilot turned out - both versions) and I'm seriously wondering who her competition was, unless of course she was name cast. And another 'amen' from me on this. That meeting (also the wardrobe department on the whole for that location) was my highlight of the show. And while I'm at it - I've been an exceptionally staunch critic of Wilmer Valderrama's performance, especially his dialogue delivery, throughout the series. With one or two absolutely minor exceptions this episode, there were no issues whatsoever in that regard today. His physical performance was very solid as well, though that has, at least to me, never really been his problem to begin with. Anyway - great job last night, he managed to sell Blake to me in a way Zano hasn't quite managed to sell Arthur with three times the amount of accumulated screen time allotted to character development. I do agree that Arthur was absolutely justified in socking his brother in the mouth. While we all know Dash would take a bullet for Vega and follow her willingly and consciously to certain doom, the whole "I trust him because she does, and I trust her so you can trust me on that!"-thing was ridiculous, even for Dash. Especially for a Dash who continues to be pretty ruthless about- and absolutely willing to actively set events in motion that get "evil people" killed outright in order resolve a predicament. That and the incredible sang-froid he displayed throughout the entire "don't you want to run with a precog, just once?" scene really is what makes the character interesting to me. Sands plays the guy like he's got one hell of a dark side lurking just underneath the surface. Sure, it is most likely due to the early childhood trauma of his entire upbringing, and it is certainly also outclassed by his rabidly stubborn determination to help people/stop murders and be a general do-gooder. Never getting to see where else this character could be taken when pushed over the edge will be one of my main regrets once the show wraps up in two weeks. On the other hand, contrast that dark side with the way he remains steadfastly loyal to the people he cares about and gives his word to. Unlike the way he keeps reminding everyone how he completely trusts Vega and all her choices on his behalf, I really liked the whole interrogation room scene. I loved Akeela's willingness to put herself on the line in order to help Dash, especially remembering her inhibitions to get him into his job in the first place. Dash's statement to her during his job interview ("your confidence in me will be rewarded") was on the forefront of my mind during the entire scene, so I wasn't the least bit surprised to find him where he was when Blake and Vega came for him in the end. He wasn't going to let her down. Might be a fair bit healthier for his long-term prospects to channel a lot less Egmont and a lot more Orange, though. Let's hope his convictions don't get all the precogs in a milk bath and everybody else incarcerated or killed by the end of episode 10. Speaking of getting everybody killed - from what we saw so far, I really like the terrorist attack plotline so far. That may largely be due to Christopher Heyerdahl apparently being a part of it, but the entire setup looks very promising and nowhere near as ridiculous as the mind-controlled, bio-agent carrying pigeons from the pilot. Still chuffed about the complete lack of any unnecessary romance subplot to clutter up the resolution of the show as well.

By and large, another decent episode. Too little too late, of course (is there a chance this might get picked up by someone else when FOX lets it go? Production costs are probably a little too high for another channel, aren't they?) but I take what I'll get. Couple of observations/opinions: I agree with all the above posters who really enjoyed Peter Macon (the guy playing van Zant) in this episode. He would have made a phenomenal season 1 Big Bad, giving both Vega/Dash/the police and Arthur's Underworld Crime Empire ample opportunity for interaction. On that note, I am really impressed with many, if not most of the extras they cast over the course of the show. The bartender today, both of van Zant's henchmen (the woman in particular), Brian the Farmer last episode, Vega's mom, Dash's brief love interest Fredi, the psychologist/perp from the Hawkeye episode - and that's just off the top of my head. It still boggles the mind how they consistently manage to score on that casting front, yet ended up going ahead with Meagan Good and Wilmer Vaderrama in their respective roles. Did they receive straight offers? Really liked the way they explored the individual dark sides of Arthur and Dash this episode: First, of course, the "origin story" of Arthur's (while believably acted by Zano, it felt a bit rushed - one incident and he turns into the Arthur we see today? - but I'm willing to chalk that one up to the time constraints of wrapping up the show within the next 3 episodes. But also the fact that Dash (Ep. 2: "I killed a person and I felt nothing") orchestrated a murder to get a message out. Sure, he was grateful for the killer's actions afterward, but boy does this guy have a hidden dark side lurking just beneath the surface that would make it really interesting to watch him fly off the rails for a bit. What I don't really buy is going as far as (judging by past experience with the show's writing) I think the writers were trying to suggest in terms of "just out of the milk bath, Arthur was the sweet guy hell-bent on saving people, while Dash didn't want any part of it". A complete role-reversal of the two brothers just by this one incident feels a bit far-fetched. They have stressed Dash's inherent desire to save people, no matter the cost (especially to himself) as a motivator for all his actions entirely too much over the course of the show so far. On the other hand, Arthur's (up to this point) inexplicable dichotomy between warning Dash to stay away from Vega and himself helping them with little prompting at every opportunity has become a fair bit more credible. One major annoyance that was back to almost early-show level form was the damn unnecessary expository dialogue/owershowing of issues. Chief example being the scene where Vega visits the appartment Dash had previously visited and was abducted from. She scans the floor with her lenses, checks the liquid residue she finds with her magic spray and and the puddle we see can clearly be little else than one thing. What does Vega say? "Blood!". She then checks the blood for DNA matches, her lenses show us Dash's NAME AND A BIG PICTURE OF HIM and what does Vega say? "Dash!" Ugh. If this is actually written in the script and not an acting choice by Meagan Good (in which case the director should rein her in), these writers deserve to be out of a job in three weeks. Generally similar thing with photography later in the episode: Arthur's parting scene from Wally's where he hits on Vega. Why do we get that two second cutaway close-up of Dash reacting to Arthur's "I get a kiss goodbye?" - unless they are actually setting up a love triangle and specifically wanted this extra focus on Dash to foreshadow it so even the slowest member of the audience is in the picture, they could have done very well without it. The camera angle they shot Arthur asking for the kiss actually showed Dash's reaction pretty well - his head was almost center-frame right behind Arthur's shoulder and he immediately looked up from whatever else he was doing the moment Arthur said the words and kept staring at Vega throughout the rest of the scene (though the angle of the second shot of the scene - the one after his reaction closeup was slightly different - hid half his face behind Arthur, the stare was still there). The medium-long shot of the scene would have worked perfectly well to catch not just Arthur hitting on Vega and her evading him, but also Dash's reaction. No need to hit us over the head with an extra close-up of Dash frowning extra-worriedly. Edit: I just remembered that they aired this episode and the privous one in reverse order. Going from the fact that Arthur doesn't hit on Vega in "Fiddler's Neck" and even seems moderately annoyed that she tags along in the first place, and remembering the long scene in the end that has Dash interrupt saynig goodbye to his sister (cue dramatic violin music setting in) to prolongedly stare at Vega walking down the dock towards them, this looks, if intentional at all, more like Dash falling for Vega than the setup of a love triangle. If so, good - I don't want to see them try to cram a love triangle into the last three episodes as well, when there is - at this point - little to no setup in place for the big showdown to begin with. Also on that note - is it just me, or was the delivery of that exact dialogue Nick Zano's only weak scene in the entire episode? Something felt off about it, and he was back to that faux drawl that annoyed me during his first few scenes, especially with Vega, from the pilot and episode 2. The rest of his scenes with Good this episode were very well done on his part, though. I was a bit worried about this front beforehand, as they are both stronger when they act off other members of the cast, but they both did well this episode. One thing that really irked me during their scene at Dash's apartment was the continuous, overexaggerated blinking on Good's part. The character's confusion is already expressed by the dialogue and inherently clear to the viewer from the entire situation Vega finds herself in at that moment - no need to try and oversell it. Edit 2: Can't belive I forgot about this one when first writing the post but good God, continuity: When Arthur meets with van Zant's guy in the alley - the meeting where he is presented with the proof of life , the goon ends their meeting by telling Arthur he has "until dawn" to get back to them with the money. The scene clearly takes places at night - the scene immediately preceeding it was set the Vega's apartment where the lighting of the glass front/ windows to the garden went from late evening to nightfall. We're then interrupted by a flashback set at night. But the next scene in the "here and now" after the confrontation, which takes place at Wally's house, where they analyze the "proof of life" and Arthur decides to head back out to see van Zant, clearly has bright daylight flooding through the basement windows and the glass panels by the front door of the house. The confrontation scene at the restaurant between Arthur and van Zant also takes place in bright daylight. So... they had until "dawn" some other day in the distant future, then? Wow, in retrospect, this seems like a lot of criticism for an episode I generally found to be one of the better ones of the show. At this point, I'll be sad to see it go, despite all it's failings. There was so much potential here, it's a shame. Hold on, I've got one more: the Eurosnob in me (sorry, can't help it - but I've got family in that region in Spain) was cringing at the almost orange "Amontillado", served with crab of all things. I get that the Big Bad was supposed to be a refined foodie/beverage snob, but everything about that beverage choice in that context was plain wrong. The sherry you were looking for in that context is Manzanilla or Fino, writers. The information to make the right choice should be on the corresponding pages of the damn wikipedia. Why not go with a nice white wine where he gets to name-drop a big-name winery that will impress/confuse viewers just as much?

Right, right - I'll be off to my little corner then, rocking back and forth... Let's see what what fun new-old stuff they come up with next episode!

That makes sense. wasn't one of the main points of the worldbuilding re: their gift that the brothers can only see little things in their very immediate future, though? Or does that only pertain Dash? The near total absence of Blake (very much tied to the fact that Valderrama also, for once on this show, managed to deliver his lines rather decently) was one of my absolute highlights of the episode.

sorry about that, mate - I've started my "research" on that issue with a google search of literally "how tall is x" and the engine automatically gave me the result in cm (I assume the buggers were locating my IP address) so I went with that, as it's also a bit more detailed, scale wise. I apologize for my tendency to forget that in to the "imperials", I might as well just be measuring stuff in potato scale. Rest assured that I fall victim to the exact same problem when I have to convert, say, American recipes I want to cook on the other side of the pond. ;) I've gone back to my original post and added the correcsponding value in ft/inches, though.