#212 "Training Video"

Mary serves as Technical Advisor to The Marshals Service new training video, while Marshall arranges to get one of Witsec's charter members, a geriatric goodfella (Martin Landau) from the Philly Mob, to his son's funeral.

What did everyone think of Martin Landau's performance? Do you all think Mary did the right thing telling Raph about her job?

Enjoyed the show. Good to see M Landau again. Good performance. Enjoyed the training film segments. ..and yes,
I think Mary did the right thing...telling Raph about her job. She keeps so much to herself. She needs to be more
communicative. Love Joshua Molina. Glad he is back too. What he said to Mary made so much sense !

I just found this forum tonight, looks great.

Yes, the episode was fantastic, as it is time and time again.

I do agree that Mary did the right thing telling Raph. He needs to know the pressure she is under and communicate more effectively. The relationship will crash and burn if they keep secrets. It was equally as brave and unselfish of Mary to reveal the information. Just another way that Mary fights against her past and continues to open up more.

I'm just really wondering if WitSec inspectors are allowed to tell people what they do. I don't know what the rules are for the real WitSec (or the WitSec of the show) since I don't know if we've gotten a definite yes or no on that.

If it is against the rules, then it doesn't seem like a good idea. It seems maybe Mary should have taken the advice in the video and just explained to Raph that there's a lot about her job that she can't talk about and that she understands how hard that is on him, and go from there.

It was never clear that Mary's nearest and dearest didn't know she worked with WITSEC, so the impact of her telling Raph was lessened a bit for me. This was another episode that was strongest when it explored the impact of being in witness protection on the witness. The scene where Joseph's daugher-in-law first welcomes him, and he realizes what he's lost was very effective. Nice job by Martin Landau, but no great surprise there - he's an amazing actor.

Not that it mattered for the sake of the story, but would have been nice to know "why" the son (and I'm guessing wife, since the son was only 11 at the time), weren't WitSec-ed.

I know there are a number of possible reasons, but would like to have heard one. (Or did I miss it?)

I thought it was a great episode. I love the ones that focus on Marshall's witnesses. He's got some characters!

I think Mary did in fact break one of the cardinal WITSEC rules by telling Raph, but she probably felt she needed to open a line of communication with him, even if it is very short and they never speak of it again. I think Peter's little speech had a big impact on her. Over the last few episodes, people are finally telling her what she needs to hear and she's actually taking it to heart. It's great to see her character develop.

I also love that we get to see a different side of Bobby D and more of his friendship with Marshall. He didn't strike me as the Updike and Manhattans type. Marshall also got to deal with the topic of the training video in that Bobby D now knows way more than he should. Although that was inevitable since he he always suspected and is often in the middle of the marshals' messes. Poor Marshall looked like he wanted to crawl under a rock when Joe started telling Bobby about how he ended up in WITSEC.

Raph as a car salesman ought to be worth a chuckle or two as we go on.

I really enjoyed last nights episode. thought Martin Landau did a wonderful job and it was great to see him again.

Regarding Mary's telling Raph what she did for a living; what kind of work did he think that she did? I was somewhat surprised that he didn't know. It would have been interesting to see what his reaction was.

Love that Peter is back. Love that he doesn't pull-any-punches and says exactly what he thinks. Love that he doesn't let folks hide behind whatever façade they thrown up between themselves and other. Mary has been the "puppeteer" so long, that she is having a hard time letting go of the strings.

I'm glad that Peter didn't give Brandi a car (which he easily could have done), but making one available for her use wasn't a bad move. As for Raph and the job, it wasn't because of his connection to Brandi's family. Considering the kind of person Peter is, that discussion could have taken place anywhere with anyone and his offer would have been the same.

I'm going to have to start giving Brandi a little more credit. Her "cute, cuddly and off-handy" way of just throwing things out there just may not be as "not-on-purpose" as they seem. Maybe there is a little more "thinking" going on there than I thought.

good point !! never thought about that. One would think that the family would be under protection too.
Anyone have any thoughts about that ????

I rated the episode a "5". I liked the "domestic scene" with Ralph, Peter and Brandi, especially the exchange between Peter and Brandi (you got all his and you want a car too—funny, innocent, stress-free banter). I liked Raph's ground-rules talk with Mary (I'm not Jinx and Brandi…you can't treat me like a 5-year-old….). I liked the Eleanor-Mary coffee thing with Marshall snarkying on Mary when she pours her coffee into the plant.

But, it was "Joe" more than anything that made me rate it so high. Martin Landau was outstanding in the role. His first scene in the bar (bent over and creeping along with a mopping bucket) the expression on his face, and his body language was so Willy Lomanesque ("Death Of A Salesman"). You just know, by his appearance that it is not only old age that is weighing him down. Here is an unhappy man, who is living with a heavy burden.

And then the scene where he finally meets his family, and come to fully realized what he has missed out on over the years, what he had lost, but also what he had found—priceless.

When it comes to Landau and this role, I'll take his limited time on screen and of this quality of work over 3 hours of bang-bang-shoot-em-up-blow-em-up any day.

Yes, aside from my suspicion that Mary broke a WitSec rule, I did enjoy a lot about this episode. Martin Landau was great. I really enjoyed that storyline. And I really like the friendship between Marshall and Bobby D. I hope we get to see more of that in the future.

I really liked this one! I was glad to see some maturity and/or growth from both Mary and Raph. He finally told her that he wasn’t going to be a free-loader and that they need to make decisions together. Mary (thanks to Peter and the video) realized she would have to give a little info to Raph. Now he at least knows why she can’t tell him what she does. I’m also glad Peter told Mary exactly how she treats her family and what she needs to do to fix it. I think she appreciates it too, as she responded immediately. I think Mary probably did violate a WITSEC rule, but it’s not that big a deal to me. It’s not like Raph is a blabber mouth or running with criminals. I think he’s trustworthy and Mary knows it. I don’t see her discussing the details of the program, nor the individuals in it with him over dinner. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t right that she did it, but I think she’s told him all she is going to tell him regarding her job. I don’t know, I think if I were in her shoes I would have told him that much too.

I was proud of Brandi for not being willing to take a car as a gift. Once she knew it was a loaner she was ecstatic. I think the old Brandi would have been glad to take a free car just for being cute. Brandi has matured as well and I’m glad.

Mr. Landau had me crying; both story lines were good!

Liked the episode. Apparently Mary has not told Marshall yet about her engagement? Based on the ring staying in her pocket until she got home...

I also noticed the engagement ring thing. But, when I saw her put the ring back on her finger when she got home, it never occurred to me that she had been hiding it from Marshall (or Stan and Eleanor). I was thinking that she took it off because when she deals with her WitSec clients she needs to keep all personal information about herself away from them.

I was thinking on the line that maybe for security and safety reasons when a Marshal is married he/she doesn't get to wear a wedding ring, or carry around photos of a spouse and/or kids (have family pictures on the desk)—that sort of thing.

Of course, she could have been just hiding it from Marshall. But, why wouldn't she want Marshall to know??????

I think she was just hiding it from everyone at work in general. Even if she's supposed to keep that sort of thing from witnesses she could have told her co-workers, and she clearly didn't.


I think she's just not ready to deal with the reality of being engaged and what that means. Raph was totally right to talk about moving in together and combining their finances and Mary was all freaked out about it. I don't think she's really thought this through yet and hasn't gotten to a point where she is comfortable with it.

Exactly. It seems like the equivalent of the "morning after" when she's looking around in the harsh sunlight and wondering just what the heck she's done. If she hasn't even told Marshall, there's some serious denial going on here.

I'm still not sure I see an actual wedding happening. How it resolves will be interesting. We are getting up to the last few episodes of the season, I'm sure they'll leaving hanging one way or another.

Mary doesn’t do well with change and they have mentioned before on the show. I think that’s one of the reasons she always wants to be the one calling the shots. It’s going to take her awhile to adjust to the idea of getting married and she clearly didn’t think about all the little things that go along with being married. It was good that Raph brought up the moving in and the finances now so that it has time to sink in and she can adjust.

As far as the ring in her pocket thing goes, I’m fairly certain that she hid it because she has to. She can’t use her real name when out and about, why would she wear her engagement ring? However, it is completely like her to not know how to bring up the fact that she’s engaged. If and when she does she will be bombarded with questions pertaining to the engagement and wedding which I think she will hate enduring (I did). She’s not good with changes or emotionally sensitive issues or revealing much of herself and acknowledging she’s engaged will cross all those lines.

I was pretty disgusted with this ep.

The idea that anyone would see Mary as a suitable advisor is laughable. She may be good at her own job, but she very obviously does not work well with others (except Marshall, and sometimes not even him).

I won't belabor this, because others have already noted: Mary was not just anxious, aggressive, tired or edgy. She was deliberately cruel.

They did address that in the beginning of the episode when Stan clearly wanted Marshall to be the one working on the video until work called Marshall away. I still think Stan probably would have been a better candidate to help with the video himself than Mary, but then I guess we wouldn't have had a storyline for her this episode.

I thought it was odd that their offices would have been considered "the best of the best." Didn't they just have repeated run-ins with the FEDS over the whole drug thing? Makes you wonder about the rest of the WITSEC staff. All in all, this is the least of my nit-picky complaints about the show.

The video guys got the ok to film at that site from the bean counters, somewhere "up the line". The bean counters don't know Mary from nothing. They are only interested in the kind of results a location produces. It could be that when it comes to getting the job done, the Mary-Marshall team is tops. If you want to get it right, you consult with the best. Pretty sure that if the bean counters knew Mary, as we know Mary, (plus how snarky Marshall can be) Stan's shop would have been the last place they would have sent anyone in the name of "ideal representation".

Let's not forget that because Stan knows Mary as we know Mary, she only got the assignment by default because Marshall was unavailable. Stan's hands were tied—when the higher-ups send down a "request" you do your best with the resources you have. Stan could have done it, but I got the impression they wanted "front-line" input, not desk-jockey input.

As for Mary being "downright cruel"—(1) whatever it takes to get their attention (if their skin is that thin, they are in the wrong business, (2) whatever it takes to get the job done right, and (3) would it have been in character for Mary to act otherwise?

Folks who don't have to watch training videos, have no idea what a crappy piece of crap these things are. The real fallacy in this episode is the notion that the folks who make these videos actually consult with anyone—considering the finally results—this is an impossibility.

Well said...and great Willy Loman analogy! Martin Landau's performance was marvelous.....poignant, tender and nuanced...and why I enjoyed this ep so much, too.

I don't know if anyone has posted this already. When Witness Protection first started, it was only for witnesses. If you went into the program, you left your family behind. I guess that was better than being killed. It wasn't until 1984 that the program was expanded to include family and associates.

Thanks.

Didn’t know that.

I didn't, either. I was just looking for information on the program and ran across that. It was part of some crime package Congress passed in 84.

This is the site. It's very interesting.

http://people.howstuffworks.com/witness-protection.htm

Thanks again. An information junkie I am.

A good movie that puts a lot of the information in the article on the screen is "Witness Protection" (1999) starting Tom Sizemore, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, and Forest Whitaker

It has quite a bit (including prep-work and mechanics) on what happens to the witness and family from the time they entered the programs up to the point where they are relocated and handed-off to the Marshalls & Marys.

It is an excellent (I like to say) drama, but I've also seen it listed as a "Thriller" and as an "Action" movie. I saw it long before IPS piqued my interest in the witness protection program, and enjoyed it considerably. Sizemore was nominated for two Golden Globes and the movie was nominated for one.