Dark Blue season one finale – Will it be back for season two?

Don’t get me wrong — questions aplenty remain. But the finale provided us with more insight on Carter than we’ve ever had before.

The flip side is that the entire story was fairly predictable. My wife called the wrap-up mid-episode … I suppose we can’t have it all.

It was also somewhat disappointing that this was no long-haul of a case … I assumed that a season finale was the perfect place for a multi-part story. However, Dark Blue is still not renewed for a second season, so the writers were handcuffed into scripting something with an end to it. How could this fantastic show still be on the fence?

Dark Blue is such a sleeper that TNT is even doing a poor job promoting it. The show’s site is short on pictures and details, and heavy on incorrect information. Where’s the network support?

Anyway, to the episode: Carter is questioned in the murder of an undercover DEA agent that he had a prior relationship with. And current … the agent was engaged to Carter’s ex wife, Nicole. Or, we should say estranged wife, as Carter has yet to give her signed divorce papers, eighteen months on. Why’d they split? Carter’s take: “We had issues.”

Those issues appear to have at least partially stemmed from Carter’s two years undercover in East LA, living as Leo Clark, with a woman named Anna and her two small children. No one’s ever said that Carter doesn’t go all the way, but some things a marriage will not absorb.

I was a bit surprised that the team seemed to know Carter’s superior, Captain Maynard (Tyrees Allen). I’m not sure why, but I always got the impression that the wall was so high, they had no idea who he was, just that he existed. Although, if Dean processed that his title is “Captain,” he sure didn’t act like it.

Carter and team were questioned by DEA Agent Harris, a desk jockey assigned to wade head-first into the workings of undercover LAPD officers. The obvious disdain on both sides could have been avoided if the two law enforcement agencies had foreseen what television has taught us all: without a common frame-of-reference, the investigation was doomed from the start.

Ty shocked me when he appeared to bail on Carter. I’m not saying be comfortable with covering up the murder of a federal agent, but Ty went as far as to question what he owed Carter. That, coupled with his arc thus far, left me assuming that he’d go for the Major Crimes transfer.

Actually, I also thought that Carter would be suspended pending a full investigation, and that Jaimie, after sort of coming clean to Scott (Noah Bean), would be off with him to San Francisco, leaving Dean, in the final scene, trying to run solo undercover investigations.

You know, a full team split, ala the Leverage season one finale. And, particularly if the show isn’t coming back, it would have given us a reason for the non-return: no team to follow. Not to mention, if it does return, great drama as Carter tries to reassemble his people.

What the entire team returning to headquarters in the end did do was make a statement from the show — to TNT — that there’s still more to be done. So, how about it?

Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Sep 16, 2009 @ 23:00 EST5EDT