Clean and simple is not a phrase I'd use to describe CBC's complex crime drama Intelligence, with so many characters and plot threads that I almost expect the characters to start wearing nametags in addition to appearing in those title cards. Even the dialogue and acting style is only deceptively simple, like we're eavesdropping on snippets of conversation that are being steadily assembled into an intricate tapestry. An intricate audiovisual tapestry. Damned mixed metaphors.
However, "Clean and Simple" the episode is representative of the eye for an eye philosophy that underlies both Jimmy Reardon's and Mary Spalding's worlds.
Knowing the bikers were behind his brother Michael's throat slashing, Jimmy finally agrees with Ronnie that they should exact revenge in order to send a message that Jimmy's not to be messed with. He wants and gets assurances that no one will be hurt, and of course when you're combining guns, drugs, money, and bikers, I can think of no reason not to feel reassured.
Jimmy's man Bob helps plan an interruption to the bikers' currency exchange with a little robbery. After his cohort provides a detailed, complicated proposal, Bob gets clean and simple: "Why don't we just steal the car?" "Or we could just steal the car," the other guy nods, like that's a pretty good plan B.
Mary eventually finds herself in an eye for an eye position as well. Her confidant and sometime lover, Vancouver cop Don Frazer, spells things out, pointing out that the old boys are never going to let her in, so she'll have to kick the door down. "They fuck with you, you fuck with them. ... That's the only thing those guys understand." Sounds like Don and Ronnie would get along well. It is definitely getting harder and harder to tell the difference between the bad guys and the good guys.
Ironically, the woman who's selling her promotion to CSIS as an opportunity to build a spy agency that doesn't rely on American intelligence must rely on a disgruntled former CIA agent to find out how intricately involved CSIS is with the Americans and other countries. The simple answer she gets to that convoluted question is: very. The Ex-CIA guy uses a few more words, like telling her that CSIS bigwig Dick Royden, who we see coaching Roger Deakins on how to explain spilling the beans to the Chinese about Lee the mole, worked for the Americans.
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