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Episode Recap: "Thirteen"
Quite a packed episode, this. Veteran scriptwriter Don McGill (and whoever else might've had a hand in it) managed to get at least an episode and a half's worth of incident in, wrapped around solving the central case but with plenty of little nudges toward resolving aspects of the longer arcs within the series — some of those resolved or at least dealt with perhaps a little too quickly. Thanks to any number of crime dramas we might've seen before, ranging from Grand Guignol and its heirs, the weirder edge of film noir and contemporary English suspense/horror films, and German krimis and Italian gialli and on up through that other film with a digit in its title, Se7en, and its contemporaries (and all the crime fiction that helped to inspire them), this episode's fanatic is a familiar type. One might even have grown accustomed to his sort from the other procedurals and police/investigator shows. (This is where spoilers will become more explicit.)
But what was most remarkable about the relatively breathless search for our Jesus of Nazareth wanna-be serial murderer was less about him, as telegraphed as his identity was, but about the deftness with which other potential candidates, such as Sharif Atkins' vengeful sniper, are insinuated. This allowed us as viewers to not worry too much that the agents are taking, say, Richard Wharton's homeless-man character at face value, even as we wonder if that might be a very bad idea.
Dianne Farr impressed me even more than usual, particularly wuth her interrogation of Atkins' character Clay Porter, which was also the most cleverly shot setpiece in an episode notably full of good cinematography. (This episode should be submitted for Emmy consideration in that category, I think.) Farr's Megan filling us in on what her recent mysterious (if rather unsurprising) non-FBI Department of Justice assignment had been (as an interrogation analyst for Guantanamo and similar prisoners) is almost thrown away, as was the interrupted interplay with Peter MacNicol's Larry. But all struck me as convincing, with the quick pace of the episode both helping and hurting by not quite giving anyone time to register the import of what was happening, but also leaving a fair amount suggested and sketched in just enough. Aya Sumika's presence was a plus, as the attempts at double-dating that bookend the episode were charming (though the odd bit of staging at the very end, almost as if Navi Rawat was being signaled to move out of the shot while the brothers argued over flipping a coin, caught my eye). And, of course, the B-story of this episode would be the introduction of yet another potentially continuing academic character, Andrea Roth's Alex Trowbridge. Perhaps the least-convincing bit of acting for me in this episode was the too-forced bits of rudeness David Krumholtz's Charlie displayed toward Trowbridge, who seemed rather better-natured about it than most people would be. But one thing this episode had time to do only briefly (since there was only time to do anything briefly) were the bits of non-task-oriented discussion between Rawat's Amitra, Trowbridge, Charlie and Larry, in various combinations and occasionally with members of the FBI unit; even while the characters might be teasing or flirting, this series gets across better than any other television series besides Frasier just how much intellectuals can enjoy being intellectuals for its own sake. (Two series always mentioned together, Numbers and Frasier.)
And Dylan Bruno's Colby is going to have to quit jumping so far, so often.
(Anyone reading these posts should definitely also read the often perceptive and thoughtful comments in response, if you're not doing so already.)
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Oct 20, 2007 1:20 AM
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Thanks Todd, I'm sure all the posters will appreciate your kind words.
Nice Post.
So Todd, your second paragraph has me a bit befuddled, as I'm not sure I get your meaning. Are you saying you knew who the perpetrator was in his first scene? I wondered too why they just passed the homeless guy by, no back-up to "secure" the scene as they searched the rest of the building.
Anyway, I liked this episode. It was very fast-paced, and didn't leave room for long personal convos (although I look forward to that aspect). I wish they could have saved more victims though.
As for Megan's "confession" to Colby of her duties with the DOJ, to me, she just figured Colby knew already since he was with the DOJ. Perhaps the reveal to the others in her circle will carry more of a "bite", and go deeper into her ordeal. In addition, she had a brief flashback to that time, struck me as post traumatic stress, so I imagine this will plague her this season.
Andrea Roth is everywhere eh: Rescue Me, Numb3rs, and soon to be guesting on "Lost". She was ok in this episode.
As for Liz Warner, glad to see her, although I'd like more Liz/Don screen time! Need more Megan/Larry too.
Frasier/Numb3rs...interesting comparison Todd. Never would have occurred to me.
Do we know where Millie is yet?
Will we find out if Alan's homework assigment should take into account salting the roads? If not, why not?
Charlie update: Will he be allowed to cut his hair? or get a clean shave? Ever? Is it a cry for help?
Burning questions people!!
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Oct 20, 2007 2:40 AM
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Hmmm... interesting opinion, Todd. You'll notice I didn't call it a 'recap,' because it didn't really recap the episode at all, so anyone who didn't catch it last night won't have any idea what happened in it. Maybe it's too early in the morning for me, but I couldn't quite make heads or tails out of your review. Sorry, but I don't get all the references to "Grand Guignol" and "German krimis," whatever those are. Actually, I'm NOT sorry... those things shouldn't have anything to do with the average viewer's response to watching this episode. And one thing I did understand that you wrote, was about the scene in which Megan was interrogating Sharif Atkins' character. I too noticed the film style (hey, I took a film class in college), but I thought it was a bit protracted... I thought it was distracting rather than clever or art-y.
I too wondered about the animosity that Charlie felt toward Trowbridge, which seemed out of character for such a polite guy. But he's so grounded in the knowledge that math is so pure and logical, that he can't wrap his head around the fact that other people twist it strangely and assign special meaning to certain numbers, which seems so arbitrary to him. Plus, he's probably used to people scoffing at his belief that math can solve crimes, so maybe he's projecting that attitude he feels and subconsciously "dishing it out" to someone else for a change.
I would have liked to see the episode end differently: with Charlie sitting down w/ Alan to talk about Alan's engineering class. Let Charlie help his dad, even if his dad never got to help him when he was in school. (Altho, they did have first grade, I'm sure.)
All in all, it was a fast-paced, 'busy' episode. It seems they're getting better at weaving certain minor storylines through multiple episodes, which gives it a more realistic feel.
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Oct 20, 2007 7:45 AM
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I loved the episode, even if it was 'inspired' by Se7en. Interesting how these FBI types are so well versed in bible passages.
Charlies treatment of Alex seems more like the reaction of someone who has found that his religion is being corrupted (that made more sense in my head). What I'm trying to say is that the reaction to using numbers, something he considers for science only, for religion goes over about as well as trying to incorporate evolution into the story of Adam and Eve for some churchgoers.
They seem to have finally resolved the Colby thing. Good, time to move on. Personally if I'm not doing anything wrong, I don't care if someone is spying on me. Then again I wouldn't be talking about anything really personal with a co-worker.
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Oct 20, 2007 11:02 AM
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I agree with you, Jena, that was not a recap at all. I could not make sense of what the reviewer was trying to convey with his posting. And it's not that early here as I'm posting this!
This was not my most favorite episode, but they all can't be favorites. Still was a good one and it seems that the team is moving past their weird feelings about the Don/Liz pairing and Colby's "betrayal". Good to see that they all still have each other's backs!
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Oct 20, 2007 12:15 PM
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Another interesting point about this episode was the different pairings of agents out in the field: Megan and David, Liz and Colby, and (yes!) David and Colby. It was good to see the team "mix it up" a little. 
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Oct 20, 2007 12:50 PM
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We were watching a very fascinating episode of Numb3rs when all of the sudden during the interrogation scene with Megan, Don and the soldier, the dialogue was gone. We had the background music only. We thought, okay perhaps this is part of the scene but it went on like that for the next scene and a half and finally came back in the middle of a Charlie and dad scene. So bizarre. To have the music only tells me it wasn't our tv but something with the show. We were really enjoying this episode too! Many math enthusiasts struggle with math and science vs. faith and religion. A "prove it" attitude is a common response. I can understand Charlie's apprehension with this.
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Oct 20, 2007 2:10 PM
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I love this show but this episode was a bit too 'crammed' and much darker than normal. Charlie's behavior was too snotty (both to a colleague and his dad) to be enjoyable.
I also didn't find the tattoo 'artist' as a 'religious criminal numerology mastermind' to be believable at all and they didn't really provide any insight into why this horrific character existed and/or became motivated to do what he did.
The sniper seemed like an afterthought that was just tossed in to be a red herring.
In summary, this episode was very disjointed and probably would have made an interesting 2 or 3-part mini-arc. As it was, it was too rushed and choppy.
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Oct 20, 2007 2:25 PM
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I really liked the episode, for a lot of the reasons already posted by others.
It was out of Charlie's character to be so rude to his father, but at least the writers had him realize it.
One thing that really bugged me is that they kept mispronouncing "gematria." The second syllable is not a long "a" sound, but rather sounds more like the "o" in "pot." It's either Hebrew or Aramaic (definitely a Semitic language) in origin. I grew up hearing all about gematria and learning different stupid comparisons with it. It's a little thing, but managed to bother me throughout the episode.
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Oct 20, 2007 9:25 PM
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By the way, Todd's 'review' mentions Colby jumping so often (off balconies, apartment roofs, etc)..... I noticed that too. If you want to get all psychological about it, maybe he felt like he had to go to such "lengths" to prove himself to his fellow teammates. Or to himself.
Or... maybe he just likes to jump. (I totally thought that dude who ran, the one who ended up on the roof, was going to do some parkour. Would've been cool. Unrealistic, but cool.)
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Oct 20, 2007 10:20 PM
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First off, we also lost dialogue during the most important part! But what really ticked me off was them showing the 12 apostles names and having Luke and Mark in there....as in Matthew Mark Luke and John. Too bad neither of them were part of the original 12 apostles. they were both born after christ died. If you are going to quote bible passages how about looking up the apostles names!
Simon (Peter)
Andrew
James (son of Zebedee)
John
Philip
Bartholomew
Thomas
Matthew
James (son of Alphaeus)
Jude (Thaddaeus)
Simon (the Zealot)
Judas Iscariot
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Oct 21, 2007 12:57 AM
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I very much enjoyed the great cinematography and the complex story line, though like escape, I too was irked by the pronunciation of Gematria (the word is actually derived from the same Greek root that resulted in another word a mathematician might recognize--geometry). The only people who truly use Gematria today are religious Jews (we practically start learning it in first grade) and the word should be pronounced Geh-mah-tree-ah.
I actually found it rather odd that a student (ok...psycho) of the New Testament would even know about it, never mind use it.
Do agree with you about Colby and the jumping...how he hasn't managed to break his neck yet is beyond me. It's starting to push the bounds of credibility.
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Oct 21, 2007 8:19 PM
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I'm a little late addressing this matter but What have you done to my cute professor. He now looks like a vagrant, sloppy and unkept. It's not pretty. If he's so smart why not show a little more good taste in grooming. what kind of example is he to the students.( I know it's just make believe).
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Oct 21, 2007 8:51 PM
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I have to agree with nsgal and Jena - I found the first two paragraphs of this post a bit hard to understand (maybe I'm not as intellectual as the poster). As I was watching the episode, I wasn't getting "shades" of "Se7en", I was getting "The DaVinci Code". I half expected to see the Mona Lisa painted somewhere!
Overall, I really enjoyed the episode, and I hope to see some things that were touched on in this episode (Megan's absence, Larry & Megan's relationship) to be explored in future episodes.
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Oct 22, 2007 11:13 AM
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