In Plain Sight - Television Tropes & Idioms

Since 1970, the Federal Witness Protection Program has relocated thousands of witnesses, some criminal, some not, to neighborhoods all across the country. Every one of those individuals shares a unique attribute, distinguishing them from the rest of the general population. And that is, somebody wants them dead.

A Crime and Punishment Series (of sorts), this show features U.S. Marshals Mary Shannon and Marshall Mann (yes, that makes him Marshal Marshall), who work with people in WitSec (Witness Protection). This leads to them sometimes having to uncover crimes, track down killers, work at protecting them, etc., in addition to somewhat nannying their clients.

When off-duty, Mary is stuck dealing with her mother Jinx and sister Brandi, both of whom are shacking up at her house. Neither of them work, both have criminal records (and in Brandi's case, a criminal boyfriend pimping her out to sell drugs), and one wonders how Mary came to be such a law-abider with these influences. Her father committed crimes and left the family long ago, leaving Mary to be their "hall monitor." Mom and sister resent the hell out of Mary for this. There's also Mary's off-and-on fuckbuddy/boyfriend Raphael, who has more feelings for her than she does for him. Brandi rags on him constantly, yet is desperate to get into his pants.

As of the end of Season 2, Brandi is on again/off again with a self made rich guy and taking classes at the local community college, Raphael is working for Brandi's boyfriend, Raphael and Mary are engaged and Mary has told him what she does. Jinx has gone sober (maybe).

During the third season, the origins of Mary and Marshall's partnership have been revealed to the audience, among other things. Season 4 started in June 2011.

This series provides examples of:

Actor Allusion: A retroactive example - when Bobby D is Put on a Bus in season 3, it's explained that he's on a task force in Chicago. Todd Williams subsequently took a role on The Chicago Code.
- Inverted: In 2x03, "A Stand-Up Triple," the very non-maternal Mary asks Stan and Marshall to shoot her in the head if she ever has three kids. Two years later, the actress was pregnant with her third child.
Action Girl: Mary
Airplane of Love
The Alcoholic: Jinx
The Alleged Car: Mary's Ford Probe
American Law Enforcement
Ambiguously Jewish: Bobby D - it's a long story.
- Not so ambiguously as of the season 3 premiere.
As Long as It Sounds Foreign: ~~Rafael~~Raphael. See Did Not Do the Research below.
Becoming the Mask: Ahn Li, AKA CIA Officer Jade Huan.
The Brainless Beauty: Jinx and Brandi
Broken Bird: it was more heavily emphasized in the first two seasons, but Mary continues to hit most of the major notes of this trope.
Can You Hear Me Now?: When Marshall mentions that they can't get reception because of the mountains, you know something bad's going to happen.
- Played with hilariously in the pilot. When Stan starts to give her orders she doesn't like, Genre Savvy Mary invokes this by holding her phone out the window and yelling that she can't hear him. Equally Genre Savvy Stan knows what she's doing and just calls Marshall. Equally Genre Savvy Marshall pulls the same trick.
Career Killers: These are shown as both witnesses and bad guys. Deconstructed to an extent in 3x05, "Fish or Cut Betta", when the former hitman client has trouble getting a date without advice from Mary and Marshall because he's only ever slept with prostitutes. And then when the woman rejects him, he tries to blow her up.
Casting Gag: Possibly. Starting with "When Mary Met Marshall", Allison Janney plays a character with similarly lofty connections to her character on The West Wing.
Clear My Name: Pops up in 2x07, "Duplicate Bridge", when the witness, Norman, goes off the reservation to get his boss to confess.And subverted. Norman forces his ex-boss to confess that he built a collapsed bridge with substandard steel, instead of the steel Norman originally specified, but says it shouldn't have caused the collapse. Norman then reveals that it was his incorrect calculations, the ones he realized he'd been making his entire career as an architect, combined with the substandard steel, that caused the collapse. And the other 25 bridges he built will eventually collapse on their own.
- Also forms the basis of 2x09, when Brandi gets arrested for possession on the suitcase of meth that caused the Shannon family so much trouble, along with a laundry list of trumped-up charges related to the whole thing, not least of all Mary's kidnapping.
Cross Over: Mary is introduced in an episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent.
Daddy's Girl: Mary, no matter what her mother says!
The Danza: Mary Shannon, played by Mary McCormack. Incidentally, the alias the character uses is "Mary Shepherd".
- And in season 3, Allison Janney plays new WitSec director Allison Pearson, and Raph's aunt Rita Molena is played by Rita Moreno.
Deadpan Snarker: Pretty much everyone at WitSec, to some degree or another. Occasionally the witnesses themselves snark it up too.
Did Not Do the Research: The name Raphael. Even though a handful of people in the United States have that name, a Hispanic man (even in America, including Puerto Rico, a Spanish-speaking territory), would spell it R-A-F-A-E-L. Same in Brazil. In fact, even the transliteration of the original Hebrew name is spelled with an F. The Italian spelling is Raffaello. Among the few people named Raphael in the Spanish-speaking realm is a singer. With Cristián de la Fuente on board, I would've thought somebody would have posed the question to him.
- And no one ever changed the spelling of their first name to fit their adopted country?
  - Not a Hispanic man named Rafael.
- This is common in other shows, too.
Disappeared Dad
Ditch The Bodyguards
Dogged Nice Guy: Marshall
Dysfunctional Family And How! ( Alcoholic Mother, Drug Addict Sister, Bank Robber Father)
Easy Amnesia: Played with in 2x02, when a witness - who claims to be unable to testify without weed - falls off a cherry picker while toking up. Mary, who had recently informed him that he couldn't testify high, refuses to believe him.
Economy Cast: Nobody but Mary, Marshall, and Stan is ever seen in the large, empty WitSec offices.
- Each season after the first adds at least one minor character who hangs out at the office, but none of them have stuck around for more than a year so far. Stan also mentions that he used to have twice as many Inspectors with half as many cases, and it was still too much. When he flashes back in "One Night Stan", only him and his boss are seen.
- Similarly, while other Albuquerque cops are seen every oso often, they only seem to end up working with Bobby D. Vaguely acknowledged in an episode where another local police officer has been shot - Mary asks Bobby for information on him, and he asks her if she has any idea how many officers there are in Albuquerque PD.
Epiphany Therapy: Averted in the season 2 opener. Mary does get her badge back, but she's still clearly shaken up by the end of the episode. Also averted with Marshall's later therapy sessions. The doctor does lead him to a moment of realization, but it's made clear that this is only one step in a long process.
Even the Girls Want Her: Ahn Li in "Let's Get it Ahn". Marshall and the lesbian witness are to be expected. Mary, despite how hot she is, not so much.
Everyone Calls Him Barkeep: Marshall. It's later revealed to be his first name; his last is "Mann".
- If by "later revealed," you mean "in the trailers before the show's first season started." It was never a secret.
Fair Cop: Bobby D
- And Mary. And probably Marshall. Definitely Marshall.
Fauxlosophic Narration: The opening and closing narration, arguably.
First-Person Smartass
Flashback: Repeatedly through "When Mary Met Marshall". We find out that Marshall is a fifth-generation Marshall, and Mary used to live out East, used to be in the fugitive-hunting part of the Marshals, and most importantly, wore bangs and a ponytail. It's pretty weird.
Good Cop/Bad Cop
Go-to Alias: Mary Sheppard and Marshall Miller.
Girls Behind Bars: Invoked. Marshall seems to believe a women's prison is some kind of sorority.
Guns Akimbo
Hostage Situation: Several, the last in season one played realistically; Mary converses with the kidnappers, bides her time, and even tries to convince one that she's on their side. Like real-world law enforcement officers are trained to do.
Hidden in Plain Sight: The show's premise, also what happens to Brandi's meth stash.
Incredibly Lame Pun/Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Most of the episode titles.
It Runs in the Family: Everyone but Mary has been on the wrong side of the law. Marshall is a fifth-generation marshal.
I Want You to Meet an Old Friend of Mine: Several of Mary McCormack's The West Wing costars have paid the show a visit, most notably Joshua Malina (who played McCormack's boyfriend on the earlier show) in a recurring role. Allison Janney, Richard Schiff and as of the season 4 previews Bradley Whitford have also put in appearances. And the music is by W.G. Snuffy Walden himself.
Jurisdiction Friction: Tricky because Mary cannot reveal that anyone she's asking about is in WitSec (though Bobby D can certainly figure that out for himself, and is frequently annoyed by the fact that Mary and Marshal aren't cooperative).
Just Friends: Mary and Marshall. He seems to have a crush on her, but is well aware that she's a total relationship trainwreck. He tells every client lusting after Mary to steer clear.
Knight in Sour Armor: Mary. Marshall, too, to a lesser extent.
Limited Wardrobe: Marshall's ubiquitous jacket, dark dress shirt, jeans combo. Mary does the same thing, but usually with a leather jacket and t-shirt.
Malaproper: Raphael, rarely.
Manly Tears: In the season two finale, this is utterly averted. Marshall, resident stoic, breaks down in tears the second the doctors take Mary from his side. And again, later.
Mistaken for Cheating: Raphael and Brandi, a lot.
Ms. Fanservice: Brandi. Mary gets to show off a fair bit too, but Brandi's almost always doing it.
Not Good with People: Mary's good with sorting out other people's lives. Her own, not so much. Lampshaded in the pilot.
Only a Flesh Wound: Subverted. Marshall gets shot, and gets back up to help Mary fight off their assailants. Then he collapses. A good portion of the rest of the episode is spent dealing with the wound - which punctured his lung(!) - and he spends a few episodes in a cast.
- Point of fact: The bullet did not puncture his lung, only the pleural space (the empty space in the chest not taken up by organs and such). This led to a tension pneumothorax, in which air is pulled into the chest cavity, preventing the lungs from inflating. He explains all this when performing his water seal with a bottle trick.
- Mary herself is shot in the season two finale, which turns out to be a life-threatening injury.
Only Sane Man: Mary around her relatives. Mary and Marshal around any bureaucrats. Marshal around Mary. Peter around Mary and her family.
Outrun the Fireball: In 3x05, "Fish or Cut Betta," this is subverted when Mary and the woman she just pulled away from the bomb are hurled across the hood of a car by the blast, right after they get out of the building's door.
Parental Abandonment: Mary's dad.
Pet the Dog: Spanky confesses to murder, as long as his infant son is spared the screwed-up life that he had.
Pitbull Dates Puppy: Mary dating Raph.
Playing with a Trope: Very subtle about it. If the narration was a little different, this show would look a lot like Burn Notice.
Product Placement: Rather cleverly. In one episode, the witness is a rich guy who gave away all his money to the victims of the crime he's testifying against. He is unable to do things as simple as change a tire. Later on, he calls Mary at the office.
Mary: Is this Manny, Moe, or Jack?
Witness: Who?
Mary: Pep Boys, it's a...never mind.
Put on a Bus: As season 3 begins, we find that Bobby D has left for a task force in Chicago and Eleanor has been hired by the FBI as an analyst.
Race for Your Love: See Airplane of Love. Totally subverted when Mary doesn't catch Raphael thanks to a comedy of errors.
The Rainman: Judy Wagrowski from "Her Days Are Numbered"(3x10), a math savant with Asperger's. One of her coworkers even jokingly refers to her as "Rain Man". She hits all the key tropes: Hates Being Touched, Does Not Understand Sarcasm, Good With Numbers, Brutal Honesty, Cannot Tell a Lie, Photographic Memory, and when Mary is doing one of her Character Filibusters, Judy points out, "That's called monologuing, what you just did. I do it all the time."
Real Life Writes the Plot: Mary's pregnancy. Mary Mc Cormack is pregnant with her third child
Sadistic Choice : Played straight, horribly. The hostages are Mary and Brandi's boyfriend. The baddie is a drug dealer, and offers Brandi the choice of who's gonna die. When she points out that she has the drugs he wants, he barks "wrong answer!" and kills the boyfriend.
Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Marshall.
Shoot Out the Lock: See the trope entry.
Shout Out: a character mentions Glee in the same episode as the actress who plays a recurring character (Finn's mum) on that show.
Shown Their Work: Frequently. At one point, Mary advises a witness to get into a bathroom and into the tub to avoid gunfire. This was actually done by residents of certain parts of LA during the 80s.
- Also see There Are No Therapists below.
The Siege
The Smart Guy: Marshall seems to know everything, including origami, mambo, and virtually every book every written. A case once turns on his ability to differentiate between various kinds of wood.
Surrounded by Idiots: Mary's family.
The Teaser: Shows how this week's WitSec client came to join WitSec - committed/witnessed a crime, made a deal, etc.
There Are No Therapists: Averted very hard in the season 2 opening episode, where Mary is both on administrative leave and clearly suffering from PTSD symptoms, including skirting the edge of a Heroic BSOD. Marshall is remarkably knowledgeable about it.
- The second episode of S2 involves a therapist being sent in to evaluate Mary. Mary herself is still suffering from residual PTSD. And that same therapist (Dr. Finkel) comes back in subsequent seasons to help Marshal and several witnesses deal with emotional problems.
Too Dumb to Live: Brandi. An ad for season 3 also pointed out that no one in WitSec who's followed the rules has ever been killed.
Trash the Set: After the house is torn apart by drug-seeking FBI agents in the S1 finale, it spends S2 messed up before it's fixed between the finale and S3 premiere.
US Marshal: Well, yes.
Wacky Marriage Proposal: Most heartily rejected by Mary, lampshaded with comments later about how Mary hates cutesy proposals.
What the Hell, Hero?: In the season 2 finale, Marshall realizes the reason the witness moved to a dangerous Latin 'hood, nearly getting Mary killed, was because she didn't want her future biographers to find out she stayed in a cushy American mansion while her people launched a revolution.
White Sheep: Mary is a US Marshal despite having a bigamist father with a serious gambling problem who has been a fugitive for decades, a lifelong alcoholic mother (now recovering) and a sister who trafficked drugs for her boyfriend, in Mary's house. Slightly subverted in that Mary is hardly a saint herself, and we are meant to sympathize with Brandi and Jinx despite their largely self-inflicted problems.
Will They or Won't They?: Mary and Marshall, in a remarkably subtle version of this; Raphael and Brandi in particular.
Witness Protection
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