Work Text:
The following is an essay on the last five episodes that Donnelly was in from his point of view. His thoughts, his feelings, his attitudes are my guesses based on what Donnelly said and did. I would like to thank Lindao for her invaluable assistance through chats and emails. Whenever I used a concept or a quote of hers, I included her name in parentheses near it. Several other people were also helpful, either through chats or posts from Tumblr or the Forum. I acknowledged them in a similar way.
Bury The Lede
After his unfortunate, and yet fortuitous failure to capture the elusive "Man in the Suit", Donnelly poured himself into the task of ferreting out HR. And he was successful. Quite successful. He made good use of the anonymous information he received through Fusco. Within a short period of time he had rounded up, interrogated and shipped off dozens of suspected dirty cops to be judged by juries of their peers.
Carter: "Agent Donnelly big day for you."
Donnelly: "Thanks Carter. And, uh, don't think I have forgotten about your man in the suit. We will catch him as soon as we are done with this."
As Agent Donnelly talked with Carter, his arms were crossed in front of him. He was pleasant, but all business.
Another aspect of his visit to the precinct which was all business, was the manner in which he collected his suspects. There was no command center, no state of the art technology, no huge monitors hung on the wall, nor extensive personnel to man it all. Donnelly actually appeared rather blasé. Just another day at the office. Also, Donnelly didn't invite Carter into his investigation of HR as a witness or an assistant. In fact, Carter had to come to him. This was the only time that Carter had ever engaged Donnelly in a conversation first. Every other conversation they had, Donnelly was waiting for her at the precinct, and pulled her away from whatever she had been doing.
Carter: "Looks pretty done to me. Over 75 dirty cops in bracelets. So why aren't you smiling? Oh, you don't have the big boss, do ya. The head of HR. So, got a particular cop in mind?"
Donnelly: "I'm not so sure it is a cop. If the lead I'm working pans out, soon I'll know exactly who's running things."
-------
Donnelly was close, very close to closing out HR completely. But he didn't count on Maxine, the bane of his investigation.
Maxine Angelis; an attractive, 30-something, narcissistic, over-zealous, irresponsible, completely annoying and truly irritating journalist, who was so anxious to be the first to identify the head of HR, that she accepted as truth, information she received from an anonymous caller; she accepted as valid, information she received from an FBI contact, not bothering to verify if he was still with the FBI; and she assumed and concluded incorrectly, information she received from the gate guard at Chris Zambrano place of business, not bothering to discover what the argument between Donnelly and Zambrano was actually about. And then -- she pronounced and published Chris Zambrano as the head of HR. It was her scoop of the year.
Donnelly: "Do you have any idea how colossally you just screwed up? Zambrano wasn't HR's boss. He was the witness that could bring the boss down."
In true Donnelly fashion, he gave this artless, impetuous reporter the "smack-down" she deserved. (Blacktop50, Mamahub). Without raising his voice, getting into her face, or intimidating her with anything other than his presence, he let her know in very "succinct terms" (Blacktop50) just how well she had been used by the other side.
Donnelly: "Well, your tip came from a disposable cell. The first choice of criminals and virtually impossible to trace. So congratulations Ms. Angelis, you just got played. Probably by the real head of HR."
Maxine had created a false target for every nefarious agency that was ever abused or double-crossed by HR. And there were a lot of them, all pushing and shoving to shoot him first. Reese tried to fight them all, while protecting Maxine, and hiding his identity from her journalistic eyes, until one assassin's bullet found it's mark.
Ms. Angelis became the instrument in the death of Donnelly's only witness, a witness who was in possession of valuable, physical evidence against HR. But Maxine did not just target an innocent man who was murdered, she helped to kill a "good man", a heinous crime which Agent Donnelly considered reprehensible without redemption for a person in her position.
Donnelly continued: "Zambrano's father was the Mob's point man with HR. And he kept records, a ledger, with names and dollar amounts for everyone on HR's payroll, including the boss. And when the Don died, Chris Zambrano found that ledger. But unlike his dad, Chris was a good man, totally clean. When he realized what he was holding, he called the FBI."
"A good man". Such a loaded phrase. The words are simple, but the various shades of meaning they convey are not. Donnelly, no doubt, considered himself to be a "good man"; a person who followed the rules, obeyed the law; someone with the correct moral center; a white hat in a legal world where there were only two colors, brilliant white or the deepest black. Was Donnelly comparing Zambrano to himself when he called him a "good man"? Or did he simply mean, the man was not like his father, but ran his businesses legally? -- An arduous and difficult task as the son of a mob boss. (HaroldWren). Donnelly did add "totally clean" to his phrase. This suggests that Donnelly considered Zambrano as someone who should have been admired instead of slandered, respected instead of wrongly accused and murdered; someone with whom Donnelly found no illegal dealings of any kind, no matter how far into his background he investigated.
Maxine parried Donnelly's attack as well as she could with an accusation. But she was unsuccessful.
Maxine: "Why didn't you protect him?
Donnelly was quicker, smarter and practiced. He blocked her assault with an advance of his own.
Donnelly: "What do you think we were arguing about? I tried to convince him. But because of people like you calling him a criminal all his life, Zambrano was afraid that we would think he was dirty too. He would only turn over the ledger once he signed an immunity deal. And the paperwork came through tonight. And if you print one word of this, I will lock your ass up for obstruction."
Touché, Donnelly.
-------
Maxine and Donnelly are two very different people, but they do have two things in common. Their first parallel concerns their investigative style.
They both assume and then create hypotheses based on their assumptions. Maxine and Donnelly then look for evidence that will support their hypotheses.
Maxine assumed Zambrano was dirty like his father. It was easy for her to believe her three sources, even though they were less than correct.
Donnelly assumed Reese was a violent sociopath, based on their initial meeting, and based on previous experience Donnelly had with other former agents of the CIA. When his team uncovered evidence which seemed to support his theory, Donnelly bought into it eagerly, not knowing nor caring the evidence was accurate but untrue. (Absence of Malice).
A second parallel concerns how they were used or almost used, and how one was saved and one was not.
Maxine was used as a means to an end. HR played her well and Zambrano died. Donnelly and his team were in the process of delivering Powell to his death at the courthouse, as orchestrated by Root. (Root Cause). Reese could not save Maxine from becoming a tool of HR, but he did save Donnelly from being exploited by Root, saving the life of Powell as well. The irony is, that if Reese had failed, and Donnelly had delivered Powell into a suspicious death, Donnelly might have hounded Root, wreaking his revenge upon her, instead.
And then there was the irony that stared at Donnelly through anxious eyes, in a brilliant disguise of intellectual glasses, and a docile demeanor -- and a suit. Breathing the same air, occupying an adjacent space, the elusive, mythological, mystery "Man in the Suit" was easily within reach of Donnelly. And yet, he was not.
Like an ephemeral spirit inhabiting space and time, visible, but barely tangible; difficult to catch and impossible to hold.
-------
Shadow Box
Donnelly made a promise to Carter, to catch the "Man in the Suit", and he kept it. A little diversion like crippling HR did not distract him for long.
Donnelly: "So with HR degraded to the point of irrelevance, my team is shifting priorities back to the "Man in the Suit". He's still out there. Do you still want to catch him?"
Carter: "Yes. Of Course."
After using up an extensive amount of the Bureau's resources in his previous pursuit for his prey, Donnelly had very little to show for his efforts. The "Man in the Suit" was not in his custody, and Donnelly had no idea where he was or what he might be doing. What started out as exciting and compelling, a case with twists and turns that were unusual and different, had now become, not only personal, but one of saving face, and recovering credibility.
Donnelly: "Good. We have some new information, including who he's working for. The bureau has been tracking the emergence of private intelligence networks, like the CIA or MI6, but for profit. We think the biggest of these has Chinese backing. They've got technology, serious resources, and they've been buying up talent. For instance, we think Mark Snow, the CIA agent who contacted you, may also have been recruited, possibly by the "Man in the Suit."
Donnelly's quarry was lost to him. There were no leads, no clues, no trail to follow. Donnelly's terrorist group of one had slipped through his multi-jurisdictional manhunt like a ghost; a ghost with incredible technical and intellectual resources, surpassing even the FBI's. It was reasonable for Donnelly to assume the "Man in the Suit" had a big player behind him. (Lindao). And when the Bureau discovered a really Big player in China, buying up talent, with a CIA connection, it was a leap, but a logical leap for Donnelly to assume the "Man in the Suit" might be involved. And as long as he was making guesses, his quarry might have flipped Agent Mark Snow into working for them. After all, Snow left a trail of dead bodies everywhere he went as he picked up items that might be needed by an intelligence network. Who else was there who was close enough to Snow to encourage him to run those errands?
Carter: "Really? Snow?"
Donnelly: "Makes sense. I mean, Snow was sent to find this man by the CIA. He catches him, and then the "Man in the Suit" flips him. Gets Snow to be his asset..."
Donnelly was desperate. He was engaging in a game of WAGs, known in the parlance as "wild ass guessing". ( Lindao). He was earnest and sincere in his story telling as he recounted his theory to Carter. It was important to him that she believe his theory, or at least consider it possible. If Carter considered his theory possible, it meant he had a partner, an ally, someone who saw things the same way he did.
For all of his assumptions, and hypotheses, and leaps and guesses, Donnelly was one of the few people that actually gave Reese credit for being intelligent. (Lindao).
Donnelly continued: "... Listen, Carter, I want to read you into this, but it's classified, so I have been authorized to offer you a temporary assignment to the Bureau. And I know, with your skills, it'll soon become permanent. Sooner you're on board, sooner I can fill you in. So, please, think about it."
If this had been an ordinary case, or if Donnelly could have gotten past his ego and desire for revenge, he could have pulled himself away long enough to look at the entire case as a whole, and not just as individual pieces coming together one right after the other. He could have looked at the bigger picture; as Carter would have; as Root did. He could have asked pointed, specific questions, the answers to which might have sent Donnelly in an entirely different direction and proven more successful, if less satisfying.
Questions like: Why would an individual, talented or not, risk engaging the FBI only to take a prisoner in their care, then return him a few hours later, unharmed? Who would send an anonymous recording by email that proved Powell had been framed, and why? Who would send the FBI an anonymous email with Root's location, the actual perpetrator, and again why? All of these things were designed to protect Powell, not harm him. What kind of person or persons would engage in this type of activity? Are these actions truly that of a terrorist or sociopath? Or do they more likely fit the profile of an over-zealous vigilante? (Root Cause).
Carter would have asked these questions and more, if she didn't already know the answers. Root did ask these questions, and she was very successful. She found Donnelly's terrorist group of one easily and used him to capture a bigger "prize". (Firewall).
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Donnelly assumed Carter would accept the temporary assignment she was offered. This was the first and only correct assumption Donnelly made concerning Carter. Because he assumed Carter would accept, there was a shift in their relationship. He no longer came to her, to seek her assistance, or share information. He, now, summoned her.
Donnelly: "Carter, I need to see you immediately."
He summoned her at around 1:30 in the morning to meet him. A military charity, had been robbed. Donnelly had important things to tell her concerning that robbery. Things that could not wait until morning. Things that could not be explained over the phone, by email, messenger, Skype or video chat. Nope. Only a face to face would do and not at the precinct. Only in the back of his SUV, surrounded by his team.
Donnelly: "Can I have your phone?"
Carter: "What's going on Donnelly?"
Donnelly: "I'm sorry, but I think the organization our man works for has some sophisticated capabilities."
Carter: "Like wire tapping cops. Has something happened?"
Donnelly took the SIM card out of her phone, just in case. He was taking no chances. It was imperative their conversation was not over heard. Donnelly was becoming paranoid, with good reason. It was obvious to him, his quarry had received assistance in a very big way during Donnelly's last attempt at his capture. TMITS acted like a man in a maze, with guidance. Specific cell towers went out, made possible by a cloned IMEI of the only cell number created to do that. The hotel camera feeds were cut. There was evidence of an extensive firefight in the underground garage. But his prey -- was nowhere to be found.
Donnelly: "... So, we've been tracking this man for 10 months. Every time we get close he slips right out from under us as if he has some guardian angel. All I've looked for since then is a lead, any lead. And then I realized, the phone. He's in constant communication with his handlers."
Carter: "I thought of that. I crossed checked crime scenes he was reported at with cell tower logs of IMEI's. Came up with nothing."
Donnelly: "Exactly. Nothing. Our engineers at Quantico analyzed the cell tower traffic from that night he gave us the slip downtown. Under the wireless and radio noise they found short bursts of a cloned IMEI with a unique signature. I tasked an FBI computer cluster to search for that signature. Twenty-four hours ago that cluster came on line. It spotted another burst of cloned IMEIs at the exact time and location of the robbery. It's him. I've got SWAT teams standing by. If he uses that phone we'll have him."
After that failure in the hotel where his prey was within his grasp and yet vaporized like a figment of his imagination, Donnelly had no choice but to analyze what had happened, over and over again. He realized the answer lay within the phones. Using the resources open to him, Donnelly became aware of the specific cloned cell number with the "unique signature" that Finch employed that night. Donnelly also used those same resources to search for other cloned IMEIs coming on line during suspicious or illegal activity. Donnelly came to the same conclusion as Hersh. "Wherever (Reese) goes, a mess usually follows. All (he) had to do was find the right mess." (Booked Solid). Donnelly had the key to finding his prey at last.
-------
At approximately 6:43am, Donnelly summoned Carter to meet him again, same location as a few hours earlier. He got the break he was looking for, an underground explosion at Merton Watts Investment Bank. Donnelly wanted Carter there with him.
Donnelly to Carter: "911 call. Possible underground explosion near Wall Street. We're tracking the IMEI bursts in the same area. It's him. Now, we hook up a SWAT en route. Are you with us?"
Carter: "Ah, Yeah. Of course. I just need to make a phone call."
Donnelly: "All right. Make it quick."
Carter was "quick on her feet". She called Fusco, before leaving with Donnelly, pretending to call her mother to take care of her child. She counted on Fusco to relay a message to Finch. Donnelly was on his way to Wall Street and he was "up on (their) phones". (Fusco).
Careening through the city, sirens blaring, Carter was calmly thinking of ways to mitigate the damage; quietly preparing for what she would find.
FBI Agent: "Base just picked up another burst of comms from the target."
Donnelly: "Same location?"
FBI Agent: "Yes, sir."
Donnelly was controlled, steeling himself against his excitement. But this was The moment. He knew it. Even if TMITS escaped, though he was certain he would not, Donnelly now had the means to track him wherever he went.
Donnelly, Carter and crew pulled up to the bank just as it was opening for business. The SWAT teams pulled up behind them.
Carter: "Looks like nothing's going on inside."
Donnelly to Carter: "No, the signal's still active. And the 911 call said the explosion was underground, remember? He's in there."
Donnelly to the SWAT teams: "Alright, one team in front with me. Second team around the back. We move in 30."
Within seconds, Donnelly and his teams swarmed the inside of the bank, front and back, upstairs and downstairs, like Fire Ants over a kitchen floor. The entire interior was covered with them; guns brandished, speaking through helmets, barking orders, checking IDs, their boots stomping arrhythmically across the tile.
SWAT Team: "Blew out the damn floor. Alpha this is Delta. Vault level secure."
Meanwhile, Donnelly, Carter and part of his team wound their way down into the vault, crawling through the opened floor. Carter stood next to Donnelly as he gloated. For Carter, it was déjà vu, and worse than she had imagined. Donnelly had put together a manhunt of such massive proportions that not even a ghost could escape. (Numbers, Firewall).
Donnelly: "We finally got you."
FBI Agent: "Sir, there's a problem. Step back."
Donnelly was confronted with not one, but four men in suits. Forgetting all about Carter's BOLO description: "White male, 6'2", graying temples, nice suit." (Judgement); forgetting that lying within Carter's reports were descriptions of four occasions where Carter not only heard his voice, but talked with the "Man in the Suit", (Pilot, Ghost, Get Carter, Numbers); Donnelly asked the question,
Donnelly to Carter: "Well, do you recognize him?"
Carter looked at Reese. He saw her obvious anguish. Unwilling to force her to choose between the same two choices she was confronted with before, (Numbers), Reese gave Carter an almost imperceptible nod, as if to say "... it was alright if she had to identify him; he would understand ..." (Blacktop50). To the surprise of Reese and Donnelly both, Carter said:
Carter: "Ah. No."
Donnelly assumed Carter knew the face of the "Man in the Suit". Donnelly assumed she could / would identify him. Donnelly didn't ask any of the four men to speak. Though perhaps, deep down in his subconscious, Donnelly felt maybe he should have. Perhaps, deep down in his subconscious, Donnelly was surprised Carter did not ask to hear them. (Lindao). With nothing to identify TMITS but fingerprints and DNA, Donnelly was forced to take all four men into custody, until he could sort them out.
Donnelly sighing: "Cuff 'em all."
-------
2PiR
With the voice and manner of a man used to being in charge, Donnelly ordered the warden at Rikers to hold his suspects in isolation. They were to speak to no one; not to each other, nor to their attorneys.
Donnelly to the warden: "...I can hold them for 72 hours without charging them and I fully intend to."
Spoken like a man who is tired of federal agents steam rolling his authority, the warden responded.
Warden: "Then you have 72 hours. This is Rikers, not Quantanamo."
Carter, ever the interrogator, was concerned.
Carter: "You don't plan on asking them any questions?"
Donnelly: "Don't worry Carter. We have the DNA from New Rochelle, we have the blood from the burned car, and thanks to you, fingerprints. He's ours."
Donnelly was an astute man, but he was proud and stubborn, and wielded a great deal of power. Even if by some miracle she could convince him that Reese was not the evil Donnelly painted him to be, it wouldn't matter. Justice was not his concern, and whether he could admit it or not, the dance between himself and the "Man in the Suit" was personal.
Carter was stuck. There was no legal way to fix this. Yet Carter was determined to fix this. She was on the precipice contemplating the abyss, staring into a very similar darkness that Reese found himself in another lifetime ago. If the only things standing between Reese and his freedom were his DNA and his fingerprints, then those were the items Carter would have to address.
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Donnelly: "Say it to me again, slowly."
FBI Agent: "According to the lab results, none of the DNA we took from these four men matches any of the DNA we have in our database. They're clean, sir. All four of 'em."
In a move that could only be described as audacious, Carter took care of those two little items. She wiped out her favorite vigilante's fingerprints from the national database, and with some prudent help from Finch she switched Reese's DNA with someone else's. Granted there was some sneakiness involved; and breaking and entering a secured federal facility; and somewhere out there was a fellow who was wondering if he ever got lucky that night. But, the deletion of the fingerprints went undetected, the theft of the DNA was cleanly done, and Carter's foray into breaking and entering was flawlessly executed.
Donnelly: "I want everyone of those samples sent to Quantico, reviewed through Codis and inspected for tampering. They got to it. I don't know how, but those bastards got to it. Go. One more thing. Get me Carter."
There were times when Donnelly came across as -- arrogant. "He gave off a sort of 'I am surrounded by idiots' vibe. The way he talked to the warden, and even his co-workers. 'Get me Carter' could easily have been followed by, 'And a vanilla latte, and remember to get the skim milk this time!'" (Lindao). But, Donnelly was under stress, tense, emotionally strained, and very, very paranoid. What was supposed to have been a slam dunk had turned into another indignity, like a slap in the face.
The evidence clearly showed that none of the men he had in custody was the man he sought. And even after having them sent to Quantico, there would have been no sign of tampering because the samples were switched before being tested. And yet, this by the book, by the rules, by the law, Special Agent chose to ignore the evidence presented to him. Donnelly was going by his gut, his intuition, his absolute obsessive need to catch his man. Ignoring evidence and going with a visceral, emotional response was new, a shift in the way he functioned, and out of character for Donnelly. The possibility of a mole had churned itself to the surface. His visceral response forced him to consider the mole might be someone close.
-------
Donnelly: "Stop right there. These men have all been classified as "unlawful combatants" by the AUMF. (Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists, also known as "Public Law No: 107–40"). Until we can establish that they're not a threat to national security, they're not going anywhere. Put 'em back."
Donnelly had requested and was granted, from the Justice Department, permission to detain his four suspects as possible terrorists. A move that would allow Donnelly to hold and question them for as long as he felt necessary, giving him plenty of time to discover which of his four detainees was the Real "Man in the Suit", a man who, now, had become his nemesis.
Donnelly to Carter: "Just the person I wanted to see."
Carter: "What's going on? I thought the evidence cleared these guys."
Donnelly to Carter: "The DNA, the fingerprints, it's all too neat. I've been burned too many times trying to bring this man to justice. There's only one person that I know I can trust anymore. You. You've been chasing him from the beginning and we've only got one shot left at him detective. If he walks out of here, we're never gonna see him again. I know you were a senior interrogator in Iraq. It's time to put those military skills to use. I want you to interrogate every last one of these men. Find out who they are, what they know."
Donnelly pointing at Reese: "Start with him."
Donnelly's gut, his instinct, his visceral, emotional response was correct -- to a point. He did, indeed, have the man he had been chasing for 10 long months trapped as a terrorist within in a cell at Rikers. He was, also, correct that the evidence, which had been carefully locked away, had been interfered with by a mole within his investigation, someone close to him. But what remained was incorrect; what remained was circumstantial, innuendo, forced conjecture, hearsay -- and assumptions.
Reese was a vigilante, not a terrorist. He saved Charlie Burton, not Elias. (Witness). Reese worked undercover to save an undercover cop; he did not work for a smuggling ring, nor did he murder the man in the trunk. (Blue Code). He had rescued Caroline Turing that night downtown; he did not kidnap her. (Firewall). And Reese did not turn Special Agent Mark Snow into an asset for an emerging, China backed, intelligence network. (Shadow Box). As Reese would say, he was "often misunderstood". (Flesh and Blood).
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Prisoner's Dilemma
Through one way glass, Donnelly watched Carter as she began to interrogate Reese.
Carter: "You're being held as an unlawful combatant under the provisions of the AUMF, the NDAA and the Patriot Act. You will be detained indefinitely and denied access to legal counsel until your true identity is confirmed. And until it is determined that you are not a threat to national security. So if you ever want to get out of here, you need to start answering questions."
Another interpretation of this could be as follows:
You will be "... detained indefinitely and denied access to legal counsel ..." until the man behind the glass and his minions hound and badger one of you into admitting he is the "Man in the Suit", the man who rammed his SUV, and stole his prisoner 10 months ago, humiliating him, and making a fool out him ever since, at his every attempt at capture.
The evidence showed none of the four men that Donnelly had detained was the man he sought. But it didn't matter. Donnelly did not / could not let go. (Lindao). He chose to treat all four men as enemies of the state, subjecting them to military interrogation tactics as allowed under very scary legal sanctions.
Donnelly was intelligent, persuasive and connected. He managed to convince the Justice Department to grant him tremendous power over these four men, even as his own department was becoming apprehensive about his current behavior. "His superiors at the Bureau were concerned he was getting paranoid. He might have lost his perspective." (Agent Moss, Dead Reckoning).
Warden: "You said hours. It's been days. If you're going to keep bending the rules I can easily ..."
Donnelly: "I'm not "bending" anything, warden, but in my time here I've noticed no less than 15 serious infractions under New York regulations governing the care and treatment of prisoners, so perhaps you should tend to those before threatening me."
Faster, smarter, and practiced. Donnelly gave the warden a very similar "smack-down" as he did Maxine. (Bury the Lede). Donnelly, up to this point, had been consumed and focused with his investigation. Did he really notice the infractions himself, or had he ordered a team member to look for them from the moment they arrived? Very handy information to have in possession, if a trained senior investigator wanted to have things go his way. All Donnelly had to do was show the warden paperwork he received from the Justice Department, but Donnelly chose to intimidate the warden, instead.
As an anomaly, wasn't the intrepid Agent Donnelly, by the book, by the rules, by the law, white hat, I'm the good guy Agent Donnelly obligated or motivated or compelled to report those 15 serious infractions? Or was he biding his time, saving them as currency, to be spent later?
Donnelly wasn't "bending" any rules, that is true. He obtained legally, authority over his four men in suits. No, he wasn't bending anything; he was ignoring, ignoring
negative lab results, which showed no signs of tampering, that indicated all four men were "innocent" of being what he had accused them, and was actively, aggressively, obsessively searching for evidence that would prove one of them was "guilty".
Donnelly: "So, we've got four stories and four ID's that pass background checks."
Carter: "So, either someone's lying or we've got the wrong four guys?"
Donnelly: "If I'm right, the man we're looking for is backed by a powerful private intelligence network, with resources comparable to any government. And they could certainly create an air-tight cover for one of their operatives. I'm not going to let the "Man in the Suit" slip away just because his license checks out. Now, ... Mr. Warren apparently works right down on Wall Street. What say we make sure that address isn't just an empty office? Come on."
-------
Donnelly, Carter and team arrived at John Warren's work address.
Donnelly to his team: "Check ID's on her (the secretary) and everyone else in the building. Clone the hard drive, photograph everything and dust it all for prints."
His team was thorough. Carter took a moment to make a phone call while they were working and Donnelly was preoccupied. She stepped out into the hall to call Finch.
Finch: ... "if Donnelly spots a single flaw, we and the work that we do will be in very grave jeopardy."
Carter: "This is a hell of a pep talk, Finch. .... I say, let's pin this on one of them."
Finch: "So glad we're on the same page. ... If we can hand Donnelly a name and a military background for even one of them, it might get John released."
Brian Kelly (no alias given), Charles Macavoy (aka Deven Clark) and Wayne Parker (aka Vincent Holt) were assassins for hire, mercenaries, reprehensible people. They killed without remorse, for money. But they were not terrorists. Yes, they, no doubt, terrorized people, but, neither individually, nor collectively, were they, in any way, a threat to National Security. And, they had no clue concerning an emerging, China backed, intelligence network.
They deserved to be in prison. They deserved to be punished for their crimes. They also deserved legal counsel, and a trial to be judged by a jury of their peers. However, if one of them was determined to be the "Man in the Suit", a "known" terrorist, according to Donnelly, then the rules would change.
There would be incarceration, deep, dark incarceration, but no trial, no legal counsel. There would be, quite possibly, an endless string of "enhanced interrogation techniques", very unpleasant, very uncomfortable, and unrelenting interrogation techniques (Bad Code), because the "Man in the Suit" was allegedly, by Donnelly, a terrorist working for the newly emerging, China backed, intelligence network. And Donnelly would want answers. Answers that would never, ever come. And the lack of proof that any of these men were involved would not be a deterrent.
"As a spy", like Reese, Stanton and Snow, and an assassin like Hersh, and even bureaucrats such as Ma'am and Penn 2, "(they) are supposed to complete their mission no matter what the cost. (They) get used to the idea that every successful operation comes at a price. Sometimes it's lives lost, other times it's cities destroyed or livelihoods ruined. Then there are other costs that are more personal, less obvious." (Burn Notice, Tipping Point).
But what about an Army trained senior interrogator/ lawyer/ police detective or a billionaire intelligence gatherer/ vigilante? Were they prepared? Would they get used to the idea?
For all of Donnelly's conjectures, guesses, assumptions and creative, manipulated theories, and for all of his desperate obsessiveness, he never sought to actively frame anyone.
Donnelly walked up behind Carter while she was on the phone. She hung up quickly and put the phone her pocket.
Donnelly: "Carter."
Carter: "So what do you think?"
Donnelly: "It looks pretty damn real, to me. But, maybe that just tells us how long our man's been under cover. Look, from now on, I want you to wear this. It's a wireless ear piece linked to my laptop. So I can feed you questions and info during your interrogations. It'll help us be a better team..."
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The longer Carter interrogated the four men in suits, the more impatient Donnelly became. He told her what to say and how to say it. And when he didn't like the way she performed, he rapped on the one way glass. He even stormed into the interrogation room twice, interrupting her work, because he couldn't wait long enough for her to finish.
Donnelly: "Is the ear piece not working?"
Carter: "I’m building rapport. That's how you get good intel. Would you rather I water-boarded him?"
Donnelly: "Of course not. And honestly, everything he said checks out."
Carter: "So, you think we might be digging in the wrong spot?"
Donnelly: "No. To catch this man, Carter, I'd dig all the way to China. We need to hit the other three just as hard..."
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Brian Kelly was eliminated and arrested as the assassin he was, and placed back into his cell. Finch staged a fire alarm which enable him, via Carter's phone, to blackmail Macavoy (Clark) into naming Holt (Parker) as the "Man in the Suit". Hersh entered the mix and deftly hung Brian Kelly in his cell. Donnelly became angry, denied Macavoy the deal he promised and went after Warren (Reese) using logic only Donnelly could understand.
Carter: "What's going on?"
Donnelly: "Brian Kelly, he just hung himself in his cell. Between that, this glitch in the fire alarm and the fact that Macavoy's hands are sweating now, and they were bone dry twenty minutes ago. I don't trust anyone, anymore. Someone's been tampering with this investigation since it started. And if he's saying it's Holt, then I think it's Warren."
Donnelly had Carter interrogate Warren (Reese) for hours with no change, no break, no hint of any kind indicating that Warren was anything more than the businessman he claimed to be.
Carter: "We've been in there for hours. Do we have anything to prove that Warren isn't who he says he is?"
Donnelly: "There is one last test we can try."
And that's when it happened; the absolute last straw for Carter concerning Donnelly; and the absolute last delusion for Donnelly concerning Carter.
Carter: "Just what kind of test is this, exactly?"
Donnelly: "One of my people spotted one of the Ayrans hassling Warren, earlier. So if we let nature run it's course, maybe the man in the suit will show us his combat skills."
Warden: "Are you crazy. You'll start a riot."
Donnelly to the Warden: "I'd like all of the guards out of the yard. Now. Please."
The warden complied, clearly concerned, giving up only a few discouraging words. Why would he do that? Oh, yes, the 15 serious infractions. Donnelly used them like banknotes to purchase exactly what he wanted.
Carter and Donnelly watched the prison yard from a monitor. Reese allowed himself to be beaten, severely, fighting back, badly. Hersh was poised to kill him until Elias intervened. Then the guards dragged his bloody body off the grounds.
What if Reese, by some means, escaped that morning at the bank. And all that Donnelly had collected were three men in suits. Would he have treated them the same way he treated them now? When the fingerprints and DNA samples came back negative, would Donnelly have ignored the evidence and pressed for permission to consider all three unlawful combatants? If Donnelly had determined, for any reason, that one of the three was the "Man in the Suit" would he have forced him into the prison yard, unattended by guards, hoping he would demonstrate combat skills that possibly he didn't possess until either Hersh killed him, or Elias stopped the fight?
Carter to Donnelly: "What the hell happened to you. You used to be good police. Ever since this thing started you've been bending the rules...."
Donnelly: "I believe this country is under attack..."
Carter: "And this is not right Donnelly..."
Donnelly: "An invisible enemy..."
Carter: "You are over the line, Donnelly..."
Donnelly: "I will do whatever I have to..."
Carter: "All you have to do is watch."
Carter takes out her earpiece and yells at a guard.
Carter: "Get Vincent Holt back in that box."
As deftly as Hersh hung Kelly in his cell, Carter harangued Holt, aggressively, until he not only gave up his real name, but jumped the table between them, placing his fingers firmly around her neck. Circumstantially, this appeared as a tacit confession. Holt, now Parker, was the "Man in the Suit."
Carter to Donnelly: "That's your man Donnelly."
Carter, angry, disgusted, emotionally worn, left the building without looking back.
Donnelly had always maintained, from the very beginning, the "Man in the Suit", the man who attacked him 10 months ago, was a terrorist. Possibly, it was easier, more palatable to accept he had been bested by a terrorist with an organization behind him, than to believe it was just one man.
Mrs. Powell: "I don't understand. One man took my husband away from all of you?"
Donnelly: "We believe he's part of an armed group, possibly terrorists. Did your husband have any radical political views, Mrs. Powell?" (Root Cause).
He never wavered from his initial premise. As his frustration grew with every attempt to capture his prey, the specter of his terrorist grew with it, until the "Man in the Suit" became a colossus with a mythology like nothing he had encountered before.
Donnelly hated to lose. He simply couldn't stand it. He went beyond extreme to find his terrorist group of one with "fanatical determination." (Lindao). Along the way, he deluded himself into thinking Carter was just like he was through a series of unwarranted assumptions.
After Holt's "confession", Donnelly had no choice but to release Warren (Reese) into his own custody. Donnelly watched as he walked down the corridor and out through the prison doors. Bereft of closure, satisfaction, revenge, Donnelly was certain Warren was the man he was after. Not wanting to believe, but knowing it was so, Carter had made her choice; she chose that blue-eyed monster over him. (Blacktop50). He seemed stunned, unable to speak. Things of this nature just don't happen to Special Agent Nicholas Donnelly.
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Carter and Reese met later that night to debrief and inhale the free air. Both were exhausted, emotionally drained. It had been a grueling experience. They thought it was over. They thought they were safe. "People forget, forget they're hiding." (The Who's Eminence Front).
Carter: "So, was any of it true?"
They heard a gun click. Reese and Carter looked up.
Donnelly: "Oh, I sincerely doubt that. Congratulations Carter, you just caught the 'Man in the Suit.'"
Donnelly: "I trusted you Carter and you threw it away, along with a very promising career."
Carter looked at John. John had tears in his eyes.
Reese: "I'm sorry. It was my fault."
Donnelly: "Actually, John. It's not. This little game the two of you have been playing. You didn't give it away, she did. And now, I'm gonna find out exactly who you are."
Donnelly had finally captured the "Man in the Suit", and the moment was -- bitter, just bitter. He had invested so much in Detective Carter. It was devastating to know for certain she was the mole; to know she had deceived him, led him on; to know she was with -- him. He forced them into the back of his SUV at gun point and handcuffed them to the inside of the vehicle.
Carter: "No backup? You're going it alone, huh?"
Donnelly: "Well, Carter. I don't know who to trust, anymore."
Donnelly: "When the man in the s -- when John here, slipped away the first time, I knew we had a mole, somebody on the inside. Then when his fingerprints went missing and his DNA got switched I was forced to consider it might be you. I'll admit, you played a pretty good game. Until I put him in the yard, alone. And that's when I saw it, in your eyes -- genuine concern. How did he turn you, Carter? What was your price?"
Donnelly was quick to assume she was a dirty cop who had been flipped and paid to derail his investigation. He had spent so much time with the criminal element he could conceive of nothing else.
Carter: "No price. Just helping a friend."
Donnelly: (Scoffs) "Well, then you've been played for a fool. Recruited as an asset by a private intelligence ..."
Actually, Carter did have a "price", or a motivation, or a reason. Team Machine allowed Carter to save people, which was all Carter ever wanted to do. Working with Reese and team, she was able to be more effective in preventing injustice, than working only within the law; intervening before something bad happened, instead of picking up pieces afterward. Plus, she was in with a group of people who, although, were deeply flawed and damaged, she cared for just as deeply.
Carter: "You don't understand, Donnelly. He's a good man. We're helping people."
Reese winced when Carter referred to him as a good man to Donnelly.
Donnelly: (Laughs) "Oh, God. Is that what he told you. Wake up, Carter. Your friend is nothing more or less than a highly trained murderer."
"A good man". Such a loaded phrase. The words are simple, but the various shades of meaning they convey are not. Carter had a much different view than Donnelly of what constituted a good man.
Donnelly was rigid, narrow in his definition; obey the rules, obey the law, stay out from under his scrutiny and never work for the CIA.
Carter was more global than that, like she was in her investigations. Carter did not know specifically, exactly the things that Reese had done in the CIA, but she had plenty of experience in the Army and on the police force with men who did atrocious things.
Carter: "... some other guys I knew, they'd done so many evil things, they felt like they needed the punishment." (Pilot).
Carter saw past the evil Reese was obligated to do. She saw the intent instead. She looked past his self-loathing, his disconnect to those around him, and encountered someone similar to herself. She saw that all Reese "... ever wanted to do was protect people." (Finch, Pilot).
Donnelly: "You don't wind up with that job by accident. He chose that life. He chose to become the monster he is. And now you've made your choice, too."
So, she who runs with monsters, becomes a monster, too?
Finch tried, but just couldn't get to Donnelly soon enough. A huge dump truck rammed into Donnelly's SUV sending it flying over parked cars. Stanton emerged and shot the incapacitated Donnelly twice in the chest. She gave Reese a sedative and absconded with him, leaving the unconscious Carter for dead.
As Donnelly lay prone inside his vehicle, waiting as Stanton approached, he found himself in a very similar place as he had been when he first met Reese 10 long months ago. He was carrying prisoners for whom he felt responsible, yet he was disabled along with his SUV. (Lindao). The difference, of course, was that Reese left him alive, before taking off with his prisoner. Stanton was not that generous.
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Dead Reckoning
Moss: "Excuse me. You Detective Carter?"
Carter: "Yes."
Moss: "That case, your suit guy. Donnelly was spending a lot of time on it. Seemed convinced this guy you were chasing had backing inside the government. He mention that to you?"
Carter: "Not that I can recall."
Moss: "His superiors at the Bureau were concerned he was getting paranoid. He might have lost his perspective. What do you think?"
Carter: "I think Donnelly was a good agent."
When working undercover, there is no substitute for gaining your target's trust. It's never easy. Often to convince your target that you care about them, you actually start to care about them. No matter how important the mission, no matter how much you believe in your cause, when you deceive them, it feels like what it is, a complete betrayal of someone's trust. (Paraphrased Burn Notice, Tipping Point).
Donnelly was a good agent. He was a good man. Based on the comments from Agent Moss, his obsession with the "Man in the Suit" seemed out of character, perhaps even a first. He spent a lifetime chasing the criminal element, learning their patterns, their methods, sacrificing a personal life, a family. He understood them. It made him very good at his job. Donnelly enjoyed being successful until he met someone who was better. He used everything he knew, everything he learned, every tool available to catch the "Man in the Suit" and it wasn't enough. Success became the goal, the only goal. And the means would justify the end.
Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you. (Friedrich Nietzsche).