Life on Mars – Summer DVD Review – All the Young Dudes

Life On Mars

Life on Mars
All the Young Dudes

Original Air Date: Mar 18, 2009

Sara M. – TwoCents Reviewer
sara@thetwocentscorp.com

It’s another week of undercover work for the members of the 125. This time it’s Sam’s turn. They’re trying to get someone in with Jimmy McManus and his gang of Irish thugs. In this, the third to the last episode of the series, everything is moving into place for the finale.

We begin with an arrest and end with gunshots.

Sam is put undercover as bearded, Irish dockworker Sam Bono. His assignment is to infiltrate McManus’ gang, which knocked off a truck the week before leaving behind a dead driver. But Sam has to crawl before he can walk, he gets involved with a few smaller jobs, ripping off a shipment of these new-fangled VCRs. During which the detectives of the 125 show up, busting the group and bringing them into the station. There, Sam puts on a bit of a show, hitting on Annie in his Irish brogue (an inside joke as the actor who plays Sam is in fact from Ireland) and getting into a fight with Gene. With way too much delight, Ray forces Sam into the lost and found room for “interrogation.”

After giving him a shiner, for appearances shake, Chris escorts him back to the holding cell. Jimmy himself then arrives to decide which guys get bailed out and which have to stay locked up. When he spots Sam, he questions, “Who’s the scrappy one?” Our favorite time traveling cop gets to go home with Jimmy’s gang. They arrived at a bar owned by Jimmy’s sister Coleen. Sam recognizes the woman instantly, growing up she was his babysitter. Making it weird when they start flirting. That has to wait, to get into the gang Sam has a to go through a bit of an initiation. He has to fight ‘Big Patrick.’ Which he does, rather successfully until Coleen enters the room and distracts him.

Believing himself to be ‘in’ Sam goes to an address given to him by Jimmy, understanding that it’s some kind of job. But when he arrives it turns out that it’s Coleen’s apartment to hang a mirror. While there he meets her new neighbor, Rose Tyler. They have a brief moment alone during which Sam asks her to just go along with the act, pretending not to know him. After he leaves Coleen’s he stops over at Rose where she asks him to have a talk with Sammy. Worried at the thought of saying something to the child version of him and cause a problem in the future.

While Sam is busy maintaining his cover, Ray and Chris are stuck in a van outside all of his locations working surveillance. There’s nothing more fun than watching Chris trying to provoke some conversation about the afterlife out of Ray. When he receives curt answers Chris turns to the silent treatment. Surprisingly, Ray can’t take the silence and describes his idea of heaven (take a wild guess of what that entails). Although we begin to see that the two have a friendship beyond work. Ray is becoming a kind of big brother to Chris.

Ray, per usual, is jealous of Sam’s undercover work. Flirting with Coleen goes a step further and they end up back at her apartment. While there she makes a comment about how he doesn’t behave like the average thug. When he leaves Big Patrick and Little Patrick are waiting to escort him back to the bar where Jimmy is waiting. At the bar he gives Sam a loaded gun and tells him to kill the rat that’s been working with the police. On cue the Patricks bring Coleen into the room, tied up and gagged. Jimmy refuses to shoot her himself, worried about the moral implications. Sam refuses to do it, revealing his identity as the cop.

This whole thing was a ruse to get Sam to reveal himself. Now he and Coleen are in reverse positions, she’s holding the gun on him while Jimmy disappears into the back. Just as she’s about to pull the trigger Ray, Chris, Gene and backup come charging in. Jimmy gets away, Coleen gets arrested. At the station she’s keen to press Sam’s buttons, suggesting that he’s got a much darker side than he lets on. Afterwards he and Annie start to talk about Rose’s request. As she always does, Annie offers some sage advice, “If you don’t talk to him, who will?”

On this note Sam returns to Rose’s apartment and agree to talk with Sammy. Coaxing him out of his hiding place, Sam sits on the bedroom floor and begins to assure his young self that his dad and Coleen leaving has nothing to do with him. Sometimes people leave and “it’s not your fault, it’s life.” As Sam speaks these words Ray and Chris pull over a car swerving back and forth across the street. As they approach the car they recognize the driver. Jimmy McManus. He pulls two guns and opens fire. Screeching away, Ray and Chris lay motionless, bleeding on the concrete.

A great episode, not one of my favorites, but enjoyable nevertheless. Sam’s conversation with little Sammy is haunting, but plants an interesting notion in one’s head. What conversation would you have with yourself? Also the relationship between Chris and Ray is really fun to watch. It’s very much like watching siblings interact, a big brother who doesn’t want to interact with his little brother at first. I remember the first time this episode aired and how my stomach just dropped when they were shot. An episode worth checking out. Have TwoCents on the topic? Share below.