Minority Report - S1E7 - Honor Among Thieves

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Previously on Minority Report, ‘Fiddler’s Neck’

Oh my gosh, you guys, this show! This show is hitting all the right beats and layering their characters so well. It’s almost a crime how underrated this show is considering the performances and writing we’re getting. What started out as a future procedural has built into a weekly showcase for some spectacular themes and beautiful performances.

“How are we supposed to survive out there?”

Another week, another flashback. I mean that in the most excited way since flashbacks have become an awesome part of this show. This week the flashbacks focus on Arthur and the precogs’ early days after pre-crime ended. They’re all like little chicks learning to walk for the first time. Basically, the police send them off into the wild without identities or resources “for their own protection”. Again, this show is illuminating the darker side of what pre-crime did. Not only did they use the pre-cogs and deliberately hide the fact that the people they arrested were not fated to kill but when it ended, the precogs were discarded into a world they’d never known. And the sleek, dashing Arthur we see today was just as gangly, awkward, and heartsick as the Dash we know now.

“I found you less obnoxious when you quoted Shakespeare”

Dash and Vega rush to the scene of a murder to discover the EMTs picking up the bodies. They’re two minutes too late. Dash takes the loss hard. Although I’ve been saying for weeks that they’re going to have to take a few Ls if they don’t want to arouse suspicion. Despite his brother and Vega telling him to let it go, Dash goes to the victim’s house to try and find out who murdered him and ends up kidnapped for all his trouble.

When Vega finds out the murder was never reported to the cops, she goes to investigate and realizes Dash is missing. Turns out that part of Arthur’s hustle is using his visions to find out about profitable murders and sending his own team in to scoop the police. The victim is a money launderer for an unsavory businessman named Luca Van Zant and Arthur used his banker’s death to steal Van Zant’s money. This puts Dash in even more trouble when he cluelessly admits that Arthur is his brother.

Fortunately, Dash is able to get his captors to turn on each other while Arthur and Vega track him down. Arthur, meanwhile, gets the upperhand on Van Zant by making friends with the business partners Van Zant was stealing from. As Arthur walks away from Van Zant’s impending death the swag he has is unparalleled. 

“Don’t dwell on the ones you can’t save. I don’t”

We’ve already established that Arthur is a lying liar who lies, but he wasn’t always that way. Back in 2054, he was a young man with milkbath hair who just wanted someone to smile at him so he could forget the horror in his head. He and Dash go to a bar where a pretty waitress smiled at him, but Arthur’s inability to read a situation and his innate cockiness results in a bar fight. Furthermore, an irate customer targets the pretty waitress and when Dash and Agatha stop an idealistic Arthur from intervening and stopping her death, he hardens his heart and vows that he’ll be fine. Part of what makes this so poignant is that present-day Arthur clearly has never let go of this loss. Although he profits off of some of these deaths, he still sees all of these horrors, and in many ways he’s still that boy who wanted a pretty girl to smile at him.

Mentionable Mentionables

• Right now, the show is using Reed Diamond as the DIA agent pretty sparingly but they did show that he was there when the precogs were released. He’s one of the few people who know what they look like. It makes me want to go back and see if he’s seen Dash in person.
• Agatha clearly knew what was going to happen at the bar. I wonder how many “hard lessons” she’s let Dash and Arthur learn and how much she knows about Arthur’s business.
• Did you cheer when Vega punched Arthur in the face? I think a punch in the face is going to be their way of saying “always and forever”.

Future Tech

• Arthur has a communicator on his hand that looks like a screen, as well as a bracelet that displays his text messages.

• Agatha’s phone has full projection capabilities. Movie nights in the future must be amazing.
• It’s a good thing limb reattachment technology has been improved in the future. I was wondering why no one was losing it when they realized that finger was actually Dash’s.