TV Jots

Mistakes Were Made

[Episode 1.01] Smith gets off to a deadly start, literally, with the disastrous museum heist that leaves one of Bobby Stevens’ (Ray Liotta) crew members shot and near death, another the prime suspect in an alley Taser incident, and the rest barely able to escape by boat. The crime actually takes place near the end of the episode, with the opening scenes showing how it fell apart and subsequent scenes depicting how it was planned.

Robert “Bobby” Stevens is a veteran crook living a fake yet quiet suburban life with his ex-con wife Hope (Virginia Madsen) and their young son Jason (K’Sun Ray) and daughter Emily (Tatum McCann). Hope, an administrator in a dental office, attends twice weekly Narcotics Anonymous meetings and has five months left on probation. Bobby has a sham executive-level sales job at a paper cup company, arranged by Charlie (Shohreh Aghdashloo), the woman who provides him with illegal assignments. The cover position allows Bobby to lie to his wife about his true activities as he devotes most of his “work” time to plotting the thefts Charlie commissions him and his team for.

Team Bobby

Bobby’s ace team members include:

JOE (Franky G), the owner of a car shop and close friend of Shawn, whom he brought onto Bobby’s team.

SHAWN (Mike Doyle), a gambling addict married to Macy (Valarie Rae Miller), with whom he has a young son named Ryan. Shawn gets in enormous debt (again), to the tune of $30,000 owed to a thug named Art Jackson. When Charlie hears about it from “the street” and informs Bobby, he’s pissed. If Shawn suddenly pays Jackson in full while reports of their museum job are all over the news, Jackson will put two and two together. So, Bobby angrily tells Shawn he better pay the loan off slowly, stratospheric interest be damned, or else.

JEFF (Simon Baker), whom we meet when he surfs up to a Honolulu beach and assassinates the two men who tell him he’s trespassing with a rifle.

ANNIE (Amy Smart), a Vegas showgirl who takes advantage of a colleague’s drug habit to get access to stolen ids and credit cards, and then stiffs her on the payment when the card limits aren’t as high as reported.

TOM (Jonny Lee Miller), apparently best buddies with Jeff and a newly released ex-convict who just completed eight months of prison time. While Jeff likes to sleep around and steal flashy vehicles to drive, Tom is the responsible one determined to complete his parole without getting into further trouble.

We later learn that Jeff trusts Tom enough to let him hold his cuts from theft jobs, and Tom knows Jeff well enough to stay in touch with Jeff’s father. Tom also has a thing going with Annie, whom Jeff clearly doesn’t like because of her role in Tom’s arrest. Bobby comments at one point that it wasn’t her fault that Tom got caught, and the second episode clarifies exactly what went down then.

The Tanner Heist

At the fist team meeting of the episode, Bobby shares the details of the Tanner Museum job in Pittsburgh. Charlie’s unidentified client is commissioning the theft of three paintings — a Delacroix, a Rembrandt, and a Tintoretto — worth $100 to $200 million and so esteemed they can’t be sold on the market or to a fence. Payment for the job is $2 million total, with 50 percent going to Bobby as the leader.

After Bobby lies to Hope, who’s no dummy and suspects something is going on, that he’s heading to St. Louis for work, he meets up with the Tom and Joe in Pittsburgh to case the museum and determine the best plan of action. Annie will divert the attention of the two cops in a kiosk across the street as the men carry out the theft during rush hour, when the precinct six blocks away is most likely to be too busy for cops to arrive on the scene quickly if something goes wrong. The getaway boat is necessary to allow the team to flee during the congested traffic period.

On the day of the heist, electronics expert Shawn poses as a utility worker, logistics expert Tom parks a delivery truck roadside, weapons expert Jeff drives up in a rented van, transportation expert Joe waits outside on the street in the getaway vehicle, and disguise and deception expert Annie provides diversion on the street by pretending to have been violently attacked in an alley.

Unfortunately, it’s the unpredictable things that can make situations the most messy. A high school acquaintance named Nancy Scialfa (Maria Dizzia) recognizes Annie as she walks up to the museum to get ready for her act. The woman refuses to listen when Annie denies being Dorothy Collins, and Annie ends up shooting Nancy in the chest with a stun gun when she follows Annie into an alley and sees her disguise.

Meanwhile, Jeff and Tom lose track of a security guard’s location when he’s in the bathroom, and the “bogey” manages to sneak up on Bobby and Shawn while they’re removing the paintings in a wing. The floor creaks as Jeff and Tom approach from behind, startling the guard, who shoots Shawn before Jeff shoots and kills him.

Hell breaks loose on the street outside as soon as the kiosk cops hear the gunfire, leaving Annie to rush away after warning Nancy to stay. Yet, the damage is already done — twice — and Shawn dies on the getaway boat, although the team manages to escape the cavalry of cops by blowing up the delivery truck Tom left roadside earlier. The boat, with Shawn’s body still onboard, gets the explosive treatment, as well, and the team heads back home with the paintings for Charlie. Ironically, Shawn was the one who rigged both bombs.

At work at the dentist’s office, Hope learns about the heist when she notices her colleagues standing around a television as the news breaks. And, yep, she immediately suspects Bobby is involved. Up in the sky on the return flight to California, Tom ignores Jeff’s advice to stay away from Annie and hooks up with her in the bathroom anyway.

Worst of all, however, the feds arrives at the Tanner, led by Agent Dodd (Chris Bauer), and they quickly identify the theft and murder as a professional job orchestrated by one unknown Smith, with helpers. So, although Bobby tells Charlie he’s getting out of the crime life after three or four more jobs when she asks him later if he’s ready for another one, his remaining time as a free man is already in major jeopardy.

Up Next on Episode Two: The aftermath of Shawn’s death and its effect on his wife Macy, the aftermath of Jeff’s two murders on the Honolulu beach, the aftermath of Tom and Annie getting together again, and the unrelenting suspicion of Bobby’s wife Hope.