The Residence S1E6: The Third Man

For the benefit of anyone who skipped the previous episode, the opening hits us hard with reminders of who the current prime suspect is — Harry Hollinger, the President’s BFF and chief advisor, who insisted on treating the murder as a suicide, was found rummaging through the deceased’s office looking for “political documents”, was overheard by the deceased having a private conversation with the head of the CIA, and happens to live across the hall from the room where the murder seems to have happened.

With that many arrows pointed in his direction, either Harry can’t possibly be the murderer, or Cordelia Cupp solves the case this week and spend the last two episodes birdwatching.

Even Harry himself loudly insists that the most likely suspect is usually guilty. In the show’s present, he’s furious with Senator Al Franken because the Senate hearing that serves as the show’s framing device now has him in its sights.Meanwhile, Detective Cupp is absent from the hearings, and out in the wilderness, looking for her “nemesis bird” — the one bird a birdwatcher can’t find. (And it’s implied that A.B. Wynter’s murder is Cupp’s “nemesis case,” meaning she still hasn’t solved it by the time of the Congressional hearings.) 

Meanwhile, back in the flashbacks to the White House, Special Guest Star Kylie Minogue finds blood on the carpet in the Lincoln Bedroom. Cupp instead inspects the adjacent rooms, and finds a hidden staff staircase leading to the third floor. Cupp suspected from the start the body was moved, and between the blood and the staircase, she’s starting to put together how and from where.

But we’re rushed away from this for a new development. The First Gentleman had ordered the Secret Service off the upstairs that evening, and denies having done so. (The show has a habit of introducing a lead and a suspect and then veering off in another direction, and we’re still not sure whether it’s effective or not.)

But we then veer off to another man — the third man of the title. An nervous-looking man the show took pains to point out in the early episodes, who turns out to be another uninvited party-crasher. So now he’s our person of interest, but by this point it’s too late. Cordelia’s been investigating all night, she has nothing definitive, and the administration wants to shut it down.

So it gets shut down. Wynter’s death is unconvincingly ruled a suicide, at least until the Congressional hearings, when the Third Man resurfaces and gives a lot of not-terribly-interesting testimony and some not-terribly-funny attempts at humor. It drags on quite a while, and in the end he tells the Senators nothing. He stumbled into the dinner by accident, he saw nothing of note, he left.

Except Cordelia, watching the hearings on TV, sees something of note. And with a few minutes in the episode to go, the investigation comes roaring back to life.

Amendments:
• We continue the gag of Hugh Jackman appearing without ever showing his face.

• The First Dog is named Shirley, and the show can’t resist slipping in a, “Surely you can’t be serious” gag. Respect the classics!