Only two episodes left till Life On Mars closes up shop for good (can't imagine a letter-writing campaign gracing us with any tele-movies here), so the question now is, how's it all going to end? There's no investment in the show improving itself enough to stay on the air, but it would be nice if things went out on a high note; years from now, we could be remembering a finale on par with "The Man Who Sold The World" and not, well, pretty much anything else. Tonight's ep, "Everyone Knows It's Windy," started taking certain steps towards closing the door. After MacManus, the guy who shot Ray and Chris, is gunned down in cold blood, Sam winds up getting blamed for it, and his life has become so screwed up that not even he is sure of his innocence. It's a little added pressure to raise the stakes, and much appreciated.
Just as appreciated, but not as immediately obvious, is the appearance of Agent Frank Morgan, investigating the MacManus killing and putting the screws to Sam. Frank Morgan just happens to be the name of the actor who played the Wizard of Oz in, y'know, The Wizard Of Oz. Pretty sure that means something. Morgan's played by Peter Gerety, a welcome face to Wire fans; but even more interesting is that his character is a familiar one to fans of the BBC version of Mars. His presence was a major catalyst in the second series, essentially bringing about the crisis that forced Sam to decide between his past and their future, and while there's no real indication that Morgan will be serving the same purpose here, it at least indicates that the writers have definitely watched that last ep, and were hopefully taking notes as they did so.
"Windy" is a step up, dealing with series' mythology and diving back into the mindfuckery it's been leaving to the side for a while now. It still has its share of problems, though; the big reveal at the end piled on the weirdness to the point where it was less a revelation and more a failed attempt at justifying the unjustifiable. There's no way to explain the various hallucinations Sam's had in any real world way, but "Windy" makes the effort, with predictably goofy results. Plus, there are references to the "Aries" project (here a supposed toy company) that seem less like a gradually developing mystery and more like randomly putting words onto other words for the illusion of depth. Sure, it corroborates references we've already heard, but not in any meaningful way.
Watching Sam run around New York trying to clear himself was fun, though, and so was seeing him struggle with the possibility of his own guilt. After MacManus is shot, Agent Morgan arrives, and it's not soon after that a witness (Scott Adsit, aka Pete from 30 Rock) ID's Sam at the murder scene. When Morgan searches Sam's apartment, he finds the gun used to shoot MacManus; and Sam's alibi folds when he's unable to find Windy, the hippy-dippy neighbor who popped in to play some checkers just the night before. Vague philosophical ramblings aside, it's cool to have Windy back, as she represents a connection back to Sam's uncertainty. Like having Frank find Sam's list of reasons on his wardrobe mirror, it's makes the show feel less like each episode was written on the back of a napkin three days before shooting.