Final Report on Crime in Media

For this final project, I decided to report on the crime drama Cardinal. It is a detective show based in Northern Ontario, specifically, a fictional town called Algonquin Bay. The show was primarily filmed in Sudbury Ontario and North Bay. The series in based on the books by Giles Blunt, each season surrounding another novel. As of this year, there are four seasons:

Season 1- Forty Words for Sorrow

Season 2- Blackfly Season

Season 3- By the Time You Read This

Season 4- Until the Night

The show surrounds main character John Cardinal, a former member of the homicide squad as he goes to work as an officer in small town Algonquin Bay, along with his partner, Lise Delorme. For this report, I’ll be focusing on the season 4: Until the Night.

This season, Cardinal and Delorme are investigating the abduction and murder of a politician, who is reported missing by his wife, Sheila Gagne. Sheila is distrusting of the detectives, and only trusts one cop who she knows personally. Without any leads, the detectives and the rest of the police department are scrambling to locate the victim. While this is happening, the show gives glimpses of the suspect covering his tracks (killing an arrested accomplice, throwing away a bloodied jacket), and the audience is able to see what the suspect looks like. This is an interesting tactic used by the directors to keep the audiences intrigued and adds to the tension in the story because you only know part of the story.

This episode was particularly slow paced until investigators found the body of the missing politician. After a video was sent to his wife of the victim begging for his life from the killer, the investigators only had a few hours to try and find him before he froze to death. In a place with plenty of snowy, forested area it was nearly impossible to locate the victim. Unfortunately, but not unexpectedly, they are unable to find him alive and instead find the body up near the mountains. What makes this scene catch people’s attention and shows the severity of the crime is the way the body is positioned. The victim, Robert, is found kneeling, looking up at the sky, and mouth wide open, frozen to death.

The episode ends with Sheila being told that her husband is dead and the killer still at large. What sets this show apart from others is the endings because they are quieter endings with little music and usually just dialogue/monologue, I think this adds to the overall tone of the series and can be very dark and resonating. Some episode endings can have an empty sort of feeling that leaves the audience both interested but also feel hollow or drained.

The next episode focuses on the killer scoping out his next target, he talks to them and a few others in the town. To build anticipation for the viewers, there is creepy music while the killer interacts with people, and the very interactions are also creepy because the audience are the only ones who know he’s the killer (we just don’t know why yet). This time we see the abduction take place, this time an old lady named Adele Leblanc is taken away in a similar way to the previous victim, this time to a secluded car wreck place.

Cardinal and Delorme still don’t have many leads, but have become suspicious of Sheila, whom they think is hiding something involving another person (or people) from her past.

Again, the first half of this episode is relatively slow-moving. However, they have one clue- a feather of a peregrine falcon left at both places where the victims were last seen, so the feather is some kind of calling card which is typical for a serial killer or hitman, and might have some significance in finding out more about the killer’s motives.

In relation to other shows, Cardinal follows the theme of how no one can be trusted, especially the ones closest to the case (in this case, the loved ones of the victims). This can make for an interesting plot twist and give the side characters more depth.

In it’s usual fashion, Cardinal ends this episode without music and this time it’s even more gripping because it shows the killer leaving Adele handcuffed to die at the car place, and ends with her screaming for help. I found it especially dark because its an old lady who doesn’t have the best chances of surviving and she was a really sweet lady throughout the episode. It left off on a very grim note.

This episode starts off on a depressing note with the Adele’s body being found by a worker at the vehicle demo place.

As for leads on the case, the investigators begin to believe that the killer is working for someone. In this episode, there is a conversation between the killer and his employer, Scott Riley. From this, the audience is able to infer that the he wants revenge on not the people he’s gotten killed, but their relatives. This means Sheila Gagne and Barry Leblanc (the old lady’s son) are a part of something that happened a long time ago, and Riley wants revenge. There is a mutual agreement between others involved in what occurs years ago to not go to the police, so we can assume that what they did is illegal.

One thing that I noticed especially about this episode was the dead silence when characters were talking. It was a weird thing to hear, because many shows have some kind of music in the background. But the difference is quite noticeable, and I think that it’s meant to give viewers a more realistic or less dramatized version of the show. It also helps you pay more attention to the characters themselves and every little shift in their voice, the smaller details are way more noticeable without music, it is a more intimate perspective of the show.

Around the middle of the episode, the Barry Leblanc is dead- it isn’t murder though, he was found in his yard frozen to death. There were two glasses in the kitchen and some alcohol, this was because of he had met up with Taj Roy who was someone else involved in whatever happened years ago. Taj was also the one to go to Sheila to convince her not to tell the police. The theory was that he drank to much (he was a recovered alcoholic) and then passed out in his yard, but it also could’ve been a suicide (maybe because of guilt, and his mother did just die).

The killer scopes out his next target, this time it’s someone Delorme is familiar with, Josh McNider, which raises the stakes a bit and increases viewers interest. Things do not go as planned for the killer, as the father, Ken McNider (who is actually one of the people Scott Riley wants to get even with) walks in and the killer is forced to abduct both of them. The episode ends with that, and I think this season is starting to speed up a bit as the investigators find more leads and more people are hurt/killed. So far we only know half the story and that is what keeps people watching and wanting more.

                In this episode, the energy picks up right from the beginning with a search of Josh McNider’s house and garage where the abduction took place. During the search they find a baby cam and they are able to identify the killer, Neil Cuthbert who was a convict and was hired in the past to kill people.

                The next scene shows Josh struggling to escape a similar set up to the last two murders, although the place is an old mill that is significant to the employer, Scott Riley. The father, for now, is in another location as the hitman and Riley argue over what to do.

                This episode, things are starting to come together as there are more flashbacks to what happened years ago and it can be inferred that loved ones of the victims were all involved in an incident that left a person dead. This person obviously meant a lot to Scott Riley, which is why he is so set on revenge.

                The argument between the Neil and his employer ends with the hitman dying and a neighbour who witnesses this and runs away after Scott sees her but decides to let her go.

                Meanwhile, Josh up at the old mill manages to escape the ties keeping him there, but he’s still up there in the cold without anything so he manages to crawl into one of the old buildings. He’s eventually found alive, and that’s where the episode ends.

                One thing I noticed with this show in particular is that it focuses not only on the investigators but also on the killer and the victims, and it’s usually an equal amount of attention given to each of them. I find in a lot of shows it just focuses on the investigator’s point of view, which isn’t as interesting but also gives room for the writers to create drama in the investigators lives, which this show did as well but it wasn’t a told as a main problem and doesn’t interfere with the investigation.



                This episode there are more flashbacks that slowly tell the audience more and more of the story. The episode goes on to explain the story behind the feathers- Scott Riley and his girlfriend (the one who died) were in the woods looking for the endangered Peregrine falcon when everything fell apart.

                Further investigation leads to the detectives finding out more (some of which the audience would’ve already known, which makes it satisfying to watch) and the overall pace speeding up as a search for Sheila, Taj, and his daughter Mena, as well as the search for Ken McNider.

                Unfortunately Ken is found dead and Delorme has to deliver the news to her friend Josh while he’s in the hospital recovering and you can tell that it’s hard for her to maintain composure especially after he says “I thought you and your partner were good at this.” This is a very emotional scene which is contrasting to the rest of the show which can be very devoid of tenderness, I think in this scene the dead silence and plain white noise is used to slow it down a little bit and have viewers really feel for the characters.

                With his killer for hire now dead, Scott takes matter into his own hands and finds out where Taj and Mena are hiding and abducts them. He takes them to where everything happened in the woods years ago.

                The episode ends with police finding Sheila in the warehouse they were hiding in, she begins to tell them everything.



                In the season finale, Sheila is arrested and explains everything. Sheila, Barry, Taj, and Ken all worked for a mill that was going to be built up near the woods. They were all going to make a lot of money, but the issue was the peregrine falcon. Because it was endangered, they wouldn’t be able to build on the land. So they decided to go into the woods, find it, and kill it. It was the same day Scott and his girlfriend Rebecca were out there looking for it, not to kill it, but to prove its existence so they could protect the land (they were major environmentalists). They heard the gunshots and ran to see what it was, they got into an argument with the four of them. The bird was killed, Rebecca was hurt, and so Scott left to get help while the rest of them ran. Rebecca died, Scott was sentenced for her murder and the rest of them managed to cover the whole thing up.

                After finding out where this happened, Cardinal and Delorme and the other officials go out to the woods and end up in a shoot out with Scott, Scott dies. Taj and Mena are rescued.

               

This season covered the themes of truth vs lies, past mistakes, and revenge. Values apparent in the show included honesty, respect for the environment, and moving on from the past. Even in this show that is particularly dark and dreary, there are uplifting messages regarding family and connections with others. This is evident especially in the main character, John Cardinal’s life because in the previous season his wife passed away. In this season it focused on him trying to move on and let others into his life.

The image of crime presented in the show was one brought from revenge and greed. I think this show represents a very small part of crime, if its at all accurate. Realistically, the idea that a wrongfully imprisoned man is going to get out of prison only to hire a hitman to get revenge on those who got him there probably won’t happen. But there were some examples of crime, like the people who killed the falcon in order for their plans to work out that could be more possible. I also think that the method of killing was rather unorthodox and was probably used to make it more interesting to viewers rather than portray a realistic image of crime. I think media does often do this, and though many of us know that the way things happen in shows don’t happen often in real life, there can often be misconceptions of what really happens. As for the control of crime, it seems in the show that the investigators and law enforcement have little control over the situation, and things only escalate before they can solve things. I think this could reflect the views many have about crime and control of crime.