DECEPTION “Divination” Review

DECEPTION “DIVINATION” REVIEW

BY GEANNIE BASTIAN

Deception’s Series of Unfortunate Events

This week on Deception, a fortune teller is murdered, prompting Kay to call Cameron for what she calls “a magic adjacent case” which doesn’t sit very well with Cameron. At least, not at first. But of course, he still knows exactly what to do, even if there is an age old feud between the professions. He quickly discovers that the murdered fortune teller had a partner, and that’s where the case gets really interesting – from preventing a suicide, to a counterterrorism investigation, to staging a murder.

Meanwhile, after doing Cameron a favor last week to help him break into a gallery, Johnny has encountered more trouble in prison. It seems he’s now a favorite for personal favors with fellow inmates. Personal favors that can come with serious injuries if they are refused. Life inside a prison cell is also making Johnny pull away from Cameron which in turn makes Cameron extremely nervous.

Both are pleased the FBI is actually doing what they said they would — finding information on the mystery illusionist recently picked up on security cameras in a European airport. It also appears the mystery woman is making her way through Germany, England, and France. But so far, that’s all we know.

Not All Partnerships Are Good

Things may be working out between Team Deception and the FBI, but when a successful fortune teller is killed because her best friend and partner was previously partnered with a notorious arms dealer? Well, that’s a little problematic. So much so, that our surviving fortune teller, Vivian, tries to take her own life by jumping off a bridge. Fortunately, Kay is able to talk her down but she slips and falls before she can get off the side of the bridge. Even more fortunately, Cameron is rigged up to rappel off the side of the bridge and catches Vivian just in time.

Although Vivian initially told the team that the man she had a very lucrative deal telling fortunes for was just an international real estate developer, when Kay goes to a frantic counter-intelligence agent, his reaction reveals that that’s not entirely the truth. So he is an arms dealer, and it turns out he wasn’t trying to kill her, but get her back. Why? So she can read his fortunes about an upcoming deal that turns out to be a sting in an FBI counter-intelligence investigation.

So what is the team to do but help with said investigation? They set Vivian up with a detailed deception to make the arms dealer think the deal is actually lucky – when in fact of course it’s a trap. Of course Cameron has to go undercover too, because FBI agents are not trained in sleight-of-hand. As always, a pretty neat and flashy set of tricks ensues.

But the biggest trick is on the audience. Because when everything goes south and FBI moves in Vivian is shot and killed — except that’s part of the trick too. It was prearranged, so Vivian could “die” and go into witness protection.

So far the show’s been selling moves like that just well enough to where you’re pretty sure that’s what’s happening, but you just start to wonder… Maybe this time will be real. Nope.

It’s Hard to Keep Your Head Down When You’re Famous

So it turns out Johnny is quickly learning that the best way to stay safe in prison is to keep your head down. But of course, it wasn’t just Cameron’s life that was changed when their secret came out. It turns out that Johnny has gone from being the boy behind the curtain – the one no one knew about to being just as famous as his brother. Except now he’s famous in prison, for his skills in both deception, and being an escape artist. In prison. Yeah, this can’t possibly end well.

Last week Johnny ended up on a fellow inmate’s list because the guy knew he had done a favor for the FBI. And that meant he ended up owing the guy a favor. It’s not clear that he let the words slip that his brother worked with law-enforcement, but it doesn’t seem to matter because this week another inmate needs a favor from Johnny – specifically helping a buddy of his escape during dialysis treatment at the hospital. And it’s a request Johnny can’t refuse, even he has to take a trip to the hospital to make it happen.

Cleverly enough, Johnny sets it up so that it looks as though they both escaped when in fact they’re both still in the room, sending the guard to go searching for them in the adjoining bathroom – only to get locked inside. At which time a dialysis patient does escape. However Johnny handcuffs himself back to the bed. This leaves one to wonder how the dialysis patient is going to stay on the run without treatment, and also, why didn’t Johnny take the chance to escape when he had it?

We can probably be pretty sure that it has to do with Cameron telling his brother to do the right thing. But as Cameron talks about always being there for Johnny it seems Johnny is starting to believe it less. The problem begs the question: which will happen first, Johnny attempting to escape, or Cameron taking his brother’s place in prison? Because one way or another it feels like one or both are coming. Just a hunch.