Amnesia and the Burnett episodes

[TMC]

https://sites.google.com/site/amonit...urnettepisodes

Part I

I did some quick research on amnesia. I expected to have what I saw on screen contradicted to some extent; I was pleasantly surprised at what I found.

Whether they meant to or not, TPTB at Vice left some large ambiguities in the Burnett storyline - especially when it comes to what exactly Sonny Crockett remembers when he returns to Vice. There's also the problem that Sonny Burnett did not recognize "Cooper" the second time he meets him (in Hostile Takeover) after shooting him in the alley in Mirror Image.

Several of the details I found about amnesia may explain (or fanwank or rationalize) some of those possible inconsistencies, as well as give insight into what happened to Sonny.

There are several different types of amnesia. And it appears that these types of amnesia aren't always "pure" in the sense that a patient will only show signs of one type and not the other(s) at any given time. Often the "types" of amnesia can be looked at on a continuum.

Generally amnesia can be attributed to either organic cause (induced by brain injury) or psychogenic cause (induced by trauma and stress). It can take the form of anterograde amnesia where after onset "new events are not transferred to long-term memory, so the sufferer will not be able to remember anything that occurs... for more than a few moments." The second form of amnesia is retrograde, where the victim is "unable to recall events that occurred before the onset of amnesia." Retrograde amnesia can be further broken down - often victims will either be unable to access episodic (autobiographical) memory OR semantic (factual, common knowledge) memory.

Psychogenic amnesia is most typically the retrograde variety, effecting autobiographical memories. Amnesia with psychological origins includes dissociative amnesia, an "inability to recall information, usually about stressful or traumatic events" where the victim "retain[s] the capacity to learn new information." This usually affects only memories surrounding the traumatic event, though it can extend to the entirety of a person's autobiographical memory. Victims often "are aware that they have 'lost some time,' but some become aware of time loss only when they realize or are confronted with evidence that they have done things that they do not recall."

A dissociative fugue is more complex: not only does the victim display an "inability to recall some or all of [his] past" but also displays "either the loss of [his] identity or the formation of a new identity," which can "occur with sudden, unexpected, purposeful travel away from home." It is separate from, though similar to dissociative identity disorder (aka multiple-personality disorder). The fugue is often looked at as a means to "remove the experiencer from responsibility for their actions" and effects autobiographical memory only; however, it appears "spontaneously and is not faked." Interestingly, the fugue usually disappears spontaneously as well and once the victim comes back to himself "efforts to restore memories of the fugue period usually are unsuccessful."

As I said earlier, all of these forms of amnesia can be looked at as a series of continuums. Amnesia victims often fall somewhere in the middle of these continuums, therefore their symptoms are caused by neither purely organic or purely psychogenic origins, etc.

• Organic origin-----------------Psychogenic origin
• Retrograde -----------------------Anterograde
• Autobiographical -------------------- Semantic

Given the nature of what we see in the Burnett episodes, here's my theory. Keep in mind I'm no psychologist, and my research has come from the internet. So. Big ole grain of salt.

How does all of this fit in with the Burnett plot?

Let's look at Mirror Image. Sonny comes back to work after the trauma of Caitlin's death and his extra-legal killing of Hackman. Shortly into his return to his undercover identity ("Burnett") the yacht he's on explodes, killing everyone on board. He only survives presumably because he'd started to abandon ship when the explosion occurred, warned by Alejandro. Alejandro then apparently rescued Sonny from the wreckage - he believed Sonny had information important to his own survival.

The length of time Sonny was unconscious, which could hint at the severity of his injury, is unknown. Sonny is shown disoriented upon regaining consciousness; he's in the care of some kind of hired medical staff with what looks like inadequate facilities - in other words, no way to gage the nature of his brain injury. Later, in Bad Timing, a neurosurgeon testifies that the injury was "severe," so we assume there was still evidence of this injury 2-3 months later when he returned to Vice and was apparently examined in depth.

Presumably, then, the amnesia began with an organic cause - this severe head injury. We'll never know the "natural" extent of this amnesia, because Sonny didn't wake up in a county hospital, surrounded by those who knew him; he was instead in a "false" environment - where everyone around him identified him by his cover identity, "Sonny Burnett," drug dealer and middleman. This is what he's told by the doctor when he admits he doesn't know who he is or what it is he does. If he'd woken up with Rico at his side it's possible the amnesia would have lasted the more typical hours or days - he'd have gradually recovered his autobiographical memories with the help of professionals.

Instead, he's thrust in a familiar but false world. For most of Mirror Image Sonny is shown with what's called a flat affect - "a lack of emotional reactivity." He accepts what the doctor, Alejandro, and Manolo tell him. He doesn't seem to question his lack of memory, something most people would find frightening. He kills but he doesn't get angry. He does what he's told. It's only after he believes he's killed Tubbs in the alley that this changes - he has a nightmare that deeply disturbs him, he's shown as agitated and impatient with Manolo the next day, and some of his "native" charm and humor starts to surface in the meeting with Yagovich, the dirty cop.

I think circumstances conspired to produce psychgenic amnesia in combination with the organic amnesia caused by the injury. "More common than cases of 'pure' psychogenic amnesia are patients in whom psychosocial factors are combined with... brain pathology to produce a retrograde amnesia which is very much disproportionate to what would be expected." Sonny's got psychosocial factors coming out his ears by this point. He was depressed, traumatized, and under extreme stress at the time of his injury. He'd just crossed his own moral line by killing Hackman. He's injured and when he cannot recall who he is another identity - a familiar identity - is substituted by his environment. This identity is reinforced when he is taken to Fort Lauderdale, out of his familiar surroundings which could have triggered memories, and goes to work for Manolo. All of these things fit the description of dissociative fugue listed above. The psychological factors act to exacerbate his inability to access his autobiographical memory. Additionally, fugue patients have been described as emotionally flat.

It's only after he's told by Yagovich that he's Crockett, a dirty cop, has a memory flash of himself expressing disgust at the breed to Rico, and then kills Yagovich (a fellow dirty cop and possibly a stand-in for himself, unconsciously) that he climbs into the drivers seat (literally and figuratively) and makes "Burnett" his own. By killing Hackman (whether the man was armed or not) Sonny Crockett became a criminal in his own mind. He became what he hated: a bad guy, a dirty cop. No better than the thugs and dealers. He became an executioner – which is what Sonny Burnett then becomes for Manolo. Under Manolo's employment Burnett executes the double-crosser at the drug deal, Alejandro, and Yagovich. He's explicitly paid for his execution of Alejandro. Castillo later calls him Manolo's "shooter."

Perhaps if Tubbs had reached Sonny at the marina, before or shortly after he killed Yagovich, the new "persona" wouldn't have taken root. Before that point he's not living as Burnett under his own power, as a separate identity from Crockett. He's just accepting who/what people have told him about himself. There's a distinction. This, in my mind, is the edge between the organic and the psychogenic.

note: I think I'm wrong about him flashing back on talking about dirty cops before he shoots Yagovich - I think that flashback happens in the next episode. I"ll have to re-check. It wouldn't totally negate my point, but weaken it a little.

Part two

In the previous section I started rambling about amnesia and the Burnett episodes. I left off with Rico watching his partner grasp the Burnett reins with both hands. Crossing the line between the organic amnesia and the psychogenic, between being a victim of circumstance and creating his own fate.

And so we're brought to Hostile Takeover. Time has passed since Rico lost Sonny at the marina. Somewhere around two months worth of time. Time enough for the fluid blankness Sonny had been living with in Mirror Image to solidify into something harder. This is Sonny Burnett.

Though unconscious of it, I believe Sonny couldn't face what he'd done to Hackman and Yagovich, what happened to Caitlin, so he embraced the new (but familiar) identity that had been thrust upon him by Alejandro and Manolo. There's evidence that during Mirror Image Sonny may have been having problems with his anterograde memory - when he's confronted with "Cooper" for the second time he as no recollection of the man, let alone blowing him away in an alley. Even when he eventually returns to Vice he has no memory of shooting Tubbs - he's genuinely shocked when asked about it.

Now, as I said, this could be due to lingering problems with forming new memories (anterograde amnesia) or it's equally likely that it's because somewhere inside he unconsciously knows he tried to kill his partner his mind has protected itself by refusing to let him remember the act. I read recently that something like upwards of 30% of convicted murderers claim amnesia to the act they've been imprisoned for. Sonny isn't shown having flashbacks of shooting Tubbs until Bad Timing, after he's been back to himself for some time. Even after he's shown having this memory he continues to insist under oath that he doesn't remember shooting his partner (in Line of Fire). Significantly (to me anyway) he's never shown remembering Caitlin's or Hackman's deaths.

By Hostile Takeover whatever problems he'd had with forming new memories has resolved, and more importantly his autobiographical memory starts to return. Where in Mirror Image the still-fluid Sonny mostly did what he was told, this Burnett is a man of iron control. There's personality there now - Burnett is shown to be controlling, diamond-sharp, manipulative, and above all ambitious. He's embraced the world he's found himself in - not just become a player but an architect. No longer content to be an assassin, he's set his eye on domination. I'm mixing all my metaphors here, but in the months between Mirror Image and Hostile Takeover he's gone from chess piece to chess master. If he's gonna be a bad guy he's gonna be the best.

This iron control only slips (and then only a millimeter) when he's confronted a second time with "Cooper." His partner, the only reminder he's had of who he really is. And it's not played like the audience of 80's television is primed to expect: Burnett doesn't instantly remember himself, doesn't realize he's really a good guy. He's just... disturbed. Because he's not ready to remember; and by this point the very act of remembering himself is to remember his own betrayal. Crockett betrayed himself by killing Hackman; Burnett has betrayed Crockett by his very existence.

In Mirror Image Sonny's unconscious was triggered by his attempt on Tubbs' life; but memory didn't return - instead his mind seemed only capable of handling the symbolic language of a dream. When confronted with Tubbs again in Hostile Takeover he's wary, though he doesn't know why. And he only begins to have flashes of autobiographical memory when Tubbs starts questioning Burnett's background - simple questions about where he's from, if he's been married - questions Burnett has no answers for, questions he's been avoiding. Burnett had been content to live in the present. He never appears to question his own lack of a past. Not even when he begins to remember does he actively seek to speed up the process. Unlike the typical TV amnesiac, he never once asks "who am I?" of himself. Because the Burnett identity is protecting Sonny from Crockett's pain.

It's not just that Burnett can't remember anything before the yacht explosion - he's actively avoiding what went before, accepting his external reality at the expense of the conflicting vision offered by his dreams and flashbacks. Maybe this is all conjecture, but there's evidence: Yagovich told him Crockett was a cop, a dirty cop - and Burnett flashed on himself with Tubbs (the man he's just supposedly killed), hating on dirty cops. Without Yagovich's comment, this memory could be taken as him as a drug dealer blowing off steam about the threat posed by cops playing both sides. But Yagovich called him by name, called him a cop. Why would Yagovich lie?

This is before he's fully embraced his identity as Burnett. At this point he had to be questioning whether Yagovich was right - and he chose to continue on being Burnett, shooter to the Manolo crime family. At one level, what choice does he have - he's surrounded by the possibility of treachery. At another level, wouldn't you question yourself at this point? Wouldn't you want to find out who you were, who you loved?

Between Mirror Image and Hostile Takeover Manolo, Burnett's old boss, has been assassinated and he’s now working for Manolo’s rival Carrera, who ordered the hit. This leads me to believe that either a) Burnett took advantage of the consequent power vacuum to move over to Carrera’s side or b) he had something to do with the assassination or c)both. It’s become a game to him – a deadly serious game. Power and control. He’s manipulating everyone around him to his own ends; something Crockett only did while undercover and even then in a limited fashion. jadefire88 sees a lot of rage in him – very very controlled rage. Burnett does not deal with anger the same way Crockett would - Crockett explodes, Burnett goes cold.

Eventually we get to the lighthouse. Quite the symbol, a lighthouse. A beacon in the darkness, embodied in the form of Tubbs, the man he tried to kill, who won't leave him be. This is the apex of Burnett's control, and ironically the beginning of the end of that control. In a few short days he's managed to manipulate his way to the top of the Carrera crime family - mostly through his wit rather than brute force ("Muscle is for people who can't negotiate."). In another few days he'll lose it all. And this meeting with Tubbs is the pivot point.

When Tubbs confronts Burnett in the darkness, Burnett has more flashbacks of himself with the man in front of him. He falls into a weird dreaminess - not in control. He remembers Tubbs, can identify him by name - remembers Tubbs is a cop; but doesn't remember that he's a cop as well. It doesn't make much rational sense - the pieces are all there but he refuses to put them together. And above all, Burnett is a rational man. So this lapse is significant - it's psychological. He can't remember that he's a cop. If he remembers, where does that leave him? If he admits he's a cop, given what he's done since the explosion, he has to admit he's turned into something that needs to be destroyed.

Part three

Which brings us to Redemption in Blood.

Confronted explicitly this time by his forgotten past - in the form of the partner he doesn't remember killing - Burnett slips. He knows Tubbs is a cop, knows he has a past relationship of some kind with this cop, and he can't bring himself to shoot the man a second time. Though neither man knows it yet, Tubbs has succeeded in breaking through Burnett's barriers, shattering his iron control. And Burnett clearly does not like the sensation – to not know means to be out of control.

Up to that point Burnett has been brilliant, arrogant, not troubled by pesky things like conscience or morals or love. He’s been above all that. He's used violence – but it’s been a tool, not an outlet. He's seen everyone around him as pieces on a chessboard, to be moved according to his strategy. The only things he can’t control are Tubbs and his own scrambled flashes of memory. And these are the two things that eat away at him, at the walls between Burnett and Crockett.

In the lighthouse, Burnett hesitates. Tubbs takes the opening and flees. And Burnett blinks - he fires well to the side of his target, watches as Tubbs escapes the lighthouse. Lets him go. It's only when Cliff and his men show up that Burnett commands them to chase Tubbs. And we don't see him participating in the chase - he only rejoins his men when it's clear Tubbs has eluded capture. Something has made Burnett go against his own nature, and that puts him in an untenable situation.

After the lighthouse, Burnett begins to disintegrate. No longer able to repress or ignore what his returning memory is trying to tell him, he's increasingly distracted, moody, even confused. For the first time he's shown undeniably drunk - nearly passed out, he has more flashbacks of his dead wife (even says her name aloud) and he fails to recognize Celeste when she kisses him - actually demands to know who she is. He's fractured and fragmented - not fully Burnett anymore, but not Crockett yet, either.

He continues to have flashbacks while sober - out with Cliff eliminating the competition he remembers the Spyder's destruction. For the first time, Burnett is shown in an introspective mood - he walks alone along the shore in his shirtsleeves. He remembers getting shot; he remembers Evan dying in his arms and telling him "now it's your turn." Most disturbingly to Cliff, he shows mercy to El Gato's men, ordering them released from torture, and pulling his gun on Cliff when his orders aren't immediately followed.

His erratic behavior isn't overlooked by his lackeys. How quickly they fall - within days of the first sign of weakness, Cliff is angling to take over the business, attempting to seduce the alliance of both the Mexican general and Celeste. Cliff implies Burnett has been sampling the merchandise, and that the drunken episode isn’t an isolated incident. Though he is never shown doing coke, and tells Celeste it’s “for losers” the possibility remains that he was in fact indulging. Cocaine makes people feel like they’re in control, after all, and this is precisely what Burnett has lost – his control over the others and himself. His heavy use of alcohol (and possible use of cocaine) could later contribute to his inability to remember this time clearly.

Celeste, understandably piqued at Burnett's brutish rejection of her, is only too willing to trade sides. Because these alliances aren't formed from love but out of greed, Burnett is left alone with his self-destruction. Except maybe there is love, of a sort, because Celeste changes her mind at the last second and warns him of the car bomb that was meant to take him out. The explosion throws him to the pavement, unconscious and presumably with another head injury. Once a person has been concussed, the likelihood of future brain injury increases - the brain becomes oversensitive. In time repeated injury leads to the syndrome seen in boxers and football players. Needless to say two serious blows to the head in as many months are bound to have effects. Even on television characters.

Contrary to cartoon (and soap opera) logic, Burnett does not instantly regain his full memory upon this second knock to the noggin. He wakes up in a dingy hotel room, a bandage over his eyes removed by a purloined ER doctor who protests it's "too soon" though again we're not given a time frame for how long he's been unconscious (and his eyes likely flash-burned). It's probably the next morning. He's confused, disoriented and physically unstable as well, nearly collapsing when he tries to stand. His first words are to ask is who's looking for him - then he asks if Tubbs is looking for him. For a short moment, he appears to have mentally returned to the time after the first explosion, asking the questions he lacked when he woke up in Alejandro’s care. But Celeste hasn't a clue about Tubbs, and Burnett's short term memory quickly reappears as he recalls the second explosion and Celeste's tardy warning. And what that means.

It’s his reaction to this betrayal that sets him on the path to redemption, to recovery of himself. He can’t kill Celeste, even though clearly part of him wants to. Instead, he reverses the trajectory he’s been on since Caitlin died – he reaches out to Celeste and embraces her; gives and accepts love and comfort, forgives betrayal. And for the first time, he searches for himself. He begins with the dingy hotel room mirror, staring at his reflection in an echo of the scene in Mirror Image – only this time he doesn’t turn away from his doubt, his questions about his identity. This time he keeps looking.

His search brings him home; brings him into the lion’s den. It’s hard to tell if he had any idea where he was when he walked into “Gold Coast Shipping” – the disguised headquarters of OCB. There’s increasing recognition on his face; but the flashbacks have ended (or at least are no longer shared with the audience). He walks through the halls to his locker, seems to recognize his name – Crockett – when it meant nothing to him before, on the dock with Yagovich. Then he heads straight for his desk. He stands staring at it, and only gradually seems to realize that nearly every person in the room has drawn on him. It’s as if the excitement of finally recognizing his surroundings – of rediscovering himself – has blinded him to the implications of his return, to the consequences of what’s gone before. Not a mistake Burnett would have made a few short days ago.

Later, in Castillo’s office, he’s subdued – looks nearly in shock. He tells Castillo he remembers the first explosion, remembers working for Manolo and Carerra. He denies any memory of killing Yagovich and is clearly devastated at the news that he shot Tubbs – throwing into question what exactly he remembers of the last two months. In later episodes he’ll have flashbacks (and lie about his memory) of shooting Tubbs in the alley; but at this point his reaction is too honest for him to be lying.

After returning to themselves, victims of dissociative fugue often cannot recall what occurred during the fugue state – despite the fact that they were presumably fully conscious and living normal day to day lives. Even after regaining their autobiographical memories (which tend to come back in pieces, often starting with the oldest), these memories of the fugue period can remain stubbornly hidden.

We’re never quite told the full extent of what Crockett does or does not remember after he returns to OCB. His story shifts depending on who he’s talking to. He initially tells Castillo and Stan that he remembers working for the enemy, though he denies shooting two cops. He tells Tubbs that it’s all a “long dark hallway,” implying that he remembers little – though this is likely a self-protective lie, at least in part - he has no problem remembering Cliff or the location of his office or Celeste, and the house they shared – he goes back to see her off after the bust at the end of Redemption in Blood.

After Redemption in Blood he again denies memory of shooting Tubbs in two separate, unrelated hearings; denies any memory of his time as Burnett at all – the latter clearly a lie, though what he does remember could realistically be fragmented. In Bad Timing he does finally have a flashback of trying to kill Tubbs, some unidentified time after he comes out of the fugue. After the hearing where he’s ordered to undergo psychiatric evaluation, he expresses horror at his own actions. It’s my guess that his memories of the amnesiac period are confused, but begin to return to him – in Bad Timing not only does he remember shooting Tubbs, he remembers standing over Carrera’s corpse, and by implication his Machiavellian grab for power.

He’s sent to a psychiatrist, but the series doesn’t show him talking in depth about his time as Burnett. He expresses doubt that he ever had a solid identity – trying to make sense of how he could become another person so completely; he shares his fear that his friends won’t be able to accept him. In a later episode he’s ordered to an “intensive” therapy session with another psychiatrist; but he isn’t shown to explore the issue further. In fact, it appears that all charges are dropped against him and he’s reinstated back onto the force – though none of this is dealt with directly onscreen.

His amnesia, his fugue, isn’t referred to again during Season 5 until the series finale, and then only in a tossed off remark – Crockett threatens the dirty police captain that his brain is “like Swiss cheese,” and therefore he can’t predict what he’ll do. This comes at another period of intense pressure – his partner (arguably the last thing tying Crockett to his job at this point) has been captured and is being held hostage. In the brief scenes between Tubbs’ capture and rescue, Don Johnson adds a nearly unhinged edge to Crockett – it’s not in the script, but the viewer gets the impression that if Tubbs dies nothing will stop Crockett from either eating his gun or having another breakdown, the aftermath of which would be a body count as spectacular as the one Burnett racked up.

In conclusion, Vice did a commendable job with the amnesia storyline, hewing surprisingly close to medical and psychological possibilities, especially when compared to how other shows of the time period (Magnum P.I., MacGyver) handled the same plot device. However, the show fell short in satisfactorily dealing with the aftermath and consequences of such a spectacular breakdown. Though Vice never claimed to be a docu-drama (it was always too mannered for that), the fact remains that if any cop had gone through what Crockett experienced, it’s doubtful he would have been allowed back undercover, let alone retain his job. It’s too bad – the show wasn’t afraid to plunge the hero totally over the edge into darkness in a way that had never been shown on television before; but then they appeared to have little idea what to do with the results of their own creation and backed away from the consequences of the storyline.

Whatever its failings, the use of amnesia in the Burnett arc made for compelling drama and opened television to the possibility of the dark, morally conflicted anti-heroes we see today in shows like The Shield, Rescue Me and The Sopranos.