The CSI Is Out to Get Hal!

[yardgames]

This thought crept into my head last night while watching "Softball." I was thinking about how the government set up Hal in Reese Joins the Army because they needed someone to blame the corruption on. Could they have chosen Hal--partly, however unconsciously--as a result of his actions in Softball? You will recall that he applied for a job there in that episode, without realizing it, and then became paranoid about everything and attempted to turn down the job, but the building no longer existed.

So maybe teh CSI was still sore about Hal knowing some sort of classified information, and that's why they went after him?

 

[tony_montana]

Pshh, that theory is absolutely.....GENIUS! I do believe they had a grudge against our hero Hal! Why else would they pick HIM out of a whole corporation of employees?

 

[NeCoHo]

CSI? Don't you mean CIA? or NSA? Or the NRO, DIA, FBI, Majestic-12, or Delta? Or maybe all of them? Who wants me to explain what all the different Organizations do?

 

[Wemboy]

Well i hate to be the voice of reason in the whole conspiracy theory, but the point about that was they were arresting nearly everyone at the company. They probably did it to try and save face, as they'd obviously let the company get away with irregularities in the past (obviously there's no connection to any real life events here). If you recall, they tried to get Hal to grass on someone else, but he didn't, so someone else grassed him up instead. Its more like survival of the fittest, or survival of whoever does as they're told to be more specific.

On the other hand the whole thing could have been part of a wider, ongoing test to see if Hal is truly fit to join whatever secret organisation is after him: notice how in this episode Hal finds himself in the middle of a covert operation, at the library. Perhaps the reason they went to Hal is because they knew he'd react in this way, and put himself in a situation where his covert operations skills could be practically assessed. Now THAT is a conspiracy theory!

 

[Malcoholic]

I think the writers purposely left unclear the question of how unscrupulous the federal prosecutors were in framing Hal: did the prosecutors entice other employees to give false testimony against Hal, or did the other employees finger Hal on their own initiative? There is a strong suggestion that the prosecutors orchestrated the false testimony, but it's not stated outright. As a satire, MITM exaggerates real-life flaws. As satires go, MITM is not especially bitter or cynical--it mostly shows people as being neither very good nor very bad. My own sense is that the writers here stopped short of depicting federal prosecutors as outright corrupt, and portrayed them as being so overeager to get a conviction that they pressured witnesses into giving convenient testimony without concerning themselves much over its accuracy.

 

[tjpeople]

Great theory but i agree with Tom, that they where after the company not hal in particuLar. he was just unlucky.