Mary Shannon

Mary Shannon is the main character in the USA TV series In Plain Sight. Tough, troubled, and smart Mary Shannon (Mary McCormack) is a U.S. Marshal working for the Federal Witness Protection Program in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Family
Mary Shannon (a New Jersey native now living and working in Albuquerque, New Mexico) tries to balance the demands of her difficult law enforcement job with her ever-stressful and emotionally draining family life.

Her mother, Jinx Shannon, was an alcoholic for many years, but is now a recovering alcoholic. Mary has a sister, Brandi, and a long-lost half brother, Scott Griffin (to whom she did not take well to Scott when he first came into her family) as well as two long lost half-sisters by her father, James Wiley Shannon, a bank robber who went on the lam when Mary was a child and is still wanted by the FBI.

Birthdate: February 9, 1971 (A Fine Meth). In Drag Me to Hell, however, Mary's birthdate is shown in her Marshals Service File as December 15, 1968. Mary's father left the family two days before her 7th birthday, February 7, 1978 (High Priced Spread). (In A Fine Meth, however, the date Mary's father left is said to be February 5, 1978.)

Personality

 * has crappy credit (Miles to Go)
 * has been arrested 3 times, all dismissed (Stan by Me):
 * Lewd Vagrancy (August 12, 1995)
 * Disorderly Conduct (March 20, 2000)
 * Disorderly Conduct (May 5, 2001)
 * Marshall and Mary don't always know when the other is calling; this is a meme that's cropped up in a fair number of fics; obviously, writers should take whatever creative license they want, but know that it it's not part of the canon. Examples:
 * Pilot - Marshall answers office phone with "Marshall" when Mary calls
 * Stan by Me - Marshall checks his caller i.d. and sees that it's Mary before answering (close up shot on the phone)
 * A Stand-Up Triple, Let's Get It Ahn - Mary checks caller i.d. before answering
 * usually wears a Virgin Mary medallion (according to Mary McCormack)
 * lives in a 3-bedroom, 1-story house
 * lapsed Catholic (crosses herself in church in Pilot and Don of the Dead)
 * drives eggplant Ford Probe, made somewhere between 1989 and 1997

Relationships
Married to Mark around early 1986 (based on 1968 year of birth) or in 1988 (based on 1971 year of birth); annulled after 1 month (A Fine Meth). Mark and Mary meet up two decades later and have an affair, which results in pregnancy at 39 for Mary, who initially considers giving up the child for adoption but later decides to keep the child.

Raphael "Raph" Ramirez, a Dominican baseball player.

Alias
Mary Shepherd

Weapons
Mary carries a Glock 23 -- standard issue for marshals -- on her hip and a Glock 27 on her ankle. (Hoosier Daddy) Both fire a .40 S&W (forty caliber Smith and Wesson) cartridge. The Glock 23 (carry weapon) is considered a 'compact' gun and has a magazine capacity of 13 rounds standard. The Glock 27 (secondary weapon or drop gun) is considered a 'subcompact' gun (which is why it's on her ankle) and has a magazine capacity of 9 rounds standard. Both weapons can carry more rounds with a different magazine (10-17 rounds) but it makes the gun heavier. It's better to have extra clips, or magazines, in the truck than it is to carry a heavy gun for hours and hours.

Season One
After the dust settles over the FBI ordeal and her traumatic kidnapping, Mary still has her hands full with a barrage of newly relocated witnesses. To help with her caseload, Mary relies on the support of her loyal, laconic, and erudite partner, Marshal Marshall Mann (his title and first name are often a source of jokes) and her quite diminutive, well-meaning boss Stan McQueen, who usually lets her do things her way but occasionally takes control.

Further complicating Mary's life is the arrival of a new member to the WITSEC team, Eleanor Prince (played by Karen Maples), to whom Mary takes an unsurprising immediate dislike. An administrative assistant who manages to rub Mary the wrong way at every turn, Eleanor does speak up for herself and tries to ignore most of Mary's obnoxious comments. Eventually, the straight-laced Eleanor engages in tit-for-tat to Marshall's rueful dismay.

At home, Mary's troubled younger sister Brandi is pulling her life back together while Jinx faces her alcoholism for the first time. But Mary still can't decide how to deal with on-again-off-again boyfriend Raphael.