The DSR 1x08 'Spartans'

by Brian L. Lamkin & A.J. Black

A US government building is bombed in a pyrokinetic attack that leads the DSR into the world of bureaucracy and Sara to a rite of passage involving someone from her past...

Welcome back to Project Black Hole, boys and girls. The show's hit some good form in recent episodes after a slightly wobbly start, so let's hope today's show follows previous examples. Lamkin may only have co-written this time, but his last two episodes were some of the strongest of the season, so the return of showrunner Black may prove a winning combination!

We open on the FDA building in Chicago (not missing the chance to use the 'windy city' line) as a perky youngster named Spencer wanders in from the cold. Turning on the charm, he manouveres past the receptionist and goes to see the boss, Mr. DeSantos. Even when six beefy security guards are waiting for him, he doesn't seem unduly concerned. Mainly because he's about to Flame On, his hands bursting into flames as he sets about toasting the guards and creating a panic. He sets as much of the building as he can on fire as he races out, mingling with the evacuating employees and escaping onto the street - and the building detonates behind him as his fires hit the gas mains.

Act I brings us the chirpy Sara as she wakes up and starts her day, full of pep (and giving me a flashback to the Angel S5 episode 'Harm's Way') but soon running into traffic and other delays, arriving late for work and finding her early buzz fading as it's straight in to business. She's late for a briefing and gets a sharp look from Kendall as she sits, where Kendall tells them someone from the FBI is showing up, so the gang need to be on their best behaviour. The agent arrives, an old colleague of Anton's called William Ross, and he tells the team about the attack on the FDA building, making special mention of its spectacular body count. He's come to the DSR because of witness reports of Spencer and his flaming hands (which gives a nice impression of the DSR sometimes being seen as an X-Files style department that is pointed towards cases with a paranormal slant), which Carson takes as a chance to slip on her Exposition Hat and explain pyrokinesis to you, the children watching at home. With any security footage of the attack missing, Ross asks for the team's help, and Kendall sends them out to investigate, though not before Sara gets a ticking off for showing up late. Meanwhile, Spencer is meeting up with some friends at a bar, who all seem to be in on his scheme as they toast the day's carnage. One of the group, Jared, mentions 'the boss,' before a more timid guy, Danny, asks for some time to go visit his relatives. Spencer describes them all as 'special' - so are they all pyrokinetics? Do we have a team of wannabe evil X-Men on our hands here? Either way, we leave them for now and head for the remains of the FDA building as Ross shows Jai and Anton round the wreckage. Jai makes some calls as Ross and Anton get to talking, the mention of Maggie showing that Anton's still pained over his wife's illness. Jai and Anton check out a pirate video store in their search for the missing surveillance tapes, but as Jai questions the shopkeeper, Todd, he suddenly makes a break for it, forcing the DSR duo to give chase. Todd seems terrified that 'they' will get to him if he squeals, but his attempted jump for freedom turns into a five-storey swan dive. Adios, Todd. Sara slopes back into her place a long way after midnight, but before she can hit the sack there's a knock at the door - it's her brother. It's Danny, from the bar! Uh oh...

Danny wanders in (as far as he knows, Sara works at a library), and it's clear that a long-running environment of sibling rivalry between the two takes only moments to reignite, as we find that Danny was meant to be at university in Surrey, not showing up at his sister's place in Nevada! Nice little tidbit that their dad works in intelligence too, though, as well as Danny hitting a nerve when he comments on how far Sara has gone to get away from home. Cutting back to Jai, Anton and Agent Ross, who tell Kendall that they have a lead on who was behind the disappearance of the FDA security tapes. Jai suggests stealing them, only to the surprise of Ross, staging a robbery to cover their real target - the account details of whoever paid for the tapes to go missing. Over at PBH, Sara approaches Mia (with a neat 'people only perch when they want something' line) to talk about Danny's suspicious appearance (and we learn Mia has a sister too), but Mia just encourages her to follow her instincts - if she thinks Danny's covering for something, then find out what it is! Danny calls his mate Spencer, but Jared, the ringleader of the little gang, is none too pleased at this and orders Spencer to drag Danny back to work, and fast. We then switch to Anton as Jai's fake bank robbery is set in motion, with Anton making his entry but unaware that the man who caused the FDA explosion seems to have spotted him! Anton tranqs the bank manager and sets about hacking into the files, while Jai and Ethan lead the robbery as a diversion, stunning the guards and taking controls - but missing the young man, who promptly calls Jared to alert him to the attack! Anton's almost ready with the data, but Jai and Ethan are about to get an unwelcome surprise - Jared and two fellow combustibles, kicking the doors down and going Flame On to make life difficult for our boys...

As Jared and his pyros start torching the bank, and Jai and Ethan struggle to take them down (with the pyros doing that annoying Bad Guy thing of being able to dodge bullets), Jared himself marches into the manager's office and destroys the terminal Anton is working at - but the data's already been sent. The team grab the last few customers and herd everyone outside, just avoiding the final blast of flame that chases them out the doorway (woo! Woo! Cliché alarm! But it works here, so I guess I'll let it slide). Sara returns to her apartment to find Danny is busy turning into a typically messy boy's flat, so she confronts him about why he's there, believing he's had a row with their dad and is looking for a place to stay. Danny throws in an emotion card, bringing up the memory of their deceased mother (which is pretty nasty of him, really - he obviously knows how to manipulate his sister, like most brothers seem to be able to!), but it doesn't last for long as Sara rails on him, demanding answers or she's going to kick him out and leave him to fend for himself. Good showing of backbone from Sara there, too - this episode's done a lot to flesh her character out already! With Anton making an observation about the young age of the pyros, the team get a name from the hacked account data, heading to a bar downtown to confront Jorge Romero. Jared's getting ready to move his team out from the bar, but receives a call from 'Alex' - the 'Englishman' that everyone seems so scared of - who orders the full retreat and tells Jared to 'take care' of Jorge. Gulp. As Human Torches one through nine start igniting, Spencer is sent out to find Danny, and by the time Jai's team show up the bar's already up in smoke. They find badly burned bar owner Romero, who manages to utter one last word before expiring - 'Spartans.' Well, technically, it's 'Sp...Spa...Spar...tans...' but we knew what he meant. His last act is to point the team towards a picture frame where the stolen FDA CCTV tapes are held (quite helpful for a charred harbourer of bad guys, isn't he?). Spencer shows up at Sara's apartment to get Danny, who doesn't seem too sold on the idea of going back to work for Alex, and as we enter a Flame Off, cut to Sara, arriving home from work to find her apartment on fire! She rushes inside and comes face to face with Spencer, leaving with the unconscious Danny...

Spencer blasts his way past Sara, and back at PBH she identifies him as the man behind the FDA attack. Kendall can link Spencer to English terrorist Alexander Harman, the brains behind the Spartans group with currently unknown motives and objectives, but nobody seems to notice the fact that Sara apparently recognises Harman from somewhere. Danny is brought before Harman, who tells Jared to take him 'back to school,' before we head back to Sara's gutted apartment, with the equally gutted Sara talking to Mia. Mia knows Sara's hiding something, and it turns out Sara and Harman were an item until he dropped off the radar ten years ago. Mia gives Sara some data to go find the compound in Indiana where the Spartans are based (which seems a tad irresponsible of her, considering Sara's own admission that she isn't field trained and a solo mission like this would be extremely risky), but as the vamped up Sara strides boldly up to the compound's front gates to get inside, it seems Sara has a plan of her own here!

Good stuff. A cracking, fast-paced episode from start to finish. The paranormal elements here sit nicely alongside the more regular high tech spy action, nailing the balance of Alias and X-Files that this series has been promising since episode one. It's also starting to develop its own style at last - as the characters start to develop, it's stepping away from the Alias template. Dropping the Sydeny Bristow Soap Opera elements in favour of more concentrated character stories like this one and Anton's dying wife is doing the series proud, and 'Spartans' finally lets Sara start to grow as a character, showing plenty of new sides to her and elevating her from a female, British version of Marshall into her own person at last. Bravo, DSR, you're doing what you should at last and I for one can't wait to see what's next.

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