by Michael Jay
Now undercover inside a dangerous terrorist organisation, Sara struggles to retain her professionalism when an old temptation rises it's head. Meanwhile, the DSR division between Jai & Mia and Ethan & Carson continues to escalate...
So Michael 'Big Mike' Jay makes his debut on The DSR at last, eh? Coming into the second half of a two-parter is never easy, especially following one of the strongest episodes of the season with Brian and Tony's excellent 'Spartans,' but I've got faith in Mike to continue the show's upwards swing in quality, and besides, with Sara going undercover to extract her brother from a dangerous terrorist organisation filled with highly flammable pyrokinetics (ho ho!), how can he go wrong?
Right back where we left her, Sara is facing off against Alex and Jared, the head honchos of the Spartans group, brazenly asking for her brother Danny to be returned to her. Sara asks to be let into the team, and Alex seems to see something he likes in her, accepting her proposal. But Sara! You're Tech Girl, not Field Agent! Oh, gawd, this is going to be like Rachel Gibson's first field mission in Alias S5, isn't it? Alex kisses her, and to her credit she manages to go with it instead of freaking out - and she's in. Whew! Back at PBH, Ross barges angrily into Kendall's office and asks just what in the name of blinkin' flip Sara thinks she's doing out there, but Kendall is as surprised as he is. As Ross rails on Kendall, and Jai and Anton work to track Sara down, Mia's guilt over what she said to Sara to inspire her to go is painfully obvious to us, but so far not the others.
Sara and Alex are driving off to a new location, Sara's earlier show of bravado starting to fade as time goes on, and as the PBH team continue their search Jai asks Mia what she's hiding. It shows the connection between the two that he was able to read her so easily, but then the usually focused Mia showing any sign of hesitation is a dead giveaway if you know what to look for. Mia pulls the family card to try and appeal to Jai's sympathies - and it works. He understands better than anyone how going off book is often the best course of action, so Mia's involvment is safe - for now. We rejoin Sara as she and Alex arrive at his mansion in Ohio, with Jared obviously unhappy in the background with Alex's focus on Sara. She hears some suspicious machinery noises, and sees a young lad in a hospital gown before Alex leads her upstairs to show her more of the base. The sense of mystery is building quite nicely as we flip back to PBH, where the team are busy organising their search mission for Sara. Mia's growing unease seems to have caught Carson's attention, and as Ethan seems to be checking up on her computer access it looks like he's suspicious of her as well. Alex and Jared discuss their plans, which seem to be ticking over nicely, but Jared voices his concern about Sara's conveniently-timed arrival. At PBH, Ethan tells Carson that it was Mia who gave Sara the satellite feeds she needed, but he wants Carson to be the one to rat her out. That's a nicely devious turn from Ethan there, and much more like the guy we saw at the start of the series instead of the joker he's been in recent episodes. Alex and Sara are having dinner, and Sara manages to get more details about what Alex is doing at last - Alex is bringing together people with extraordinary talents (psychics, telekinetics, pyrokinetics etc.) and uniting them as one organisation, developing their talents and giving them a purpose in the world. Shades of X-Men with that idea, obviously, but it's almost too easy a parallel to draw, if you see what I mean, so not something I can flag up as a flaw or anything. Alex makes his move, and as he whisks Sara away to bed, we cut to Jared, watching the whole thing on his monitors and getting more incensed by the moment! You get the impression Sara's going with old feelings here rather than trying to play Alex - that's most likely just her inexperience talking, but either way let's hope she regains her wits once she's through catching up on old times, eh?
Cutting to just after the deed in question, Sara clicks back into DSR Mode as she sneaks away from Alex, grabs a tiny transmitter from her phone to disable the manor's security cameras, and then she investigates the strange noise she heard when she first entered the manor. She peers into a suspicious-looking lab and sees Danny strapped to one of the chairs inside (can you say 'Evil experiments,' kids?), and in obvious discomfort as the room's doctor continues his work. Sara is surprised by Spencer, caught red-handed - but he appears to be on her side, helping her stay hidden as we cut back to PBH - and Mia is also getting caught red-handed as a furious Kendall and Ross confront her about her intel leak to Sara. Jai watches the exchange with concern, but Ethan and Carson are pretty smug about the whole thing. The divided loyalties here seem a little out of character - would those two really take pleasure in seeing Mia get chewed out here? At the manor, Spencer shows Sara a room full of more youngsters like her brother, describing them as 'weapons' that Alex's lab is creating, exploiting their natural abilities for his own ends. Spencer mentions that Danny has a large amount of potential power that Harman is trying to unlock, but before he can go much further an alarm sounds, and the two have to skedaddle. Sara gets back to Harman's room - but she's been found out. Bugger.
As Danny continues to get zapped, Sara is strapped into a similar chair as Harman and Jared look on. Sara shows some real backbone here, as well as the Line Of The Week with:
SARA
I don’t have the benefit of being
able to lift my hand at the moment,
so let’s pretend I’m giving you the
finger.
Genius. There's even a dig at George W. Bush! Harman gets to work on zapping Sara - he claims it's a test to see if Danny's powers are hereditary, but he's also just teaching her a lesson for playing him. Thing is, as she's shocked it sets off an alarm back in her lab, so let's hope one of the team sees it before we get our Sara served extra crispy, eh? Mia confronts Jai about her potential suspension, but he gets in a good little 'honour among thieves' speech which pretty neatly sums up the relationship between the two of them. Anton finally notices the alarm beeping in Sara's lab, bringing it to the attention of the others/ It's a good plot device that doesn't feel contrived - Sara's the tech nerd so it's the kind of gadget that she'd be likely to use, so it feels very in character to have this as the means for the team to track her down. Mia is left out of the mission, but starts to twig that Carson was behind her discplinary with Kendall, so we're heading for another confrontation there. Back at the lab, Spencer wants to get Sara out of the electric chair but finds Jared taking far too much pleasure in her pain. That bastard. I hope he dies in a customarily sick and amusing way. Sara gets a touching moment as she tries to plead with Harman to let her and Danny go, but we get a Villainous Motivation moment as he gives the 'I'm just trying to make the world a better place' speech. It's a fair point - this world we live in is pretty screwed up, so even though the methods are wrong, the goal isn't. Hmm. Gagging her is a great touch, though - just as you feel a drop of sympathy for the guy, he does that! Classic. In the plane on the way to Ohio, the DSR and FBI joint task force is suiting up, and Jai and Anton have a little chat where they both realise Carson is the likeliest suspect for grassing Mia up. This script's littered with good little character moments like that, giving every character a scene or two of quality screen time. At the manor, Spencer bravely cuts the power to the lab to buy Sara some more time, but Jared is soon on his case, attempting to batter the door down. Spencer knows he's only got one shot at an escape here, so he deactivates the EM field covering the manor, effectively 'arming' all the Spartans and letting them use their powers again. We're approaching an X-Men style face off here, and as Jared and Spencer get to it, Harman escapes with Danny and the Spartan kids get a chance to show their captors exactly what they think of them, just as the FBI/DSR people show up! Spencer gets his ass kicked by Jared, but a last-second arrival by some of the kids boils Jared on the spot, and despite a few cracked ribs and some burns, Spencer's not out yet. Harman gets away in his chopper, and as the team try to bring him down, the manor explodes before them! They think that's it - but in a brilliantly cinematic moment, the fire is parted as Spencer and the kids walk out unharmed, Sara along with them. It's a great closing moment to a cracking sequence of action set pieces, and takes us neatly into the last Act.
Jai and Kendall go to see Sara - her injuries mean Kendall's not in Disappointed Dad mode yet, but she's still quick to burst into tears, knowing that she didn' achieve her primary objective - getting Danny back. Spencer is about to be handed over to FBI custody, but Sara asks to see him first, managing to stagger into his interrogation room. Spencer claims not to know where Harman was going, but a moment later says he's planning something big in DC. Bit of a continuity slip up there, methinks, but it still allows Sara to get a quip in before we cut to the PBH debriefing room. With Harman's imminent attack on Washington the new threat, Jai asks to take Mia and Sara along with him - probably as much to give them a chance to redeem themselves as anything else - and Sara recommends bringing Spencer. FBI Guy Ross is far from happy, but Kendall knows by now to trust his team's instincts, so he approves it. After all, he'll add some much-needed firepower so can't hurt to join in, right? With the DSR team en route at high speed, Sara tries to warn the White House security guys of the attack but Harman's already there, forcing Danny to use his powers and get them inside. Danny proves to be a regular one-man army, tossing guards and squad cars around but starting to buckle under the effort, as the DSR team finally arrive. Jai hands Sara a gun, which is a cool touch (Jai isn't the kind of guy to sideline anyone if he knows they'll be useful, after all), and as Harman and Danny reach the Oval Office they find... nothing. The President doesn't work nights. D'oh! Harman's hand was forced by the attack at his manor, which has thrown his plan out of whack a lot, so while a little groan-worthy this is still a pretty nifty way to play this. Spencer bravely sacrifices himself to take out Harman, and as the situation is defused (narf), a grateful Sara grabs Danny and we dissolve back to PBH. Mia gives Carson a sass-shaped piece of her mind, but when Carson tells Ethan he mentions a 'timetable' that they need to move up. Hmm! An internal power struggle in the making? Should be interesting, especially with Kendall's obvious favouritism towards Jai and Mia. Danny and Sara get a good little reunion moment, and that's where we end things.
Cracking stuff. Filled with explosive action and well-written character moments from start to finish, showing a good understanding of the team's very individual mindsets and giving everyone a moment or two to stamp their presence on the episode. This also finishes Sara's journey and establishes her as much, much more than the Marshall clone she's been to date, giving her a backbone under pressure and a few more details in an interesting-sounding backstory. Harman is a believeable, rounded villain with a good and bad side - he shows genuine affection for Sara but doesn't hesitate to use her for his own ends once it becomes convenient to do so - and the rest of the Spartans just about manage to avoid the X-Men territory this episode could have easily veered into, downplaying the psychically-powered kids element and focusing on the human drama at the core of the story to great effect. Definitely the best episode of the season to date, nailing the characters, setting up some intuiging sub-plots for the future and providing a fair few moments of thrills and spills. Flaws? Well, the DSR division seems to have just sprung up out of nowhere, with Ethan back to hating Jai again and acting like he did a few episodes back, and this seems a little out of flow with recent events, and the episode feels a bit long in places which leaves the confrontation at the White House almost feeling rushed. I say almost, because to his credit Mike manages to balance the drama and action elements pretty well, giving everybody something worthwhile to do instead of just showing their face and leaving again. The DSR has been hitting some high standards in recent weeks, so here's hoping the show can keep this form up from now on.
ZPM RATING:
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