The DSR 1x12 'Lead'

by A.J. Black

The theft of a priceless occult painting drives Jai back into a life he thought he'd forsaken, and an uneasy alliance with an old friend, and old enemy...

The first of two more or less two-parters in a row for The DSR now, so I'll endeavour to do back-to-back reviews to do the story justice. And not because I'm behind or anything. Heavens, no. Right! Showrunner Tony Black is back in the saddle for this one, so let's see what he turns up...

A skyscraper in central Madrid is where we start, as a stealthy female thief scales the side of the building and laser-cutters her way inside. She locates a Renaissance painting depicting a classically-beautiful woman (a nod to Page 47, perhaps?) before we flip back over to PBH. Sara leads the briefing as she tells the assembled team that the stolen painting was something known as the Painted Lady, but as the significance of that is lost on the others, she lets Kendall take over. The Painted Lady's artist, a 14th-century Spaniard named Sanetza, wevaed some of what he knew of the occult into his final work, but he took its secrets to his grave. The painting is up for auction in London, so with the plan being to let the sale go ahead and then nab the buyer, the team are off to London town. Jai and Sara are undercover at Sotheby's, with Anton on cover (and yes, while I get the 'Zefram Cochrane' in-joke, it's a bit of a groan because the old nicknaming thing is what made Jai such a Sawyer clone early on, a trait which had been thankfully absent from recent episodes). With Ethan and Kendall also observing, it's all quiet until Jai spies a chap named La Font, an old mercenary acquaintance of his. Convinced he's the man the team are after, Jai sets his sights on the guy as we end the Teaser in true Alias style (by which I mean you suddenly realise we're almost ten minutes in and we haven't even had the title sequence yet).

Ethan's background check tells him La Font is just as much a crook as Jai used to be, but Anton reports in that the insurance investigators have located the painting. If they get it first, the DSR won't be able to track it to the original thief, so Jai leaves Sara to watch La Font as he scoots off to help. Anton confronts the two Spaniards down in the loading bay and gets a fight for his trouble, but up in the auction the Painted Lady is revealed in all its glory. So what's the fight down in the loading bay for, then? The plot thickens! Jai saves Anton's bacon, but as they rejoin Sara she informs them that La Font bought the painting for £68 million. I'm assuming the two Spaniards just had the wrong painting, or something... because I'm actually a bit confused at the moment. Anyway. La Font makes a phone call to someone about 'the gathering' before we return to PBH the next day. Jai's inside intel on La Font is a big help as the team try to assess his involvment, with Ethan volunteering Mia for an infiltration op on whatever 'gathering' La Font is heading for. Back in Madrid, Diego Sanetza, descendant of the original painter himself, is told his men failed to get the painting and orders a search for whoever bought it. At PBH, Carson (remember her? She hasn't done much for a while) confronts Kendall about what Jai knows concerning La Font, before Kendall and Jai drop their bombshell of a plan - Jai's going in with Hibbs (who you may remember as the merc working for the creepy doctor back in 'Instinct'), assuming they can persuade him to come along. Jai drops in on Hibbs at his cosy Californian penitentiary cell, but in a surprise move decks the guard and drags Hibbs out with him. My first impression was that Jai's staged all this to fool Hibbs into co-operating, so we'll see if I'm right later. So I can be smug.

Act II opens with the prison break still in progress, as Hibbs pretends to have Jai at gunpoint to get past the guards and wardens on duty, demanding a helicopter and getting one. As Jai and Hobbs head for the chopper, however, the downed guard wakes up and blows the whistle on Jai's plan, forcing the duo to get the helicopter in the air under a hail of gunfire. Jai sneaks something onto the radio as he flies to safety in true A-Team style, and back at PBH Sara announces with a grin that she can track the chopper and listen in. Go team. Sadly, Hibbs is now packing a loaded gun, but can't have everything, eh? With Sara feeding him intel via a hidden earpiece, Jai manages to cook up a cover story to keep Hibbs off his trail, Jai claiming to have killed Owen Austin, Hibbs' contact, and getting the location of the scheduled meeting with La Font - Cyprus. A club, no less. Cue dance music soundtrack moment. Big up! Big up! Ayia Napa massive! Ahem. Jai and Hibbs head for the Castle, a club built out of, wait for it... a castle. And who should be there but Mia, slipping Jai a tracking dot as she melts back into the crowd. Sara's also out in the crowd at the club, ready for backup as Mia slips one of the bouncers a sicky pill to get him out of the way. With Ethan and Anton also melding into the club staff, the gang's all here as La Font finally makes his appearance. The real Owen Austin shows up, but Sara gets a chance to flex her flirt muscles as she diverts him, allowing Ethan to step in and keep Austin busy while Jai and Hibbs meet up with La Font. Keeping up with all this? Good. Austin gets away from Ethan (decking him good 'n' proper, like), and is about to blow Jai's cover when Anton drags him away, so Jai is free to slip La Font the tracking device and get the time and place of the next meeting. You know, one day, an Alias-verse mission is going to run without a hitch. Just saying. One day. Maybe. Santeza, meanwhile, is onto La Font and preparing to fly out and spoil the party...

Carson is complaining about keeping Austin in custody at the start of Act III, while Sara gushes to Mia about how great it was to be out in the field again. Looks like we're opening a new chapter in Tech Girl's life, and I hope more gets made of it. Sara's last field excursion in episodes 8 and 9 made for some of the best moments of the season yet, so take note, DSR staff! Ethan arrives to tell the girls they've got La Font's location, but Mia is still blanking him (what are we, twelve?) as we join Jai undercover over in Graz, about to meet the elusive La Font at last. Hibbs talks about Jai's lack of 'fire' since losing Connor and Cassie, trying to bait him into reacting but Jai admirably keeps his cool. At least we're approaching Jai's issues from another angle for a change! Jai and Hibbs are escorted into La Font's private estate and tech-friendly apartment, seeing three more mercenaries in attendance as we return to PBH. The DSR team are listening in and have teams surrounding the area, but Kendall wants to wait until La Font's said his piece before they move in. La Font reveals the painting (and identifies the girl we saw stealing it as Sadie), telling them that they need another artefact to decode the message in the painting for La Font's still-unnamed 'employer.' Santeza (the 13th century one, that is) wrote a valuable codex which contains the cypher for deciphering the information hidden in the painting, currently kept under constant guard inside a luxury passenger train that rolls all round Europe. La Font says it's a six-man job, so should lead to some good action (let's face it, some of the best set pieces in Alias took place on trains - Season Four's opener, for example!), before taking his leave and leading posh Brit Sadie to sidle up to Jai to introduce herself. Carson orders a 'go' for the DSR squads to swoop in, and as they cut power to the complex Jai, Hibbs and Sadie arm themselves against the impending assault. Jai takes on the estate's security team, hoping to give the DSR squad a helping hand - but a tranq dart in his neck tells us he's been backing the wrong team! The masked men swoop in - and it's Santeza's men, here for La Font and the painting!

Jai wakes up in a fairly typical interrogation room, where Santeza asks him if the 'circle is complete,' but when Jai confesses ignorance Santeza realises he can use him, telling Jai they'll need each other to stop the 'great work' from being carried out. This is already a bit too Rambaldi-esque for me at the moment, but I'll give it the benefit of the doubt for now. At DSR, Kendall agonises over hesitating to give the 'go' order now that all communication has been lost with Jai, while La Font, Hibbs and Sadie discuss their next move. Jai stumbles into the safe house, managing to give away just enough intel to maintain his cover as he tells the others that Sanetza has the Painted Lady now, and is going to store it with the codex on the train. La Font decides to continue with the plan, while Jai sneaks off to tell Sanetza he's in - a double double cross! I think. We end it there (although a 'To Be Continued' would have been nice), and while Jai's last line of 'I know where my loyalties lie' may be trying to get some of you to think Jai's gone back to his old ways, personally I don't buy that for a second. But anyway.

Another decent episode. Nothing spectacular, but this is all set up for the next episode and the second half of this particular story, so hopefully we'll see all manner of payoff in episode 13. First halves of two parters don't have to feel like all setup, though - 'Spartans' proved this quite effectively - so this could have thrown a few more flashes and bangs our way to be entertaining in its own right, to be honest. That's not really a major criticism, though - we've clearly got a great second half set up here, so let's see where things go from here. Hard to comment too much until I've read 'Gold,' so my only main concern so far is the Rambaldi-style plot behind this. A code hidden in a painting from a 13th century European who had an interest in the occult? It's a bit too close for comfort, to be honest.