by A. J. Black, J.T. Vaughn & Brian L. Lamkin
The DSR begins hunting for a magical weapon with the ability to biologically attack vampiric DNA, which Kendall fears a dangerous group of bounty hunters are after...
Another DSR double bill here, with what looks like some more insight into Mia's past with badass Rhindhart and his vampire posse, so I will dutifully review both halves back-to-back. The two episodes were originally going to be written by A.J. Black and Brian Lamkin, but the old spectre of real life time constraints meant new boy J.T. Vaughn jumped into the breach, and from what I can tell his speedy, high quality writing saved the team's collective bacon. Vaughn's 'Soul Man' script a few episodes back was a very impressive debut, so let's see what he can bring to the show now!
We open in Basra, Iraq, back in 2003 as Mia and Rhindhart duck for cover in the midst of a firefight between US troops and the Republican Guard. Mia leads her squad out across No Man's Land, losing a man along the way (and earmarking Mia's compassionate nature) and advancing on an enemy oil refinery. Later in the day, the assault has made good progress, Mia again showing her big heart as she mourns the fallen Iraqi soldiers just as much as her own. A new sergeant steps out, Darryl Sinclair, and it seems Mia is quite smitten with the dashing young officer. Fast forward to the present day in Tajikstan, with Mia on a DSR op with Ethan and Anton. They're closing in on what looks like a garage sale for paranormal creatures, including a caged werewolf, with Anton picking out a Lupan scientist named Krolle as the main target of the mission. Mia spots a sniper moving into position, but as she moves to intercept she sees Ethan and Anton have fallen into the hands of the Lupans. Quickly rigging a series of explosive charges, she detonates the Lupan trading centre as she swoops in to rescue her two boys, before she finds the wounded sniper neasrby. He was a Brotherhood guy - vampires, if you remember - and they wanted Krolle dead for some kind of weapon he's escaped with. As the dying sniper tells her it's something that could wipe out the entire vampire race, we close on what's been one of the best openers to an episode of DSR all season. Good stuff.
Back in the PBH briefing room when we return, as Kendall and Carson lead the briefing on the weapon that's got the vampires so twitchy. Any kind of Bortherhood vs. Lupan smackdown could lead to human casualties, and the DSR can't sit back and let that happen. Next up is Sara, doing her little cute bumbling thing as she dolls herself up and asks Jai to come with her to Mia's birthday party that evening. Fast forward to the somewhat relaxed party, with Sara fussing around as party liaison as Jai finally turns up. Some nice little character moments all round before Jai tries to go speak to Mia, but Ethan beats him to it. Mia starts to muse (and cue the flashback noise) and we rejoin her with Darryl back in Three Years Ago Land. Rhindhart steps in to break up th emoment a little, but the story soon moves back to Mia's party. The gradual unfolding of flashback details is a trick that Lost has proved works well as a story telling device, so let's see what it gives us to work with here. Ethan raises a toast to Mia, and Jai slips away at last, frustrated by not being able to get a chance to talk to her. Anton finds Sara hard at work in her room, the liberated Brotherhood file having provided some interesting intel as we switch to the next morning's briefing at PBH. Kendall tells the team about Aldo Jones, a brilliant electronics whiz who appears to be involved with the production of whatever weapon Krolle has his hands on. The twist? Jones is a vampire - working on an anti-vampire weapon. Mia volunteers to track Jones down at his favourite nightclub in Singapore, and we join her as she's about to strut over and charm Jones away, before nipping back to her wartime flashback. Darryl and Mia are enjoying a quiet picnic, but with the final push into Baghdad about to kick off, Darryl plans to transfer Mia out of the firing line. Mia can't leave yet, however - Rhindhart's got word of a stash of Iraqi gold nestled away in a village and ripe for the plundering, and Mia's alreadsy signed up to help him reclaim it. Back with Mia as she sleazes her way into Jones' line of sight, but unknown to her somebody else has just entered the club, shooting the coatroom attendant as they make their way inside. Mia pours Jones a glass of champagne - then smoothly tells him that she's laced it with poison, and he's go ten minutes to talk before he dies, unless she hears what she wants and gives him the antidote. And is it possible to love Mia any more at this moment? Mia pushes Aldo for a name for who Krolle's working for, but the mystery assassin takes him out before he can spill the beans. Mia tries to follow the shooter but has no luck (and I've just realised that this whole sequence is a bit of a rip-off of the Alias episode 'Unveiled'), but we get to see who the shooter was - our old vampire friend Sonja!
Back at PBH, surveillance footage has identified Sonja as the assassin, and despite Jai's obvious sympathies to Sonja's motivations, he pitches in with the mission to track her down and see what she knows. Mia's clearly rattled by letting Sonja get the better of her, as we return to her flashback as she listens to Rhindhart's briefing about the mission to nab the Iraqi gold. This whole sequence is obviously a riff off the movie Three Kings, so let's see if the writers can put some kind of DSR spin on the story. Mia's there without Darryl's approval, but this doesn't seem to bother Rhindhart too much. Sara bursts into Kendall's office to show footage of Sonja stealing a disk from Aldo's lab, presumably with the tech specs of the weapon, and Jai volunteers to bring her in. Kendall sticks Anton and Mia on the case (Sonja and Mia? Oo, the sparks are gonna fly...), and next thing we know we're in Havanna, as Jai steps into an exclusive rest clinic to meet our resident femme fatale. Jai arrives at the clinic, a little perturbed by all the shiny happy people working there, before neatly tranq'ing the surgeon who comes to see him, swiping a keycard and getting into the staff rooms. Jai suddenly goes offline, and as shouts of fighting are heard, Mia is already off and running as we hit the next flashback. She's packing her bag ready for the gold hunt, surprised by Darryl before she can leave. More little character moments slip out - Mia doesn't want to be a soldier, her parents pushed her into service - and as a determined Mia marches off to meet up with Rhindhart, we're back in the present as Mia charges to the rescue. She follows Jai's tracks, smashing a fire alarm to cover her trail as she enters a laboratory and finds Sonja hard at work. She spots Jai, tied up and helpless, but before she can react she's surprised by a gang of Brotherhood goons, but they're no match for our girl as she lays them all down, marching up to Sonja and putting a gun to her head - but Sonja just smiles back? Huh?
Sonja's running some kind of decryption program on the computer, but despite Mia having her bang to rights she knocks the gun away, and then we get the fanboy moment you've been waiting for - Mia vs. Sonja. Oh, yes. Mia gives it a good try, but as more goons spill in Jai is pressed into action, watching Mia's back as she spars with Sonja. The computer finishes decrypting and Sonja lays Mia out at last, but finds Jai between herself and the computer. Mia's back on her feet and with a gun back to Sonja's head, and as Anton finally arrives we move on to a DSR safehouse where Sonja's all tied up (steady now), getting a grilling from Jai and the others. She tells them that Krolle has set up a base in Cuba to develop his anti-vamp weapon, and a group called the 'Project' is on its way to pick the weapon up. Sonja tells them she's under strict orders to work alone, but she's not eaxctly in a position to negotiate as Jai tells her he's coming along too. Mia is far from happy at the flirtation between the duo before we hit another Mia flashback. Rhindhart's team are on their way to the silo where the gold is hidden when a chopper swoops in to intercept - but it's Darryl. And he wants in. Those of us who know how these things go can already sense what may be coming as we jump back to the present, and Krolle's Cuban fortress. A Rambaldi device-esque sphere seems to be the weapon in question, but as Jai's team begin their infiltration outside Sonja points them towards some unwelcome visitors - the Project are here for the goods!
Back in Basra, the looters arrive at the silo and make their way underground, and as Krolle meets the four Project men Jai's team begin to stealth their way into the base, getting as far as the lab as Krolle gushes about the efficiency of his vamp killer, something called the Wave. See, we love our ominous-sounding codewords in the Alias-verse. The head of the Project admires the weapon - then kills Krolle! He removes his hood - and it's Rhindhart! Ba dum dum. Jai's team burst in with a bang, and as a shocked Mia sees Rhindhart, we switch back to the silo in Basra once more. The team find the gold as Darryl waits up top, again pleading with Mia not to get involved, but a burst of gunfire signals the inevitable - and a body wearing Darryl's uniform plummets past to its death. D'oh! Rhindhart's goons grab the Wave, and Mia breaks rank to pile off after him despite Jai's shouts to stay down. Jai makes it outside just in time to see an unconscious Mia getting bundled into the back of a truck and driven away! And there's your cliffhanger...
Well. DSR on top form here, firing on all cylinders and throwing a genuinely action packed and exciting episode our way. After a few recent misfiring stories, it's great to get one that covers so many bases - interesting character development, backstories, espionage action and focus on one of the show's strongest characters in Mia. Okay, so the use of the flashback device here is straight out of Lost and the gold raid itself is either a homage or straight lift from Three Kings, but it works well here. The mystery over Rhindhart deepens here - what led to him becoming a werewolf, and what does Mia have to do with it? And I don't think we've seen the last of Darryl either - something about the way that bit was staged just feels too suspect to me. We'll see. I'll get right onto part two, but this is a very strong set up - managing to blend action and exposition very well in the show's best episode since 'A Piece Of The Action.'
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