The Unit“The Conduit”
Original Air Date: October 19, 2008
Brittany Wells – TwoCents Reviewer
brittanyw@twocentscorp.com
Just as I’m thinking ‘Trotter’ is an unfortunate name for a college professor, said professor turns out to be Bob Brown, who is undercover in Cartagena, Colombia. Also known as the drug capital of the world. He’s being needled by some woman to fly down for a lecture of some sort. Just when I’m thinking she’s a little too insistent she reveals her two big macho guy friends who are kidnapping him. Not just him, but his two colleagues, who we can all figure out are played by Charles and Jonas. The show seems a little extra-obvious this week. And it was written by David Mamet? Really?
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[photo: Eric McCandless/Fox]
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The Unit
ReplyDelete“The Conduit”
Original Air Date: October 19, 2008
Brittany Wells – TwoCents Reviewer
brittanyw@twocentscorp.com
Just as I’m thinking ‘Trotter’ is an unfortunate name for a college professor, said professor turns out to be Bob Brown, who is undercover in Cartagena, Colombia. Also known as the drug capital of the world. He’s being needled by some woman to fly down for a lecture of some sort. Just when I’m thinking she’s a little too insistent she reveals her two big macho guy friends who are kidnapping him. Not just him, but his two colleagues, who we can all figure out are played by Charles and Jonas. The show seems a little extra-obvious this week. And it was written by David Mamet? Really?
Meanwhile, Mack is somewhere in the South American jungle, fighting somebody in the human equivalent of a cockfight. That’s weird. What’s more disturbing is he’s using an Australian accent and has apparently shaved his head, which is not a good look on him. (Hilariously for anyone who’s a Burn Notice fan, he’s also using the alias ‘Finley.’) Apparently, some powerful people want him to kill his next opponent.
The guys have been kidnapped by a couple of drug lords who want them to use their scientific know-how to turn cocaine into airplane paint therefore making it easier to transport into the U.S. I find it hilarious how because they’re supposed to be scientists everyone wants to wear the geek glasses. And Charles is hamming it up quite well. I guess it’s only fair, I don’t think anyone else on the team other than Mack would have made a convincing fight-club wannabe.
At the TOC, Bridget and Ryan go over the mission in its entirety for those of us scoring at home. Seems the first three are picking up one drug lord with a helicopter and Mack is picking up another via submarine. Except somehow this mission got to Capitol Hill, and people there want to know why they need two separate extractions…like they can’t count the number of seats on a helicopter. Ryan is pissed, especially when he figures out he has to go to D.C. to track down a Congressman to sign off on the extractions. I love how a pissed-off Robert Patrick scares junior officers and possibly small children everywhere.
He ends up in D.C., in full dress uniform no less which gives me plenty to stare at. Of course, there’s the obligatory scene where he tongue-lashes some poor naïve aide when the Congressman isn’t in his office. We all saw that one coming a mile away. Ruining my fun Bridget calls to tell him Naval Intelligence has recommended an earlier extraction because of boats moving in the area.
Charles points out to the drug lords that chemical fumes are, in fact, flammable. These guys are drug lords masterminding some scientific scheme and they don’t know obvious science facts? Wow. Anyway maybe our boys are closet science nerds after all, because they’ve actually sort of pulled this off. At least until Charles doesn’t want to go smoke the cocaine to prove that it’s real, which makes one of the drug lords really angry and gets him beaten up. Ouch.
I’m still not used to Max Martini’s new haircut when his new best buddy turns up and wants to introduce him to somebody. Mack doesn’t care and just threatens him for his money and his passport, and the guy is smart enough to give them up.
Meanwhile, Ryan has stalked his way to the Congressman’s bungalow only to find a pretty young aide wandering out of it. His (and our) insinuation is obvious and he tells her nothing is going to happen to her…and then he finds out she’s just in there fooling around with some other random guy. Damn.
Lyssie’s been hauled to the principal’s office apparently because she’s smart enough to know the difference between a rifle and a musket. This is funny to me because I know someone who was once hauled to the principal’s office in high school for wearing too much black. Yes, people are that judgmental. Then she has to cause a scene by opening her big mouth and saying she wishes everyone at the school would die. Real smooth, kid. This of course lands everybody in a world of hurt, drawing attention to them, and the women have to think fast.
Back in the Drug Test Kitchen, Jonas is cool enough to leave an open flame next to a chemical beaker next to a drug lord. The thing explodes and lights him on fire which is honestly the coolest moment in the whole episode. Of course this just means the daddy to the drug lords is going to come down and kill them all personally. Oops. Mack finds out the guy so insistent on meeting him is one of the two baby drug lords who’ve been harassing his teammates for the rest of the episode. And now it all makes sense…especially when Mack then knocks the guy unconscious and drags him off.
The plan in California is to have Kim pretend to be Lyssie’s therapist and say she’s sane. However the plan backfires when somebody tells Kim the wrong university to cite, which happens to be the same one the principal’s husband went to. You can guess what happens next. Just as Principal Green threatens to call the cops on them all, Molly intervenes. She manages to convince the woman that she is a U.S. Marshal and Tiffy is under witness protection. (Let me tell you, I’d rather entrust my life to Regina Taylor than Mary McCormack.) How did she do it, the girls wonder? Molly explains in a cryptic sort of way that she only gave Green what she wanted to hear: the woman believed they had something to hide so she let her in on a secret. It just wasn’t the real one.
Meanwhile, using hidden weapons that were apparently in their lab the whole time, the boys escape with Drug Lord Senior except for that he gets shot and dies as they make their way out. Tom finally tracks down the Congressman only to find out that the Navy has pulled the sub back for fear of being detected. Mack is screwed. And we’ve all been playing Where In The Greater D.C. Region is Tom Ryan? for the last hour for no reason. Seriously, I just wanted to give the man a hug. Even if he might break my hands.
When it’s finally daylight this has dawned on our boy, who puts two shots into the unconscious Drug Lord Junior and knows he has to save himself. And just as Mack starts wandering into…heaven only knows where but it may be the ocean…we fade to black. Somewhat of an abrupt ending but I guess it’s still better than The Sopranos. What did you think?
Thanks for the recap because I was confused. So nothing was accomplished? The two men they were suppose to extract are both dead? Do we know why they wanted them?
ReplyDeleteBoth the people they were supposed to get are dead: the one Bob and Co. picked up died in the escape, and Mack shot the one that he had just before he wandered off the beach. So basically, yeah. Nothing happened. It's not really made clear why they're so important, though Col. Ryan does call them "narco-terrorists" so maybe they did something in the past or do something more than we're led to see.
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