I have no doubt that governments and private companies all over the world are researching and developing products that most of us will never see. Products that may be of benefit, products that will bring great profit, and products that will create great harm. In last night’s episode of Intelligence, an item that fits into more than one of those categories – and is probably being developed as we speak – was front and center.
The title of the episode, Red X, referred to an explosive that can be swallowed without causing the side effects – mainly, quick illness and death (not from exploding) – that would accompany the ingestion of other explosives. It didn’t emit the “signature” that is normally picked up by bomb detectors (the components that cause the side effects are what create the “signature”), and at the start of the hour, a suicide bomber uses those qualities to allow him to be picked up by American troops in Afghanistan, and then blow up the army base and a visiting senator. Gabriel (Josh Holloway) and the Clockwork team are then tasked with finding the rest of the explosive, which had been stolen from the manufacturer, before it can be used against other targets.
Using Gabriel’s enhanced access to intelligence sources, the suspect is quickly located, and the team goes to intercept the terrorist and his suicide bomber, another man they believe to have swallowed a large quantity of this explosive, at a DC hospital. We’re given flashbacks of Gabriel and his wife, Amelia (guest star Zuleikha Robinson, from Homeland), before she went into deep cover for the CIA and disappeared. Using his capacity to create a 3-D virtual model of a scene using multiple images from security cameras and other sources, Gabriel believes he has seen Amelia in the company of the terrorist. He’s ordered to stay on target and not pursue the glimpse of Amelia, but we know he can’t do that – he’s spent years trying to find her, or at least find out what has happened to her. Not sure they can control him in this situation, Dr. Cassidy, the creator of the chip in Gabriel’s brain, tells Lillian, “It is not the chip that is crashing.” Riley Neal, Gabriel’s partner and minder, tells Lillian that she would be capable of killing Amelia if it was required, when Gabriel certainly won’t be able to.
Riley’s ability to carry out that action is put to the test when Gabriel discovers that the suicide bomber isn’t the man he saw in the enhanced images, but Amelia! There she is, right in front of him, trying to make him leave so he won’t be killed when the bomb is detonated, trying to convince him that she doesn’t love him, never loved him – we haven’t known Gabriel for long, but (geez, ladies, what woman wouldn’t love Josh Holloway?) of course, he doesn’t believe that, and tries to save her by setting off some kind of electrical impulse that will short-circuit the detonator inside her (MacGyver, anyone?) without setting it off and killing all three of them. Riley, knowing the impossibility of this in the seconds they have, pushes Gabriel and herself through the plate glass window and into the water below, moments before the huge explosion.
But how could the writers, in only the second episode of the show, let Gabriel find his long-lost wife – alive – and then kill her off? Executive Producer Michael Seltzman told TV Guide, “We’re not sure if she’s really dead. She’s dead as far as we know at the end of Episode 2. Part of the fun of this is that we want to unfold the story in a series of fun reveals for the audience, so we don’t want to give it up too soon.” (The big problem with this is – fun? What’s “fun” about maybe, maybe not killing off the wife of your main character?) My hubby, who’s been watching with me, immediately said that she can’t be dead – and I have to agree, but we’ll have to see how this affects Gabriel psychologically as the season goes on – in his mind, Amelia was definitely alive and still in deep cover. He couldn’t conceive of the possibility that she had abandoned him and allegiance to the US, and had been very vocal about these beliefs.
Lillian, too, seems to have had her doubts about whether Amelia had turned jihadi, even though she has been careful to spout the “company” line to Gabriel. At the end of the episode, she returns to a young Muslim boy at a mosque who had helped them find the bombers, and learns that it was actually Amelia who had handed the final clue to the boy with instructions to give the clue to Gabriel. Was she hoping he would find her in time? Was she trying to stay within her cover but aid in the hunt somehow? But how could she know that Gabriel would be involved in the search? It’s a stretch to believe that she would have had any way of knowing that Gabriel and Clockwork would discover that the bomber would have been at that mosque – UNLESS she really is still in deep cover and being given information that would help her know that her leaving that clue in that place would be helpful.
I’ll be honest, I’m enjoying Intelligence – I really like political thriller shows and books, and Josh Holloway is gorgeous (thank you, producers, for the scene where he’s half-naked and hitting the heavy bag!), but I don’t see this show getting past the mid-season replacement status. Marg Helgenberger, as Lillian, head of Clockwork, is painful to watch – wooden and dispassionate (she may be a great actress, but we’re sure not seeing it here). Riley Neal, Gabriel’s partner, needs development (I realize it’s only the second episode) for anyone to care about her. Dr. Cassidy (John Billingsley) is the genius comic relief – and we’ve seen much more comic than genius. Glimpses of future technology are cool (ok, geek here) and potentially disturbing, always a good reason for me to watch a program. The idea is promising – let’s give it a few more episodes and see how it develops!
