Intelligence wrapped up this week with a twist – and a cliffhanger. The twist was unexpected but completely fitting – the cliffhanger less so. And the cliffhanger is – will CBS renew this show for a second season? CBS hasn’t made any public announcement yet of their intentions, leaving fans gnashing their teeth and bugging producer Michael Seitzman.
Much of this season’s subplot focused on Cybercom’s rocky place within the US intelligence community. Gabriel and the Clockwork program are viewed as both a fascinating experiment and a rogue agency. The leading opponent has been Jeffrey Tetazoo, CIA director (guest star Lance Reddick), who has frequently tried to put limits on Cybercom and Gabriel. Director of National Intelligence Adam Weatherly (Tomas Aranas) has been a Cybercom ally, reassuring Lillian Strand, pushing back against Tetazoo. Lines seem fairly clear – friends and enemies well defined – until you get to Lillian Strand’s father Leland (Peter Coyote), a shadowy figure within the spy network.
Last week’s episode, the first part of the two-part season finale, showed Gabriel being set up as the killer of an intelligence official and a spy with vital information. Despite the fact that he didn’t do it, Tetazoo is committed to shutting him down and ending Clockwork. They discover that Mei Chen, the Chinese agent who was also implanted with a chip, committed the murders, but her motive and employer are unclear. Gabriel is shot while trying to find out what really happened.
This week, he has Riley and Mei Chen take him to the only person he feels he can trust to help – his mother, a former combat nurse, who wants to know what has happened to him and why. When Gabriel finally tells her, she asks if it hurts – it doesn’t – and what the downside is. Gabriel says that some people think it makes him less than human, a sentiment that he seems to have been wrestling with himself. She understands his concern, but knows he’s a good man, and tells him that instead, it makes him better, giving him the opportunity to use more of his potential and to help people in trouble, and makes him more human. Moms! Gotta love ’em, even when they’re shaky drinkers, like she is.
With information from Mei Chen and Leland Strand, they learn that there’s a plot to kill Governor Cameron, a leading contender for the presidency. The threat comes from “The Flood,” an Iranian long-term spy program, that was the subject of the information that last week’s murdered spy was trying to pass along. The Flood is a program to set up a large number of “sleepers,” US citizens sympathetic to the Iranian cause but not activated until needed, which could be years after being recruited. But who is the sleeper?
Tetazoo is killed as he calls to tell Lillian that he was wrong about Gabriel and has information to pass along. With the photo he is able to send them as he dies, and the Cassidys’ assistance guiding Gabriel through a facial recognition algorithm, they quickly realize that the sleeper isn’t who they thought it would be – Tetazoo – but instead, it’s the man they thought was their ally, Director Weatherly! They are able to grab him as he’s about to kill Gov. Cameron, saving her life. But his life doesn’t last much longer, as Mei Chen comes for him – sent by who? And here’s the twist – final scene, Mei Chen with Leland Strand. “I have more work for you if you want it,” he tells her.
This show has not been without its flaws, most notably in how the Amelia (Gabriel’s wife) story has been handled. She was a major part of several of the first few episodes, then seemingly died in a bombing – with producers hinting that perhaps she didn’t die – and then was barely mentioned again. Maybe if we had had a longer first season, her storyline would have reappeared. And if we get a second season, I’m sure they’ll bring back the mystery of what happened to her.
But overall, this has been an interesting and exciting show. I’ve been particularly impressed with how the writers introduced, then downplayed, the chip’s effects. Use of the chip has been important, certainly, but you can’t sustain a show like this with CGI effects – the chip became a tool – very cool one, to be sure, but never more important than the relationships between the characters. I’ve really liked most of the characters, too – PJ Byrne as Nelson Cassidy quickly became one of my favorites, always with the right quip and nerdy gesture.
Josh Holloway is a great action hero – maybe not an Oscar-quality actor (and it bothers my mom how he never really opens his mouth when he talks), but he’s got the looks and the moves. Marg Helgenberger has grown on me – it’s great to see a strong, smart older (ok, she’s probably about my age) woman leading a team. And Michael Rady, as Chris Jameson, has yet to find his place in this cast, but he’s great window-dressing, and lots of fun on Twitter.
This is a grown-up, fascinating futuristic tech-oriented spy adventure, and network TV currently has nothing else like it for the geek demographic. It certainly deserves another season to prove itself. CBS, get on the ball! At least let us know that it’ll come back again next winter – a full season would be better, but it would be a crime to keep some of the shows that verge on the criminally stupid (ahem, Two Broke Girls) and let this one go. Missed an episode, want to rewatch one, or want to check out photos from the season? All episodes are currently available here.
