This week’s episode of Salvation certainly had a “Patriot Games” vibe to it as Grace not only escaped a would-be assassin, but kills him with as big a candlestick as I’ve seen in a while — after slapping him around with a cane earlier. You’d think that, flush with success on her mission with Darius to Moscow, our poor Grace would get a bit of a break. But that’s not where Salvation takes us.
As it turns out, the attack on Grace reverberates throughout the whole hour. As always, something’s afoot in and around our group as death flies headlong towards the planet. You’d think people would have their priorities straight with utter annihilation on its way, but in Salvation, saving themselves runs second to furthering individual and collective interests. You’d like to think that’s not how it would go down in a real life scenario, right?
The attack on Grace led us onto a very interesting trail, didn’t it? The attacker was in the same Air Force unit as Harris and the phone call and money transfer apparently originated from – the White House (Insert GASP here). Lots of little tidbits and fallout from the attack influenced the episode. In the end, who Grace can trust is now a pretty limited list.
“Patriot Games” – Grace narrowly escapes a deadly assassin and Darius and Liam forge unlikely alliances, on SALVATION, Wednesday, August 23 (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT). Pictured: Santiago Cabrera, Jennifer Finnigan. Photo: Ben Mark Holzberg/CBS é2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved
We also learn that Potus is not herself and that an “illness” has changed the president. How will that manifest itself moving forward. Is there a coup brewing? Thanks to Grace’s father’s unique set of skills and contacts, as well as Darius’ computer system, we learn just enough to make us suspicious of many people in wanting Grace put down. We also learn that Darius is on the hit list, too. But who? And Why? The president ordering a hit? Harris, racked with burgeoning jealousy, orders a double-pronged hit? Boy, those are two scenarios that don’t seem likely, but so much about Salvation twists the obvious. I mean, Professor Croft is still alive and kicking in Russia. Talk about unexpected.
What this episode does is take us from potential success to disastrous failure and back to apparent success again. Our secretary of defense, Randall Calhoun, appears to be losing it a bit and hits on a plan to still get the EM Drive up in the air. The Russians have reneged on their partnership because Capital Eye published a piece blowing the lid off the Atlas scandal, so a lot of pieces are moving once again.
That puts in motion a plan to get the EM Drive into the atmosphere before the Russian subs get back in place to shoot it down. This is a great little sequence where Calhoun goes to Tanz Industries to take the EM Drive and all the while our genius software developer has another plan in place. And doesn’t it seem that Tanz always has another plan in place? At least someone sees the situation and the people involved for their lesser selves.
“Patriot Games” – Grace narrowly escapes a deadly assassin and Darius and Liam forge unlikely alliances, on SALVATION, Wednesday, August 23 (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT). Pictured: Jacqueline Byers. Photo: Ben Mark Holzberg/CBS é2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved
So when the Russians successfully shoot down the EM Drive anyway, the reveal that it was a dummy EM Drive designed just for such an occasion. Hope is rekindled. It’s somewhat reassuring to see Tanz continually a step or two ahead of the government, which can’t seem to get out of its own arrogant, self-indulgent, can’t-see-the-big-picture way. It’s annoying to see the way the government, with the extinction of all humanity hanging in the balance, be completely what the world doesn’t need right now. Fortunately, Tanz, Liam, Jillian and Grace see the big picture. Harris? I’m not sure if he can overcome his bureaucratic default mechanism. We shall see.
In the show’s latter stages, there’s a nice combination of forces at work as Liam sets up a meeting at Resist’s headquarters. Darius is on hand, too, and makes a proposal to the group for a cool $1 million. While accepting the offer, I’m curious to know who the “big boss’ is that’s running Resist. Obviously an eye-in-the-sky monitoring system that allows real-time responses, so who’s pulling the strings for the young hackers? We don’t get those answers, but we do get a blackout of Russia thanks to our young guns, which allows Darius to perhaps save humanity with a launch of his own rocket and the real EM Drive without Russian detection. It was tense wondering if the rocket would get into space and the EM Drive would work. So far, so good. There was a lot of shouting and excitement at that success, which leads me to wonder if it will be short-lived. The other shoe will drop.
“Patriot Games” – Grace narrowly escapes a deadly assassin and Darius and Liam forge unlikely alliances, on SALVATION, Wednesday, August 23 (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT). Pictured: Jacqueline Byers, Charlie Rowe. Photo: Ben Mark Holzberg/CBS é2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved
It seems like the show has worked really long and hard to get us to this point where, at last, a possible solution is now in the air. The question now becomes, what’s next? Given the preview snippet for next week, we see a president in crisis, a promotion for Harris and the search for more answers about who ordered the hit on Darius and Grace. There’s still a lot going on behind the scenes here and you have to wonder where the next bump in the road will come from? Success doesn’t seem to last, or be appreciated, in the Salvation realm.
And don’t forget, we’ve got romance issues going on in the love triangle of Harris-Grace-Darius and with Liam and Jillian. Just as they were seemingly coming back together, our intrepid Capital Eye reporter Amanda Neel pops in for a good old-fashioned dose of Debbie Downer. Although you’ve got to love the way she popped off about the kiss with Liam and how it meant nothing, then turned and walked away. Oooh, awkward moment there, folks. If the shot of Jillian laughing and playing foosball with another male co-worker is any indication, things in Liam’s love life just got rockier.
Check out these sites for more information about Salvation and tune in Wednesday on CBS at 9/8c for another intense episode.
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