Ripped from the Headlines
Last night’s episode of Intelligence started with an Edward Snowden storyline – Kate Anderson, a CIA agent who was part of an effort to keep track of the Clockwork program, decides to sell that information to another government, because she felt that the government had gone too far. This can never end well – she attempts to first sell it to a British agent, who was wired to record their conversation, and is then killed during the transaction, and Kate runs to the Chinese embassy in London.
Gabriel has gone off to Mexico following the death of his wife (well, presumed death – there have been hints from writers and producers that perhaps she isn’t dead!), but he’s starting to feel that there’s something off with the chip – he hears a voice in his head, and senses a presence of someone other than himself. When Riley comes to bring him back to help find Kate Anderson and the information she’s trying to sell, he wonders if perhaps that other presence could be his wife Amelia. Riley asks Gabriel to forgive her for pushing him out the window rather than letting him attempt – with no time for any chance at success – to save Amelia.
China In My Mind
Back at CyberCommand, Lillian asks Gabriel to cyber-render (this is a new term for Gabriel’s created visions) the meeting between Anderson and the MI-6 agent from the MI-6 agent’s audio. Being a character in Intelligence must be a little like watching a mime performance – you know that Gabriel is doing and seeing something that you can’t see, but you don’t always know what it is. The audience, of course, can see what he sees, but last night alone, there was a lot of “What are you seeing? What’s going on?” (An interesting upgrade for Gabriel’s chip would be a projector to let his renders show through his eyes, or onto a computer screen… Cyber Command might find this very helpful.) During this render, Gabriel senses and then “sees” the shooter who killed the MI-6 agent – and surmises that it is Mei Chen, the Chinese agent from the pilot episode (remember I said she opened her eyes at the very end of the pilot?), who had been implanted with Dr. Cassidy’s upgraded chip. They are able to track Kate to the Chinese embassy, and Gabriel and Riley head off to London to try to catch her.
Tracking Mei Chen, Nelson and Chris find her likely location by assuming that Amos, the former CyberCommand tech who helped trap Gabriel in the pilot, is still involved, and they track him down. Mei Chen kills the Chinese ambassador and takes the information Kate was trying to sell. Nelson, Chris and Dr. Cassidy realize that Gabriel is right, and that Mei Chen has gotten into his mind through the chip. Dr. Cassidy says that there is a flaw in the chips that should allow them entry into Mei Chen’s chip, to wipe it clean, but to do that, they must entice her into communicating through the grid with Gabriel. Once they lure her into this, she tells Gabriel that they are the beginning of a new species.”We were quite literally made for each other.” Gabriel responds, “You’re not Eve, sweetheart, you’re the serpent.” And with that, CyberCommand has their entry into Mei Chen’s chip – and they are able to remove the threat it poses, both to Gabriel and the world, they think.
Certainly Not Frenemies
But did they really? I hope not! Mei Chen would be very interesting as an ongoing adversary. I’d like to see more episodes pitting these two against each other, and getting deeper into who her handlers are. I’m still not sure where this show is going, and while I like both Gabriel and Riley, “Gabriel’s disappeared, go find him” is already getting a little tiring. (And Josh Holloway needs a better haircut, especially in the back of his head – sorry if that’s a little picky!)
