Salvation
Patriot Games
Original Air Date:
Vincent Chia – Staff Writer
vincent@thetwocentscorp.com
At the end of last week’s double episode, we saw a figure in the shadows who could have been an assassin. Tonight, for a split second, I was thinking it might be Harris Edwards perhaps waiting for his girlfriend but seeing her slightly romantic interaction with Darius Tanz. However, my first instinct was correct. It was an assassin.
At the beginning of tonight’s episode, we watch the assassin try to choke Grace to her death. Fortunately for Grace, she had been eating at the time and had a knife handy. Poor timing by the assassin. Grace stabs the assassin to get away. A struggle ensues and somehow, Grace manages to kill the assassin. I suppose a desire for life leads people to do extraordinary things, but it’s hard to believe a press spokesman with little or no training could kill a professional assassin.
After Grace kills the assassin, she calls her dad for help to deal with the situation. Her dad arrives to clean up the crime scene. In a few hours, there will be no blood, no DNA, not a trace of evidence that anything happened. Grace’s dad also advises her to go back to work at the Pentagon as if everything were normal. If and when she comes across a person who is surprised to see her, she’ll know that person was involved with that assassination attempt.
At a Pentagon meeting, everyone seems to behave normally. Grace is distracted, trying to figure out if anyone at the meeting wanted her dead. The Russians and the Americans seem to be getting along. They have 72 hours to launch the EM drive before it is too late to save the planet.
Grace speaks to Tanz in private and tells him someone tried to murder her.
Grace’s dad gave Grace the assassin’s smartphone, which Grace then gave to Tanz. Tanz’ Tess AI decrypts some of the information and determines that the phone has a 710 area code. That is apparently a code reserved for government officials. I had never heard of this. I googled it and it appears to be a real thing.
In a bit of a reversal, Dr. Orlov, the chief scientist from the Kremlin, notifies Darius Tanz that the Russian government has revoked the deal. Amanda, the reporter from Capitol Eyes, had been given a memory stick full of information about Project Atlas. Against her editor’s advice, she decides to publish an article about Project Atlas. Although the Russians had known about Project Atlas, they had thus far believed that Atlas was an accidental strike against Russia. The Capitol Eyes story says the strike was purposeful. When Rayburn notifies Deputy Defense Secretary Edwards about the story, Edwards suggests that the story is true.
I know that the reporter couldn’t have known the consequence of her story would be that a mission to save the entire planet would be sidelined. However, I felt that if anyone deserved to be assassinated, it was this reporter. The story really could have doomed the entire planet, even if it wasn’t her intention.
The White House denies the Capitol Eyes reports and, in a way, claims it is “fake news.” There were no sources for the Capitol Eyes report. In order to salvage her credibility, Amanda texts Grace to ask if she will go on the record. Amanda seems to think that Grace was the person who was the secret leak in the first place.
Edwards suggests to Calhoun and Rayburn that they should convince the President to apologize. Calhoun refuses and says it will make her look gutless. He also decides that they should launch the EM engine as immediately as possible, since the Russian submarines will not be in firing position until tomorrow.
Calhoun orders Edwards to get the launch codes from Darius Tanz.
Grace’s father discovers that the assassin’s name is Michael Owens. There isn’t much information about Owens except that he is a former member of Harris Edwards’ Air Force squadron.
Edwards and Rayburn meet with Darius and Grace. Edwards suggests that he is going against the orders of Calhoun and the President. They form some kind of secret plan.
Calhoun arrives at Tanz Industries with Pentagon security forces. Darius orders Liam to assist Calhoun’s men load the EM engine.
Darius puts his secret plan into play. He tells Liam to call Amanda to call the reporter Amanda to get her contact with the hacker network Resyst. (Didn’t Liam already meet Dylan last episode? Why does he need Amanda?)
Calhoun launches the EM engine. Unfortunately, a Russian submarine was in position to launch a missile at the EM engine. I’m not entirely sure what happened with Calhoun’s previous estimate that the Russian subs were not in position. Although U.S. forces launch an interceptor at the Russian missile, there isn’t enough time. The Russian missile destroys the EM engine. Except… it wasn’t the real EM engine. Darius gave the Pentagon a decoy.
Grace tells Darius that she suspects Edwards might be involved with her attempted assassination. Darius thinks Edwards is capable of some shady things, but is no assassin. Later, Grace tells Edwards that about the assassination attempt. Edwards is hurt that she would think he was involved. He also asks Grace whether she is romantically involved with Darius.
Liam meets with Dylan and the Resyst network. Liam also brings Darius Tanz with him. Tanz asks Resyst to perpetrate a hack against Russia. He wants a cyber blackout against Russia for 20 minutes. At first, Dylan refuses, even though Darius offers one million dollars. However, Dylan gets a message from his “boss” that the deal is on. The Resyst network will cause the blackout and make it look like a typical summertime blackout caused by overuse of air conditioning.
As a blackout sweeps across Russia (and only Russia), Darius launches the real EM engine from his own rocketship facility. I was surprised they didn’t also take down the electric grid elsewhere. Wouldn’t it be too obvious to the Russians that they were targeted? The EM drive activates and it looks like the gravity tractor mission is on the path to being successful.
We learn that the Resyst network wasn’t truly interested in Darius Tanz’ one million dollar payment. Resyst wanted access to Tanz Industries’ computer networks, which they now have. That was an interesting subterfuge. Or… maybe Darius knows and pretends to be tricked.
The post Salvation – Recap & Review – Patriot Games appeared first on TwoCentsTV.