Multi-billionaire Peter Swann (Brendan Fraser) is starting a satellite-supported project that aims to detect disease outbreaks at an early stage in order to be able to intervene more quickly. But the rocket that is supposed to take the satellite into space explodes shortly after it has been launched. His fiancée, doctor Grace Davila (Elena Anaya), then persuades him to hire security professional Vincent Corbo (Tom Welling) to investigate the incident.
S1, Episode 3: The Knives of Friends
Previous episodes here.
I’m still watching this show, just extremely slowly. 🤓
Zora goes behind her brother’s back, while Peter and Grace announce a new launch day for the next satellite. The attacks continue and Vincent is overtaken by the past.
Line(s) of the episode:
“What’s an astronaut’s favourite meal?”
“Launch”
You know me, I love a good joke.
I like this episode title less and this episode less. It had some good moments, but it felt like a filler episode despite being central to the main plot. Once again, the editing was not great. We have three or four plot points, some of which converge while the others do not. At any single point.
First, we start with a little vignette. A man on a bicycle pulls up outside a house in Dublin and seconds later, he’s flying out of a window with Vincent. They tussle. Vincent throws a plant pot at him (this is not relevant, but I did spend a good two minutes laughing afterward). Somehow, they end up in the middle of the road and there’s a crash.
*opening credits*
The opening credits are the most generic opening credits you’ll ever see, by the way. It’s mostly just a hundred names and clips of the show. The theme sounds like what you’d hear in the end credits which doesn’t bode well.
After the credits, there’s a scene where Zora, Dr. Swann’s sister, is trying to get a board member to back the purchase of her boo thang’s (I haven’t learnt his name yet, sorry) company. As she puts it, “why pay them, when we can pay ourselves?” I’m not a business expert, but that doesn’t sound right to me. Also, why is this scene here, please? We cut to Boo Thang flashbacks several times over the course of the episode and it’s incredibly unsatisfying. Basically, he’s a poacher. I guess we’ll figure out why that’s relevant later. Or maybe it’s there to show that his company is a fraud. I don’t know.
Next, we have a ‘risk assessment’ of Vincent’s team sans Vincent. Or, what I like to call ‘How To Include The Supporting Cast In The Episode’. There’s a montage of drills and extreme exercise. I don’t understand why they’d do a risk assessment after they’ve already completed a job, but apparently it’s a prerequisite for the shiny contracts they sign. I don’t understand why they are even focusing on that. Killing screen time? Plot point later?
The team consists of Romy (pretty blonde badass lady), Hacksaw (comedic relief, barely) and Trig (dare I say the brains of the operation, and also he’s married to a barrister! He smart).
Trig asks why they’re here. Sure, it’s a lot of money, but not their usual deal. Vincent reluctantly reveals that he and Grace used to be an item. How does that answer the question, though? Wait, he’s in love with her, duh. You know what, how dare they put Tom Welling and Brendan Fraser in the same love triangle? It’s rude. I like both of them!
At some point, or maybe after that admission, we find out how Peter Swann met Grace. They were giving SmartTalk’s on the same day (in a building that specialises in them, I guess. Now that I’ve said that I realise there are many buildings where such a thing could happen). Their first meeting was cute, I guess. Extremely cheesy, but cute.
Also:
Why? Why is there a space between the question mark? The set design people had ONE JOB.
Sigh. /slinks back into Pedant’s Corner.
Following that the team go their separate ways. Grace is running a refugee clinic and she takes Romy with her. Hacksaw and Trig go to look for Abe Geller, Peter’s friend who’s been calling him non-stop. Vincent stays with Dr. Swann (Peter). At this point, they’ve concluded that someone tampered with the rocket and falsified the data and that it was someone on the inside. Vincent tells Peter to carry on as normal in order to catch the mole out.
Exciting.
At the refugee clinic, a van runs into the area and Grace is injured, but everyone else is fine. When Vincent turns up, the driver is ‘disorientated’. Vincent pretends to yell at him in order to convince the people watching that they buy the driver’s story. There a scene where Vincent is like, ‘let’s all fake laugh so they buy it’ and it’s hilariously awkward.
Next, Abe Geller is approached by Hacksaw and Trig, and he basically shoots at them is like, “so long, suckers, ha!” It turns out that Vincent forgot to get Peter to text Abe to tell him he’d be receiving visitors.
Well, that would do it.
They got to Abe’s house and he pulls a gun on Peter and Vincent (Abe is trigger happy, isn’t he?). Eventually, he’s disarmed and he tells them why he’s running scared. He thinks Zora is up to no good. Uh. Was this whole plot point created to draw suspicion to Zora? If so, ‘Why pay them when we can pay ourselves?’ was a big enough hint. She’s literally oozing with shadiness.
At the hospital, the two Europol officers from the last two episodes (they do have a scene in this episode beforehand, basically Tariq Basari is an asshole and they’re onto him – again) show up and Vincent uses an ice pack to conceal his face.
His face was covered when he stole their documents, though, so wouldn’t unnecessarily hiding behind an ice pack draw more suspicion? Vincent is the expert here, not me!
It seems like one of the officers does recognise Vincent, but they leave it open for now.
We end with the poaching reveal. Odd way to end the episode, but I suppose they’re setting up the next one. Maybe I’ll learn Boo Thang’s name by then.
(Apparently, it’s Luther, but I prefer Boo Thang.)
Rating: 5/10. I would give it a six, but the only person selling their lines is Brendan Fraser. Tom Welling looks like he knows how ridiculous some of the lines are. At one point his character says, “what up, bro?” and I feel like he sheepishly looked down at the ground. I might be projecting, but I saw what I saw! Weirdly enough, I kind of like Hacksaw, but his lines are also terrible.
The locations continue to be great, though. I liked the way they shot the Dublin scenes, very ‘natural’ if that makes sense.
supernatural snark 