By Brandon Nolta

So, this secret agent thing is working out to have mixed results for the lovely Jaime Sommers (Michelle Ryan). On the one hand, she loses track of a drop, not because the involved parties are slicker than goose poop but because she gets distracted talking on the phone with her CIA beau. On the other, she puts her bionics to good use in finding and retrieving the drop and putting a hurt on the dude. The subject of the drop: high-caliber rounds with depleted uranium tips engineered for a rifle with an effective range of two and a half miles. Yowza.

Anyway, said rounds are apparently intended to whack a genocidal African dictator who is making a visit to the states, so Jaime and Antonio (Isaiah Washington) get to take part in the security detail. This doesn’t make Antonio, who has seen this dude’s governmental wetwork up close, too happy, and he doesn’t mind sharing his feelings. Jaime thinks it’s a little odd, but shakes it off and concentrates on a nice meal with boyfriend and little sister Becca (Lucy Hale). Unfortunately, Antonio calls during dinner and tells her the dictator has changed his itinerary and to get to an airstrip right quick. While on the way, Jaime gets a call from Jonas (Miguel Ferrer), who tells her the same thing … and who is more than a little disturbed that Antonio already knows this.


Jaime gets to the airstrip as the dictator disembarks, and soon detects the telltale ratchet of a sniper’s rifle. In the nick of time, she and Antonio show up in time to keep the dictator from getting ventilated. Things seem to play out like Antonio’s on the side of the angels, but he’s hiding evidence from Jaime. I know, imagine people involved in counter-espionage work lying and hiding stuff. Sit down for a while if the shock gets to be too much. Anyway, with Jaime suspecting Antonio, the dictator’s staff suspecting everybody and the CIA with their fingers in as many pies as possible, it becomes a question of not who’s playing both ends against the middle, but how the hell anybody can hold onto the rope with all these players.  Needless to say, Antonio isn’t playing for the bad guys, but you’d be forgiven for thinking so by the time it’s all done.

Despite the violence and the amped-up bionic action, this episode seems to be paced in a pretty leisurely fashion. Not in a bad way, mind you, and with some closure in a sense, as it wraps up Mr. Washington’s guest stint on the show. It’s good to see the show taking the time to develop the characters; now that things are finally shaping up and Ms. Ryan is growing comfortable in her bionic skin, it might be time to bring back Sarah Corvus (Katee Sackhoff) and let these two have at it. Then again, maybe it’s time Steve Austin shows up. Who knows? Hell, it ought to be fun to find out. Keep tuning in and see.