Staying true to its fast moving style, Intelligence wastes no time moving on from the Mei Chin craziness and straight into the next crisis. This week’s mission is to rescue two American journalists abducted by Syrian terrorists. Suspected as spies, the clock is ticking to save these two from a televised death that could launch the US into another war in the Middle East. With no intel available on the facility where they’re being held, Riley and Gabriel have to go undercover.
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From Secret Spies to Secret Service
To get into Syria undetected, Riley and Gabriel pose as two Secret Service agents assigned to ex-US President Finnigan who is on his way there for diplomatic talks. This ex-Head of State also happens to be the one who signed the secret presidential order that gave Clockwork the green light. Once on the plane, Riley is surrounded by old friends and an ex-boyfriend — Agent Griffin (aka the head agent in charge).
Once they land in Damascus, Syria, and the President is escorted to the place where the talks are being held, Gabriel, Riley and another fellow CyberCom agent go to the facility where the journalists are being held, under the guise of a medical team. After being taken into a medical room, Gabriel uses his computer skills to get the lay of the land. He quickly finds where the prisoners are being held and, with the help of Nelson and his security feed hacking talents, slips out to find them.
We really get to see Gabriel use a lot of his abilities at once — looking through walls, hacking into digital locks, facial profiling bad guys and going into military fighting mode to take two of them out so he can get to the journalist’s cell.
Enter the plot twist we didn’t see coming.
While Gabriel is checking on her unconscious partner, Emily tells them that they’re not going anywhere. You see, the Syrians had it right. They really were spies — CIA agents, in fact.
Time for the Real Rescue
Gabriel leaves them behind to find a bigger fish — Susan Hawkins, a scientist who specializes in Missile Guidance Systems. One problem, though: they have no idea where she is or what she looks like. All they have to go on is a username and password Emily gave Gabriel for a file that contains nothing but pictures of an open air market. The team gets creative and narrows down the schools where this scientist could have gone.
Gabriel gets his cyber render of the market pictures up and uses facial recognition to cross reference each woman in the shot with those schools (hope I didn’t lose you!). I really look forward to these scenes because the 3D imaging is just too cool. They learn that the scientist is an American woman named Susan Hawkins and the team heads out to that market to find her.
They luck out and find her there shopping with a Syrian thug watching her close by. Gabriel keeps him distracted while Riley talks to her. She finds out the scientist was brought to the country by her Syrian husband and she had a daughter to protect. Riley assures her that both her and her daughter will be flown back to the States safely, and they deliver on that promise.
Just in time, too, because things are heating up fast! One of the guards Gabriel took out earlier is discovered and it doesn’t take long for the Syrian Government to catch on to their covert operation. Agent Griffin gets the ex-president out of there¸ getting to the plane at the same time as Gabriel, Riley, Susan and her daughter. (Riley does a great job playing her aunt to pick her up from school.) Just when we think everybody is going to go home, Gabriel is not done. There are still two CIA agents locked up and they can’t leave without them.
Back to the Original Rescue Mission
Agent Griffin, on Finnigan’s orders, joins Gabriel and Riley as they drive their armored limo back to where the spies were being held. By now, the building is heavily guarded and there’s no way of getting in. So Gabriel suggests that they be brought out to them. Back at CyberCom, Nelson sets off a ton of alarms and, just as our super spy predicted, the CIA agents are quickly taken to a truck to be transported. Our team gets into gear and gives chase, blocking it off, taking out the guards and rescuing Emily. Her partner doesn’t make it, however, dying back in the prison cell.
Now everybody is on the plane all safe and sound, right?
Of course not! (There’s still 15 minutes left in the show!) As everyone settles in for the flight home, Strand is back in DC doing a little research on Susan Hawkins. She discovers that the scientist’s citizenship was revoked, which is very strange considering that the government was trying to bring her home. It is strange, and the Cybercom director quickly puts two and two together — the mission was to kill her, not save her. She gets word to her team on the plane and they find Emily with a knife to Susan’s neck. Riley takes her down, and now everyone’s safe.
Checks and Balances
Throughout the whole show, Strand and the Director of the CIA are at odds. She’s pissed that she wasn’t informed about their covert journalist operation and had to go in and clean their mess. The CIA isn’t too keen on the fact that CyberCom has a very powerful asset at their sole disposal and discretion. Now they have to play nice — because the President said so. He’s concerned that Gabriel is too loose of a canon and won’t be able to be controlled at all. So CyberCom and the CIA will have to be BFFs from here on out — as a means of checks and balances.
Intelligence airs Mondays at 10pm on CBS.
(Image courtesy of CBS)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
