The season 1 finale of Intelligence jumps right into the action of last week’s episode. A hurt Gabriel is on the run with Riley and Mei Chin is in tow. Going to the hospital or a government safe house is out of the question, so they go to the only place where anyone would feel safe — Gabriel’s mom’s house. The ex-army field nurse tends to his gunshot wound on her kitchen table and Mei Chin takes his mind to a render of Governor Christy Cameron giving a speech. Another primary win could send Cameron to the White House as president. Before Mei Chin high-tails it out of there, she tells Gabriel that the same government people who tried to kill them are going to kill the governor.
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The Hunt’s Still on for Gabriel
Even though Tetazoo didn’t give the orders to shoot Gabriel, he has no problem hunting him down and bringing him in. Strand tries to get him to focus on the bigger picture: finding the real people who tried to kill Gabriel. He doesn’t want to hear about that, at least not at first, and Lillian has no choice but to go it alone (with the help of the Cassidy boys and Jameson, of course!).
Mom Knows Best
While Gabriel is recovering from the gunshot wound, he tells Riley about the plot to kill the governor. They have a hard time believing anything that comes out of Mei Chin’s mouth, but she did have one thing right. She and Gabriel weren’t safe and if someone was out to kill them, then the idea of a possible assassination of a potential presidential candidate wasn’t that far-fetched. Mommy Vaughn barges in, putting any doubt they had about the whole thing to rest when she orders Riley to get to the governor and warn her. You can’t argue with Mom, even if you’re a super agent!
Riley calls up her Secret Service ex-boyfriend who just happens to be assigned to the Governor Cameron detail. He manages to get her 10 minutes and Riley makes the most of her time. She quickly tells her about the Hatcher murders and how they’re tied to an assassination attempt being plotted against her. Cameron doesn’t seem that bothered by it but puts in a call to Tetazoo and Adam Weatherly, the Director of National Security. Ugh, big mistake! At this point, we have no idea who’s behind anything and she of all people should’ve thought twice about making that call.
Back at the Vaughn house, Gabriel’s mom sees something move outside in her yard. She gives Gabriel a gun and he slowly makes his way downstairs, taking with him a hairspray can. Indeed, there is a gunman in the house, and as he moves around silently in the dark, the microwave in the kitchen catches his attention. Inside is a hairspray can exploding right on cue, sending him to the ground. Gabriel comes charging in and the two get into a scuffle, with Gabriel losing his gun. Thank goodness Mommy Vaughn isn’t the type of woman to run and hide, instead taking the gun and firing off a shot to distract the intruder. Gabriel grabs his gun and shoots him dead.
Here Comes the Flood
Meanwhile, Strand calls in her people — Nelson, Dr. Cassidy and Jameson — to tell them about the program called “The Flood,” where a group of American sleeper agents are trained by Iranians to infiltrate the highest ranks of government. The only way to find them is to find Gabriel, who obviously wasn’t going to any kind of hospital. Dr. Cassidy remembers that Gabriel’s mom was an ex-army nurse and Jameson gets moving to find them. He gets there just in time to find Riley and sees the dead guy on the kitchen floor. Gabriel sends his mother to her sister’s house and the gang goes to the Cassidy house.
While they’re filling each other in on what went on in the last few hours, Lillian gets a call from Tetazoo, who finally got hip to the bigger conspiracy. He tells her about a photo of six men he found among Hatcher’s belongings and believes they are part of The Flood. He doesn’t want to say any more on the phone but will send the picture to her over a secure network. Just when I was happy to see that he was playing for the right team, he turns around and gets shot a few times in the chest. With his dying breaths, he shoots his attacker and sends the photo from his phone.
When the director of the CIA goes down, it’s time to move and there’s no safer place to be right now than Leland Strand’s house. Gathered around the laptop, they look at the 20-year-old photo, the faces of the six men blurred out and the names of tigers written on the back. Lelan fills them in on the story of the six tigers, the best of the best agents that gathered to take this picture in Canada.
The blurred faces pose a problem in finding these guys, but of course there’s a quick solution to that (though it’s kind of hard to believe). Because the photo blurring was done on an old 1980s computer, the blurs could be reversed as long as they can figure out the code using one of the faces as a baseline. Conveniently enough, the guy Gabriel shot in his mom’s house was one of the six tigers. He gets his render on and starts decoding the six faces. The last one was Adam Weatherly.
Hunting for Governors
Adam gets strict instructions from his Iranian “master” to kill Governor Cameron during her Pheasant Hunt Charity Event. She’s a big obstacle in their plan to take the White House and he’s the only one who can get close enough to do it. Not only is he a close friend of hers, he’s also her hunting buddy. They get their rifles ready and head out into the woods, with the governor none the wiser. Gabriel and Riley get there 20 minutes later and quickly take the forest to look for them before Weatherly can carry out his plane.
The director and the governor get into a nice and secluded place and he points his rifle dead at her. Just as he’s about to pull the trigger, Riley yells out to lower his weapon and he takes a shot at her instead. Gabriel shoots back and takes off after him while Riley stays behind to protect the governor. With his wound starting to come undone, he uses the chip to tap into the satellites to find Weatherly’s location. As Weatherly loads up his rifle behind a tree, Gabriel comes up from behind and orders him to drop it.
Being Human
The episode closes out with more Mommy Vaughn and I couldn’t be more thrilled! She’s such a tough cookie and I wish I had more of her this season. Over dinner at Gabriel’s apartment, she demands to know about what is going on with her son. He tells her about the chip in his brain and how some people (including him) see him as less than human. He also feels that he can easily be programmed by someone else. She points out that you don’t need a chip to be reprogrammed — just look at Weatherly. He was brainwashed as a kid to do some horrible things. Riley chimes in and tells him the chip makes him more than human, not less.
Tying Up Loose Ends
In the last few minutes of the episode, we see Weatherly taking a snooze in his cell aboard a cargo ship. Standing over him is Ms. Mei Chin, who makes certain he hangs out indefinitely by hanging him from the ceiling. Then we cut to her getting into a limo asking for her money. Biting my nails to see who her boss is, I can hear everybody watching gasp when we learn it’s Leland Strand. What’s more is that he has more work for her. If this show survives to see a second season, I would love to see how he plans to use her!
(Image courtesy of CBS)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
