'PERSONS UNKNOWN' 1.12 & 1.13 – "And Then There Was One" & "Shadows In The Cave"

[SPOILERS] The penultimate part of Persons Unknown was mostly as dumb as the majority of episodes have been, but it was definitely helped by a last-minute twist that worked nicely. My expectations have sunk so low that I don't expect this show to surprise me, which means I'm much easier to fool, and that's in the show's favour.

But first, we had to suffer some poor moments: the arc about Ulrich (Alan Smyth) falling in love with Janet (Daisy Betts) went nowhere interesting, as he was forced to make plans to have the town's inhabitants "flushed" (i.e. pressured to kill each other, with the last one standing being allowed to survive), and instead decided to lead everyone to safety by disarming the perimeter "pain-wall". A noble act of treachery that resulted in him having his head blown off by his superiors -- in perhaps the single most confusing moment on television this year. I assume something shot him from the way it was directed, but the moment was edited (or censored?) so ham-fistedly that instead of shock, I felt bewilderment. And it was such an abrupt end to Ulrich that it made the build-up between Ulrich/Janet feel even more unnecessary than it is.

The rest of the episode became a weird psychological game, as every character was seemingly killed by their fellow captives. Charlie (Alan Ruck) suffered a fatal heart-attack after arguing with Erika (Kandyse McClure), but may have actually been given a lethal injection; Blackham (Sean O'Bryan) was beaten to death by a mystery man in a baseball cap; Moira (Tina Holmes) went crazy and caved Erika's head in with a piano and door, before pushing Graham (Chadwick Boseman) off a balcony and trying to strangle Janet, who instead managed to kill Moira with a fire extinguisher's hose round the neck; and Joe (Jason Wiles) poisoned his beloved Janet, to emerge as the sole survivor. Only, in a retrospectively obvious twist, all the deaths had been faked as part of a masterplan for Joe to sacrifice himself and get everyone out of town in body-bags.

Why does a town full of surveillance cameras fail to overhear people coming up with this elaborate escape plan? Why didn't someone check to make sure the captives were definitely dead? Oh, who knows. And at this stage, who really cares? The twist worked quite well; doing enough to salvage what was becoming a very stupid episode in many respects.

The finale of Persons Unknown was perhaps the best episode the show's managed since mid-season, but there was such an appalling lack of answers to any of the big questions that it made me furious. Audiences have been led to believe this show was a self-contained summer miniseries, never intended to last longer than its 13 episodes, so there's simply no excuse for ending it without explaining anything. That's just audience manipulation by the network. It also possibly shows how clueless the writers were throughout, because it feels like they had no overall reveal or answer to give us. I don't blame anyone for thinking they've wasted 13 hours of their lives on this show, because there's simply no way NBC will be bringing it back.

Following the van crash that closed episode 12, Joe has been removed from the town and inexplicably apparently given a second chance; Janet wakes up in a San Francisco hospital, where her story is made to look delusional by the Organization's Director (Joanna Lipari) posing as a nurse; Moira and Erika are on the run in Morocco; Charlie and Blackham are driving aimlessly in a stolen car; and Graham is being interrogated in the Organization's notorious "white room" with intravenous drugs. How did everyone get so separated? Who knows.

There was only one element of "Shadows In The Cave" that had any merit, and that was Janet's escape from hospital to return home and be with her daughter Megan, because that’s been a constant desire for her character from the start. I could actually feel some kind of emotional response to Janet finally getting to see her daughter (even if Megan didn't seem particularly excited or happy to see her). and the reveal that Janet's mother has been secretly working to unravel the Organization wasn't too implausible. It at least explained who was pulling Sam's strings, the mysterious man who helped Mark (Gerald Kyd) and Kat (Lola Glaudini) a few times earlier this season.

Speaking of whom, Mark and Kat have been a really pathetic double-act all season and this finale made them look even more useless. After 12-weeks of investigating the Organization all around the world, chasing leads, and intending to rescue Janet, they both had absolutely no effect on the outcome of the story. Their only small victory was in locating the HQ of the Organization, The Mansfield Institute, in Iowa. Shortly after, both were caught and detained by the villains. I guess it was intended to be a tragic end for them, but it just made me realize the only point to their characters was to bumble around in the outside world and let the writers shed light on a few areas of the Organization it would otherwise be impossible to. They just had no positive effect on anyone. A flashback to when Mark was married to Janet, upset over news of her pregnancy, surprised me because I barely remember the fact those two are supposed to have a history together.

For the most part, all the characters were pushed aside to do nothing in this finale, because the only half-decent story belonged to Janet. But, inevitably, everyone was eventually recaptured and sent back to suffer at the Organization's hand. It wasn't even shown how everyone was recaptured, we were just left to accept that fact when everyone woke up back inside nondescript hotel rooms -- with the twist being that Kat's stuck in an internment camp full of caged dissenters (with Ambassador Fairchild amongst them), Joe's new group includes Mark, and Janet's new group includes her fellow escapees, who have apparently progressed to "Level 2": a large ship called "Almas Perdidas" (Spanish for "Lost Souls"), sailing across a turbulent sea.

A fun ending in many ways, yet overwhelmed by the exasperating knowledge that there won't be a second series to give us the answers cruelly denied here. Or was this show sold to us wrong from the very start by the network and, in interviews, some of its actors? If I'd known the creators were vying for a second year, I would probably have quit Persons Unknown weeks ago, but the promise of concrete answers kept me going. So the fact absolutely none were given is utterly unforgivable in my eye. Why were these people chosen? What is the Program? How many "levels" are there? What do people achieve or win at the end? What do the Organization hope to gain from any of this? Why someone just kill Mark and Kat? I guess we'll never know.

Overall, Persons Unknown will go down as a summer flop that took a derivative idea and didn't know what to do with it. The character development was poorly handled (you barely knew anyone's back-story beyond generalities, until awkward monologues a few hours before the end), entire subplots went nowhere or in circles, there were plot-arc's that existed just to eat up time, and it just had a very improvised feel about it. But most inexcusable was the fact it became clear even creator Christopher McQuarrie didn't have any firm answers -- or if he does he decided to withhold them and let everyone believe this miniseries had a beginning, middle and end. It didn't, and because of the show's abysmal ratings, the end-game and answers will never be known.

Asides

• As if to cap the silliness of this episode, why did they cast the excellent Robert Picardo and have him wear a woman's white wig?
• Blackham knew Charlie's wife's name, hinting that he's a mole. Nothing could be made of that before the show ended, but the prospect of Blackham secretly working for the Organization all this time is crazy. They've already pulled that trick twice! Mind you, quite why Blackham didn't just claim he read it in those personal files everyone was given awhile back, is beyond me!
• Just to speculate, would season 2 have divided its time between Joe's group going through the town-based rigmarole all over again, Kat trying to escape her prison camp with the Ambassador, and Janet's gang doing pretty much the same thing again while getting sea sick?
• The finale's title is a reference to Plato's Allegory Of The Cave, although there was nothing about this episode that really plays into that. Sounds intellectual, though, right?

WRITERS: Linda McGibney (1.12) & Chrisopher McQuarrie (1.13)
DIRECTORS: Jonathan Frakes (1.12) & Michael Rymer (1.13)
GUEST CAST: Joanna Lipari, Alan Smyth & Andy Greenfield
TRANSMISSION: 28 August 2010 – NBC, 8/7c

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'PERSONS UNKNOWN' 1.11 - "Seven Sacrifices"

[SPOILERS] Just to clarify, NBC released "Seven Sacrifices" as an online exclusive ahead of tonight's two-part finale, so there's a possibility you missed this episode, or will have difficulty seeing it (particularly if you're outside the US). There are ways and means online, which I only encourage you to pursue because of NBC's shoddy, if understandable, treatment here.

A three-season marathon of 24

"Seven Sacrifices" continued the notion that Ulrich (Alan Smyth) has fallen in love with Janet (Daisy Betts), who's using her feminine wiles to make him believe her feelings are mutual. It's essentially the same tactic briefly used by Tori earlier this season, which failed against the original Night Watchman, so isn't it disappointing that the female characters lean on their sexuality as a means to escape? I was once glad that Moira (Tina Holmes) was using her brains and compiling a "clue wall" in her room, but it hasn't resulted in any breakthroughs from her.

I do find Smyth a more compelling actor than his predecessor, no matter how late his arrival on the show has been, but his accelerated feelings for Janet still doesn't feel credible -- given how professional he was with the Director (Joanna Lipari) before this mission. It's day two since his arrival and he's showing Janet the "inner sanctum" of monitors that are snooping on everyone? What kind of Program is this, when the subjects just have to flutter their eyelashes to get a peek behind the curtain? The Program itself remains ill-defined, but there's a constant suggestion that people now working for the Organization were themselves kidnapped and put through the same torment, and believe it helped them get over various problems in their lives.

Interestingly, it was confirmed that last week's subplot with Kat (X) and Mark (Gerald Kyd) in the town wasn't the town our characters are trapped inside, but an identical one somewhere else. That makes sense of some of last week's problems (like how Kat and Mark went undetected -- as I assume the cameras weren't on), but just goes to show how badly the writers explained the situation last time. This week, Kat and Mark flew back to San Francisco with a tin full of the severed thumbs they stole from dead bodies inside the Other Town, only for Mark to be arrested and Kat to realize that her life's been torn apart in her absence -- leaving her with no job and no home. It's still laughable how little I care about either character; they're just blunt instruments bumbling around on the sidelines, poised to expose the mystery in some way. I don't have faith it will be done in a satisfying way, as so much of their storyline feels at the mercy of whatever the writer needs to happen.

Why are barbers good at shaving, anyway?

Charlie (Alan Ruck) and Blackham (Sean O'Bryan) are becoming closer (another recent turnaround that doesn't feel likely to me), and their story this week involved Blackham beginning to accept the control over their lives -- seemingly because Ulrich gives good wet shaves in the hitherto unused barbershop -- although Charlie's acting as the voice of reason and unwilling to forgive and forget what's been done to them.

A problem with Persons Unknown right now is the thrust of the story being about captured strangers fighting to escape a ghost town full of surveillance cameras has been lost. I can barely remember them interacting with each other in a compelling way, having broken off into duos (Janet/Joe, Moira/Graham, Blackham/Charlie). With the possible exception of Janet, nobody even seems to have a plan right now -- despite the fact Joe must surely have some idea how to escape, or at least cause their captors some problems. And the more we learn about the Organization the less I find myself caring. They're a dull outfit comprised entirely of clichés, and their goal is kept annoyingly vague to maintain a mystery I don't think will be anything very surprising.

WRITER: Michael R. Perry
DIRECTOR: Tim Matheson
GUEST CAST: Joanna Lipari, Alan Smyth, Carlos Lacamara & Andy Greenfield
RELEASE: 27 August 2010 - NBC.com (online), 8/7c

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'PERSONS UNKNOWN' 1.10 - "Identity"

[SPOILERS] There were moments of "Identity" I found enjoyable, but developments still feel contrived, and things aren't as tense as they should be three hours from the end. The show has also done a poor job of fleshing out its ensemble (spending too much time focusing on soppy Janet and dopey Joe), so "Identity" was almost specifically engineered to give us some insight into more character's histories. Too little, too late.

The reviews are in, and it's bad news...

This week, Kat (Lola Glaudini) and Mark (Gerald Kyd) appear to have stumbled upon the town and thus provoked a lockdown of the hotel containing the abductees. The new Night Manager, Liam Ulrich (Alan Smyth), apologized for the inconvenience but gave each captive a personal gift as compensation: Joe (Jason Wiles) received his dog-eared Bible with a photo of an old flame inside; Blackham (Sean O'Bryan) received an old football with the obituary of a coach who made his school days hell; Charlie (Alan Ruck) got a newspaper containing an article about his recent disappearance and suspicion of embezzlement; Erika (Kandyse McClure) was given a poster of her son Anton; Moira (Tina Holmes) had the scarf she used to murder her sexually-abusive father and complicit mother; Graham's (Chadwick Boseman) box contained the leather belt he used to be beaten with as a kid; and Janet (Daisy Betts) was reunited with her childhood dolly. She even received a phone call from her mother, possibly because the Night Manager appears to have taken pity on her.

There's the suggestion here that Management have been following each character's lives from birth, which is a fun idea. Have they each had their lives steered towards this experience, for some important reason to determine their futures? I also appreciated the instances when characters seemed to grow closer over their mementoes, by opening up to each other about them. Charlie admitted that Blackham maybe isn't such a "donut hole" after hearing his inspirational story of a sporting victory (a little too easily, but we'll let it slide), while Moira and Graham grew closer after realizing they both share a background of abusive parents.

Charlie also appreciated the fact his crimes in the outside world have been covered-up by the Management, which I suppose means they have leverage over him now, or he'll come to appreciate their meddling. I guess there's a chance Persons Unknown will end with each character being psychologically improved thanks to the "therapy" they've endured here, but I doubt the show will stray too far from a happy escape.

One thing about this episode left me scratching my head: were Kat and Mark in the same town as our captives, their presence necessitating the temporary lockdown, or had they just found another identical town run by the Organization? The town they were in looked abandoned and the men in blue overalls had delivered five dead bodies into the bank's vault. Were those people inhabitants of that town who had been "flushed" (killed), as Joe believes is going to happen to their own group now? Or were those people just unconscious and newly-delivered to the town for later placement in the Program? I couldn't decide exactly what was going on here, and I've heard conflicting opinions about this whole subplot. What did you think? Was the confusion about Mark and Kat's whereabouts intentional, or an example of bad storytelling and direction?

I'm telling you, bandana's are back

My biggest gripe with "Identity" was the ridiculous notion that, like Joe before him, Ulrich appears to have fallen in love with Janet and is giving her preferential treatment. Just what is it about Janet that men find so irresistible? I know she's smoking hot, but it's bizarre that Ulrich is so deeply attracted to her after one day on the job. It would have been more plausible if it was the original Night Manager who's beginning to fancy Janet, so I don't understand why they replaced that character so close to the finale. The fact Joe knows Ulrich (he believes he's a man he shot dead once) also confused me, and Ulrich's character feels like too much of a replacement for Tom -- another conspirator who shares a history with Joe. In fact, the show is guilty of taking us down alleyways that just lead back to where we started (the largely pointless Joe-centric run of episodes, and now Ulrich fulfilling Tom's role).

Overall, "Identity" would have worked better had it been an earlier episode, because it feels very late in the game to start giving us reasons to care about characters like Moira and Graham. And I'm not even sure we do care about them, anyway -- they just have an attention-grabbing back-story invented to give weak characters an intriguing veneer. I guess my main complain with this show is that it hasn't settled down to feed us its mystery in a more cohesive and clever way; it feels extremely improvised, with lots of distractions that are probably trying to disguise a weak ending.

Asides

• In a ridiculous move, NBC have decided to release the eleventh episode as an "online premiere" this Friday, ahead of the two-part finale on Saturday. Extremely irritating for TV viewers, but I hope to get hold of the online episode to review it. If I'm unable to do that, I'll either have to skip the episode and read a written recap, or put my reviews on hold until the missing episode becomes available to me.
• Graham's line of dialogue "by hook or by crook" was a clear nod to The Prisoner, almost certainly. Nobody says "by hook or by crook" otherwise.
• I did like the scene where the bank vault bodies were revealed to all have missing thumbs (very bizarre, inspired lots of questions), but then revealing it was the work of Stefano and leading us into a vehicular chase over a tin of severed digits took the edge off it.
• The conversation with Janet's mother wasn't very convincing. She didn't even ask her daughter the obvious question "where are you?"

WRITER: Sandy Isaac
DIRECTOR: Jonathan Frakes
GUEST CAST: Joanna Lipari & Alan Smyth
TRANSMISSION: 7 August 2010 - NBC, 8/7c

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'PERSONS UNKNOWN' 1.9 - "Static"

[SPOILERS] I feel like a killjoy, but despite the fact Persons Unknown's been delivering considerable dollops of information in recent weeks, I can't help feeling indifferent about the show. I think it's partly because, by the end of "Static", things essentially reverted to where we were four episodes ago in the central storyline, so this mini-arc involving Joe (Jason Wiles) feels like filler in retrospect. It was all a way to undo the narrative problem that Joe, a "mole" sympathetic to the captives, knew too much about The Program (and potentially how to escape), so the writers were forced to use the cheesy reset of drug-induced amnesia...

Joe's back in town, shorn of body hair and his memories of the other captives, including beloved Janet (Daisy Betts). Even worse, he's suffering from sporadic psychotic breaks because of his brainwashing, which result in him becoming violent and attacking those who upset him (throttling Janet in the Chinese restaurant, nearly killing the Night Watchman by throwing him through a window). Joe's become a very real problem, so the group are forced to devise a way to neutralize the threat he poses, although a few are more hopeful he can be rehabilitated.

We also had a our first proper glimpse behind the curtain at The Organization: a rather dull room full of people sat at computers watching surveillance footage, presided over by Irishman Mr. Ulrich (Alan Smyth), who in turn reported to the temperamental, tea-drinking Director (Joanna Lipari). For the unobservant, the Director's played by the same actress who guest-starred as Organization escapee Angela last week -- so either the Director likes to go undercover as an imprisoned lunatic, the Organization's leaders are replaced by clones, or it just so happens that Angela has an evil twin sister who's the boss.

A lot of this episode didn't make sense to me. Why would The Organization go to such lengths to erase Joe's memories (particularly his love for Janet) if its just going to send him haywire? Why not just remove him from the town entirely? I just don't see why Joe's deemed so important by The Director, where it's mentioned he's close to progressing to the next level. Is this "process" like a game? The Organization also seem to be curiously out of touch with the town's events, relying almost entirely on the Night Watchman's (Andy Greenfield) inside reports. Is the town just one of many pies they have their fingers in, and not their sole focus?

Emotionally, this episode was about Janet coping with the man she loves forgetting about her and becoming a threat to her own life. The reason it didn't work for me is simple: Janet and Joe only have this great unspoken romance in the minds of the writers, as I really don't sense any chemistry between the actors or a romantic spark to how the characters are written.

The interminable Mark (Gerald Kyd) and Kat (Lola Glaudini) storyline continued in South America, with both anxious to get back home rather than continue their dangerous investigation now. As a love-match, they just don't work together -- but, considering how silly Joe's storyline was this week, it was more engaging seeing Mark and Kat escape the "men in blue" and, in the final seconds, stumble upon the town itself. Admittedly, I'm interested to see what happens next in this storyline. Will they wander into town and become trapped themselves, or will they be stuck on the outside perimeter but able to communicate with those inside and put an escape plan into motion?

Overall, while the fog's beginning to lift on the show's mystery, I'm not sure we've learned anything we couldn't surmise from episode 1. It's all the work of a secretive world-wide organization who kidnap people and put them inside a fortress-like town as part of a vague "process". Explaining why people are chosen and what the Organization hope to achieve are the questions we really need answers to, so am I convinced those explanations will be plausible and interesting when the finale arrives? Not really, because nothing about Persons Unknown has felt very original so far, but I'd love to be proven wrong.

Asides

• The ratings stink and the few comments my reviews receive are always negative, but I've noticed that other online critics are enjoying Persons Unknown. Am I missing something? Or is everyone else more forgiving of its deficiencies, and ignorant of The Prisoner? Actually, I get the impression US reviewers are just appreciative there'll be a definitive ending (which I am, too), but the format of a miniseries with a beginning, middle and end is more prevalent in the UK than the US, so it's nothing unusual and worth championing for me.
• Didn't an early episode include an aerial shot that pulled back to reveal the town's situated on an island, or peninsula? I don't get the impression Mark and Kat are on an island or peninsula, do you? Is this an early mistake?
• Why return Joe to the town without any backup from someone like Tom? In fact, why not erase his memories of Tom? That's what caused Joe's initial agitation that swiftly led to his breakdown.
• Whenever Erika calls Janet "Bright Eyes", am I alone in thinking about the best-selling song from Watership Down?

WRITER: Henry Robles
DIRECTOR: Michael Offer
GUEST CAST: Joanna Lipari, Alan Smyth, Andy Greenfield & Victor Alfieri
TRANSMISSION: 7 August 2010 - NBC, 8/7c

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'PERSONS UNKNOWN' 1.8 - "Saved"

[SPOILERS] It's strange, but I have next to no emotional attachment to the characters of Persons Unknown after eight episodes, so the juice of enjoyment is being squeezed entirely by the plot. Trouble is, even the storyline's struggling to hold my attention (particularly when it leaves the confines of the town), although "Saved" delivered some unexpected twists and provided intriguing insight into Joe's (Jason Wiles) past.

"Saved" was a deliberately bizarre episode, as so much of it took the form of drug-enhanced flashbacks, coated in thick fuzziness. Joe's been removed from the town by his superiors, given a full body shave, strapped to a table in a crucifixion pose, and connected to IV drips that are pumping him full of a drug to ensure his obedience as part of The Program.

Flashbacks reveal that Joe was once a priest in a deprived South American town, who shot and killed a man (who and why, we don't know yet) and thus earned himself a one-way ticket to the town courtesy of Tom's (Reggie Lee) tazer gun. Assumedly his experience there opened his eyes to the benefits of The Program and he joined The Organization as their most trusted, almost exalted, aide? But all of that's now in jeopardy, with his superiors believing his love for Janet (Daisy Betts) has started to cloud his commitment to the cause.

Elsewhere in town, everyone was adjusting to the possibility that Joe's been "eliminated"; Blackham (Sean O'Bryan) started to lose whatever semblance of self-esteem he has left after sustained vilification; and Moira (Tina Holmes) began to doubt the usefulness of the "clue wall" she's been building, until McNair (Chadwick Boseman) talked her round by revealing his deeper feelings for her.

Perhaps the most intriguing element of "Saved" was the reveal that "dead" Tori's (Kate Lang Johnson) alive and a member of The Program, currently assigned to be Joe's nurse while he undergoes "reprogramming". Or was she just a familiar face Joe was hallucinating? I'm more convinced by the idea Tori was a plant all along, so this means there were two moles amongst the original group that arrived in town. There were also hints that Blackham possibly knows more about why he's in this situation than he's let on, too. Notice the scenes with Blackham ranting at the hotel cameras about his situation, which felt to me like he'd perhaps agreed to undergo this "therapy", but has got more than he bargained for.

Towards the end of this episode, the town's perimeter barrier was turned off to allow Blackham to leave, but he instead decided to return to the town and use his proven "loyalty" to endear himself further to his kidnappers. Is this a hint that Blackham, perhaps like Joe before him, is being groomed into being an obedient lapdog for The Program, or is it just Stockholm Syndrome taking effect? His kidnappers are effectively the only people who have ever taken an interest him, after all.

As usual, events outside of the town were plodding and dull, such is the insipidness of Mark (Gerald Kyd) and Kat's (Lola Glaudini) characters. In particular, Kat appears to exist for exactly two reasons: a sounding board for Mark, and to translate foreigners for him (she not only speaks fluent Italian, she also knows Mexican this week!) Wherever Mark's investigation into his ex-wife's disappearance takes him, you can be sure Kat knows the lingo. This week, they went to see a crazy asylum inmate Angela Barragan (Joanna Lipari), supposedly the only person to ever escape The Program with her life, who also worked as its Director once. She gave them nothing of value, beyond knowledge that Joe was once a local clergyman who went missing.

When you write down what happened, it sounds like an engaging story with plenty of forward momentum. I guess that's partly true of "Saved", but the manner in which Persons Unknown tells its story during the episodes just doesn't grab you on a deeper level beyond simply collecting facts to add to your mental collage. I have sympathy for Janet and Joe's characters, I quite like Alan Ruck's performance (although he's been wasted for weeks now), Erika (Kandyse McClure) made a great first impression that's beginning to cool now, but everyone else is so thin and uninvolving it's hard to feel any attachment whatsoever.

Overall, Persons Unknown is clearly a show that's reheating some old ideas in a fairly enjoyable manner, but it's crippled by the weak characters and a feeling of ambivalence toward the situation that I can't shake. The "what's going on?" hook is losing its grip, and there's no real threat to anyone stuck in that town now. The only character who's faced real problems and dilemmas is Joe, and he's essentially one of the bad guys!

Asides

• How was Joe taken from that bathroom, huh? Answer me that! Is this the first clue that the town isn't real and everyone's actually strapped to medical beds like Joe, being administered drugs that make them share a group nightmare? A sort of proto-Matrix affair?
• Angela may have escaped The Program, but clearly The Organization are okay with her as a loose-end because they have one of their ubiquitous cameras in her cell!

WRITER: Linda McGibney
DIRECTOR: Bill Eagles
GUEST CAST: Reggie Lee, Lola Glaudini, Kate Lang Johnson, Joanna Lipari, Andy Greenfield, Alan Smyth, Ismael 'East' Carlo & Adam Lieberman
TRANSMISSION: 31 July 2010 - NBC, 8/7c

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'PERSONS UNKNOWN' 1.7 - "Smoke And Steel"

[SPOILERS] The last few episodes renewed my interest in this series, but "Smoke And Steel" didn't connect with me. Ironically, this episode gave us our first big insights into the Organization that are behind things (a 50-year-old company testing people it believes will one day influence the world), but that explanation didn't excite or delight me. I actually found it hard to believe anyone beyond multimillionaire Charlie (Alan Ruck) will ever wield that kind of power. Janet (Daisy Betts) is just a single mother, right? Tori was just a spoiled partygirl! Hopefully the show will make sense of this in the remaining episodes, but for now I was left with the impression Persons Unknown is inching towards a ridiculous reveal.

The main selling point of "Smoke And Steel" was the largely plausible way the group dealt with conspirator Joe (Jason Wiles) now they're aware he is -- or was -- working with the enemy. There were still plenty of moments when it irritated me how people don't ask him pertinent questions about his background and activities, but by the end of the episode I felt like Joe had been sufficiently interrogated. Erika (Kandyse McClure) appears to have bonded with odious Blackman (Sean O'Bryan), finding he's just as willing to torture Joe for answers and once owned a halfway house for parolees; Charlie promised Joe he'll use his fortune to reward him if he helps him escape; and Janet had to deal with her blossoming feelings for Joe versus her fear he's still lying to the group. A fear that appeared justified when the gang found secret dossiers on their lives, hidden in Joe's bedside drawers.

Once again, the storyline in the outside world remains extremely difficult to feel a connection with. Mark (Gerald Kyd) isn't a very interesting hero, and his storyline feels like it's powered by others people pushing him around and letting him stumble upon the odd clue. At least last week he was breaking into the Ambassador's safe to steal documents, but before and after that Mark doesn't have much success of his own making. It feels like he's the only person stupid enough to go up against this all-powerful Organization, so a few of the Organizations enemies are only too happy to point Mark in the rough direction and watch him blunder in. In fact, the Organization sound so pervasive and powerful that I'm not sure the show has enough episodes left to orchestrate a plausible takedown.

There's still no sense of a pincer movement slowly clasping this miniseries together from two directions, but hopefully that will come as we approach the end. Again, the main reason I'm sticking with Persons Unknown is that it's a finite investment of my time over the slow summer months.

Asides

• I didn't expect them to kill Tom (Reggie Lee), and in such a violent and graphic way. It was almost comical seeing him stumble around the kitchen on fire, accidentally tipping more hot liquids onto himself. And with the kidnapping of Joe from the bathroom at the end of this episode, hopefully a bigger villain is about to make their appearance.
• Persons Unknown hasn't attracted many, if any, comments since I started reviewing it here. Are people watching, or am I the only one bothering? Maybe the title's a good description of the show's audience!

WRITER: Michael R. Perry
DIRECTOR: Rod Hardy
GUEST CAST: Reggie Lee, Michael Harney, Victor Alfieri, Gerald Kyd, James Read & Luis Gatica
TRANSMISSION: 24 July 2010 - NBC, 8/7c

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