McCall gets a call for help – from the other side of the Atlantic…

This week’s episode is firmly on the spy thriller side of the storytelling, beginning with an almost Taken-style scenario centring the story. Carla Henson finds herself hunted after her boyfriend is inexplicably, at least at first executed right in front of her. She has McCall as an emergency contact, wastes little time bringing in Harry, Melody and Bishop in order to keep the young woman from her pursuers.

As the action is taking place outside the US, surveillance and communications technology are a vital bridge as they attempt to keep Carla alive and out of trouble, whilst also piecing together who the pursuers are and why.

The central plot ties in well with McCall’s family subplot, as her increasingly suspicious frequent disappearances on Delilah and Vi finally compromise her cover, at least with Vi. Thankfully for McCall, Vi at least understands her secrecy, yet her willingness to play along heavily suggest Delilah will not be nearly as forgiving when she inevitably finds out. The recent development could in fact make the matter considerably worse.

The episode concept is a good one, but I had some problems with it. Most, as strange as this may sound, revolve around the episode being a little overambitious. Attempting to accommodate the sheer amount which needed to be crammed into the final third of the episode left a number of elements feeling rushed. We are introduced to an ‘asset’ of McCall’s in Allison Findlay, former British intelligence and happily retired until now. What could have been an interesting story beat if only for some additional screen time, the character both falls into the ‘bury your gays’ trope and earns very little emotional fallout, or even the dubious reward of an on screen death. The fact that Allison betrays her doesn’t really excuse this; we lose significant nuance on what could have been a much stronger story point, or better served as Allison completing her end of the deal and simply not turning up again.

As well as the rapid time jump for two transatlantic flights for McCall, they had to fit in the plot twist of Carla’s father, which actually executed rather well, though greatly at Allison’s expense. The episode action could have been anywhere, even the other side of the US, and it wouldn’t have mattered, possibly even allowing the time limits to have been slightly less jarring.

McCall’s fame on the espionage circuit provides an opportunity introduce a spectre from her past of sufficient threat to visibly rattle the frequently unflappable former CIA operative. This is well seeded, a substantial threat well established, and I would expect the introduction to ultimately be that of the season finale villain, or perhaps even something longer term.  The pressure continues to pile upon her between her past and present life coming together.

On that note, Dante’s interactions following on from the previous episode provide one other note of contention for me. Despite his assistance to her in this episode, he concludes by telling her he’s coming after her, which seems a strange step when we were rather given the impression he might continue to play along with her for a while longer as per the conversation he had with the District Attorney. The only logic I can see in that having happened is that we know Dante retains a sense of honour, yet it still seemed a confusing story beat to me. If I had to make a mitigating point, it does accentuate that Dante is obviously a stranger to espionage, tradecraft and lying even to his enemies.

Verdict: A mostly enjoyable episode which just tried to do a little too much. Perhaps there was not enough here for a two-parter, but too much for the time it had to do each area full justice. However the scene is being set nicely as we head further into the season. 7/10

Russell Smith