Not knowing who’s to trust, Jess works with Billie and deciphers a hundreds-year-old clue.

A few more bad tropes this week, with Jess joining forces with the antagonists and then playing the whole self-sacrificing martyr card. They aren’t bad because I dislike them, I dislike them because they’re bad, i.e. having our smart characters act not-so-smart.

That said, kudos to the writers for giving us well-drawn bad guys, and even higher kudos to Catherine Zeta-Jones and Breeda Wool for their portrayal of Billie and Kacey. They do such sympathetic jobs that it’s easy to see why Jess almost falls for them. It’s also excellent of the character that she doesn’t.

Like last week’s instance of casting suspicion on Liam before Tasha found the bug, National Treasure never employs the tropes for long. There’s an amusing bit with Tasha venting to Oren and his employing Captain America and Bucky as an example of friends not giving up on friends. This of course leads Tasha to realize that Jess staged the fight. And Jess quickly sees through Billie’s deception. Poor Liam also looks really bad this week, but that too is resolved by the end of the episode thanks to Ethan. His explanation notwithstanding, it was not the best staging that he appeared to run from Jess instead of beckoning her to hurry up and join him.

So many clever details, typical of the show and its source movies. Tasha finds Jess thanks to her browser history. Jess makes use of a reenactment to infiltrate the Alamo. Also nice that they are remaining smart and vigilant and keep Billie from tracking their phones. The little details add up to a lot of nice staging. Particularly satisfying is how Jess leaves Billie in the well and then manages to escape from Kacey.

We also see the plot thicken with a crazy and wild-looking oldish man who attacks Jess while he proclaims he can’t let them find the treasure. I hope he’s not who he seems to be. If he is, I’m still giving the benefit of the doubt. The show has a way of pulling twists off, so I suspect it may prove only mildly annoying.

Verdict: Not back up to its peak, but up from last week. It ends on an especially suspenseful and (too?) well set up cliffhanger. 7/10

Rigel Ailur

http://www.BluetrixBooks.com