photo: cbs
The Unit
Unknown Soldier
Original Air Date: May 10, 2009
Brittany Wells – Associate Staff Writer
brittanyw@thetwocentscorp.com
It’s the end. Really, it’s the end. Possibly forever. The question remains: is it worth it?
When you open the episode with Jonas Blane and a roomful of hookers, I’m not exactly optimistic. It turns out the place is just where Sam is holing up. Now he wants to apologize (quite monotone) about what he put Bridget through. Totally not buying it, dude. Sam gives us the Mandatory Exposition about uranium and bombs and the bad guys, warning Jonas that these are Very Bad People. I’d hope, if we had to spend the whole season chasing them.
Meanwhile, at the TOC, Colonel Ryan is ordering people about to get all the good guys in order. He’s quite pissed off again, determined to get everyone on the same page while of course anyone not on the show (the mayor, etc, etc) are being idiots – which is true of FBI agents on cop shows, cops on FBI shows, need I continue? While the good guys all think Georgia, the targets of these bombs are, in fact: St. Louis (how convenient, since Fort Griffith is in Missouri), Philadelphia, and Dallas (where Bob’s kids and Kim’s parents are). Oops.
Now a moment for an important announcement: CHARLES IS BACK! After a two-episode absence, Michael Irby finally graces us with his presence in the back of a surveillance van in Georgia. Yay. Jonas realizes something is totally not right – at the same time that Sam also figures that out and manhandles a guy in a bathroom to get that information to the team. Ryan gets Sam’s intel from said Random Guy and goes “oh, hell” before he gives more Mandatory Exposition. Our boys are behind the eight ball as they race to get to the right locations.
(Line of the day is from Jonas: “You know when your mom said it could be worse? This is what she was talking about.” Word.)
In the Not Really Relevant B-Story, Joss is still around, helping Kim and Tiffy pack up and planning her wedding. When a bunch of places are about to be bombed, I could care less. The only important point here is that Molly breaks the news to the girls that she’s leaving the Army, without her husband.
Unfortunately for Kim, her dad is too sick to travel and the airports are grounding flights. It’s Joss to the rescue as she offers to fly Kim out and pick up her family. I think this may be the one time I’ve actually liked Joss.
As the boys hop a plane to play catch-up, Ryan is stuck in the White House Situation Room cutting through bureaucratic doublespeak trying to convince the new President (last seen in 4.15) not to do something stupid. The President merely sends Ryan off like an errand boy to go question a Russian guy. Seriously, the best we can give the CO of the entire Unit is “thanks for coming, now go talk to this Russian guy.” Said Russian guy is played by Yorgo Constantine, who is also known for playing a Russian guy on 24.
Charles and Mack carjack the guy who was headed for St. Louis, while Jonas and Bob jump the guy headed for Philadelphia. They still have to defuse both the bombs. Charles chooses that particular moment to start reciting his wedding vows (uh, okay) in case he blows up, which of course, he doesn’t. As it turns out, those two bombs are fake – the only real one is headed for Dallas. So we’re halfway through the episode, and have essentially accomplished nothing. Hey, at least no one blew up.
In the second half, Colonel Ryan is arguing with the Russian guy, who he now knows is working with Drake. I have seen Robert Patrick scare the daylights out of people in several X-Files episodes, and there is nothing more I would like than to see him get in this guy’s face and/or beat him with a phone like he deserves. Especially when the Russian guy says he’s read Tom’s file and starts taunting him with stuff from it. Tom gets in his face, but alas doesn’t beat him with a phone. Jonas is there somehow, and he doesn’t beat the snot out of him either. I am disappointed.
What doesn’t disappoint is Mack teaching us all how to snipe an enemy combatant from a moving car. Complete with massive explosion. Of course, that car wasn’t carrying a bomb either. Uh-oh. Can we say “massive intelligence failure,” kids? Twenty minutes to go and still no located bombs, and Leon Drake is still smirking. Both these things really need to be rectified.
In our final segment, Jonas is not buying the Russian guy’s story, saying he’s sure the bomb is headed for Washington – because that would explain why the guy is so panicky to get out of D.C. The Russian guy confirms this when Jonas manhandles him, because no one can resist an angry Dennis Haysbert. The guy spills everything.
Sam and Drake are wandering around the National Cemetery and Sam takes a big step toward erasing one thing off my wish list when he starts pounding on Drake after Drake tries to kill him. Drake then gets shot by Jonas. Aw, I really wanted him to suffer more. Jonas has more bad news: the bomb is literally in the car that Sam and Drake drove to the cemetery. The two of them make like Jeremy Clarkson on Top Gear and start ripping it apart. Charles has to talk them through defusing the bomb…which, in a moment of awesome (or weird depending on how you look at it) involves a ‘borrowed’ saw from a construction truck and standing in some poor guy’s burial plot. Unfortunately, this is done with the bad line “I’m going to dig my own grave.”
Of course, the good guys win, obviously just in the nick of time. Because after a season of hell, the good guys deserve to win.
Sam comes back to apologize to Bridget, who is not really buying his apology even though she seems a little less angry than I was expecting for someone who was almost raped. Bob is reunited with his family. The guys are celebrating Charles’ impending wedding, except for Jonas, who is not a happy camper. Maybe he knows it’s because his wife is leaving him, but if I were him, I’d be chasing her down, not hanging out with my team. And in a subplot I thought (and hoped) I wouldn’t see happen, Charles actually does get married. Huh. (Makes you wonder if the show is renewed, if Joss replaces Molly.) Which brings me to the one thing that perturbs me the most…
At the end of all this, the President debriefs Jonas and Ryan. Ryan is still a loser for lying to his team, and Jonas and he go at it one more time. Surprisingly, after all this moral indignation, Ryan has a minor epiphany that he’s no longer fit to be CO of the Unit. He gets completely ticked off at Jonas for calling him out, and then – wait for it – accepts that promotion he turned down seven episodes earlier. There are so many things wrong with this, but let’s muse, shall we?
So ostensibly, if the show comes back, there’s going to be a new Unit CO. Anyone who knows me knows that I’m not going to be happy with that. Then you start to ask who that might be: Jonas, ostensibly. Then would they regulate Dennis Haysbert to needless exposition? I hope not. Then again, most series regulars sign five-year contracts, so presuming The Unit gets renewed, I’d think that Robert Patrick would be under contract for season five so at least he would be back on the show in some capacity. Though I can’t imagine how they could underuse him more. I also don’t like the departure of Regina Taylor, who in every way outperforms Bre Blair.
Beyond that, though, it just doesn’t make sense. This is the man who last week was all high, mighty and morally indignant that Jonas challenge his command decisions, and now he’s admitting he can’t cut it anymore and walking away? What changed? A Russian guy got in his face about a failed mission in his past that might have had something to do with all this and that’s enough to deflate his ego. I don’t buy it, especially since you can do a lot of fingerpointing (or not) when it comes to this campaign – I just don’t buy that one mistake would be enough for someone as arrogant as Tom Ryan to turn his back on his career, especially when it’s being thrown in his face by the enemy, who is probably playing it up because he’s the enemy. This plotline’s been going all season long; there are bound to be a lot of people to blame.
Which brings me to the major question on my mind: after a whole season of this, was it worth the payoff? Yes and no. I was glad to see Leon Drake get what he deserved, but wish he would have suffered a little more. Half the episode is spent running in the wrong direction and not really accomplishing anything – I felt as if I could have come in at the halfway point and not missed anything. And knowing in the back of my mind that it could be the last episode of The Unit ever, I guess I just wanted something bigger, and maybe something a little more positive. (In the defense of the writers, I distinctly think that this episode was rewritten as more of a series finale, in which case it wouldn’t matter what happens next.) This is why it’s a dangerous game to go on with a season-long plot. I look at this, as compared to the amazing series finale of Life, and there’s no comparison. Life gave us satisfying conclusions for each of its main characters, wrapped up its storyline more than satisfactorily, and gave me a sense of hope and happiness. The Unit posed more questions, wrapped up the storyline in an okay but not great fashion, and leaves me feeling more sad than anything else.
Was it worth it? I’m not sure. And I’m not sure we ever will. But if this was the end? Then I want to say thank you to the amazing cast of the show for four years of amazing work, and to the writers – even if you drove me crazy this season, you have done some really great episodes over the years. This may have been a down year, but it doesn’t ruin all the good memories. I just wish you would have gone out on a high.
TheTwoCents 