Strike Back Recap: Episode 15
Whoever isn’t watching Strike Back is seriously missing out. I had a brief conversation on Twitter yesterday and both of us agreed that this show is amazing and full of, as I hashtagged it, #ExplosiveyGoodness. It kills me that each episode ends in a cliffhanger, because that means we have to wait a week to see what happens next. This most recent episode ended and I let out an audible sigh of impatience at having to wait a full week. I don’t come across too many shows that leave me hanging quite like this one does. So, well played Cinemax. Well played indeed.
This week kicks off with a couple getting a call from their “security company” saying there’s an intruder in their yard. The call was actually made by Matlock, who was looking to gain entrance into the house. Matlock, along with Jessica, get in the house, and proceed to abduct the family. The husband decides to try to fight back and pulls a knife on Jessica, but since she’s always packing, she pulls a gun and shoots the guy in the gut. Leaving him there to die, Matlock promises he won’t hurt the wife and child and takes them.
Word of the abduction makes it to the crib and after reviewing security camera footage, Stonebridge recognizes Jessica as Matlock’s sniper. Dalton and Sinclair tell the team that Matlock used an alias to rent a car, and it’s headed to the airport to intercept Peter Evans, the abducted woman’s father. Dalton informs them that they need to get to him first and find out what Matlock is up to.
At the airport, Evan deboards his flight not knowing that several teams are after him. Stonebridge, Dalton and a local immigration officer cover the terminal, while Scott looks on from the security room. Matlock and his men are also waiting, but Evans is also being followed by a woman named Rebecca, doubling as a flight attendant. She also has people working as airport maintenance. It seems that everyone wants to get their hands on Evans. Dalton and Stonebridge get to him first and question him trying to figure out exactly why he’s so special. Stonebridge points out that the man only bought a one way ticket and used an address of a hotel that he’s not even registered at. They suspect that he’s the reason the woman and child were abducted but need to figure out why. Dalton calls to extract Evans and as Scott leaves the security room, the Rebecca passes him telling him she’s going to see her boyfriend. He doesn’t think anything of it, and lets her in. Big mistake. She promptly kills the poor bastard working in there and tracks 20′s movements on the cameras, feeding the information to her man.
As Dalton, Stonebridge, Evans and the immigration officer wait for the elevator, the random bad guy shows up and opens fire. Scott hears this over comms and tells Stonebridge that he’s got company of his own as Matlock shows up and start to open fire on Scott. During the shootout, Scott recognizes one of Matlock’s men as an American soldier he served with. Scott’s pinned down, but the guy does Scott a solid and lets him run. Scott meets up with Stonebridge, Dalton and Evans and the four are able to get away after Scott hotwires a car. Rebecca sees everything on the monitors and radios her team waiting on a motorcycle outside to airport to chase them. Meanwhile, Dalton tells Evans that no one would go through so much trouble for a school teacher and tries to get Evans to spill the beans. He doesn’t give her any information. Doesn’t matter though, because Sinclair tells Dalton that Evans is South African born and applied for UK citizenship 20 years prior, but that there is no record of his life before that. As Dalton absorbs the info, Scott alerts Stonebridge to the motorcycle following them. The people on the bike try to attach something to the car, but Scott managed to pull away from them right before. Stonebridge, using his mad skills, shoots, and kills both the driver and the passenger.
Back at the crib, Joseph Dreyer, a South African government official tells Dalton and Sinclair that the Prime Minister wants Evans released into their custody. Dalton doesn’t budge however and pegs the man as the puppet. She’s more interested in who’s pulling the strings. Cut to Knox listening to his daughter prepare a speech while enjoying a drink on his ridiculous piece of property. He tells his daughter she should be in Jo-berg, but she tells him she needs to stay there to oversee the weapons decommissioning.
A man named John Devers sits in his yard working on a laptop, while two young girls play. He sends them off to play hide and seek, but Rebecca, now dressed as a delivery person, approaches him with a package. He’s immediately suspicious since all deliveries are left at the gate. When he questions her, she pulls a gun and puts two in his chest and one in his head. As she and her man leave the property, we see the dead delivery guy outside the gate. We also see that something else is going on with this gal. She looks almost remorseful at her present course of action, and it looks like something is brewing under the surface.
At the crib, Dalton tells the team of Devers death and tells them that he was a pediatrician. Sinclair pipes in and tells them that like Evans, Dever’s record stops 20 years prior. Dalton shows the team what Devers was studying on his laptop, and Scott asks the question: why would a pediatrician be studying nuclear fission. Sinclair tells them that Devers used to be a scientist and Dalton adds that when the Apartheid regime collapsed so did their nuclear program. All the scientists involved received death threats and had to change their identities. She concludes that Matlock wants the scientists since they have the triggers.
Dalton, Stonebridge and Scott tell Evans what they know and Dalton tries to get Evans to give up his true identity. Evans doesn’t budge and maintains that he’s a retired teacher. Matlock meets with Knox and tells him that if he knew about Devers, he could have protected him. In hindsight, Knox agrees, but they quickly move on to Evans. Knox knows that 20 won’t give Evans up and tells Matlock that he needs to go get him.
Evans finally comes clean and admits his real name to the team and tells them that he was one of the senior scientists on the nuclear program. He says that after the fall, the government had to give everyone in the program new identities and Scott asks how Matlock knew his. Dalton pipes in saying that a cabinet level civil servant by the name of Joseph Dreyer is behind it and knows that whoever has Matlock in their pocket, has Dreyer too. Evans tells them that he doesn’t know Dreyer and that Devers was his contact. He tells them that Devers was calling him often trying to get him to come back, but Evans refused.
At the crib, Scott tells the team that he has an in with Matlock’s team through his old acquaintance, Curtis. He says that even though Curtis is working for Matlock, he’ll help them because he owes Scott for saving his ass. It’s risky, but Dalton agrees to give it a try to find out where the woman and child are being held. Scott and Stonebridge track Curtis and after a brief scuffle, Scott gets Curtis to agree to help. Scott gives Curtis a cell phone so that he can relay the location.
At the crib, Julia pulls Scott aside and shows him some CCTV footage of a bar brawl that took place the night before. He’s not really interested until she zooms in on the face of the man behind it. It’s Hanson. Julia tells Scott that she’s going to have to tell Dalton, but he asks her to keep it quiet and to definitely not tell Stonebridge.
Matlock meets with Hanson and tells him to leave the vendetta with Stonebridge behind. Hanson tells Matlock that he could just kill Stonebridge and be done and Matlock replies that he should have done that in the first place and not gone after Stonebridge’s wife. Stonebridge meanwhile is taking his frustrations out on a heavy bag when Scott approaches and tells him that Curtis sent word that Matlock is moving the woman and child to a new location. Their plan is to intercept and rescue the woman and her son.
At the crib, Liam tells the team that one of the weapons that Scott got off of Matlock’s man at the airport was part of a weapons cache that was recovered by the Knox foundation during the disarmament of Rwanda. It seems that Knox is using his foundation to acquire weapons. So while he’s doing good in the world, it’s all for evil reasons. Knox meets up with Joseph, the civil servant, who seems rather intimidated. And he should be because Knox lays down a veiled theat against the man’s family if he doesn’t revoke Section 20′s rights to operate in county.
Matlock has the woman and child brought to the World Cup stadium because the kid wanted to make a goal on a World Cup field. Curtis sends the info to Scott and he and Stonebridge make their way to intercept the woman and child. As they approach the staduim, Stonebridge’s insticts tell him that something is off. Inside, Matlock knows that Curtis is helping 20, but Curtis says he can lure them in. Stonebridge gets more anxious by the second and keeps telling Scott that they need to leave. Cutis exits the stadium and waves at them to come in, but Scott notices something else. Scott then realizes that Curtis’ last text didn’t include their code. Just then, Curtis take a bullet to the chest, sending Scott and Stonebridge fleeing amongst a shit ton of gun fire. Dalton confronts Evans about Knox and when he doesn’t say anything, she realizes her suspicions are accurate.
Scott mourns his friend by having a drink while Stonebridge tells Evans about their failed attempt to retrieve his daughter and grandson. At the bar, Rebecca approaches Scott and asks him if she’s seen him before. He tells her yes, from the airport. She asks if he was on her flight but he scoffs because the flight was coming in from New York. She tells him that she like disillusioned men and the two end up…you guessed it….having sex. Afterwards he tells her that their little romp was more akin to a cage match and he tells her that she treated the act like he used to. When she asks what he means, he just tells her that its like she stopped believing. She has no comeback and just leaves. Just like I thought….something else is going on with this gal.
At the safe house, Evans tells Stonebridge that he can’t build anything with just triggers and that everything else was destroyed because the Israeli’s insisted that everything be buried. Scott arrives and Stonebridge tells him it’s nice of him to be on time. Scott replies that he was busy but Stonebridge doesn’t let him off the hook quite that easily. Gunfire erupts, sending Scott, Stonebridge and Evans fleeing for cover. They make it out of the safe house and flee in the car. Stonebridge asks Scott if he was tailed, but Scott says no. They find the car surrounded and have to make it out on foot. Scott sees Rebecca and realizes that she tagged him somehow. Stonebridge makes off with Evans, while Scott and Rebecca face off. She lets him get away and Scott tells Stonebridge he thinks he has a tracker on him. They split up with Scott leading the shooters away from Stonebridge and Evans.
Scott jumps into a water container to deactivate the tracker, while Stonebridge and Evans take cover in a cemetery while they wait for transport that is en route. Stonebridge notices a car pass and sees that Hanson is in the driver’s seat and takes off after him leaving Evans on his own. Dalton meanwhile is waiting for Stonebridge to show up with Evans. Hanson sees that he’s being followed by Stonebridge and quickly turns the car around. Scott takes out Rebecca’s partner and the two end up facing off against each other. Matlock shows up and gets Evans, while Hanson drives toward Stonebridge while the two exchange heated gunfire. And…..roll credits.
See? What did I tell you. Cliffhanger! Kind of a brutal one at that too. Stonebridge is going to be really pissed when he finds out that Scott knew Hanson was in town and didn’t tell him. The technical aspect of this show continues to blow my mind. The actors truly look like they know what they’re doing and that last scene with Stonebridge changing clips mid-fire was pretty impressive. This season so far deserves a serious slow-clap. If they run the typical 10 episode season, that leaves five left and I have a feeling it’s going to fly right by. I know for a fact I’ll be sad to see it end because it’s just that good. Tune in next week for more explosivey goodness!
[Photo credit: David Bloomer]
Tags: Charles Dance, Lyne Renee, Michelle Lukes, Philip Winchester, Rhashan Stone, Rohna Mitra, Strike Back, Strike Back Episode 15, Strike Back recap, Sullivan Stapleton
