I really need to stop anticipating the actions of the next episode, because my average is looking like Barry Bonds’ stat line. My latest (faulty) prediction was that James “Big Balls” Heller was in on the plot, and that he came to set Logan back on track. Of course, Robocop obtained the recording at the most convenient time, right when Logan was about to announce his resignation in front of VP Leland Palmer, and President Zen wasted no time turning the tables and demanding Heller’s resignation instead.
But there are still two things about Heller that are bothering me. For starters, the way that he ambushed Jack after Jack gave him proof that Logan was behind the day’s events, punching him in the face and preaching about responsibility, seemed a little off to me. Even if Heller’s words made sense, his actions didn’t. They seemed forced, like he was reading a speech, and never mind the fact that he just had not only Jack but his own daughter ordered to be tied up in an empty airplane hangar. WTF? Secondly, we have to remember that the schematic of the natural gas plant was encrypted on DOD software, which still points us to one of the two Hellers.
Okay, one last thing: when Heller was talking to Chicken Little about what Logan had done – with Logan confessing everything – he held his arms folded across his chest, with his coat in his arms, and he refused to shake the President’s hand. Was I the only one that thought he was holding a recorder of his own underneath that coat? And who knows, maybe he was, and he just didn’t want to let on while Logan’s goons were escorting him off of the premises.
And if Heller doesn’t prove to be Logan’s undoing, there are about half a dozen people who could be. Mike Novick, who’s been inexplicably absent the last few hours – shooting a scene for the “Sin City” sequel? – gets a tip from Karen at HTU that Logan’s acting not funny ha-ha but funny different, and after a chat with a military general, he realizes that Logan has just lied to him about the “special forces” going after Bauer. Novick asks Logan about it, gets a Samwise Gamgee-esque “I don’t like your tone” reply, and immediately knows that Something Is Up. Little does he know that he has a support group all around him.
If only they don’t come up missing. Marty presses Old Yeller for info, and Old Yeller tells Marty that he’ll meet her behind the stables (as soon as those words left his lips, I thought, “Uh oh”), and when Marty goes to meet him and he’s not there, she calls his cell…and hears it ring right next to her. Did Old Yeller get hijacked, or was his coyness part of a bigger plan to get Marty out of the way? Until I have irrefutable proof that Old Yeller is rabid, I will assume that he’s still a good dog. But where did he go?
Buchanan was finally brought back into the mix, taking in Wayne Palmer and even Chloe after she snaked Miles’ keycard from him (oh, the irony). Chloe’s confrontation with Harrassment Girl was a joke, since she’s clearly a company player and would have done whatever HTU wanted, evidenced by her wearing a wire to implicate Chloe in the first place. One question, though: why didn’t we see Wayne Palmer at Buchanan’s place? And how on earth did Chloe even get out of the HTU parking lot? They had to have known she was gone within a matter of minutes. They’re making this martial law thing a mockery.
Lastly, there’s the exchange between Robocop and Jack over the recording and Audrey. What a stone cold motorscooter Robocop is for handing over Audrey, but only after severing one of her arteries and giving her minutes to live. Jack used to work for this guy. This guy tazered him and, hello, tried to blow him up just a few hours ago. How on earth did Jack think that any negotiation with Robocop would be on the level? Even Audrey’s going, “Don’t do it, Jack!” Still, they show a shot in the scenes for next week with Audrey holding a gun to Robocop’s head, but we all saw what happened the last time someone tried to kill him. The girl’s bleeding to death. She has to be pretty weak.
So many lives in the balance. There are hints that Marty’s been disposed of. We don’t know what happened to Old Yeller. Audrey is bleeding to death. Big Balls is being forced to resign. They still haven’t dealt with the unconscious Warlock, who may be able to implicate Logan in a way that he hadn’t anticipated. But then again, Logan never anticipates anything, does he? Buffybot and I were laughing out loud when Logan was openly dismissing all of the advice Mike Novick had given him earlier in the day. Well, sure, Cluck Cluck Chuck, if you had ever wanted to do the right thing at any point during the last 18 hours, then he could have helped you. Pity you were too busy laying siege on your own country.
