Episode Report Card Sobell: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Escaping from the prison of love
By Sobell | Season 1 | Episode 19 | Aired on 04.23.2006
Commercials. How did that nice Felicity get mixed up with Truman Capote and Tom Cruise? Wasn't the Ben-or-Noel question enough excitement for one lifetime?
When we get back, we're still in the junkyard with Burrows Senior and Junior. Linc asks what Dad's doing there and Burrows Senior says, "As soon as I heard you were granted a visit with your son, I knew they'd make a move on you." Linc is like, "No, I meant what are you doing here after decades of neglect?" Only not in so many words. Burrows ignores the question and tells him they'll be switching cars in another 20 miles or so, and then Lincoln will disappear. Once that happens, "This business will just be between me and them." Well, that'll keep Michael warm at night in prison. Lincoln asks, "What are you talking about? It's me they're after, not you."
Burrows then launches in a long, tedious expository speech which can be summed up thusly:
1. There is an international conspiracy, because unless you can bring in the villains with the foreign accents, your conspiracy's merely minor-league.
2. This conspiracy determines everything from the course route on the Amazing Race to the price of crude oil per barrel.
3. Like many working parents, Burrows faced a choice: put in the long hours at the office, or get shunted to the slow track. He elected to walk away from his family because his career was more important.
4. Then, as with many other career-obsessed execs, he foundered at work, decided to "resign" so he could "spend more time with his family," and discovered that unlike many other career-obsessed execs, his former coworkers decided that any time he spent with his family would be in the afterlife.
Back on the inside, Michael's lady troubles continue. He's trying to talk Nika into helping him with something, but she's not having it: "Green card for credit card, that was the deal." Michael wants a new deal. Nika tells him there's no new deal until he tells her what's going on. Michael tells her he can't do that, and Nika pulls out the gloomy fatality, telling him, "I don't know why you're in there. But I can tell you what I learned from those guys who brought me here. If you fight? If you struggle? It only makes things worse. Stop fighting, Michael." That's what you want from your helpmeet -- fatalistic resignation. However, it's worth noting that Nika's still wearing her wedding ring.
Meanwhile, on the outside...Veronica's found a pattern: "There it is again, the 406 number. It's on every listing." Nick notes that hundreds of far-flung businesses and residences are all calling that number, and asks Veronica to check the numbers' prefixes. Veronica replies in frustration, "It doesn't make any sense. All these people from all over the world, are calling this place in the middle of nowhere with a population of 42. Blackfoot, Montana."