Episode Report Card Manimal: C+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT The Confession
By Manimal | Season 1 | Episode 11 | Aired on 01.05.2002
Close-up of the photo of Hassan's "corpse." Sloane intones, "A vicious murder," and goes on to say that while they don't know who's responsible for the killing, they do know that some man named Nino Secoulis has been taking over Hassan's contracts. Sloane plays a phone call that they intercepted, which is Secoulis trying to sell a new, unknown device which he keeps calling "the package." Please insert (bwah!) your own joke here. Sloane brings up a photo of a big, square white building with lots of arches -- apparently this building houses "Club Panthera," which is Secoulis's cover. He's got potential clients meeting him there that week, and Sydney and Dixon are to break into his office and steal the specs on the package. Sloane hands the floor over to Marshall. Marshall's endearing/annoying ratio is rising sharply in favor of "annoying" lately. I don't know what it is, but lately when I see him with his little tics and "endearing" non-sequiturs, I just want him to go away. I think it's the writing. Then again, I like to blame everything on the writing of this show, including the increasingly large hole in the ozone layer and my inability to master the breaststroke.
Marshall stands up and non-sequiturs about some documentary on monkeys. It's painfully not funny, both for everyone in the conference room and for those of us in our living rooms. He's also wearing an insane argyle sweater. Marshall's rigged up a pair of glasses that will scan Secoulis's retinas and produce contact lenses with his eyes' configurations so that Dixon and Sydney can get past the identification locks and into his office. The catch is that they have to be trained on the subject's eyes for at least ten seconds. Sydney has this painfully polite, encouraging look on her face, like she's watching her cousin at a community theater performance or something. Dixon looks bored. Sloane is mentally rolling his eyes. Marshall says that he has a copy of the monkey documentary at home if anyone wants to see it.
The Best Little CIA Safehouse In Los Angeles. In one room are a bunch of CIA agents watching Hassan through a one-way mirror. Hassan is wearing a nice little grey fleece jacket. Vaughn enters and tries to look menacing and authoritative, but he looks about as menacing as a marshmallow Peep. He asks about "the package" and threatens Hassan with being made someone's bitch in a nasty prison -- as opposed to the nice prisons. Hassan refuses, unless Vaughn agrees to get his wife and son to the States with protection -- then, and only then, will Hassan spill. Vaughn tries to get all tough and fails miserably.
SD-6. Jack stops Sydney. I'm not sure where they are, but they must be in an empty room, because Jack pulls out his frequency-jammer pen so they can talk in private.