Episode Report Card Couch Baron: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Saving Karen...Not So Much
By Couch Baron | Season 3 | Episode 2 | Aired on 10.09.2006
...and Rider Strong steps up and kindly tells the prisoners to make their way into their cell. This gets no response, so he drops the politeness and ups the volume, to good effect. In the "cell," one of the prisoners lies down on the bottom of a bunk bed, but Rider Strong quickly nixes that move, and tells the guards to disassemble the bed and put the mattresses in the guards' room. He also tells a long-haired lazy dude to put away his books. Long Hair tells Rider Strong to "chill out, dude," since he has a test on Monday. Perhaps Long Hair took his own advice too much to heart during filming, since two shots from the front show him looking at Rider Strong continuously, but they're cut by a shot from behind in which he's looking down at his book. Hit your marks, kid. Rider Strong is having neither Long Hair's chilling out nor his bad continuity to an extreme degree, and he will not be allowing any studying, nor any bathroom breaks other than communal visits every eight hours. That does seem like it's flirting with the whole "physical abuse" idea, but I do try to drink a lot of water. The guy who asked about the bathroom says that he has to go now, and Rider Strong asks him his name. It's "Samuel Horshack." The actor sort of raises his eyebrows in surprise at the question, which I guess, given what we learn later, is meant to convey "You know my name already, idiot," but doesn't do all that great a job at it. Anyway, Rider Strong can't believe his good fortune on that one: "There's no way you're that short, smell that bad, and have the last name Horshack. How did you not kill yourself in high school?" Geez, someone's sure trying to make up for Boy Meets World in a big way. Rider Strong makes some rather offensive comments about who's going to crack but, at Wallace's aghast look, tells him to take the exercise seriously, since people's lives are on the line. Outside, though, Rider Strong tells Wallace that he's just playing the part.
Cormac's a sweaty mess as he follows the train tracks Keith found earlier. Let's just think this out clearly: he's after Keith to kill him. Not only is he following Keith's footprints, there's no other reason he'd be trudging through the dangerous desert on foot when he has the keys to Keith's car (and as if he wouldn't know how to hotwire one anyway). And if he's trying to kill Keith, there's absolutely no reason for him to have staged Kendall's shooting, because he didn't plan to leave the witness alive. There's no logical wiggle room here that I can see, so I have to conclude that Kendall's pushing up daisies. At least she's well-equipped for the task. Anyway, Cormac sees the spy pen (although the "spy" part looks, from what we'll soon learn, unbeknownst to him) next to the tracks. He approaches it, and his attention's distracted enough that he doesn't notice the intervening bear trap until his leg gets mangled in it. Geez, I hope this isn't indicative of the level of training of our troops. Seeing a veteran fall for the "Look, something shiny!" ploy doesn't inspire a whole lot of confidence.