Episode Report Card Manimal: B | 3 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT Truth be told -- over and over again
By Manimal | Season 1 | Episode 1 | Aired on 09.29.2001
Dixon interrupts to tell her, "What's going on with you? You've got, like, a glow." Sydney denies it. She tells him they have to hurry in, since Sloane is waiting.
Hey, it's Ron Rifkin! He fills everyone in on the "Mueller Project" and how it's gone missing, although they think the Chinese might have it. Apparently their mole, Quintero, has also gone missing. Carl and Sydney are going to Taiwan as representatives from "Modera Plastics" to look for a new plant. They're specifically told only to locate the lab where the plans are being held, but not to retrieve it, since it's too dangerous. Sloane then hands it over to Marshall, or, as he's more commonly known when he's old, British, and Desmond Llewelyn (bless his dearly departed heart), Q.
Marshall stands up and is geeky and stuttery, but exceptionally endearing. He's exactly what the American version of Q would be like. He demonstrates a lighter: "It looks like a lighter…you know, something you'd light a cigar or cigarette with, but actually, it's an RF scrambler that disrupts video signal for a 420-yard radius so if I were to hit this switch right here, the whole block would be in a complete panic, yeah, so…what the hell, right? [hits switch] See? Everyone's totally freakin' out, 'my computer, it's not on, my DVD's not working…'" He then tells them the device only works for four minutes and two seconds, and after that, they're screwed. He then goes through the whole stuttery/geeky/charming song-and-dance with a lipstick that takes three-dimensional maps.
Cut to Sydney running laps with her friend Will. She's way ahead of him. He is so her punk (as we will see later in the episode). They talk about a blind date Will had last night. Apparently it's off -- the woman told him her favorite movie of all time is Pretty Woman. Sydney (very non-judgmentally) points out that a lot of people like that movie. Will (sensibly) points out that having Pretty Woman as your favorite all-time movie means you are excluding every other movie ever made. Haw! He asks her to go see Lawrence of Arabia. She says no, she's taking dinner to Danny that night. He says they can go to the late show. Sydney tells him that they're getting married. Will's crests totally fall. Oh, God. We've already seen the Elena of this show -- do we have to get the spy version of Knoll Crane, too? How much backstory are they trying to cram into this sucker?