Episode Report Card Erin: D+ | 1 USERS: B- YOU GRADE IT Whirligig of Death and Destruction
By Erin | Season 4 | Episode 11 | Aired on 03.15.2005
San Diego. Furniture Shop of Fake Fathers and the Men Who Hate Them. A dude in a wheelchair is inspecting a table leg or something. Vaughn walks in and asks where Frank Murdoch is. Frank Murdoch, who's the dude in the wheelchair, pretends he doesn't know. Yeah, whatever, I'll just cut to the chase and shorten this scene by about ten minutes. It's him. Murdoch. Vaughn starts to leave and Murdoch finally is all, dude? You really Bill Vaughn's kid? Vaughn's all, so they tell me. Murdoch takes him into the back office or something and shows him pictures of the old days, when Murdoch and Vaughn were in the Special Forces. I'm freeze-framed on the picture and I have no idea who's really in the photo, but they did manage to get the guy in the center to look a little like Vaughn, so it's a nice job. Way to go, props!
Vaughn asks Murdoch if he thinks Daddy Vaughn is still alive. Murdoch's all, uh, hope not, dude. He relates the super-fun story of the time when their team was tasked with leading a group of locals to secure a British position in the Falklands. Their men were ambushed. Apparently, Bill Vaughn didn't even flinch. Murdoch dove forward to defend their men and suddenly, his legs went numb. Bill had shot him in the back. "I don't remember hitting the ground, but I remember lying there looking up at him completely paralyzed and he just stared down at me, lit a cigarette, and walked away," says Murdoch. Nice. Vaughn is having difficulty believing that his dad was anything other than a saint. "Yeah, well, if he's still alive," says Murdoch, "I'll give you one piece of advice. Don't turn your back on him."
So, lemme get this straight: Vaughn's dad could be alive, he's evil, and he smokes cigarettes? I have to agree with some of the posters on this one. Bill Vaughn is the Cigarette-Smoking Man.
Salzburg. Syd makes a phone call at a pay phone as Sam stands there like a confused oak tree. He asks who she's calling and she just looks at him and he's all, oh, sorry! Didn't mean to look at you while you were doing spy stuff! My bad! Bitch. Syd's phone call is all encrypted and spy-licious and shit. She hangs up and Sam is all, WHAT THE HELL? Back with the contact, he makes a phone call to the Swarthy Dude from before, saying he'll deliver Syd and Sam on a goddamn platter in order to get in good with Sasha. Swarthy Dude is pleased.
Speaking of Sasha, Jack's on the hunt for him in Angola. I do so like to see Victor Garber in his khaki field jacket from the Ernest Hemingway collection. Jack walks over to some random soldier and says he's looking for the Rug Merchant. Another soldier walks up and pats him down as he says something about the merchant being sixty kilometers down the Bantu river. The soldiers drop him with a couple of select hits, throw a hood on his head, and trundle him into the back of a truck. Heh. You just KNOW that that ain't Victor Garber being tossed into the truck. He is FAR too classy for that shit. The soldiers drive off with Victor Garber's stuntman tied up in the back.