Episode Report Card Couch Baron: A | 688 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT Shattered Dreams
By Couch Baron | Season 3 | Episode 20 | Aired on 2009.03.23
She admits she's not proud of herself, but gets less so when he calls her on having gotten into politics to protect the civil liberties of the everyday American. Tracy gasps in shock: "God, you read my bio?" Hee. It's every politician's worst nightmare -- a constituent that pays attention. Micah says that he read everything on her and thought that meant he knew her, and for a kid that's so ridiculously tech-savvy, he sure doesn't know much about the internet. He goes on that she's nothing like Niki, who was an everyday American and also a hero. As they walk through a parking garage, he asks what side she's on, and the ensuing sound of squealing tires lets us know she's going to have to give a meaningful answer to that question without delay. The two of them hide behind some parked cars, but fear is all over Tracy's face as she sees the phalanx of agents headed their way. However, her eyes then dart up to the sprinklers, and she asks Micah if he can tell them what to do. He says that he can tell the fire alarm to tell the sprinklers what to do, and while I appreciate the clarification, the time constraints of the situation would have allowed me to accept a simple "Yes." She has him turn them on, and once the place is good and wet, she tells him to find a way out. He asks her to come with him, but she says she can't, and the smile on her face shows that she's quickly made her peace with what she's about to do. It's a testament to the directing and the writing in this episode that this rather abrupt character change plays as believable, I have to say, and Tracy tells Micah, "Keep doing what you're doing, Rebel," before shooing him on his way. Before he disappears, though, she cautions him to "stay ahead of the ice." Oh, this is going to be good. The action slows down as Tracy emerges from her hiding place and approaches her assailants, and once they've tightly surrounded her, she closes her eyes and freezes the entire scene in a spectacular effect. We see Micah making it safely through a door just before the ice reaches him, and once Tracy observes that, we then get a closeup of her eye going milky and frozen and a last exhalation before she turns entirely to ice. Obviously, she might have tried a different approach that would have at least given her a chance to escape, but she chose the path of self-sacrifice, making sure both that Micah would get away and that she wouldn't be taken alive. In fact, not only did she have an amazing death, like Niki did, she died to save someone else, also as Niki did. You know Ali Larter's coming back as Barbara, though. Anyway, Danko, who wasn't in the garage for the ice storm, now has made his way through the Arctic tableau to Tracy's frozen statue, and he draws his gun, puts it right to her heart, and pulls the trigger. Micah stops running for a moment, probably knowing what he just heard, and Tracy falls to pieces, and I just wonder if Danko's sick enough to mix Tracy into his next highball. Bennet joins Danko, unable to conceal the emotions on his face, and breathes, "She said she had a hell of a cold snap." Danko asks if there's any sign of Rebel, but Bennet says no, so Danko leaves without another word, and Bennet looks horribly bummed as Tracy's remains start to flow into the storm drain.