Episode Report Card Manimal: D | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Doppelganger
By Manimal | Season 1 | Episode 5 | Aired on 10.27.2001
Party. Generic alterna-rock "grooves" in the background. A guy takes off his Richard Nixon mask to talk to Francie. It's Will. He launches into some monologue about how candy corn is disgusting because it's like marzipan, and if it's a choice between candy corn and dirt, he'd be all over the dirty. I love marzipan. It tastes nothing like candy corn, which tastes like gelatin, sugar, and glue boiled together, and is mysteriously not inedible. Also, it's fun to stick it over your canines and pretend you're a vampire.
Francie is glum. Will deduces that it's because Charlie's friend came to the party without him, and that Francie needs to talk to Charlie instead of playing these hide-and-seek games and to not do what he did with Sydney, which was to deny his feelings and wait. That's pretty good advice. Will gets a call on his cell phone. It's Kate Jones. He asks her if she knew Daniel Hecht. She says she did, and very well.
CIA. The Worst Little Safehouse In Barstow, Or Whatever Other Backwater California Suburb It's In. Sydney bursts in and apprises Vaughn of everything Dixon just told her. Vaughn and Sydney both keep their eyes open really, really wide. I think it's to denote shock, but mostly it looks like they just started wearing contact lenses. Vaughn asks, "What are we going to do?" Sydney points out that if they can't get the info to K-as-S, she'll really be up the old fecal creek without a paddle. At this point I'm starting to think you shouldn't trust Vaughn with power locks and windows, let alone top-secret sensitive government missions.
Cast-Off Slow-Motion Music From Star Wars plays as Sydney walks in to talk to Schiller. We cut to Sydney talking to her dad and filling him in, and telling Spy Daddy the "intell" they need to get to K-as-S so he won't be killed. Conveniently, Sloane called Spy Daddy in for this "difficult situation." Scenes of Spy Daddy being called into Sloane's office and interrogating Schiller are intercut with the above. Spy Daddy roughs up K-as-S so he can get close enough to mutter the information to him. Cut to Sydney as she tells Schiller the whole sob story of SD-6: Not Really The CIA and Doomed Danny eating it (although she conveniently leaves out the part about her endangering his life and him being a moron) and how another innocent man is going to die if she doesn't get the plant location. Somehow, Schiller is so moved that he tells her the location of the plant. This would've been a lot more interesting if Sydney had been forced to get a little medieval on his ass. You know: ambiguity, character development, et cetera. Helloooo...? (Crickets chirp.) Also, slightly more logical. After all, Schiller knew enough not to trust Vaughn, but instead he's going to spill his guts because someone pleads prettily for the info? Whatever. WHAT. Ever. Cut to Spy Daddy beating up K-as-S. As he breaks his arm, K-as-S wails, "Badenweiller! The plant is located in Badenweiller!"