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This week's Number is a little complicated. It's Alan Dale, a guy named Wallace Negel, whom we quickly learn is actually a former Stasi agent named Ulrich who's been dead for 24 years. Only, really, he's been in a secret prison and he managed to escape. He's being tailed by someone from the prison, all on his own since he can't ask for help tracking down someone who doesn't exist (and who didn't get a trial). He can't catch our man, Ulrich, though, who's hot on the trail of his former teammates who turned on him and got him (but not really) and his wife (supposedly) killed. He tracks down a couple of them -- with JC hot on his trail each time -- but when he reaches the third, he learns his wife's not dead at all. She, too, is in New York and she was one of the people who turned on him. He kills the guy who told him this, then heads out to find "My Anja."
He finds her apartment (although it's not clear how), but JC's already there and Anja's safe with Bench in a car somewhere. Ulrich matches wits and strengths with JC (and, in fact, turns out to have a leg up on JC, who winds up tied up and tortured). They have some male bonding time, and Ulrich learns Anja has a 23-year-old daughter with eyes like his mother. He just needs to kill JC and head off to find his daughter. Thankfully, Fusco busts in and saves JC (maybe JC will cut him a little slack for that... nah, probably not). Ulrich finds the daughter, and gets her to call her mother. They have a big meet in Central Park, in which Ulrich bonds with Anja then pulls a gun to kill her. JC shoots him first, however. An anonymous tip brings Fusco, Carter, and the whole police force in. By the time they get to the scene, though, it's just a dead Ulrich. JC, Bench, and the Ulrich women are long gone. Ulrich ends up buried under his fake name, Wallace Negel, causing Bench and JC to discuss whether anyone will know their names when they're dead. Except, like Ulrich, most people think they already are.
Oh, and about JC's name? We flash back to 2006 when he was very James Bond-esque in a tux working with a woman in the CIA who's bossy and sexy and who named JC "Reese." She didn't like his first name, which she doesn't even let him say out loud so viewers can stop wondering.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!You are being watched, and all that. This time, with Alan Dale. Then a surveillance image of him pops up as surveillance audio gives us a conversation to "Assume he knows everything." Lots of IDs and stories come up that obviously pertain to him. Then he exits the train station at Grand Central, where a young, blond guy is waiting for him with a photo of a much-younger-looking Alan Dale. But Dale's smart enough to hide behind someone and slip by his greeter.
Library. Bench sees JC coming with two cups and tells him its okay -- he doesn't drink coffee. But JC knows that, duh. He brought him sencha green tea. Bench is a little worried that JC's paying so much attention, but JC tells him to relax, it's just tea. He hasn't guessed Bench's favorite color yet. But onto business. The Number of the week is Wallace Negel, who hasn't made a single financial transaction in his own name since 1987. That's a little odd. They wonder where he's been and why he's back. JC doesn't think Negel exists; it's a Spycraft 101 alias, boring life, blah, blah. Bench says Negel purchased a cemetery plot shortly before he disappeared, and it's still there. JC wonders why someone who doesn't exist needs a cemetery plot, and Bench is like, "Right?!" Like a teenager girl. Then he heads out to find someone who can find them pre-digital information.
At a bookstore, he meets up with Austin Pendleton, who gives him some books, but Bench wants more, so he gets threatening about some Russian submarine schematics that the bookstore owner sold back to the Soviets last year. Bench wants to see them. He tells him it would be hard to run this store from prison, wouldn't it? The bookstore owner's definitely listening. In fact, he takes Bench directly to a file on Wallace Negel, and talks about how the Stasi had all sort of information on everyone -- including sweat and body odor samples. The bookstore owner says Negel's team hunted down East German defectors and neutralized them before they could talk. JC, meanwhile, is at the cemetery plot, which has been freshly dug up. He finds a coin in the hole that seems to tell him something.
Bench gets back to the Library and fills JC in via telephone on what they found. Wallace Negel is a guy named Ulrich Kohl, who was married to a lady named Anja, who worked as a Stasi secretary. She was killed in a car accident in 1987. In 1989, the Stasi no longer exists and Kohl was never heard from again. JC tells Bench he's here now, because he dug up the buried stash at Negel's cemetery plot. JC says if it was anything like the stashes he used to bury, it would have contained weapons and definitely money. Bench says it seems Kohl the spy is back.
Cut to Kohl knocking on the door of another old man, with an accent. He calls him Hauffe, and then shows a picture of Anja. Then he shoots the shocked old guy in the shoulder, and tells him they have something to discuss. If you haven't picked up on it yet, he's sort of a badass.
2006. A sexy lady (Annie Parisse) asks a tuxedoed JC (a pretty sight) to go somewhere private to talk. He tells her he knows she's Stanton, and he's... She tells him he's actually not -- and she apparently doesn't want us to know his real identifier -- because the ID NCS gave him didn't past muster. Which means she gets to name him. She suggests Wilson, but then realizes he's not a volleyball. She tells him to have a drink, but he doesn't drink when he's working. She suggests he start, because "you Tier 1 guys" are all the same: tense. She tells him that, in his old gig, he'd be in the field for several months, but in this job he never goes back, because there's nowhere to go back to. So he might as well get comfortable. She asks if he saw any old friends while in transit, but he didn't. She shows him a surveillance picture of him talking to Jess at the airport a few episodes ago. She tells him they know about his ex-girlfriend, but like she told him: You never go back. What did he get himself into?
Library. Bench inspects the coin from the cemetery and says it's an East German mark, which is out of circulation, but a whole bunch of them were sold just this morning in New York. Bench traced a call from the store to an apartment, where JC shows up and finds Hauffe dead. He has spots on his neck that tell JC he was interrogated. Bench is still going through the records, and he says Kohl's team was made up for Steiller, Wernick, and Hauffe. But they haven't figured out who Hauffe is yet, because the apartment JC's in is leased to Andrew Honem, an unmarried, retired architect. But JC snoops around and finds a pin that says "Volks American Society," and then a hidden box under the floor with medals for Hauffe. JC says Kohl killed his Stasi teammate. The blond who tried to pick Kohl up at the station puts a gun in JC's back and says Kohl will kill again. He says he doesn't know who JC is, but this is just the beginning. JC does what he should have done last episode, and turns and takes the gun-holder down. He tells Bench he's got company, and checks the guy's ID: "B.N.D. German intelligence."
JC calls Fusco and tells him about a homicide in the West Village, and says the shooter have others planned. He tells him he left him a ... "care package" (the German), and Fusco needs to find out what he knows. Fusco says he can't until a crime is called in, and JC says he'll get a call about shots fired. Fusco asks if shots were fired, and JC's shoots his gun into the room: "There were now."
JC and Bench wonder who's on Kohl's list, and JC says there was a text to Julian Werner, who's really Wernick, one of Kohl's associates. Bench wonders why Kohl's hunting his teammates two decades later. JC says he could be hunting them for something more than they know. They both figure out it was the wife's death, which JC says was a staged accident, so it was intentional. He says they need to get to Wernick before Kohl does. But it's too late: Kohl's already found him at lunch and shoved a needle into the back of his neck. Werner asks what it's coated with, and says Kohl's always used needles. Kohl says it's something fast, the least he could do for an old friend. Then he pulls out the picture of "my Anja." Wernick tells Kohl he didn't know they'd go after Anja, too, but killing him won't bring her back. Kohl tells Wernick he paid for the whole team's sins. He was kept in a hole by those who caught him, but he never stopped thinking or planning. Wernick says he stopped thinking about it, and he regrets it, because it was wrong what they did. He asks Kohl if he's going after Steiller , and asks him to "be at peace, my old friend." He collapses, and Kohl gets up and leaves as crowds gather and JC comes in. JC drives away the ambulance with Wernick in it, leaving the paramedics there wondering WTF just happened. I mean, who steals a patient having seizures, right?
JC gets the ambulance clear, and works to wake Wernick. He tells him he needs to talk, and JC can save him. He asks what Kohl came up for, and why he's after them all. Wernick says Kohl was killing informants, and the Americans wanted him gone, so his teammates gave him up in exchange for a new life in the U.S. JC says that a soldier deserves better from his team. Wernick says the Americans went for Kohl and got Anja too. JC asks who Kohl will go after , and Wernick says "Steiller." But he passes out before JC can get the alias. Then he spots a pin Wernick's wearing that's the same as the "Volks American Society" one from Hauffe's apartment. Bench looks it up: It's for Germans in the U.S., which would have given them all a chance to meet in public (they wouldn't have been allowed as defectors). So they assume Steiller must have been part of it too.
Fusco and Carter are back at the precinct after finding Hauffe's body. Fusco tells her that there was another murder elsewhere, and she remembers that's where the ambulance was jacked. Fusco tells her the guy who jacked it matches her guy's descriptions. She wonders how he's involved in this. Then they head in to question the German intelligence guy. But he speaks very little English when they need to know what he's saying. Carter wonders why there's just one agent here trying to stop a killer. So he fills them in that he's Kohl, and he was arrested in an operation between both of their governments. But he had gotten old so they were transferring him to a minimum-security prison, but he escaped. They can't involve U.S. authorities, because he was jailed without trial. Carter says they want the same thing, but the lawyer busts in then with an extradition order to get this guy back to Germany immediately.
Bench has found a complete roster for Volks and finds a Michael Stegans (they weren't very smart about disguising their names, were they?), who runs a construction site in Brooklyn. Bench dials him up and calls him "Mr. Steiller." He says it's a wrong number, but Bench tells him there's no time for games. He asks if he remembers Kohl, who remembers him just like he remembered his old Stasi colleagues. He tells him he's on his way, but Steiller seethes he's speaking of a dead man. He leaves his phone on and pockets it as they argue. Kohl tells Steiller he trusted him, and so did his wife. Steiller says that Kohl changed, and believed in killing and darkness. Kohl says Steiller trained him, and then he left Kohl and Anja to the hounds for money and an apartment in New York. But Steiller will pay for what they did to Anja. JC drives up, as he and Bench both listen in to the call. Steiller tells Kohl to wait, and says he was the only one who knew, then he picks up a land line and makes a call. A woman answers, and Kohl hears the voice: "Anja's alive?" Steiller says she was more afraid of him than anyone, so this revenge was all for nothing. But telling him his wife was in on it didn't really help Steiller. Kohl pushes him off the construction tower, and then heads down the elevator. JC arrives via the stairs and looks down at Steiller's dead body. He radios Bench and says they need to find Anja, whom Kohl probably just added to his list.
NYPD. The German guy heads out to safety, and Carter grumbles that their best lead is being deported. Fusco says her vigilante is still out there, but Carter says you can't send a killer to catch a killer. Fusco says at least he gets results, though. Then he turns and texts JC: "En route Silver Sedan" and the plate numbers. Bench is in the car with JC for a change (fun!), as they head to stop the German on his way to the airport. They pull over and JC takes a giant weapon out of the trunk. Bench looks at it in awe and says he's highly uncomfortable being here. JC says he's highly uncomfortable having Bench here, but he needs a spotter. When the cart gets into view, Bench looks through binoculars and tells JC how far the car is, the wind speed, etc. Must be some super-fancy binoculars. Bench asks what if JC misses, and JC's like, "I don't know. Never have." He shoots the hood off the car, which swerves and stops. JC storms up and the lawyer says they have diplomatic immunity. JC: "I'm not a diplomat." He asks the guy where Anja Kohl is, because there's still time to save her. The lawyer says this man has nothing to say, and the guy agrees, but slips a small piece of paper into JC's hand. Is this really the time to be coming onto JC? I mean, I get he's a looker and everything, but.... Awkward!
Back in the car, Bench reads the slip of paper. It's an address for Anna Klein in Morningside Heights. Which... okay, the guy might know it, but why would he have a tiny slip of paper in his hand just ready to pass off to someone who shows up to try to save her? Does that make any kind of sense at all? Anyway, Kohl arrives at the apartment, and walks in. JC greets him, and says Anja isn't here. She's safe, where Kohl can't get to her. He then tells Kohl he knows his gun is only 73 decibels when fired. "But it won't stop me before I get to you. And I lose my patience when I get shot." Okay, I'm getting a little sick of the arrogance here. Can someone please teach JC a lesson or something? What's that you say? Kohl will do it? Awesome! JC walks toward Kohl, who pushes on JC's external carotid arteries, which knocks him out.
Bench is taking Anja to NYPD, where there's a detective he swears she can trust. She wants to make a phone call first, though. Back at the apartment, JC's awake but bleary as Kohl checks out the amazing camera JC had on him. He says the Stasi would have killed for this technology. You know, literally. He asks where Anja is, but JC's not exactly a sucker. Kohl pulls out some needles to torture to JC. He says people laughed at him when he learned to use needles, but they didn't laugh for long. JC's almost laughing, though, because he was captured by insurgents in Kandahar. They tortured him for sixteen hours. "All they wanted was my name." Kohl's unfazed. "I don't care for your name." I love that JC's finally met his match with this guy. Also, I love that Alan Dale can be Caleb Nichol, Bradford Meade, Charles Widmore, and now this. He's quite an actor. He starts talking torture about what he's going to do to JC, then asks where Anja is again.
JC flashes back to his meeting with Stanton (Annie Parisse). They're meeting with a couple other guys. She makes small talk, and JC sits on looking as serious as ever. They question the guys on some guy named Assir, who made it out of the country on their watch. Stanton asks how much he paid them, and then laughs and says she's kidding. She raises a toast to them, then shoots them both dead. Back to JC's bloodshot eyes as he's being tortured.
NYPD. Carter says a guy in a suit shot their German intelligence guy off the road with a high-caliber weapon. Because no one else in New York ever wears a suit, she obviously knows this is her guy. She's going to go check it out, and see if he left her a trail that leads to Kohl. Fusco gets a call from Bench then, who needs his help. Fusco says JC and Bench can't just ring him up like he's a bellhop. Bench tells Fusco he can't find JC, and he needs Bench to figure something out; it's urgent. He's sending him an address. Bench gets off the phone, and senses Anja's frustration. She's not getting a response to her calls, so Bench tells her he can help.
At her apartment, JC tells Kohl he's going to have to kill him. But Kohl, supposed cold-blooded killer, says no one enjoys taking life. But killing is what he was good at. JC says he noticed, because he knew that he mixed the poison he used on Wernick. JC has his own experience with poisons, see? Kohl tells JC that the Stasi came calling for him, telling him his country needs him. JC says they always say that. Kohl gets nostalgic, and says he left his country for his country and killed wherever they sent him. JC gets teary and says he was Kohl once, and revenge won't help. But Kohl says he thought about nothing but today while he was buried in that hole for twenty-four years. JC asks, "What about tomorrow?" Kohl says he has to her, "my Anja." Then he pulls out a needle to torture JC some more.
Anja starts blabbing about Kohl and how much he loved her and she loved him. Then the Stasi turned on Kohl, or so he told her. They traveled separately to escape, but the Americans found her and showed her photos of all of Kohl's assassinations. She cries at the memory, and says, "So much death. How could he?" She says the Americans staged the car accident so Kohl would believe she was dead. Then she started a new life.
Kohl gets up from the torture table to stretch his legs, and finds a photo under a piece of paper of a young girl. He says she has his mother's eyes. JC tells him not to do anything stupid. Then Kohl digs and finds framed pictures of the girl put away. He asks JC if he hid them, and JC shrugs. Kohl finds her name is Marie. JC tells him he's not a monster to her yet. "It's too late for you and me, but she could have a normal life." Kohl asks how Anja and everyone else could take this girl from him. JC says to let her have a normal life -- leave her be. Kohl says he can't have JC following him and raises a gun. But Fusco conveniently found the place just in time, and tells Kohl not to worry; he's not going anywhere. Kohl shoots at him and hits the wall, but runs instead of killing JC. Fusco unties JC, and they had after Kohl.
On a college campus -- maybe? -- Marie says goodbye to her friends, then sees she has eleven missed calls. Kohl approaches and asks her if she can help him find Lerner Hall. She starts to tell him, then he shows her his gun and says to call her mother. She calls and tells her mom a man here wants to talk to her. Bench tells JC that Kohl said he wouldn't hurt the girl if Anja came alone, but JC says she's not going anywhere alone. In Central Park, Kohl leads Marie in at gunpoint. She asks how he knows her mother, and he says "from the past." He says he knew her, and Marie's father. She gets curious, and he asks what he knows about him. She says her mother told her he was a soldier in Germany, who died a hero. He helped her mother get free so they could start a life here. She asks if he knew her father, and he says he did. Once.
A cop radios in the situation at Central Park, so JC must have told Fusco what's up. Kohl tells Marie he's very sorry about this, more sorry than she'll ever know. They walk up to Anja and Bench. Kohl asks Bench where his friend is (how does he know they're friends, anyway? And, I mean, that's using the term "friend" pretty loosely), and JC, behind him, says, "He's right here," as he pulls a gun. The cops show up at another part of the park. Carter tells Fusco they got an anonymous call that the shooter's here, which makes her think the vigilante is, too. Fusco wonders if they'll get them both. Carter sends Fusco with another group of cops and they split up.
Anja looks sadly at Kohl, who asks her why she left. She says she found out her husband wasn't the man she married; he was a killer, and she was trapped. She says she thought she knew him, but they told her he'd become a monster. Marie asks her mom who this man is. Kohl gets teary-eyed, and Anja says she was afraid of the person he'd become. She asks if he can forgive her for the person she was. He says he had to see her face, both hers and Marie's. He says she told Marie about her father, that he was a hero, and Anja says that, without him, they wouldn't have had this life. Kohl tells her a part of him has been with her, always. She pulls a gun on Anja, but JC pulls a gun and he shoots first. Anja helps him to a bench, and cries. JC tells Bench to get Anja and Marie out of here. Kohl tells Anja she was right to fear him. Marie can't stop looking back at all the stuff she's just learned about her life.
JC checks Kohl's weapon, which is empty. He sits down to Kohl, who says he wouldn't have hurt her. "I never had a tomorrow." He laughs, and JC asks how he knew JC would shoot. Kohl says JC is a soldier, like him. "They took everything I had. But part of me survived. It was ... her." Then he dies, right there on the bench. The cops start running up, and they find Kohl dead. Fusco asks Carter who she thinks it was, and JC watches from behind the trees.
Back in 2006, Stanton suggest the name Harper, but says that doesn't work either. Then she tells him to dispose of the weapon, and the bodies. He says she didn't even question them, but she says they took a bribe to let a mass murderer escape. He asks how she knows it was them, and she says it was an anonymous source, very reliable. She needs him to know this is right, and she'll only tell him one more time: "This is right. The threat is real." She tells him his country needs him. Then tells him to leave no teeth or fingertips on the body. "One last thing. You don't have any old friends. You see them, you don't know them. We're walking in the dark here, you understand?" But she's got it. He'll be...
Cut to Bench saying, "Mr. Reese." They stand together at the cemetery plot for Wallace Negel. Bench says that, after all that, he goes in the ground under a name that's not his, and the German government will sweep it under the rug. JC says he always though he would die in a place that didn't know his name. Which ... well, it's not too late for that, is it? And it's pretty bloody likely. Bench asks if JC thinks anyone will care for their names, and JC asks if he means after they're dead. Bench: "I thought we already were." No new episode on Thanksgiving, so happy holiday. I'll be back here after.
DeAnn, a writer and editor in Portland, Oregon, doesn't mind the Numbers of the week if they're as good as Alan Dale. You can contact her at twopmodmars@gmail.com.
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