The “story of the week” is once again less than terrific, though it isn’t as predictable as the one from Enemy of the State; it involves the crash of a commercial plane and Olivia’s team is on the case to prove that the pilot isn’t responsible. But the season long arc just keeps getting better. This episode introduces two wonderful actors/characters. The first is George Newbern as Charlie, a sleazy gun for hire; he and Huck have some history together and Guillermo Diaz kills this episode with a really intense performance as Huck. Charlie’s return has Huck opening some emotional doors he hasn’t opened in a long time and the final scene of Huck and Charlie in this episode is a dead-on stunner and surprisingly brutal. The second is the always brilliant Kate Burton as Vice President Sally Langston, a somewhat unhinged, super-conservative Bible thumper. Things are getting more serious as we race toward the end of season one; there’s a really dark and surprising scene in which a character is killed – somehow I was thinking this show wouldn’t go there, that it would be a little too cheesy, but, no, this character is dead, dead, dead and the discovery of the body scene is a moment of real darkness. Huck’s gone off the reservation; Charlie’s perfectly willing to deal out death; people have died. **** just got real. Highly recommended. 4 stars.
tl;dr – gripping episode is brutal, violent and dark; the show goes some places I didn’t expect it to go in terms of dark content and the addition of a couple of new and intriguing characters kicks things up a notch. 4 stars.