Shooter - Remember the Alamo? - Review: "Heroes vs. Heroin"

Drugs are bad, kids. Drugs lead to horrible things such as addiction, violence, poverty, or having your entire Marine unit hunted down by a sniper hired by a man who was running drugs in Afghanistan for a spoilery third party until your team burned it all up and then stole his mother. So, it is very important that you stay far away from drugs to avoid such extreme outcomes. But, let's take a look at what happened to the Marine unit who has to suffer because drugs in this world, and let's talk about who that third party was if you're already in the know!

Character Catch-Up

The old unit: Back in 2012, a Marine unit led by Isaac Johnson took on a mission in a village in Afghanistan. After a rare miss on Bob Lee's part, the team further infiltrated the village to find the wounded man. Their hunt let them to a room filled with Heroin. Like a lot. You could build a really cool fort in your living room completely made of these heroin bricks and you might still have a few left over. Isaac made the call to move all the drugs out of the house into the middle of the town for easy disposal, along with three men and the wife of the man Bob Lee shot earlier. After Tio brought in an engagement team while Bob Lee and Chunk (Happy to see him alive again) were taking out hostiles from the roof, Dobbs had his own version of fun with the three men. He toyed with them giving the first two cigarettes before running out and feigning an apologetic manner to the third man. He lit the first two men's cigarettes and then threw an empty matchbook on the ground, which the third man picked up to hold on to as tightly as this newly-formed grudge. After some debates, the decision was made to burn the heroin, and while the rest of the drugs were being brought out, the Non-Cigarette Smoking Man (if you understand my reference, we're friends now) asked them why they were doing this because "We work for you!" The wife of the dead guy inadvertently revealed herself to be the mother of Waheed, the Non-Cigarette Smoking Man, when she told him to stop talking. After several tactics, they were able to get the mom to talk more. and she revealed that they were moving the drugs for the one and only Hugh Meachum of the CIA! They stuck by their plan to burn the heroin, and took the woman with them for more questioning as they left, leaving the livelihood of the village burning for all to see.

Isaac Johnson: After seeing the news about the attack on his old unit, he made the correct assumption that they were being hunted, so he and his girlfriend embarked on an expedition to get out of Thailand.

The Swagger Family: After the attack, Bob Lee refused to leave the country without the bodies of his fallen Marines while Agent Memphis pulled some strings to get Julie on a plane home so she could return to their daughter.

Agent Memphis: She was able to pull these strings thanks to some help from Gregson, who offers her assistance if Memphis will accept a new job with her.

Debriefing

In the present day, Bob Lee and Dobbs rope Tio into helping find the sniper. By rope in, I mean they asked her to drive them to the airport, but failed to mention it was to help scare some information out of a German Consul by pretending to kill an associate of his. After retrieving the information, the great Nadine Memphis shows up. She is on a special assignment and has instructions to bring him and the bodies home with her when she's done. Bob Lee mentions that they have lead involving Golden Crescent and she allows them until midnight to pursue it, then departs to gather their things from the hotel.

In Bob Lee's room, Memphis runs into Solotov, who is passing himself off as police searching the room without a warrant. They have a brief conversation where she gets a suspicious feeling. She asks if he knows anything about Golden Crescent which causes him to practically stop in his tracks. He informs her that it is an Arab crime syndicate, though it's hard to tell if this is true or just Solotov thinking on his feet. Before leaving, he gives her a name and number to contact if she hears anything. As he walks down the hallway, he places a call to have somebody empty out a warehouse. It just so happens that Solotov's warehouse is the same warehouse the Swagger's crew is headed to, and all they find there is an empty matchbook. The same empty matchbook that Dobbs threw down five years prior. As they leave, Memphis gives Bob Lee a call telling him she's sending an address related to the Golden Crescent, and that she'll be sharing the information with local authorities in a couple of hours. She later calls the place Solotov's fake police man works, only to find that the man with that name has been deceased for a week.

Solotov heads to a meeting at the address Bob Lee and Friends will be heading to later. His meeting is with Waheed, who is full of displeasure that Bob Lee and his friends are not dead yet because he paid good money for that happen. Solotov informs him that he has a plan he believes will work, but he also answers Waheed's "Should I be worried?" question with a matter of fact "Yes." When the crew shows up later, they cut power to the building and infiltrate, hoping to find something. What they find is Waheed, who has been beaten up and now has a vest strapped to him. Bob Lee sees him only long enough to recognize who he is before he makes a harrowing escape from the room as the bomb goes off. Unscathed, Dobbs and Swagger meet up with Memphis to board the plane with the bodies of the fallen, while Tio plans to stay in Germany but promises not to say a word to anyone.

Our side stories this week center around the lives of Isaac and Julie. Julie is currently struggling with what is likely PTSD and trying to figure out a way to raise Mary without her moods interfere too much. She yells at Mary for touching a hot stove when she was told not do so, but then feels bad and spends the day in her pajamas at a diner with Mary where to two girls skirt around some heavy topics without Julie having to get very deep into any of it. Isaac's day was less peaceful as he was focusing on keeping himself and his girlfriend alive. He half succeeded. She's very dead now. Alone now, Isaac leaves Thailand alone and ends up being detained for having fake passports. He notices a security camera and looks directly into and repeats the name Patricia Gregson.

Our episode this week ends with Solotov arriving in Texas for what I'm sure is no good. In fact, I'm willing to get on the train of thought that believes it's downright bad, since the Swaggers live in texas. He also totally shot the people who helped him cross the border into Texas.

Outcome

This week certainly picked up a bit more than last week. While both are great episodes, I preferred the pacing in this episode because they were free to fully move the plot forward rather than build up to the start of the real plot halfway through. I'm also a sucker for some great flashbacks, and while at first I questioned the relevance of this week's flashbacks, the payoff of learning that the son of the man they killed hired Solotov to hunt them down certainly made it all worth it. It was also great to find out that good ol' Hugh Meachum has been shady since before we met him!

I really enjoyed watching Swagger, Dobbs, and Tio working together. There's a nice familiarity between the three of them and it makes for some great teamwork and fun conversations. Getting Memphis involved as well was really just icing on my happiness cake. So happy to be seeing what this new job of hers entails.

I am concerned for Mary's future though. She just came out of a very traumatic experience with a man standing outside of her hotel room, and now she's probably going to end up being some part of Solotov's plans as well. The psychological damage this is doing can't be good, and I really hope she's able to overcome these traumatic obstacles in her life.

On a semi-heartless note, I really don't care about what Isaac is going through. I feel bad about his girlfriend's death, but only because I'm sad she died and really had nothing to do with any of this. I don't care that he's upset currently. Maybe that will change later, but I'm currently rooting for the other guys to find him.

Are you worried for the Swaggers? Do we think now that Mary has a sitter to look after her she'll be spared from the trouble that's about to come. I'm feeling doubtful. Feel free to share your thoughts and sound off in the comments below!