Salvation - Patriot Games - Review

Salvation “Patriot Games” was written by Gavin Johannsen and was directed by Maja Vrvilo, whose other credits include Preacher, Gotham, and Hawaii Five-O. This episode sees a lot of the various threads starting to come together, but also introduces a new threat – from the Whitehouse! But we also see Team Tanz score their first victory.

The episode jumps us right into the action as Grace (Jennifer Finnigan) is attacked in her home – those mysterious boots from the last episode. She manages to kill her attacker – always love when someone with no fight training takes out a hired assassin, but we’ll let that go… She calls her Dad – Hugh (Mark Moses) – the CIA operative (convenient) to clean up the mess. He also swoops in to provide home security – and cook dinner for her and Zoe (Rachel Drance).

Darius (Santiago Cabrera) prepares for the arrival of the Russians and fills Liam (Charlie Rowe) in. Liam isn’t sure how he feels about Croft being alive – but it’s got to be better than feeling guilt over killing him. Darius tries to make him feel better by telling him that the Russians don’t much like Croft. Darius is still wary of working with the Russians – and the Americans! – so he makes sure that the launch codes will stay with Tess until he’s sure everyone will play nicely. Which of course, they don’t.

There’s a nice slow-motion sequence as Grace walks in to the Russian/American meeting as she assesses everyone – looking for the person who doesn’t expect to see her – her dad’s advice to figuring out who sent the guy with the encrypted phone. And of course, no one seems to give anything away. The meeting seems to go well with Toporov (Mark Ivanir) agreeing to the terms.

After the meeting, Grace tells Darius about the attack, and he freaks out a little bit. He wants to put Grace and Zoe in a safehouse, but she has her dad, so Darius settles for making her take on a bodyguard (Troy Blundell). When the encrypted phone rings, Darius takes it to decrypt it, and they ultimately discover that the call came from the Whitehouse! They also learn that Darius was next on the list to be killed. They also put romance on hold – Moscow should stay in Moscow for now because things are just too crazy.

Jill (Jacqueline Byers) is back at work but nervous about taking over the team. Liam gives her a pep talk and she pushes him away, telling him they have to take is slow. When he comes back at the end of the episode to celebrate with her, it looks like she’s getting along a little too well with Mason (James Gilbert).

Amanda (Shazi Raja) gets a thumb drive on “Atlas” in the mail and convinces Ed (Greg Calderone) to run the story. The Russians then back out of the deal. The story is the truth – It wasn’t an accident, the Russians had been deliberately targeted. The story gets 1 million hits on the Capitol Eyes site, but Ed insists that Amanda must get sources on the record to confirm it.

Harris (Ian Anthony Dale) wants the President to apologize, but Claire (Erica Luttrell) says she won’t make a statement. She tells them that the President is not well – leaving us to ponder if she’s insane or if she’s incapacitated and someone else is acting on her behalf. I was SUPER excited to see who was playing the President – pretty sure I recognized Tovah Feldshuh… Calhoun (Brian Markinson) wants to launch before the Russians can get back in range to shoot down their rocket. Claire tells Harris to put his personal feelings aside and get Darius on board with the new plan.

Amanda reaches out to Grace to see if she was her source, and then goes and asks Liam. She insists that he owes her – and then when Jill walks in, Amanda says that her kiss with Liam didn’t mean anything to her – clearly causing a rift between Jill and Liam. And I’m SO beyond tired of these two! Would it kill you to just tell her what happened? And if she doesn’t believe you, walk away!

Hugh finds out that the assassin was a Michael Owens (Derek Barnes) and that he was military – and in the same squad as Harris! He tells her not to trust Harris. And of course, Harris and Claire are waiting in the Treehouse when Grace arrives. Harris tells her that the Pentagon and Calhoun are coming to confiscate the EM drive. Harris tells him not to relinquish it!

When Calhoun shows up, Darius gives him the drive and the codes, saying why fight the inevitable. Like that’s his style! This whole thing is about fighting the inevitable! However, Darius also tells Claire and Harris to take care of their end. When Grace tells Darius about Harris’ connection to Owens, Darius actually defends Harris – he’s many things but not that.

Amanda gets her source in Darius as a trade for putting Liam in touch with Resist. Liam takes Darius to Resist to enlist them in browning out Russia so that they can do a real launch. Darius tries to get Dylan’s (Andre Dae Kim) name but he won’t give it up – and I’m a bit tired of people who should be on the same side working at cross purposes… and of course Zoe then also joins Resist. Does she have mad hacking skills all of a sudden? Grace, Harris and Claire watch as Calhoun’s launch is shot down – but it’s not the real EM drive. Markinson’s face is great in this scene as he clearly knows they are now screwed.

Harris follows Grace to the parking garage where he’s pinned by her bodyguard. Grace tells him everything, and Harris is shocked that she could have suspected him. He does admit that someone is trying to make it look like him. When he asks Grace if she’s with Darius, she doesn’t answer.

Finally, something does go right! Claire has secured a gravity tractor from NASA (because those are easy to sneak out!) and they launch from an “undisclosed location” – very Elon Musk! The launch goes without a hitch as Resist has browned out Russia, and then the EM drive actually works! We do find out that Resist has but a tracker in the Tanz tech. Can we expect them to release the information about the asteroid and cause world wide panic?

Darius is left to celebrate on his own as Liam goes in futile search of Jill and Grace opts for a family dinner. I did love the final scene of Hugh, Grace, and Zoe discussing their perfectly ordinary, boring days!

What did you think of the episode? Only a few more to go before the end. Still no word on whether the show has been renewed for a second season. I’m really curious to see if they have two endings planned – one if they do get picked up and one if they don’t? If they don’t get picked up, I kind of hope that the asteroid hits… What do you want to see? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!