That's what they should have called this episode, Strange Revenge.
A man that Charles Townsend sent to prison has been paroled after serving a long sentence, and he wants to take revenge on Charlie. Since little is known about Charlie, the ex-con, an embezzler nameed Meeker, hires an assassin, not to kill the Angels, but to scare them. The reason for this tactic is dubious at best.
Meeker hopes the Angels will flee to the safety of Charlie's mansion, allowing Meeker to tail them and discover where Charlie lives. Other options are discussed, Bosley suggests the Angels go on vacation for a while, but the Angels claim the assassin could follow them anywhere in the world. So after the third assassination attempt, this one on Sabrina, the Angels decide to seek shelter at Charlie's place.
Speaking of the assassination attempts, they sure were dumb. The first attempt was on Kelly. A professional assassin named Wardlow, hired by Meeker, shoots an uzi through her apartment window. He very easily could have accidently killer her. Kelly collects evidence from the scene (footprints) implying the man might have a prosthetic leg because one imprint was deeper than the other. Bosley ludicrously suggests the reason could be that he was carrying the Uzi on one side of his body, leading to one foot making a deeper impression. Pretty funny.
The second attempt was on Jill while coaching a girl's basketball practice in a gymnasium. She, no joke, hears clomping footsteps (the assassin's fake leg) coming toward her. How it was possible for her to pick this sound out from the noise of the gym is unclear, especially since Wardlow had not entered the building yet. We he does, Jill runs for it and Wardlow shoots at her several times, then abandons the chase as he's only trying to scare her.
The third assassination attempt is the dumbest. Wardlow rigs one of those big water bottles (for water coolers) with an explosive. It detonates in Sabrina's apartment, this AFTER Sabrina discovered the bottle was rigged. Sabrina allowed the water cooler to explode in order to fake her own death, which trashes her apartment. Then Sabrina holds a fake funeral for herself in order to throw the assassin off. Just beyond belief.
For an episode with three kill attempts, there sure was a lot time for personal filler. One subplot showed Kelly breaking up with her boyfriend played by Tom Selleck. The reasons given are pretty lame and Selleck is never heard from again. There's also time for Kelly to visit the orphanage in which she grew up to ask the nun who helped raise her if she knew of anyone who might want to harm her. Why would the nun know if a fellow orphan from twenty years ago had it in for Kelly?
Sabrina pays her ex-husband a visit, who happens to be a cop she used to work alongside. She convinces him to stay out of the investigation and he seems really concerned for her. She also visits her father for guidance. These personal scenes were very well acted but were in stark contrast to a typical CA episode, but mostly it disguises just how crazy the actual plot is.
The Angels eventually track down Wardlow but find him dead, killed off-camera by Meeker. Which begs the question, if Meeker could kill a trained assassin, why bother hiring him in the first place? Just have the brilliant and deadly Meeker do everything.
One more note on Wardlow. There are several scenes of Wardlow in his hotel room acting crazy and pointing guns at slide pictures of the Angels, (where or how he obtained these candid photos is best left unexplained). I guess the director wanted to make him seem really menacing, only problem--he wasn't hired to kill them just scare them --- so why is this guy shooting guns in his hotel room at their images and acting psycho if he has no intention of killing them?
It was a bit of a cheat, a red herring for the viewer only, but within the context of the plot his behavior makes no sense.
But here's where everything falls apart. Meeker's plan works to perfection, the Angels hide in Charlie's mansion. Wardlow tails them (before being killed by Meeker), and now Meeker knows where Charlie lives. Only Charlie is out of town, but as luck would have it, he just happens to be heading home from the airport in a taxi. Meeker awaits his arrival and plans to kills Charlie by.... throwing a stick of dynamite into his taxi.
Yes you read that correctly. By throwing a stick of dynamite into his taxi! Which means, for all Meeker's planning, if the toss is mistimed or poorly aimed, he fails and has no backup plan.
The Angels foil the plot by stealing a cab, with Kelly pretending to be a taxi driver, and Jill pretending to be Charlie in the backseat. (Jill puts on a man's suit coat). I'll gloss over the fact that the Angels actually made Charlie's taxi crash in to a truck, though Charlie is unharmed and when we see the cab later there is no visible damage.
So the plan the Angels came up with boggles the mind but it worked perfectly. Still, it's a fun episode despite it not making a lick of sense. I mean not one lick.
It was interesting to see the Angels in their every day lives, with Jill inviting Kelly and her soon to be dumped b/f to watch her coach basketball, and her crazy reaction to a bad referee's call. We glimpse the inside of two of their apartments and get some insight into what makes them tick. In some ways, the sheer audacity of the plot is what made the episode entertaining.
A man that Charles Townsend sent to prison has been paroled after serving a long sentence, and he wants to take revenge on Charlie. Since little is known about Charlie, the ex-con, an embezzler nameed Meeker, hires an assassin, not to kill the Angels, but to scare them. The reason for this tactic is dubious at best.
Meeker hopes the Angels will flee to the safety of Charlie's mansion, allowing Meeker to tail them and discover where Charlie lives. Other options are discussed, Bosley suggests the Angels go on vacation for a while, but the Angels claim the assassin could follow them anywhere in the world. So after the third assassination attempt, this one on Sabrina, the Angels decide to seek shelter at Charlie's place.
Speaking of the assassination attempts, they sure were dumb. The first attempt was on Kelly. A professional assassin named Wardlow, hired by Meeker, shoots an uzi through her apartment window. He very easily could have accidently killer her. Kelly collects evidence from the scene (footprints) implying the man might have a prosthetic leg because one imprint was deeper than the other. Bosley ludicrously suggests the reason could be that he was carrying the Uzi on one side of his body, leading to one foot making a deeper impression. Pretty funny.
The second attempt was on Jill while coaching a girl's basketball practice in a gymnasium. She, no joke, hears clomping footsteps (the assassin's fake leg) coming toward her. How it was possible for her to pick this sound out from the noise of the gym is unclear, especially since Wardlow had not entered the building yet. We he does, Jill runs for it and Wardlow shoots at her several times, then abandons the chase as he's only trying to scare her.
The third assassination attempt is the dumbest. Wardlow rigs one of those big water bottles (for water coolers) with an explosive. It detonates in Sabrina's apartment, this AFTER Sabrina discovered the bottle was rigged. Sabrina allowed the water cooler to explode in order to fake her own death, which trashes her apartment. Then Sabrina holds a fake funeral for herself in order to throw the assassin off. Just beyond belief.
For an episode with three kill attempts, there sure was a lot time for personal filler. One subplot showed Kelly breaking up with her boyfriend played by Tom Selleck. The reasons given are pretty lame and Selleck is never heard from again. There's also time for Kelly to visit the orphanage in which she grew up to ask the nun who helped raise her if she knew of anyone who might want to harm her. Why would the nun know if a fellow orphan from twenty years ago had it in for Kelly?
Sabrina pays her ex-husband a visit, who happens to be a cop she used to work alongside. She convinces him to stay out of the investigation and he seems really concerned for her. She also visits her father for guidance. These personal scenes were very well acted but were in stark contrast to a typical CA episode, but mostly it disguises just how crazy the actual plot is.
The Angels eventually track down Wardlow but find him dead, killed off-camera by Meeker. Which begs the question, if Meeker could kill a trained assassin, why bother hiring him in the first place? Just have the brilliant and deadly Meeker do everything.
One more note on Wardlow. There are several scenes of Wardlow in his hotel room acting crazy and pointing guns at slide pictures of the Angels, (where or how he obtained these candid photos is best left unexplained). I guess the director wanted to make him seem really menacing, only problem--he wasn't hired to kill them just scare them --- so why is this guy shooting guns in his hotel room at their images and acting psycho if he has no intention of killing them?
It was a bit of a cheat, a red herring for the viewer only, but within the context of the plot his behavior makes no sense.
But here's where everything falls apart. Meeker's plan works to perfection, the Angels hide in Charlie's mansion. Wardlow tails them (before being killed by Meeker), and now Meeker knows where Charlie lives. Only Charlie is out of town, but as luck would have it, he just happens to be heading home from the airport in a taxi. Meeker awaits his arrival and plans to kills Charlie by.... throwing a stick of dynamite into his taxi.
Yes you read that correctly. By throwing a stick of dynamite into his taxi! Which means, for all Meeker's planning, if the toss is mistimed or poorly aimed, he fails and has no backup plan.
The Angels foil the plot by stealing a cab, with Kelly pretending to be a taxi driver, and Jill pretending to be Charlie in the backseat. (Jill puts on a man's suit coat). I'll gloss over the fact that the Angels actually made Charlie's taxi crash in to a truck, though Charlie is unharmed and when we see the cab later there is no visible damage.
So the plan the Angels came up with boggles the mind but it worked perfectly. Still, it's a fun episode despite it not making a lick of sense. I mean not one lick.
It was interesting to see the Angels in their every day lives, with Jill inviting Kelly and her soon to be dumped b/f to watch her coach basketball, and her crazy reaction to a bad referee's call. We glimpse the inside of two of their apartments and get some insight into what makes them tick. In some ways, the sheer audacity of the plot is what made the episode entertaining.
