Episode: Human Target 2.10 – “Cool Hand Guerrero”
Original Air Date: January 12, 2011
Sometimes it’s hard for a proud man to accept help.
We start with Guerrero in a hotel room helping an old friend to go on the run from some meth dealers and change his identity. The next morning as Guerrero is leaving, three different cops stop him and ask him to open the trunk. Guerrero, of course, objects, but feeling he has nothing to hide (“I have a permit for the samurai sword.”), opens it to find his buddy dead inside.
When the team finds out about Guerrero’s arrest, they’re more than willing to help clear his name. Chance and Winston head down to the prison, while Ilsa and Ames attempt to figure out what Guerrero was working on that would get him framed. Meeting with Guerrero in the prison, Chance figures out that his friend plans to escape, which means that he and Winston have to work quickly before Guerrero becomes a fugitive.
Shortly thereafter, Guerrero gets a new cellmate who attempts to silence him. One of my favorite moments comes when the cellmate pulls out a shiv, to which Guerrero holds up his spoon and says “Can you come back in five minutes? Mine’s not done yet.” Once Guerrero disposes of the thug, he steals a guard’s uniform and comes right into conflict with Chance and Winston who won’t let Guerrero leave. They ask him to give them a few days and he returns to his cell just as the alarms go off.
Back at the office, Ilsa recruits Ames to break into Guerrero’s locker looking for evidence that the meth dealers want from Guerrero and find a case that Ames can’t open. Meanwhile, Chance and Winston go to gun store where the murder weapon was purchased to gain access to the security cameras and figure out who bought it. Things don’t go quite according to plan as the employees and patrons believe that Chance is attempting to rob them and start raining bullets on him. Fortunately, he gets away and the footage reveals the gun was purchased by one of the prison guards. Ames and Ilsa also manage to open the case to find a notebook that points right to the prison as the source of the meth dealers’ operation (along with files on everyone in the team).
To get inside the prison, Chance has himself arrested for the attempted robbery of the gun store. While in prison, Chance tells Guerrero that the team believes Warden Clancy Cole to be behind the whole operation. Ilsa then meets with Alabama’s Governor to get him on board with busting the prison, offering a generous campaign contribution of $50,000. While this is going on, Winston and Ames find one of the trucks transporting the meth concealed in prison-made snowglobes. However, things don’t quite go according to plan when the truck begins to move while they’re still in the trailer.
As Chance and Guerrero go to breakfast, they find an empty dining hall and four goons waiting for them. In the following brawl, Chance and Guerrero easily take care of their attackers and quickly exit the dining hall to find the meth operation. As they find the lab, Warden Cole finds them. As Cole moves to execute Chance and Guerrero, Winston and Ames radio their position in the truck to Ilsa who brings the Governor with her.
As the guards attempt to capture Chance and Guerrero, the pair use the explosive nature of meth labs to their advantage, dropping chemicals and shooting canisters to take care of their attackers. Guerrero captures Cole and is about to kill him as Chance intervenes. This proves enough time for state troopers to show up and arrest Cole.
Chance and Guerrero decide to drive home, with Guerrero upset over the damage state of his car’s interior. Ilsa wants to talk to him about his spying on everyone, and Guerrero agrees to stop “watching everyone’s backs.” Grabbing food at the local diner, Chance talks to Guerrero about what it means to be part of a team, and then gives Guerrero a snowglobe. Earlier, Ames had found a picture of a little boy in Guerrero’s case, and when Chance says “it’s his birthday coming up soon,” we learn there’s more to Guerrero than meets the eye.
Another good one. I think the show has really found its stride now. A lot of the episodes have essentially the same rhythm to them, but the characters and plots are working well. The dialogue is always one of my favorite things in this show, with one example being when Chance and Guerrero are walking through the prison after being freed. The prisoner who attacked Guerrero asks if they’re cops or something, to which Guerrero and Chance respond, “‘Got out on good behavior.’ ‘So behave.'” Ilsa and Ames have certainly shown their value to the show, and I think things are going to be all right.
Rating: 5 / 5 Stars
About the Author
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has this to say about John Rabon:
John got started on the path to geekdom thanks to his brother's collection of comic books and Star Wars toys but was cemented into the geek class forever when LeVar Burton took Reading Rainbow viewers on a backstage tour of Star Trek: The Next Generation. A love of Monty Python soon followed, and it wasn't long before he was starting to collect his own comics. The rest, as they say, is history. But really, who are they to say something?
Since discovering the BBC some years ago, John has become an obsessive Anglophile. In fact, he even likes the food they serve over there! As such, some of his favourite programmes include: Doctor Who, Primeval, Coupling, QI, The Mighty Boosh, The IT Crowd, and Shaun the Sheep.
Upon choosing a university, John enrolled in the University of South Carolina, which was nice enough to give him a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and a Master's in Teaching. Feeling that he hadn't been put through enough academic torment with student teaching, John decided to enroll in law school at Campbell University.
Hobbies, when he can find time for them, include: writing, video games, reading, and wasting time in the pub.