Episode: Human Target 2.02 – “The Wife’s Tale”
Original Air Date: November 24, 2010
The episode starts with a look into Chance’s past as he performs a hit while disguised as a heating repairman. Before he kills his target, though, Chance puts in a call to his broker Donnelly to ask “Are you sure about this target?” Donnelly responds with a laugh and notes that Chance is “the only guy in this business that asks these kinda questions.” Perhaps this is the beginning of Chance’s conscience?
After Chance finishes the assassination, we flash forward to the present day when Donnelly calls Chance again, this time to protect the wife of the man Chance murdered. We see Donnelly for the first time as Chance goes to meet with him, then Chance and Winston do their research on the protectee, at which point Chance goes to meet her when they discover she has a blind date set up — something that the killer could easily know about too.
As Chance pretends to be the wife’s date, Ilsa shows up to check on her investment and forces her way into sitting with Winston as he does surveillance. When the wife’s real date shows up, it doesn’t take long for Chance to realize that the other man is the assassin. While Chance does his best to protect the wife, Guerrero and Ames attempt to figure out why she and her late husband were targets. Guerrero goes to talk to Donnelly, but because he’s without his glasses (they ended up in a meat grinder), he’s forced to get Ames to drive him. She then bursts in on Guerrero’s meeting and manages to get information he couldn’t — the name of a lawyer at an investment bank who allegedly hired the assassin.
Of course, next Guerrero and Ames pay the lawyer a visit and interrogate him for information. They discover that the dead husband was blackmailing the bank, apparently using some research on stock market behavior. Chance and the wife discover through the husband’s research that this could be used by an investment company to cheat the system. After viewers put two and two together, we realize that the husband knew the investment bank was illegally scamming the stock market, so the hit was put on him as payback.
During the course of Chance’s protection, he relates information about the house that helps the wife to realize he is the one who killed her husband. Naturally, this is pretty upsetting and she shoots Chance. Yes, she shoots her own bodyguard. However, this doesn’t prevent Chance from stopping the assassin. Even after Chance has saved her life, the wife still wants to kill him.
This event is prevented, though, by the arrival of Donnelly, who it turns out is behind the whole thing. He hired Chance to stop the assassin so Donnelly himself could kill the wife and collect the money. Fortunately, the arrival of Winston and Ilsa means the death of Donnelly as the former shoots him.
Despite all this, the wife still holds a grudge against Chance for her husband’s murder. Everyone agrees to keep the fact that the husband was blackmailing the bank and planning to run off with the money a secret. Best that the wife continue to think of her husband as a good man, Chance figures. The episode wraps up with Guerrero showing some grudging respect for Ames as he buys her a drink, and Ilsa ponders how Chance can be okay with everything. Winston tells her that he’s not, but they try to make things right as best they can.
Of course, this episode is wrapped up in Chance’s past and focuses on his attempt to atone for his assassinations. As Winston notes, it’s the very desire for forgiveness that Donnelly exploits in Chance. It certainly appears to make Chance more vulnerable, and who knows how many people from his former life will have the same idea as Donnelly?
It also appears that the show’s creators are setting up Ames as a foil for Guerrero. I’m more a fan of Winston and Guerrero playing off of each other, so I hope that doesn’t change much. Guerrero and Ames seems to have a teacher-student relationship, while Winston is busy introducing Ilsa to what the business is like.
All in all, a nice continuation of the season.
Rating: 3.5 / 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.