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RECAP & REVIEW: INTELLIGENCE SEASON FINALE “BEING HUMAN” DELIVERS BIG

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Before I jump into my recap and review of the Intelligence season one finale, I just want to take a moment and say a huge thank you to everyone involved with Intelligence, but especially to those who are active on social media: Michael Seitzman, PJ Byrne, Michael Rady, Aaron Ginsburg, John Dixon, Lance Reddick, Tomas Arana, Faye Kingslee, Octvavius J. Johnson, and last but most certainly not least, my favorite leading lady, Marg Helgenberger. The social media tie-in, the sharing of behind-the-scenes photos and script pages, and the interaction with the fans through live tweets really enhanced my viewing experience — it’s, by far, the most fun I have ever had watching a television series. Thank you so much for all of your efforts. And now on to the recap…

If you’ve come to expect heart pounding action and plot twists galore, you will not be disappointed with the Intelligence Season 1 finale. “Being Human” delivers a full order of both as Lillian and her team set out to clear Gabriel’s name by finding who is really responsible for the murders that he has been framed for.

Part 2 picks up immediately where we left off last week — with Gabriel, Riley, and Mei Chen fleeing from their would-be assassin. They have no idea who they can trust at this point so they’re trying to stay off the grid, but at the same time, they also know Gabriel needs medical attention. Gabriel knows one person he can definitely trust and directs Riley to drive to his mother’s house. Mary Vaughn, played by the fabulous Debra Mooney, is a retired Army field nurse who is full of spitfire and vinegar and knows her way around an operating room. As Mary and Riley prep Gabriel for surgery, he loses consciousness and Mei Chen seizes the opportunity to get into Gabriel’s head and cyber-render with him.

Mei Chen has decided that she needs to educate Gabriel about the truth, specifically the truth about the people he works for. In their cyber-render, she tells Gabriel that a potential candidate for the Presidency, Governor Christy Cameron, is being targeted for assassination. According to Mei Chen, the conspirators are the same people who hired her to kill those men and frame Gabriel and who then tried to murder both Gabriel and Mei Chen. She knows that they are U.S. government employees but says she doesn’t know specifically who because whoever it is has been very careful. After telling Gabriel she doesn’t care if he believes her or not, Mei Chen exits both the render and Mary Vaughn’s house.

Back at CyberCom, while trading barbs about who is responsible for what happened at the park, Lillian and Jeff Tetazoo brief the Director of National Intelligence Adam Weatherly about the attempt on Gabriel’s life and the fact that he is now on the run with both Riley and Mei Chen. Tetazoo vows that he will find them and reiterates to the CyberCom staff that they are to find and bring in Gabriel, Riley, and Mei Chen dead or alive. Lillian questions the logic of Tetazoo’s orders, especially now that they know there’s an unknown shooter out there who could prove Gabriel’s innocence. She says that we shouldn’t be killing our own people and looks to Weatherly for support. To her dismay, Weatherly sides with Tetazoo and says that Gabriel is a threat due to those vulnerabilities in the chip that were documented by Dr. Cassidy. They all must be brought down.

"We can't be killing our own people."

“We can’t be killing our own people.”

While recovering from surgery, Gabriel asks Riley if she thinks one of their own is behind the shooting. They immediately rule out Lillian but say they wouldn’t put it past Tetazoo. As they discuss the possibilities Mama Vaughn points out the obvious — that someone should warn Governor Cameron that her life may be in danger. Riley’s ex, played by Michael Trucco, is in charge of Governor Cameron’s security detail and Riley convinces him to give her an audience with the Governor.

Lillian convenes a second secret meeting with Jameson, Nelson, and Dr. Cassidy to relay to them everything she knows about ‘The Flood’, an Iranian program designed to recruit high ranking U.S. Government officials and turn them into sleeper agents for Iran. Lillian shares her belief that Colonel Hatcher discovered the identity of one or more of these sleeper agents and was turning their names over to the FBI when he and the FBI Deputy Director were murdered. Dr. Cassidy pieces together that they then framed Gabriel to get him out of the way because they knew that Gabriel and the chip would be the best way to find and stop the sleeper agents. The team concludes that Gabriel and Riley’s lives depend on them finding out the identities of the sleeper agents and to do that, they first need to find Gabriel and Riley. Jameson thinks this will be nearly impossible considering that since he wiped Gabriel’s hacking of the minivan computer off the grid, the entire Intelligence apparatus has been tracking Gabriel with no success. Nelson reminds them that Gabriel needs medical assistance and Dr. Cassidy and Lillian remember that Gabriel’s mom is a former Army nurse. They surmise that Gabriel very likely would have sought her help.

Lillian educates her team about 'The Flood'.

Lillian educates her team about ‘The Flood’.

Lillian and her team, however, aren’t the only ones who come to this conclusion. The assassin also figures it out and before Riley returns from the governor’s office, makes another attempt on Gabriel’s life. With a little help from Mom in the form of a can of hairspray and a ‘cannon’ of a gun that she keeps in her nightstand, Gabriel takes out the assailant and using facial recognition technology, he identifies the man as Thomas Olivier.
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INTELLIGENCE 1×12 “THE EVENT HORIZON” RECAP & SCREEN CAPS

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With a season that has been filled with heart pounding twists and turns, it should come as no surprise that part 1 of the Intelligence season finale, “The Event Horizon” delivers even more thrills than ever before. This action-packed episode features not only a crime scene cyber-render that points to Gabriel as the prime suspect of a multiple homicide, but also another fierce head-to-head match-up between Lillian and her old ‘friends’ Adam Weatherly and Jeffrey Tetazoo. And as if those highlights weren’t enough to guarantee a thrilling and suspenseful episode, we also have the return of both Mei Chen and Leland Strand to add a few more twists and turns. What has become the central theme of this first season of “Intelligence” – trust – also comes to a head as the CyberCom team works to clear Gabriel’s name and discover who is actually behind the murders. With each passing scene, it becomes more and more difficult to determine who can be trusted and who cannot.

The episode opens with three men being murdered in a hotel room – the Deputy Director of the FBI for domestic ops, the former head of Intelligence for the U.S. Central Command in the Middle East, and a security guard. When CyberCom starts investigating the murders, they learn that someone was working behind-the-scenes to clear the assassin’s path, wipe the hotel’s key card system clean, and otherwise remove any trace of who committed the crime. As Nelson quips, this was someone ‘with mad skills’. Gabriel then enters the hotel’s computer system in order cyber-render the crime scene. In an unexpected turn of events, it is actually Gabriel who appears in the cyber-render as the potential assassin.

As Lillian questions Gabriel about his whereabouts so as to make sure he does have his alibi in order before Director of National Intelligence Adam Weatherly arrives, his visit being protocol for this type of investigation, Gabriel reveals an unsettling fact – he woke up that morning with a raging headache and has no memory of the previous night’s events other than that he had a couple of beers with Riley. Lillian and her team, of course, trust Gabriel implicitly and know he couldn’t possibly have committed such a crime so they begin to look for clues as to what has really happened and who is responsible. Weatherly and his cohort CIA Director Jeff Tetazoo, however, apparently do not share a similar trust of Gabriel and, again, per the protocol required for such an investigation, they storm into CyberCom headquarters and place Gabriel into “protective custody” or what Weatherly refers to as “keeping our asset safe.”

Lillian gives Tetazoo "The Look".

Lillian gives Tetazoo “The Look”.

Lillian then has a very tense meeting with Weatherly and Tetazoo. Protocol or no protocol, she clearly doesn’t trust either of them, especially Tetazoo, whom she accuses of spying on her agency again. Lillian and Tetazoo trade a few barbs about common courtesy and information sharing before they finally get down to the business at hand. Weatherly and Tetazoo then inform Lillian that the meeting in the hotel room was an ‘off book’ meeting, definitely not protocol for men in their positions. Tetazoo, however, seems more interested in focusing on Gabriel. He tells Lillian he has two theories to explain Gabriel’s involvement with the murders: 1) One of the men killed was in command of the mission in Mumbai that ultimately led to the death of Gabriel’s wife so it could be Gabriel seeking revenge; or 2) Someone has hacked into Gabriel’s chip and is controlling him remotely. Tetazoo is leaning towards the second theory and presents Lillian with the details of a classified report written by none other than Dr. Shenandoah Cassidy more than a decade ago. Cassidy outlines what he feels could be a vulnerability in the Clockwork program – that it is possible that someone could hack into the chip and cause a “dissociated cerebral action” and basically operate the asset (i.e. Gabriel) remotely. Again, more questions of trust arise: Who would have had access to this classified information and want to use it against CyberCom in such a manner?

Tetazoo questions Lillian about her refusal to believe Gabriel cannot be controlled.

Tetazoo questions Lillian about her refusal to believe Gabriel cannot be controlled.

Once Lillian is briefed, Weatherly and Tetazoo then separate and interrogate both Gabriel and Riley. Weatherly questions Riley as to how far she would actually go to protect Gabriel, implying that she could be considered Gabriel’s accomplice in the murders. Tetazoo and Gabriel have a similarly contentious meeting and when Gabriel takes a cyber-peek at Tetazoo’s files and remarks “Judging from your files, you’re more likely to have committed these murders that I am”, Tetazoo is none too pleased. Gabriel then tries to plead his case, saying that he should be out there searching for whoever has framed him, but Tetazoo informs Gabriel that he isn’t going anywhere because he is “a dangerous weapon that can’t be controlled” and then rather viciously states that as far as he’s concerned, he’ll have the chip ripped out of Gabriel’s head before Gabriel is allowed to leave CyberCom. Feeling that he is being threatened, Gabriel punches Tetazoo and, with Riley’s help, escapes from custody.

Lillian is removed from command.

Lillian is removed from command.

Tensions further escalate after Gabriel escapes when Tetazoo confronts Lillian about her refusal to believe that Gabriel cannot be controlled. Lillian thinks Tetazoo is just mad because his ego got bruised and chides him: “You took a punch, Jeff. Get over it!”. Weatherly steps in, however, and tells her that this incident has caused the President to doubt her ability to control and contain her asset. Weatherly then orders Lillian removed from the command of CyberCommand until further notice, names Tetazoo as Acting Head of CyberCommand, and orders everyone to give Tetazoo their complete loyalty. To the dismay of Lillian and her team, Tetazoo chooses not to presume that they are innocent until proven guilty and launches a full scale manhunt for Gabriel and Riley, ordering that they be brought in dead or alive.
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