Last week’s episode of Countdown saw the task force fumble all of their most promising leads. With Damon Drew dead, Volchek once again in the wind, and pressure mounting on Blythe to share sensitive intel with District Attorney Grayson Valwell or face losing his most valuable assets, the team desperately needed a win.
That win came in Wednesday’s “Blurred Edges,” an episode that flashed back once again to Volchek’s past, involved the team getting prettied up in formal attire for a little spy work, and also featured the appearance of a white knight for Blythe in the form of party fundraising chairman Tim Carmichael (guest star Adam J. Harrington), a man with a gaze so piercing and a handshake so warmly compelling Valwell had no other option than to fold like a pack of cards.
Let’s dive in.
The hour kicks off with a discussion on potatoes. Potato yields. Potato prices. Potato competition. Potato charts. And potato espionage. It is, of course, a flashback to London 2018, with a younger and marginally more happy Volchek hoping to land a lucrative export partnership with a European buyer.
In the boardroom he outlines how amazing his potatoes are, but is put in his place by an American seller whose potatoes are cheaper and more plentiful. Volchek is quietly incensed. He has promised his beautiful, sweet, new wife Kira (guest star Dominika Bíró) that if he lands this important export deal that they’ll “live like Tzars of old.”
It looks like that’s off the table now. Or is it? Volcheck quietly digs up some potato dirt on his rival, threatens him with exposing some sensitive and incriminating photos (we don’t want to know), and watches as the American is forced to step away from the deal.
“You don’t know what it looks like to play dirty,” the other man tells Volchek in a vaguely threatening I am down, but not out sort of way. “You’re about to find out!”
Who knew the food industry was so competitive?
We do actually find out. And pretty quickly too. It looks like the American has done a little digging of his own, biding his time until he can alert the Belarusian government of just how much money Volchek has embezzled from them. When a friend tips Boris off to the fact that his arrest is imminent and that he should probably flee the country, Volchek arranges for both the friend and his adoring wife to meet him on a private get-away jet he has prepared just for the three of them. Just as police cars come screaming down the tarmac to prevent liftoff, Volchek, in a pure Keyser Soze move, detonates a bomb remotely, killing them both. By appearances it was Volchek and his wife who died in the fiery explosion. Presumed dead, Boris is now free to move onto the next step in his dastardly plan.
Meanwhile back in the present day, Meachum is harboring misgivings about Javi Lopez’s block of heroin, and isn’t too shy to ask Oliveras directly about it. She insists she is not an addict, but explains that sometimes it’s necessary to work within the “blurred edges” of good police work in order to obtain results — case in point being Mikhail’s cousin, who suddenly found himself in possession of a couple of grams of tongue-loosening heroin last week.
Meachum is reluctant to believe her, but he’s busy hiding his own debilitating condition, and passes out on the stairwell as his inoperable tumor picks an awkward moment to remind everyone it hasn’t gone away. Meachum eventually recovers himself enough to limp down the stairs to where his impatient colleagues are waiting, fobbing off the incident as forgetting his phone and having to return back to his desk to fetch it. Now it’s Oliveras’ turn to look unconvinced.
Meanwhile Blythe learns from Bell that Valwell wants his “head on a block” as soon as possible, and has even gone so far as to arrange a meeting about it with the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI. Ouch!
The time has come for Blythe to break out the big guns. And those big guns come in the form of longtime friend and colleague Tim Carmichael, the self confessed “ATM” for up and coming Los Angeles politicians. Blythe and Carmichael pay a visit to Valwell, who by accounts looked like he was having a pretty good day actually thank you very much until he opened up his office door to find both men inside waiting to ambush him with charm, smiles, handshakes, and a word of caution. Casually name dropping Gavin Newsom, Carmichael lets Valwell know that as party funding chairman he has the discretion to turn on — and off — the funds for … well whoever he wants. The message is clear. Stay out of Blythe’s way, and keep your job. It doesn’t take long for Valwell to see the big picture.
Meanwhile, back at the office the team decides to focus on the Belarusian consulate. Might they have heard of Volchek, a clever demolitions expert with the means and funds to procure fissile material, and enter the United States? Surely? Surely wurley?
Apparently not. The weaselly Consul General, Iosif Astapov (guest star Pasha Lychnikoff) brushes off Blythe’s request for information like a man who doesn’t yet realize just how tenacious Nathan can be. Blythe sets a plan in motion and the remainder of the episode plays out like a spy thriller as the team dons their best black tie and crashes a formal party at the consulate. Their aim is to crack into a database of persons of interest to understand if Volchek’s identity can be gleaned. But to do that Meachum and Oliveras have to pretend to be a couple, and Shepherd a waitress, while Finau and Bell are set up in a catering van on the grounds outside. Blythe will be the only member of the team acting as himself on the night.
The plan is simple: get Blythe to take Astapov offside and into his office to talk. Copy Astapov’s security ID, get Shepherd, Meachum and Oliveras to Astapov’s personal computer, distract Astapov long enough for Shepherd to copy the database, and get the hell out in once piece. Simple, right?
Things go wrong almost straight away, starting with a lag in comms that leaves Meachum and Oliveras hanging awkwardly as their names are added to the electronic guest list. Later Blythe has trouble getting Hastapoff to leave the party, even after dangling the prospect of a bribe at him. Then Bell has trouble copying Hastapoff’s security tag, and has to ask Blythe to convince the Consulate General to close and reopen his office door so the tag can be re-read and scanned a second time. Blythe, swan gliding gracefully over water that he is, pulls everything off without a hitch. However, Meachum encounters a series of security guards (including one in the room he’s trying to stash an unconscious body in), and is forced to fight his way through, again, and again, even quipping exhaustedly “Do you know where the bathroom is?” when encountered grappling on the floor in a nearby room by yet another security guard.
In the end, and in a homage to countless spy movies, the team get the database they need in just the knick of time, exiting the room just as Blythe and Astapov are reentering it. Phew!
Back at the office, the gang congratulates each other on a job well done. And this time there is a substantial payoff. Astapov was lying, as they suspected. Volchek’s name is on the database. In fact, there’s a whole file on the guy, including his real name (Boris Vusovich), and details on what he did to his poor wife and friend. Not to mention all his shady potato dealings and company funds embezzling.
Also in the present day, a brooding Volchek (no doubt still sore about Potato-Gate, and having to blow up both his lovely wife and loyal confidante) is cheered by news from a henchman who successfully managed to pull remote security footage from Mikhail’s restaurant on the night of the fire. He is further cheered to learn the footage contains a pretty clear shot of Meachum. Which in turn means it might be easy to find his records, and by extension, him.
And who says it’s impossible to find good henchmen these days?
Volchek begins to scan hacked LAPD records for a match for Meachum’s face. However Evan Shepherd is one step ahead! She’s substituted the profiles of the entire task force with fake photos. As the team giggle over their new IDs (Finau is white!), we see Volchek glowering unhappily at a profile photo of Meachum who does not match the image from the security footage.
Well done team!
In next week’s “A Needle or a Bullet” the team follows a new lead out into the California desert, where their suspect isn’t going down without a fight. Meanwhile, Volchek initiates the next phase of his plan.
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