Last week’s episode of Countdown treated fans to a delightful montage at the gun range. This week’s “Nothing Else Helps” kicks things off with an equally delightful dual exercise montage, featuring Meachum and Volchek in their respective arenas, brooding over their failures and generally looking hot.
Meachum completes a series of impressive full body pull ups, while Volchek is happy to focus on boxing the stuffing out of a punching bag. (Hey, are we sure there’s no treasonous henchmen stuffed away in there?). And while Volchek’s workout ends with him having to take an evil business phone call — which let’s be honest is always a drag — Meachum’s is interrupted by passing out on the floor. Also a drag, but in fairness, I’d probably pass out too if I had to do even half of that routine.
Meanwhile back at the office, Blythe tells the gang they need to stop chasing their tails and find a new direction. While Meachum slinks in, late and excuse-ridden, Bell and Shepherd elect to look into a slim lead: the tongs used to handle the fissile material at the port back in episode 1. Meanwhile Finau questions why the stolen government SUV that escaped the scene came back from forensics so squeaky clean, and devoid of even the tiniest shred of DNA or other evidence.
In lead #3, Meachum gets a ballistics report on those poor IT guys who were gunned down by Volchek’s men when retrieving the stolen footage of the Dance Hall fire. Turns out the bullets are special Russian ordinance, and very rare or something I don’t know. I didn’t realize I’d have to know so much about bullets and firearms before writing this review. Thankfully for all of us Oliveras knows a guy who knows a guy who might know more.
While the first two leads don’t come to much, Finau does make the unsettling discovery that the SUV wasn’t actually a DHS vehicle, but a private one that had been reskinned to look like the real deal, allowing Volchek to sneak past security way back in episode 1.
Posing undercover as a couple, Oliveras and Meachum visit a gun dealer who might know more. Oliveras pretends to be keen on purchasing a rather deadly sounding Russian firearm, and wants to know who else might have bought one recently. Meachum pretends he’s a guy who’s embarrassed to have a girlfriend with such very special interests. After some unconvincing two and fro, the suspicious dealer attempts to flee the scene but the guys give chase and manage to catch and arrest him. Eventually, he gives up a name — Iskanders — private military contractors who sound like just the type of people who might be willing to help Volchek achieve his special US dreams.
Blythe organizes a SWAT team to breach Iskanders’ warehouse, but upon arrival the team find no crew, no weapons, and no trace of Volchek. In fairness Volchek is having quite a bad day, but more on that in a moment. The only person inside the warehouse is a deliberately placed and wily lawyer, who tells Blythe all of Iskanders’ records are stored remotely in Moscow. Dang it!
Back in the office Blythe and SWAT leader Ainsworth engage in a shouting match. This is the second time in 7 episodes that Blythe has raised his voice, and the team is visibly upset, looking like a bunch of 5 year olds listening to their parents fighting in the next room.
Blythe can’t believe Iskanders and therefore Volchek knew they were coming. Ainsworth can’t believe Blythe thinks it might be someone on his team. The audience can’t believe it might be someone on our team. Does Team Countdown have a mole?
Just as we think the episode might be headed towards another dead end lead for the team, Shepherd comes to the rescue. She’s been busy searching for a proverbial needle in a haystack by going through VKN purchases, and finally finds what she’s looking for in the form of “Gallagher Freight” — the cargo trucks Volchek purchased last week. The penny drops for the team as they realise 1) Meachum saw what he saw that night in the Dance Hall basement, and 2) if Volchek’s SUV could be so easily reskinned, then who’s to say what those vehicles might look like now? Moving vans? Delivery trucks? And more to the point, where are they now?
In some character building moments, Bell finally decides which side he’s on after a couple of accidental run ins with the persistent DA Valwell. If Valwell is looking for a man on the inside, he’s not going to find him in Bell. It’s a pity Bell’s hero moment came right as Blythe began to lose faith in him. Can’t Blythe just give him some Daddy praise so we can all go back to feeling good again?
Meanwhile, after covering for him in an awkward bathroom moment in front of Blythe, and going to the trouble to acquire even stronger pain medication, Oliveras finally has had enough, and asks Meachum to tell her the truth about what’s going on with his headaches. Meachum finally admits the truth. He has an inoperable brain tumor, and probably has months or even less to live. Oliveras is as stunned as the audience, even though we already knew what was up. Perhaps it was Meachum’s directness? Or his vulnerability? Or the subtle way in which series star Jensen Ackles ate up this scene? Gah! Where to from here, Countdown fans? Where to?
Elsewhere Volchek is having a very bad day. Ambushed by Astapov’s men — including poor Danil’s uncle (justice for Henchman Danil!) — he is beaten, kidnapped and forced to withdraw all of his embezzled funds from the bank. Not only that, but Astapov wants him on the first plane back to Minsk asap. However when he comes up light with the cash (unsurprising, as dude’s been busy buying henchman lairs, fissile material, warehouses, cargo trucks, and a wardrobe of fetching Scandinavian knitwear and matching coordinates), he convinces his captors to come to his house where the remaining money is supposedly stashed. Astapov’s men, who are clearly going to be dead in the next scene, agree to take him there. This is the sort of ruse Henchman Danil would not have fallen for. Just sayin.
At home, Volchek enters the code on this giant bedroom safe, but as the door opens he quickly steps inside, triggering a subsequent explosion outside that takes out his captors. I swear this guy has nine lives.
In next week’s “The Nail in the Chair” as the teams investigation enters the home stretch, and Volchek’s plans accelerate, Blythe makes a final plea for Consul General Astapov’s help.
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