This Wednesday’s episode of Countdown could easily have worked as a season finale. The Volchek storyline ended in a dramatic and violent confrontation between Meachum and our favorite beleaguered Belarussian terrorist at large. The team celebrated their successes and went their respective ways. Finau got a (well deserved) promotion, Amber attempted to shoot her shot with Mark, but was gently rebuffed, and had to settle for a bit of hand holding instead, and the team rallied around Meachum’s brain tumor treatment.
There were smiles, handshakes, and hugs. Roll credits.
But not just yet.
Cut to 10 months later, and we’re getting a new team member in the shape of the chatty but detail oriented Ryan Fitzgerald. Meachum is fit for work, and the gang is back together. It’s all like some sort of Countdown fan fever dream! But wait? Where is Amber? It looks like our Girl Wonder is no longer part of Team “Badass Individuals” and nobody but Meachum seems to care.
Guys, where is Amber Oliveras? We can’t do this without Oliveras!
Let’s dive in.
We begin “The Muzzle Pile” right where things left off last week. Meachum has just locked eyes with certain death in the form of Boris Volchek, a man with his finger not only on the latest Scandi fashion choices but the nuclear button. It only takes a second for both men to recognize the other and measure the weight of their respective intent before Boris presses the ignition button on his phone. However instead of fiery death and destruction Volchek’s phone App just does the little rotating circle connection issue thingy.
Ugh, don’t you just hate when that happens?
Of course, clever, smart, wonderful Shepherd has had a lightbulb moment mere seconds ago, and literally rips the tablets from their deadly cargo, instructing Bell to do the same in the other truck. With no signal going to the bombs, there will be no detonation. As Meachum draws his firearm, Volcheck uses the panicked crowd as an opportunity to flee the scene. Both Oliveras and Meachum give chase, but Amber is struck and knocked down a flight of stairs, leaving Meachum to chase him to the rooftop alone.
Up above, Volchek takes careful aim at the trucks below, firing off rounds into the fuel tanks of the nearest vehicle. If he can’t create an explosion one way, another will work just as well. As Bell returns fire below (kinda uselessly though. Sorry Bell, but it’s true. Your talents lie elsewhere.) Meachum stumbles out onto the rooftop, his tumor thumping, and his vision blurred. Now is THE worst time for a brain episode but thems the breaks. He spots Volchek who has taken cover behind a frame, and is only partially visible.
There is a moment of stillness as both men take aim at their respective targets, breath slowed, their eyes focused on the impossible. But it’s Meachum (buoyed by Oliveras who appears on the scene but is happy for him to take the shot) who outshoots his nemesis, planting an ugly headshot into Volchek’s plans, and killing him instantly.
Down on the street, Finau and his wife and kids struggle their way through the crowds to safety, until Finau recognizes Volchek’s henchman Andre Sobol in the crowd. Sobol recognises Finau too, and both men go for their weapons at the same time. Luckily Finau outdraws Sobol, and Volchek’s plans die with his final Henchman.
We are treated to several long, slow, scenes that give the audience time to finally exhale following Countdown’s rollercoaster of a season. Blythe makes a speech, and thanks everyone in his team of “Badass individuals” for doing their job so well. (Even Bell gets another affirmation!) Meachum also makes a speech. The gang slowly goes their separate ways — to their homes and families, and to new job opportunities. Nathan goes home to his wife, teenage son, and a set of impressively solid bookshelves. They banter about normal things, and we’re so attuned to action and disaster that we keep thinking something terrible is about to happen. But it doesn’t.
Bell and Shepherd go out to dinner and are spotted by Evan’s annoying sister Molly, who doesn’t turn out to be a secret agent, a terrorist, or get herself killed or kidnapped. Bell promises to keep an eye on Molly while Shepherd heads out of town for her new badass assignment. We keep expecting something terrible to happen, but it doesn’t.
Amber visits Meachum on his porch and they share a beer together. She gives him a poster of a cat with the words “Hang in There” as a joke. Meachum has agreed to go through with Handsome Julio’s experimental brain therapy treatment, and although the DEA already has a new assignment lined up for Amber, she elects to stick around while he’s in hospital. Meachum who confesses “I don’t have a lot of history of people who give a shit about my life” tells her to take the assignment, and not stick around to wipe the drool off his lip.
He doesn’t know how to be vulnerable around Amber, but we can see he’s clearly trying. However when she asks if she should stay the night, he tells her he’s not in a good place mentally, but wants to do things right if and when he gets to the other side of his illness. Amber is crushed. Like visibly absolutely crushed. The pair hold hands in silence.
Meanwhile, Finau returns to the LAPD to discover that after all his hard work and heroics that no one is particularly happy to see him. Even his desk has been given away to some other schmo. Happily it’s all a fake-out. Finau has actually been promoted to Sergeant, and now has his very own office, in which his wife and kids are there to surprise him. A nice moment, Countdown. You had us going there for a while. It’s weird. We’re so attuned to action and disaster that we keep thinking something terrible is about to happen. But it doesn’t.
With just one more loose thread dangling, we cut to Bell, who meets DA Valwell to let him know he’s discovered who the mole is. The only time the task force’s movements were compromised by advance knowledge of their plans was when Blythe ordered a SWAT team from the LAPD for his breach action. The only person who could have given information of that nature — in exchange for a handsome campaign contribution — was Valwell himself. As Valwell splutters his indignation, Bell orders the cops to swoop in and arrest him. Job done! (I have to admit, Valwell seems the obvious choice as the mole, but I never suspected him.)
In a final nice moment, we see Meachum on the morning of his treatment dithering by his car. He glances up at a plane overhead making its way to Texas, where Oliveras is set to begin her new assignment. For the briefest moment we think something terrible is about to happen. Will Meachum choose to walk away, unconvinced he can be saved? Will he lose faith in his future without Oliveras there to heckle and prod him? Instead he enters the hospital where he is surprised to see the whole team waiting for him (Amber included) to wish him well on his recovery journey. Aww!
We don’t have time to consider if something terrible will happen next because Countdown lunges ahead to 10 months later, and a young man sitting at his desk in a US secret service office. Meet the overlooked, overworked, chatty Ryan Fitzgerald (Arrow alum Joe Dinocol), who doesn’t know it yet but who is about to become the newest member of Team Badass.
Fitz’s job is to go through the “muzzle pile” — the barrel bottom — of threats against the government and its officials to gauge whether any of them are credible. What Fitz yearns for is excitement and adventure, and an opportunity to protect the First Family, but that’s probably never going to happen. However when Fitz gets a call about a weird guy in a rented holiday cabin filled with photos of the President or possibly the Governor of California — a call that is violently cut off mid-sentence — he is tasked with investigating. When Fitz discovers the dead body of the caller, a maid who came upon the scene before being killed it leads him to a second discovery — a scary manifesto, written in the would-be killer’s unique hieroglyphs. I don’t know, this seems like a job for a team of misfits and mavericks who excel at taking down credible threats to the country?
Fast forward a little, and we are back in the office, with Nathan Blythe welcoming everyone back to business. But wait. Let’s do a head count: There’s Blythe, Heather, Bell, Shepherd, Finau…. but what about Meachum? Oh wait! There he is, just walking around the corner like it’s nothing, fit for duty and clear-eyed. It seems like Handsome Julio’s experimental treatment has been a resounding success. We learn that Meachum’s tumor is still there, and probably will always be, but it’s no longer the life-sentence it used to be.
Blythe motions everyone into the room to meet Fitz and assess this latest threat, but Meachum’s eyes linger on Oliveras’ empty desk. Where is Amber? Blythe casually informs Mark that she is working on a case with the DEA and can’t be spared. Wait. What? Oliveras won’t be part of this mission. The crew has lost another member, and it hurts even more than Damon Drew.
Chatty Fitz takes the gang to the rented cabin, yapping like a five year old on a Monster energy drink. Nathan is appalled. (We know how he likes his silence.) At the cabin Fitz shows the gang where he first found the manifesto.
Meachum takes note of the hidden drawer used to conceal it, activated by a special button, and wonders if the cabin might have more such contraptions. He’s not wrong. Hidden under the hearth is a secret tunnel with a sniper rifle propped up at one end. Meachum walks the tunnel’s formidable length to the weapon’s target quite some distance away. It’s a gun range target, and each one of the bullets used in our perpetrator’s shooting exercise has found their mark — right in the center of the paper target head.
We get the feeling something terrible is about to happen.
Countdown continues Wednesdays on Prime Video. In next week’s “Run” Shepherd works to decipher the manifesto recovered at Cabin 6, while the rest of the team pursues a suspect on the run.
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