During the first few minutes of "A Clean Conscience", I was worried: oh no, not another mission-of-the-week. Reassuringly, the mission turns out to be more important than it first appears to be: it does not conclude in this episode, it is (still mysteriously) connected to Elena Derevko, and it gives Dixon a great side story about "casualties of war", as he meets an old CIA friend who has now gone deep undercover and has made the decision to sacrifice some innocent lives in order to save many, many more. The mission is one part of the episode; the threat of Elena Derevko is another; the third is Jack's deteriorating health after his exposure to fatal levels of radiation in "Nightingale" (superior acting by Victor Garber here). The episode concludes with a "Usual Suspects"-type plot twist that I did not see coming at all. The only possible disappointment is that Sydney doesn't actually do anything this time. *** out of 4.
2 Reviews
The third Derevko sister
Tweekums15 September 2010
Warning: Spoilers
When a bomb goes off at the Indonesian embassy in Copenhagen it looks like a terrorist attack; but nobody has claimed responsibility. It turns out the attack was carried out by a group called the Beograd Faction, they hadn't attacked the embassy for political reasons but to get information about a new bio-weapon. The CIA had a man undercover but as they haven't heard from him it assumed he has been killed. When Vaughn and Dixon go to investigate they are surprised to find him alive and well; initially they believe he must have gone rogue but he claims he is still loyal and needed to keep quiet to avoid blowing his cover before the weapon was recovered. To help recover the weapon Dixon is also sent in undercover and when it looks as though Milos Kradic, the head of the faction, has realised one of them is a mole him must take a drastic decision. Back in LA Nadia is pleased to learn that the woman who looked after in Buenos Aires is coming to visit her and Jack is dealing with his radiation poisoning. As the episode comes to an end Dixon is still undercover and we learn what Jack and Sloane have been up to recently; they know that there is a third Derevko sister looking for Sydney and Nadia!
This was a pretty good episode; it gave Carl Lumbly a chance to take centre stage as Dixon, a role he does very well in even though the character is usually overshadowed by the rest of the cast; this is a shame as he is an interesting character. Jack's visit to the doctor seemed to raise more questions than answers; the Doctor's response when Jack showed him the implant he found was most suspicious. The last minute reveal about the last of the Derevko sisters was a surprise; I'll be interested to see where that plot line goes.
This was a pretty good episode; it gave Carl Lumbly a chance to take centre stage as Dixon, a role he does very well in even though the character is usually overshadowed by the rest of the cast; this is a shame as he is an interesting character. Jack's visit to the doctor seemed to raise more questions than answers; the Doctor's response when Jack showed him the implant he found was most suspicious. The last minute reveal about the last of the Derevko sisters was a surprise; I'll be interested to see where that plot line goes.
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