Hostages: Power of Persuasion Recap (S1:E3)

By:  Baby Z

Episode 3 starts of at the White House, and the President is being advised to drop Sanders as his surgeon due to the blood thinning mishap, only the President doesn’t want to do this because he likes and trusts her.  His Chief of Staff (and enemy) Quentin tells him the conspiracy theorists are going nuts with the whole thing, and the President tells him to look into switching doctors, but not at the risk of Dr. Sanders’ reputation.  

Meanwhile, at the Sanders household, Helen overhears a conversation between Agent Carlisle and his daughter, whereby she learns that his daughter is participating in an art fair at her school today.  When she goes down to the kitchen, she manages to relay this information to Josh-OOOO-ah, her hubby, instructing him to try to find out what schools in the area are having craft fairs today.  

Carlisle asks Archer if everything went as planned regarding Angela, and while Archer confirmed it had, he had a look that suggested otherwise. Could Angela still be alive?

The next scene shows Carlisle walking down a street when he calls his dad and is all, “Uh…where are you, I’m at the meeting spot…” and his dad has no clue what he’s talking about, just as we as viewers see that there’s a sniper scope pointed at Carlisle’s head.  He realizes a set up was in place and manages to jump out of the line of fire just as the sniper takes a shot at him.

Back at his father’s house, his dad reminds him that he needs to stay focused on his daughter and wife, and Carlisle agrees, pointing out that it doesn’t matter who put the order out but why, concluding that the White House must be reconsidering their plan to go with Sanders as the POTUS’s surgeon.  He knows he must convince Quincey to not let this happen, only when he attempts to contact him, Quincey’s not taking his call but instead makes a call of his own, the first thing he says is “I thought Carlisle is supposed to be dead” thus informing the viewers he did, in fact, have something to do with the hit order.

Meanwhile, at the Sanders house, young teen Jake asks Kramer if he had a chance to look in his father’s bathroom for the money he owes Nico, and Kramer said he did not.  Jake doesn’t want to go to school because of the money he owes him, but Kramer’s like, “Too bad, you’re going.” and pretty much shoves him towards the door.  

Maria asks Archer about Carlisle, pontificating that this was supposed to be an in-and-out job, not a 2-week gig and that bitch needs to get paid.

And it’s here that we learn a little back history:  Archer was working security for a US petro outfit outside the Columbian border when they underwent a guerilla attack.  The FBI was called in and Carlisle was the lead negotiator.  Turns out, however, that it was actually a commando raid that got ugly and they freed all the oil men except Archer, who was being held separately.  When Carlisle found this out, he came back for Archer, shot his way in again and saved Archer’s life.

Maria’s response was awesome:  "Impressive.  But I still need to get paid.“  

There was a brief scene at Morgan’s school where Boyd comes to see her since she’s not taking his calls, etc.., and she informs him she’s pregnant and runs away, and we’re then taken to Carlisle in a car taking pictures of a woman walking on the sidewalk with a stroller.

At his work, Josh-OOOOO-aaaa manages to internet search the school having the art fair today when he’s confronted by his girlfriend, Samantha.

I can’t help but to think of her as Peyton from One Tree Hill, ESPECIALLY when we find out in a bit that this is the name of Carlisle’s daughter.  Anyhow, during this scene, Helen Sanders manages to find a cell phone in one of her patient’s rooms, calls the cell phone of one of her husband’s coworkers, and he’s then able to relay that there’s a school fair at Holly Oak Private School.  

While this is happening, we’re shown Quincey getting into his vehicle, only to be not-so-pleasantly surprised by Carlisle being in the backseat with a gun.  He puts the gun to Quincey’s head and told him he doesn’t care who put the hit out him but that they need to figure everything out, and that if Quincey doesn’t make it right and stick to the plan - Carlisle will kill his wife, pulling out the picture of the woman/stroller he took earlier.  Quincey calls of the hit, stating that he just found out the POTUS is sticking with Sanders as his surgeon so the plan is staying the same.

The following scene, however, shows Quincey meeting up with a journalist, who he instructs the info he’s about to give him is ‘off the record’ and tells the journalist that the POTUS is not going to go with Sanders and is being transferred to the Walter Reed Naval Hospital.  The journalists points out that this will probably hurt the POTUS’ ratings regarding healthcare reform and cause "the people” to distrust what he’s been saying about public hospitals being perfectly wonderful and safe.  After telling the journalist that his first priority is the POTUS’ safety, the camera pans out and we see Carlisle sitting at the table immediately next to them.  

Even after watching the entire episode, I’m still not entirely sure what the reasoning was for all this… am I just being blonde or something?

Doctor Sanders manages to swipe the car keys of a coworker, dress up in surgery garb and escape the hospital with Archer being none the wiser.  She shows up at Carlisle’s daughter’s school, tells one of the staff that she’s Peyton Carlisle’s aunt and the staff member deliver’s her right to Peyton’s classroom.  (VERY hard to believe this is how this scene would have played out.)  Helen walks into the class and calls Peyton’s name a couple times, finally seeing the child that looks up, and tells her she’s a friend of Peyton’s dad.  They sit and chat for awhile, Peyton offers to show her her artwork, and Helen asks her a couple times about her mom.  All she’s able to find out though is that she’s sick and in a hospital.  Helen asks her if she’ll draw her a picture, perhaps one of her family?  The result of which, Peyton draws daddy Carlisle with a badge on, and informs Helen that he’s in the FBI.

Not even 2 minutes after all this, Kramer is seen walking thru the school, ordered by Carlisle to make sure his kid’s OK.

While all of this is going on, Jake is at rugby practice (of which his dad is the coach) and he asks his dad if he could please get that money back, that it wasn’t his and he needs to pay kids back.  Josh-OOOO-ahhh is like “Tough shit, little dude.” and Jake runs off upset.  When he gets to the parking lot, we finally meet NICO, who proceeds to beat the shit out of Jake, all while Maria and Kramer watch nearby from her car.  Kramer at one point wants to stop the fight, but Maria stops him stating that they have to stay out of it as it is none of their business.  She tells him that he’s a nice guy and that what they are involved in is not really ideal for “nice guys.”  I really don’t care for Maria too much in the show.  Thus far each of the “bad guys” has shown some sort of redeeming quality of SOME sort, except for her.. there’s nothing that makes me sympathetic towards her doing what she’s doing, her only motivation seemingly being money.

In the following scene, word has leaked that the POTUS is changing hospitals and surgeons, and the public reaction apparently isn’t all that great.  The POTUS then decides once and for all he’s sticking with Sanders, and instructs Quincey to announce that changing hospitals/surgeons was never a consideration.  (Apparently this was why Quincey had the journalist write the fake story?  So that the public’s reaction would solidify the POTUS’ decision not to change plans?)

Quincey calls Carlisle to relay the good news, and as Carlisle’s hanging up he sees via security monitors that someone’s walking up the side of the house, so gun in hand, he comes downstairs to check it out. Turns out, it’s Boyd.  Boyd assumes that Carlisle is Morgan’s father, and appeals to him that he loves Morgan and has a decent job and wants to take care of her.  Carlisle tells him she’s too young, for Boyd to move on and be gone, and Boyd resists until Carlisle gets up in his face, ordering him to never see Morgan again or return to their home, and Boyd can tell that he is most certainly not playing around so he leaves.

Back at the White House, the POTUS’ wife is not happy about his decision to remain with Sanders and the public hospital and in a scene we do not see, convinces him to change his mind.  Carlisle contacts Helen Sanders to let her know the White House was about to call and that she was to convince them to not fire her.  She arrives at the White House, makes idle chit chat with the First Lady, and then the POTUS, his wife and Sanders sit down to chat.  The POTUS tells Helen that they won’t be going with her afterall, but that they need that information to appear as though it was HER decision, not his.  She ends up giving a little speech about how he’s making a huge mistake, that she’s never lost a patient and that, quite simply, she is the best thoracic surgeon there is.  

She manages to convince both the POTUS and his wife to stick with her, and Quincey confirms this with Carlisle, adding that it was not HIM who put the hit out on Carlisle, he believes him right?  Carlisle responds that no, not even for a second does he believe him.

The next scene shows Kramer pulling into a parking lot and approaches Nico & his friends, asking them for weed.  Nico wants to know why Kramer thinks that he’s got weed, to which Kramer said a friend told him.  Nico asks what friend, and immediately following Kramer’s “Jake” response, proceeds to beat the shit out of Nico, warning him to never come near Jake again.  He throws money at Nico and says that Jake’s working for him now.  The camera pans out and we see that Maria witnesses this exchange.

In the final scene, Helen gets home and is in their bedroom closet talking with Josh-OOOOO-aaaa about how she managed to get to Peyton’s school, that Carlisle is FBI, etc.., and when he asks her if she thinks she might be able to sneak out again she asks why.  He informs her that he’s got a plan for them to escape but that he will stay behind as a decoy, which she is not on board about.  Therefore, he comes clean about having an affair with Samantha and while Helen is crying over this information, he asks her if NOW she will please allow him to do the right thing and let him do it?  

We’re left at the end of the episode at this point, wondering if the news of his affair will make Helen OK (angry enough?) with allowing him to probably be killed in order to save her and their children.


Have a tutti fuckin frutti day,
-BZ