Concentrating on a current crop of animal activists going to extreme measures, Gene, Alex and the rest of the team are at first confronted with a doctor whose daughter is given probably the worst birthday in history. It starts with a box containing a present that would make John Doe from Seven proud, and ends in third degree burns courtesy of a motorbike drive-by wielding a Molotov cocktail. And to think I was disappointed getting the wrong He-Man figure when I was a kid. Back in the office things go from bad to worse as the team find that the rogue militant biker has left a message stating there will be more bombs and attacks on various other establishments where animals are tested. Turning into a clever homage to Silence Of The Lambs, Gene and Alex have to venture into prison to confront Robin Elliot, a psycho-socially manipulative imprisoned animal activist whose prior actions have him imprisoned for life. Just in the way that Lector knows the workings of Buffalo Bill’s mind, it seems that Elliot knows the inner workings of this new terror cell and where and when they will hit next. Slowly dying from hunger, striker Elliot is progressively shutting down but still manages to get under the skin of both Alex and Gene, and even when Gene taunts Elliot with his own form of psychological warfare (involving chips) things get progressively worse. Even when Elliot does crack a little, the team are a bit too late to stop the next step of the terror campaign. And talking of Chris, even with his own beliefs of his inadequacies bedroom-wise, he unintentionally wins the day as, having pick-pocketed The Joy Of Sex book from a suspect, he has the vital missing piece of the puzzle on him at all times. He has the clue to the real suspect on him for nearly the entire episode (not to mention getting the attention from a lot of questioned female students). However, he only has eyes for Shaz and as wedding bells sound he has also found his best man in the form of Ray. So with happy endings all round in the office Gene is the only one not sharing in the fun as it seems being ‘all square’ could cost him his career, friends and position. Check out our review of episode 2 here.
