Jane and Strike Force Vicodin become the bad guys for one episode - and they let a Neuro live.
The show gets into a groove here, not so much trying to explain the why of Painkiller Jane the phenom as tell a story. I know, I was shocked as well. They writers have 19 more episodes this year to get into the nitty-gritty of why former DEA Agent Jane Vasco can be wounded, scarred, shot, stabbed, and heal in short order.
Speaking of short, Vicodin's resident computer geek Riley "Nerd" Jensen gets played by a Neuro who can take over people's minds, and make them forget a little or everything. He becomes the pawn for the Neuro to hatch his dastardly world domination plans to, um, grab a painting of a little boy holding a floppy basket. Wait, don't go. Why he does it is almost convincing (it wasn't a groan moment) if you can buy into the, as yet, incomplete puzzle of who and what Neuros are.
We open looking down on a train rattling down open-country tracks. Inside the engine, the train engineer says he can't remember how to throttle back to steer the thing. As a result, it's going too fast and derails, leaving a typical smoky but flameless train crash scene. (Think Fugitive in the daytime.) The driver, Jason Hampton, has a spotless record and he's not likely to just go off the rails without a reason. Vicodin team member Joe Waterman, knows him. Remember, Waterman's a former railway man who for some reason became part the team that now has its HQ in the same subway where he used to work.)
We have a Liberty Mutual Insurance ad moment - without Half-Acre's "Hem" - where PJ helps an old lady who was bumped pick up all her groceries, and they share appreciative smiles. "What ever happened to common courtesy," PJ voiceovers. "Is everyone involved in their own personal drama today? Well, let's just pretend I didn't ask that."
At HQ, Riley notes an Edgar Dawson has had a similar mindswipe experience. Dawson's a supra-wired ubërmensch to millions of Digg fans who want to hijack HD-DVD codes. And Riley has posters of him in his bathroom. Well, maybe. Since both are computer teKheads - they share the geekenese language - team leader Andre McBride gives him the nod to go out into the field. Usually Riley's stuck in front of the monitor, fielding communications, and watching everyone else get their hands dirty.
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