- Home
- Television
- Without a Trace
- Review - Without a Trace - Last Call
Review - Without a Trace - Last Call
- By Mark O'Neill
- Published 10/14/2008
- Without a Trace
- Unrated
Mark O'Neill
I am a 30-something professional writer, blogger and editor. Originally from Scotland and now living the ex-pat life in Würzburg, Germany. I have been writing for over 20 years and have worked for newspapers and appeared on BBC television and radio. Now internet is the new medium and I am still feeling my way around. Manic depressive obsessive tea drinker, obsessive internet surfer with Monty Python-type sense of humour. Best taken in small doses. Consult your pharmacist before visiting.
View all articles by Mark O'Neill
The Missing Persons team have to decide this week if they have a missing person on their hands or a prison escapee. If it's a prison escapee then they have to turn the case over to the US Marshalls. But of course Jack being Jack, he wants to keep the case and win it so he decides that Alan Reynolds is a missing person, come what may. It helps of course that his boss, Agent Medina, is in Washington DC and therefore is not around to overrule Malone's decisions.
Reynolds is being transported in a prison van to testify against his former business partners for fraud when the van is attacked by two hooded gunmen. Reynolds is bundled out of the van and into another vehicle. As I said, they wonder about the escapee versus missing person angle but one thing going for the escapee theory is that if they wanted him kept quiet for testimony, they would just have shot him.
So the team do what they usually do - they go through all the people in Reynolds life - which is surprisingly small. His mother explains why which is that Reynolds witnessed a traumatic experience when he was 15 and after that he became obsessed with making money and keeping people at arms length. But he had plenty of enemies - including a Mob boss whom he ripped off for $5 million. His mother does say though that her son had a mysterious woman in his life - Leslie Pickford.
When one of the prison guards wakes up, he says that Reynolds apologised to him in the van for what was about to happen so that clinches it - it was an escape. The team wants to call the US Marshals but Malone wants to keep the case. He's sure something isn't right - why would a man with only 6 months to go on his sentence escape?
They find the getaway van abandoned in a garage and when they are there, they come upon the janitor. The janitor says he overheard Reynolds and another guy discussing raiding a bank which had $10 million in the vault.
This sets the FBI in a frenzy trying to work out which bank it is. But then Reynolds calls 911 and tells them which bank it is. They hide in the bank and when the bank robbers run in, the FBI surround the bank and tell them to surrender. All but one surrender. The remaining one swings up his gun and Agent Fitzgerald shoots him twice in the chest. But the robber is wearing a bullet-proof vest so he survives.
But when they pull the masks off, Reynolds is not among them and the others refuse to say where Reynolds is. The other mysterious part to this whole mystery is that the bank only has $800,000 in the vault, not $10 million. Bad information? A set up?
The FBI techies trace Reynolds 911 call to a pay phone and analyze the call he made. But they check the previous call and it was to the prison infirmary. So they haul the prison doctor in and he confesses that Reynolds called him. He says that Reynolds has fatal cancer and it's a miracle he is still alive.
Jack meanwhile has been pursuing the woman - Leslie Pickford. He has finally managed to track her down but it is not her that Reynolds wants to see. Fitzgerald has gone to see Reynolds' cellmate at the prison and thanks to a letter that Reynolds left him, it's been found out that Pickford is the mother of Reynolds' son, Cory. Malone goes to see Cory and he tells Malone that Reynolds had been there a half hour previously to try and mend relations with him.
After leaving the house, Malone finds Reynolds at his mother's house and arrests him. But later, he recommends to the FBI that due to Reynolds' terminal condition, no further action should be taken against him.
This was actually quite a good episode - you know why? Because Medina wasn't in it! The script was smooth, there was some good action in it and the plot wasn't stupid. I wish it would be like this every week.
Reynolds is being transported in a prison van to testify against his former business partners for fraud when the van is attacked by two hooded gunmen. Reynolds is bundled out of the van and into another vehicle. As I said, they wonder about the escapee versus missing person angle but one thing going for the escapee theory is that if they wanted him kept quiet for testimony, they would just have shot him.
So the team do what they usually do - they go through all the people in Reynolds life - which is surprisingly small. His mother explains why which is that Reynolds witnessed a traumatic experience when he was 15 and after that he became obsessed with making money and keeping people at arms length. But he had plenty of enemies - including a Mob boss whom he ripped off for $5 million. His mother does say though that her son had a mysterious woman in his life - Leslie Pickford.
When one of the prison guards wakes up, he says that Reynolds apologised to him in the van for what was about to happen so that clinches it - it was an escape. The team wants to call the US Marshals but Malone wants to keep the case. He's sure something isn't right - why would a man with only 6 months to go on his sentence escape?
They find the getaway van abandoned in a garage and when they are there, they come upon the janitor. The janitor says he overheard Reynolds and another guy discussing raiding a bank which had $10 million in the vault.
But when they pull the masks off, Reynolds is not among them and the others refuse to say where Reynolds is. The other mysterious part to this whole mystery is that the bank only has $800,000 in the vault, not $10 million. Bad information? A set up?
The FBI techies trace Reynolds 911 call to a pay phone and analyze the call he made. But they check the previous call and it was to the prison infirmary. So they haul the prison doctor in and he confesses that Reynolds called him. He says that Reynolds has fatal cancer and it's a miracle he is still alive.
Jack meanwhile has been pursuing the woman - Leslie Pickford. He has finally managed to track her down but it is not her that Reynolds wants to see. Fitzgerald has gone to see Reynolds' cellmate at the prison and thanks to a letter that Reynolds left him, it's been found out that Pickford is the mother of Reynolds' son, Cory. Malone goes to see Cory and he tells Malone that Reynolds had been there a half hour previously to try and mend relations with him.
After leaving the house, Malone finds Reynolds at his mother's house and arrests him. But later, he recommends to the FBI that due to Reynolds' terminal condition, no further action should be taken against him.
This was actually quite a good episode - you know why? Because Medina wasn't in it! The script was smooth, there was some good action in it and the plot wasn't stupid. I wish it would be like this every week.