'PERSONS UNKNOWN' 1.5 – "Incoming"

[SPOILERS] Things are actually getting interesting now, thank goodness. It really helps having a face to the show's "Big Brother" (in the brilliantly slimy Reggie Lee), and the reveal that Joe's (Jason Wiles) actually working for the villains also gives the show some much-needed depth. Persons Unknown isn't really doing anything particularly inventive and original still, but it's at least grasped a few ideas that made "Incoming" a more enjoyable episode than most.

This week, the captives debated the meaning of Tori's sudden disappearance (an escape to freedom, or a secret culling?), and were immediately given a polar opposite replacement in tomboy convict Erika (Kandyse McClure). Upon awakening in the town, dressed as Tori with a polka dot dress and blonde wig, Erika freaked out and went on a frightening rampage around town, eventually finding herself locked in a bank vault with Janet (Daisy Betts) with the air supply being sucked out.

It's in the little details that the show is beginning to tighten its grip on me, though: we're again shown that the characters beyond the town are likewise being monitored by hidden cameras, hinting at some global mastermind with a wider net than you'd imagine; and after Tori's dead body was discovered in a fountain by her Ambassador father, he was apparently coerced into filming a fake news item claiming she's been found alive, which was broadcast to Moira (Tina Holmes) as a way to fool the captives into thinking it's possible to escape the town safely. Clearly there's a bigger picture to what's going on here, and it's beyond Tori's father -- who was the prime suspect before now. It's just unfortunate that the storyline about Janet's ex-husband Mark (Gerald Kyd) using his reporting skills to try and expose this situation has yet to really work. He's just not a very interesting character, and he's so far spent five episodes just trying to convince his editor that he's onto the story of the century.

Overall, I don't really have much more to add about "Incoming". It just felt more intriguing because the way the story has progressed means we've reached a stage where it's less simplistic now. I still think most of the characters are too bland, but there are signs that we're going to start getting under the skin of people like Graham (Chadwick Boseman), who it's revealed is a Muslim towards the end of this episode. More refreshing is throwing a firecracker like Erika into the mix to stir things up, as McClure (familiar to many as the demure Dee on Battlestar Galactica) gave a fantastically raw performance. You could hardly tell it's the same actress who was so awfully wasted on BSG for years, and director Jonathan Frakes (Star Trek: The Next Generation) did a good job making Erika feel like a literal whirlwind of energy and fury. You barely got a look at her face for long periods, which was a great creative choice -- in that it turned Erika into more a force of nature than a human being, until she bonded with Janet in the vault.

I guess I'm in the minority for sticking with this show, now it's been moved to Saturdays because of poor Monday night ratings, but I'm hoping it continues to improve and there's a worthwhile conclusion to justify the commitment.

WRITER: Linda McGibney
DIRECTOR: Jonathan Frakes
GUEST CAST: Reggie Lee, Kandyse McClure, Lola Glaudini, Andy Greenfield, Lee Purcell, James Read & Maria Norris
TRANSMISSION: 10 July 2010 – NBC, 8/7c