The Working File

This was a somewhat uneven episode, possibly because it too much going on. There was (1) the main story about looking for the last Nazi, (2) the story about Molly in the fake airplane company office, being confronted by Carson (the “uncle” of Grey’s serious but very short-term girlfriend Joss, aka Switchblade), (3) the story of Col. Ryan being offered a promotion to general, which itself had an extended flashback to his childhood and teen years before joining the Army, and (4) the cold open story about rescuing the boy, which had nothing to do with anything else, but was pretty cool.

The episode’s main story — about the Unit’s attempt to hunt down and abduct the world’s “last Nazi,” was fine. The new President — who was saved from assassination in the first episode of the season — asks Jonas, as a favor, to hunt down this person, whom evidence indicates is one of the few free surviving Nazi’s. The President is concerned because a prominent supporter and contributor is trying to have the target assassinated. The President prefers that the man be arrested/kidnapped and delivered to the Hague for trial. If his supporter’s team is successful, and the man is murdered (no matter how justifiably), the president would have to answer for it. On the other hand, the US has no authority to arrest the man in another country, which is why the Unit’s effort is arguable an illegal abduction. No matter what, the President cannot afford to be tied to what happens.

The team travels to Switzerland, follows some leads, identifies their rivals, and goes to work. They determine the man is employed in a hospital/clinic. Jonas poses as a doctor while Red Hat keeps an eye out in the waiting room. Jonas manages to grab the attention of a priest, who is — to the audience — obviously the Nazi. Somehow Jonas cannot tell, and lets the man lead him to a room in which Jonas opens his back to the man who beats him unconscious with a cane. Meanwhile Bob and Mack stage a car accident to derail their rivals who want to kill the guy, but then needlessly escalate the post-accident encounter so much that they get arrested. And Red Cap so obviously talks to herself that yet another operative, from who-knows-where makes her, and she is forced to trust him when he presents her with evidence that Jonas was abducted. I’ve never seen the entire team look so incompetent.
Red Cap, Grey, and Mystery Man team up to rescue Jonas (why would the Nazi abduct him instead of just running away?). We eventually discover that mystery man works for an ally — Israel?, Germany? who also wants the Nazi. Jonas, Red Cap, Grey, and MM take the Nazi, and head to their van.

Then a young woman on a motorcycle, who was shown to us once or twice during the episode, comes up, takes off her helmet, shoots the Nazi, and starts spreading photos of his long-dead victims on his body. Is she related to them? Mossad? A free-lance Nazi killer? Who knows. She sits on the ground and waits to be arrested while everyone else skedaddles. The ending actually was the strongest part of the story, and revisits a theme this show comes back to often, which is that in the line of work these people are in, you often do not get answers. Somebody else shows up, does her job, and you never learn the who or why of it.

Back at home, Molly is killing time in the fake business office, when Carson shows up. She doesn’t know what to make of him any more than she did Joss when she showed up. Our economy would be much better off if real businesses had this many unsolicited customers. Eventually Carson — in a roundabout way — makes it known that he is here to pay off Molly, Grey, and anyone else involved so they will stay away from Joss. Since nobody bothered her or him since Carson threatened Grey, we don’t know why he would do this. For that matter, why did Joss show up at the office in the first place? He still thinks this is an elaborate gold digging scheme. I still think there is more to this story than we have been shown so far.

Joss and her "uncle"

Joss show up in the middle of it, and tells Carson that she believes it is a real airplane company, and to leave them alone. When Carson challenges Joss to ask Molly what is the cruising speed of one of the planes shown in a picture on the wall, Molly retreats to the back room. She starts watching them on the security camera, and starts making a call, but he just walks in and asks what is going on. Eventually they apparently leave, although we don’t see how the meeting resolved. Molly shows the blank check that Carson left her to Kim, who makes a joke about cashing it, and that’s it.
Yes, I think there is something more going on here. I hope so.

The Col. Ryan story was the least interesting to me, so I’m going to handle it very briefly. He is offered a promotion to general. This causes him to remember why he joined the army, which involves an abusive father figure and a mother who slept around (maybe even turning tricks). Blah blah talk with his wife, he’s torn about taking the promotion which would mean leaving the Unit. Why isn’t he driven out in disgrace? Wasn’t that the price he was supposed to pay for them not killing him when they discovered he had been sleeping with Mack’s wife Tiffy? Of all the personal stories in this show, seeing him as a child was the least interesting.
Finally, the beginning. I left the best for last. In the open, we see Grey deliver room service in a hotel. Some goons search him, search the room service cart, and let the cart but not him into the room of the man they are guarding. Then the one wrong note of this mini-story happens: Jonas pops out of a hidden compartment in the cart. Jonas. The biggest man in the Unit was hiding there. Not Mack, not Grey (there’s a reason they sometimes call him Carlito), but Jonas, who probably couldn’t fit in the cart at all, much less behind a fake wall. Skip past that problem, however, and the fun begins. Jonas kills everyone inside the hotel room, including the leader (whose role, nationality, etc. are never revealed) and starts looking for someone else. He ends up finding a boy, about 8-10 years old, hiding under the bed. Jonas explains that he came to rescue the boy, pulls out a harness, and straps the boy to himself. Meanwhile the goons left outside the room start getting suspicious and threaten to break down the door just as Jonas shoots the window, jumps out with the boy attached, and parasails into a moving truck being driven by the rest of the team. Mini-story over, roll opening credits and theme music. Perfect.