Human Target season 2 episode 3 review: Taking Ames

This review contains spoilers.

2.3 Taking Ames

“Dude. That was awesome.” Guerrero

This latest episode opens at a factory where Ames and her friend, explosives expert Brodie (J. D. Pardo), break in to steal some explosives. Unfortunately for Ames, Chance was following her to make sure he could trust her.

While the team discusses whether or not they can trust her, Ames fills them in on a bit of her backstory, how she and Brodie grew up together and then, when a job went wrong, he took the fall for it and kept her out of jail and now she owes him.

Meanwhile, Brodie has accepted a job stealing diamonds from a museum from Markus (Hakeem Kae-Kazim, 24,) who wants him to bring Ames into the team. This leads to Ames having to go along with him and the team ends up with a new client, Ames herself.

In order to help Ames, Guerrero kidnaps a member of Markus’ team, Chicago (Mile Dopud, Stargate Universe) and Chance blindly takes his place. Back at the office Guerrero has a little trouble with Chicago, and after Ilsa hits him with his own briefcase, they figure out why Chicago is involved: he’s a cleaner who’s there to kill everyone else on the heist team after the job.

At the museum, the heist team heads in while Ames is taken around the back to take care of the security. She was picked to squeeze through an incredibly small duct and to accomplish this she has to strip down and get oiled up, leading to some fantastically gratuitous shots.

Meanwhile, Chicago has woken up and, finding out that Markus has another cleaner, Yuri, on the team, lets Winston and Guerrero in on some info.

Back at the museum, the job is all going to plan until Brodie figures out Chance is a cleaner and tries to take off with Ames and the diamonds. While Chance takes care of Yuri, Brodie gets away after Ames has taken the diamonds off him.

Ames later gets a call from Markus telling her he has Brodie hostage and wants the diamonds in exchange, so Ames asks Chance and Ilsa for help. The team let Markus get the diamonds, and in exchange, find Brodie on a bench sitting on top of a bomb, giving Chance a chance (I apologise) to use his initiative to save Brodie’s life.

While Markus escapes, Guerrero and Winston cut him off and give him to Chicago. After Ames has said goodbye to Brodie the team decides to let her stay on, while Guerrero gets decidedly more unhappy at the amount of people drinking the 40 year old Scotch that Chicago gave him as a gift.

So that’s what happened: but what was it like?

Well, this episode was definitely a step up from last week’s and in many ways reminded me of the first season. There were plenty of explosions and Chance was once again thrown into a situation where he had no clue what was going on, which is where I think the character excels.

As usual, the fight choreography and stunt work (especially the fight in their office) was absolutely fantastic. Ames also continues to grow on me. Yes, she has the potential to be annoying, but she hasn’t been yet and as the season goes on she could become an interesting addition to the team. It’s also nice knowing there’s definitely going to be some eye candy in an episode. (Or is that just me?)

The character of Ilsa is still very hit and miss for me. She was introduced as a silent partner but was quite involved last week. This week she is being called boss and everyone seems to have to clear things with her. I don’t like the way that’s progressing.  I’m sure she’s been put in as she’s more relatable to the audience than the other main characters, but her complaining about rules and laws is starting to grate a little.

I’m also starting to see a worrying trend (for me): underuse of guest stars. We’ve had Tahmoh Penikett, M. C. Gainey and Mike Dopud, who are all fantastic actors and have had big roles on other shows, coming into episodes and not doing much. Although, with Guerrero and Chicago seeming to gain some rapport, will we see more of Chicago?

Overall, I like the way the second season is progressing and this episode was the best yet. Hopefully, as the writers get a grip on the new characters and how they fit in with Chance, Winston and Guerrero, the season will continue to improve.

Read our review of episode 2, The Wife’s Tale, here.

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