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Synopsis in 3 sentences or less:
An arms dealer in Ireland blows up a van full of people in order to foment angst among the locals and have a market to sell guns. The IMF team scares him with some banshee special effects and gets him to admit to the heads of the two warring factions that he was responsible for the crime.
Memorable Quote:
What the hell was that? ~Grant
Just makin' it look good, bud. ~Max
How does this look? ~Grant
Highlight:
The production team does a good job of recreating Ireland (especially considering the show is filmed in Australia), even if it looks like the Ireland of the 1920's.
What the hell was that? ~Grant
Just makin' it look good, bud. ~Max
How does this look? ~Grant
Highlight:
The production team does a good job of recreating Ireland (especially considering the show is filmed in Australia), even if it looks like the Ireland of the 1920's.
Lowlight:
How does the team know to set up the old guy, that he's even involved with the arms dealer and that he's superstitious? And then how did they get tape of the "old people" singing in the van?
Other thoughts, observations, and questions I didn’t ask when I was in fourth grade:
- Shannon does some good work as an Irish folk singer. We also saw her as a French nightclub singer in The Plague, and apparently actress Jane Badler is a singer who has released three albums.
- Wouldn't the Irish in the small-town bar wonder where all these Americans and Aussies came from?
- 24:40 mark - Jim demonstrates to McCarron that his weapons are defective, but why doesn't McCarron ask how he comes to know this? Speaking of McCarron, he's a weak and small-time crook compared to the other villains we've seen in season 2.
- This episode revisits one of the common 1st season tropes which I didn't care for: staging effects to scare people or to drive them crazy. It's one thing to have Shannon dress up as a banshee, but how would they have the technology to move her as a well-lit hologram image through the darkness of night? And Phelps's appearance at the end as some kind of all-knowing spirit was weird and met with a surprising lack of surprise on the part of the younger Irish guys.
Final Analysis:
Our first Season 2 dud. I like the setting, but the plot and its execution left a lot to be desired. Seemed like someone had an idea to do a "banshee" episode in Ireland and then the details were hastily thrown together. Ranking it 19 out of 27.
I anticipated your goodwill towards season 2 might hit a wall with this one. Agreed that it was a great production but the story was a joke. The same questions emerged in my mind regarding why Grant somehow had stock audio of the "old people" singing in the van (one of those "old people" was a quite attractive young woman) and the "leaps of faith" I mentioned on "sting episodes" on "MacGyver" pale compare to Max's little game with the would-be gunman regarding it being "bad luck to kill a black man". And as you said, wouldn't they be particularly suspicious when all the players were Americans and Aussies? It was a cheeseball effort all around and the further along the hour went the more ridiculous it got. I'm ranking this one way down there between "The Haunting" and "The Greek".
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