TVSquad

There've been quite a few requests for us to cover this show, and honestly, it hadn't really been on my radar until its recent nomination for an AFI award earlier this week. So I set my Tivo to go wild and record whatever it could, and sure enough, I have a nice cache of episodes, ready to becaught up on.

First up, of course, was the pilot episode. So, is this show worth the hype? Hell yes.

The show starts out with Darwyn, an African-American devout Muslim, who's being released from prison. Through whatever contacts he's gotten while in the clink, he makes contact with someone on the outside who will change his life forever: Farik.

It's made clear early on that Farik's plans for Darwyn and the hodge-podge group of "holy soldiers" he's put together is to act as a terrorist sleeper cell within the United States. Though his exact plans are not made clear, he insinuates that they will be hitting a target or targets in the Los Angeles area. And soon.

Darwyn, however, has something altogether different for an agenda. As we watch him make a visit to his parole officer, we find out for the first time that what we've seen is not what is true. You see, Darwyn is a deep cover operative, and his "parole officer" is simply his handler within the FBI. Darwyn's been sneaking his way into Farik's plans for a long time now, and we're now witnessing what should be the tail end of his hard work. He makes it clear to the agent he's reporting to that, though he himself is a Muslim, what Farik and those who work for him are doing has nothing at all to do with what his faith teaches.

There's one problem, though: Darwyn is not fully within Farik's trust. Yet.

We see some examples of how connected Farik is within the world terrorist network, which is what makes it obvious why Darwyn can't simply take Farik down and be done with his business. Darwyn clearly needs to use Farik to gain a better understanding of how many cells operate within the country and help take them down as soon as possible. Oh, and without getting caught, of course.

Darwyn's chance to gain Farik's trust finally comes, when Farik discovers that one of the members of their small gang has been leaking information to someone on the outside. It turns out Bobby had been talking to his Uncle in Egypt, bragging about his involvement with Farik's cell. Farik has the rest of the members bury Bobby in the ground, up to his neck, and begin to stone him, each taking turns. Darwyn purposely misses his first throw, and as he's about to take his second throw, he realizes this whole thing is going to end up with Bobby dead anyway. To put him out of his misery, he reaches for Farik's hidden ankle pistol and puts one right between Bobby's eyes.

Darwyn's in.