(S03E04) I've seen every episode of Numb3rs. Some of them twice. The episodes with Lou Diamond Phillips? At least three times. But you know what? This was hands down the best episode of Numb3rs yet. It had everything.
So what was so great about it? The case itself. It was smart, relevant, and it didn't seem far-fetched. Shawn Hatosy was excellent as Colby's war buddy Carter and even though it was pretty clear he was the mole from the get-go, he still played the part to perfection. Hard to think that an actor who I can only remember from that "my teacher is an alien" movie The Faculty would turn out such a great performance, but he did.
The quality of this episode didn't stop there though. We finally got to see a side of Don that we haven't seen yet. We've always known that the elder Eppes brother is 100% percent dedicated to his job. Now we know it's 110%. After Colby withheld information on Carter and Don found out? Man, he instantly became the "hard-ass boss" and we've never experienced that. Then at the end of the episode when he threatened Colby with jail time should he ever lie again? That was cold, even for Don. I wonder if we'll continue to see a rift develop between these two for the rest of the season now?
One more thing really stood out for me in this episode. The potential for conflict between Charlie and Larry. Have these two ever had a disagreement before? I don't think they have (at least not a work related one). However, Larry's choice to not include Charlie in the math associated with his most recent published piece may have been a mistake. I know they "made-up" at the end of the episode, but I can't see Charlie letting something like that die so easily. This won't go away.
Lately, I've been considering dropping Numb3rs as one of the shows I cover for TV Squad. Why? Because I've felt like every week I'm just writing the same things over and over again when I post about the episodes. Well this installment has certainly changed my mine. Numb3rs seems to be changing things up a little (new cast members too) and I hope the trend continues.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-14-2006 @ 10:49PM
FredTheCat said...
Actually, this episode might have finally made the decision to stop watching for me. The leaps of logic are becoming increasingly broad.
The first absurdity was that he could tell she had been hit by an accelerating vehicle with nothing more than the body. I don't buy it.
And then the information buried in the pictures. Fine, that I can buy...but you can't "zoom in" on pixels of an image until they're huge blocks and discover fully formed asian characters within a pixel. That's not how steganography works. The way it DOES work IS all about math, but they chose to use thios complete falsification of the decoding process. Where were the esteemed math consultants when this segment was laid out?
And what kind of cop turns his back on an armed bad guy who only moments earlier was about to shoot him and walks blissfully away, REGARDLESS of how many others have the suspect covered?? Wow, that's cool.
This show is really stretching to meet its concept and the absurdity is making it hard to buy into the stories.
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10-15-2006 @ 12:01PM
LC said...
Actually, Charlie and Ameida were using sophisticated software back at his office to decrypt the hidden message. The zoom ins were his way of "dumbing" it down for the Don and the other agents.
Who knows, perhaps they can tell if a car was accelerating from evidence on the body. Of course it probably wouldn't be admissible in court, but would be enough to lead agents in a certain direction.
As for Colby turning his back, well there were a dozen agents trained on his buddy and I don't think he beleived for an instance that his war buddy would shoot him.
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10-16-2006 @ 5:45AM
Jim said...
I was less impressed by this episode than Toomey. I've always thought Colby was the weak link on the show, but his buddy Carter made him look like an Oscar winner. I also don't like to see the agents continuing to patronize Charlie. This trend undermines the entire premise of the show.
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11-01-2006 @ 12:54PM
Brett said...
Does anyone know the name of the plastic 3-D puzzle/toy they called the "Worlds toughest brainteaser" the two professors were passing back in forth during their discussion?
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11-02-2006 @ 9:54AM
Bret said...
It was a Gordian Knot
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12-01-2006 @ 7:08PM
Mike said...
On THE MOLE episode, what was the song that was playing at the beginning of the show in the club. I've noticed it is also in an intel commercial as well.
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1-03-2007 @ 9:27PM
killme said...
That song was called Different Sound by Teddybears. You can hear it on their site http://www.teddybearsrock.com/home.php
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