Okay, so we all know this first (and most likely last) season of Hostages has been one huge disappointment.
Every week, I lament the show that could have been. This week, I’m doing something different. I am ranking the most outrageous plot developments in “The Good Reason” in order of preposterousness.
1.Ellen saves Duncan. Last week, Duncan was injected with a syringe full of the poison that is meant to kill the President. Ellen saves him before the opening credits. She’s the MacGyver of modern medicine.
2.The cops investigating the death of the limo driver do not connect that Kramer’s alibi is the son of the doctor operating on the president. Seriously?
3.Archer obtains medical information about a patient just by asking politely. Apparently Maryland College Hospital doesn’t feel the need to be HIPAA-compliant.
4.Ditto for all hospitals in the area. Ellen is able to access the hospital computers and obtain patient information without logging in or needing a password.
5.The Sanders still have an answering machine. I’m willing to accept they have a land line. I’m willing to accept they have voice mail. But an answering machine that still plays the message out loud? Only my parents still have one of those.
The big reveal of the episode is that this is all happening because the president wants to expose and eliminate Operation Total Information, a government surveillance program that allows intelligence agencies to spy on U.S. citizens. Sound familiar? Any similarities to current events is most likely entirely intentional.
“Better that the president die than undermine national security,” Col. Thomas Blair (guest star Brian White) tells Quentin, the president’s chief of staff. Really? There were no other options? Are you sure. You couldn’t just frame him for some sort of impeachable act? We had to go right to murder?
Oh and bonus, the First Lady’s sister is apparently the one behind everything. So, just to review, the two masterminds of this diabolical plot are a character we met last week and a character we met this week.
Amid all this nonsense, Boyd makes a reappearance. He’s convinced Morgan is being abused by her father, and he’s going to save her. This doesn’t work out so well for Boyd who appears to have died by the end of the episode.
But you have to admire Ellen, who keeps chugging along determined to save her family. At the end of the episode, Brian is approached by Agent Hoffman, who tells Brian he believes his family is in danger. The way Hostages rolls, this is probably just another red herring a la Duncan’s dying wife telling Ellen she knew who she was.
Oh well, at least it’s become a fun game to rank things in order of how ludicrous they are. Join me next week, won’t you?