Submitted by KiKi Vanderhousen
© A&E Credit: Dean Hendler
This was another flawless episode of The Cleaner. It seems they’re getting that way – the drama is there, the story line is there, the characters are in sync. I’m actually losing myself in the story.
In this episode William is surprised with a new truck by a grateful client only to be further surprised by a FBI agent springing up out of the woodwork questioning where it came from. Not only does she use the new truck as leverage but she also uses those secret checks Akani receives (but never cashes). In the process of intimidating William into cleaning someone for her, she divulges some dirt about Akani’s father.
To keep Akani safe, William sends her to San Francisco to work her magic on a prospective client (played by Jeffrey D. Sams/CSI: Crime Scene Investigation-Detective Cyrus Lockwood).
The Fed who visits William wants him to infiltrate a meth operation that their undercover agent has succumbed to. Yes, I said succumbed. I’m sure we’ve all heard stories of deep covers falling far under the covers. And this guy has really fallen under the covers, if you get my drift.
As William is trying to bring in the Fed, Arnie is still struggling with his relapse (that only Akani knows about), and Ben we discover, has run to his grandfather’s house (William’s father). William says he’s getting a little sick of the drama (finally) and when he says he’s going to go get him, Melissa says she’ll go get him.
That whole “scene” is really out there. The actor they have playing William’s dad is the last person I’d expect to see and then they’re sort of visually hinting around that his assistant is really assisting him since you see her at his work place, his home. And the expressions on Melissa’s face at times, well, it was confusing to the say the least.
Plus, every conversation Melissa and William’s father have is so convoluted, you don’t know if they’re talking about Ben or William half the time. By the time everything is said and done, Melissa comes home empty handed and all William has to show for anything is his new truck.
Akani visits family while in San Fran, and every time her cell phone rings she giggles and says “yes, it’s a boy,” she has her picture taken several times by the Feds and Arnie has a cleaner apartment. Did I start off this blog entry saying it was a “flawless episode”? Well, I lied.
I think the most interesting part of this episode is the hint about Akani’s addiction – “it’s always a boy” comes up several times. Was she perhaps addicted to sex? I highly doubt it, especially since in a previous episode William admitted to sleeping with her when he was separated from his wife. But I don’t think we’ve ever been clued in to what Akani was addicted to.
While in San Francisco out of harms way and working the deal and flirting with a prospective client she makes a tentative date to have drinks with him. Would she have ordered tonic water?
After getting on my last nerve, now it seems Akani has intrigued me so I’m anxious to see how they further develop her as a character. That’s the part of a good series I enjoy and really don’t see enough of – complex characters. And this episode had everybody intervening in one way or another, which made it ebb and flow.
Gosh, sometimes I’m so poetic I scare myself.
