“The Kill Point” Countdown Episode 5 Recap

Episode 5 opens with Mr. Mouse having a serious case of the Creepy Mes. He’s scrawling stuff in his notebook, and speaking jibberish in Arabic. He’s doing this in the boardroom near the photograph with the bug in it, so the cops can hear everything he says. They’re a little weirded out, too. And Mouse’s wound is getting a little nasty with gangrene. No, he’s not well.

Wolf tells Deke to call a bunch of vets they know and start a protest outside to give the cops a little something else to deal with. A nice diversion while Deke’s guys start their extraction.

We learn that Cali had the Feds put a travel alert on all members of Wolf’s platoon, and they discover two guys from the 1013 flew into Pittsburgh. The cops I.D. Big Stan and his buddy from surveillance video, and now it’s starting to click that there’s something going down.

Meanwhile, the hostages in the vault are all bloodied up and freaking out (Ashley found her shirt, alas) and getting stinky. Rocko is being a big hard-ass, blaming Ashley for not shooting Mr. Pig and boasting that he would’ve shot the hostage-takers point-blank, execution style. Right.

Outside the vault, Mr. Pig is upset that he let his guard down and he’s starting to get remorseful about the whole robbery thing. His bro, Mr. Rabbit, comes over and reassures Pig that his life is pretty much meaningless. So he’s got that going for him. Which is nice.

Conveniently, there’s a train tunnel running underneath the bank, but the floor of the bank is reinforced steel, so Big Stan won’t be able to get through it. But Big Stan can bust into the place next door, then break into the bank through the wall. (BTW, when I was in Pittsburgh in Market Square, I don’t recall there being any train tunnels nearby. Can anyone from Pittsburgh attest? I suppose it’s no big deal if they embellish the geography a little bit for the story.)

So Wolf goes outside and starts addressing the veterans who’ve come to support them, and has them show off their war wounds and missing limbs. It’s very reminiscent of the whole “Attica! Attica!” thing Al Pacino does in Dog Day Afternoon.

Back inside the bank, Mr. Cat, who is clearly the most sound-minded of all these guys, decides he’s not leaving this bank robbery empty-handed. He has Abe, the hostage bank manager who hasn’t done much lately, do a bunch of cryptic wire transfers to put $6 million in a Canadian bank account. Uh, I don’t entirely understand what Abe did, but I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t work in real life. Any bankers from Pittsburgh know? (Just kidding.)

While Wolf is busy with his protest outside, Big Stan and his buddy subdue two SWAT guys in the place next-door to the bank. The Pittsburgh Police Department must not pay very well or something, because the SWAT guys don’t put up much of a fight. “OK, tie us up. Whatever.” Big Stan takes a Big Sledge to the wall and starts busting through into the bank.

So the extraction is starting and Wolf’s crew is all excited, except for Mr. Pig, who realizes that even if he does escape and get a bunch of money, he’s going to be a wanted man for life. And who will take care of their mom? Again, Mr. Rabbit is there to quench any sane thoughts Mr. Pig might be having. The remaining hostages are all rounded up and thrown into the vault, but Chloe says she wants to go with Wolf, that they have some “connection” and that she can help them escape. Wolf says she can’t follow him, and puts her in the vault.

Big Stan busts through the wall and Wolf’s crew is all giddy about seeing their platoon-mate Big Stan. Wolf takes the photo frame with the bug in it. Hey, wouldn’t the bug in the photo have picked up the noise from Big Stan pounding and all that stuff? The cops’ techie guy tells Cali that the bug made some noise and then stopped transmitting, like it had been crushed or something, but it’s not clear when that happened. Maybe Wolf suspected the bug and removed it from the photo.

Meanwhile, outside the bank, SWAT guy Hawk is just sort of chillin’ on the street, when he sees a one-armed guy in a car acting suspiciously and talking into a headset. Could it be Leon? It is Leon! If you haven’t figured it out yet, Leon’s not very smart and doesn’t hide very well. When Hawk confronts him, Leon throws a cigarette at him. Then Hawk breaks Leon’s arm (the one that’s still there) and cold cocks him. Hawk takes Leon’s headset and hears that the extraction through the tunnel is underway.

The cops reveal that Wolf’s guys are escaping through the Steel Plaza Tunnel, so now I’m obsessed with trying to figure out exactly how they got in there from the bank’s location in Market Square. The Pittsburgh Light Rail system (The “T” as it’s called there) has a station at Steel Plaza at 6th Ave. and Grant St., but that’s a few blocks northeast of Market Square, and the Port Authority T rail maps don’t show exactly where the subway tunnels go. I must know!

Anyway, the SWAT guys show up at the end of the Steel Plaza Tunnel (wherever the hell it is) and a big shootout goes down, the biggest one in the series since the first episode. Big Stan gets shot up pretty badly, which is unfortunate, since I liked writing “Big Stan” a lot. Mr. Rabbit has some kind of freeze up during the firefight and just sort of stumbles around aimlessly, but the poorly paid SWAT guys can’t seem to shoot any characters who are integral to the story. Only Big Stan and his expendable buddy get killed. The rest of the guys retreat back into the bank.

The bank vault opens and all the hostages think they’re free, until … D’oh!

Shortly after, the couple — Renee and Tony, I think their names are — who were locked in the mechanical room and were crawling through the vents emerge through the ceiling to the surprise of everyone in the bank. Tony asks in a raspy voice, “Do you have any water?” They explain their story, and they’re both kind of delirious. “It was awful,” Renee says. “It was beautiful at times, but it was mostly awful.” Tony says, “No, it was mostly beautiful.” Abe asks what they were doing in the closet to begin with, but they don’t answer. It’s a nice little comic moment after all the intensity of this episode.

Tensions start mounting between Wolf and Rabbit. Wolf calls out Rabbit for freezing up in the firefight and then calls him a “three-tour corporal.” Rabbit sounds like he’s ready to lead a mutiny and take over.

Just then, Mouse’s Creepy Mes tell him to go outside, and he stumbles out of the bank.

Cali is busy shaving, and there’s what appears to be a very blatant product placement for the Gillette Fusion razor. That thing has five friggin’ blades!! They tell Cali that he’d better stop getting the smoothest, closest shave imaginable and come out and see Mr. Mouse acting all crazy-like.

Wolf is trying to get Mouse to come back in, but Mouse would rather just stare blankly at all the SWAT guys aiming at him. There’s a noise, the screen goes white and the episode ends.

Good episode. Lots of wacky stuff, lots of funny stuff and lots of action. I wrote more in my notebook and wrote more here for this episode than any previous episode, so it looks like this thing is already setting up for a huge finish. But I’ve got a few things that need some explanation. Unfortunately, my direct line of communication to cowriter Todd Harthan is being disrupted by the Pittsburgh PD.

Next Week: Bad stuff goes down outside the bank. Rabbit usurps control and threatens to execute hostages. Wolf and Rabbit duke it out. The SWAT guys do a raid on the bank and find a body inside. And Cali starts smacking Leon around again.

About Ryan Berenz 2166 Articles
Member of the Television Critics Association. Charter member of the Ancient and Mystic Society of No Homers. Squire of the Ancient & Benevolent Order of the Lynx, Lodge 49, Long Beach, Calif. Costco Wholesale Gold Star Member since 2011.