Human Target “The Trouble with Harry” 

Okay, so I’m going to make a liar out of myself and back off the no-ship opinion I had before, because, frankly, if Human Target rolls up the rug next week, I’m okay if Chance and Ilsa get together. I have a feeling we’re going to be a bit cliffhangery with only one episode left (it is FUX after all) but one can hope.

“The Trouble with Harry” was the second episode this week and I’ll catch up on Monday’s episode this weekend, but the log line had me intrigued so I watched this one first. The wraparound to the episode was Harry (from “Communication Breakdown“) wandering into a bar and finding a handcuffed Chance strapped to an IED. We dial back to the case at hand—a young woman (Nicole Bilderback, who I remember as Brin from Dark Angel) trying to flee a scary fiancé (Michael Massee) and Ilsa gaining entry into his property under the guise of the Pucci Foundation.

The plan is to put Ilsa in front of him with a truth serum-dosed bottle of wine so he’ll reveal his password while Ames and Chance Houdini in and out of his office, but it goes south when Ilsa doses herself and tips the team’s hand and Chance stays behind once she’s captured. The rest of the team (and Harry) see that Chance’s focus is compromised because Ilsa put herself in jeopardy, but he’s not really up to speed on that yet.

Harry, led to the bar by a faux online blind date solicitation from “Laverne” (aka Winston), helps Chance divert attention from the goons watching him long enough to get himself out of the jam, and then Chance retreats back to the office, with a blonde she doesn’t know–and Guerrero’s news that said blonde was an expert at maintaining aliases–that she’d been cuckolded.

Chance tells her if her husband was a cheater, he was an idiot. Still coming down from the dosing and emboldened by the added effect of the rum, she makes a move toward him and he tries to deflect it, until she leans in to kiss him, sort of sad and very tender, and he kisses her back. They part and he looks at her, terribly sure it’s a very bad idea but not really sure that he cares.

So much setup there with only one episode left!!!!

I was glad to see Michael Massee, always a reliable bad guy. It was interesting to see that Guerrero couldn’t filter out his matter-of-fact “sorry, dude” about llsa’s world collapsing under the notion that her marriage wasn’t what she thought it was–he’s just not wired to be emotional that way. There was an odd sidebar of Ames trying really hard to get Chance laid by one of her friends, and then misreading the situation and thinking she was the problem. I liked the play on the episode title because there was no actual trouble *with* Harry. I will be sad to see this show go if they don’t bring it back, but I am really glad all of the episodes have aired. It’s been a treat to have them this winter.

PS — several of the stills from this episode featured scenes that weren’t in the episode that aired (WTH?)