Part one of this story saw SD-6 taken over by an armed group led by former operative McKenas Cole; while he set about accessing the vault Jack and Sydney raced to stop him before he tripped the building's self destruct system. The cliff-hanger ending suggested that Sydney was about to get captured but as this episode begins Jack surrenders to the gang leaving Sydney free to disable the explosives. At this point Dixon decides that it is time to call in reinforcements and contacts the CIA; the message is sent to Vaughn but he is refused permission to send a rescue operation. Going in himself he meets up with Sydney and proceeds to help her deactivate the explosives. Cole continues to torture Sloane but he refuses to break; in fact he just sits there tormenting Cole about his own failings!
This was a great episode which had obvious nods to 'Die Hard'; there was plenty of action and one very gruelling scene where a character has a finger cut off! I wasn't sure how they would handle having the CIA enter SD-6 without the innocent SD-6 members learning the true nature of the organisation; thankfully that was done in a plausible manner. Guest star Quentin Tarantino did a good job as Cole but the real acting credits in the episode go to Ron Rifkin who put in a brilliant performance as Sloane; it also showed us a lot more about his character; he may be a bad guy but he is clearly as tough as nails and will do what it takes to advance his cause.
This was a great episode which had obvious nods to 'Die Hard'; there was plenty of action and one very gruelling scene where a character has a finger cut off! I wasn't sure how they would handle having the CIA enter SD-6 without the innocent SD-6 members learning the true nature of the organisation; thankfully that was done in a plausible manner. Guest star Quentin Tarantino did a good job as Cole but the real acting credits in the episode go to Ron Rifkin who put in a brilliant performance as Sloane; it also showed us a lot more about his character; he may be a bad guy but he is clearly as tough as nails and will do what it takes to advance his cause.