~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SANDY SANDFORT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . H.E.A.T. seeking C'punks, "Code Name: Assassin" In this episode, we see the return of H.E.A.T. archnememis, Neil Strake. (For those who haven't seen Acapulco H.E.A.T., Strake is played by James Healing who does an extremely bad imitation of bad (French?) actor, Louis Jordan.) Anyway, forget the plot, it is even more Byzantine and illogical than usual. Suffice it to say that Strake shoots Mike--on Mike's birthday--in an attempts to kill him. Mike is in a coma through most of the show. The special cartridge has "Happy Birthday" written on it; the bullet is inscribed, "Mike." (Wow, talk about a bullet having your name on it.) This episode was unique in the number of flashbacks and fantasies it offers: (1) Mike goes into cardiac arrest on the operating table. Instead of having the currently popular NDE (near death experience; dark tunnel, white light, life review, etc.), Mike has a fantasy dream of fighting in a boxing match. (He gets knocked out.) (2) When the Team fingers Strake, Ashley has a flashback to the previous Strake episode, thus practicing the parsimony of recycling. (3) Later at Mike's bedside, Ashley has another flashback about the two of them. She then sweet talks him in his coma and tells him not to die. (4) After Ashley talks to him, Mike has another fantasy dream boxing match in which he KOs his opponent. (5) Finally, Strake goes to a disco for no apparent reason. There he first dances with a beautiful quadroon. He drops her for an Anglo-looking woman. During his dance with the Anglo, he fantasized that she is Ashley (he has an obsession with Ashley). The dance is meant to be erotic, but it's just silly, even when they virtually fornicate on the dance floor. Here are the crypto/techno elements: (1) The cartridge is a ".223 nitro express," which is made by only one man, a guy named Sabross. (2) Krissie uses the H.E.A.T. computers headquarters to "patch" into the surveillance camera system of the prison in which Strake is supposedly incarcerated. This takes her all of 10 seconds. (3) The person in prison is not Strake, but an imposter whose appearance has been altered by plastic surgery to look, sound and act just like Strake. (4) Strake plants a radio controlled bomb at Mike's "funeral" (don't ask), which the Team discovers in a sweep of the chapel. There were several good lines in this episode. In a face-to-face encounter between Ashley and Strake, he says something about how he sees the world and Ashley says, "Don't they call that schizophrenia?" To which he replies, "Only the people who get paid to put a name on it, then get paid even more to cure it. While Strake is putting his bomb together he opines, "I love the smell of C4 in the morning." During the funeral, Strake pulls out the radio detonator and says, "One flick of my finger and you're all taco meat." (Don't laugh, have you ever eaten a taco in Mexico?) There were tons of bikinis in the beech scenes (strangely, there were only beautiful women on the beach). The disco people looked hot, and there was no Fabio! Tune in next week--same H.E.A.T. channel, same H.E.A.T. time--for the further adventures of Acapulco H.E.A.T. S a n d y ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~