My Own Worst Enemy: Happy Turducken Day!
November 25, 2008 by Inisia Lewis
Filed under Television
I feel bad for My Own Worst Enemy. There are definitely still kinks and issues, but once they toned down the implausible stuff and focused more on the perilous missions and made the shifting between Edward and Henry more seamless, I believe it actually morphed into a better show. Knowing what we know now, that MOWE is retiring to Cancelled-ville, all of this is bittersweet.
Henry awakens in Morocco with a video message about a side mission of Edward’s. He is to complete a transaction with a contact, and he, specifically, cannot tell anyone about it. However, before he passes on the item, the contact is shot down by…gasp…Raymond! Luckily, Henry’s face is masked, and he gets away without being identified.
Rewind to 24-hours earlier, Edward finds an encrypted letter that tells him to meet a Russian man in a park. It’s Thanksgiving, and Angie’s making dinner and awaiting her father’s visit. Edward meets his contact who wants to exchange U.S. secrets for information on Edward’s parents. We view through a flashback that they were killed in a car crash after one of his football games when Edward was a teen. Their break lines were cut, and to make matters worse, Henry witnessed the aftermath. The man tells him Janus is keeping useful information about the truth of their death, hinting at lies about the the cause and the fact that the KGB killer is dead.
Soon after, Edward and Raymond are sent on a mission to test the security of a base in Rabat. The base safeguards the Falcon, a high-level piece of government equipment. The two aim to steal it in order to prove that the facility’s security is weak. However, Edward wants to steal it for himself.
In a fun spy scene, Edward misguides Raymond while he gets to the Falcon. He does this so quickly and with such ease that he’s nowhere near getting gets caught. Mission accomplished! They proved that the security is truly weak, but sadly not before the Falcon was actually stolen. If only they knew that it was Edward who nabbed the Falcon and not some other secret agent man. While everyone scrambles around the base, Edward exits to meet a KGB contact. When he realizes that he won’t stay conscious much longer, Edward records the message we saw earlier. And at this point, we’ve arrived full-circle to the opening scene of Henry.
Back at Janus, Henry learns that super tech Tony may be able to use new software to figure out the image of the agent/Henry/Edward. He, also, finds out that the Falcon actually holds U.S. missile defense information. Now the true battle begins. Is Edward a traitor to his country? Will they find out who the actual “traitor” is?
Norah Skinner plays a pivotal role in convincing Henry that Edward is a loyal agent. Edward, also, goes to her to confess about his family. She is currently the greatest link of trust and information that the two have between each other. However, when Henry wakes up during a Norah/Edward lovemaking session, some of that trust was definitely eroded. Henry hides the Falcon, ultimately convinced that no information on Edward’s family is worth national security, but Edward, being one step ahead, finds it easily. (That one can keep a secret. Very invasive ones at that since he planted lots of video cameras around the house.) When Henry finds out that Edward has found the Falcon, he rushes Janus ready to out his alter-ego, but he never gets the chance.
Of course, in the end, Edward would never commit treason. Although, he needed it to look very much like treason. The Falcon is returned safe and sound to Janus, Edward gets the information he needs on his parents, and Henry, finally able to breathe a sigh of relief, gets to spend a normal Thanksgiving dinner with his family.
What this episode does well is make the battle between Henry and Edward less obvious. There is more character development on Edward’s side which is definitely needed. And even though we returned our favorite ladies back to the sidelines and Henry/Edward still use stupid video recordings to communicate, I truly enjoyed this one. That’s like 1.75 episodes out of 5. Things are looking up, at least, until it’s over.
Season 1, Episode 6: High Crimes and Turducken (originally aired November 24, 2008)
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