I'm rewatching every episode of the Man from UNCLE series from start to finish. This review may contain spoilers.
A leading scientist returns from somewhere in the Pacific to deliver some footage of volcanoes. He's attacked at the airport, and THRUSH successfully captures a film reel of...a Japanese boy band.
Wait, what?
Yes, there's a mix-up on the site of the assassination, and THRUSH ends up with the footage of filmmaker Cricket Okasada. Solo, for a change, actually gets what he went to the airport to get, and brings back the footage.
The footage reveals that THRUSH has developed a means to cause volcanoes to erept on command.
UNCLE's key to THRUSH is Cricket Okasada, who's making it widely known that her film is missing, and therefore is likely to be contacted by THRUSH under the assumption that she has their footage.
Pulling the strings
Solo and Kuryakin are up against THRUSH East, with its headquarters in Japan. It's a good episode, with lots of clever little scenarios where the UNCLE agents must either get some MacGuffin to lead them to the next MacGuffin, or escape a strange death trap (they get turned into living marionettes at one point).
There's not enough Cricket Okasada in this episode, in my opinion. She's a unique and fun ally, almost completely dubious and unwilling for most of the time. She is, after all, just a filmmaker. She wants her footage, and the constant assurances of Napoleon Solo don't do a whole lot to allay her fears that she's caught up in something dangerous.
By the end of the episode, I lost track of what exactly the mission is, aside from stop THRUSH. I guess it's good to be agile, and so it's good that the UNCLE agents are able to pivot quickly as the mission changes. I'm not sure this episode was "written" as much as it was "developed", though. It feels almost like a modern D&D setting, with the initial mission being tossed out as soon as something more threatening arises. There's nothing wrong with that, and in fact sometimes it's refreshing to be caught up in a whirlwind of intrigue.
Lead image by Anthony DELANOIX under the terms of the Unsplash License. Modified by Seth in Inkscape.