2x4 The Foxes and Hounds Affair

I'm rewatching every episode of the Man from UNCLE series from start to finish. This review may contain spoilers.

Sometimes the authors of this show confuse me. The teaser and first act of this episode are fine, but the second act would have been an amazing start of to the episode.

Here's the setup of Act 2 (really the end of Act 1 and start of Act2 ): Napoleon Solo returns from vacation and, as he has since the very beginning of the series, walks into Del Floria's. He pulls on the coat hanger in the dressing room, and nothing happens. The tailor claims not to recognize or know Solo. He wanders back out onto the street, confused.

Meanwhile, two high ranking Thrush officials are in town, and they're at each other's throats over an upcoming promotion that they both want.

A taxi cab drives up and takes Solo to the airport, where the Thrush agents have also converged. The cabby rushes in and demands payment for the ride, and a woman disembarking from the plane makes a scene as she accuses Solo of trying to steal her luggage. What the heck is going on??

What actually happens

This is a fine episode, it could just use a re-edit.

What actually happens is that it opens up introducing an exciting new Elecrtronic Thought Translator MacGuffin. Napoleon Solo, we're told, is on holiday, so Kuryakin and a generic UNCLE agent are here to pick up the MacGuffin.

Kuryakin and a generic UNCLE agent manage to get ahold of the machine, but Thrush agents are in hot pursuit. Kuryakin ends up back in New York and the generic UNCLE agent is en route with the MacGuffin.

Waverly decides to use Napoleon Solo's ignorance of the situation to UNCLE's advantage. What better decoy to send in than someone who actually doesn't have anything to hide?

That's when Act 2 begins, and Solo starts wandering around New York in confusion, getting abducted by Thrush for unknown reasons, getting interrogated for information that he, for once, actually doesn't have.

What a great premise, and honestly it's great execution too. It could have been better with one more revision, but I imagine the authors had deadlines, and anyway it's better than I could have done.