2-05. Let's Kill Everybody.

Callan turns the tables on a pursuer.

Air Date: Feb. 5, 1969. Written by: Ray Jenkins. Directed by: Robert Tronson. Produced by: Reginald Collin.


SPOILER WARNING

My review of this episode will include discussion of major events that occur. If you have not seen Let's Kill Everybody, I strongly recommend watching it before reading this!


THE PLOT:

Under interrogation, an enemy agent reveals that the entire Section has been targeted. Unfortunately, that is all he reveals before his death, leaving few clues as to who might be behind it. Hunter orders emergency procedures, locking himself down in The Section while arranging for his agents to cover each other at all times.

Callan, recovering from a neck injury, has begun a relationship with Jenny (Hilary Dwyer), a nurse who abruptly quit to begin studying history... something that, once he hears from Hunter, Callan suddenly finds suspicious. Hunter has managed to link the dead assassin to a Fascist group, and he tells Callan that he believes there are only two assassins. One is unidentified; the other is either Jenny or her new mentor, Dr. Paula Goodman (Heather Canning) - but even Hunter isn't sure which!

Callan's suspects: His new girlfriend (Hilary Dwyer)
and her mentor, Dr. Goodman (Heather Canning).

CHARACTERS:

Callan: His single-episode relationship is just a convenient (and largely unconvincing) way to try to match narrative stakes with emotional ones, but it does allow Callan a rare moment of relaxation. This does not last, with the plot against The Section raising his paranoia, making him suddenly wary of Jenny's every word and movement while he at the same time worries that she could be in danger. Woodward is typically excellent throughout; his final line, the episode's last, is particularly well-delivered.

Meres: A recurring theme has been Meres' enthusiasm for violence going too far, which has earned rebukes from Callan in Red Knight, White Knight and even The Section's doctor in The Most Promising Girl of Her Year. It's not just that pain is the first tool Meres reaches for; in most cases, it's the only tool.  It's this, rather than any deficit of skill or intelligence, that is why he will never be Callan's equal.

The episode kicks off with Meres conducting a sloppy, rushed interrogation/beating, which ends with the other man killing himself to avoid divulging what he knows. Had Meres used any of the other options at his disposal, or even taken the time to make sure the man was restrained first, then they would have had all the information needed to avoid catastrophe. Meres' sadism, which has been tolerated by two Hunters now, is the first of several blunders that ends with multiple deaths and the potential crippling of the entire Section.

Hunter's in over his head again. 
This time, it catches up with him.

THE FALL OF THE SECOND HUNTER

Let's Kill Everybody is the exit episode for Michael Goodliffe's coldly bureaucratic Hunter. Goodliffe, a World War II veteran and former POW, reportedly had issues with some of the series' content (one can only assume that he never watched Series One). He evidently failed to bond with the rest of the cast and crew, and not long after his arrival asked to be released from his contract.

So they killed him.

The episode does an excellent job with Hunter's death. Goodliffe's Hunter has consistently been portrayed as intelligent, but in very much a "book-smart" way. He is a career civil servant with no field experience. In his introductory episode, while he's potentially being targeted by an assassin, Callan actually has to tell him to stay away from an open window; his reply indicates that he doesn't recognize his own vulnerability.

These lapses catch up with him. Though emergency procedures demand that he stay within the safety of The Section, he leaves when a contact lures him out with vital information... a mistake his predecessor would never have made. It almost goes without saying that he walks into a trap, but even so he almost survives.  He evades the initial attack, but then makes his second mistake: Having avoided the first shots, instead of hiding in a defensible position, he returns to his car - the most obvious place for his assassin to stake out. It's one mistake too many.  As he attempts to start the car, his luck finally runs out.

It's worth noting that the episode up to this point portrays him as entirely competent. He initiates emergency procedures without hesitation, and has a strong suspicion of one of the attackers' identities by the midpoint of the episode. In the end, he's tripped up by his own false sense of invulnerability, and by a lack of the training and experience that might have gotten him out of the trap he let himself fall into. His downfall comes through traits established in his first episode, which makes his end basically what Callan prophecied: "I think he must have nine lives, mate.  He's going to need them all."

Callan is briefed on the organization
behind the Section's enemies.

THOUGHTS:

The appropriately titled Let's Kill Everybody is a key episode because of its events. Fortunately, it's also a particularly good one. Despite the action-heavy nature of the story, Ray Jenkins' script never loses sight of the characters, actually using their faults and failings to propel the catastrophe. The result is the first episode written by someone other than series creator James Mitchell to truly hit the mark.

It should be noted that, even after Meres' opening blunder, disaster is not inevitable. Every Section agent who dies, does so because somebody broke procedure. One agent forgets to call in; he compounds the error by leaving his home to use a call box, opening himself up to attack. Hunter and another agent fall to Hunter's choice to leave The Section, violating his own procedure because he believes vital information is in his grasp. Callan's own emotions almost get him killed when he goes to face the villains alone; fortunately for him, Meres isn't far behind.

The episode isn't perfect. The opening death of the enemy agent requires truly inexcusable negligence on Meres' part, to the point that briefly snaps suspension of disbelief. Though actress Hilary Dwyer is quite appealing and does well with what she's given, the Callan/Jenny romance never convinces. Also, late in the episode, the habitually paranoid Callan somehow fails to be suspicious of a person he's been given direct cause to be wary of.

Still, this ends up being a strong piece. It combines a driving pace with a growing sense of a situation out of the characters' control, and then worsens that situation through misjudgments that are fully consistent with the regulars' previously-established traits. The sum is greater than the individual parts, and despite the contrivances, this ends up being among the strongest episodes yet.


Rating: 9/10.

Previous Episode: The Little Bits and Pieces of Love
Next Episode: Heir Apparent



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