4-05. If He Can, So Could I.

Cross goes back on active duty - but is he up to it?

Air Date: Mar. 29, 1972. Written by: Ray Jenkins. Directed by: Peter Duguid. Produced by: Reginald Collin.


THE PLOT:

Cross is on medical leave following his injuring of a defector's daughter during his last assignment. Though he's physically sharp and gives all the right answers when interviewed, Snell (Clifford Rose) is certain that something is wrong.

The Section has a new mission, however. Bishop has reason to believe that Vadim (Morris Perry), a Russian tractor salesman, is actually a notorious Soviet assassin named Burov. It doesn't take long to identify his likely target: Trofimchuk (Peter Blythe), a dissident poet preparing to publish. Callan assigns Meres to follow Burov - and, against Snell's advice, calls Cross back to active duty to protect Trofimchuk.

Cross seems ready for the job. He watches over his ward, keeps him away from the windows, and even tasted his food before allowing him to eat it. But when Burov evades Meres to go after his target, Cross finds himself put to the test - and if Snell is right, he might not be up to the challenge...

Callan gets drunk, much to Lonely's discomfort.

CHARACTERS:

Callan: He overidentifies with Cross, seeing himself in the younger agent. He recalls Snell's dismissal of him not long ago - either forgetting or unaware that Snell allowed for the possibility that Callan could again be his old self, an allowance he isn't making for Cross. When a crisis hits, Callan cannot restrain himself from leaving the office against protocol (the very mistake that got the second Hunter killed).  Callan's instinct is to be where the action is when things go wrong, even though that is no longer his job. Of course, this is also where he's at his best: Once out of the office, he deals effectively with Trofimchuk and eventually with Burov, displaying a confidence that just isn't there when he's behind a desk. 

Cross: Though he insists he's fine, he continues to check up on the girl he injured. This is something remarked on by both Meres and Snell, and he never provides a good answer to reconcile his claims of remorselessness with his actions. He's clearly eager to get back to work, and he blames Callan for his extended furlough - not realizing that Callan is actually the one defending him. He tries to be all business while protecting Trofimchuk, but as the time passes, it becomes clear that he's not unaffected by the poet's various musings.

Meres: "No such thing (as accidents), old son, not in our trade." When Meres checks on Cross at the start of the episode, he is smugness personified. Even so, in his own way, I think he's trying to help. He's clear-eyed about Cross's predicament, in a way neither Cross nor Callan can be, correctly diagnosing that it's actually harder for Cross that the girl is alive but injured than if she had died. This is Meres, of course, so his "therapy session" involves pointing an unloaded gun at Cross and pulling the trigger. I'd comment on the bad gun safety protocol - but Meres likely wouldn't have been bothered if a round had ended up being in the chamber.

Lonely: Is only in a single scene, one in which he barely speaks. Once the operation is over, Callan indulges in some heavy drinking back at his flat, with Lonely for company. A lesser actor might have come across as a prop here, someone whose presence allowed for the main character to rant. Russell Hunter, however, reacts to every one of Callan's movements, his eyes and body language showing bewilderment, compassion, discomfort, and more than a hint of terror.

Professional vultures: Snell and Bishop.

THOUGHTS:

An interesting aspect of Callan's fourth season is the way in which events from one episode keep feeding future ones. This is very true of If He Can, So Could I. The episode's story is centered around Cross's return to duty, with both that fact and Cross's questionable mental state a direct result of the events of The Rules of the Game.

Multiple additional continuity points are raised, and to good dramatic effect. This is particularly true of an early scene between Cross and Snell. As Cross emotionlessly recites what he believes are the correct answers, Snell hammers away, using every one of Cross's "accidents" and misjudgments of the past season and a half: The bystander Cross knocked in front of a train; the young woman who killed herself; the affair with Liz; and several other examples. Frankly, by the end of Snell's assault, my question wasn't whether Cross was fit for duty: It was how he had ever been considered fit.

The focus of the episode is not just on Cross, but also on Callan's insistence on identifying so strongly with him. The two men are very different, as has been clear from the start. Late in the episode, Bishop observes that Callan has never killed an unauthorized target; in a relatively brief span, Cross has killed one unauthorized target and one bystander, and also injured a young girl. Cross has consistently been reckless, not stopping to think or even to properly observe a situation before acting. Callan has observed these very traits in the past... but now, feeling trapped in a job that doesn't suit him and burdened by a bit too much empathy for the young man, he cannot make himself be objective.

By the end, both Cross's issues as an agent and Callan's as a Hunter have been brought to a crisis point. The supporting cast is not forgotten either. Meres' early scene with Cross is terrific, showing the cold intelligence that sits side by side with his ruthlessness. Liz is in a mostly reactive role, but Lisa Langdon once again shows her ability to do a lot with a little, from her facial reactions as she listens to a phone call to her frantic searches through files, keeping herself busy to avoid her own emotions.

Snell and Bishop also make strong impressions. One of the episode's last shots is of the two of them, standing side-by-side, as they review the operation. Both are so clinical that they come across as inhuman - more callous and unfeeling than Meres on his worst day. Callan could certainly never match that callousness, and he is left speechless in the face of it.


Overall Rating: 10/10. One of the series' best.

Previous Episode: Rules of the Game
Next Episode: None of Your Business

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