I Lay My Life For Your Sake

While trying to wait out this Flu virus that I suspect may have morphed into mild Bronchitis, I settled in to watch part one of the first episode of Strike Back today.

if my Doc looked like this I’d be persuaded to visit more often, just sayin’

I’d estimate this was probably my sixth time viewing this particular episode;

here are my thoughts:

-Hugh Collinson is a newb. John Porter is irritated that he has someone weighing down his team that doesn’t even know his way around a weapon, but he swallows that frustration and tries to look out for him anyway.

this t-shirt *short circuits*

-When Porter confronts a young suicide bomber, he keeps eye contact with the boy the whole time so as not to spook him into letting go of the detonator. Everyone heaves a sigh of relief when the situation is resolved… and then John whacks the kid in the head to knock him out.

*I’m all heart*

-Next we’re bombarded with gun-fire and profanity (I’m not complaining) amidst a really important part of the plot: take note about what is actually seen and what is just implied 😉

-Jump forward to John in a hospital bed with his arm strapped to his chest. His family is doting on him; soak that sweet image in because it doesn’t happen very often.

WARNING: Tangent Ahead!

When I was ten I decided it would be fun to pretend I was in the circus and vault over a high-backed chair, landing on a jogging trampoline, where I would then bounce into the air in a graceful split before landing on my feet. I forgot to factor in my penchant for not being graceful in the slightest; I slipped on the trampoline and broke my arm. My mother thought I was just being dramatic so she didn’t take me to the doctor for a whole week, during which I fell on my arm when someone at school stole my chair out from under me and I also had to sleep on my bedroom floor because my new bed was delayed in it’s delivery. The Emergency Room doctor chastised my mother harshly for not bringing me in sooner (that’s my favorite part of the story) What does this have to do with John Porter? I had my arm strapped to my chest, and I was ten… End Tangent.

“she’s only ten”

-Okay, where were we? Porter blames himself for the FUBAR extraction, Collinson jumps on that bandwagon and comes out smelling like a rose, Porter is then treated as an outcast, which leads him to refuse a hush-hush solution and resign instead.

“Integrity”, Collinson should look that one up

-John then tries to get a job from the businessman he helped rescue

but is told he’s not qualified.

This happens:

which leads to John hitting rock bottom and forgetting what decade his hair belongs in.

His daughter is a brat

*reigns in another walk down memory lane*

I approve of this outfit

-Collinson delivers a poignant line about Porter seeking atonement in the hostage rescue,

and that getting himself killed may be exactly what he wants.

“you can’t always get what you want”

-Then there’s the inkblot test

where Porter seems to be obsessed with vaginas 😛

spend a lot of time down there, do you John?

which pays off

when Dani arrives to inspect his shoulder.

who is setting the trap here?

-Layla knocks Porter back down before he can feel too sure of himself, as do the other members of the team when they shut him out of the planning meetings

what goes around comes around

and then our hero rides off to rescue Katie…

Did I leave anything out?