What I’m Watching: Undercovers (Last Episode)

Undercovers: Season 1, Episode 11 “The Key to It All” (C+)

As a final installment, this really isn’t going to cut it. To be fair, there are technically two episodes left in the show’s thirteen-episode run, but it seems less and less likely that NBC is ever going to air them considering the onslaught of new programming beginning almost as soon as the new year starts. I’ve been a staunch defender of this show while nearly everyone else was trashing it, but it hasn’t been perfect, and perhaps my expectation that it would deliver as it hurtled towards cancellation (as “Dollhouse” did last year) wasn’t reasonable. Still, this episode does ring somewhat disappointing as compared with the ones that preceded it. A hostage situation in Israel revolving around only a key piece of information seems highly unlikely and entirely sensational, and the fact that Samantha is connected to it makes it even less credible. I was excited when Steven pressed Shaw and seemed like he was going to push him further and demand answers, but then he just backed off and went to go talk to Samantha. The supposedly shocking ending with their conversation being recorded, overheard, and reported isn’t surprising at all since we knew the place was bugged, and we don’t have any more information at all about what’s going on. All we know is that Alan Dale is in charge, as always, and that Shaw devotes way too much time to cooking and investing his time and energy into the Blooms’ restaurant, even though you’d expect he’d have other agents to handle or something like that.

I’m going to hold off on evaluating the show as a whole until those two last episodes surface, either online or on DVD, in the hopes that the show undergoes a miraculous recovery and becomes instantly classic in its final moments. Unlikely, but I can hope.