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| 303 - Opening Night Jitters |
| Writer/Director |
David J Burke / Jon Cassar |
| Michael's POV Onscreen:
26 minutes |
Michael is ordered by
Operations to poison Elena in a final attempt to draw out her father. He begins to go
through with it but finds himself unable to carry out the deed. Section gets to her anyway
and Michael is torn between his feelings for his family and the needs of Section, as
Elena’s life hangs in the balance. When Vacek agrees to visit Elena in hospital,
Michael realises his time as a husband and more importantly, as a father, is over. The
break with his family requires him to appear to be gunned down before their eyes. |
| Michael Moments |
Waking up to realise that Elena
has been poisoned and he’s at the mercy of Section
Pleading with Vacek to visit her before she dies; he’s not just playing the role of
good Section operative, he wants to save Elena
The single tear in Elena’s hospital room, as he prepares himself for the inevitable
break
Wandering the night-time streets, in a crowd but alone, Michael stands still, almost as
though he doesn’t know where, or how, to go on |
| Words of Wisdom |
"Madeline thinks he’s
vulnerable in that area."
"Everything’s
in order. You can have some."
"If she dies, they die."
"She’s dying,
that’s how she is."
"Say goodbye to Elena." |
Performance Rating
 |
On a light note, and
there are few by this stage, let us quickly mention the dinner table scene and the
delightful performance of little Adam (Evan Caravela) with his claim to being thirty.
Priceless – and the subsequent dialogue between him and Roy is charming. Back with
the plot though, Roy shows us how Michael’s veneer of Perfect Operative can, and has
been penetrated. As the threat to Elena grows the more visibly affected he becomes, and,
compared to the previous episode, his feelings for her are more manifest. He is prepared
for the sake of Elena and Adam to betray all that he is, knowing that it could result in
his death. The strength of emotion portrayed in this episode makes us forget all our
niggles about plot inconsistencies as we are swept along by Roy’s bravura
performance. The final scenes of a lost, truly alone Michael remind us once again that Roy
is an actor who doesn’t need the protection of lines to convey emotion and pain. But none of this was coming easily. An eyewitness on the set has reported
exclusively to The Michael Files that Roy had particular difficulty with the scene where
Michael appeals to Vacek, and several increasingly fraught retakes were required.
Presumably a problem of marrying his taciturn character with the torrent of scripted
lines. Similarly, a bit of a dispute arose around the scene where Madeline reprimands
Michael for failing to poison Elena. Roy refused to say the scripted line and had to phone
Joel Surnow for permission to substitute a more Michael-like response. In the final edit,
however, neither version was used, and we ended up instead with the ultra-typical silent
blank stare! |
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