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RSS'The Middleman': Help me hunt you
The glorious journey of random that is The Middleman continues with a case you could lose your head over. Be prepared to groan over that horrible pun.
Spoilers
When a woman who's face appears to have never met a scalpel it didn't like disappears from the street while shopping, her headless body later reappearing at the crime scene, it's up to the Middleteam to figure out what's going on.
Turns out she's not the only one to go missing - she's one of many similarly Joker-grinned folks to meet similar fates, all of whom have a plastic surgeon named Dr. Newleaf in common. Visiting him at his practice, Middleman brings a big, pretty, sparkly gem with them. When the good doctor sees it, he grabs it and eats it.
Turns out all the victims are Manacoids, alien refugees who can only live in wealthy neighborhoods due to their over-plasticized appearance. And, clearly, they like dining on precious stones. MM offers to help them but Newleaf says he and his people have it under control.
Dr. Newleaf gets snatched at 4:30am that morning but they're able to follow because MM gave him a MiddleWatch. The beam originates from a TV station where, behind a secret door, they find a lovely room of death filled with mounted animal and Manacoid heads. Ew. And the man behind it all is Dr. Gil - a super-popular, mustachioed TV psychiatrist.
As a kid, his dad was crushed by a piece of the first Manacoid ship that came to Earth...because he shot at it with a rifle. Dr. Gil salvaged the teleportation device and spent the rest of his life plotting revenge, gaining wealth and fame so he could get his hunt on by beaming unsuspecting aliens to his private hunting reserve.
MM and Dr. Gil exchange gunfire before he jumps in the teleporter, Wendy chasing after. Unfortunately the control panel got damaged so Double M can't follow. Finding herself alone with Gil literally gunning for her, she hides out behind a rock and finds Doc Newleaf, safe but with a twisted ankle. Wendy is through running and goes out to confront Dr. Gil...only her gun's been disabled (more on that in a moment). She gives up and says that she's had a crappy week and he might as well shoot her. Launching into a tirade about how all the men in her life disappear, just as Dr. Gil says he won't do that to her, he's disintegrated by a beam from on high. Middleman and two Manacoids have come to the rescue.
Assorted Other Bits & Pieces
- The news reports state that Dr. Gil had been "trampled and subsequently eaten by rhinos" while on a hunting trip.
- Wendy was on a hair trigger because Ben the D-Bag Ex-Boyfriend posted that break-up video on a site called "My Space In A Tube" and ends up getting a film deal from it. If I were her, I'd sue and take all that money he was supposed to get. Straight jack. At any rate, that's why Double M deactivated her gun...just in case she was feeling trigger happy. Which she was.
- While she was "pouring out her soul" to Dr. Gil, Wendy was fake crying. At first I thought, "Wow...terrible cryer," until she told MM that she was stalling for time until he got there. Hence the fake crying. Because I was on the verge of being disappointed.
- It's "Pop Quiz Day" aka Training Day. MM realized the necessity of it since she came his and Master Ping's rescue without really knowing what or where anything was. There was a tour of Middle HQ which has 100 rooms including a dojo, changing room and an interrogation room.
- Speaking of the interrogation room, part of the training involved that practice utilizing the Interro-Droid 3000. It was programmed to behave like a mad bomber whom Wendy has to get the location of the explosives from. My question: Is it acting like just any old mad bomber or is it The Mad Bomber What Bombs At Midnight? Watching on a monitor in another room, as soon as Middleman turns his back to talk to Ida, Dubby proceeds to beat the crap out of the droid to the point its head comes off and rolls to MM's feet. Poor thing.
- Aliases the Middleman used today: Dr. Emmett Brown of the Hill Valley Institute and Chaplain Buford Tannen (with Sister Clara Clayton). Nice.
Favorite Quotes:
"Trouble with your coffee house poseur of an ex-boyfriend?" - Middleman to Wendy inquiring if there's something wrong
"Even GI Joe had a space suit." - Wendy to MM on their wardrobe and it's lack of variety
"Even in the face of an emotional breakup with a sexually ambiguous doorknob of a boyfriend, Wendy Watson found the Rendezvous Point." - Double M sticking up for Wendy to Ida
"Don't get on my case for Jack Baurering the thing." - Wendy defending her Interro-Droid beatdown
Next week: Zombies! Wendy punches a carnivorous fish! The Middleteam fights in fancy duds!
What did you think of the episode? Did I miss your favorite part or quote? Any other thoughts, comments or questions?
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Zap2it Twitter Talk 
Other BttF references:
The Interridroid said the bomb was at"Twin Pines Mall."
Like Mr. Fusion, the Middlemobile runs on "organic garbage, it runs clean for days."
The missing Manicoid lived on "Eastwood Ravine Drive" which some may recall was the name of the Ravine after Marty changed the past and saved Clara Clayton.
Wendy calls herself "Agent Strickland" which I'm guessing is a ref to Marty's principal, Mr. Strickland.
And last but not least, "kBTTF Television."
Yes, I have seen those movies far too many times. :)
I wonder if Dubby's father had some connection to the Middleman organization.
I am 99 percent sure that the site of the "Hunting Grounds" are the same place that Star Trek the Original Series filmed the episode where Kirk fights the Gorn (green lizard guy) and collects sulfur etc. to make a crude gun to defeat him. It's actually a famous filming area whose name escapes me.
My favorite part of the episode was the interrogation scene. I thought it was a send-up of the 1st episode of The Shield when Vic Mackey used a telephone book to beat the crap out of a child molester for info.
I love this show!
They need to move the show back to its earlier time slot because I forget its on.
Good eye, Dave, and you're right...Arena (with the Gorn) and a few others were indeed shot there. I can't remember the place's name, either, but it's been used for dozens of TV shows and movies through the years. I'd hate to live nearby.
I agree that this show should be on at 8/7 central. The idiots who screwed up the schedule by putting on moron movies ahead of this should be taken out and force-fed habanera peppers in the Arizona desert.
I liked the send-up of Dr. Phil, especially the parallel of his "hunting down" of future guests who in all likelihood don't want to be on his show in the first place (like that girl whose beating was broadcast on YouTube and then shown 1,266,073 times on Fox News and CNN Headline News, as both Bill O'Reilly and Nancy Grace get off on things like that). I liked that the interrogation scene of the practice robot was shown behind MM on the monitor instead of live, as it was a lot more humorous.
Not sure that I'd take this show over the original Get Smart, but it's still better than 73% of what's on TV during the summer. At least until Burn Notice, Eureka and The Closer start up.
The story was a little weak this ep and you could kinda see the Dr. Phil character coming into play as the bad guy.
But really, who cares! With all the great pop-culture references and witty dialog (I loved the Jack Bauer line), who the hell... uh... um... heck, needs a solid plot, gosh darn it.
The 'mystery/culprit/villain of the week' is just a means to allow the writers to get the main characters together and let them rapid-fire deliver the smart, well-written dialog.
We got Jack Nicholson-style Joker faced friendly aliens, heavy doses of Back to the Future references, great sight gags and a twisted, evil Dr. Phil-type villain. Couldn't ask for much more during the summer TV season.
Question: when a "red ball" comes into the Middle HQ informing them of a problem/situation, is that a shout-out to the movie "Minority Report" or something else?
Lastly, Dr. Gil's private hunting reserve is at Vasquez Rocks in Los Angeles County. And yes, it was where they filmed the Star Trek (TOS) episode "Arena."
I'm very happy Zap2it is recapping this show... if only to cover and recount all the fun references and quotes.
How about the slow reveal of the MM gizmos? Such as the "BTRS" (Beyond the Realm of Science) device.
Can't wait to see what else the MM HQ rooms have to offer and which genre, movie or TV show they'll reference each week.
For those of you complaining about the show being on at a different time slot, keep in mind it is repeated that night again at 12:00am ET/ 11:00pm CT. It pre-empts Whose Line Is It Anyway, one of my favorite shows, even if it's in reruns.
I'm a little disappointed that there was no reference to guy who was injured last week by the wrestlers - In my mean little mind I thought Duby's dad had a second family that she knew nothing about & the kid was her brother!