Threshold 1.7: "The Order"

Written by Anne McGrail
Directed by Norberto Barba

In which Caffrey must hunt down the source of a leak, which also brings trouble in the form of a meddling Senator, while the rest of the Red Team hunts down another source of the signal…


At this point, the series should be moving out of the introductory phase and into the complication phase, at least from the point of view of the typical season arc structure. That being the case, the question is whether or not this episode, in relation to the series to date, presents a compelling enough story to justify the faith of its audience.

I look at a series like “Invasion” and admit, despite my issue with the pacing, that the story is going somewhere. There’s a structure to the story and a few themes are actually emerging that could be fun to watch. While “Supernatural” is far more episodic, the characters are intriguing and there’s a sense of highly consistent style and approach. “Threshold” is still trying to find itself”: the characters are strong, but the storytelling is all over the map.

The past few episodes are a good example. In “Shock”, the Red Team and Threshold struggled to get the kind of broad-based support that they should be getting without much question. “Pulse”, the previous episode, turned right around and presented Threshold as an operation with vast discretionary powers and abundant resources. This episode jumps right back into the precarious waters of “Shock”, and it’s not a good thing.

In a way, however, this issue of funding and political support, however tiresome, pushes the characters into roles that are a bit more appropriate. It’s still not perfect, but it’s getting there. Caffrey should be the one behind the scenes, directing the activities and dealing with the larger issues. It should be a struggle for her to keep it all together, and people should be questioning her decisions to ensure that her personal issues don’t get in the way. I just didn’t like how it was tied to frustrating budget questions. (Sorry, but I get enough of that in the real world!)

This forced the other team members to take on more responsibility in the field and figure out their internal dynamic. I liked that a lot. In particular, it’s fun to see a bunch of science geeks with little or no field experience trying to work out the kinks. This episode’s central mystery was a nice bit of misdirection, and it even had some intriguing implications. If they had determined that the fish and other marine life were being infected, it really would have been the end of it all. As it is, it’s hard to imagine how marine life wasn’t infected, given how the rest of the episode progressed.

Beyond the cute intern, who got a swift and unfortunate lesson in sleeping around, there was that mutated cat. I must say, the first time it was on-screen, my wife and I just about laughed ourselves silly. That was some terrible effects work! But it begs the question: why wouldn’t marine life, even very tiny marine animals and plant life, become infected in the ocean below the original signal?

Anyhow, I really didn’t care about the team member that died, because quite frankly, I had no idea she was even part of the team. That’s not a good sign. This episode was supposed to have resonance with the audience, because we were clearly supposed to care. Instead, it just happened. Caffrey, who was supposed to be worried about Senate intervention, manages to order a Senator’s plane shot down with little or no consequence. It’s all a sign of inconsistent storytelling, and that’s not a great sign.

Writing: 1/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 1/4

Final Rating: 6/10