Countdown Season One Episode One 1.01 – “Teeth in the Bone” Recap

Countdown opens with large block letters spelling out ‘Port of LA’ as the camera gives us a wide
view of a brilliant blue sky over the cranes, docks, and shipping containers. A serious,
brown-haired man, working for the US Customs Department of Homeland Security, checks the
locks on various cargo, not seeming to find anything as he pauses, lost in thought, silhouetted
against the rising sun.

In the city, the man checks a handgun, then conceals it under his jacket. Tense music plays as
he walks along a sidewalk lined with ornamental trees then pauses to call his wife. He tells her
he hopes to get to his son’s performance that evening. He meets with a man but they’ve barely
exchanged words when another man tries to choke him from behind. He breaks free and runs
with the other two pursue and shoot at him. They run through a vibrantly colored and
crowded street market, through narrow passages lined with wares on display. Ducking down an
alley, the agent enters the back door of a restaurant, slamming the door on the outstretched arm
of one of his pursuers. He exits the front of the restaurant onto an upscale street filled with
shoppers and begins to move purposefully up the sidewalk when a man shoots him point blank.
Screams erupt as the agent collapses to the sidewalk. The assassin, not one of the original
pursuers, replaces his gun and turns away as people run confusedly. The camera slowly lifts
away from the agent’s body, sprawled on the concrete like a broken toy, showing onlookers
gathering, the tragedy contrasting with the rainbow-colored table umbrellas and the bright sun.
In large, bold block letters, we see the word COUNTDOWN appear superimposed over the
skyline of LA, the letters turning an ominous orange red.

A helicopter rumbles over the ‘Hollywood’ sign. Inside the helicopter, a serious man with close cropped white
hair and a dark blue suit looks through green files. Landing on a rooftop where several other
law enforcement people are waiting, he asks if the team has been assembled.

He is told all but Meachum and Oliveras; they don’t know where they are.

The scene changes to Palmdale Correctional Facility. We hear his voice before we see him –
it’s Jenson Ackles’ character, Meachum, in a blue prison shirt, sitting on a weight bench in a
prison yard, chatting with a younger man who isn’t really agreeing with what Meachum is saying.
Several burly convicts approach, one pulling out a shiv. Just before a inmate can drop a weight on
his head, Meachum ducks to the side, swinging the barbell to fight back. Most of the prisoners
stand and watch the brawl until uniformed guards break it up.

A helicopter brings an LAPD officer who goes to the infirmary where Meachum is getting a
wound on his head tended. As soon as the nurse leaves the room, he asks, ‘A riot?´ Meachum
says it wasn’t; it was a fight, and he was defending himself. When the officer says the warden
says differently, Meachum says the warden has had it in for him since he went UC – undercover
– adding that he’s really close to getting Albert Chung to tell him what he needs to know. Meachum’s
not happy when he’s told that they’re pulling him after nine months in because he’s been
assigned to a federal task force. He rubs his head, still aching after the fight. The officer tells
him to clean up and get to LA. ‘It wasn’t a riot!´ Meachum declares as the officer leaves the
room.

A woman’s body hangs suspended from the ceiling in a dark room in Koreatown. An older
woman is scrubbing the floor. Lifting her sweaty head, the young woman whispers, ‘Please.
Help.´ The older woman overturns her bucket and quietly exits. Desperately, the kidnapped woman strains to
drag the pail closer with just her bare feet so she can stand and release her bonds. She sneaks
into the room where her captors are, backs turned to her, oblivious to her escape. With a huge
swing, she hits one man in the back of the head with a baseball bat. When the other goes for a
gun left out on a table, she smashes his arm and then his face. Grabbing a cell phone, she
makes a call, identifying herself as DEA Special Agent Oliveras. ‘Send a bus. There’s some
folks here who need medical assistance.´ She looks tired but completely triumphant. When her supervisor arrives, he chews her out for going in alone – she was supposed to wait for tactical backup – but she replies that she wanted to stop the fifty kilos of fentanyl-laced drugs from hitting the streets. He tells her to get back to headquarters; she’s been assigned.

The head of the task force is in his office discussing with another man how this is an
all-hands-on-deck situation. The second man is frustrated because he’d promised to coach his
son’s Little League team. The boss suggests that he could perhaps be an assistant coach.

The man in charge exits the office to address his team for the first time, introducing himself as Special Agent Nathan Blythe. He tells them it is an honor to be chosen for this task force because they are the best in their field. He looks at Meachum as he warns, ‘No lone wolves.´

The team consists of:

Deputy Mission Manager Damon Drew from the Department of Homeland Security,
Amber Oliveras, DEA, 14 years on the job, often working undercover and confidential,
Keyonte Bell, FBI, who’s dealt with terrorism,
Evan Shepherd, a young woman also with the FBI with expertise in cyberterrorism,
Detective Lucas Finau from the LAPD with 18 years in the gang and narcotics division (‘Didn’t you get suspended?´ asks Meachum quietly. ‘Which time?´ Luke replies.),
and Detective Mark Meachum, LAPD Robbery/Homicide. He immediately jokes that the mayor asked him to be inspector, but he turned her down.

Blythe reveals that it’s his second time to be on a task force with Meachum. Drew tells them how the Customs Agent Darden was murdered. Shepherd raises her hand to speak, and Blythe says she doesn’t have to do that. She was
wondering why his murder merits a special task force, and Blythe tells them that he was already
under suspicion when $200,000 was deposited in his bank account. A bribe that big for a customs
agent means something big is going down, and they need to find out what that is. They also
don’t know who is involved; anyone, even other law enforcement, could be corrupt. Darden has
dealt with a violent drug cartel, but they don’t know who gave him the money or why.

As the meeting breaks up, Meachum offers to team up with Oliveras, but she immediately shuts
him down. Her antipathy is explained: she knew Melinda Bates whom he dumped two weeks
before the wedding and she knows her sister Rachel. Meachum asks for some backup from
Luke, who just shakes his head. Meachum says that all he has to say is that Rachel looks a lot
like her sister at 2:30 in the morning.

Blythe takes Shepherd to talk to Darden’s widow. In the car, the young agent tries to
communicate her respect for Blythe, but he shuts her down, telling her to focus on driving while
he studies the bank transactions. At the house, which literally has a white picket fence, the
grief-stricken widow says that it doesn’t make any sense, while her brother aggressively tries to
shield her from questions. She vehemently insists that her husband was not involved in
anything shady. ‘Sometimes in law enforcement we have to put on masks,´ says Blythe, but
she insists that her husband was above reproach and they had a good life. Shepherd looks at
pictures of the family and sees the young son crying on his bed. The brother insists they leave,
and the widow demands to know who would have destroyed a nine-year-old boy’s heart.

In a car, Bell asks Oliveras about going undercover. She tells him you can get lost in it and not
want to come back. Bell is a third generation agent; he doesn’t like getting the ‘legacy hire´
accusation some have labeled him with. In another car, Meachum asks Luke Finau about
Oliveras: ‘She seems a little uptight. And why’s she singling me out, right? You can’t mix
personal with professional.´ Luke smirks at that comment. Meachum wants his input, but Luke
won’t comment.

Arriving at the custom’s office, the team interviews Darden’s coworkers who have been instructed by Washington to be cooperative. They describe him as a good man, saying everything they know about the Kings’ cartel, they
know because of him. He kept detailed records which the department is happy to turn over.
One man, Jim Talbot, however, is very suspicious, saying they’re customs officials, not running
around town like Jason Bourne. ‘You lie down with dogs, eventually you get mauled.´ ‘You
ever lie down with dogs?´ asks Oliveras. ‘I’m immaculate,´ the man replies.

In a side office, Spellman, one of the friendlier coworkers, tells Meachum and Finau that Darden had spent a lot
of time with Jim, going to his cabin at Big Bear. He can’t answer as to the money, but wonders
why Darden wouldn’t have known better. The four task force members reconvene: there’s no
consensus on Darden – he could be bad or good. ‘That’s why you should do a deep dive on
folks before you make snap judgments,´ says Meachum, looking directly at Oliveras who stares
then walks away. Finau just closes his eyes wearily and Bell nods.

Back at headquarters, the whole team reconvenes. They plan to look into Jim Talbot and
Darden’s cabin at Big Bear; Drew hadn’t seen any mention of a cabin. Meachum wonders
quietly to Blythe about who in Washington is backing the task force. Reviewing video surveillance of the assassination , Shepherd uses a panel truck with mirrors to zoom in and see the reflection of the shooter. Now they can find out who
he was.

Guns drawn, Finau, Oliveras, Meachum, and Bell approach an apartment, the last known
address of their hitman. Meachum says he and Finau will take the front because they have the
big key (a rammer), and Oliveras protests, but they move off before she finishes objecting.

As they approach the door, Meachum winces in pain and scrunches his eyes shut. He says he’s fine when
Finau asks. Their knock and announcement at the door results in gunfire, but they’re standing
safely to either side of the door. Meachum calls out, ‘I’m hit! Officer down!´ and when they see
a flicker behind the peep hole, they smash through the door which lands on top of a man. A
woman threatens them wildly with a huge butcher knife, but Oliveras takes her down after
entering from the back. The man isn’t their killer, however, but he immediately lawyers up.
Oliveras knows he won’t talk against the cartel. Appearing to extending an olive branch,
Meachum tells Oliveras she did nice work, but she shortly replies that he should have let them
take the front.

In a clandestine conversation, Blythe is warned by the DEA that choosing Oliveras was a mistake, that she’s an addict. He
has no proof however, so Blythe doesn’t act worried. The other man warns him, ‘Sometimes
agents get in too deep . . . and forget who the bad guys are. I don’t know what your task force
is about, but you have a ticking timebomb on your team.´

Meachum and Bell report that the killer is still on the loose. Privately, Finau asks Oliveras to
look up Meachum’s last assignment but doesn’t say why. Shepherd hasn’t found anything on
Darden and no record on any cabin. They realize that Spellman had mentioned something he
shouldn’t have known, information that hadn’t been shared. They head for Spellman’s address in
the Hills. The agent, holding a duffle bag, is heading for his car as the task force drives up. He
leaps into the car, and a car chase ensues. ‘Stay on him!´ Meachum commands into the radio.
‘Where are you going?´ Oliveras questions from the other car. ‘Hang on!´ Meachum says
calmly as he twists the wheel and heads downhill through yards and fences. Finau winces a
little and keeps a grip on the grab handle of his door. Spellman’s focus is on Oliveras’s vehicle
on his bumper, and he has no time to avoid Meachum’s SUV that comes crashing into him
across the grass. He tries to put his car into reverse, but Oliveras bumps into his car from
behind. As smoke pours from the engine, he leaps from the car and runs down the road but
doesn’t get far before Bell takes him down and he is handcuffed.

Back at headquarters in an interrogation room, Spellman puts his head down on his crossed
arms. Meachum tells Oliveras in an irritated tone, ‘You know, you shouldn’t have plowed into
the back of me,´ but she doesn’t back off, telling him he shouldn’t have driven down the hill. ‘Is
there a problem?´ Blythe interrupts them, adding that he wants them both in the interrogation
room together.

‘Break him.´ ‘Got it,´ says Oliveras. ‘Seriously?´ questions Meachum. ‘Both of
you,´ Blythe reiterates. ‘Of course. yeah. Makes sense,´ Meachum responds, the last two
words with a resentful tone. Shepherd observes calmly from her desk.

Oliveras slams into the room, letting the door swing back on Meachum who pushes it open
with a long-suffering air. Their prisoner tries to excuse his flight response by saying they hadn’t
identified themselves; it was fight or flight. ‘Meachum knows about running,´ Oliveras observes.
‘He ran away from his fiancé two weeks before the wedding.´ ‘The f**k!´ exclaims Meachum.
‘Was he running because he was scared or guilty?´ Meachum steps forward, telling Spellman
that he’s heard no one wants to work with Oliveras. ‘That’s a bunch of sh*t!´ she responds. ‘Or
you’re in denial!´ returns Meachum, then directing his attention back to Spellman. ‘Which you
can relate.’ ‘Relate?’ questions the man. ‘Liars can spot other liars,’ Meachum asserts calmly.
They tag team him with questions and accusations, and he stumbles over his responses.
Outside the room watching, Drew tells Blythe that he knows why he put them in there together:
‘They’ll either murder each other or they’ll get his head spinning.´ The two agents continue to
calmly but relentlessly challenge their prisoner, telling him that his involvement has now
implicated his sister who’ll go to jail too. They take turns describing the brutal conditions in the
jail, no longer focusing on antagonizing each other but intimidating Spellman. ‘You ended
Darden!´ they accuse. ‘No! I didn’t know they were going to kill Darden!´ he bursts out, then
stops, realizing what he’s admitted guilt.

Afterward, the two sum up to the team what the perp has admitted: Spellman was in the
cartel’s pocket, helping them get stuff across the border and Darden found out. Spellman claimed to not
know who to contact but he has a burner phone in his car which Blythe surprisingly gives to Bell
to try to find his connections. When Shepherd questions his choice, Blythe tells her she needs
to run an errand with him. They go back to Darden’s house. On the way up the walk, Blythe
commends her work that day in using the mirrors to find the killer’s identity. He also tells her
that in their line of work they see terrible things and have to give people news on the worst day
of their lives but every now and then they get to see something like this. He tells Darden’s wife
that not only was her husband not doing anything illegal, in fact he’d been standing up to a
dangerous cartel. He was a hero. The widow starts to cry as her son runs down the hall and
hugs her. ‘Thank you!´ she tells them quietly.

That evening, Drew shows up on a baseball field, surprising the coach who didn’t expect to see
him. ‘I want to be here,´ Drew tells him as the boys on the team run up. One of the boys says
that he knows Noah can’t be there anymore, but he’s still going to be with them on the team,
and he holds out a cap with the number 7. All the boys standing solemnly around have patches
with 7 on the side of their ball caps too. ‘It was their idea,´ says the coach. ‘It’s beautiful,´
responds Drew.

In a dark, mostly empty bar, Oliveras has pulled up Damon Drew’s file. It has a note about the
death of his son in a drunk driving accident. Then she clicks on Meachum’s classified personnel
file. The profile summary says, ‘In describing his decision to reassign Officer Meachum to
Traffic Duty, LAPD Asst. Chief Thomas cited arrogant, selfish, and unprofessional behavior.
Officer Meachum lacks discipline, restraint, and exhibits cowboy behavior during raids and
undercover operations, endangering the lives of his fellow LAPD officers. Although Detective
Meachum’s skills as an undercover agent are beyond question, he has displayed a penchant for
theatrics and regularly bucks against authority jeopardizing the success of the operation while
putting the lives of fellow undercover officers at risk.´ She also sees that his last assignment was
nine months undercover at the Palmdale Correctional Institution. A Latina woman with hoop
earrings walks by, catching her eye. Oliveras puts away the laptop, finishes her drink, and
follows the woman into the restroom.

Meachum is in a doctor’s examination room. He admits his headaches have gotten more
frequent but not necessarily worse. He’s not yet experiencing a lack of balance or vomiting. The
doctor reiterates what he’d told him nine months ago: the risks of surgery or radiation outweigh
the benefits. ‘I’m just looking for a little relief,´ Meachum says, crossing his arms. ‘I’ll up the
dosage, and we’ll continue with regular MRIs.´ Meachum looks at a scan of his brain showing a
large tumor. ‘Why don’t you find a beach somewhere, put your feet up, and live out the time
you have left in as much comfort as you can?´ the doctor asks him gently. ‘Wish I could, doc,´
Meachum says shortly, taking the prescription and turning away.

Back at headquarters, Bell is checking Spellman’s cell phone and the burner phone from his car.
Finau is outdoors jogging. Blythe is looking at Meachum’s personnel file when Mark enters his
office and asks why he wanted him for another task force. ‘You surprised?´ asks Blythe. ‘Well,
I did call you, um, a son of a bitch,´ responds Meachum, ‘to your face last time, so, yeah.´
Blythe speaks: ‘My father told me you don’t define a hero by what he can do, what his skills
are, but by how much punishment he can take. I made you do a year with the Aryans in their
camps in the hills, cooking with them, going to their God-d*mned rallies, all undercover, no help
from the outside world. If you had failed, if you had gotten yourself killed, that would have been
the end of my career. And when it was over -´ ‘I wanted to knock your f*ckin’ teeth in,´ says
Meachum levelly. ‘You got me a name,´ continues Blythe, ‘and Abby Erin is alive today
because of what you endured with those Nazis. I’ll put up with anything if you do work like that
again.´

Meachum eyes the bulletin board with pictures and notes, and observes that Blythe had
already been on this, especially since he organized the task force in one day and had
cooperation from Homeland Security. Blythe tells him that an informant had reported that
someone was trying to buy off DHS officers, but the two times he’d tried to start an investigation,
he’d been rebuffed. When Darden was murdered, he knew it was related. ‘Who rebuffed you?´
‘Unclear.´ He had to go to the director personally to get permission for this task force which is
why they’re underground. He doesn’t know who he can trust, including inside the bureau.
‘That’s why you picked me,´ observes Meachum calmly, ‘and Oliveras, Finau, Bell, Shepherd,´
not because of this hero punishment idea, but because they all had green files. ‘It’s because
nobody in our departments will miss us when we’re gone. Our lieutenants, our chiefs, we’re all
just a bunch of middle fingers to them, god-d*mn mosquitoes biting at their neck. They’re happy
to get rid of us.´ ‘Well, maybe I think the best investigators are those who’ll keep their teeth in
the bone, no matter who tries to shake them off,´ Blythe responds. ‘You’re full of sh*t,´
Meachum says without rancor. ‘Am I?´ replies Blythe. They’re interrupted by Bell, who’s found
something on Spellman’s phone: he’d ordered all customs agents clear of pier 31 in one hour.
The teams grabs their jackets and head out.

Several armed figures are gathered on pier 31. Night has fallen. A man in a fisherman’s cap
observes cargo inside a container. Two men in full protective gear take a case out, and the man
smiles. Sirens sounding, the task force pulls up and a gunfire is exchanged. Blythe calls for
backup and wonders as he sees a white SUV leaving the area. Oliveras is almost gunned down
while she’s reloading, but Meachum shoots the bad guy first. A large contingent of police have
arrived. The remaining guys are arrested. One of the dead men is identified as Darden’s
assassin. Bell motions for everyone to get back. He knows why they wanted this area clear.
He retrieves a Geiger counter from his car; it clicks intensely.

The sun rises over LA. Back at headquarters, Bell verifies his findings, and Meachum asks him
to explain it simply since he only had two years of local college. Blythe clarifies: the suspects
have enough material to stage a Chernobyl-level event in Los Angeles.
THE END

Observations:
1. I’m enjoying the use of lighting, especially shots of the late afternoon or early morning
sun.
2. There were at least three clear Supernatural references: Meachum calls someone a ‘son of a
bitch,´ the doctor recommends that Meachum relax on a beach (reminding me of Dean
wanting toes in the sand), and the evidence board reminded me of the way hunters put
cases together.
3. The title Countdown refers to time running out for the task force to find the nuclear
material, but also references Meachum’s diminishing life expectancy. Oliveras is also
referred to as a ticking time bomb by a superior.
4. Meachum tends to be outgoing and talkative, reminding me of Jensen’s Big Sky
character – a sheriff who opened up more than I expected instead of being the strong,
silent type.
Does this show pique your interest? Which character intrigues you most? Did you hear any other Supernatural references, or similarities between Mark Meachum and Dean Winchester? Share your thoughts below!