S1E3: Let’s ignore the prophetic-sounding episode title for a show whose ratings are threatening to send it on a trip to TV heaven, and soon. If, between now and next Thursday, Charlie’s Angels goes the way of the recently cancelled Free Agents and The Playboy Club, it will have ended with one of the, well, top three episodes of the season.
It kicks off in flashback mode, featuring Kate four years earlier as she accepts dirty money from dirty cops, all of which is being tracked — and will be ultimately exposed — by a reporter named Amanda Cain, who more or less leads to the destruction of Kate’s world. Cut to present day, which finds the Angels investigating a missing-person case. The missing person? Amanda Cain.
She was last seen on a cruise ship, so naturally the Angels set sail in hopes getting to the bottom of it all — and perhaps sunbathing just a bit. Their target is a casino dealer, Roman Stone, who before long is hitting on an undercover Eve and taking her back to his suite on the ship.
Nothing happens between the two of them, because Roman is interrupted by “bidders,” an interruption that will ultimately lead Bosley and the Angels to Amanda. After they find out more about these bidders, Bosley is able to go undercover as one of them and learn precisely what they’re bidding on.
But it’s not a smooth mission: Bosley, along with all the other bidders, spends the first night incapacitated by a spiked drink. The next morning, the bidding begins for exclusive American distribution rights on a secret, newfangled drug — “heroin on steroids” is how its financier/mastermind, Carlton Finch, describes his island white, as it’s known. Before bidders can be certain of its authenticity, however, they need proof of its effectiveness and addictiveness, and that’s where Amanda Cain comes in: She’s the guinea pig, chained to a chair in what looks like a torture chamber, constantly consuming the drug.
The Angels soon arrive on the scene to overpower the security team assembled at the private island home, rescue Amanda, bring Carlton to justice, and, eventually, earn a complimentary cruise from the company whose liner they rid of Roman Stone and Co.
BEST ANGEL MOMENTS
Kate: Flashback mode shows Kate honing the skill set she presently puts to good use, as she chases down and catches “company” (which turns out to be Amanda Cain) during a secret meeting — with a little help from a makeshift zip line.
Abbie: While undercover as a masseuse on the cruise ship, she is ordered by one of the mysterious bidders to “shut up and gimme a happy ending.” She agrees, but her version goes: “Once upon a time … the end!” — punctuated with an elbow to the back of the head.
Eve: After she gets caught trespassing and snooping by one of the security guards on the premises at the drug mansion, Eve challenges him to a fight (set against — and ultimately aided by — rows of drug plants), which she wins.
