Smart Alec

It's been a couple of years since I've done a episode review, but I'm always willing to sacrifice my time and hard work for Jim and Blair, so here goes. Remember, plenty of spoilers and endless comments about how wonderful Jim and Blair are.

Our episode opens with some old fella creeping around a dark laboratory with a flashlight. You know he's toast because he's wearing the insignia that all of those poor extra men on the Star Trek away missions wore. Well, not really, but he's toast anyway, take my word for it. Anyway, he's skulking around and finds glass aquariums filled with insects. Out of the shadows, hands grab the poor old man and we see him being threatened with a bunch of big, hairy spiders.

Cut to Jim and Blair. They exit the elevator and start to walk down the hall. Jim has on his black leather jacket and those brown pants that I'm beginning to hate. Blair has on his green and red plaid shirt-type jacket, a gray henley with another shirt over it, the color of which I can't quite see, and jeans. His hair is very long and he has on his glasses.

Blair's holding a picture in front of him, waxing poetic about “her” beautiful, perfect lines. Jim quips that he'll reserve comments of that nature for something more “female”. We then find out the wonderful “her” in question is a twelfth century Mayan urn. Blair thinks that it might have some Sentinel references on it and he's thrilled that some museum is loaning it to him to study.

In comes our captain, Simon Banks, and sends the boys to the University, where a body's been discovered. Surprise. It's the old maintenance guy and he's covered in bite marks. In this scene we meet Suzanne Tomaki, Chief of Security for Rainier. Thank God this gal is relatively smart and not after either Jim or Blair. <lilyk bows in thanks to the writers>

We discover that Jim has a previous work history with Suzanne. He introduces Blair as his “associate”. Turns out the dead guy was bitten by some kind of bug and his body was moved to its present location. Blair, Jim, Serena  (Cascade PD forensics gal) and Suzanne discuss the case, then Suzanne leaves. Jim tells us that Suzanne was a cop but left because of job stress. In the cut-away, we see a kid standing on the sidelines watching the goings-on. He's wearing a red coat, roller blades and a bike helmet.

Blair is all excited about his vase until he discovers that the crate is missing. He goes to see Professor Buckner to track down the shipment. The professor hasn't a clue about the crate, but he snags Blair on another matter. He asks Blair if he knows Alec Summers. Blair says yes, the kid genius from Canada. Professor Buckner remarks that the kid is headstrong, stubborn and thinks he's the only one with a clue. He then tells Blair that Alec reminds him of the young Blair who came to college at sixteen also and now Blair is Alec's mentor. Blair protests, but for naught.

We find out that the maintenance man was filled by a funnel web spider. Actually thirty bites on the guy killed him when one is deadly. Strange thing is that this spider is native to Australia.

Jim talks to Suzanne about the death. He's wearing his black leather coat, a blue sweater with a tan indian-type design on it over a gray t-shirt, and dark pants. They talk about bugs and Jim is told there is an experimental insect farm on the University. They make arrangements to go to the farm.

Cut to Blair in his office smooching some gal. He's wearing khakis and a dark gray shirt with the sleeves turned up; his hair is pulled back. Blair makes some remark to the gal about how he wonders why he likes kissing her so much. In comes the kid genius, Alec, and says it's because of chemistry. He gives a Blair-lecture about saliva and stuff, and offers to take over the kissing.

In saunters Jim. Blair introduces Alec to Jim, who helps himself to some of Blair's coffee. Alec debunks the campus rumor that killer bees did in the dead guy. Jim is amused by the kid's analysis of the crime. Alec doesn't take teasing very well and calls him “dog breath” and “Sherlock”. I think they pay extra to the writers when they think of nicknames.

Jim and Suzanne go off to the farm next, where the head honcho, Carlin, shows them around, explaining about what they do, mainly genetic engineering experiments on bugs. There are two grad students working and they explain that the bugs are harmless and sterile.

While Jim questions the kids, he hones in on the girl's pulse and heart rate and discovers she's lying through her teeth. Jim and Suzanne leave, and Carlin, the head honcho, threatens the girl with a spider if she spills the beans about what's going on.

Next we see Blair and Alec walking down the street. Blair is wearing a burgundy, blue and white plain shirt jacket over a burgundy shirt and jeans. He's agreed to give Alec a driving lesson. We see Blair's car again, the 1962 Corvair convertible, 743 SFU. Blair lets the kid see that he hides a key under the dash in one of those little magnetic holders. Silly boy.

Needless to say, the kids drives like a bat out of hell with one wing shorter than the other. Blair gets pissed and makes the kid stop. Alec promptly runs up the curb, whereas Blair orders him out of his car. Blair is not happy to have his baby treated so roughly.

Meanwhile Simon is letting Jim know that TPTB aren't happy with the results so far regarding the murder on campus. Jim promises better results faster. What? He has a magic wand or something? Geez.

And futher meanwhile, Blair goes to Prof. Buckner and tells him Alec is driving him nuts. Blair is wearing another plaid jacket in this scene. Anyway, Buckner's phone rings and Blair excuses himself. This is when we find out that Buckner has had Blair's shipment for days and tells whoever is at the other end of the receiver that this is the last time he in on the gig.

The head bag guy is pissed at Buckner's attitude. We know, of course, that it is the guy who runs the bug farm. He has a sidekick and he sends the hired help to warn Buckner that Buckner will do as he's told or else.

Next we see Jim back in Simon's office. He's wearing an olive-green and cream plaid shirt over a gray t-shirt. Simon tells Jim that the head guy at the bug farm, Carlin, is upset at the insinuation that his bug farm has anything to do with the murder, but Jim knows better. Carlin is at the top of his suspect list.

The next scene opens with Alec in Blair's office, typing away on Blair's computer. Blair comes in and is immediately irritated that the kid is using his equipment. Blair is wearing a brown long-sleeved shirt and jeans. Alec informs Blair that he was fixing his notes because he'd made several mistakes translating the glyphs on the urn, and oh, by the way, the Mayan urn is fake anyway. Blair goes ballistic, tossing Alec out. He puts on his glasses (yea!) and looks at the computer screen. He's also upset with himself when he realizes that the kid is right, the translation was wrong and the urn is a fake. Poor baby.

Alec is pissed now, too. He goes to Prof. Buckner's office to dump Blair as his advisor. Buckner isn't there, but the door is open so the kid goes in. There on the desk is the fake urn. He heard a noise in the hall and knocks the urn to the floor. A silver cylinder about six inches long falls out. The muscle in the hall who was sent to tell Buckner who's boss hears the noise and comes in, sees the kid, and the chase is on.

Alec is on roller blades. He skates away with the bad guy chasing. He gets outside, does that roller blade thingy down the steps and falls. The cylinder goes flying into the bushes, but the bad guy is close, so he gets up and skates away. Skates, right? Well, get this. He gets to Blair's car and steals it. I guess he drove with the skates on because he sure didn't have time to take them off that I could see. I must have missed it. Needless to say, a car chase ensues.

We see Jim and Blair in Jim's truck. Blair is still bitching about the kid, but he does admit that Alec was right about Blai's mistakes. A call comes over Jim's police band that there's a chase in progress involving a 1962 Corvair. Guess who's car it is? Blair says, that's my car! Gotta love the usual word-filled Ellison response. “Yeah.”

The next big surprise is that Alec wrecks the car. The bad guy is forced to hightail it out of there when he hears sirens. Jim and Blair show up and Blair is royally pissed. While Jim believes the kid's story, Blair wants him arrested. Jim uses his usual “settle down” admonition on Blair, and Blair calls Jim “Ellison” for the second time in the series.

Jim and Blair go to Buckner's office to check out Alec's story. Jim is wearing his black leather jacket, a green cable knit sweater and dark pants. Blair is wearing a cream coat with a brown collar, a red and blue paid flannel shirt over a blue t-shirt and jeans. Buckner's door is wide open. They go in and Blair reiterates that the kid was lying because there is no urn to be found. Jim spies a tiny piece on the floor, verifying the kid's story.

The next day Alec manages to find the cylinder and opens it. It's full of bugs. Also, Jim gets a call. They go to a crime scene and find Buckner dead of an apparent suicide, but Jim sees a tiny needle mark on the guy's neck. Turns out he was zapped with something veterinarian's use to put down animals. I like that Jim always says, “Let's go, Chief”, as if Blair wouldn't follow him anyway. Jim always looks out for his little guppy.

To make a long story short, Alec thinks he can outsmart the bad guys, but what he does is ends up getting kidnapped by them. Blair interrupts and they take him too. Luckily the BOTW tells Jim that Blair went with Alec and two men. Jim figures out that they're the guys from the bug farm, and he and Suzanne go after Blair and Alec. Alec, meantime, exposes the plot, bragging that he's figured it all out. The bad guys are breeding a really bad bug that will destroy crops. They're also making the only bug deterrent that will work on said bugs, thereby making it possible to sell lots of bug killer and make lots of money. Since Alec tells all, and Blair now knows, Carlin tells them they're both toast.

Suzanne manages to save Jim from being killed when he's busy focusing his hearing on what Blair, Alec and the bad guy are doing. She shoots Carlin's cohort. Alec and Blair are tied up in the basement of the facility and when the bad guys hear the gunshot, they take off after setting the spiders loose to eat Alec and Blair. Seems Alec has arachnaphobia and he freaks. Blair sounds a lot like Jim, telling Alec to be calm. He's great keeping the kid from panicking big time. 

Jim goes into the facility to find Blair and Alec, where he runs into Carlin. A fight ensues and guess what? Jim drops his gun. (I've lost count. Number nine??) He finally subdues Carlin and follows the sound of Blair's voice. Turns out that Alec and Blair are tied to these stools under a shower. Blair has Alec fall back, pushing the 'on' button with his head and turning on the shower. The water washes away all the big, bad spiders that have crawled all over the boys. Jim comes in just as the spiders are flushed away. He unties Blair with the remark about hitting the showers. Funny Jim. Oh, and Blair looks especially yummie dripping wet.

The tag is kind of cute. Alec is teaching Blair to roller blade. Blair has on a blue sweater with a white band around the chest, a bike helmet and jeans. Jim shows up. Jim is wearing a gray wool coat, gray sweater and those brown pants. Jim says, let's grab lunch. Alec says, I'll drive. Jim says, over my dead body. Blair says, the way he drives, it will be. Very cute.

That's Smart Alec, an okay episode.

The End

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