Human Target Episode 1.07 Salvage & Reclamation

Chance, Winston, and Guerrero go to South America when Chance's old flame Maria calls. She runs a cantina by a remote Santa Ynez trading post, and a customer needs help.

The customer, Cambridge anthropologist Doug Slocum, is at a military base. Chance arrives, disguised as a soldier, as the handcuffed Englishman has a strange conversation with a man in a suit. He's Bertram, who specializes in "salvage and reclamation." (Or, as Chance puts it later, piracy.) Bertram knows what Doug found in the forest, and he can make all this go away if Doug tells him where it is.

The undercover Chance leads Doug to a Jeep, and they escape after some small complications and big explosions. Chance phones Winston, waiting with Guerrero for their private jet to refuel at the San Carlos airport. He's headed to Maria's to get the travel papers she made, then to the airport. Winston tells Guerrero things with Maria didn't end well the first time, and Chance shouldn't open up old wounds. Guerrero, in his way, agrees.

Doug shows Chance a shiny gold bar he found after stumbling across the wrecked plane of Juan Saldivar, a deposed ruler who tried to flee the country. There are 627 more, worth a cool $40 million.

Bertram tells Colonel Vasquez about the Americans at the airport and about the gold, demanding a 50-50 split. Vasquez sends troops to apprehend the two Americans, so Guerrero commandeers a battered cargo plane. The pilot doesn't speak English, and his jumbled load includes chickens. Not exactly first-class.

Chance directs Winston to a mountain pass; he can't quite remember the name, but the pilot should know it. They'll meet at a remote airfield about 120 miles away. Meanwhile, Bertram borrows a few men to check out the trading post on Vasquez's map.

At the cantina, Maria slinks over and gives Chance a hot kiss. "Gracias," she says ... and a dozen dudes surround him, guns drawn. She wants the gold. She orders Chance out of her place. He's got 60 seconds. They bicker about who bailed the other out of jams more often. Chance thinks she's mad because he left. But she hired him to do a job, which he finished. She denies it. He says either you're mad because I left the rebels you were fighting with, or you're mad because I left YOU.

POW! She belts him and says his time's up.

Bertram arrives with a truckload of troops. Maria's men hide Chance and Doug downstairs, where Chance asks Doug if he's a pacifist. As Bertram and Maria spar verbally, Chance comes upstairs and banters with the pirate. Suddenly, the cantina is strafed with machine-gun fire. Doug the non-pacifist is outside, blasting away. Chance leaps over the bar and pushes Maria down as the troops fire. She grabs a sawed-off shotgun and fires repeatedly. Crashing out a window, they land next to Doug and run.

Chance offers Maria $5 million in gold to get them from the rebel-infested woods to the airfield. That much won't be missed when the treasure's recovered. As they bump along inside a cargo truck, Doug learns Chance took out Saldivar. Meanwhile, Bertram's soldiers balk when they reach rebel territory. He calmly dials his cell and plunges into the jungle alone.

Winston and Guerrero learn the name of the mountain pass: "La boca del diablo," the Devil's Mouth. The heavy wind shear and turbulence eat planes. As the aircraft careens wildly, Guerrero tells Winston this may be it, so he has some things to confess. Winston rages, refusing to spend his last moments hearing all the heinous things Guerrero's done. Suddenly, the pilot grins. They're through! Guerrero, who seems almost hurt, thinks Winston could've handled that better.

In the truck, Chance dozes on Maria's shoulder. She says stop touching me. He confesses he felt, uh, "not good" about leaving. They're about to kiss when the truck screeches to a halt. It's the rebels -- and Bertram.

Chance claims he'll take them to the plane but instead leads them into a minefield around an old rebel ammunition depot. He shows his friends the safe line out as mines explode and rebels fly. Chance stays to fight, then hears an explosion and Maria's shout. He runs up and bends over Maria -- is she dead? "You're touching me again," she snaps. Her arm's hurt, but she's OK.

At the airfield, Maria asks why Chance left, if it felt "not good." They're interrupted by an army convoy -- and Bertram -- seizing the airfield. Chance tells Guerrero the new plan.

As troops swarm in, Chance rigs a fuel truck to explode. They string a cable between two radio towers and attach a cargo net. Chance has Doug write down the crashed plane's coordinates. Guerrero and Winston toss out a line with a hook. Chance gets Doug into the net and tries to give Maria the coordinates. But what she really wants is an answer.

Chance says anyone he's gotten close to has been taken away. He didn't leave because he didn't have feelings for her; he left because he did. The fuel truck explodes. They kiss. The plane hooks the net, and Chance and Doug are swept into the sky. Maria watches sadly, then takes off.

On the plane, Doug says his map's missing. Below, Maria finds a note in her pocket: the coordinates, in case she changes her mind. She shakes her head and laughs.