Human Target Episode 1.08 Baptiste

An Englishman with a bloodied face sits at a train station in Washington, D.C. He's Baptiste, Chance's former partner. Soon Chance, also bloody, sits down too. The train comes in four minutes, Chance says, and after everyone leaves, he's going to shoot Baptiste.

Baptiste keeps up a mocking patter. "Nobody deserves to die," he scoffs, quoting one of Chance's lines. Baptiste says everybody deserves to die, as far as someone's concerned. Chance taught him that. Chance says he was wrong. Baptiste says the sad irony about Chance's crusade to save people is, those he cared most about saving got hurt the worst. This evening's unfortunate events have proven that.

Eight hours earlier, Chance and Winston visit a crime scene. The body is a John Doe, no ID, with his fingerprints melted off, shot with a custom-made, untraceable bullet. The killer took his watch. It's Baptiste, who has a thing for watches.

Chance visits Emma Barnes, the FBI agent from the Russian embassy case. She's looking hot in another awesome dress as she wrestles Chance face-down on the floor, arresting him for obstruction of justice. After he fled the embassy, no one could corroborate her story. She was humiliated -- and disciplined. Chance is sorry. Barnes asks her date to grab her handcuffs from the bedroom chest. The date gets the cuffs and bails.

Chance needs her help to catch the ace assassin Baptiste. The John Doe is a European who works for UN Security. Baptiste stole his identity to get access to the UN. He's going to kill a foreign dignitary. Barnes asks why no one else knows this but Chance. It's because he trained Baptiste.

Barnes wants to trust him, but she doesn't even know his damn name. He introduces himself, just as Winston appears and Guerrero strolls in, saying, "Hey, nice dress." Then Layla, the girl from the Centronics case, wheels some equipment into Barnes's apartment. She'll help them break into Deputy Director Lynch's FBI office and steal the White List, a minute-to-minute itinerary of visiting dignitaries.

Baptiste convinces a UN Security bigwig to tell Lynch about a threat to the top-secret Operation Olive Branch. Then he stabs the guy and takes his watch.

Barnes takes Chance to the FBI, leaving a case with Layla's equipment at the security desk. The system detects the hack, but the situation goes south, mainly because Lynch's office isn't empty -- it's full of agents dealing with the UN threat.

Chance also fails to score when he asks Barnes to dinner and she says no. At least they determine that Operation Olive Branch is a secret meeting between Taiwan and China, somewhere in D.C. But where? Winston starts looking for a red flag, like a gas leak or other evacuation, which could be a screen for the meeting.

Chance and Baptiste spot each other. Baptiste splits, and Barnes and Chance follow. In the car, Barnes' phone rings. It's Baptiste. Given Chance's past with Katherine Walters, he needs to know if she and Chance are an item. Then he rams his sedan into them. During the shootout, Baptiste ignites a fuel spill with one shot, but Barnes and Chance get clear.

Layla tracks Baptiste's disposable cell, and Guerrero phones him, hoping for a clue. They trade barbs, and Baptiste says he never got to congratulate Guerrero on becoming a family man (er, what?). He smirks and hangs up. But he did give something away.

Chance tells Barnes his old boss found him when he was young, angry, alone. He said what Chance was doing was right, that the person on the other side of the gun deserved it. Katherine Walters was the last assignment of that old life. He couldn't do it, because she didn't deserve it. You loved her, says Barnes. And I tried to protect her, Chance says, but the next guy was too good. Baptiste.

Winston picks them up. They found the red flag: a methane leak at a Georgetown University hall. In the basement, Chance finds a highly flammable ethylene oxide canister connected to the gas system, booby-trapped, with a remote trigger. Evacuation time.

On a nearby roof, Chance shoots the phone-detonator out of Baptiste's hand. One delegate is still inside the hall. Barnes goes back.

Baptiste stabs Chance's thigh and grabs the detonator. BOOOOOOM! Chance flings the knife and wings Baptiste, who drops off the roof. Winston arrives. Chance asks if everyone got out. Did Barnes? Winston says she went back to clear the building. Sorry. Awww, man.

Baptiste is gone. Winston says he's headed to Amtrak, and that's where we came in.

At the station, Baptiste says that, six years after Katherine, Chance has again thrown everything away for a woman he barely knows. But Agent Barnes's fate is all on Chance. He fumes that Chance didn't just betray the old man. Worse, he took THAT NAME.

The train arrives and pulls away. It's the moment of truth.

Suddenly a woman says, "It's over, Baptiste." Barnes! Hurrah! She got out. The place is surrounded. It's not over for Chance, who raises the gun to Baptiste's head.

Barnes says this isn't him, not anymore. The moment stretches out forever. Finally, Chance lowers the gun. Baptiste cackles that Chance has lost his edge. Chance is glad Barnes is OK. They part, and she turns back. "About that dinner ... " He's gone.

Guerrero warns an excited Layla that, in this job, nothing's ever what you think it is. Nothing's ever over.

Baptiste grins at one of his escorts. "Oh, matey, that's a nice watch."