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Episode Recap: "Checkmate"
This was (Alimi Ballard's) Sinclair's episode, and a mostly (if not subtly) comic episode for Charlie (David Krumholtz), in rougly equal measures, and falls to the middle range for the series, despite some nice setpieces in Sinclair's attempts to encourage a bright young man to reconsider becoming a bright young thug. And this episode marks the (temporary?) return of Robin Brooks (Michelle Nolden), Don's short-term flame in the US Attorney's office.
The episode begins with three attempts at murder of witnesses, two essentially successful (albeit one victim survives long enough to give a dying declaration to Robin, who's prosceuting the case in question, against a resourceful gang lord). In the third, the would-be hit man is killed instead. (In the one immediately successful case, the hitwoman makes a point of explaining that she's pulling on gloves to avoid leaving fingerprints in a car that she's already handled without gloves; avoiding gunpowder residues on her hands would make more sense, but, onward.) Megan, in briefing Don on the case, asks if she should take the lead, if working with Robin will be awkward for him; he demurs, but the interaction between Robin and Don is indeed immediately awkward. It becomes moreso when the search for an information leak, using an algorithm Charlie suggests to Amita and Larry in a break from failing the various physical tests he's put to in the sampling of FBI training he's going through, shows Robin's computer is the probable source of leaks to the gang. Don gets a warrant, much to Robin's disgust, but the team soon determines that the ex-wife of a gang member, working as a computer repair technician, has been responsible for the leaks; while the technician had managed to save her ex-husband at first, soon after, both he and she were executed by the gang. Meanwhile, the gang leader has been visited weekly in prison by a figure with no ID in the system, a Levi Holt; he turns out to be a 14-year-old chess hustler, who does business out of the recreation center where Sinclair has volunteered in the past. Sinclair approaches him, and becomes impressed against his better judgement by the boy's intelligence and potential, despite his devotion to the gang leader, who's been grooming Holt as a protoge of sorts; their weekly meetings are all about chess games, which Levi notates in standard chess code in a small notebook.
Further investigation into the witness murders suggests that Robin is the next likely target, so she's relocated to an expensive but improbably insecure hotel. Robin and Don discuss why their romance was so shortlived, and decide that they are both afraid of commitment. Round-the-clock FBI details don't discourage the Albanian hitwoman from entering the apartment and successfully stabbing the agent in the living room, but he's able to warn Robin and call for help while the assassin chases Robin out onto the docks near the hotel. Just as the killer is about to stab Robin (holding her knife incorrectly while she's about to do so, when she had held her knife correctly in stabbing the agent a few minutes before), Don shoots the attacker. Asked how he knew where to find her, Don reveals the nostalgic gift of a hairclip he'd given her earlier had a tracking device within; the assassin had likewise located Robin through tracking her GPS signal in her Crackberry.
The academics, even with Charlie's distractions in his training session, manage to determine that the chess game notations are a code instructing the gang leader's underlings who needs to be killed next; they also determine that Levi is the other next target along with Robin. They determine this last while Sinclair is standing next to Levi at the rec center, having just convinced the boy to turn over the notebook. Just as they determine this, the gang lieutenants arrive to retrieve the notebook, and presumably to kill Levi, who is late in delivering this week's instructions. They face off with Sinclair, who threatens them with the consequences of killing an FBI agent, since he is woefully outnumbered and outgunned; Levi, meanwhile, takes the point that he is now utterly expendable, and worse, to the gang he thought of as friends and mentors. FBI reinforcements arrive and arrest the gangsters as they begin to leave.
Charlie, having proven that at least he can shoot at least as well any of the FBI agents in the training session, returns bruised but mildly triumphant to his usual haunts, Robin and Don take advantage of the room that had been rented for her protection to consummate their restarted affair, and Sinclair begins to bond with Levi, asking him to teach him how not to be fools'-mated so easily. And there's a last little joke at everyone's terror at the notion of Charlie brandishing a gun.
Darryl Theirse as the driving instructor does a good job grounding that bit of slapstick, early in Charlie's training scenes. Producer Robert Port's script has some bugs that could've been worked out (particularly involving the hitwoman) and, again, not the lightest touch in the comic segments, but again wasn't either the best nor the worst I've seen in the series.
For more on Numb3rs, please see our Online Video Guide.
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Apr 12, 2008 12:21 PM
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I'm with you on this one, Todd. You can hardly call it a "safe" room when you don't even bother to lock the sliding balcony door. And what was up with the hot hit chick using a knife to dispatch Robin? Not being in the trade, I can only surmise that using the same gun w/silencer she used in the beginning of the ep would have taken care of the FBI minder, as well as Robin in about 3 seconds, with no mess either. Sloppy writing there.
It was pretty hilarious watching Charlie wend his way through the cones, and I mean literally, right through them taking out pedestrians in the process. Stick to your Prius, Chuck. Your not made for hot pursuits.
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Apr 13, 2008 2:20 AM
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I really enjoy Numb3rs but I too am concerned about some writing errors. How did the gang know to kill Bishop if he did not turn over the code book with his name in it? Why did the agent leave the sliding door open? Why did Don rely on a hairclip (real romantic) for tracking as Robin might not have used it that night? Why did Robin leave the hotel at the end with Don - presumably she would still be a target even if the Bishop connection was closed down? She should still be in protective custody. She is on for three episodes - maybe she forgets to wear the hairclip and gets killed in the end with her hair down. I love the characters and interactions, but they need to clean up the little inconsistencies.
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Apr 13, 2008 1:25 PM
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I don't know why the agent would leave the sliding glass door open but I thought the gang members came to find Bishop because he was over an hour late turning in the notebook. At least one of them said that. He was late turning it over and then was caught in the company of an FBI agent. I imagine that is why they wanted to kill him.
Charlie was funny especially when taking out cardboard pedestrians and when he picked up the big gun at the end and everyone ran out.
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Apr 13, 2008 6:08 PM
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Yeah, it was sort of sloppy writing. I wondered how the assassin got on the ledge outside the hotel window, when they were obviously on the 4th or 5th floor, if not higher (I don't remember how many flights Robin had to run down). Also, when she finally got outside, there was NOBODY around. I find that hard to believe. If I'd been her, I would have run around and back into the hotel lobby, where you KNOW there will be people (as opposed to the dock, where she didn't see anybody).
But I would've liked to have had Charlie get MORE training from the FBI. Those things he did supposedly took what, about 2 days? That's not a whole lot.
Did anyone (Bishop, etc) specify that anyone looked at his notebook after each prison visit? That was confusing to me: wouldn't Bishop get suspicious when the gang members want to see his notebook after every prison visit? what excuse would the thugs give to want to see it? (they didn't look like chess players)
Sometimes I can't quite follow this show, even tho I watch it from start to finish. They do tend to skim over details and plot points from time to time.
(But I loved when Charlie was in the driving test, and also when he took the gun into the FBI office & Don & David were panicking as he practically waved it around! 
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Apr 13, 2008 8:11 PM
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It is mentioned in the episode that the second-in-comman (the heavy set bald guy) was taking chess lessons from Levi. Levi might have shown him the notebook during the lessons to talk/brag about what the head of the gang and he were doing with chess.
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Apr 14, 2008 9:53 AM
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