FBI Dramas

The Beast Episode Review
Episode Name: Capone
Air Date: Thursday, February 29, 2009

In this week’s episode of The Beast, Barker (Patrick Swayze) goes undercover in his old cover, Apache, to infiltrate a group of Latin drug dealers who are involved in the disappearance of a fellow agent. Lou Diamond Phillips guest stars as Capone, an undercover DEA agent who has been in deep cover for 4 years. In this short video above is a preview of Capone that features Lou Diamond Phillips.

Capone was in my opinion, the best episode of The Beast I’ve seen so far. The crux of the series is that Barker’s superiors have feared for sometime that he’s been undercover too long, and has become a dirty FBI agent.  Even in this episode, Barker’s boss reminds him that the last the time he slipped into is old cover, Apache, it took quite some time for them to “find Barker” again.

Here, Barker, who has more than a little experience in becoming immersed in a undercover persona, looks at Capone and sees himself, and what he could have become. Ellis (Travis Fimmel) meanwhile works the other end of the case as he is assigned to partner a detective that IAD believes knows something about the missing partner, Owens. Here Ellis is in his element, as he is able to gain the trust of this guy who is not only distraught about his partner missing, but also in his own role in the events.

Seeing Swayze and Phillips work the room as their characters was an amazing treat. Both actors portray bad really…really well. Phillips as the flawed DEA agent was amazing, and his portrayal of DEA Agent Fred Lopez aka Capone left me feeling overwhelmed and sad. His character had many layers.

Some of my favorite scenes were when Barker and Capone were both hanging out, each unknowing that they are really agents. Capone “orders” a couple of girls for them to party with, does some drugs, and suddenly becomes a little crazed as he starts playing with Apache’s knife with one of the girls. You didn’t really know what was going to happen in this scene, or how far Barker would go to protect his identity, and/or to protect the girl.

The ending was in some ways shocking for me, and it contained of my other favorite scenes. In them, you see how both Barker and Ellis are affected by their work. Ellis takes out his pain on a punching bag and wall, and Barker seeks solace in the love(?) of a woman (the hooker, Savannah) as he calls to see if she’s available.

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