Countdown Season 1 Episode 10 Review: The Muzzle Pile

Countdown has reached that stage where viewers have everything figured out even before an episode has aired. And the last thing you want for an episode like Countdown Season 1 Episode 10 is for it to be predictable.

However, the show has disappointed time and time again, so what happens in this episode does not carry the same effect because we guessed it would happen.

After nine episodes that made it feel like a 24-episode season without any breaks, the main storyline concludes in Episode 10.

Team Hurricane neutralizes the Volchek threat, thereby saving the city from the bombs and taking out the antagonist.

There is something to be said about courage in storytelling. Being courageous allows creators to take huge risks because the bigger the risk, the bigger the reward.

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Countdown has avoided taking any risk, never quite coming close to the threshold, as it has played out every storyline as safely as possible. It has made the show uninteresting, basic, and yes, predictable.

In my review of Countdown Season 1 Episode 9, I predicted that it would take the easy way out, and the bombs wouldn’t detonate. And like clockwork, that’s what happens.

TV is an excellent medium for transporting viewers into alternate realities. On the small screen, anything can happen. And the best part is that there usually are no real-world repercussions.

This makes the show’s decision not to blow anything up all the more egregious.

I allow myself to enjoy things on television that I usually would not enjoy in the real world. I like spending my time watching incredibly violent TV shows that make someone recoil, even when I shun violence.

An On-Brand Underwhelming Resolution

Therefore, I would have loved to see Volcheck’s plan come to fruition, even if in part.

But he was taken out like a common criminal despite the attempts to paint him as a mastermind. What self-respecting criminal does not have a contingency plan in case their main one fails?

Did he not consider the possibility of someone disrupting the bomb’s circuit? Countdown refuses to go the extra mile and takes cheap shots.

I can visualize the rewrites I would have made to make what passes for a season finale better. I would have blown something up, no matter what happens. 

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I would also have made it so that when the tablet is disconnected, the bomb automatically sets a fifteen-second timer before detonation. I would have loved to see the show deal with that. But I guess unplugging the tablet works too.

And what about Volchek’s death? That was too easy. This is the point where poetic justice is better than anything else. He deserved to be blown up like the many people he’s blown up over the years.

But one gunshot wound? Not even a clean headshot? At best, that gunshot should have left him disfigured, not dead.

In keeping up with predictability, guess who is no longer dying? I anticipated a similar development, and while it did happen, they went a different route. Instead of a misdiagnosis, Meachum is enrolled in a trial that has a fair chance of working.

Resolutions happen in less than half of the episode, leaving the show uncertain about what to do with the remaining time. And don’t forget that we still have three more episodes.

A New Threat Arises

So, it introduces another arc ten months later that involves an attempt to kill United States government officials, including the president. And just like that, the team is back together, save for Oliveras.

I have no idea what’s going on from this point. Is this related to Volcheck, or is it an entirely different story? Why bring it up now? If it is related, why didn’t the show lay some groundwork in the preceding episodes? 

And if not, why bother? The arc could make a great story for another season, but it feels like since there was no way to land this ship in a manner that’ll make fans clamor for more, the show had to keep us interested somehow.

The only thing keeping me interested in what happens next is a huge twist I read about, so I need to see what that’s about.

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Now I’ll admit that with the Volchek business done, as underwhelming as it was, the next chapter of the story might be more interesting.

Sure, the characters are as dull as ever, and without Oliveras, they’re even duller, but I’m willing to see what the fuss is about with Fitz and his discovery.

Stray Thoughts

• I can not be the only one disappointed that nothing went boom. Come on! We should have seen the explosion’s magnitude from at least one truck.

• I was confident that Keyonte and Shephard would be going steady at this point, but what the hell? She basically turned him into her sister’s babysitter. What’s up with the sister anyway?

• It was funny to see Blythe at home, still with the charm of a dried-up fig tree.

• Who else has a feeling that Fitz will die soon? It doesn’t feel like he has a passion for the job, and he also talks a lot. He is written to be killed off, but he has his charms.

Over to you, Countdown fanatics.

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