- Title: Almost Paradise – All In
- IMDb: link
The opening of her family’s casino brings the return of Ann Villegas (Max Collins) whose distrust of security expert Barton Coyne (Joel Pierce), and threats about a potential robbery, forces her to enlist the help of Alex Walker (Christian Kane) to test out the casino’s security… by robbing it. Putting a small crew together with Kai (Samantha Richelle) and Ernesto (Art Acuñ), Alex and his group successfully pull off a robbery to highlight gaps in the casino’s security only to discover other thieves piggybacked on their plan, with the help of one of the crew posing as a hostess in the casino (Erika Heynatz), and stole millions more.
The setup of the episode more closely resembles an episode of Leverage, and you could certainly question the logic of everyone getting involved in this questionable enterprise. The backdrop of the casino works well providing a central location for most of the episode’s scenes, and the heist itself is certainly a highlight (despite Alex’s goofy disguise). The recovery of the cash feels a bit rushed, with not one but two twists, but it still leads to a satisfactory conclusion and leaves time for a romantic epilogue. The return of Ann teases the possibility of a relationship for Alex, something set up in the season premiere as a goal for him (but something he’s had little success with so far this season).
