- Title: Human Target – The Return of Baptiste
- wiki: link
Throwback Tuesday takes us back to the Second Season of Human Target. “The Return of Baptiste” features the final appearance of a character who previously appeared in the two best episodes of the series. While not a bad episode, Human Target goes to the well once too often by bringing back Baptiste (Lennie James) who Christopher Chance (Mark Valley) temporarily liberates from a Russian prison in order to enlist the assassin’s help in the recovery of a journalist being held by a South American drug dealer (Jorge Montesi). There’s some fun back-and-forth between Chance and Baptiste, including the pair getting into a bar brawl, but given the events witnessed in “Christopher Chance” and “Baptiste” it strains the show’s credibility that Chance would even consider going to the man for help or that Baptiste would be open to offering it. The episode refuses to even mention or allude to Katherine Walters (Amy Acker) and how her death ended the pair’s professional relationship.
The episode is notable for Ilsa Pucci (Indira Varma) using the team for her own ends (rather than an actual client), the absence of Ames (Janet Montgomery), and Ilsa being put to work in the field awkwardly attempting to charm and distract the soldier (Cameron Daddo) standing in the way of Chance and the team making it out alive. The last of these is the most awkward as Human Target plays the entire over-the-top sequence for laughs which only partially pays off (and doesn’t actually give the team the full amount of time suggested was necessary when Isla was put into service). This won’t be the last time Ilsa gets shoehorned into the mission, with diminishing returns over the remainder of the series.