- Title: Intelligence – Mei Chen Returns
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With a missing CIA agent (Annie Wersching) in London attempting to sell intel to the highest bidder, Riley Neal (Meghan Ory) is sent to pull an AWOL Gabriel (Josh Holloway) back home. Still dealing with the death of his wife (Zuleikha Robinson), Gabriel also has a second problem as he begins to suspect his chip has been compromised. At first he believes the woman’s voice he’s hearing may be from his wife, but when returning to his cyber-render he discovers Mei Chen (Grace Huang) survived the procedure and has full control of an even more powerful chip that allows her to access everything Gabriel knows and possibly even gain control of his mind.
With no other viable options to recover the drive, which the Director of the CIA (Lance Reddick) confirms the data on the drive in the agent’s possession concerns Project Clockwork and Gabriel, the agency sends a compromised Gabriel into the field. Realizing she’s baiting him into returning to his cyber-render, Gabriel lures Mei Chen into a “zero day attack” by Shenandoah Cassidy (John Billingsley) and Nelson (P.J. Byrne) which allows the scientists to take advantage of her software and wipe her data concerning the project’s secrets.
Two weeks after it’s premiere the show has already completely dealt with the the subplot of Gabriel’s wife Amelia and brought Mei Chen back. I wasn’t expecting either to happen so soon. I applaud the first, as I found the conspiracy of events surrounding Amelia to be unnecessary. The return of Mei Chen so soon, however, is a bit of a head scratcher as you would think the show would have teased her return (and control over Gabriel) before such a big reveal. After three episodes Intelligence remains very hit-and-miss with room for improvement, but it’s also stuck with a steadfast refusal to embrace any part of the absurdity of its premise (which was one of many things which made Chuck work so well).
