XIII – The Train

• Title: XIII – The Train
• tv.com: link

XIII (Stuart Townsend) and Agent Jones (Aisha Tyler) head to Toronto on the heels of Giordino (Paulino Nunes) who has started to put the information in his burn box to use to track down a young prodigy (Christian Martyn) with ties to Rainer Gerhardt (Tom Berenger). After killing his parents (Steve Cumyn, Marion Day) Giordino kidnaps the boy from a private school while putting old friends onto the trail of XIII and Jones.

With Jones and XIII going silent Amos (Greg Bryk) has no choice but to travel to Toronto himself and track the two down. XIII is able to make a connection to the boy and President Carrington (Stephen McHattie) who, according the blood tests in Giordino’s possession, may be the President’s grandson. Not knowing who else to trust the President has no choice but to send XIII alone to save the grandson he never knew he had.

With the boy under his control Giordino forces a meeting with Gerhardt on a train to Montreal. XIII is able to jump the train but almost immedieately he’s cut off from any support when he comes face-to-face with not only Giordino but Gerhardt as well. As the “The Train” comes to an end the show reveals three new pieces of information to XIII including the disturbing identity of the young boy’s father (Ted Atherton), the identity of the woman (Virginie Ledoyen) who killed Sam (Caterina Murino), and, in the manner of the comic the show is based on further hiding the true identity of its protagonist, it’s revealed Ryan Flay isn’t XIII’s real identity.

“The Train” is a solid episode where the action and tension rise dramatically once all the players find themselves on the train in the final half-hour. The first meeting between Gerhardt and XIII may be a little too cute, but it works and the circumstances around Giordino’s apparent death make it possible that we haven’t seen the last of the former Director of the CIA.