This was one of the more serious episodes of this show - usually there is a modicum of humour in each episode, although it tends to be on the darker side of funny, but in this one there were very few flashes of it either in the men's storyline or the women's. The men were stuck in Beirut with a reporter they were sent to retrieve when Charles was shot and gravely injured. The portrayal of the situation where they take over the family's apartment seemed to be very realistic - not being military I can't state that with absolute certainty. The bit where Mack showed up in the nick of time while they were on their way out was a little contrived, perhaps, but still entirely plausible - there are thousands of stories of heroes for good reason. The sniper that took out Hector - let me just say "Holy crap!" I had to replay that three times before I believed what I was seeing. So many of our armed forces - Canadian, American, British, any of them - die in combat in other countries far away from home and friends and family, so as sad as it is that Hector is dead, it is once again realistic. Tiffy's current troubles, however, are a little tough to swallow. It seems somewhat over the top that she goes from teacher to glorified stripper, but I suppose the criminal conviction on her record could explain that. It still would seem to me that she could at least find a job at the local version of WalMart rather than dancing, but I just don't know about that. It will be interesting to see where the show goes without Hector - how everyone copes, whether or not there will be a new member added to the unit, and also whether the Colonel had anything to do with Hector's death. It's not the first thing that popped into my head when I watched the episode, but I did see that question raised in a couple of other reviews and it does have its place. It's not one I'll worry about too much, though, if it's not addressed - this is The Unit, not The X-Files... ;)

Green comes in many shades - apple, aquamarine, beryl, chartreuse, fir, forest, grass, jade, kelly, lime, malachite, moss, olive, pea, peacock, pine, sage,sea, spinach, verdigris, viridian, willow - and we saw a whole bunch of them in this episode, to the point that I was playing "spot the shade" in each scene. It got a little annoying, actually, especially as the makers of this show seem to be playing this game more and more often.

The episode itself - storywise, that is - wasn't bad, until the last ten minutes or so. I could have coped with it up to the "terrorist blowing up the nuclear plant" stage. We've seen that too often on other shows, and in at least somewhat more believable scenarios. H standing there with the sniper rifle, just hanging out waiting to make the shot was also rather beyond realistic. The entire roadblock should have been covered in flaming debris and would have been, but of course it was all CGI. I'm all for suspension of disbelief, but don't push it too far or I'll get cranky (as you can see). There was no real character development in this episode, but considering how packed it was with plot zigzags that doesn't really come as a surprise. Anyway, between the final "twist" and the prevalence of the colour green, I was rather disappointed in this episode.

I'm still trying to figure out why, exactly, I'm watching this show - I think it's on the order of watching a train wreck. I just can't look away...

Okay - impressions so far...

Andrea - this time around not so bad, but last episodes breakdown on the phone lingers, so I'm waiting for another one of these - and that didn't take long, did it...

Alanna - blah, pretty but blah

Sisi - this one scares me - she just seems vicious.

Tenika - grasping at straws, it seems

Brandi - holy geez, what a self centered little girl - crying on the phone to her boyfriend about the iPod which she drunkenly dropped it in the hot tub... Considering the way she rubbed in her win of the runway challenge, well, all I can say is gee, karma is a #*@&$...

Natalie - the only one I might consider to actually be human. So of course she's the one that gets let go.

Ylenia - she "hates her body" - can I slap her? Please?

Heather - no impressions of this one, really, she's kinda in the background.

The guest of the week, Philip Bloch - considering I have never followed the fashion world at all, I have no idea who this guy is, but he looks like a caricature of the stereotype.

The "best shots" from the photo shoot were interesting, but some of the comments were a little harsh. As someone else noted in a review, no bloody wonder so many women have so many body issues. Ylenia does not have a big butt, and I'm sorry, but Natalie is lovely - not "too big". (Although, I have to admit I wish they'd let her brush her hair between shots - the frizzies are pretty bad sometimes.)

"Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you will land among the stars." - from the cover of Natalie's journal.

Orange - The hue of that portion of the visible spectrum lying between red and yellow, evoked in the human observer by radiant energy with wavelengths of approximately 590 to 630 nanometers. Just in case anyone was wondering.

Wow - just in the intro, there is only one guy not wearing some shade of orange, and he's the dead guy. I suppose technically Horatio isn't *wearing* orange, but he is a redhead, so the colour is there. Even Frank's tie has orange in it. I don't really like the colour, I really hope this doesn't mean orange is the new black, because it makes me look like I'm three days dead. First three after the intro are also wearing some shade of orange. Good god, it's everyone. This is getting really disturbing. Holy geez, even the blood on the bullet is looking orange.

This is just not fair - the colour is overwhelming the story. I'm barely paying attention to what's going on because I keep getting distracted by all the orange in every shot.

Oooo, nitpick - when the penthouse is being shot up by someone why the heck is Ryan attempting to find where the shots are coming from to return fire? Just get everyone down and out of the line of fire, especially the two who are the actual targets (not that we really care, they're a couple of psychotics, and the only reason they are needed alive is to keep the story moving along to its conclusion) and for pete's sake, Calleigh - use the radio to call for backup a little sooner than waiting til the excitement is all over!! By the way, please, couldn't the reporter twit have died, or at least been injured enough to go away? One would think the writer's would have allowed Ryan to learn from experience that talking to her is a major mistake, yet he keeps doing it.

The ending was blah, not even any more funny one liners, the only thing of note being that we *will* see more of the obnoxious reporter, and we most likely *won't* see any more of Peter Elliot - too bad, he has nice eyes.

(By the way - I labelled this episode "informative" because now I know the technical specs of the colour orange, and many different names for many different shades of the colour... and so do you - lol)

I have to say, this episode left me thinking that I had just spent forty-five minutes watching tv that I could have been doing something more rewarding. There was no character advancement, in fact a couple of steps back as Catherine was barely there and Sara only slightly more so. That in itself is not a great loss, as I'm not a really big fan of Jorja Fox (couldn't they spell Georgia?) but it does leave a hole in the show - it is an ensemble show, and it works best when all the characters are contributing.

I was also very aware of the lack of a secondary storyline - the main plot was just not compelling enough to hold the entire show together. The rap music scene is not my thing in any way, shape or form, so perhaps that lent to my lack of involvement in this episode, but the writer's have put together thinner stories and had me much more engrossed before and I'm fairly certain that it's because if I'm not sucked in by the main plot, I'm captured by the secondary storyline.

On a positive note, it is nice to see Nick getting more screen time, as he's quite nice to look at (minus the seventies hair, that is). I'm a little disappointed, though - my local network that carries CSI has these promos using the stars of the shows airing at that time and George Eads looks just great with the short haircut he sports in those spots, so I keep hoping he'll go back to that style - looks so much better than the longer hair. I know, I know, picky picky...