THE INNOCENT: Ziva Rodann plays Zia, an officer trained by the same man who mentored Solo in the Korean War, Colonel Morgan. She's a fast driver and completely loyal to the man who fought for democracy in her unnamed Middle Eastern country (the French ties make it out to be akin to Lebanon), and a father figure in the wake of her parents' death at the hands of the previous regime. Rodann was a Palestinian actress and, historically, the first Israeli actress to get a Hollywood contract. She starred in a number of B-movies before devoting a lot of her time to television guest roles. After this, she would play King Tut's sidekick Nefertiti on the Batman TV show.
REVIEW: I think someone had just read Tintin and The Sceptre of Ottokar, because that plot... Tangentially, an UNCLE mission, Solo's former commander asks him for help, but to UNCLE has looked into it and there's no proof the country's new duly-elected Premiere is planning to be a dictator or manipulated the elections in any way. But Solo has learned to trust Col. Morgan, and the man's resume since the end of the Korean War has him support various democratic revolutions around the world, so he's to be trusted, right? Illya's presence on this trip may put the lie to that, not for the first time acting as Solo's conscience whenever his partner has been compromised by personal feelings (usually for a woman). And indeed, it's to be the old trope of the military officer who goes bad because he's given everything to his duty, and gotten very little in return.
To be fair, the episode tries to obscure the truth behind a lot of twists and turns, some of which are really surplus to requirements. Morgan initially ropes Solo into his heist of a sceptre that the superstitious "primitive tribes" of the country (eech) will follow no matter who carries it, but the security is far from as tight as promised (a couple guys playing cards, one of them his back to the door), and no alarm would have been sounded at all if not for Morgan wanting to get his hands dirty as opposed to letting the agents of UNCLE use their tranq darts. He then tasks Solo to smuggle the artifact out of the country, because he's too well-known and could be tracked, but since he's faking his own death anyway, why not keep the sceptre on him (or even pass Solo a fake, much as Solo does in the racket case?) and let his students (Solo and Zia) act as a diversion? Especially since the chief of the secret police AND the Premier's fascist mother are his co-conspirators. He has the run of the place from behind the scenes. Unless Morgan is playing these side-villains as well? In any case, what he really wants isn't the sceptre, but the jewels it secretly contains - so a financial power, rather than a magical one. At the end, Morgan doesn't even pretend to be on Solo's side, showing up gun in hand, and oddly, not even recognizing Zia who he had been fatherly to before (she cleans up well, but hardly looks like a different person). With both Solo and Zia emotionally compromised, Illya kills Morgan (in self-defense). MVP! (MeowVP! - if you've seen it, you'll get it.)
The plots and counter-plots do create a nice mystery and make you wonder who the real villains are, and even if the heroes are onto them. An early ambush ends with the thugs smiling. The Premier is naturally worried about his position, but it could be sinister. The X on the car. His mother proves to be the actual conspirator, but who is she talking to on the phone? Less interesting is her death by bear (or man in unconvincing bear suit) at the end of her arc. An off-screen scream is meant to cover her final end, but it's not particularly satisfying. And while the boys can sometimes seem ambivalent as if they're a step ahead of Morgan, it's more a question of performance than script. When Illya is captured, he seemed so nonplussed (as did Solo) that I immediately thought he did it on purpose so he could sound the Premier. But no, Solo doesn't escape the country without first saving his friend (this country loves dangerous animals because the prison's lock has a snake in it), and he does so by holding a head of state at gunpoint. It SOUNDS like he's also trying to figure out the Premiere, and by the end, he's not shocked that Morgan is the bad guy, but this all needed to feel a little more overt.
HEARD ON CHANNEL D: "It is inevitable. A man must die a little every day." (Illya)
"Oh, by the way, I forgot to thank you for rescuing me from the fortress." (Illya to Solo, while facing death by bear)
"When you're old, it's easy to be pushed." "Yes, and it's easy to fall." (Morgan and Solo)
BONDED: That first Illya quote is an Ian Fleming quote that is used in both On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and You Only Live Twice. Solo's background as a veteran of the Korean War mirrors James Bond's.
REWATCHABILITY - Medium-Low: There's some cool action throughout, but we lose the plot in all the convolutions.
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