TV Jots

You Look Hungry … and Tense

[Episode 1.04] This is the first episode that didn’t make it to the tube when Smith premiered on CBS in 2006. It’s time for Team Bobby to get busy on the Precious Metals Job, which entails stealing a half-ton shipment of gold in Reno, Nevada. These guys are nothing if not ambitious, huh?

Although we won’t get to see the final fruits of Tom and Jeff’s efforts until the next episode, “Five,” the fourth episode opens with the close friends casing an armored truck as it travels through a tunnel to arrive at the airport. Trust me, it all makes sense why this surveillance work matters in the next installment.

Meanwhile, gotta throw a wrench in Team Bobby’s plans in order to mix it up and make the quite lengthy theft prep more interesting. I guess that’s why the second incident of the episode has Joe getting stopped by a cop for weaving an Arizona Rescue truck on the road as he struggles to stay awake while driving one night. No worries, however, because Joe gets out of the potential problem by lying that he’s on his way to help put out a nearby forest fire.

The truck he’s driving is actually the armored truck Team Bobby stole during “Three,” painted red and adorned with decals to look like a rescue vehicle. The guys strip it down to the armored truck again when Joe eventually arrives in Reno.

The second kink in the team’s plans comes courtesy of womanizing Jeff, who falls for — or rather lusts after — a chili dog-diner waitress named Verna. She receives a nice colorful shiner from her boyfriend one day after she stands him up to let Jeff drive her home from work on a motorcycle Annie procured for the job.

Predictably, “Surfer Boy” retaliates with a metal napkin holder in boyfriend’s face, which results in a brutal beat-down from the boyfriend’s three goon-ish pals, plus a dislocated shoulder for good measure. The last is a common enough occurrence, judging from Tom’s weary exasperation as he realigns the shoulder.

Back in Cali, Bobby approaches bookie Art at a bar one night with a generous $10,000 good-faith payment on Shawn’s $35,000+ debt. All he wants in exchange is for Art to lay off Macy. But the bookie’s not hearing it and he blows Bobby off.

Next thing you know, Bobby is slamming his car into Art in the parking lot, before retrieving his envelope of money and warning Art that the next time he comes anywhere near Macy, Joe, or any other person Bobby’s ever had coffee with, he’s dead. Shoulda took the dough, dude, and chilled out! Now you done made Bobby mad.

Later at the airport with bossman Jerry (Shaun Toub, Iron Man) and a colleague, Bobby gets out of boarding the plane for the exciting National Paper Products convention in Houston, Texas, by lying that his client Phil in Denver, a half-million dollar national account, received a two million-cup order without logos. He promises disbelieving Jerry he’ll fly to Houston the next day, in time for the second day of the convention.

First, however, Bobby goes to another section of the airport, where he meets Tom’s former fellow inmate, new potential electronics guy Matthew Marley (Elden Henson, Lords of Dogtown), who’s 22 but looks about 15. Marley gets the go-ahead to travel to Reno for the job after he shows Bobby — who’s using the fake name Jack — that he can hack Federal Aviation Administration computers.

Marley really does know his stuff, and he officially joins the team at the end of the episode, when Bobby finally tells him his real name. He then hangs around until the last produced episode of the series, “Seven.”

Hope is around, too, first with her weird boss, Steve (Steven Eckholdt, The L Word), who’s always in her face, asking intrusive questions. Later, she convinces her sympathetic parole officer to grant her a 48-hour leave to “surprise” Bobby at the Houston convention, allegedly for their anniversary, when she reveals Bobby has been traveling a lot lately. What Hope really wants, of course, is to confirm what her husband is actually up to.

When her parents come to watch the kids while she’s gone, we learn Hope gets her intuitive nature from her mother. It’s immediately obvious mom doesn’t care for Bobby at all when one of the first things out of her mouth is a sarcastic “What’s he into now?” Smart woman, just like her daughter.

By the time Hope arrives at the Houston hotel, Bobby still hasn’t checked in, which increases her suspicions to sky-high levels. Good for Bobby, then, that he shows up just as she wanders into the bar and introduces herself to Jerry.

Hope and Bobby then proceed to give every indication they used to be a con team when they lie about their early days as a couple — including their fondness for the Chicago restaurant Mr. Beef — to an A&W executive in order to convince him to switch the company’s cup account to Bobby. The executive does just that before the convention is over, shutting up a stunned Jerry for the rest of the episode and freeing Bobby to leave when he wants.

Before the A&W score, however, Charlie calls with the news that the gold is on its way from the mine to the airport, giving Team Bobby a mere 36 hours to finalize plans. Bobby clearly feels the pressure of getting to Reno in time to complete the heist, and then there’s the new guy. If he can’t hack the GPS signal from the real armory truck and switch it over to their vehicle, they’ll have to abandon the job then, as well.

The test run the next day proves Marley can “hack it” just fine, though. There’s only one problem: a blip on the GPS that could prevent dispatch from reaching the guards in the vehicle. Such a glitch would alert dispatch to a problem, which is why during “Five,” the team stages the transfer in a tunnel, an area that’s more obstructed and less likely to raise suspicions at dispatch.

Back in Houston, Hope finally returns home, allowing Bobby to go to Reno at last, where he meets up with a man to visit the drop site first and then joins the team to confirm they will indeed move forward with the heist.

Up Next on Episode Five: The Precious Metal Job continues, along with the expected complications and setbacks.