TNT to the rescue! Supernatural fans whose memories of the show have gotten a tad rusty over the summer can refresh their recollection before its September 24 sixth-season premiere with a 20-hour marathon on TNT next Friday.

The basic-cable network, which syndicates the series, plans to air 20 back-to-back episodes of the paranormal thriller from midnight to 8pm ET on season-premiere night, September 24. If that’s not terrific enough, the network will cap the marathon at 8pm with the 2007 sci-fi flick I Am Legend, starring Will Smith.

Highlights of TNT’s Supernatural marathon include the Season Four finale “Lucifer Rising” at the very start, the Season Five premiere “Sympathy for the Devil” right afterwards, and the Season Five finale “Swan Song” terminating the extravaganza from 7–8pm on Friday. Also included are select episodes from the second and third seasons, so you’re out of luck if you would like the marathon to go all the way back to the beginning and the first season.

Continue below for the entire September 24 Supernatural lineup, courtesy of TNT.

FYI: Supernatural has a new time slot on The CW this fall. The drama moves from Thursday nights to Fridays at 9pm.

September 24 Supernatural Marathon on TNT

• 12am: Lucifer Rising (Season 4 Finale)
  As the Apocalypse approaches, Castiel and Zachariah inform Dean that his moment of glory draws nigh. Sam, disagreeing, goes with Ruby to take on Lilith.
• 1am: Sympathy for the Devil (Season 5 Premiere)
  Sam, Dean and Bobby must deal with the aftermath of the Devil’s escape from Hell. They also receive startling news from the Prophet.
• 2am: Mystery Spot (Season 3)
  Dean is killed after looking into a case about the disappearance of a man with Sam. The next morning, Sam is shocked to find Dean alive and realizes that he is reliving the day before.
• 3am: In My Time of Dying (Season 2 Premiere)
  In the aftermath of the car crash, the surviving Winchesters go to the hospital, where one is stalked by a Reaper while another must consider sacrificing himself to save the others.
• 4am: Jus in Bello (Season 3)
  FBI Agent Henricksen finally captures Sam and Dean, but he is caught in the middle when a horde of demons descends on the small-town jail to eliminate the brothers.
• 5am: Ghostfacers (Season 3)
  While investigating the haunted Morton Mansion, Sam and Dean run into a couple of familiar faces and become inadvertent participants in a new reality show named Ghostfacers. As events turn deadly and the team is trapped in the house, the investigation becomes a battle to survive until morning.
• 6am: Bloodlust (Season 2)
  Sam and Dean encounter a vampire hunter whose obsession may get them all killed.
• 7am: Sin City (Season 3)
  The brothers investigate a town where the citizens have turned to drinking and gambling. Meanwhile, Bobby gets an unexpected ally as he attempts to rebuild the Colt.
• 8am: In the Beginning (Season 4)
  Dean gets transported back in time and ends up in Lawrence, Kan., where he crosses paths with a young version of his parents, who have just fallen in love.
• 9am: Nightshifter (Season 2)
  The Winchesters investigate a series of crimes where robbers with no criminal past commit suicide after the hold-ups.
• 10am: The Real Ghostbusters (Season 5)
  Sam and Dean are tricked into attending a Supernatural convention by their super-fan Becky. The brothers are in for a shock when many of the fans are dressed up like them.
• 11am: Changing Channels (Season 5)
  Dean and Sam find themselves mystically trapped in a series of real-life TV shows, from which there appears to be no escape. They believe their old enemy the Trickster is responsible, but discover it could involve someone or something else.
• 12pm: The Song Remains the Same (Season 5)
  Anna travels back in time to kill Mary and John Winchester before they can conceive Sam and Dean, thus preventing the Apocalypse. Castiel transports the brothers back to save their own parents, but they must answer awkward questions when their parents begin to wonder what’s going on.
• 1pm: My Bloody Valentine (Season 5)
  Lovers begin to kill each other in a small town on Valentine’s Day. When Sam, Dean and Castiel investigate, they discover that people are not starved for just love. Famine, one of the Four Horsemen, is fueling their hunger.
• 2pm: Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid (Season 5)
  In Bobby’s hometown, the dead rise from their graves and take up their normal family lives where they left off. Sam and Dean suspect something sinister is responsible, but Bobby refuses to investigate after his dead wife, Karen, returns.
• 3pm: 99 Problems (Season 5)
  Sam and Dean find a town where the angels have chosen a pastor’s daughter, Leah, as a prophet to teach the townsfolk how to fight demons. The town is soon swept up in a religious fervor as Leah passes on the angels’ increasingly strict commandments.
• 4pm: Hammer of the Gods (Season 5)
  Earth’s pagan gods gather and trap Sam and Dean in a hotel. While they try to decide what to do, Gabriel arrives and tries to keep the gods from engaging in futile battle.
• 5pm: The Devil You Know (Season 5)
  Crowley contacts Sam and Dean and offers to help them find Pestilence so they can get the third ring and trap Lucifer. They capture the demon in charge of coordinating the Horsemen’s activities, but Sam realizes that the demon is an old acquaintance.
• 6pm: Two Minutes to Midnight (Season 5)
  After Bobby and the brothers recover Castiel, they search out Pestilence, who is preparing to unleash the Croatoan virus upon the planet. Meanwhile, Lucifer is using Death to create a storm that will wipe out 3 million people, but Death has a plan of his own.
• 7pm: Swan Song (Season 5 Finale)
  The fifth season concludes with the Apocalypse, which forces Sam and Dean to make heart-shattering decisions that will alter their lives forever.

If you were a fan of the short-lived serial crime drama The Nine and you happen to have access to satellite network DIRECTV, then you’re in luck. Starting tonight, July 29, at 10pm ET, the network will begin presenting the last four episodes of the show, which never aired during the series’ 2006–2007 run on ABC.

The Nine follows the experiences of nine seemingly unrelated people who develop an unexpected bond after they survive a botched bank robbery that includes being held captive for 52 hours. DIRECTV started syndicating the entire 13-episode series on Wednesday, May 27, leading up to the previously unseen episodes that fans can watch beginning with tonight’s installment, “The Inside Man.”

Keep reading for details about all four episodes.

The Inside Man | July 29

After Egan (John Billingsley) makes a surprising statement on national television, the lives of the nine are thrown into turmoil. Kathryn (Kim Raver) must now consider the political implications of her continued association with the others, and Nick (Tim Daly) tries to use knowledge that only he possesses to satisfy a nagging suspicion.

Man of the Year | August 5

While Malcolm (Chi McBride) struggles with whether or not he deserves an award for his many years od civic service, his hapless brother visits unexpectedly. Lizzie (Jessica Collins) remains troubled by romantic dreams of Lucas (Owain Yeoman). And Felicia (Dana Davis) digs deeper into her memories of the bank incident.

Legacy | August 12

Nick asks Malcolm for guidance in coping with an old promise of revenge for his father’s death. Egan proves to be a valuable asset in Kathryn’s campaign. And Felicia confronts Malcolm about something she remembers from the robbery.

Confessions | August 19

Kathryn is drawn dangerously close to Nick. Burdened by his sins, Jeremy (Scott Wolf) makes a shocking confession. And Lizzie faces a crisis of conscience regarding Lucas.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about two excellent premium-cable shows coming to satellite network DIRECTV this summer: HBO’s western Deadwood and prison drama OZ. In case a reminder is in order, the series began airing on May 31, and new episodes debut each Sunday at 9pm and 10pm ET, respectively.

Deadwood, which unfolded on HBO from March 2004 to August 2006, revolves around a group of settlers who live in an outlaw camp in Deadwood, South Dakota. The ensemble series won Emmy and Golden Globe awards during its three-season run, and it stars Ian McShane, Powers Booth, Brad Dourif, E.B. Farnum, Timothy Olyphant, and Robin Weigert.

OZ aired on HBO from July 1997 until February 2003, and its six seasons gave a closeup view of life inside an experimental cell block in the brutal Oswald Maximum Security Correctional Facility. Among the members of the series’ large regular cast are Ernie Hudson, Terry Kinney, Christopher Meloni, Rita Moreno, Harold Perrineau, J.K. Simmons, Lee Tergesen, and Dean Winters.

If you wanted to watch the shows (legally) in the past, your main options were either subscribing to HBO or catching them on DVD. However, DIRECTV’s 101 Network is now broadcasting each series uncut, commercial free, and in high definition. The network also plans to air all 36 episodes of Deadwood and all 56 episodes of OZ on both The 101 Network on Sundays and DIRECTV on DEMAND. What more could a fan ask for?

Last Wednesday, May 27, satellite network DIRECTV began airing the 2006–2007 crime drama The Nine, which lasted just nine (how ironic!) episodes on ABC before the network yanked it due to low ratings. Many viewers were upset at the time about the show’s quick death, largely because the strictly serial format left them hanging when it came to what eventually happened to the numerous main characters.

Good thing, then, that DIRECTV has committed to airing all 13 produced episodes of The Nine, which includes four that never made it to the tube on ABC. As a result, lucky fans can re-experience the series-opening crime that started it all — a robbery gone very, very wrong at Los Angeles’ Fidelity Republic Bank — as well as the aftermath and its impact on nine people held captive against their will for 52 hours during the event.

The robbery ended after a standoff with cops, leaving the hostages shaken and their lives forever changed. More intriguing, the glimpses into each person’s backstory and future raised numerous questions about whether any of the hostages were actually in cahoots with the crooks.

One of the most interesting things about The Nine to me is how every last one of the top-notch main cast members went on to land other good acting gigs after the show ended. Those regulars are Lourdes Benedicto (Cashmere Mafia, forthcoming V), John Billingsley (24), Jessica Collins (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation), Tim Daly (Private Practice), Dana Davis (Heroes), Camille Guaty (Cupid), Chi McBride (Pushing Daisies, forthcoming Human Target), Kim Raver (Lipstick Jungle), Scott Wolf (forthcoming V), and Owain Yeoman (The Mentalist).

You can catch some of those actors on their current and upcoming shows … when the series return or premiere in the fall, of course. If you want them now, however, The Nine on DIRECTV is the way to go. Catch the drama Wednesdays at 10pm ET throughout the summer on DIRECTV’s 101 Network.

[Episode 1.06] It’s Bobby’s birthday, but that’s actually the least interesting thing going on because Smith‘s Episode Six belongs to Jeff.

During the best opening segments ever, Jeff returns to the house on the beach he shares with Tom after a morning surf. He grabs a beer to drink while throwing together a nauseating omelet breakfast made of eggs, a cup of butter, two raw hot dogs, and spoiled Chinese lo mein. Yeah — that’s my stomach’s righteous indignation that you hear.

After he finishes eating — how, I don’t know — and takes out the trash, Jeff finds a lovely copy of Surfer Girl, which he takes back inside to enjoy. But just when he’s about to get into the “articles,” Kala Tafattafua (Sidney S. Liufau) smashes threw the wall-length window right beside him.

Hell breaks loose, fierce struggling ensues, gunshots are fired, and Jeff finally manages to get away after Kala nearly drowns him in the bathtub. As he runs for his life down the street, Jeff spots a white Taurus parked outside the house and assumes Kala was driving it. He’s wrong, of course, but that doesn’t stop him from freaking out every time he sees another white Taurus during the episode, which is often.

Jeff goes where he knows he’ll be safe, which happens to be his doctor father’s gated estate. It turns out Assassin Surfer Boy comes from an extremely wealthy family whose members have given up on him after a life filled with psychiatrists, special schools, and arrests.

It’s clear, too, that Jeff understands what a disappointment he’s been to his parents from the painfully guilty look on his face as he avoids eye contact with them. He comes to get his father’s gun collection, but his frustrated mother asked the doctor to sell the weapons. Yet later, Jeff’s father pulls Tom aside and gives him one of the few guns he held onto while asking Tom to keep his son safe.

Before that request, Jeff tells Tom how he shot the two dudes in Honolulu because they kicked him off the beach. Really. That’s it. Jeff had no other motive than that Kala’s brother and cousin ruined his fun surfing time. As lovable as the character is, you have to admit Jeff is well on his way to becoming a card-carrying sociopath.

But Tom already knows that, and he surfs the ‘net to learn that the huge attacker from that morning is Kala, a Hawaiian methamphetamine kingpin who’s so connected, he’s gotten off the hook for four murders, including a decapitation. Oh, sh*t!

Jeff and Tom are really terrified now, and they spend most of the rest of the episode paranoid, jumping sky high at every sound, and trying to avoid booby traps and surprise attacks inside the darkened beach house. Just when the tension becomes unbearable, however, following a night of hyper vigilance, Tom discovers Kala’s body in the bedroom, where it’s been dead since that morning.

Yes — the buddies have wasted an entire day running scared from a dead man. Now all they have to do is get rid of Kala’s huge corpse, which they take care of by leaving it on the beach for little children to find. Really.

As for birthday boy Bobby, after he meets with his accountant to have him wash his recent million-dollar payoff “squeaky clean,” his wife Hope surprises him with a special visit to an old favorite bar, where his former band mates call him on stage for a little impromptu piano playing. Afterwards, Hope finally reveals that she misses the crime life, too, and knows he’s up to something fishy.

Still, Hope wants Bobby to realize that their cozy little suburban life and boring jobs are necessary now that they have two kids and can’t run all the time to stay ahead of the law. Bobby insists he can’t get by with such an existence, but he gives in at the end and goes to a neighborhood barbecue, where he and Hope are shocked to learn the host and half the guests are cops. Ha ha!

There’s no Annie in this episode — she gets center stage in the seventh and final produced installment — which is fine by me. So, the two remaining plot threads involve the Feds, who arrive in Reno to find nothing new, until a report about a stolen gold bar that turns up in Boston, and Joe and Macy.

Joe begins feeling guilty about sleeping with his best friend’s wife after Shawn and Macy’s son Ryan sees him in his underwear one morning. Macy’s response: Get over it, lover, because I feel wonderful sleeping with my husband’s best friend. What a waste — Team Bobby should have found room for her on their jobs to assist equally heartless Annie. Two tough chicks are better than one.

Up Next on the Series Finale Episode Seven: Annie works her charms on several people — or should I say “men”? — and the Feds continue hunting down the team as Smith bows out permanently.

If you thought satellite network DIRECTV was outdoing itself by repeatedly collaborating with NBC to renew the critically acclaimed drama Friday Night Lights, you ain’t seen nothing yet. That’s just the tip of the iceberg.

As I mentioned in a March post, the network also arranged to bring three interesting but short-lived crime dramas back to the small screen, starting last month with the 2006 CBS series Smith. Now that the seven-episode Ray Liotta show has launched and is almost over, coming up soon are the 2006–2007 ABC series The Nine on May 27 and ABC’s 2005–2006 comedy-tinged Eyes in July.

Viewers will not only get to see the episodes that made it to television when the show’s first aired, but also the episodes that were left on the shelf after their early cancellations. You can read my Smith recaps at any time if you feel so inclined. The series’ final produced episode, number seven, premieres on DIRECTV this Wednesday (tomorrow), May 20, at 10pm ET.

If those three shows aren’t enough to get a rise out of a crime drama fan, how about HBO’s classic prison yarn OZ and western scorcher Deadwood? That’s right — DIRECTV is resurrecting both of those shows, too, and offering them uncut, commercial free, and in high definition during The 101 Network‘s Sunday-night lineup, as well as on DIRECTV on DEMAND.

Both series will begin their non-premium-cable runs on May 31, with Deadwood in the 9pm ET time slot and OZ following afterwards at 10pm ET. If you’re new to the shows, continue reading to learn what they’re all about, courtesy of DIRECTV.

Deadwood

Created and executive produced by David Milch (NYPD Blue), Deadwood first aired on HBO in 2004 and was met with critical praise and accolades, winning multiple Emmy© Awards and a Golden Globe© Award during its run.

Featuring an ensemble cast including Ian McShane, Timothy Olyphant, Robin Weigert, Powers Booth, E.B. Farnum and Brad Dourif, Deadwood takes viewers into the uncivilized outpost in the Black Hills of South Dakota to witness the birth of an American frontier town and the ruthless power struggle between its just and unjust pioneers. Beginning in 1876 during the richest gold strike in American history, Deadwood draws a mob of restless misfits to the lawless settlement, where everything and everyone has a price.

OZ

Executive produced by the award-winning team of Barry Levinson and Tom Fontana (Homicide: Life on the Streets), OZ features a large ensemble cast including Ernie Hudson, Harold Perrineau, Lee Tergesen, J.K. Simmons, Dean Winters, Terry Kinney, Christopher Meloni and Rita Moreno, with a wide-range of guest stars including Method Man, Master P, LL Cool J and Treach.

OZ takes viewers inside experimental cell block Level Four, also known as Emerald City, where inmates and correctional officers alike battle for survival amid warring factions and explosive acts of retribution. Each episode reveals the scheming and brutality of prison life as well as the occasional act of redemption, with plots, subplots and conflicts given context and explanation by the show’s wheelchair-bound narrator, Augustus Hill.

[Episode 1.05] It’s time for the Precious Metals Job in Reno, Nevada, where Joe is the lookout at Reno International Airport, Bobby is on the road posing as a Gunther-Rimes armored-truck driver, and the rest of the team is in the tunnel where Marley knocks out the cellphone, radio, and GPS signals on the real Gunther-Rimes armored truck called Kilo 160. Inside, the driver and two guards are highly annoyed about the traffic jam.

Things never go exactly as planned, however. So, although Bobby successfully fools the dispatch officers into believing he’s driving the real armored truck, he, Tom, and Jeff are held up at the airport when the plane carrying the unrefined gold from the mine is delayed by another plane with mechanical problems, which is given permission to land first.

Their plane arrives just as Team Bobby is about to run out of time, and the three members stationed at the landing site manage to overpower the guards on the plane with gas and then steal the gold. Yet, by then, airport security is on the way because the dispatchers finally realize something’s up when the cops clear the traffic in the tunnel and the real armored truck’s GPS signal goes live again. Bobby, Tom, and Jeff escape with just seconds to spare as four airport security cars arrive with sirens blazing.

The team doesn’t have too long to relish their latest accomplishment, though, because there’s still more trouble ahead. At the meeting with Fred Cole (Ryan Cutrona, 24) the next day to exchange the gold for the $2 million dollar payment, the buyer tries to stiff Bobby out of 1.25 million dollars, insisting he told Charlie he needed more time to get all of the money. Worse, Bobby can’t sell the gold to anyone else anyway because it’s traceable.

Next thing you know, out come the guns because both Jeff and Joe are hiding nearby, as is Cole’s gunman. Bullets fly, Cole is shot, Cole’s gunman is killed, and Cole’s colleague who tested the gold for acidity is wounded but escapes.

With the ambush over, Bobby gets dying Cole to reveal they can refine the gold at the nearby farmhouse his team was going to use since they can’t transport it past the many police roadblocks that have been set up to catch whoever stole it. Unfortunately, the sneaky buyer leaves out the crucial fact that the process requires changing the gold’s metallurgical fingerprint by mixing it with other metals, which just happened to be in the vehicle his colleague used to flee.

After Team Bobby finishes a little improvised metal scrapping and melts all but the last bar of gold — Bobby intends to take it to Boston for some unexplained reason — just before Cole dies, yet more temporary trouble arrives in the form of a Forest Service Ranger. Jeff and Annie get rid of him by pretending to be there alone to have sex while on a road trip, and Bobby calls Charlie, who he understandably suspects may be responsible for the averted rip off, to arrange a meet the next morning in Reno.

Charlie, who denies all involvement with any scam, gets more than she bargains for when she arrives with Team Bobby’s $2 million, however. Bobby not only puts the tools made out of the recast metal in an unmarked van for her, but Cole’s dead corpse, as well. It’s hard to tell if Charlie is shocked or furious when she discovers the body.

The morning after the completed job is mostly lovely for the rest of the team. Happy Annie drives away on the highway, leaving Tom alone in bed with her underwear.

Matthew Marley — who looked mortified the night before when macabre Annie suggested throwing Cole’s body, or at least his head and hands, in the melted gold to get rid of it — returns home late from his “comic convention” and tells his mother he’s not going on that job interview because he’s freelancing now.

And, Cole’s poor colleague Eli Voizard, whom Cole gave up pretty quickly at Bobby’s insistence, gets out of the shower to find cheerful, smiling Jeff sitting on the steps inches away with a cup of coffee, a gun aimed right at him, and a hacksaw on the floor. Ouch! You know whatever comes afterward is gonna hurt.

Up Next on Episode Six, also known as My Favorite Episode: We begin with the best opening scenes ever and then learn all about Jeff, including his surprising background and why he really shot and killed those two dudes on that beach in Hawaii (trust me — you’ll be amazed). Plus, Macy and the Feds are back in action.

[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.

[Episode 1.03] What are Tom and Jeff up to, dressed all commando outside of what looks like a military base? Why, they’re setting loose kittens so the animals will wander over the sensor line and trip the base’s alarms.

Once that happens enough times to annoy the frak out of the guards, the duo enters undetected and steals a nice big .50-caliber machine gun, as requested by Bobby for the upcoming precious metals job, complete with 400 rounds of ammunition that look like they weight a ton alone. The guys are nothing if not clever.

While Bobby lies to his wife Hope that he’ll be traveling to Portland, San Francisco, and Houston in the next couple of weeks for business, the Feds identify the former husband of “Dorothy Collins” as hardcore criminal and current inmate Michael Khouri (Sterling K. Brown, Army Wives), who’s serving five years in Michigan on a drug charge. The law has also managed to match fabric found on the burned arm from the river with phone company uniforms, so the next step is to scour missing reports for all white males under 60.

Meanwhile, Agents Dodd and Valez (Lisa Vidal, Third Watch) take a trip to Michigan to chat with Khouri. They try to get him to help locate “Dee” by hinting she’s the one who set him up for his current prison stint — since they were robbery buddies and all — but he’s not buying. In fact, the convict asks them quite nicely, if a tad ominously, to give his ex-wife the message that he’s coming for her soon if they ever find her.

Back in Cali, Kala Tafattafua (Sidney S. Liufau) starts questioning Venice Beach locals about the unidentified guy in his police sketch, and increasingly suspicious Hope continues playing sleuth by following Bobby in her car as he pays a visit to potential new electronics man Mark Langley (Brent Sexton, Life).

Mark claims he’s not drinking again when Bobby asks, but he’s lying, of course, as Tom and Annie verify soon enough when they tail him later. Good thing, then, that Bobby only gives him a preliminary assignment instead of bringing him on full-fledged from the get-go. On to Tom’s suggestion of a young guy he did time with, whom we meet in the next episode.

Somewhere in there, Bobby and Tom make it to Nevada’s Reno International Airport to observe the hangar where the 1,300 pounds of gold they plan to steal will arrive. Given the huge haul and the amount and quality of airport security, it’s immediately clear the thieves need an armored car to complete the job.

Next stop on the itinerary? Meet the rest of the team in Tucson to steal said armored tuck during a complicated operation that involves — take a deep breath — lifting ID from an unsuspecting truck driver to rent another truck and then ambush an armored truck, driven by two guards and carrying used grocery store coupons worth zilch, under an underpass in broad daylight. Got that? Good.

After Joe refuses to tell Macy what’s going on with Shawn when she arrives at his house to complain about the latest mysterious envelope containing $10,000 and no note, shady bookie Art Jackson (William Lucking, Murder, She Wrote) drops by his garage, looking for Shawn and repayment of that formerly $30,000, now $35,000 debt. However, when the encounter doesn’t turn up the gambling addict, Art visits Macy, forcing her to hide in a closet with her son and call Joe after Art and his goons finish trashing her house.

Up Next on Episode Four: Now that Team Bobby has the machine gun and the getaway car, it’s time for yet more heist prep during “Four,” which has never been broadcast on television previously. We also meet the new electronics guy, although Kala and the FBI take a temporary break from the action.

[Episode 1.02] While the first episode of Smith was all about the botched Tanner Museum job in Pittsburgh, the second episode focuses on the inevitable subsequent FBI investigation, as well as the activities of Bobby’s team members.

The FBI, led by Agent Dodd, immediately deduces that six criminals were responsible for the theft of three paintings worth $100 to $200 million: DECOY WOMAN, a blonde, blue-eyed female across the street who functioned as a decoy after renting two of the vehicles involved under a false name; the muscular DRIVER seen only from behind in the alley; the white PHONE MAN with dark hair; the slightly built white guy with an unidentified ACCENT; the white guy with shaggy blond hair and a TATTOO; and SMITH, the 6-foot white guy with black hair, blue eyes, and expensive clothes who was calling the shots.

Dodd’s not kidding when he says the FBI is coming for Team Bobby.

Meanwhile, Annie shows her true greedy colors at the team’s first meeting after the job. The payout split is supposed to be 50 percent to Bobby as leader, and 50 percent divided among the rest of the team. Annie cops an attitude and asks Bobby why she and the guys are receiving only $100,000, or a one-fifth split, when Shawn is now dead and there are four of them left.

Bobby cops a bigger attitude in response and explains Shawn’s share is going to Macy and their son. You can just sense it — one day soon, Annie’s greasy little fingers are going to get her exactly what she deserves. Can’t wait.

Annie figures heavily in this episode for another reason, too. Since Bobby insists on laying low for a while, she comes up with a supplementary identity-theft job to tide herself over, and she lets Tom and Jeff in on it.

But, unbeknownst to her, while she’s busy planning that crime, her old high school buddy Nancy Scialfa (you know — the poor woman Annie zapped with a stun gun in the alley near the museum) is busy informing the FBI about her younger days as dark-haired Dorothy Collins. Dodd and a colleague visit her parents, who both claim ignorance of her whereabouts. Yet, Annie’s father secretly calls and warns her as soon as the Feds leave.

Things aren’t going much better for Bobby, although he remains clueless for now that his wife Hope suspects he’s behind the Tanner theft and is determined to prove it. She’s sneaking peeks at news reports and searching his belongings the second he steps out the door to go to work.

When she comes up with bubkes, however, her sleuthing and suspicions just grow more intense. She branches out to calling every criminal she knows for a lead on what Bobby’s up to, and she finally hits paydirt when she bumps into Macy, who reveals Shawn has been AWOL in Las Vegas since the preceding Thursday.

Out on the Venice Beach boardwalk, Tom and Jeff are doing their yin-yang thing, and they reveal that Tom spent eight months in jail because he was caught during a job while Annie got away because she was already outside the building. Tom doesn’t blame her for not giving herself up, but for some reason, Jeff does.

And, just so we know how impetuous Jeff is, he steals a guy’s “sweet bike” with the owner sitting right on it after the guy makes the huge mistake of winking at Jeff while he’s admiring the vehicle. Bet the dude will never do that again. And, no, Tom, who just wants to complete his parole in peace, is not pleased.

Now is a great time to note the very weird vibe between Annie, an incurable and probably dangerous flirt, and Jeff, who acts like he hates Annie’s guts but actually seems to be struggling mightily to hide his lust for his best friend’s woman. I wonder where all that will lead. No doubt, nowhere good.

However, there’s even more trouble brewing for Jeff because, unknown to him, Kala Tafattafua (Sidney S. Liufau), the brother/cousin of the two men Jeff assassinated on the beach in the first episode, visits the police in Honolulu. A cop played by The Closer‘s Michael Paul Chan gives him a sketch of the murderer who killed his relatives, thanks to a witness.

The lawman also discloses that Jeff’s car was rented with a license stolen during a robbery in Los Angeles. So, Jeff is in big trouble because Tafattafua is huge and he’s coming stateside just to track Jeff down.

But first, Tom and Jeff sign on for Annie’s three-minute Ram Raid — their words, not mine. During the robbery, they literally storm the walls of data company IDA (Information Data Associates) with a SVU outfitted like a battering ram. The target? Not money, but rather over a half million stored accounts that include mothers’ maiden names, birth dates, and social security numbers.

Jeff initially balks at the $50 grand payday, yet agrees after snarkily asking if Annie will be inside with them or outside waiting to run at the sound of the first siren. Ha ha! Funny guy, although Annie clearly doesn’t think so.

Elsewhere, at his financial advisor’s office, Bobby is immensely disappointed to learn he only has $4,262,000 saved up and won’t be able to turn it into $10 million with his current investment strategy. See, that’s the main difference between me and fake people on TV — I’d be perfectly happy, thrilled in fact, with the first amount. But Bobby isn’t, and the $5 million shortage is what motivates him to take the five-week, $500,000 precious metal job from Charlie when he knows it would be better to wait longer following the Tanner disaster.

If only Bobby also knew his wife Hope, terrified his suspected illegal activities are going to ruin their happy suburban life, is investigating him harder than any cop ever will. Yet, first Bobby has to deal with Charlie, who considers Macy a loose end from the Tanner job. Despite the problems Shawn has brought, Bobby is determined to protect Macy, especially from Charlie.

At the garage, Joe is having a hard time keeping Macy in the dark about her husband Shawn’s death. Why, I don’t know, but he’s come up with the brilliant plan (Not!) of sending her $5,000 here and $10,000 there, with fake notes supposedly from Shawn to make her think her husband is in Las Vegas gambling.

Macy has a better idea, though. How about she just do what most wives would and assume he’s stepping out on her. That’s much more likely in her mind, gambling problem or not.

The episode ends with the team congregating once again after a call from Bobby, this time to brainstorm the half-ton precious metals job. As they discuss details like using rumored drunk Mark Langley as their new electronics guy, Hope stares worriedly at her kids playing in the pool and Tafattafua arrives in Venice Beach to take care of business with Jeff. You know a man is as cool as a cucumber when he wears flip-flops to seek fatal revenge.

Up Next on Episode Three: The FBI continues closing in on the team, even as the members prepare for their second heist by stealing an armored truck, and the situation with Macy grows more complex when an unexpected visitor arrives out of the blue.