'Human Target' Review: Episode 1.04, 'Sanctuary'

Episode Title: "Sanctuary"

Story: Christopher Chance (Mark Valley) accepts a mission to protect a troubled youth on the run from the law. The catch is that the young man, John Gray (Sam Huntington), is seeking reformation within a monastery that possesses a valuable scroll, something that Gray's old enemies would like to get their hands on.

While Chance and Winston (Chi McBride) work to stop the thieves and protect Gray, Guerrero (Jackie Earle Haley) stays behind and embarks upon a seedy mission that could result in the ultimate betrayal of his closest allies.

Risk Assessment: For the most part, "Human Target" has erred more on the side of the mission-of-the-week format than exploring an overarching mythology. As long as the action is fun and thrilling, I'm perfectly fine with that narrative decision. But "Sanctuary" pulls the show's curtain back far enough to reveal that there is much more to "Target" than meets the eye.

The main action of the episode focuses on Chance, Winston and Gray — an ex-con turned monk who relates scripture to the plight of Barry Allen in "Crisis on Infinite Earths." His mortal enemy just so happens to be Ethan Rom from "Lost," the mysterious Other played by the eerie William Mapother. Clearly, the episode sets off more than a few great geek alarms, but the action and pacing of the monastery scenes leave a bit to be desired. The final fight on the gondola is fairly entertaining, but of the four "Human Target" episodes thus far, this is the shortest on adrenaline.

But what it lacks in action it more than makes up for in intrigue. Guerrero is hired to procure a highly personal file of Chance's that reveals our hero's deepest secret. Chance did something very bad once upon a time, likely involving the love of his life, and people are after his head for it. Just when it looks like Guerrero is handing the information over and betraying his closest ally, the fixer-upper puts a bullet in the back of the man who hired him. He has Chance's best interests at heart, or else he has other plans for the hero, but it's proof enough of the lengths that Guerrero is willing to go to protect what's important to him. Very nice work by Haley in this episode.

Valley's performance isn't particularly memorable in "Sanctuary," but the implications about his character through Guerrero's storyline are very intriguing. Assuming "Target" stays on the air long enough, we should eventually see a dark, twisted side to Chance, as opposed to the cocky and confident action hero we're currently presented with.

"This guy who makes mistakes is a guy who is trying to put those mistakes behind him," Winston says of Gray, but might as well be saying it about Chance. "If we can't help a guy like that, then what the hell are we doing here?"

Ultimately, I wasn't wild about "Sanctuary" as a whole — but I've never been more excited about this show's future.

Next Case: Chance accepts an assignment to protect a district attorney (Kristin Lehman) from the murderous sights of corrupt cops.

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