Whiskey Cavalier Season 1 Episode 3 Review: When in Rome
Jasmine Blu
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The family was at risk of falling apart before it ever had the chance to come together.
The team hit multiple rough spots on Whiskey Cavalier Season 1 Episode 3, and it wasn't Frankie and Will alone who were experiencing them. Between personalities clashing and constant bickering, no one was exempt.
The fact of the matter is families fight no matter what, so it all fell in line with their new dynamic despite Frankie's reluctance to embrace the notion.
Will was frustrated as it seemed as though every time he and Frankie took two steps forward, she would take one back. His expectations are reasonable; they are a team, and he wants them all to function as a team.
Will equates team to family. They work together as one, operating as a united body against the tasks. Everyone has a specific skill which is to the betterment of the team.
Frankie is a CIA agent and former assassin accustomed to working alone. In her line of work, attachments may get you killed, so it's best not to have them at all. She intends to bring that thought process to this task force.
Will: If we're going to work together we have to start treating each other like we're family.
Frankie: Hard pass.
For Frankie, the mission comes first, and there are no deviations. In her mind, they signed up to risk their lives for their country, and all of them are expendable.
It's difficult to say if she believes it to her core as she's willing to risk her life to save them when it comes down to it. I can't imagine Frankie allowing Jai to die without doing everything to prevent it.
Her willingness to sacrifice Edgar and lack of concern for his life during a nearly botched mission gone awry set the heightened conflict among the team into motion.
In Will's mind; everyone makes it back alive. He spent the rest of the hour torn up over Frankie not liking him and irritated by her unwillingness to get close to any of them and embrace the team.
She's a guarded woman, so he's going to have to be patient with her, but we all know she's going to cave sooner rather than later. Have you seen this merry band of broken misfits? They are destined for one another.
What made the friction the most interesting in this installment is how it spilled over into the other members of the team. It was the first real sign of all of them struggling to function properly and work through the kinks.
Bad Guy: Drop your gun or your friend dies.
Frankie: We're not that tight.
Jai and Susan were two characters who we needed to dig deeper into, and this hour provided it. Their usual roles were as the handlers and whisperers of their respective agent, and it was their job to keep Frankie and Will from going at each other's throats constantly.
"When in Rome" took into account Jai and Susan having issues of their own. Fiery Whiskey wasn't the only pair who clashed, Susan and Jai were butting heads as well.
As mentioned during the Whiskey Cavalier Season 1 Episode 2 Review, Susan has a pesky habit of psychoanalyzing the hell out of her new colleagues. She barely knows the people on a personal level before she spends the day casually profiling them.
Would anyone enjoy a relative stranger reading them like a book for kicks and giggles? Susan must think she's connecting with people when she does it, but it's intrusive and puts people on guard. It works for Will, but he's open and free with his emotions enough to not mind it.
Everyone else on the team is too guarded and private for the Mind Hunter preying on them for sport. Edgar was stuck dealing with it before, but Jai was not one to take Susan's prodding and comments without responding negatively.
It's meant to give the audience a crash course on everyone's personalities, but we get the gist of them from everything else.
Jai: Hey Franchesca?
Frankie: Hm?
Jai: Whatever you decide, I got your back.
Based on Susan's assessment, and of course how Jai handles Frankie, his weapon for any occasion, his bugging people without them realizing it, and perhaps his impeccable fashion sense, Jai is a control freak.
He's usually calm and collected, but he went from casually sipping tea without a hint of worry while their previous mission was going pear-shaped to spinning out during their newest mission when things weren't going according to plan.
Somewhere around the time Edgar accidentally shot him (with the tiniest gun I have ever seen during a scene funny enough to require multiple viewings) and ruined a perfectly good suit, Jai snapped.
Jai doesn't know how to work on a team; he doesn't usually work with other people, and as a kid, his report card stated he didn't work well with others. It's no wonder he spends so much time being sassy as hell at other people's expense. It's why we already love him though, yeah?
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The dude is hilarious, and his weapon game is on point. Don't you love how he gives Frankie weapons tailor made for women? She can be a badass and feminine at the same time thanks to some of his tech. The exploding tampons were the best, but the actual and literal killer jewelry is the sign of a man after a girl's heart.
Doesn't play well with others. That's what my teacher wrote on my report card in kindergarten.
Jai
But Jai has some work to do, too. He knows it though, and he came around to apologizing to Susan for his behavior. He also tried to make things right with Edgar as well.
Frankie is anti-family, but if anyone sells the team being an unorthodox family, it's Edgar. He has effortlessly slid into the role of the lovable, obnoxious little brother the team has to protect at all costs.
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Eager Edgar's attempts to gain access to a gun like the "real" spies on the team was entertaining. He's accustomed to spending time behind a computer screen, so he lacked weapon training. Everything he knew about firing a weapon came from his experience with video games and watching things on television.
Will usually has the patience of Job and rarely seems genuinely annoyed, but Edgar was testing his spirit by acting out how he would carry his weapon.
They had valid reasons for keeping him as far away from a loaded weapon as possible. At this rate, I'm not sure the kid could handle pepper spray without mucking things up.
He certainly couldn't handle the world's tiniest gun Jai reluctantly allowed him to use after the fancy event with the Nazis. He shot Jai for crying out loud! It was a graze, but it could have been worse.
Yeah, hey, I got eyes here on everyone from out here at the kid's table.
Edgar
They say each one, teach one, so someone is going to have to bite the bullet (pun intended) and teach Edgar how to defend himself. Fortunately, despite the hour showcasing how woefully out of his depth Edgar is with the gun action portion of their job, they also reaffirmed his exceptional ability to bullshit his way out of anything.
Edgar's best assets are his hacking skills and his impressive gift for lying his ass off. It's beautiful (and funny, always so damn funny) when his skills are at work.
Between Edgar's interactions with Jai and those with Will, I don't know which bromance is better!
Do you know who is slowly becoming more likable? Ray. Oddly enough, he was the only one keeping it together during the hour. He's still a self-absorbed jackass. His primary motivation for getting the team through their issues was knowing if he didn't it would cost him his job.
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The team was two for two with having their assets die before they could get to them. It's not the best track record regardless of their ability to pull off their missions in the end.
Their mission was to stop a potential terrorist attack involving some politically motivated racists, or Nazis, in Rome. The scenery on this show continues to be one of its best assets. Seriously, it was gorgeous.
Will: They've probably been together for 40 years. How do you think they make it work?
Frankie: They accept each other for who they are. Two old racists.
Frankie is laser-focused when she's on a mission, and she and Jai delve right into extreme measures used to get the information they need. One of the most kickass moments of the hour was Frankie stamping her heel dangerously close to their mark's crotch and shoving a gun in his face in one fluid motion.
There isn't a day or time when Frankie isn't ready to eff someone up. She wanted to know what the plans were, and she didn't give a damn about any other distractions. It's advantageous for her given her background, but if the team stuck to her plans, Isabelle would have been missing forever or dead.
Helping their asset retrieve his daughter in exchange for information was a huge risk, and in the end, it led to his death and the team barely figuring out what the plans were.
Frankie and Will finding the bomb and working to diffuse it via the aid of Jai was something ripped right out of an action movie. It. Was. Awesome.
The sexy positions Will and Frankie ended up in were enough to get 'shippers squealing in delight, and so was Will coaching her through retrieving it carefully and Frankie getting sentimental when she feared the bomb would go off.
It takes life-threatening situations where she and Will are on the verge of death for her to cop to all those feelings she pretends she doesn't possess. Do you think it has something to do with her parents?
Frankie: I know what you're thinking, Whiskey, but everyone has a soft spot. You have hundreds of them.
Will: You say that like it's a bad thing.
Frankie probably didn't get to say goodbye to her parents before their death. In those last moments with someone, she's compelled to say things she wouldn't otherwise say. Those are the moments Will holds onto when he thinks there is a shot of Frankie embracing the team as a family.
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Of course, Will filed away Frankie's warm response to Isabelle as well. Frankie is trying to be a hardass, but Will sees past her.
And he knows what we know; they make a fantastic duo. The joint fight scene as they double-teamed Frankie's old acquaintance was like poetry in motion. I found Will stabbing the guy more thrilling than I probably should have.
Fun(ny) Bits:
- The first gun Jai gave Edgar was so freaking tiny though. I can't stop laughing over it. Did it come out of a Cracker Jack Box?
- Jai's ability to enjoy a proper cuppa while all hell is breaking loose around him is an eternal mood.
- Edgar remains the ultimate scene-stealer with the best lines. Tyler James Williams is killing it.
- I too will be scared of air quotes from this point forward.
- Wouldn't you become best friends with the person who tried to kill you? It seems legit.
Over to you Whiskey Fanatics! Can the team work through their differences? Are you loving those incredible action and fight sequences? Should Susan dial back on the shrinking?
Hit the comments below! Join in the fun and watch Whiskey Cavalier online here via TV Fanatic!
Jasmine Blu is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. She is an insomniac who spends late nights and early mornings binge-watching way too many shows and binge-drinking way too much tea. Her eclectic taste makes her an unpredictable viewer with an appreciation for complex characters, diverse representation, dynamic duos, compelling stories, and guilty pleasures. You'll definitely find her obsessively live-tweeting, waxing poetic, and chatting up fellow Fanatics and readers. Follow her on X.
