‘Hostages’ returned for one last gasp on Monday night, as the final two episodes of the series’ 15-show run finally concluded. Was it worth the wait?
Episode 14 (entitled ‘Suspicious Minds’) picks up where we last left off. Col. Blair has taken Duncan’s wife and daughter hostage, and notifies Duncan that he’ll set them free as soon as the President is dead. Of course, he doesn’t know that Duncan has now agreed to Ellen’s plan to get the President’s bone marrow without taking his life.
As the date of the President’s operation draws nearer, Ellen suggests to Brian that they should stay apart for a while after everything goes down. Brian soon realizes that what Ellen is in fact saying is that she doesn’t want to be with him anymore. They come to an agreement that Morgan will stay with Brian, while Jake will stay with Ellen in another city. Meanwhile, Archer shows Duncan the explosives that Sandrine hid in the basement. They agree that she’s obviously betrayed them, and that it’s time to take her out. Kramer seems less enthused with the idea, and convinces Duncan not to kill her yet – believing they can use her to find out where Blair is keeping Duncan’s wife and daughter.
As part of their arranged deal, Duncan sees off Brian and Morgan, who now have new identities as they leave to meet Jake at the house he’s temporarily staying at (after faking his death a few episodes back) before all heading off to their new home in Florida. However, Duncan continues to lie to Archer, who still believes that the plan is to kill the President. Sandrine meets with Logan and gives him medicine that Nina needs, telling him that if anything happens to her, Duncan is ready to call the assassination attempt off. What Logan doesn’t know is that Duncan has stuck a tracking device inside the medicine bottle, so that when he had it delivered to Nina, Duncan knows where Blair is holding her and his daughter.
Brian and Morgan realize that they’ve picked up a tail during their getaway. Brian calls Duncan and confirms that he never sent anyone to make sure they were safe. While at a rest area, the mysterious man trailing them follows Morgan into a rest room and pulls his gun out to kill her, but Brian gets the drop on him and shoots him. The two then resume their journey.
Duncan and Kramer make their way inside the house where they believe Blair is keeping Nina and Sawyer. When a pair of Blair’s henchmen get the jump on them, Sandrine shows up and kills them, saving Duncan and Kramer. Unfortunately, they soon discover that the house is empty and Blair has already moved Nina and Sawyer to another location.
Duncan traces the owner of the house he thought Nina was in back to Vanessa, and goes to meet with her, demanding that she make Blair release his wife and daughter. When Vanessa reveals that she and Blair have had a falling out, the two realize that they have a mutual enemy and agree to team up to put a stop to the Colonel.
Episode 14 wraps up with Brian and Morgan arriving to meet Jake at the safe house, only to find out that Archer’s gotten there first. He insists that no one is going anywhere until the President is dead.
‘Endgame’, the 15th and final episode, begins on the day of the surgery. At the hospital, the First Lady confronts Ellen and reveals that she knows Ellen has been lying about needing a blood sample from the President because he’s showing signs of dementia. We’re not yet told what Ellen’s response is, but the next scene has her prepping for the surgery while the First Lady leaves an urgent phone message for her sister Vanessa.
At a Middle Eastern embassy gathering, Vanessa lures Blair into the kitchen, where he’s confronted at gunpoint by Duncan. Logan’s hired men cause a distraction during the surgery by pumping harmless gas through the hospital ventilation ducts. Meanwhile, Kramer calls Duncan to reveal that he has retrieved Nina and Sawyer, and that they are safe. Logan uses a new password to have the real Secret Service kill off his hired guards, then locks himself in the surgery room with just Ellen and the President to make that sure she has a chance to kill him. Instead, she plunges a syringe in Logan’s neck, knocking him out.
Back in the kitchen, Sandrine arrives while Duncan still has his gun on Blair. Duncan is about to shoot Blair when Nina calls and makes Duncan promise that no one else will die at his hand. Somewhat reluctantly, Duncan agrees to an idea Blair has that they should both confess on video, so that if anything happens to either of them, each will have evidence against the other. However, when Sandrine goes to lead Blair out of the room, he attacks her and Duncan shoots Blair dead.
In the operating room by herself, Ellen manages to both get the bone marrow sample and save the President’s life. Logan is revived, but doesn’t say anything after he realizes that Ellen hasn’t killed the President. The First Lady shows up, and Ellen discreetly gives her the bone marrow to smuggle out of the room. When exiting the parking lot, Ellen gets the bone marrow back, disguised as a gift from the First Lady.
Not all the problems are over, though. Archer is ticked that Duncan has been lying to him (not to mention that he won’t get any payday now). He has decided to take Brian, Morgan and Jake hostage. He lures Duncan back to the Sanders’ home and confronts him, but Duncan actually pulls out his gun first. A fight ensues, and Archer gets the best of Duncan, but Kramer shoots and kills Archer first.
Although Duncan’s plan has succeeded, he realizes that he’s not the same person anymore. Remorseful for his actions, he decides not to run but instead to face what’s waiting for him. As the series closes out, Duncan turns himself into the police. Back at the Sanders’ home, the family is reunited… Even the dog shows up.
So ends what will ultimately be seen as a short-lived failure. Yet for all the crazy plotlines and implausible occurrences over the past 15 episodes, I can’t say that I was ever bored with ‘Hostages’, which I expect will do quite nicely when it makes its way to DVD/Blu-ray and finds its home on one of the streaming services. I also applaud the network and producers for actually giving us a complete story and tying up all the loose ends without ending on a desperate cliffhanger. ‘Hostages’ was far from great TV, but it provided me with a nice distraction on Monday nights for the past few months.
