“The Kill Point” Countdown Finale Recap

Wow. The Kill Point has come and gone. It’s been a lot of fun following this series since April. Now I’m going to have to find some new show to obsess over. I’m open to suggestions.

Last night I had a fantasy football draft (I got Larry Johnson) during the two-hour final episode and had to watch it on the DVR when all 18 (!) rounds were finally done. So I’m a little groggy this morning.

So, on to The Kill Point…

Mr. “Creepy Me” Mouse is outside the bank, stumbling around with all the SWAT guys trained on him. Wolf is trying to coax him back in the bank. Mouse is muttering some stuff, which comes off as insane rambling but might actually be the most relevant stuff in the show. “We are not monsters,” he says, “but we can never be ourselves again.” He reaches into his back pocket, and the cops give him a hot lead sandwich. He was just reaching for his Creepy Me sketchbook, of course.

Wolf goes back into the bank and secludes himself in the boardroom. Everybody in the bank is freaking out after seeing Mouse get shot up, and Rabbit is totally bats now. He decides he’s running the show, and calls Cali demanding a bus and a helicopter or he’s going to start executing hostages.

In the boardroom, Wolf has a memorial service for his fallen comrade, Mouse. He makes a call, presumably to Deke, on the mobile phone and tells him to “make the move.”

Rabbit has one of those decks of cards with pictures of high-ranking Iraqi officials. He’s playing something like solitaire, but, uh … maybe it’s crazy solitaire? He’s definitely lost it, and Cat, Pig and all the hostages know it and are terrified. Rabbit starts sticking the cards on the hostages’ foreheads. (What’s the deal? Whoever gets the lowest card gets shot? I’d hate to get that Iraqi Information Minister guy.)

Cali suspects one-armed Leon knows more than he’s letting on, so he starts some aggressive interrogation on Leon’s remaining arm. Cali thinks that Wolf is still able to communicate and coordinate stuff outside the bank, even though the police are jamming the signals. Cali finds the scrambler that Leon planted under the table, and that’s the end of Leon. Cali knows that Rabbit’s a total nutcase and can’t be negotiated with, and thinks that Wolf might be dead. He calls for the SWAT team to breach the bank.

Ashley begs Mr. Pig to stop his brother’s wackiness, but Pig will have no more of Ashley’s B.S. Rabbit decides he’s done with Ashley’s B.S., too, and thinks it’s time to bump off the rich chick. But Pig steps in and tries to stop him. Awww, Pig still loves Ashley after all! But Abe, who finally does something, plants a letter opener in Rabbit’s back. Not thrilled about being stabbed, Rabbit grabs both Bernard and Abe and is about to take both their heads off with one shotgun blast. Now Mr. Wolf decides he’d better see what’s been going on while he was away.

The SWAT guys are loading up, and Hawk gives them a pep talk. “They had their chance to negotiate,” he says. “Now they have to deal with us.” (Yeah!! U-S-A! U-S-A!) The SWAT sniper, Quincy (“Q” for short) is disappointed that he hasn’t done any killing yet and hopes to finally get his shot. He’s not entirely stable, either.

Wolf orders Rabbit to stand down, but Rabbit will have none of it. It’s time to settle this like soldiers, with some good, old-school wrasslin’. Wolf and Rabbit throw down, and Rabbit gets put down for the count … permanently. Wolf’s back in charge. He calls Cali and tells him he wants to meet face to face to talk in the bank.

Wolf wants to free Chloe, but she’ll have none of it. She’s not right in the head, either. They kiss, and he tells her to step outside, “smell” freedom and then come back to him. She steps outside and Wolf locks the door behind her. Nelson Muntz says “Ha ha.”* Wow. I can’t believe she fell for that. Now Chloe must live in awful, agonizing freedom.

Cali waltzes into the bank for his chat with Wolf. He has only two minutes before the SWAT guys bust in, so he’s got to make it quick.

Cali comes out (that was quick) and pukes. He’s not well, either. He goes back into Marcos’ (we refuse to fix the typo!) and nervously says they have to breach the bank, like, now. He’s really messed up.

Now it’s time to do some breachin’. The SWAT guys enter the bank, filled with smoke, and find hostages in random places. But the hostage takers are nowhere to be found. Cali assists a few hostages out of the bank and into an ambulance. The SWAT guys get to the vault, and find Rocko, Bernard and Leroy dressed up like Wolf, Cat and Pig. The cops realize that Cali helped Wolf escape. Nelson Muntz says “Ha ha.”*

The hostages are free, and Rocko’s first thought is that he has to go get laid. There’s a strange lovefest with the freed hostages. I suppose you sort of bond with people you’ve been in a harrowing situation with, and when the situation is over, maybe it’s a little hard to separate yourself from them. Bernard and Abe have a platonic, totally non-sexual hug. Renee and Tony are just like, “Hey, see you at work tomorrow.” And as all the hostages are greeted by their families, Abe walks out of Market Square alone. You can draw parallels between the hostages and the ex-soldiers: They’ve all been through something that has changed them forever.

Wolf, Pig, Cat and Cali are out cruising in the ambulance, and it’s revealed that Wolf had Deke kidnap Cali’s wife and forced him to help them escape. It would be a great twist, had I not sort of predicted this might happen way back in Episode 2 (I thought Wolf was going to have Beck’s people and Deke kidnap Cali’s wife). This series had done such a good job of playing with my expectations, so to have a major crux of the story follow expectation was a little disappointing.

The bug the cops planted in the photograph of Wolf’s family is still transmitting, and the cops are able to hear what’s going on. Cali knows this and starts talking smack, giving away their location. They’re out in an area full of abandoned warehouses waiting for Deke to show up with Cali’s wife. When Deke and some other guys show up, Deke refuses to give up Cali’s wife, demanding “insurance” and his cut of the $6 million they had put in the Canadian bank.

The cops show up, and “Q” is all ready perched in a sniper post, ready to get some snipin’ on. He takes out the guy holding Cali’s wife, and a shootout between the cops, Deke and Wolf’s guys ensues. Here’s where the series kind of takes a B-movie turn, in my opinion. I’m half expecting Steven Seagal to pop up somewhere. Cali chases Deke (who’s got Cali’s wife), Hawk chases Pig, Wolf shoots Connie (in the arm, of course) and the deputy police chief shoots and kills Cat. There’s more shooting, more chasing, yadda yadda… Cali shoots Deke and gets his wife back. Pig jumps onto a train and gets away, Boxcar Willie-style.

Cali spots Wolf and chases him onto a pier at the river. There’s nowhere left to go. Wolf wants a soldier’s death and basically chooses suicide by cop. As Wolf dies, he tells Cali, “It was a righteous kill.” You might remember Wolf asking Cali at their first meeting if all his shootings were righteous.

Cut to the Great Falls Savings and Loan in Canada, where Pig and some other guy (are we supposed to recognize this guy, or is he just a guy Pig paid off to help him?) have a briefcase full of cash and have checks for large sums made out to Mr. Pig and the family members of all the hostage takers. Uh, I don’t claim to know much aboot the Canadian banking system, but that whole wire transfer thing that Abe set up was a little shaky in the believability department to begin with, and it doesn’t sit well as an ending to the series. Wouldn’t Abe have told the police about that? Wouldn’t any large sums of money suddenly coming to the families of the 1013 ring some bells? And does your average corner savings and loan branch in rural Canada just give out loads of U.S. currency and cut huge checks to American citizens who are wanted felons? I know Canadians are a little more liberal with some stuff than Americans are, but … damn!

Well, off drives Mr. Pig, presumably to blow a briefcase full of money on Molsons at the Saskatchewan Roughriders game. And the series ends.

I enjoyed The Kill Point as a whole. Just a little disappointed that it saved its weakest episode for the finale. I’m curious to see if they have another installment, like cowriter and coproducer Todd Harthan was hoping. The series had decent ratings in the young male demo (Spike’s target audience), but it wasn’t a cable ratings powerhouse like TNT’s Saving Grace, USA’s Burn Notice or Lifetime’s Army Wives, nor did it get as much critical acclaim. I’d be concerned that a second Kill Point installment wouldn’t have the quality of talent in front of and behind the camera. And even if they did have another hostage situation at a different location in Pittsburgh, would they be able to do anything original with the story? Tough to say.

Share your thoughts on the finale, and let us know if you want to see more of The Kill Point!

*Nelson shows up in the director’s cut, probably.