Cade infiltrates an elite military competition to expose a Gua plan to plant spies in the military.

Nostradamus Says

"The town will not ring its cracked bell, But the hero has gone astray. The crimson banner lures the one and the many. With each victory so will victory undo." (quatrain 18, century 10)

Written by Michael Thoma
Directed by Michael Robison

At the Pentagon, Colonel John Russell calls Lieutenant Harkin into his office.

Important files have disappeared, and Harkin can’t explain why. The colonel relieves Harkin of duty pending an Internal Affairs investigation.

First Wave has had its share of stinkers, but this episode is particularly embarrassing.

The Gua plan makes no sense whatsoever. Apparently Harkin’s consciousness has been placed in Lopez, and she’s expected to either win the Red Flag or take over the body of whoever does.

If this is such a useful way of infiltrating the military, why not take over Birch and simply make sure Lopez wins? Or – since the Gua have the resources to arrange Lopez’s involvement in the contest – why not make sure all the contestants are Gua plants?

For that matter, since the Gua are in general stronger, faster and just plain better than humans, why wasn’t Lopez simply beating the pants off the human candidates?

The elite contest of the Red Flag makes even less sense than the plot. The "rigorous" training and testing facing the candidates is straight out of basic military training, and the big event itself is a simple race through the woods to grab a flag.

Add in a major who seems to think he’s a drill instructor and this episode has the potential to be a deadly weapon against any military person forced to watch it.

They’re going to die laughing.

Why did Harkin kill Col. Russell in the first place? Why didn’t he just disappear?

If you’ve got your hands on someone’s head, why boil their brain when you can snap their neck in a fraction of the time?