The Strategic Response Unit must step into situations in which someone has taken a hostage, threatened violence, or appears to be a threat to others. Headed up by Greg Parker (Enrico Colantoni, Veronica Mars), the team enters its fourth season, having taken down real bad guys, talked down really troubled individuals, and fought to stay stable on the thin line where violence waits on the other side. And often, the team must decide who lives and who dies.
The first disc begins with “Collateral Damage,” the story of a father (Raising the Bar’s Jonathan Scarfe) who escapes from a prison van after being convicted of shaking his child to death. It’s considered the eighth episode of the third season by Canadian release dates, but it starts this season off, as Ed (Hugh Dillon, Assault on Precinct 13) also struggles with parenting, as his wife’s pregnancy gets more complicated. It’s case in point (SPOILER!) that the father proves to be innocent based on the neglect of the coroner in not completing a standard test, but the team almost took him out by lethal intervention.
The fourth season will also find the team dealing with blackmail (”Thicker Than Blood”), terrorism (”Terror”), and a military conspiracy (”Personal Effects”). They’ll deal with threats against their own, and have to figure out what exactly their clinical evaluator (Victor Garber, Lost, Eli Stone, Alias) wants from them, as they struggle through tests intended to dissect their team.
There are special features like an exploration of Flashpoint’s music (it’s quite moody most of the time), set (usually close quarters but constantly changing), and finally, it’s lead, Greg Parker. But if you’re watching the show, then that means you’ve been sucked in by the personal elements of the team’s interaction, personality, or family life, or you’re intrigued by their constant need to evaluate situations quickly and decide the right way to go.
We’re all faced with decisions, some harder than others. In my Methodist background, I have John Wesley’s quadrilateral to help me determine the right way to go. First, there’s Scripture as the basis, God’s word given to us. Then, there’s my own experience, the tradition of the church (how things were determined by the church in the past), and finally, reason (wisdom/gut). What we determine to be our means for making those decisions, whether it’s who lives or dies, or how to spend our money, etc., either aids us or hampers us from growing into the people we’re meant to be. Flashpoint issues those challenges each episode, and it’s high drama to watch how the team makes the decisions, right or wrong.
