The Brave: “Stealth”

The scenery is beautiful this week on The Brave as the team races to beat Russian military to a fallen drone in Mongolia. The team has to go old school to avoid detection, but this leaves DC in the dark about the mission while it progresses.

Dalton and his team are sent to Mongolia to find an undocumented Russian drone that has crashed. The drone has stealth capabilities, and Washington wants a piece of the drone so that they can reverse engineer the tech to stop stealth flyovers by Russia. Unfortunately, the drone is in a rugged and remote part of Mongolia, and they’ve got to beat the Russians to the site of the crash.

Sergeant Joseph “McG” McGuire (Noah Mills). Photo by Lewis Jacobs/NBC.

The team jumps from a plane into a vast open plain, which reminds McGuire of his childhood home. We also learn that perhaps Amir isn’t the only one who comes from privilege, as McG admits to attending private boarding school. The team is headed towards a small village to get an idea where the drone landed, but it seems the Russians got there first. McGuire treats a young man who was shot while Preach gets the location of the drone. Unfortunately, the drone has landed just across the Chinese border, meaning that in addition to the risk of an encounter with Russian Spetznaz (special forces), they also face the repercussions of doing so on Chinese land.

The Chinese border is likely to have a grid set up to detect tech, so the team has to leave all communications technology behind, a total comms blackout. On horseback, the team rides off into the distance.

As they approach the border, the team sees tracks for cargo trucks, which means that the Russians are ahead of them. The team hopes to “cut them off at the pass” and beat them to the drone, since the trucks must take a more roundabout route. En route the team becomes exposed crossing an open field. They drop down and take cover in the grass just in time to avoid Russian scouts on their way to avoid the crash site. The team is nervous as they are close to being exposed, especially when Amir realizes his watch is glinting in the sun (the glaring mistake of the episode, since it seems each episode will have one).

Patricia Campbell (Anne Heche) and Ambassador Dmitri Gromyko (Joel Swetow). Photo by Lewis Jacobs/NBC.

At a tense DIA, Patricia has received a call from the Russian Ambassador, and goes to meet him. After mutual consolation about lost sons, Dmitri tells Patricia that he knows she has a unit on the ground, and warns her that more Russian troops are on the way. After talking to Noah, who suggests coordinating with the Chinese, Patricia has a plan. As a Russian operative looks on, Patricia meets with an Asian woman. The ambassador thinks Patricia panicked and alert the Chinese, and he calls off the Russian reinforcements.

Dalton has a crazy plan to get onto the Russian truck, and the team reluctantly signs on. Halting the Russian trucks briefly with a tree across the road, Dalton climbs in with the drone as the trucks start moving. After a close call forces Dalton to hid beneath the wreckage to avoid detection, he finally gets a sample of the drone’s skin, but drops his gun in the process. He quickly dials a number on his sat phone, and tosses it into the truck before he quickly exits the truck. The Russians see him fleeing and make chase.

As they head to the rally point, the rest of the team see a Chinese helicopter pass overhead. They know Dalton is being pursued heavily and consider changing plans to help, but Preach pushes them on to the rally point, sticking with the original plan.

Without eyes on what’s happening, D.C. is trying to figure out what’s going on. They discover that Dalton’s call was to a dry cleaner in Moscow and Patricia explains that it was intended to give the Chinese the location of the Russian truck.

Sergeant Jasmine “Jaz” Khan (Natacha Karam) and Sergeant Joseph “McG” McGuire (Noah Mills). Photo by Lewis Jacobs/NBC.

Still fleeing, Dalton is tackled by a large soldier, who he struggles to kill before running off. He’s still being pursued by soldiers, and when he arrives at the rally point, no one else appears to be there. As he races across the open clearing, the rest of his team appears from hiding in the grass in time to chase off Russians. Nearby the Russian trucks are stopped and searched by Chinese soldiers.

As the team rides off into the sunset on their horses, they pop back onto the grid and update DC on the mission. Noah and Hannah head home, and Noah suggests they grab food. When Hannah is clearly uncomfortable thinking he means it romantically, Noah recovers saying that he just wants them to get to know each other. Before they can go, Patrcia calls them back. The bug planted previously on Ranier Boothe has revealed the name responsible for the bombing aimed at the team on the beach in Turkey earlier in the season. His name is Fahim Jarif, an Iranian who’s unofficially attached to the Iranian government. Once Patricia gets approval, she’ll send Dalton and his team to deliver justice.

This was another great episode of The Brave. The Western theme was great within the Mongolian landscape, and Dalton pulled off a good cowboy routine. We didn’t get to see as much of the rest of the field team this week, but they came through for Dalton when it counted. I’m really glad to see Amir becoming a more integral member of the team too. Patricia continues to rule, and I wonder what’s on the horizon with Hannah and Noah. Romance? Is someone a secret bad guy? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

The Brave will air its fall finale on November 20 on NBC and will return on New Year’s Day.