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"Things aren&amp;#039;t looking good for Charlie&amp;#039;s Angels - the show&amp;#039;s received a critical mauling and with the ratings dropping each week, there&amp;#039;s a good chance this could be its final recap! I know, I know - but hold back your tears until we&amp;#039;re done. This week, the Angels have been hired to rescue Tess Walters, a student who was kidnapped in Cuba three weeks ago. Bosley&amp;#039;s already on the ground and is lining up an inside man to assist. The girls arrive in Havana and initiate &amp;quot;Operation: Stupid Americans&amp;quot; - posing as three clueless bimbos. Bosley is going under the guise of a lawyer - he&amp;#039;s got spectacles on, so no-one would dare question his cover. But cops soon swarm around the Angels - someone has planted cocaine inside their luggage! Soon, Abby, Kate and Eve are sent to Prison De Val Verde - an all-woman prison run by a tough female warden. &amp;quot;Americans have no rights here!&amp;quot; she growls. The Angels are forced into grubby prison jumpsuits, thought they&amp;#039;re still perfectly made-up, natch. Bosley&amp;#039;s inside man Santos makes contact - he&amp;#039;s a prison guard. Santos explains that Tess has been thrown into solitary confinement - &amp;#039;the hole&amp;#039; - for attacking a warden, so Eve initiates a huge prison brawl. Kate joins in the fracas and the plan works perfectly - she and Eve are thrown into the hole with Tess. Not very solitary then. Tess is deeply traumatised - if the prisoners at Val Verde refuse to pleasure the guards, they will be killed. Quite a dark, unpleasant twist for what&amp;#039;s supposed to be a fun, frothy show! Bosley contacts Santos and orders him to sneak the girls out of the back gate - he&amp;#039;ll be waiting outside in 30 minutes, in a prison food van. But someone stands in Bosley&amp;#039;s way - it&amp;#039;s Lois Lane! No, wait, sorry - it&amp;#039;s his ex-girlfriend, and CIA agent, Samantha Masters (Erica Durance).   Masters reminds Bosley that when they last met, he was a &amp;quot;hacker playboy&amp;quot; who spent his days &amp;quot;penetrating the firewalls of European banks, and spent his nights doing the same to European women&amp;quot; - he penetrated women&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;firewalls&amp;quot;?! That&amp;#039;s the dumbest innuendo ever. The pair broke up when Bosley discovered that she was CIA, and Masters was &amp;quot;demoted&amp;quot; when she failed to catch him. She&amp;#039;s been keeping tabs on Bosley and scoffs when he tells her about his reformed lifestyle, but he insists that he has to to be outside the prison in 20 minutes or the Angels will be trapped. Back at said prison, Abby has smuggled tools into her cell and is able to pick her lock, taking out a guard and stealing his baton. Lascivious guards enter the Hole and grab Eve, Kate and Tess, but Abby surprises the goons and the Angels are able to overcome them with their kung-fu skills. As Bosley and Samantha pull up outside the prison, Santos smuggles the four women out of the back entrance. But suddenly floodlights illuminate the area and Santos is shot and killed. The warden has been on to the scheme the whole time, and Bosley can only watch helplessly as the Angels and Tess are dragged back to their cells. In the morning, Bosley tells Masters to get help from the CIA, but she reveals that she has no back-up. &amp;quot;You weren&amp;#039;t just demoted, you were exiled,&amp;quot; he realises. They spot guards leading a selection of prisoners (including the Angels and Tess) out into a van. A man named Jonathan Cartwright (James Morrison) is behind the operation - he&amp;#039;s a corrupt businessman who works with drug cartels and terrorists. Masters has been hunting him for months and tells Bos, &amp;quot;If I nail him, that&amp;#039;s my ticket back to the big leagues!&amp;quot; The prisoners are taken to a luxury building - one room is full of clothes and jewellery. They&amp;#039;re told to make themselves pretty - the warden is using prisoners as prostitutes! The warden hates America and tells the Angels, &amp;quot;You&amp;#039;ve been doing it to use for decades!&amp;quot;   The warden threatens to kill them all if they don&amp;#039;t comply. &amp;quot;Never thought I&amp;#039;d be this p*ssed off in a room full of shoes!&amp;#039; quips Abby. When does that girl ever not quip? Cartwright introduces the prisoners to his equally dubious associates, but Tess is Cartwright&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;favourite&amp;quot; and he keeps her for himself. Eve is furious at the proceedings. &amp;quot;Tell [Bosley] to get a bigger van - we&amp;#039;re leaving with all the girls!&amp;quot; she announces. Obviously what&amp;#039;s going on here is terrible, but some of these women might be actual criminals - is it really a good idea to spring them?! Abby flirts with one of Cartwright&amp;#039;s associates and gets him drunk. Once he passes out, she steals his phone and briefly contacts Bosley, telling him to track the call. Soon after, Bosley and Masters arrive at Cartwright&amp;#039;s residence and Bosley jumps the guard, stealing his outfit and AK-47.  Disguised, Bosley enters the building and sneaks a gun to Kate. Abby is able to snatch another guard&amp;#039;s gun and Cartwright is held at gunpoint. But he&amp;#039;s able to grab Eve and hold her as a hostage. Kate, Bosley, Abby and the prisoners escape, but are forced to leave Ve behind... Eve is returned to the prison, bound and gagged. Cartwright is furious about recent events and blames the warden, slapping her across the face! Next, he sets his sights on Eve, determined to get answers... After leaving Tess and the prisoners in hiding, the Angels prepare to rescue Eve. Masters is convinced that the mission is suicide and wants to know why Bosley is going through with it. &amp;quot;Is it because of Elisabeth?&amp;quot; she asks. Whoever Elisabeth is, it&amp;#039;s clearly touched a nerve. &amp;quot;Don&amp;#039;t mention her name again!&amp;quot; snaps Bos. The Angels, Bosley and Masters return to the hotel where their mission began and hold the desk clerk at gunpoint, forcing him to call Cartwright. The villain offers them a deal: &amp;quot;You can have your friend in exchange for Samantha Masters.&amp;quot;    Masters is determined to go through with the exchange, convinced that her sacrifice will put Cartwright back in the CIA&amp;#039;s sights. But Bosley opens up about Elisabeth - &amp;quot;I did everything I could to save her,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;Losing you is not an option.&amp;quot; The foursome face off against Cartwright, who brings Eve, but is flanked by two armed thugs. The exchange takes place, but Masters pulls a gun on Cartwright. Another truckload of armed goons arrives, led by the warden - it seems like this plan is going downhill fast. But the warden has made a deal with Bosley and turns against Cartwright. &amp;quot;The peasant is rebelling!&amp;quot; she cries. Yep, our heroes cut a deal with a woman who used prisoners as prostitutes. Um\u2026hooray? But of course, Bosley has a plan - he&amp;#039;s recorded the whole thing with a micro-cam and has proof that the warden made a deal with no-good Americans. &amp;quot;She&amp;#039;ll be a prisoner in her own jail in no time,&amp;quot; predicts Masters. Cartwright is arrested and Tess departs Cuba with the Angels, but Masters is staying behind. &amp;quot;This just became the big leagues,&amp;quot; she explains, revealing that she plans to take down Cartwright&amp;#039;s entire operation. Her and Bosley part ways, but not before sharing a smooch. Back in the US, the Angels decide to celebrate another job well done. But there&amp;#039;s no way they&amp;#039;re going out for Cuban food - they want beer and burgers! AMERICA, F**K YEAH! Bosley says he&amp;#039;ll join the Angels shortly - he and Charlie have business to discuss. They discuss Elisabeth&amp;#039;s tragic death - in a shock twist, it&amp;#039;s revealed that she was Charlie&amp;#039;s daughter! He tells Bosley that her death was not his fault. &amp;quot;[She] loved you very much, John,&amp;quot; insists Charlie. &amp;quot;Never forget that!&amp;quot;  Watching The Angels \u2022 &amp;#039;Angels in Chains&amp;#039; is based on an episode of the original Charlie&amp;#039;s Angels series. I haven&amp;#039;t seen the original, but given the shocking depiction of Cuba in this version, I can only guess that they took a script from the 1970s and left it completely untouched. \u2022 Following in the footsteps of Carlos Bernard and DB Woodside, James Morrison (best known as Bill Buchanan) is the latest 24 veteran to embarrass himself on this show. \u2022 The episode&amp;#039;s other major guest star - Erica Durance - comes off reasonably well, bringing charisma to a thinly-written role. \u2022 Meanwhile, Minka Kelly continues to be by far the weakest of the Angels. She&amp;#039;s actually OK in the scenes where she&amp;#039;s comforting Tess, but is plain awful when required to be &amp;quot;sassy&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;cool&amp;quot;. \u2022 A few intriguing plot developments in this episode - the death of Elisabeth, Charlie and Bosley&amp;#039;s past connection - but if things don&amp;#039;t pick up, it&amp;#039;s unlikely that Charlie&amp;#039;s Angels will ever get the chance to explore them... "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/charlies-angels/review/a345552/charlies-angels-angels-in-chains-recap/>