I can usually sympathize with all sorts of television characters--bad guys, shooters, etc--when the writers go down that route, but the father in "Besieged" was just too stupid. He takes away his son against the custody agreement, bringing him to a militia compound full of armed men. The guy is charge is played by W. Earl Brown, a perfectly good actor, who doesn't get a chance to really show the audience what makes the militia and the compound so great. Is it his generic anti-government message and messiah complex? His beer belly? Not being in the military? By ignoring these factors, which are in fact used to paint him as a bad guy, his followers, including the father, look like complete morons. The final scene when Michael talks him down is nice, but I couldn't help think how he was such a dimwit who could have prevented a lot of grief by making a very, very, very reasonable choice by not going to the compound.
The positive thing that came out of this is that militias have guns, and more importantly, automatic weapons. That means lots of bullets and shooting! There aren't any car chases in the episode, but the shooting in the episode ranked near the top of the season, if not the top. It was disappointing, though, when there wasn't a final shootout with Zechariah returning to the compound and Michael battling his way out.
As for the ongoing investigation in Max's death, it was a real snoozer. The writers do what they've always done, ending an episode on a cliffhanger which turns out to be nothing. Michael's impersonator turns out to be a guy who needs work and randomly takes jobs. So, all the progress made by the end of the episode is that his employer wants him dead. Great...
Score: 8.1/10
