Running On Empty – As the third episode of Allegiance begins, a news report says Prime Minister Peter Larrabee stands firm in his defense of both Minister Sohal and the Minister’s C68 bill which aims to reduce barriers for asylum seekers. Sabrina Sohal (Supinder Wraich) listens to a woman question that decision while running. At home, Ishaan (Adolyn H. Dar) shows Sabrina the pictures of their father on social media. He claims he is trying to infiltrate their chat rooms and get bots to mass report them. He admits it’s out of control and he can’t keep up. As for Max, it is the same old story. Sabrina calls Max (Brian Markinson) and leaves a message saying she wants to see her dad today. At work, Sabrina talks to Luke (Lachlan Quarmby) until Gillian Goode (Melanie Papalia) interrupts.

Gillian tells Sabrina they’re getting a big visit from serious crimes today. Then, they join a briefing about the recent car thefts. Inspector Kara Degas (Crystal Balint) takes over to say 12,000 vehicles were stolen in this province last year. In Surrey, they’re looking at triple-digit increases in the last 30 days. When Sabrina asks why they can’t contain the thefts, Gillian tells everyone about two techniques called relay attacks and programming. Relays clone a signal from key fobs. Programmed attacks allow a device to access the can bus which is the nervous system of the vehicle. Nate Brugmann (Andres Joseph) admits they’re at the bottom of the food chain. The car theft ring is using a sub-contracting system that insulates big players from the small ones.

Degas says they’ve got a lead, but it is only the letter G. They believe they’re responsible for running the crew preparing for tonight’s delivery. Since they’re getting so much pressure on this, they’re going to make it priority number one. After the meeting, Max calls Sabrina to tell her that her dad doesn’t want her visiting right now. Max explains he is thinking about the optics. Vince Brambilla (Enrico Colantoni) checks on Sabrina who ends the call. In the car, Sabrina talks to Vince about problem-oriented policing and addressing the root causes. Vince asks if they’re engaging in one of those defund the police debates. Sabrina thinks they should be talking about it. She asks if he ever wanted to do anything besides being a beat cop. They get a radio call about a 10-85 in progress.

Once they reach the scene, they see someone in the process of stealing a vehicle. A pursuit begins. Eventually, Sabrina has to jump out and chase the suspect on foot. The woman ends up hurting her leg leading to her apprehension. She insists it is only dislocated so they need to pop it back in. They reluctantly agree to help. In private, Sabrina tells Vince she believes the woman is Keisha Barrow. Once Keisha is taken to an interview room, Sabrina informs her that she went to East High too. She remembers Keisha was on her way to the Olympics. Keisha says her best finish was fourth before her knee happened. Sabrina asks if she’s ever thought about another job, but Keisha would rather be broke than blue. She keeps Keisha talking and learns the money isn’t good if you don’t get paid.

Vince and Degas listen to their conversation. Degas is impressed with Sabrina’s skills. Vince says she showed up this way. Keisha insists she didn’t want to be a part of this, but they were pushing her to step up after two jobs. It is just Keisha and her granny. She refuses to let Sabrina call her grandma. Moments later, Degas tells Sabrina that she might be able to still deliver the vehicle. Degas suggests they can release Keisha if she helps them. She can avoid having a criminal record. Degas tells Keisha about the option. Keisha asks for Sabrina’s advice. Sabrina admits she’d do it for a clean slate. In the car, Vince tells Sabrina he isn’t sure this matches her POP theory because it isn’t getting upstream of the problem.

Sabrina believes putting Keisha at risk is a calculated way to bring down something bigger. Degas sees Star (Hugo Raymundo). He walks toward the stolen vehicle before walking away from it. Degas and the others move in to apprehend him. Vince and Sabrina go into the café to look for Keisha. They soon realize that she took the money and ran. Outside, Sabrina says she takes responsibility because she made an error in judgment. Vince and Sabrina check Keisha’s apartment. Sabrina doesn’t understand why she doesn’t have any trophies or medals. They agree to visit the granny. When Keisha meets her granny (Candus Churchill), she finds Sabrina there waiting for her. Granny reveals Keisha is still training the young ones.

Keisha gives her granny what appears to be money and says they’ll be good until January. Sabrina notices there are many pill bottles nearby. Keisha tells her Granny she has to go away for a while. Vince calls Degas to tell her that they got Keisha. She says tech has Star’s burner phone. Keisha thanks Sabrina for not making her tell her granny. She admits they wanted to move her but she is so happy there. She did all this for her. Granny doesn’t have much longer. Degas thinks they should try to contact G as Keisha. Sabrina thinks they should send her since Star is the only one who’s ever seen Keisha. Vince warns Sabrina that this isn’t a simulation before saying she should get prepped. Vince tells Degas it is his job to keep her alive. He’d like to stay involved. He says they can keep Keisha on the comms in case they need her.

Vince admits Sabrina dreams of being Degas one day. Sabrina manages to work out a deal to hand over the vehicle. Vince tells her there’s a GPS concealed in the vehicle. She is given a cap to remain in contact with them too. Keisha questions why she is stepping up for her. Sabrina thinks it’s a win-win. Before long, Sabrina goes to the spot and G (Brock Morgan) knocks on her window. He gets in and asks if she was talking to someone. Sabrina says he scared her so she said a prayer. Once she gives him the code, G says they have to go straight to export because there is no time. He wants to take her to see the boss because he might bump her up. G has a GPS blocker and tells her to go. Gillian and the others can’t track her. She might be able to use a traffic drone. G says he was expecting someone black when Star said he hired a new “trini girl”.

She keeps him talking while driving toward the destination. Once they arrive, the team begins working to load the vehicle. G shows Sabrina guns. He surprises her by saying he is Viggo. He wants to know how Star gave her his number. Sabrina claims it was for emergencies. She almost leaves without getting her money. Gillian finds them using the drone. One of Viggo’s guys spots the drones and warns them. Police arrive in time to take them into custody, but G manages to flee in a vehicle. Vince scolds Sabrina in private and reminds her they almost lost her today. Later, Degas tells Sabrina that G was getting handguns and assault rifles in exchange for the vehicles. She says it isn’t Sabrina’s fault they may not be able to help Keisha as they’d hoped.

Superintendent Bolton has spoken to Nate about showing a firmer hand. Degas believes Keisha should take responsibility for her actions in court because she may be eligible for a diversion program. Nate tells Sabrina that the payment to Keisha wasn’t logged into the arrest reports for Star. Sabrina says she didn’t see the money exchange hands. They agree it isn’t worth chasing. She tries to convince Nate that Keisha was key to the bust so he should try to help her. Sabrina tells Keisha moments later. Then, she checks on Ajeet (Stephen Lobo) at the jail and finds out that he has a black eye. She reminds him he doesn’t need to protect her. Sabrina is confident they can get through this, but he has to let her in. Sabrina returns home to Ishaan and hangs her dad’s scarf on a limb.

 

Allegiance Review

This episode of Allegiance was okay with some interesting moments, but the fantasy land writing really hurts the story’s credibility. The writing in this episode made Sabrina appear incompetent in her role and also diminished the believability of the series. For starters, the episode leaned too hard into the idea that Keisha had a clean slate and only started stealing vehicles out of the blue.

By that point, she’d most likely already had a lengthy criminal history or at least a couple of arrests and convictions. Not to mention, Keisha was fleeing from police with illegally obtained money the first second she got. The monotonous acting coupled with the bad writing makes Sabrina seem unsuitable. In this episode, she was making mistakes every few seconds, especially when she was dealing with Viggo.

Her actions before that were legally questionable and it’s highly unlikely she’d be able to thrust herself into a position like that anyway. The acting is not good at times and instead is more akin to reading from a script. There needs to be grittiness here, but there isn’t because the writing is stuck in a fantasy land. The episode scores 4.5 out of 10. Recaps of Allegiance can be found on Reel Mockery here.

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