Breaking Badminton – As this episode of Almost Paradise begins, a man is chased in a parking garage. He tries to escape into Reynaldo’s Training Gym. Someone behind him asks Carlo (Nico Antonio) why he is running. Rocco Morada (Joel Trinidad) tells Carlo that no one blackmails him. Carlo insists he wasn’t trying to blackmail him. He promises that he won’t tell anyone about what he saw out there. Luther (Jakab Golding) grabs Carlo from behind and chokes him to death. After the intro, the show jumps back in time by 12 hours. Carlo trains Alex Walker (Christian Kane) who is there to get in shape since he is going to start dating again.

Carlo would want to spend time with his family if he was Alex’s age. Alex asks if he is going to see him tonight for the Torres and Dugan fight. Carlo wants to talk to him about something, but Alex is more interested in the satellite guy coming over. Once Alex rushes from the gym, Rocco enters and looks around. Later, Alex prepares for the fight. He tells Rita that he has authentic buffalo wings and that is why they smell funny. Although he thinks they’re fine, he changes his mind when he eats one of them. Ernesto (Arthur Acuna) and Kai (Samantha Richelle) arrive moments later.

Ike (Nonie Buencamino) comes over and says he didn’t get an invitation. He thought they weren’t allowed to throw parties because it was against hotel rules. Ike decides to take the best seat in the house. Alex attempts to get rid of him by giving him the hot wings. Then, he gets upset because he can’t get the fight on television. Ernesto says the party is over for them since they’ve found a body. He goes on to say it was found near a parking structure next to Reynaldo’s Gym. Once they reach the scene, Alex confirms the victim is Carlo Guzman. They believe he was strangled from behind. Alex thinks he needed money.

Carlo wanted to speak to him about something, but Alex was too busy. They find a chip in his pocket with “Killshot” on it. Kai suggests it is an admission token. They visit Ike to ask him for a warrant to access phone records for Carlo. They want him to speed up the process. Ike tells Alex that they just got a report from Manila about a new drug that has hit the streets. Ernesto and Alex visit Mrs. Guzman. Alex tells Lila (Kayla Rivera) how he knew Carlo. She claims everyone loved Carlo, but admits that Carlo made a lot of bad bets and owed a lot of money. They were going to lose their home and have nothing left. Carlo tried to win some tournament at some club. When she is shown the chip, she says she believes that is the club in question.

Once they leave, Alex suggests they’re dealing with an underground fight club. Kai uses his phone data to track down the club. The guard lets them in when he is given the chip. Once they go inside, Rocco Morada approaches them and introduces himself. He checks them out and tells Alex and Ernesto that he can build them as a double act. Rocco wants to put them in an exhibition match with the competition starting in 30 minutes. Alex and Ernesto tell Kai what to expect in the fight club. When they enter the arena, they’re surprised to see everyone playing badminton. Kai questions whether this place has anything to do with Carlo’s death. Alex believes it does because he saw Rocco in the gym before Carlo’s death.

Alex thinks they can get people to trust them and get information by playing in the tournament. Before long, the Cebu Crushers are introduced as the undefeated team. As for Alex and Ernesto, they’re called the Mactan Dalgonas. Once they start playing, they quickly realize that the Crushers are very good. After they lose, Rocco comes over and invites them to take a spot in the tournament. The first round starts tomorrow and the cash prize is 50,000 for the winner. Alex is excited at the thought of winning 50,000 even though it is only like $900 in the US. The guard tells Rocco that he doesn’t like them, but Rocco says they’re good for business. Alex notices a locker with “CG” on it.

Alex tries to keep the other men busy while Ernesto picks the lock. The Crushers tell Alex not to come back unless he wants to get hurt. They get physical with Alex. Kai keeps an eye on Rocco. Ernesto takes everything from the locker while Alex shows he isn’t a guy to be messed with. Kai follows Rocco outside. She sees that he is bringing in shipments. She gets stuck inside a truck so she causes a mess as a distraction. At the station, they go through the stuff they found in Carlo’s locker. It includes bets with every bookie on the island. They wonder if Carlo thought he could trade his debt for something else. Kai tells Ike about the boxes coming from Singapore since that is where the drugs were coming from.

She had the lab check one of the birdies for drugs but they found nothing. Kai still believes drugs are involved somehow. They’ll have to play their way into the building. Once they get ready, Kai says they’re going to need Morada’s key to get into the secure area. She asks Alex and Ernesto to keep the game going long enough for her to get in and find it. As Rocco prepares for the next match, he tells the guard to take the money and put it in the vault. Alex is surprised when the Crushers switch one of their players. The Crushers quickly rack up points while Kai tries to get the key. Ernesto comes up with an idea to buy them some time. He plays really well and helps his team score a point. Kai finds the card, but has to hide when Rocco returns.

Alex hits the birdie hard enough to cause it to stick in his opponent’s leg. They call for a disqualification. Alex, Ernesto, and Kai try to access the secure room. Once they go in, they find a plastics extrusion machine. During one of his old cases, they were smuggling cocaine into the city disguised as plastic bottles. Alex believes the drugs are stuffed in the packing peanuts. He suspects Carlo found out about the operation and offered to exchange his silence in order to erase his gambling debt. Alex becomes concerned when he sees a camera on the wall nearby. They find a security console and learn it is automated and remotely monitored. Kai argues that they didn’t set off the alarm because they used Morada’s key card.

Before they try to leave, Kai is asked to look for footage of Carlo stumbling upon the operation. They don’t have time because the alarm sounds. Kai does one last thing before they leave. The guard catches them and says they’re not going anywhere. Rocco learns that they’re cops so he tells them they made a big mistake coming there. Rocco says Carlo paid the price like they will before ordering Luther to kill them. Alex eventually breaks free and fights Luther. They manage to beat everyone up until Rocco tries to escape. Ike is there to arrest him though. He says a little birdie told them to come there. They brought down the drug operation and got Rocco and Luther for murder since their confessions were recorded.

Ernesto and Alex visit Lila Guzman to give her a check for over a million pesos. It was a reward and they want her to have it. She also receives the picture they found in Carlo’s locker. When Alex gets back, Rita tells him that her mom had to do a double shift so she thought she would do one and make some serious overtime too. He is excited to learn that they’re going to be replaying the whole boxing match. Alex turns the channel to the show Rita likes and tells her to grab a seat.

 

Almost Paradise Review

The second episode of Almost Paradise’s second season was okay although there are many glaring issues that prevent the show from being anything more than mediocre. Christian Kane is decent as usual and his sidekicks are okay as well, but the lack of seriousness doesn’t allow the cast to really showcase their skills. In this episode, most of the time was spent trying to elicit laughs with several lengthy badminton games.

Some of the side performances are just okay, but that may be an issue with some members of the cast attempting to speak non-native language so it is easy to overlook. The investigation was wafer thin considering how much time was spent on badminton. Whoever wrote and edited the show didn’t think very highly of the audience.

Anyone with half a brain could understand that Kai sent a message to Ike without needing a flashback scene to explain that. Truthfully, the first five or ten minutes of the episode were enjoyable and the episode quickly went downhill. This clearly isn’t for everyone since many viewers will be looking for something more serious and thoughtful.

If viewers enjoy the dry humor, they’ll probably like this series a lot more than I do. As was evident from the first few minutes of this episode, there is real potential for something more though. The episode scores a 5 out of 10. Recaps of Almost Paradise can be found on Reel Mockery here.

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