Today's day took a while to do once I nixed Dexter from the equation. A good part of me wanted me to put the pilot to Dexter on here but I figure I've kissed Mr. Morgan's ass enough throughout this meme. Instead I decided to go with an original choice, something people wouldn't expect: Sleeper Cell's pilot- "Al-Fatiha"
Now before I describe the episode let me talk about the show first. Sleeper Cell was a Showtime miniseries that aired back in 2005. This was before Showtime (in my opinion) was a big sensation and HBO still reigned supreme. When I was walking through the local PX (it's like Wal-Mart for military) I noticed the celebrity booth had people in it. Usually they would have assorted wrestlers, cheerleaders, lesser known bands and tv stars appear every once and a while but this one caught my attention. The show, about a terrorist cell in America planning on causing terror and destruction throughout America, was selling like wildfire...in a military base. Something about the irony struck me so I went up and got the DVD set, got it signed and was on my way. I sat down and watched the pilot and was surprised at how good it was.
The idea is Darwyn Al-Sayeed, a devout Muslim and Federal Agent, goes undercover in a Sleeper Cell. A Sleeper Cell is a group of Islamic Extremist terrorists who behave and act like normal Americans to everybody they see, but behind closed doors and when nobody's looking, are planning terrorist attacks. The American government is especially wary of this LA based Sleeper Cell because their leader Faris-Al Farek is a total madman bent on the destruction of America. And because Darwyn is Muslim and can blend in well, they decided to make him the one to go undercover.
So Darwyn goes and meets the rest of the group. They range from weapons experts to tech experts to demolitions experts ect ect. Well things seem to be going well until Farik starts getting suspicious that somebody may be a double agent or that somebody has been talking to the Feds. So what does he do? He drives all of the Cell members out to the middle of the desert and lines them up. He says that somebody is a traitor and that person will pay dearly. Darwyn is worried he blew his cover early but instead one of the other people in the Cell gets beaten. But that's not enough for Farik. He goes Old Testament on him by digging a hole in the ground, putting the guy INSIDE the whole, burying him up to his neck and then stoning him. It's a slow, methodical and extremely evil process that lasts the rest of the episode and it really sets up well just how evil and just how far Farik and his gang will go to destroy everything.
It's a great show and if you can find it, give it a look.
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