If anyone wants to know how it ends, here’s what went down in the second half. But first, a repost of part 1...
The mini-series picks up two years after the events in H2O. Thomas McLaughlin has arrived at the home of Marc Lavigne (a key player in H2O and a washed-up nobody now) in Gatineau, Quebec. The two of them watch the results of the referendum unfold on television. When the results come in in favour of Canada joining the U.S., McLaughlin tells Lavigne that he’ll get his revenge.
Two years pass once again and we see a group of people gunned down at a law firm in London, England by a man coerced into doing so. This prompts an investigative reporter named Helen Madigan to investigate what happened since her adopted son was the shooter and took his own life in the incident. Also, the ones who staged the shooting know she’s snooping around and want her killed.
When we see Thomas McLaughlin, he’s putting the finishing touches on the plans he’s been putting together with a media baron named Randall Spear (another key player from H2O). Everything is set to go. In a meeting with some powerful men from a number of European countries, McLaughlin talks about throwing a wrench into the U.S.’s plans to take control of Saudi oil. In order to do this, he’ll be installed as President of the United States. When asked which party he’ll run with, Spear says that he’ll run as an independent. Both he and McLaughlin assure the group that they can guarantee his victory.
When the drama cuts to President Stanfield in the White House, we see that the U.S. does in fact have designs on Saudi Arabia and its oil and that he has willingly turned a blind eye to what is being done to accomplish this. He’s acting out of desperation because if the U.S. doesn’t get control, China will. He’s also keeping his eye on McLaughlin, wondering what he’s up to when he appears on the news as a hero who has negotiated the release of a U.S. dignitary who was taken hostage in the Middle East.
With the first part of his plan having been a success, and with a positive public image in place due to the hostage situation, McLaughlin gets himself a running mate. He then continues his plans to build an even more powerful image for himself on the campaign trail by staging an attempted assassination on himself which will be followed by his “resurrection”. Everything goes well when he is shot, hospitalized and is informed by his associates that his poll numbers have skyrocketed.
Meanwhile, back in England, Helen Madigan has discovered that someone killed in the London law firm was involved with the development of a piece of software that will be used to rig the upcoming U.S. election.
That’s where things left off. McLaughlin is using an image he’s building as well as a piece of software to get the presidency.
In part 2, Tom McLaughlin walks out of the hospital to a media circus. His recovery is making headlines everywhere. The media circus continues when he gets the support of a well known religious leader and even gets baptized in a lake in the dessert to many onlookers and camera crews. It’s like the second coming and he’s never been more popular.
While still on retreat in the dessert with some key players on his team, Tom asks his running mate Mary Miller of Texas to marry him again. Again you say? They were once married before and got divorced. Apparently they met while he was auditing a course at Harvard when they were younger. She accepts and they get married (I find it interesting that the First Lady will also be the Vice President).
While all this is going on, Helen Madigan is continuing her investigation into this program that will tamper with the election results. She travels to the U.S. to warn McLaughlin and he reacts with surprise. I have to say one thing though. I said last week that McLaughlin was using it to rig the election. As it turns out, he really didn’t know about it. It was his backers that put it together, intending to use it. McLaughlin was offended by this move and said he can win without it. That’s the last we hear of this program.
McLaughlin’s run for the Presidency continues, but he needs something more that can push his popularity over the top. As luck would have it, a situation involving some kidnapped American children develops and makes headlines. The children are eventually killed and McLaughlin uses the opportunity to point out how the current president did nothing. The campaign continues.
Marc Lavigne, who I mentioned last week and who has been following events decides to meet up with Helen Madigan. He tells her all about McLaughlin and the two of them discover that it’s McLaughlin who plans to rig the elections. They also discover that his assassination attempt was staged. A hired hitman who’s been a part of McLaughlin’s cabal has been flowing them and listening in on their investigations from a van for quite awhile now. He breaks into their motel room and kills Lavigne. he then tries to kill her, but in a brief stuggle he ends up dead, leaving Madigan to escape and carry on.
As McLaughlin continues his vigorous campaign across the U.S., his campaign managers, who aren’t part of his secret plot realize that he can’t win when they play around with all sorts of projections. Miller suggests a radical new approach that involves telling it like it is and this seems to work well. During the campaign, one of Stanfield’s people discovers that Mary Miller had an abortion a long time ago. This could damage McLaughlin’s campaign if it ever got out. Fortunately McLaughlin has a plan of his own to counteract this. One of his guys in the White House discovers that Stanfield has been having a gay affair with one of the White House aids. A stalemate is reached and neither the abortion or the affair is made public.
After a nail-biting election, McLaughlin wins. Shortly afterwards, he meets again with Helen Madigan who reveals that she knows what’s going on. She threatens him by saying that she can warn other countries. Mclaughlin laughs and tells her that they were involved with is little coup. An impassioned and angry McLaughlin also tells her about his plans to curb America’s power and bring down its Empire status. He says that this is all a game and he won because he told the best story to the people. He even reveals that he’s been using Miller in his plans. Miller, who’s been standing outside has heard all this and is shocked. She makes plans with some Pentagon insiders to do something about what she’s found out.
How does the movie end? Most of McLaughlin’s backers are found and killed off one by one. McLaughlin, Spear and a few associates take off in a private jet and we find out that it’s been sabotaged. Everyone inside has passed out while McLaughlin, partially conscious looks out at a pair of fighter jets that have been dispatched to shoot down the plane which has become a danger. Miller, who is in one of the Air Force command centers sees live camera footage of McLaughlin in a daze, smiling out the window as Stanfield, who’s with her allows her to give the final order to shoot the plane down.
That’s where it ends. We don’t see the plane get shot down.
I can’t say I was happy with the ending. I’ll have to give it some thought to see what I can make of it. Was something else going on that I missed? I don't know. If so, I probably haven't provided the necessary details here that could shed some light on what that might be. In any case, I was expecting more, maybe a big twist at the end like what we got with
H2O. I’m also wondering if Paul Gross left an opening for a third instalment.
Was there anything else of interest? Yeah. McLaughlin made reference to someone named “Rumson” and there was a presidential candidate named “Hilary Benton”. Gross likes to play around with names like that.
