Hooten & The Lady – Rome

By: Stacy Miller

San Francisco Convent in Abrezzo, Italy. We see Hooten (Michael Landes) meet with a nun named Sister Maria Riva (Valerie Lilley).  Hooten came to the convent because Sister Riva said that she had something for him.  The sister gives him a page from the Sibylline Book, a collection of mystical prophecies which is said can save the future. Sister Riva tells Hooten that there is a buyer lined up once he can find the rest of the book.  Once Hooten leaves, Sister Riva talks with a man who issues an ominous threat about the book.

Meanwhile, Hooten is aboard a small plane.  He had wanted an “under the radar” flight to Rome.  But instead, a man pulls out a knife. “Seriously, you’re robbing me at ten thousand feet?” Hooten asks extremely annoyed.  So, he engages in fisticuffs with the man because Hooten can NEVER get on a plane and land safely without getting into a fight while on board!  Hooten then puts on a parachute and jumps out of the plane.  He lands in the water and emerges at the scene of a wedding.  After drying off, Hooten has drinks with an attractive older woman at a bar. The women (Jane Seymour) tells him that her daughter is getting married.  We learn that the daughter is Alex (Ophelia Lovibond).  Hooten later admits to Alex that he knew the woman, Lady Spencer-Parker is her mother.  When he comments that she seems nothing like her mother, Alex admits that she was adopted. “Well you did well for yourself bagging a lord and a lady,” Hooten says. They haven’t been together ten minutes and already Alex wants to punch Hooten in his face!  She never thought she’d even see him again.  Hooten tells Alex that he is there because he needs her help.

Hooten asks Alex how would she like to know about the future and then tells her how he is in possession of a page of the Sibylline Book, but needs her help in locating the rest.  He needs Alex’s access to the Vatican to see whether the rest of the book is there.  Then, they take Hooten’s very cool ride: a motorcycle.  Because there’s no other way to cruise down the streets of Rome!  Alex asks Hooten how he knows a nun. “None of your business,” is Hooten’s response. They go to a library to research information about the Sibylline Book in order to help them locate it.  After Alex and Hooten finish their research, it’s off to Vatican City to scale the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.  Despite Alex’s protests, she and Hooten are soon chipping away at the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. But Hooten’s line gets tangled. Alex urges him to cut his line or risk bringing down the whole Sistine Chapel ceiling.  Hooten refuses, as he could break his neck in the fall; he’s quite fond of his neck.  Fine, Alex cuts Hooten’s line for him and he goes tumbling to the floor.  Fortunately, his neck is okay, but the fall alerts security.  Hooten tells Alex that they have to get out of there quickly.

Alex calls Ella (Jessica Hynes) and sends her an image of an artifact she found. Alex then gets a telephone call from her mother.  Lady Lindo-Parker wants to know when Alex will come to take a look at the wedding dresses for Alex’s wedding. After Ella makes a three dimensional image of the artifact that Alex sent, she calls Alex back and tells her (Alex) that the artifact is a piece of a wooden chest that could have housed the entire Sibylline Book.  But it appears that the chest is buried in a catacomb underneath the Vatican.  So, exploring Alex and Hooten will go.  In the catacomb, Alex and Hooten hit pay dirt and find the Sibylline Book but that’s not the only thing they find…or better yet what finds them.  The catacomb becomes a tomb of doom when a hungry alligator approaches!  It seems as this quest for “The Book of the Future” a/k/a The Sibylline Book has become a life and death journey.  Hooten jokes that they can escape the gator.  But if not, the reptile will enjoy the younger, tender British meat (Alex).  What I like about Hooten is that he’s always laughing in the face of danger while he’s thinking of a way out.  He comes up with one by starting a cave-in to separate them from the alligator.  But now Alex and Hooten are trapped! How will they get out?  At least in their captivity, they have a little down time to work on translating the book.  Alex realizes she can get a Wi-Fi signal, which means there has to be a way out.  Eureka! There is a passageway and Alex and Hooten are free.  Once outside, Alex thinks she should hold on to the book, but Hooten wants to give it to his nun’s contact.  Alex is suspicious that this mysterious contact could be the mob. How right she is as a man approaches Alex and Hooten.  He holds a gun to Hooten’s head.

Alex and Hooten are taking to a palatial estate.  Hooten says that Sister Riva must have been acting under duress. A mobster named Tramacca (Enzo Cilenti) calls Monsignor Fitzgerard (Michael Colgan) and tells the monsignor that they have the Sibylline Book.  The mob is holding the book for ransom; the church has one hour to pay their (the mob’s) large price.  If the church refuses or contacts the police, he’ll burn the book! Tramacca ends the telephone call and asks Alex to translate the book.  But when the mobster still says he’ll burn The Sibylline Book, Alex shouts that she won’t let him.  She sprays something in Tramacca’s face that burns his eyes and gives her enough time to grab the book.  Hooten fights off the other men and then takes their car keeps.  With shots ringing at their heads, Alex and Hooten run out of the estate and Hooten drives off.

However when they return to Lady Lindo-Parker’s hotel room, they discover that Alex’s mother has been taken.  Alex wants to contact the police, but Hooten warns her against it.  Hooten reminds Alex that if Tramacca learns she called the authorities, he’ll kill Alex’s mother and dump her body by the side of the road. Tramacca calls Hooten and orders they bring the book to San Angelo Beach. Alex wants to come with him, but Hooten insists on going alone for fear that she will do or say the wrong thing.

When they get outside, Alex calls over the police and tells them that Hooten is trying to steal her purse!  Then she takes off alone to meet with Tramacca to get her mum back.  Tramacca is surprised to see Alex and not Hooten but tells her that this isn’t a negotiation; Alex gives him the book or he shoots but she and her mom.  Suddenly, Hooten rides up on the back of a police motorcycle. “Picking on the weak?  That’s low even for the mob.  I stole the bike by the way, in five minutes this place is going to be crawling with cops,” Hooten tells Tramacca. He urges the mobster to let Alex and her mother go, but Tramacca shoots Hooten instead!  If there were a drinking game for how many times Hooten gets shot in an episode, viewers would be drunk and miss how the episode ends!  While Alex and her mother run towards the car, Tramacca shoots Hooten multiple times before Hooten jumps over the side into the water.  The police arrive and arrest Tramacca.  Alex looks into the water to search for Hooten, but there’s no sign of him.

Alex gives the Sibylline Book to Monsignor Fitzgerard and she is given a wedding gift: gold wedding bands blessed by the Vatican in the hopes for her to have a happy and strong marriage. After their adventure, Alex’s mother says that she will need a long session with her psychiatrist.

As the episode concludes, Alex hears Hooten’s voice and finds him sharing a drink at the hotel bar with Sister Maria Riva.  She takes him aside.  Alex is surprised that Hooten was telling the truth that he did all this for a nun.  Hooten explains that in order to pull off his great escape, he needed a police bullet proof vest and expert swimming. But for worrying her, Hooten gets a slap in the face from Alex. Oh well, all in a day’s work for the roguish hero.