Although I quite enjoyed "Severance Pay", certainly in relation to the previous episode (which focused on a country music performer's safety), it has its logical issues, preferably in how one specific scene has String targeted while using a welder in Santini's shop (some mystery where someone silhouetted sets up to load the shop with gas and await disaster, which String avoids) never resolved and a clue involving the difference in one revealed secret of the F.I.R.M-as protected information in a newscast get spies killed "on the other side"-involves a peculiar word used that String questions as suspicious and completely not of the vocabulary of his on-the-lam friend, resulting in the real mole's identity being outed, is more than a bit convenient and contrived. Nonetheless Arte Johnson, as retired analyst Larry Mason, is fun to follow as he disguises himself to hide from those out to find him (and execute him for his treason) and goes on enthusiastically about the machinations involved in vehicles of various means (he descriptively talks shop with Santini about Airwolf briefly at the end, earning the annoyance of Marella later when talking about a pilot targeting them in Mexican airspace with little belief that they will escape back to America alive). Also nice to see Adam-12's own Martin Milner as the security chief with the F.I.R.M, ultimately proven to be the mole, clearly too focused on not to be.
Milner's Barnes sends the character of Henderson after Mason, with an ax to grind (didn't get his benefits, a fellow employee and friend desperately needing his bonus, dropping dead from a heart attack when the "computer doesn't provide it") while String rides shotgun in the souped-up engine van...clear sign that Barnes needed Mason taken out of the picture, enough of a red flag that he should be considered a mole candidate. What I liked about the episode was its focus on the F.I.R.M and how ArchAngel, Marella, and String work to rescue Mason (relocating to Mexico to put some distance between him and those trying to catch him) while his former company appears ready to "eliminate" him. Despite their differences in regards to Airwolf, the three of them are allies in many respects. Airwolf is used effectively at the end, emerging when it does look mighty perilous for Marella, ArchAngel, and Mason in their plane. Seeing the F.I.R.M in a board room might not be all that exciting but this side of the show is often disregarded. Sometimes AA and Marella are almost completely forgotten (especially Marella), so them actually avoiding a rival plane trying to down them while Airwolf saves them in the end brings them back into the action. The small-scale stories often deflect from the importance that involves why Airwolf was introduced to start with, and even diminishes the value of the leads (Caitlin is not even in the episode).
Milner's Barnes sends the character of Henderson after Mason, with an ax to grind (didn't get his benefits, a fellow employee and friend desperately needing his bonus, dropping dead from a heart attack when the "computer doesn't provide it") while String rides shotgun in the souped-up engine van...clear sign that Barnes needed Mason taken out of the picture, enough of a red flag that he should be considered a mole candidate. What I liked about the episode was its focus on the F.I.R.M and how ArchAngel, Marella, and String work to rescue Mason (relocating to Mexico to put some distance between him and those trying to catch him) while his former company appears ready to "eliminate" him. Despite their differences in regards to Airwolf, the three of them are allies in many respects. Airwolf is used effectively at the end, emerging when it does look mighty perilous for Marella, ArchAngel, and Mason in their plane. Seeing the F.I.R.M in a board room might not be all that exciting but this side of the show is often disregarded. Sometimes AA and Marella are almost completely forgotten (especially Marella), so them actually avoiding a rival plane trying to down them while Airwolf saves them in the end brings them back into the action. The small-scale stories often deflect from the importance that involves why Airwolf was introduced to start with, and even diminishes the value of the leads (Caitlin is not even in the episode).
