The Return Of The Shadow Assassin

Trivia Contributor
Caine gave Peter his ring in Redemption 2. Peter returns it in this episode. However, you will see Peter wearing the ring in subsequent episodes. Why? Did Peter take the ring back? No.

The reason we see this is because Return of the Shadow Assassin didn't get filmed until the middle of the season. So the continuity person was doing her job (as was wardrobe) by having Peter wear the ring for all the episodes up until that point. Why was this filmed later, I don't know, but it's obvious that it was intended as the first episode of the season. It's just too bad about the ring. In an admirable attempt to keep the continuity flowing, it became a standout flaw.
 Monica Sztybel
While we see Kermit for the first time (as we are supposed to, I assume), his first episode was "Only the Strong Survive". That was filmed first in the season.
 Monica Sztybel
The practice session between Caine and the Ancient is a rerun of the exact scene from the original "Shadow Assassin" episode. They just added a special effect.
 Monica Sztybel
When Sally (the dry cleaner) thinks she sees someone in the trees, the shot they use is the same one as the one they use when Peter thinks he sees Caine in the trees. It's the same trees. And after Caine disappears, it's probably the same shot used again. The funny part is that she's heading in one direction when she's looking at the trees, and Peter is heading in the opposite direction when he thinks he sees Caine:-)
 Monica Sztybel
Script differences  
I have the first draft of the script to this episode and there are a lot of differences in it. In the tease, Peter is carrying his gun in the nightmare. There's also a thudding noise, like "an exaggerated hearbeat". He sees "scarred and pitted stone walls, watter dripping down them..." then they show the spider webs. They say that there's a woman in one, but they don't identify who it is. Then Peter then turns to see Caine in the other web.

The dream is longer. At the point where we see a spider web falling on Peter, it's shadows. He aims his gun at the Chi Rhu but it's kicked away. Rather than the sword, Peter is kicked backwards, then the Chi Rhu vanishes and Peter turns into young Peter. This is when Peter says he's frightened and asks where his father is.

The dream doesn't end there. When Caine calls out to Peter, the Shadow Assassin is seen over Peter once again, bringing up his hand with the cobra ring on it. A real cobra leaps from the ring.

Young Peter becomes older Peter again and he falls back as "the cobra wraps itself around his throat. Peter finally pulls the snake from his throat and throws it down onto the ground where it turns into a walking stick with a cobra's head. Peter snatches it up. The Chi'Ru master's sword slices it to pieces, Peter falls against the stone steps (like his father had done in the tease of the original Shadow Assassin). A spider's web descends over him. Peter claws at the silken strands as the sword comes to his throat..."

That's when he jumps up in bed. Kelly is next to him. She asks him what's wrong. He says nothing, and tells her to go back to sleep. He says it's just a bad dream. She asks, "Another one?" He doesn't respond. She rolls over.

DESCRIPTION: "Peter continues to stare into the velvet darkness. Somewhere a clock ticks softly."

He repeats the phrase (as he does in the episode), "I'm frightened, Father. Where are you?"

DESCRIPTION: "We hold another moment on the real terror in his eyes then we fade out."
 Monica Sztybel
Instead of replaying Caine's wandering off into the sunset in the tease, they do it in act one.
 Monica Sztybel
When Sally is killed, they show the cobra ring and it comes to life like in the dream.
 Monica Sztybel
After he embeds the mark of the SA on her face, he thinks he sees Caine in the trees, just like Peter did later on.
 Monica Sztybel
When Peter is riding in the car with Blaisdell, he explains that they are going to the park to look it over once more to see if forensics missed anything. Peter is skeptical. He says, "And maybe we're clutching at straws. Maybe we should follow up the one lead we have."

Blaisdell: "When you were sixteen you decided that you were a pariah because every time you built a model plane it fell apart. Every relationship you made ended in a fight or a slap in the face. You were sick three days with hepatitis and afraid you'd given it to every kid in the orphanage."
Peter: "All our victims knew me. They're all dead. I'll be next. Then you. Then the Ancient. Then he'll look for my father until he finds him."
Paul: "Your Shadow Assassin? (Peter looks at him in surprise) I used to read your mind back in the old days too. If your theory's right, what's the motive?"

The conversation goes on from there right up to "Just because I don't practice Kung Fu, doesn't mean I don't understand it." Then, instead of seeing the Shadow Assassin standing in the road, they're chased by two identical cars with no drivers. One is behind them, chasing them. The other heading toward them. That's when Paul veers his car out of the way. Rather than it turning over, they keep driving. There's smoke in the car from an unkown source. There's an explosion and the windshield shatters. Peter kicks it out and they're still driving. Then there's a second explosion. The tire blows, and that's when the car crashes. It hits a tree head on.

It's Peter who falls through the windshield frame and Paul who stumbles out of the car. The car explodes into a fireball. Paul is confronted by both Shadow Assassins. Paul recognizes the Master. The script calls him Stone (I don't recall if they do in the episode).

Paul puts up a better fight in the script before he's defeated.

Peter sees ghostly figures, tossing Paul around.

That's when he fires and the scene ends similar to the episode.
 Monica Sztybel
At the hospital Carolyn is there. She's talking to Frank. Kelly is crying on the couch. Carolyn goes to her to comfort her.

Annie is there too. Kermit is helping her out of the elevator, and she thanks him immediately. When he asks her how she knew it was him, she says he has a light, uneven step. He replies, "Argument I lost with a lawnmower."
 Monica Sztybel
The scene where Kermit snaps at Frank is in the original script.
 Monica Sztybel
Annie goes into Paul's room. The script describes Peter as sitting by the bed, "pretty bruised and banged up. He stands and guides Annie down onto the bed."

Annie talks to Blaisdell, calling him "Slugger" and joking about how their roles were reversed (Blind Eye). She says, "Open your eyes. I will if you will."

He does. She adds, "The doctor says you're going to be stable. But I know better. Talk to me. Let me hear your voice." He does. He says softly, "I love you, Annie."

Peter had left the room during that scene (Peter's speech to Paul is not in this version of the script). This is where they have the scene where Kermit apologizes to Frank, and Caine shows up.
 Monica Sztybel
Outside the hospital, Caine and Peter's dialog is the same, except there is an added line where Caine asks if Peter is seeing someone. Oddly enough, when Peter tells Caine it's Kelly, her last name is Blake. So I guess they only had her as Blaine for Reunion.

The rest of the scene is exactly the same, with a slightly different ending. Caine expresses some concern over her and tells Peter to take her to a place of safety, while Caine goes to warn Everette Cooper of the Shadow Assassin.
 Monica Sztybel
During the scene between the Shadow Assassin and Kelly, he introduces himself as
being from the Miami PD (as in the episode), however, he goes on to say that "Peter trained under me for six months. Special assignment."
Kelly replies with, "I remember it. He came back from there after I joined the 102nd."

The Shadow Assassin says, "It's the 101st precinct, isn't it? Can we stop playing cat-and-mouse now?"

She relaxes and apologizes for being nervous. "Peter's been going through a lot of...(thinking better of it) He's had a lot on his mind."

Shadow Assassin: "Still upset over his father leaving?
Kelly: "Yeah. He's heard nothing from him for six months. It's really eating away at him..."
 Monica Sztybel
In the script, Caine's pearls of wisdom has the audience at the comedy club roaring.
 Monica Sztybel
Stone visits Paul in the hospital after Kelly is taken from Peter's apartment. He senses danger and disconnects himself from the IV.

Stone: "The last time I saw you looking like this you were lying in a square in Zagreb. Three bullets, one through the arm, one entered the chest cavity at the sternum, one in th leg. Shock waves to the system. Blood pumping into the heart wall, filling the pericardium, five quarts a minute. Didn't think there was any chance you'd crawl out of that square alive."
Blaisdell: "Is that why you left me there?"
Stone: "Red Sector, end phase of the mission, opposition net closing in around us. Would you have come back for me?"
Blaisdell: "I might have. At the time."
Stone: (softer) "Oh, that's right. You always carried that heavy burden into every mission. Morality. Dangerous liability for men in our profession."

Blaisdell is slowly maneuvering himself to a position where he can get out of the bed.

Blaisdell: "Maybe that's why I gave that profession up."
Stone: "And traded it in for beaurocracy and triplicate paperwork and police procedure? That's not the Blaisdell I knew."
Blaisdell: "Reptiles shed their skin every seven years. They don't get under the skin of others."

It goes on to talk about how Stone fancies himself a snake and that Blaisdell didn't figure him to work for an Eastern religious sect. Stone says he gets paid a lot for his killings. In this script it's Blaisdell who asks about the poison, not Caine like in the episode.

Stone ends with: "Your foster son and his father will die tonight. Thought you ought to be there to see it."
 Monica Sztybel
I always wondered if the scene in the parking garage had been cut. The line, "Rushing home late for dinner" doesn't make sense since he's in his building running to his car, not away from it. In the script, there is an added scene before it, where Peter enters his apartment and sees a brunette doll caught up in a spider's web. That's when he runs to his car.
 Monica Sztybel
Meanwhile Paul has been kidnapped. Kermit is outside his room as Caine approaches after his scene with Everette in his hospital room. Aside from telling Caine that Paul was kidnapped, Kermit is the one who tells Caine that Peter didn't report for his shift.
 Monica Sztybel
In the cave, Paul is with Peter and Kelly. He's the one who says the line about the shadows and the force field. Later on, when the Ancient sets them free and Peter tells Kelly to stay behind with the Ancient, Paul and Peter take out some guards and Paul retrieves a gun to Peter's surprise. A cry from Kelly separates them. Peter goes back for her, and Paul moves on.

Blaisdell enters the mirrored cave before the fight between Caine and Stone. Paul aims his gun but Stone appears behind him and knocks him out. The simultaneous fight scenes go on from there and the scene ends similar to the episode, but with Caine helping a dazed Paul to his feet.

That's it. The ending is the same.
 Monica Sztybel