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This was an awesome episode! A vast improvement over the last two weeks. Zoe needs to write the scripts more often!

I thought the boat shtick was the cute half of the ep. To each their own. Happy to see Toast, and loved the nerd faceoff with Patrick. Couldn't care less about Addison. One dimensional. Boring. Predictable. Loved, loved, loved Toast getting Steve addicted to the Poopy Penguin game though =) That was super cute! Wish this ep had had a better main storyline. It was like they had a handful of super-cute humorous scenes, spliced with a schlocky horror movie about endangered college coeds with secret crimes in their past. Like that's never been done before ever?

Completely agree! These boys have bickered before, but this just fell flat for me. So emotionless. And petty. That poor woman was only there as the No-Homo Plot Device. She looked embarrassed. Everyone looked embarrassed. I'm going to have to lump Peter Lenkov in with Erica Messer, those showrunners who cannot be trusted. Peter is busy trolling the McDanno fans this week, but he'll be trolling the het-girl fans in a couple weeks with his Valentine episode.

There's such a big difference between a witty dialogue exchange, and bs bickering. This was smirky bs. Half-assed effort at most. I agree about Kono. Hate to see her reduced to such a meaningless position. Do they need new writers? Do they need a shake-up in the cast?

Not gonna lie -- this episode was a disappointment. The Kamekona storyline was the most interesting by far. I felt for him most of all. Could not care less about Kono and Adam and Gabriel and all that. They are trying to hard to make this Adam vs Gabriel clash dramatic, and it's just coming across as lame. Sad to see Kono, one of the core four characters, is basically only there for decoration. What the hell? She should take out Gabriel on her own with one long-distance shot, and be done with it. Worst of all was the Steve and Danny storyline. It was like neither actor was invested in what was going on. There was no chemistry between them at all, zero, nada, nothing. What the hell was going on there? They used to have so much on-screen chemistry, and now it's like they can barely stand to look at one another and be in the same room together. Being a loving partner (whether in work or in marriage) was played for humor, when it could have been something very meaningful. Just a big disappointment. I guess the writers thought they were being funny. It fell very flat for me.

Every time they introduce a new female character, I roll my eyes. The producers must believe if you insert romance, more female fans will watch. And if you insert over-sexualized young women in revealing clothes, more male fans will watch. But really, all you need to do to keep fans interested in the show is tell a better story.

I liked this episode a lot more than that crappy 'first date from hell' one. But I too wondered about the plausibility of anyone on the task force being able to blend in without being recognized by this late stage in the game, especially on a campus where they've gone before to question suspects and witnesses in other crimes.

We'll have to agree to disagree here. "At risk" is something more serious than a stubborn or immature tween/teen problem child.

I thought her reaction was boogus because someone who works with at risk kids has no doubt been exposed to violence in the line of work. She's a psychologist who works with troubled youth. She should not start sobbing and quivering and hyperventilating at the first sign of danger. I would have been okay with it if she didn't work a job where you can expect "pushback". But they spent all that time telling us what a tough cookie she was, then she wilts at the first sign of danger? BS.

The only way the episode could have been more of a sexist mess is if they had managed to squeeze in a trip to a strip club, or if Steve had been sticking singles down Lynn’s ridiculous clothes. Like I said up-thread, if this was the only episode I had ever seen, I would never watch again.

Oh my gosh. That was just awful. I don't know where to begin, except to say that they might as well have named this episode "No Homo" and been done with it. Are the heterosexual fans so fragile that they need episodes filled with these kinds of heavy-handed reassurances? Don't panic, straight people. Steve loves girls! Chin and Grover love football and beating up perps! Every woman, no matter her bad-ass job and bad-ass tough-girl personality, ultimately needs to be rescued by the big strong STRAIGHT-VERY-STRAIGHT Navy SEAL. I'm sure the actress is a very nice lady, but the character of Lynn made no sense whatsoever. Who works with at risk kids and their families, but loses her shit that fast in a crisis situation? Why can't these writers create a female character who isn't used as a dress-up fantasy dolly? Could the camera have spent any more time panning up Lynn's cut-off shorts and down her low-cut tank? And who doesn't wear shortie shorts and spaghetti straps to go hiking in a jungle filled with sharp-edged overgrowth and mosquitoes? It was so condescending and insulting. She's supposed to be some tough girl, a heroic angel who works with at-risk kids, but she's wilting in fear and hyperventilating at the first sign of danger? This episode was an epic cluster-fuddle, filled with every single macho cliché ever. If I tuned into the show at random, and this was the first episode I saw, I would never watch it again.

So agree that it would be very satisfying to see Steve tell Doris off. What an awful person she is! Peter should cross Cath's lame-ass super secret CIA cliché with Doris' s equally delusional CIA fantasy. Maybe they can kill each other in the crossfire if we're super lucky!

Hey Anna0852! I finally got up to the "exploding building" ep. It was great! Thanks for the tip!

Well, Barry, because your opening paragraph was so remarkably condescending and rude, I didn't bother to read the rest of your tl;dr post. Don't bother replying -- you'll be on ignore. You have a nice day, pal.

I saw the Aloha Girls ep! That one was awesome! Didn't realize that the crossover would involve having to track down pt 2. Never saw the second half. Will keep an eye out for the exploding building ep. Thanks for the tips!

Hello - new to the fandom. You all are not a very talkative bunch over here. Hope it picks up when the show is back from hiatus. I wanted to ask long-time fans if there are particular episodes you would recommend for new fans. Episodes you can watch over and over, containing moments which encapsulate the spirit of the show for you? It would also be great to know if there are other episodes which make even the show's most devoted fans roll their eyes and hit the fast-forward button.

"OMG - this fic is so disturbing! I must read the entire thing, all 78 chapters plus derivate one-shots, so I can be completely horrified and outraged!" LOL - I'm not judging. =)

Rants are very therapeutic. I do find it vaguely amusing that other shows have the same problem with one-dimensional, badly-written characters though. Sucky, bad characters abound. Mostly due to producers who are obsessed with their own favorite actress or character. There needs to be a fail-safe on TV shows, where if the producer has their head up too far up someone's ass, and the show is suffering, then this fail-safe kicks in. A suck-o-meter which rates each episode?

I'm becoming a cynic. This isn't a deep-think situation. The producers aren't trying to give fans what they think we want, although when forced to explain themselves I'm sure that's what they all say! These producers are playing out their own fantasies, because they're the boss and they're in charge. I think in Messer's case, she wants to be JJ (but uber-perfect JJ with no flaws), and in the case of the H-5-0 producer, he wants to have sex with the actress who plays Lori. There was a fan on one of the H-5-0 boards who joked the producer has unresolved high school issues concerning cheerleaders or prom queens, I can't remember which. But there's a feel of truth to that! Messer is using JJ as a live Barbie doll for her juvenile fantasies. The other producer is using Lori as a dress-up doll for his unrequited sexual fantasies. As for the thing about sexism, i.e. "if you don't like Perfect Female Character you're a sexist" that's just a cop-out. Those fans who adore or want to be like Perfect Female Character are simply saying the worst thing they can think of to discredit other fans who don't like her. "You don't like Dr. Perfect? Well, you're just jealous she's blonde and pretty and gets all the guys." "You don't like the actress who plays Agent Awesome? Well, you're just jealous because she's a superstar and you're a nobody." Suuuuuuure. It has nothing to do with her taking over the show, being a talentless hack, and having a job by virtue of her face instead of her acting chops. Or that she's portraying a character so unrealistic with lines so impossible that it hurts to watch the actors around her struggle through their lines with a straight face?

New to the H-5-0 fandom! Kinda quiet around here because it's summer and the show is on hiatus, I expect. Just wanted ask if anyone else thinks the writers are using Steve's indestructible superhero persona to poke fun at the uber-macho characters like that, or are they expecting him to be taken at face value? No offense meant. I do like Steve. He's got a certain charm about him. But wow, you can torture him, you can shoot him, you can shove him in the water, you can drop him from planes, you can roll him down mountains, and nothing phases the guy! All props to Alex O' for pulling that off with a straight face. :)

Long rant - sorry! Because I can't no longer stomach what CM has been turned into (the Vomit-Inducing Adventures of Princess Mary Sue Shinyhair), I've been dipping my toes in other fandoms to see if there's anything else out there. Lo and behold! I discovered that Hawaii 5-0 went through the very same problem that CM is experiencing! First season was hunky dory. But second season saw the introduction of a white female character who was the Blonde Bad-Ass Babe Who Can Do No Wrong. This character was universally-hated by the fans, except for the executive producer who had his head up her butt, and the delusional folks who insist that if you hate a poorly-written uber-perfect one-dimensional female character, then you are a sexist pig. Said character was all of 25, but had worked with Homeland Security and the CIA, and was hand-picked by the governor to join the team because she was just that amazing. She was perfect at everything she did, got along immediately with everyone on the team, and knew more about everything than everybody else on the show. They simply could not function without her, to the point that the cast was looking towards this person instead of the team leader to make decisions about what the team would do. The two main male characters competed with each other to garner her attention and adoration. She began to eat up more and more screen-time episode after episode, to the point that the camera was focused directly on her, front and center, if she was in a scene. Half of the four-member cast virtually disappeared so that Little Miss Perfect could be front and center all the time, which is a bleeping injustice when your show is set in Hawaii, and it's the two native Hawaiians who are pushed aside for the white blonde from the Mainland. Well, long story short, Blondie was gone before the end of the season. Not sure if it was a decision made by the suits, or if the fan petitions to kick her ass off actually worked. But it was not before she spent her last episode being the toughest, baddest, boldest, most-awesomest agent evah, to the point that she sacrificed herself to save the bacon of the Special Forces Navy Seal main hero, whom of course she confesses to having had a super secret crush on the whole time she worked with them. She quit the team to save them. Oh how amazing of her! I couldn't help but notice the similarities between this character and JJ, including the preposterous send-off that JJ got in when they fired her the first time. Thought you all would be amused to know. Is it de rigeur that all shows must have the badass blonde babe, and an executive producer who thinks the sun rises and falls off her backside?

So I watched the video in the link from Old Dog. Oh my word. It's even worse than I imagined. So many clichés, so little time. It's like a cartoon version of CM! They should have ended the season with "Mr. Scratch".

That's for sure, that quantity does not equal quality! There's a difference between Reid connecting previous similar cases with the current MO, or the rationale behind a particular type of unsub they've encountered before, versus him talking about eviler twins, or praying mantis female mating habits. When they make him look like an imbecile so that the Golden Gopher can sneer and roll her eyes, that's not quality screen time. I'm horrible with numbers, so thanks a million to qwerty and MCatry for checking into these things! =)

Thanks, MCatry! It's very illuminating when you see the screen time broken down this way! It would be interesting to see comparisons between screen time and ratings for particular episodes. So I have to think the actors have noticed this disparity too. Wonder how that plays? Wonder if it will come up during contract negotiations? Wonder what the boys are doing with their free time? Making indie movies. Writing their memoirs. Doing stomach crunches and bench pressing interns.

Well I think that's because JJ's the one rolling her eyes and smirking like a sassy tween trying to look cool in front of her posse of friends. If Reid treated JJ the dismissive way that she treats him we would never hear the end of it.