Dowel Jones

Well, that was certainly an interesting ending to the case. Usually they have Bull creating a happy ending in a Hallmark Movie kind of way. Nope, this time the boxer is sold to the devil, as he said. It didn't seem to register on his face that he was now living on borrowed time and there's nothing he can do about it. I hope part of the deal was for the DA to go after the neighbor for perjury. Please shave, Bull. Kyle, in addition to picking the wrong woman to wrong, you went to the wrong country. China is not going to look kindly upon your presence, particularly if you are suspected of something more heinous than shoplifting.

The only thing that got my attention was Henry's classroom with an actual blackboard, instead of a dryboard. A little out of date. As for the rest, I thought the plotline about saving the permafrost was just dumb.

My theory is that the bones belong to the continuity editor for the show. That would explain a lot. Garvey must be quite the operator with that size of a gang. I counted 8 dead at the farmhouse, plus a couple in the barn, and he still had three or four left to hang out at Liz's house. And they were all incompetent.

Does their dog hear them? Apparently not.

Bess must have strong fingers (and tastebuds) to take a bear claw directly out of the microwave. I kind of wonder if Henry's assistant is showing up too much as a possible traitor to throw attention away from Dmitri. That was a pretty heavy anvil that Henry dropped at the meeting when he said "someone is feeding information to the Russians" with both of them in the room. Is Dmitri clever enough to play the long con with the drug treatment and all? And now the "accidental" meeting with Stevie outside the house. And Henry. $100,000,000 to a terrorist group, knocked down to the bargain price of $50,000,000? Where's your head? Cynically speaking, is the life of one agent worth the lives of potentially hundreds or thousands of US dead in the future because the Taliban now have a huge resource of money to work with? So let me get this straight. Pakistan has an agent in an Indian prison. Pakistan will help with the Taliban if India will release their agent. India will release their agent if they get cheap solar panels from Israel, which undercuts China. Might we expect some reaction in a future episode from the Chinese prime minister in one of his teleconference calls with Bess?

Not yet. The highest number so far is Mr. Kaplan at #4. Yes, I've been keeping a list. Call me obsessive. The irony is that I don't even remember half of those people.

I'm not sure why the writers even put this episode out there, unless it was more to showcase the Marissa sideshow. That was the worst defense closing ever. When your client says "I did it" in open court, you can't really expect a not guilty verdict on the basis of "this is why I did it." That was just poor writing. She might be able to argue that before the Board of Education, but even so, to what end? She is now branded as the teacher who changed a grade, and every test she supervises is now suspect. She's not going to end up "fine". And the lesson she just imparted to her students is that's it's okay to cheat if the outcome is good. How many other students in that class will get to retake the test? I just did not like the direction of this episode.

Pro tip (for smugglers everywhere): When you're accosted by heavily armed police wearing body armor, it's not a good idea to start a gunfight with just a pistol.

I wonder how the producer phrased the request to the wardrobe department. "I want you to create an ugly dress. And I mean an ugly dress." Or, conversely, some designer got the contract and really thinks that it was a cool design, and is currently bragging about it somewhere. Okay, I see the need for a mole for draaaaaama (and an episode arc), but didn't the Kabul ambassador confirm that the emails gave the location of the safe house? However, I did like the way that Henry interrupted him as soon as he saw Julia in the photo. Forget the stupid vaccines, get to the point! I halfway expected Henry to find out that Julia was banging that guy too. Pardon my obtuseness, but when your high level Cabinet boss is arguing with a foreign President, is it the smartest thing to butt into the discussion with your own comments? That could have gone so wrong. Is Senator Asshole privy to any of this information? I wouldn't put it past the writers to throw him under the bus so they can get rid of him.

I think the admin lady knew that the public affairs chief had name-requested someone else, and it was probably a surprise in that office when Stella's transfer request came through.

8) If nothing else is going on, it's always fun to count the number of turns the actors make while walking down the endless corridors.

Mac and his daughter meet her accidentally, tell her that they have a bar and need a new bartender, 'cause they're reopening soon under new management. Surprise!

I had to stop for a moment and think about your post. Then I remembered, oh, that's right, they actually had a fire call early in the episode. The whole hour just basically slipped from my mind as soon as it was done. Mac's daughter made the comment about "one bad loan and it was over". Red flag, guys! Can you say loan shark, hiding in the shadows? Look on the bright side of Daddy Gabby getting stabbed. He will definitely be in intensive care if he survives, and maybe Gabby will have to take a season off to care for him. Although I, for one, would be on Hope's side 110% if she had forged a transfer for Gabby.

Maybe he found a leftover time machine from another show.

I think the hapless Captain said that he had put some demolition charges on the VDR, or DVR, or VCR, whatever it was called, and he was waiting for the timer to count down. Which makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Was the entire ship going to go up in a huge FX explosion? If not, find a relatively safe spot on the deck and wait it out, and get out by helicopter. Jeez. Also, once it was determined the ship could not be saved, would it not be USN policy to immediately destroy all secret technology? I liked Kiefer's comment that "I have to make some phone calls." Touche'. Is there an FBI still in existence? Maybe they could help with the ongoing FBI investigation.

As angry as his son appeared in the last scene, he could be one of the suspects too.

Definitely do that. My comment was a reference to the current episode, and will become clearer after you watch it.

I had this mental image of Raymond Reddington watching this episode, and thinking to himself "Aha! I have just discovered the perfect way to transfer money secretly across the globe. As soon as I can find Roman to do some of those biolescence (sp?) tattoos, I can send my courier anywhere without suspicion. All my counterpart needs is the key to hold up to the courier's neck and there is all the information they need."

I rather disagree on that one point. It's not, or at least it shouldn't be, her job to mediate political disputes. Yes, on this show the end often justifies the means, but what if Russell and the President had agreed on that strategy without her knowledge? The Senator then sees a serious riff between the two. I think Russell was right when he said "Stay in your lane." Not that I don't think the bit of political pressure that was applied to the Senator wasn't justified, but if it was to be used in that manner, it should have been by someone else in the administration. When Stevie said "I'll see you next week. We'll talk", I was waiting to hear Jareth reply "I think we just did."

President Bauer: (on telephone). "Chloe, get me a cross reference between all the hockey fans who voted for the Senator and everyone who supports the insurance bill. Now."

Show of hands here: How many of you are going to a Halloween party as a cast member? Bone up on your knowledge base of everything if you intend to be Janet. Or at least have a good line of bullshirt down.

Or, as Michael said, they're just naive suckers who think that, since it's the Good Place, everyone there is good, by definition, and therefore they don't need any security. How many thieves are running around in the Christian Heaven (besides Barabbas)? I have to admit that, when Vicky brought forth her idea of Chidi and needles, I was thinking that they would plant him in Needles, CA, in the middle of summer. I've been there.

I will say this about the doctor interaction, though. The two medics were right in dissuading him from assisting them, although Gabby was all wrong about it. Anyone can say they're a doctor, but it doesn't mean that they are. He could be some kind of specialist in tropical insects, or maybe even a history professor who wants to be called Doctor. They have to rely on their own protocols.

Otis claimed 9 million yen, which comes out to about $73,000 dollars US. Not too likely on a firefighter salary. When that box arrived, the first thing I thought of was those old Bugs Bunny cartoons about the Tasmanian Devil. Alright, so now we know that Hope is eeeevil. Can we get on with some real stories now? I agree 100% about the paper checks. Years ago, before DD became available for everyone in our department, I received a paper check in the mail. Without looking, I endorsed and deposited it. The bank apparently never looked at it either, because it was actually someone else's check that had been misplaced in the envelope. It took about two months for the AA to track it down, after which they called me to refund the money, which, of course, I promptly did. Sorry about that, dude, if you're reading this. Gabby and her snotty comments on the pregnant woman incident. Shut up, Gabby. Look up the definition of the word professionalism before next shift, please. Even if the MD was rather intrusive, that's not an excuse for your conduct. I did like Boden's comment to Casey about "We have a problem, Captain?" Yeah, that is why the overhead usually start out at a different station. Casey was right in that the Captain has overall authority at a scene (unless preempted by a BC), but Severide made a good point about delegation of authority. Casey has some stuff to learn. One thing puzzled me at the end scene. The firehouse crew is going off shift in the morning (Casey and Gabby going to breakfast), but when Brett goes in to confront Hope, she is shutting down her computer and the office is empty. Admin personnel work 8-5 or so, not 24's, or did the writers just have a brainfart?

I am rather hoping that the Senator was playing a long con on the President, and got him to reveal that the White House was possibly planning to blackmail him to sway his vote. He could then go public with his own confession, turn around and stick it to Kirkman and Company.