Dowel Jones

It would be just like Kevin to return to the playhouse, wave off the problem, and say something like "No big deal, we'll just make tomorrow our opening night." Since they went all in with Jack, I wonder if making him look like the Robert de Niro character in Heat was intentional? It sure made him look much more sinister to me.

There's an idea. Hold a CIA sign up to a mirror, and you get AIC. Sort of.

It took me awhile, but I finally figured out the secret behind this week's episode. It was about misdirection. "They" had us sitting there for an entire hour (minus the commercials, 47 minutes), thinking there a was a coherent plot, and I, for one, fell for it. Who knows what "they" accomplished in that hour. Seriously, once again, you send trainees into a high security area with the admonition that, if you fail the first time, you're out of the CIA? And it only took one day of pickpocket training to become experts. The only thing they had going for them was that the NSA building had equally incompetent people working in it.

Does Stand Your Ground apply when you aren't old enough to stand yet?

The entire sequence with Tess and the bomb van didn't make sense. Anyone on the FBI should have been able to see that the detonator was not a deadman switch, and one head shot from behind would have taken her down before she could press the button. But she gets out of the van and stands there challenging Weller and the rest of them, threatening to blow them up, which would have been what she was going to do anyway. Now she goes down for murder and all the conspiracy adjuncts. Jane didn't fight, wrestle, or kick box once this episode. Not once.

On a side note, I'm glad that for once tv showed the files being copied at normal speed, instead of that ridiculous 30%-40%-50% screen that we always see.

The capture of Isabella would definitely give it some contest. The Marshals in the lead van didn't see the spike strip in the road? Come on.

Most EMS agencies operate under protocols that require medics to get the authorization of the hospital to stop lifesaving work, unless the patient is undeniably dead, i.e., decapitation or other fatal injury, rigor mortis, etc. The medics/firefighters have the option of not starting CPR, as happened on one run I was involved in (and believe me, I was second guessing myself a lot), but once started, BLS and ALS have to be continued until a doctor says no. The EKG can be transmitted to the hospital to facilitate a decision. However, Chicago Fire apparently operates on the Gabby Protocols, so anything could happen.

Of all the clowns in this week's car, the one somewhat lustrous moment, in my opinion, belonged to the usually fingernails-on-the-chalkboard personality of Abby, when she went into the Oval Office to confront Fitz. She laid into him and he responded with "Watch yourself, Abby", to which she responded with "You're being played, Mr. President." Properly underpinned with a tone of "Go ahead and fire me. You don't have enough Ajax to clean your collar, dicknose." (Sorry, Carrie Underwood)

Any other time in his career, that would be correct. However, he is shown being pressured more and more from outside the job, plus increasing pressure inside the workplace. My point was that the dinner could have been the breaking point for him, with some consequences from his boss. It may still happen. I tend to go with the simplest explanation for the front door scenes. In tvland, pretty much all interior doors look the same to the audience. If he were shown going through a house to garage door, it might not be so obvious that he was leaving, despite a real life scenario. An easily identifiable front door is a good plot device to show the audience that he is leaving the house.

Is Olivia a practicing attorney? If so, maybe she will be his defender in court. Ha.

Can someone explain how a VP-elect can somehow evade round the clock Secret Service protection to meet someone in a dark park? Like Fitz, like Cyrus.

I seriously thought at the time that Leanne's last scene in the gingerbread house with all the flowers and the Arms of An Angel soundtrack were implying that she actually died, as did Ariel, and they were both in some "Good Place" (to steal a show). Once again, Angels Memorial desperately needs some funding to redo their entire Emergency Department. Plastic Strips hanging down to block off an infectious area? How about some actual doors that lock? By the way, I hope the HVAC wasn't turned on. Nothing like spreading germs throughout the hospital. And the pointless yellow suits, which did absolutely nothing to protect the wearers. And then, send two of your doctors out on a scavenger hunt. Sorry, the tension of the episode was just so reduced for me by the myriad mistakes in infection control that were shown. There is a difference between vaccine and antidote, right? The two terms were used interchangeably, but I'm pretty sure a vaccine is a preventative, and will not cure a disease once infection has set in. Dr. Campbell could have explained to the daughter of the heart transplant failure that an aortic rupture would be fatal anyway, and a new heart would not be of use when the main vessel is already broken.

It would have been much funnier, even if unintentional, to name the company The Limpet Seafood Company.

And what to do when things go wrong.

When the detective is showing Casey mug shots for identification and Casey immediately pointed to one with a bald head, I immediately said "That's Capp, you idiot!"

In an odd way, Beth's "marriage call" may have saved Randall some serious grief. If he had gone to the dinner with the client and Sanjay, I'll lay odds that Sanjay would have needled him relentlessly in order to make himself look better to the client. Randall might then overreact, as he is primed to do already, which of course would get back to the boss. Bad news on the doorstep.

I was being rather facetious there; a a move more obvious to myself, perhaps. I was thinking of the usual progression of good guy with big gun always wins in a gunfight. Oh well. And that was my other point. The M1911, as likely other models of semi-auto pistols, would not have been out of place in 1927. I am not an expert on armaments, and unwilling to do the research, so I will leave it at that.

Can anyone tell me when the real Chicago Fire is going to air? This episode lasted an entire hour without Gabby doing anything heroic, outlandish, or even significant. They gave Sylvie and actual storyline, for Pete's sake! I laughed at the structure assessment when they got on scene. "No fire, just smoke". Uh, guys? Something I remember about smoke and fire. What was it? But hey, they finally showed some water being pumped through a hoseline. Note to Casey: We know you want to do the ring thing right, but, as a PR move, it's a really bad idea to buy alcohol with your uniform jacket on. I thought the Springfield chief's ankle thing was going to go somewhere, but the whole charade was to present Severide with a life-changing choice. Don't do it, Kelly. There's a nuclear power plant just outside town with this guy named Homer in charge of safety. And the rest of the town has been exposed to that plant for way too long also, if you ask me.

Best moment of the episode: The last scene (I didn't mean it that way), in which Alex takes on the role of schoolmarm in the office with all the hostages. "Alright, everyone, I want you to form three lines and exit the building". Billy, get in line. What did I just say? Cheez, lady. I would have been through those doors by the time she finished that sentence.

He really screwed up. An M1911 Colt Automatic, for obvious reasons, would have been perfectly at home in 1927, and he would probably have won the gunfight.

That would definitely put Angels Memorial in Code Black.

Speaking of the apartment, I thought, from the way the original kidnapping took place, that her neighbor's apartment was directly across the hallway from Olivia's, which is what made it so easy to pull her body into the other apartment. However, this episode showed them exiting from Olivia's room directly into the elevator (which is a poor layout for a luxury apartment, but that's another post). Am I remembering correctly?

Tom will be going undercover as a homeless guy living off of whatever bottles and cans he can collect. Hence the title, Blacklist: Redemption.

Completely off topic here, but I was watching The Great Escape and decided to read a bit in Wiki about it. One of the articles stated that the captured officers were paid a certain amount in camp scrip that could be used to buy certain goods from the Germans. What floored me was that the Royal Army deducted that amount from their regular paycheck. Returning to our weekly dose of confusion now... If there is anything an agency can do to create dissension within its ranks and make its employees vulnerable to external bribery, it is to create an obvious pay differential. Happens all the time. That armored car driver gets the (short) lifetime award for dumbest guy on the block. I didn't understand why Natalie, while in the hazmat vehicle, didn't just cough or spit on her abductors. Game over. It worked with the other armored car guy. The FBI was really on top of it there, too. "The hazmat team is on the way." "No, it just left." "No, it's on the way." "No, it just left" Cue the lightbulb.