Dowel Jones

Rebecca could have had a drop dead beautiful voice, and she still might not have made it at that company. Maybe they were looking for Rod Stewart types for their stable, instead of Joni Mitchell (to use the obvious parallels). But, yeah, there's more than one record label in LA. EMI rejected The Who, and Decca rejected the Beatles. I couldn't help wondering if the actor playing the record exec was thinking "I just kicked Mandy Moore under the bus. My life is over." Or a spider happens to conveniently walk on the desk and the CO clobbers it right in front of Jack. Jack has to be some kind of stupid to walk back to his base, alone, through VC held country. We know he was going to make it, and it gave us a storyline, but, no. He also mentally blocked the memory that, after Squirrel was killed by the IED, an entire squad of VC opened up on his squad, killing half a dozen of his soldiers. In all likelihood, Squirrel was dead the moment they stopped at that clearing. If he blames himself for that death, he's got several others on his conscience. Not that he should; I'm just saying that shit happens in wartime. It would be cool if Jack & Becca took a detour on the way home and stopped in Austin, or even Nashville. Country cameos abound!

In his closing argument Benny mentioned that they had been there a week, so I just handwaved that off, figuring a lot of testimony took place off camera.

Doesn't anyone in television ever watch television? This stuff is BASIC! Everybody knows that the first thing you do to distract the computer guy is to spill something on him.

There's a pretty good article on the subject in Wikipedia. Basically the other services looked at the script and said "This is crap." Even the Marines eventually withdrew their support after the movie was finished.

For a moment I thought the wife was going for the chokehold on Mr. Angry there at the end of the trial. Poor police work (as usual for this show). Nobody else interviewed, no looking at cell phone cameras. The PD should have at least asked her boss for some guidance before the hearing, so she could put it on him because of her inexperience, but I understand most PD's are already overworked, so maybe that was somewhat accurate. I assume the doctor gone rogue plot will be continued, with an assist from TAC, of course. And I assume that there will be at least some investigation into this event, what with all the people in the restaurant that saw him do that.

I liked the overhead camera view of both the US and Turkish delegations facing off on the black and white tiles. Chess, anyone? And as soon as Chen mentioned the Chinese national team earlier, I knew that was going to be the key to the episode. Maybe I missed the explanation, but were there no restaurants, convenience stores, or maybe, say, a pub, open while they were in Shannon? Way to stick it to Russia, Henry.

Not to mention holding back on the tanks until the assault force had actually captured the objective (after getting their asses handed to them on the beach). I thought Gran Colombia had something like 40,000 troops, although scattered all the way from Panama to Mexico. Would losing their top guy really derail the army's plan? I would like to know what was in the bow of the Nathan James, or amidships in the battleship, that would cause such a fireball on impact. At least they gave credit to the USN personnel who supported the series for five years. Not that you could see a name without super slo-mo. Troll, we hardly knew ye. And cared even less. Oh well, show, you were good at times. An hour of excellent diversion.

Given her actions in recent episodes I would hesitate to call her competent. also. She's made some hare-brained decisions.

Inside of the ship's cabin, no less. And, since they were all dropped off by helo, how far out did they have to swim to make it back to the Nathan James, which is presumably out of sight somewhere. All while dragging a dead body, no less. Someone should have told them that the invasion will result in more than enough dead bodies for transport, and they could have left Burke's body hidden on the beach. I think Tavo will be done in by his girlfriend. Just before she does it, he will give an anguished cry of "Porque???" At that point Sasha will enter the room with a case full of makeup, and Concha will say "I had a better offer." Fade to black. Action television has always been populated with people Too Stoopid To Live. Didn't Hector ever see The Godfather?

Note to Rich: A scythe is not a sickle. They are two completely different tools, but I did like his reference to the old Communist Party symbol, which nobody got. How many times did they shoot Scythe on that pier? Again, points to Rich for saying "C'mon, you've seen Cops, you know how it goes." Too bad Rich went with the terrorist plot line to Onstar. If he had said "I've been in a bad accident and I don't know where I am, call the police", at least Onstar would have responded. That's what their commercials say, anyway. ETA: I know this was filmed sometime back, but the reference to the Northern California wildfires of last spring couldn't have come at a worse time.

That's probably correct for most departments in real life. Mine, if I remember correctly (3 years retired), had four decreasing levels. LODD, On Duty but not work related (heart attack at the station, for example), Off Duty, and Retired.

I'm rather curious as to why the assigned Captain can approve or disapprove the return to work of another Captain. That should be farther up the food chain. Loved Vic and Maya suiting up with rapelling gear and ropes, that, apparently, they carry in the aid car, all to drop down about 20' over an embankment. I assume they did get the bleeding stopped given the time it took to run back to the aid car and get the stretcher. I have to confess that I have been paying so little attention to the side plots that the Ryan's Daddy thing completely slipped my mind until they mentioned the poker game from last week. "Oh, that's who that is." That truck must have the loudest diesel engine ever. During their trip back to the station, that's all I could hear on the soundtrack. Don't worry, Vic. Jack will never, ever, ever blab your secret romance to the rest of the station. Slight editing mistake: When Sullivan called the station to lineup, he was shown with a clean collar (no brass). When he walks down the line staring at the crew, he has his collar brass on.

Director: "Okay, for this scene, we're going to have a large iguana crawl up Kristen's neck and perch on her head for the entire scene." Kristen: "Wait, what? Somebody call my agent." Sitting through ten minuets is definitely worth some Good Place points. Throw in a waltz or two. :)

That entire plotline, in my opinion, was simply a device to get Brett face to face with the cute chaplain, so hearts could go pitty patt and launch a new subplot.

Yesssss. And there's always the chance of a volcano or a tsunami...

No doubt his lackey Gorsch was tallying up the expenses to CFD for the funeral, and he'll crawl out one more time with Station 51 in peril, again.

That funeral sequence was spot on. The bell ringing is the traditional 3x3 rings, meaning end of duty, and is used for Line Of Duty Deaths. That did get to me, having attended a few during my career. The accompanying speech is searing if you knew the person. I can also appreciate the absence of personnel during the service, as it would mean taking a lot of apparatus out of service, and, quite honestly, possibly paying a lot of overtime for coverage. I know that sounds cheesy, but that sort of treatment is generally reserved for LODD services, and Benny was a retired BC. There certainly would be some sort of commemoration from the department, at the request of the family. All in all, I thought the show did that part up right. Say, Brett, maybe you can put your investigative skills to work when Casey and Sexy Reporter Gal follow up their next big lead. I'm sure they wouldn't mind you tagging along, as long as you paid for your own dinner.

I was rather hoping the translator was telling the king something like "He says we have some shit for brains expat in our jail, and he would really like to get her out, so the US is willing to give you $600 million dollars in military aid and a free Netflix subscription for life." The king says, "Make it happen."

So the killer was one of the non-local Mayans? If so, was he acting alone or on orders from his club? Or did he join the club sometime afterward, not knowing of the connection? This does not bode well for EZ. Of course, he could just tell Felipe, who would take care of it on the sly without a second's thought. I'm pretty sure that Potter had planned for either EZ or Angel to arrive at the house to kill their target (forgot his name already), and the other agent would then kill him, tidying it up for Potter. They're lucky they didn't get pulled over again in the van. That kid was pretty damn young to be a prospect. Were Devante and Sra. Galindo a couple at some point? She's going to have a lot of bottled up anger against Miguel if so, even if he is her son. I wonder if she'll just swallow it for the rest of her life or act on it some day.

I think the secret not-government government agency was trying some sort of "Philadelphia Experiment" trial 5.5 years ago, and someone pushed the wrong button, and, now that they're back to square one, so to speak, they're trying to both figure out what went wrong and cover their tracks. Hence the experiments. Who is going to pay for that $200 tire with a hole in the sidewall? Somebody's going to be doing some paperwork.

As a firefighter (retired), I watch fire shows to see if they get at least some of the action correctly, and to laugh when they don't. And I watch to see who is going to be having sex. Just as I am sure that attorneys watch legal shows to see if they get some of the action correctly, and laugh when they don't. And watch to see who is going to have sex. And everyone else just wants to see who is going to have sex.

Add to that the one particularly irritating moment when Benny had the temerity to loudly object that the ADA was testifying and not actually asking questions. The writers must have been laughing when they wrote that scene.

Now, unlike Jason, all I see is a horse's face. I see a 2-3-7-10 split and somebody is buying beer after this game.

Not to mention that an astute competitor candidate might have his staff look up the family voting records and make an issue out of her non-voting during the campaign.

This is a department that was considering promoting either Andy or her squeeze Ryan to the Captain level. Nuff said.