Dowel Jones

Particularly since several pieces have been found scattered throughout the region.

If Randall was just a bit more astute, he would have realized that it would be far more effective to find out what people in that area wanted for their families, friends, and neighborhood. Then maybe support them and get them pointed in a direction to work on those goals as a community, so they have some ownership. By running for election he makes the problems and solutions all about him, and the residents are secondary (not that this doesn't happen in real life elections). As it is, the councilman, instead of dealing with local citizens, has Randall as a lightning rod without any support.

OA came off this week as having a serious stick up his butt. "Everything the government does is legitimate. There is no need to question authority. Obey and forget."

Of course there were. Who do you think did the backroom negotiations for the Paris Peace Accords?

"Jeff?! This is SO not the right time!"

I did like his befuddled question "How do you pick up something with a rake?"

Note to Henry: Any IT person worth their salt could access your profile and create a password, and then delete the profile.

I may have to lay a hedge bet off on Team Colombia here. The guys at SouthCom seem to have a collective IQ in the high double digits. Did the US lose very single warplane and pilot/crew over the past year? Attacking that fortified position with just a few lightly armed troops was just plain stupid. Bomb or shell the shit out of the place before you storm it. They could have sent a few heavy mortars and shells in that parachute package, and that would have changed the game considerably. Ensign Cyber needs to be a bit more reactive, instead of staring at the video playback and muttering "Oh, shit." Since the NJ has a helicopter, why not send it up on a recon mission? They don't have to fly right over the battleship to ID it; as long as they can get a visual from 20-30 miles away they'll know where it is. From the map squiggles it looks like the NJ and the battleship are north and south of Cuba, and they're never going to see each other that way. By the way, the Canadians called; they want their Camp X name back.

That's the Code Black treatment, in which a major US city (in that case LA) apparently has only one trauma center that receives virtually every single major trauma or difficult medical case in the city. To use the mnemonic, it's the Only Surgical Hospital In Town.

Or maybe even comedy...

I would love it if they took Gorsch's brother in law that lost out on the LT job and transferred him into 51 as a truckie firefighter. Take that, Boden!

Not a chance. As you pointed out, he knows what he is doing, and is quite competent at taking command. He'll never mesh with all the drama kings and queens at 19. (/snark) I'm a bit confused about the process of the hoarder rescue. What did Herrera touch that knocked her off her feet. Was she stunned for the rest of the call that she couldn't do anything except crawl around? I had to laugh when former doctor, now firefighter diagnoses a cardiac tamponade based solely on Herrera's brief observations, and in turn, tells her how to do this very complex and life-threatening procedure to relieve the pressure on the heart. But, this sort of thing happens everyday in Shondaland. To me, it would have made more sense to clear away stuff from the doorway after making entry, or at least remove the door completely, so they could extricate the patient that much easier. And tie a rope to the wraparound stretcher to the crew outside could assist in pulling her out. Outside of the bonding experience for the brothers on the ride along, I thought his day was pretty much wasted as a training experience. What the FD and PD need to do is train together in groups, so that each knows what the other's duties are and how to effectively communicate in various situations. And then pass that training on within the firehouse or squad rooms.

You mean "relaciones?"

I think I would, in a way. I would alert the media and schedule a press conference in front of the company headquarters, and very publicly "present" one of those giant cardboard checks for $500,000 to the company (in absentia, likely). It would be even better if you could line up some other payee's, too.

A couple of random observation, now that I finally watched the episode. The news film posted earlier showed the actual method of the lottery. The birthday and the number were both selected at the same time, so you might not know your actual number until late in the selection. That's what I remember as a 17 year old in 1971 (I drew 315 next year, I think). I realize the show had to compress the process by assigning a number to a sequential date for dramatic purposes. Nick was assigned to the Americal Division (from the return address on the envelope, which, by the way, had way too much information on for a war zone). That revived a memory for me so I Wiki-researched it, and I was correct. The Division was based in Chu Lai, and a small part of the Division committed the massacre at My Lai in 1969. That's not to say that Nick participated; it's just what the Division was known for at the time. The Wiki article also lists various personnel of note who served in the Division: Tim O'Brien, who has been mentioned already, Norman Schwarzkopf, and future Pittsburg Steeler Rocky Bleier. I noted with some irony the delivery of a Sears home catalogue early in the episode. RIP, Sears.

I hope Agent Bell went to every single family member of each victim that Cole had murdered, and listened to their story about their victim. I'm certainly not the bloodthirsty revenge hound, but she seemed to have way too much sympathy for Cole after they killed him.

I can go with the premise offered up that, logistically, filming would be prolonged if they had to dry out the set each time, but, yeah, I would love to see the actors actually hit some fire with 80psi on an 1 3/4" hose. Just for a few moments, so the audience could see how it's done. The actors would probably love it, too. For at least one take, anyway. Another thing that I thought of. T81 responds to the explosion incident in the park, and Casey and Kidd get out wearing just uni shirts and turnout pants, and then go searching around the scene willy nilly. Ever hear of the secondary explosion potential? You didn't know it was an accident at the time, but here you all are, milling around the scene even after a grenade has been identified as the device.

Mouch was wrong about the purpose of Dalmations on the hose wagons. It was so the crew could find the closest fire hydrant (Old firefighter joke). Hermann showed that he knows a bit about engine work already. They actually put some water on the fire. And yes, dumbass firefighter Barnes, you fill up your tank before you leave the hydrant. I realize they wrote that guy to be intentionally irritable, but any company officer worth his salt would have bitten his head off and handed it back to him before it ever got to the transfer situation. And to that end, you don't hand off your problem children to another station; that just gets you a bad rap in the department. That guy was well set for written reprimands and corrective discipline. And the rest of you guys on the engine - tuck in your shirts; look professional. Looks like we have a Gabby in training on the ambo now. Won't be too long before they're driving all over the city, chasing down leads and saving the world. Way to almost plow into those cars on the first run, Truck 81. You did have a stop sign on your street, if you didn't see it. My department had a strict policy of "Do not enter an intersection any faster than you can stop." They also considered the engine driver to be at fault until proven otherwise.

I'm also curious how an air drop of a large box, which went out directly after the para teams, ended up miles away from where they landed. Even without the shootdown of the cargo plane, that would have happened. Poor logistical planning.

Russia may not have had such an easy time of creating the rumor that the US was behind the killing of the Polish MP, if the FBI had not been tasked with kidnapping him in the first place. True, it was secret, but someone in the Polish government likely knew something about it and possibly talked. While on that subject, what was Conrad thinking with his "Let's go in and kidnap a member of a foreign government and bring him back to the US (or a black site) for interrogation"? Are those rules reciprocal? Do other countries have the express right to grab members of Congress or the administration and take them to another country for interrogation on what they believe was a terrorist attack from the US on their own soil? Russell sure was blunt in his eulogy at the church. Throw them darts! It also surprised me when he met Henry with the question "Is Bess home?" You ought to know what the SoS itinerary is by now. Or maybe that was just an opening for them to start their conversation. Dumb kid was the worst terrorist ever. He buys up two pressure cookers at one place and is blunt to the store clerk about it. Yeah, that wouldn't attract attention.

I don't think that verdict or amount would stand up to appeal for one minute. For one thing, the plaintiff introduced evidence without giving the defense any time to look at it. In court, he didn't even introduce it as evidence, another blunder. And the jury never even saw it. The jury might be swayed by Benny's speechifying and pontificating, but an appeal court would bounce that right out the door.

I always wonder why people stand in line, waiting to be executed. There's all of them, and one guy with a pistol. What do you have to lose? Sasha really laid one on Chandler at the end, there. It's good to be the king. CyberEnsign was looking really upset that Team Tavo hoodwinked him. Is he hiding something? And did that battleship really hit a fast moving aircraft with a naval artillery round? My DVR cut out just as Kelsi was answering her phone. What happened, if anything? I knew she had been tracked.

"Knee-deep, knee-deep, knee-deep"

Nah, they're going to go the cheap route. All the fires will happen on Hermann's days off, so the usual crowd will traipse into Molly's after shift and regale Hermann (behind the bar) of the day's exploits.

"$18,000? Oh, better luck next time." Speaking of which, the California Lottery is sitting at $548 million. Help, Janet!!