Dowel Jones

All of that might be true about the FBI, but, hey, the head guy did pay for everyone's drinks over at Molly's. That makes it all good. If I were Hermann, I would have bumped the beer prices up 50% to pad the account.

Dolce hooked up with the living statue guy and makes a living on the central plaza. He/she scares the pants off of tourists who lean down too close to see if it's a real dog.

I would have liked to have seen some references to real life incidents such as Hansen or Ames (even if they had to make it fictional to correct for time periods), and even some notice given to high profile defections from the Russian side. The reason for this being that it would create the air of ever closer entrapment and give the show some real paranoia plotlines.

For a show that thrives on absurd plotlines, this one had to be a gold medal contender. So many WTF moments. The best part was the shootout in the hallway, with both groups of FBI agents shooting in each other's direction. What could possibly go wrong? Hannah Wells would not approve. And, any of that residual trust and good will that the locals have for CFD? Bye. One thing continues to puzzle me (okay, one of the things...). Do they work 8 hour shifts at 51, or 24 hour shifts? If they work 24s, then, by observation, the entire stationhouse is down at Molly's the night before they go back on shift. And that seems to happen every shift, even if the FBI isn't buying the drinks.

When the FBI takes over the firehouse for an undercover mission, Casey and Severide volunteer to assist with the investigation. Kidd attempts to help Severide come to terms with recent developments he's been managing.

Maybe he hacked into the salary database and promoted himself to GS-15. Can the US revoke diplomatic credentials and then arrest an individual? I was rather irritated at the WH staff's maneuvering to explain "Well, the guy we thought put the bomb plan in action wasn't the real guy, but he did some nasty stuff too, so we're good with bombing the shit out of his country, hospitals included, as long as a candidate more acceptable to our nation is installed."

Back in the late 60s, James Coburn did a set of three spy movie spoofs. The first was called The President's Analyst, of which he was the title character. He got mixed up in a continuing battle between the CIA and the KGB, which was organized by an uber-spy agency known as TPC. At the end of the movie, TPC was revealed as....The Phone Company (spying on everyone).

I didn't understand how the other ff was able to get close enough to the car to pour absorbent material on the gasoline without getting shocked, but what the hey. I did enjoy the long conversation between Jack and the driver in the truck, with Jack dropping the anvil without even realizing what the conversation was about. And, yeah, one of you two has to go. Just 'cause you broke up doesn't mean there won't be any lingering problems when the promotion comes. I notice that Shondaland Fire Department has specialized patches that say "Station 19" instead of Seattle Fire Department. Does every station have its own or just these guys?

Right after she takes care of one or two of the arms negotiators, and the financial guy at the prep school (after he signs the papers restructuring the tuition), and maybe even the kid at the deli who mispronounced pirozhki. Renee doesn't work for the USSR, or the FBI. She works for TPC (if you're old like me and remember that reference).

Yup, you're right. Must have been the Aurora Borealis that got me turned around.

She did mention Agnes indirectly somewhere in the episode, and there was a quick shot of someone walking a dog past Pete's Tavern when Liz went inside. Does that count? How can they fire so many bullets within a cathedral and not hit one of the stained glass windows? And, any bets that the woman will look at those diamonds and say "Screw the Church...." Ah, the good old, two person stakeout in the cemetery. They were soooooo inconspicuous. At least Dembe got some lines this week. And some walnuts. A sister from a different Mister.

On that note, I have absolutely no idea on how they would provision a ship for a minimum of two years travel, or five years if rationed (as was said at the London meeting). How do you figure that out? It's also interesting to decipher the Royal Navy idioms used in the episodes. I found out that "six-water", used in reference to the punishments meted out to the men, is dilution of the daily ration of rum by six parts water instead of the usual three. While it may seem that flogging the men was unmerited, in this case it might have been. The ships were not on a simple geographic mission anymore. They were essentially at war (enemy unknown, of course), and desertion of a post for any reason might have terrible consequences. For instance, Bowe Bergdahl in Iraq. Using it simply as a means of reinforcing discipline, however, would be counter-productive, as William Bligh found out in the next century. Winston Churchill's famous quote about remaking the Royal Navy is apt. "150 years of tradition, consisting of rum, sodomy, and the lash."

I had the fleeting impression, during the underground meeting with Chase and the crooks, that they were from the local Mafia and they wanted nothing to do with the kidnapping, just for self security issues. Maybe the restaurant owner then moved on the 'Ndrangheta for the actual kidnapping. Reading the Wiki article on it, I had no idea that Balthazar Getty of Brothers and Sisters fame was JP3's son.

I'm terrible, because I let out a laugh when Judge Sewall got killed by the conveniently runaway wagon. Talk about a deux ex machina. The suddenness of it was just too perfect. If it hadn't been the wagon, it would have been a meteorite, or maybe even a herd of mutant zebras from Zoo. And David Rittenhouse would be on the $100 bill. And, from the extremely shallow end of the pool, even the evilest of evil evildoers can rock a turtleneck sweater when she wants to.

I hope they return to Sutherland & Co. soon, as this crowd just seemed to me to be part of one of those impenetrable Italian art house movies. The restaurant owner's partner must have watched too much American tv (snark), because he immediately went for the standard tv trope of driving straight down the narrow road while someone is shooting at you. If I had been in his shoes, as soon as the other guy took a bullet I would have been zig zagging through that flower field and doing anything I could to stir up dust or something. And then bail out of that car.

As any Deadhead will exclaim, the Grateful Dead popularized a song called Jack-a-Roe, which dealt with this subject. According to Wikipedia, some versions of the song date back to 1830-ish, which kind of implies that the practice was well known enough for someone to come up with a song.

My all time favorite was a hazmat training video, which showed a long ago incident where the rural fire chief walks up to a leaking tank car, dips his fingers into a puddle of killusol or whatever it was, smells the liquid, and then touches his tongue to his fingers to try and determine what it was.

They could avoid future problems by just putting Gabby on the selection board for personnel transferring into the station. Hermann: "This guy looks good. Three years on the job, Truck experience, hazmat certification. Gabby, did you bone this guy before you married Casey?" Gabby: "Let me see the photo. Uh, no, not that one."

I had to stifle a laugh when Kirkman, in his post-explosion appearance, rather glossed over the fact that it was a nuclear dirty bomb in the subway by saying "The Metro station will be closed for the foreseeable future". As in, decades, maybe? And don't forget the fact that there's stations on either side of Metro that will be impacted because you can't just run the subway through the hot zone and stop on the other side. All of which should lead the press, if they're doing their job (rather doubtful on the show so far), to raise the question, in no uncertain terms, as to why no one thought to examine the possibility of a decoy. The answer being, of course, is "Our only FBI agent was otherwise occupied."

Heh. No more so than crawling into a smoke filled structure without a charged hoseline, taking your SCBA off inside the house, failure to check for fire extension, or any of the myriad of other items that are required for tv drama. The hose stream looks like they have about 20-30 psi on the nozzle. At least let the actors handle a properly charged hose line (70-80 psi) just for the effect. They'd probably like it. So Captain Daddy busted both of them. This should be good. When that car ran over the 5" supply line, it should have jumped about a foot in the air. When it's charged, supply line is just like an iron pipe. Exploding wine bottles?

As far as I know, non-emergency medical transports can require insurance or some means of payment before picking up a patient. However, if you're on the list for emergency response, you pick up the patient, transport, and bill them. If they don't have the means to pay, it goes to Medicare and the ambo company takes what it can get. One company pulled out of my city because of the low reimbursement from Medicare.

Ah, good old barroom conversations. Nothing like them to test a relationship. What station was it that had the roach infestation? Station 19? A bit coincidental, just maybe? I don't think the CFD would have been liable in the child custody incident, would they? Unless I missed something, there was no negligence involved in returning the boy to one of his parents, since the custody status wasn't known. It's my understanding that most of the time in real life, EMTs and medics would like to get picked up by an FD. The pay is hugely better than the private sector, and so is the insurance. In fact, there's usually battles between private services and FDs over who can provide the appropriate level of service to a community (coughAMRcough). I can't imagine Gabby ever getting on a private ride, and not being able to boss around supervisors and switch jobs on a whim. And, of course, it gave the 51 crew a chance to be heroes during the worst snowball fight in Chicago. Yeah, jump right in front of an armed gangbanger and shout "Stop shooting." That works. Kudos to the posters who called Otis being the Man of Miraculous Recoveries.

Boden has a lapse in judgment in the aftermath of rescuing a young boy. Kidd struggles to win the approval of Severide's mom after a surprise visit and Otis takes on new responsibilities at the firehouse.

At least she didn't yell in Red's face "This time I AM done with you."

Well, Tom, you ain't no chess player. Even I, a rank amateur, saw that four move checkmate coming, even at the horizontal angle. It's one that every player learns right off the bat. King's pawn up (don't remember the correct terminology), King's bishop out to the correct angle to back up the Queen, Queen out in front of the King, and then Queen takes King's pawn on the other side. Game over. It's also very easy to stop. Poor Forrestal, indeed. Never apologize, dude. It's always the last step before getting sacrificed on television. I have to say, though, things aren't looking good for the investigative quals of this Bureau of Investigation. First, the only two agents in the FBI are standing within 100' of a possible dirty bomb that will spread nuclear waste (not, nukyuler, dammit! Pet peeve) throughout the area. Then, they blithely walk up to the van after it has supposedly been disarmed, without knowing how much radiation there is left. And, finally, not one of them (audience excepted) says, "Wait a minute. Maybe it's a decoy?" I'm glad they referenced the shaky ground that they were working on to get a case built up against Moss. Things are not looking good for the Kirkland White House. Time for a distraction. Push the button, Frank! Let's show Longgonistan just who is the big dog in the yard. We'll make up the evidence later. Of course, the US isn't the only country in the world with allies. Oops.