Rambler

I have to question the competency of this new tech officer that they have. Doesn't she know about the super-duper software that all the law enforcement agencies use that allows you to pull crystal clear images from any video cam no matter how blurry or distant the suspect is? Then all she needs to do is say "Let me run this through facial rec", push a button, and then ten seconds later you have the suspect identified. I see this technology used on all the other cop shows in existence so I know it must exist.

I guess they ask the question to see how realistic the concept being presented is. If you are going to seat more people, you can get away with having lower margin items on the menu, but at the same time you can't have a complex dish that will take a lot of time to prepare. That is probably why they dinged Leanne for having too many items in her bowl. Looking at the chefs who are on each team from next week's preview, if Team Gregory manages to pull out a win its going to be the biggest upset since Team USA beat the Russians in hockey.

Keep in mind that it isn't Eric's fault if he sounded condescending here. I have zero doubts that both Melissa and Eric where asked in their interviews with the producers to explain what each of their dishes were, but it was the editors decision to air Eric's explanation and not Melissa's.

Well that was a bit of a train wreck. The writing was so bad that I couldn't figure out if there was an actual FBI mole that NCIS just gave up trying to find, or lady FBI agent was so horrifically bad at her job that she let her protectee be followed everywhere she went. No mole found plus firefighters solving the arson means that the vast majority of this episode amounted to absolutely nothing. Listening to Deeks giving Eric relationship advice was more painful than fingernails on a chalkboard. Sam and the insurance lady have less than zero chemistry. There is better dialog in your average porn video than occurred in the final scene here. Or so I've heard. They usually have a big shootout at the end to distract from the bad plotting but there wasn't even that this time. Also the scene with Kensi and Fatima watching the FBI agent pump milk was udderly ridiculous.

Lee Anne last week in the stew room: "I really need to edit myself". This week Malarkey is like "Lee Anne is buying up the whole market." Nice job editing there. She seems to be turning into Lisa 2.0 – always on the bottom but there is that one chef that did just a wee bit worse so she skates by another week.

Leanne is having trouble finishing her plates so she asks Jen to help her finish up (kudos to Jen for helping her out btw). Meanwhile Jamie is also having trouble finishing his plates, so why wouldn't he ask someone to help him finish? That seems kinda dumb. Maybe it ties back to the conversation between Nini, Stephanie and Karen where it seems the women will have each other's backs and the men are seemingly gonna fly solo. Anyways Jamie's sacrifice is much appreciated because at least we got to see the look of horror on Ludo's face when he found out that there would be no Jus. It must have really bummed Ludo out too because he had a look of disgust plastered on his face even when they were talking about the other plates in the group.

It was awfully nice of the bomber to put blinking red lights on all of his tripwires so Sam could spot them easier. Sort of defeats the purpose of having tripwires though. I imagine his neighbors out walking their dogs at night passing by and going "What's with this dude and all these blinking red lights in his windows."

You just gotta love the NOPD. They were like: "OK people listen up! It's imperative that we find the gun that the guy was holding. Only that will clear our fellow officer's good name. I want you searching high and low in a ten block radius until that gun is found! Leave no stone unturned!!!" "OK I hear you loud and clear. Say, I have a great idea! We could start by searching this storm drain that is right next to where the shooting victim fell." "Are you kidding??? It’s all yucky and stuff down there. I mean I like the guy and all, but not THAT much."

Usually the mise en place race is one of my favorite competitions on this show, but they did it all wrong here. They need to divide the chefs into teams so they can cheer on their teammates while secretly snarking on each other in the talking heads. The way they did it in this episode was totally boring. Malarkey and Leanne bragging about how good they were with cooking over an open flame and then winding up on the losing team was classic Top Chef comeuppance. Angelo and Leanne showing pictures of their families and then doing poorly in the elimination might not bode well for their immediate futures on this show. It was interesting that Jamie, the chef who lost because he gave up immunity picked Stephanie, the chef who lost because Nick wouldn't give up his immunity, to be on his team. I thought it was going to lead to a discussion on the philosophy of taking or declining immunity, but I guess not. Maybe that will come later when immunity is actually on the table. I liked Jennifer well enough in the Vegas season, not so much when she returned for the All-Star season. I want to like her again, but the slow measured way she speaks in her talking heads is making her sound rather snooty. She seems to talk normally when she is with the other chefs, so maybe she just needs to relax a little when she is being interviewed. By contrast, Nini might not be as accomplished as the other chefs, but she was really bringing the funny to her interviews. Here's hoping she can find a way to hang around for a while. This probably makes me a terrible person, but my favorite part of the show was the red team lounging around on the picnic tables congratulating themselves on what a wonderful job they did intercut with the judges ragging on their food.

Are we going to overlook the fact that the answers to two of Bradford's security questions were "Lady Marmalade" and "Xanadu"? As in "What is your favorite song?" and "What is your favorite movie?"

Danny: "The perp didn't get here by taxi or Uber. How did he get here? How???" Baez: "Maybe he took the subway." Danny: "Here's a picture of the perp in the subway. I'm a genius!!!" Poor Baez...

Wow, I didn't think it was humanly possible to create a character more obnoxious than Gregorio, but I stand corrected.

Really? A 16 year old living by herself in a hotel with her mother on the West Coast and the detectives shrug it off like it happens all the time. To let her continue to live in a hotel by herself where a murder occurred, and she is a potential witness borders on criminal. Did they even attempt to call the parents to make other arrangements? Child Protective Services? The most ridiculous thing about that part of the story was there was no reason in the plot for her to be so young. Just make her 18 and living in NY to attend college so it doesn't sound so stupid. If you are going to potentially go to jail for a long time for tampering with evidence and otherwise obstructing justice, you have to give the manager a better motive than "it might ruin my career." Just drop in a couple of lines where the doorman is revealed to be a relative/war buddy/blackmailer so it makes more sense please. Jeez the writers on this show…

It was a relief to find out that at least a couple of characters from one of the old shows found a bit of happiness in this time frame. Though the way this series has been going so far, it wouldn't surprise me to see the Romulans showing up and slaughtering the entire Riker family next week.

It was kind of weird that Anna was spending her last days alone until Miles showed up. Her family and all her friends on Facebook were like 'I'd really love to help you fulfill your dying wishes, but it's really getting busy at work right now. You know how that goes. But anyways hang in there and I’ll catch ya later… maybe…"

Sam and Callen are searching high and low for a field agent to replace Callen if he takes over Hetty's job, but try as they might, they can't find anyone worthy. Meanwhile, in totally unrelated news, we have Anna moaning about her job in the CIA and wanting to get out, but where oh where would she go??? Gee for the life of me I can't figure out how both of these problems are going to be resolved. The suspense is killing me...

If the Saudis wanted to buy the software so badly, why didn't art insurance lady just sell it to them? You get all that extra money and nobody gets hurt because the software is never going to work anyways. Putting that aside, once the Saudis started threatening them and an employee was killed, why didn't she hire some security to protect her employees? She seems like a terrible boss and not very smart, but I don't think that was what the writer was going for at the end when she and Sam were making googly eyes at each other. Also, why couldn't she tell NCIS that the Saudis were threatening the company beforehand and probably killed the guy? You could easily do that without revealing anything about the software. They just should have had her fronting for an NSA or CIA clandestine operation and under orders from the lord high muckity-mucks in the government not to reveal anything. It's been done a million times before, but at least gives her a motive to be starting the company in the first place, and gets you around most of the gaping holes in the plot. If Eric is so traumatized by his previous undercover work that he can't do anything except work out in the gym, then he should have been relieved of duty on the spot and told not to come back until cleared by a shrink. Is Nate still around? The Saudis invade a company, rough up the employees and kidnap the boss, then make their escape in a vehicle that is easily traced back to their hideout. Then they start torturing the poor guy in the backyard swimming pool where anybody passing by can hear them. Why weren't they inside, dunking his head in a toilet like any self-respecting terrorist would do? Is this secret agent amateur hour? They need some lessons from the evil North Koreans pronto.

Let me get this straight. The FBI learns where the target is an hour and half before the attack is to occur and West Point can only find two officers to guard that gate? Did the FBI forget to call ahead and warn them that they were about to be attacked? Are there no security cameras monitoring that gate? I would like to have a word with whoever is in charge of security at West Point.

When having a secret meeting with somebody you don't want to be seen with, it's probably not a good idea to meet in a room with the curtains wide open. Unfortunately for Grover's niece, the academy apparently hadn't gotten to the class that covered proper surveillance techniques. On the other hand, luckily for her, the bad guys had really amazing cell phone service in the middle of the jungle.

Yet another shining example of how this show is just a propaganda tool of the New York law enforcement agencies. The law that Erin was so opposed to is an attempt to reduce the problem of mass incarceration, which seems to have become more popular with the American public these days. Under the old law, New York prosecutors could withhold evidence until the morning of the trial. This forced many defendants to accept plea deals and go to prison because they had no idea what the state could or could not prove. Of course the New York district attorneys are up in arms about this because it makes it harder for them to steamroll defendants into guilty pleas. What was totally absent from this episode is that there is a provision in the new law where prosecutors can ask a judge to issue a protective order to withhold victim and witness's identifying information. I guess Erin forgot about that one, so actually she was the one responsible for getting her witness beaten. What would have been nice is if they could have had the defense attorney argue with Erin about the pros and cons of the new law and have the audience decide which side they agree with. But nope, our buddies in law enforcement might get mad at us if we presented the opposing viewpoint and we can't have that. Instead let us drag in your standard issue sleazebag defense attorney to represent the opposing side. What would motivate her to give her client the victim’s address? No reason was given because it is understood that is what those left wing commie lawyers do just for kicks. Sheesh, she was such a cliche of a sleazebag attorney that I was surprised they didn't glue a mustache on her face that she could twirl. The writers on this show have all the subtlety of a sledgehammer to the face.

I appreciated the reminder to always keep your tea kettles nice and polished so you can see people sneaking up behind you.

Well Piper sure got over her anger at Jo for trying to erase her memories in a hurry. I guess her AI isn't advanced enough yet to use that to guilt Jo into helping Benny instead of having to resort to begging.

At times I felt like I was watching a backdoor pilot to the next series in the franchise: "Zev - Club Security".

The widow was the true hero here. Almost a dozen cops commit suicide in the past year, and it takes her yelling in the commissioner's face to get him to get off his butt and do something about it. Why is he meeting with police chaplains about the problem? I would think he should be speaking to the police shrinks for better insights about the suicides. Of course the chaplains blame it on the public who all hate the cops now, rather conveniently letting Frank and the NYPD off the hook for any policies that might contribute to the problem. Danny telling Eddie at the dinner table to follow her gut instinct was hilarious. I could just imagine what he would have said if some random patrol officer showed up at one of his crime scenes and started showing the ADA around and spouting her theories about the case. I am also sure he would be perfectly fine with the patrol officer questioning his witnesses without him. Yeah right.

Yeah Yennifer's desire to have a child makes zero sense in light of her soliloquy on the beach a few episodes back where she was telling the dead baby that it was lucky to have died and not grown up into a world of disappointment.