psychfan

I hadn’t heard that song before this show, and am glad to have now. But the words were instantly recognizable as based on Unetaneh Tokef, which is part of the high holy days liturgy. Which I thought really added to that scene. (Although otherwise I hate that that happened and I really wish they let them live happily ever after. Yes, hate crimes exist, and are particularly increasing right now. But still. They didn’t need to kill him.)

I wouldn't be happy with this anyway, but especially at this time of such high antisemitism it's disturbing that they made such a point of making the murderous kid and his family so Jewish for no apparent plot-related reason. When they did something similar on Law and Order years ago, having the parents send the kid to Israel, it was an important plot point. Here though it was just another way of highlighting hey, these rich folks who paid off the DA to protect their kid are Jewish. Really gross and uncool, FBI:MW.

I rolled my eyes a little at the idea that Meredith in isolation discovered this but other than that it is a real thing that the plaque theory may be wrong and that therefore the treatment research has been misdirected because of that. So I like that that info may get out there more. https://www.science.org/content/article/potential-fabrication-research-images-threatens-key-theory-alzheimers-disease (I similarly liked spelling out those reasons for Jules to be angry even if he did save Maxine’s life, and how it’s not okay to go against a DNR/DNI, and if Teddy did have a heart attack as others mentioned raising awareness of different symptoms for women.)

Not just thinks his father is involved with her, but also TOLD his father he was interested, and then had his father discourage him, which I'm thinking he then thought about differently once he saw them together looking all involved. So I think he relapsed also, in ways that would also mean no kidney. (Also related to the kidney, it wasn't just a privacy violation but a huge violation of transplant ethics overall to tell Archer his son was a match. One reason to never do that is that the potential donor has a right to back out, and claiming they weren't a match is one way to do that. If his son ended up deciding against donating now, thinking his father was deliberately steering him away from this woman he's interested in but without owning up to seeing her himself, and says he wasn't a match as a way of getting out of it, that's now a whole big issue that wouldn't have been there if not for that violation. But then when did ethics or the law ever stop these people from doing what they want I guess.)

It's really just insulting to the viewers to toss in such stupid stuff. Stuff that not only comes from nowhere but also bears no resemblance to the way the world works. Her allegation is that Bode's running a drug ring with Freddy as his right-hand man, and that's why Freddy's case is tied up. But somehow if Bode confesses, Freddy gets off scot-free? Bode says yes indeed I have been running a drug ring here, everyone knows Freddy's his bud so much so that they're able to stop his actual innocence case, but all of a sudden Freddy's fine? And the public defender outside has nothing to say about any of this? And Manny who two minutes earlier heard Bode say he won't say he did something he didn't do, he won't lie to his friends and family like that, isn't going to speak up right then about how somehow in the intervening minutes where Bode was alone with this investigator boom, he totally changes his story? And also somehow that's exactly at the same time Freddy gets out? Nope, no red flags there at all.

Dude, there’s a reason you had a public defender available. You were told you were allowed that representation. Do you really think she’d have said what she did if the public defender was there? That she’d have been so clear that she was pressuring you to say it was you no matter what?

I was shocked at that also.

I don’t think it was from HQ; she said it was but then they showed the caller ID saying Luke Leone, which is her BIL, right?

That bugged me so much here. There were other stupid things throughout (why on earth would you promise your kid you'd keep things secret when literally you're asking for info for the murder you're investigating??), but this was the most impossible to wave away. The text was the evidence in the first place. And her father wasn't the one who discovered it; he just recognized it was her phone number. Even if they never knew who'd sent it they'd have had the evidence from the kid's phone that he knew of the retreat statements. (Plenty of other things bugged me in this one also, including the idea that this kid who so creepily stalked his gf and then her father was somehow sympathetic. But the above part bugged the most because I hate when they do nonsensical stuff just as a plot device.)

The brother seems like he wandered over from a gig as Big Bad Guy on one of the Law and Orders.

I was trying to figure out if that was deliberate, because it seemed far too obvious not to be. It seemed impossible that the juxtaposition of sending Velasco on a road trip to bring his friend to justice because she heard this story and suddenly that was the primary responsibility in his life, to not let his friend get away with those long ago murders (which no, didn't start in this episode, but still was a big part of it), and then that ending - how could that not be deliberate? But a deliberate decision to show her as that raging hypocrite doesn't really seem like this show. I'm also not sure how much of a murderer Maxwell actually is supposed to be. At first, I was worried for her, because I thought he was trying to kill her by having put poison in the decanter she then had a drink from. After all, if he somehow got out of this he's better off if she's dead. And it even looked, when she stopped as she was walking away, like she'd been poisoned. I expected her to keel over. But then he choked, and I wondered if somehow she had switched their glasses. But then, when she watched him without moving, and then even more with that 911 call, I wondered if somehow she'd actually gotten him to choke somehow, although I can't figure out how that would have happened. It wouldn't have been just poisoning because the autopsy would have shown that. So I have no idea really what to think. Actual murderer? Just let him die but lied about it in such an obvious way? Something else?

Isn’t it a bad idea to make an entire crew of firefighters suspicious of each other? Don’t they need to rely on each other for their lives and all?

I rolled my eyes so hard as soon as Churlish put that lime in her mouth. Really? That seems like a good idea given why you’re there?

That was just ridiculous. There’s no way he’d have been able to try that. Or that Jack McCoy wouldn’t have known that from the start. And if somehow not then, for sure when his prosecutor became a witness. Gah.

That was heartbreaking. And also infuriating, because if they’d had any reason to believe the police would have looked into the info she shared it all would have been avoided, but it was clear that wasn’t going to happen.