shura

A punk who would've been taken out if not for help from team machine. Dominique has repeatedly had Elias where he wanted him but was thwarted by unforeseen circumstances. Good point. And, for all the loyalty that Elias has supposedly inspired in his followers, it seems that he is losing them left and right now that their self-interest tells them they'd be better off under Dominic. Just ask Geno.

The point is not that there was something wrong with the surfers watching or that this should not have been allowed to happen. The point is that seeing them there completely destroyed any focus and confidence the cyclists had. They pretty much knew, especially after falling a couple times, that their only chance was for the surfers to not show up at the FF site, because in their minds Adam and Bethany were going to take this FF at will. So seeing the surfers there simply made real Kym and Alli's suspicion that they made a terrible mistake. The Save turned out to have had no really observable effect on the race, IMHO. I keep hearing that the Save altered the inter-team dynamics and the strategy of the Save holders; in particular, it made the dentists more confident and relaxed (presumably compared to the scenario where they do not have the Save), and also made other teams not even consider U-turning the dentists. This all may very well be true. But I still think TPTB could have easily edited out all mentions of the Save and we the viewers would have been none the wiser. What would we have seen? A team that was never U-turned, and was always composed and not freaking out during tasks? Occam's razor says you don't need to think there was something new and "unconventional" to explain these observations. Most teams are never U-turned, and some teams just may be naturally calm and relaxed. Hell, in this very season we have Adam and Bethany who were never U-turned and did not freak out during their tasks. We know the Save had nothing to do with that. We would have never needed to know about the Save to make sense of the dentists' accomplishments. So why did they leave the Save in the final edit? I think only because they want to bring it back. Re: "candy girls". Maya and Amy are graduate students. No, they don't "make ice cream" or sell candy. Yes, they are technically scientists. But exalting them as "scientists" over-glorifies them a little bit. They are still students.

So what was the original plan with the bomb in the safe? Was Anthony always supposed to find a way to stay near the safe (maybe even in the exact manner that he did?), draw the attackers around himself, then let them know the code somehow and go out kamikaze-style? Or was Elias trying to arm the bomb right before Dominic's people entered the room so they would get blown to pieces as Elias and Anthony (and Reese, who was not part of the plan) escaped through the back exit? If it's the latter, then Reese got Anthony killed by interfering with the plan, didn't he? They may be extremely skilled, but you'd never know it from this shootout. Neither of them hit her target, which is the same result two complete amateurs might arrive at.

She is truly dumb, isn't she? How could she fall for "Are you working with Chambers?"? If you are going to impersonate a DEA officer, either do you homework and know the relevant names (like Shaw did with Tomas), or avoid answering a question like that at all costs. Well, at least she didn't barge into the precinct guns a-blazing.

And you called him a minion. Shame on you, people!

If you think about it and remember that all of this has already happened, shouldn't the fact that we the viewers know about the Save mean that it WILL be used in the next leg? If it's not used and ends up having had no bearing on the Race, why not simply edit it out? Never show Phil announcing it, never show the Dentists getting it or anybody speaking about it... Even the Dentists' attempt to surrender it in their NEL can be edited to remove it. I mean, yes, our knowing about the Save adds a little bit to thinking about strategy and such, but it's not like it enriches the viewers' experience that much. Please, as if they have to have a reason to be surprised and angry. They will be angry even if you have them sign a waiver beforehand.

My guess is that the pole was way too slippery to hold on to, no matter how you try to do it - running, or just hanging on it. You'd just slide right off of it (or back to the beginning of the greased part). My strategy would have been to run up to the end of the non-slippery part, building up some momentum, and then try to launch myself in a kind of dive toward the end of the pole to grab the red flag. This is all on paper, mind you :). Another problem with the way the teams did it was that the first member of the team to attempt it was probably the more athletically inclined one, but he/she would naturally go for the flag that was easier to get. Which left the poorer athlete with the more demanding task.

Finch probably wouldn't be alerted unless the Machine deemed Shaw a regular Irrelevant based on the probability of Shaw dying violently. Shaw being what she is, maybe that calculated probability was not high enough to trigger a call to Finch. Has the Machine ever sent Finch a number just because the number was its asset in danger? Heh, having those numbers up is probably the default for Finch. Another possibility is that not all Irrelevant numbers get delivered to Finch. Some just slip through the cracks. Like Silva's handler, for example. In any case, I'm sure Root has been alerted and is on her way.

I liked how serious and engaged Kripke was in the flag/not-a-flag game. It's totally something a nerd like him would do, even if he usually just snarks at Sheldon and his ideas. Jerry: "Since when are you a writer?" George: "What writer? It's a sitcom!" Seriously though, Raj's "30 under 30" thing in itself is no more an accomplishment than that Bernadette's proposed magazine photo shoot.

Oh, was Martine looking for the virus? I missed that. I thought she was looking for the person who, as Greer put it, "is avoiding detection so well that it makes me wonder if she is one of our underground friends." To which Martine replied "Of course, you want me to locate her", and then he said something to the effect that she is the woman for the job since she used to be an "investigator for The Hague." Some investigator, no?

The roof is leaking and it rained a lot the night before? My question is, how does scuba certification help Bear dive without, you know, scuba gear? I don't understand why Martine decided to shoot Shaw right then and there at all (if that's what it was, we haven't seen what transpired, of course). That's just dumb. A smart operative would try to follow Shaw discretely and see if she would lead to the other members of Team Machine.

Not really. First, your neighbor has just heard that you are abusing your kids by not feeding them, which is a whole different kind of misunderstanding. Second, even if she doesn't take your words that way, she may simply think that you are trying to hide the real situation that the kids clued her in on.

Didn't she flunk out of the medical school on account of her poor bedside manner?

"The self-cleaning feature on your MX5000 reinforced safety box allows you to clean the inside of your box without using harsh chemicals or spending any time scrubbing the box." See, that's how I felt about that light show in 2001: A Space Odyssey. I figured that the sense was there but I just didn't get it, and the lights were cool so what the heck. With The Blacklist though, I'm pretty sure I am getting what the writers want me to get, and a lot of it simply is ridiculous in any reasonable universe. It's like they think that their viewers (that is, me) are not smart enough to enjoy stories that make sense, so they don't even need to try a little harder to come up with a better product. Yeah, I'm pretty much hate-watching at this point. I was rolling on the floor with that one. Why did she think he was going to talk to her even if she were allowed to go there? Imagine that the situation is reversed, you are a US government official, your aide come in and goes: "Sir, there are some Russians at the door, they demand to interrogate you." Right, sure, whatever they wish, clear my schedule... Re: the Finance Minister, I loved how he was walking around with a menacing facial expression, surrounded by goons and indistinguishable from a garden-variety mobster. Where were they going to when they got ambushed, to shake down a bank or something?

Maybe it's Putin. Come on, show, go there! That'd be big. Inventing another "Big Bad" who clearly is less than nothing compared to Red will be just as disappointing, pointless and stupid as this Berlin business.

So his plan was based on the hope that Lizzie is bound to mention the scientist's name during her calls from the hospital? That's far from guaranteed if you ask me. Were the pins in Lizzie's arm placed there just to make her feel that her arm is broken or were they for something else?

Most females usually are, yes :). I can't say I'm all that impressed with the twist. It makes Berlin look pretty dumb and gullible. He pretty much took someone's word (even if it was a super-elaborate setup of some kind) that his daughter was dead and believed it. If he is a figure of Red's caliber that the show wants us to believe he is, how come he hasn't double- and triple-checked everything having to do with his daughter's "death", if only to make certain it was Red's fault and learn all the details of how it happened? And if he has, how come he never came across any inconsistencies? I mean, his daughter is not dead, that's a pretty big inconsistency. What happened to the daughter in the first place anyway? Did she decide to run away from the daddy without a trace and someone managed to piggyback on that to frame Red? Did she know what Berlin was going to think about her disappearance? I wonder if the writers have thought all this through. I'm unclear on the details of the con the Scimitar (which, btw, why was he called that?) ran on the FBI. He lured Lizzie and Ressler into a trap, abducted them, made Lizzie call Harold and got the scientists name from that somehow. How did he do that last part? Hack into Harold's voicemail? My favorite bit from the episode: Harold (picking up the phone): "Assistant Director Cooper." Lizzie: "Hey, it's me." Me: "WTF?!!"

I don't know. It's one thing to risk falling into water next to your surfboard, and it's probably a whole different equation when you are standing high above a gorge. At one point, when Bethany was switching a carabiner from one rope to another, she was standing there not holding onto anything at all. Granted, there was a second harness still attached to the rope, but if I let go of the rope with one hand, there is no way I would not be using my other hand to hold onto the rope for dear life.

"Hi, this is Sandy from Tri-State Septic. We have thoroughly enjoyed your culture. Please pay balance due by the 15th."

Maybe the guy has a cigar store as a Zippo-laundering operation. But I agree, what's wrong with using an actual matchstick? A box will last you a loooong while, and nobody will get suspicious if you buy a box once in a while. Re: FBI Raid Jackets, doesn't it follow that, if one is into something nefarious and has reasons to think an FBI raid is a possibility, it would be a good idea to keep a letter jacket like that on hand since they are not supposed to shoot people wearing them? And the FBI is basically telegraphing this idea to the criminals by the very fact of having jackets like that? "Can you explain what your experience as an evil minion will bring to performing your duties as a school nurse? Also, was there a reason you spent seven years as a minion without getting promoted?"

Do FBI people walk around wearing jackets with giant "FBI" letters on the back in real life? I am seriously curious. What is the purpose of that? Doesn't seem really necessary for anything except the coolness factor. Shhh... don't tell Michael Emerson's wife. "Chicago is a mess. It's a freaking Tarantino movie out there." I wonder what Tarantino would do if he were invited to direct a POI episode. It could be fun.

No, no. The department head insisted that Harold fly to Hong Kong to present a paper. 'Cause that's how academia works, natch.

What was the yellow thing the Evil Environmentalists tagged their victims' ears with? Yep, Peter Fonda was the head of that weird family. There was a line mom said to her more normal son about daddy making decisions on whom to get or something like that. And yes, they did the exact same story when Isabella Rossellini was sex-trafficking girls. I believe Dembe was somehow involved as a victim in that, too. Hey, what was with Samar shooting a look at Aram while expositioning that "folk remedies" help with erectile dysfunction? Do these two have a history already where something happened (or, rather, didn't)? Or was she just feeling him out by ambushing him like that? Aram was all "Who, me?!!" That was awesome. Is it standard practice in the FBI that DC people fly to Alaska to rescue someone there? Why were Lizzie and Samar there? They didn't trust local law enforcement?

Same here. I wouldn't probably be annoyed by the cheerfulness, but I might find it amusing that someone would stop gagging for a moment to declare that she has found a silver lining.

How fancy was that hotel really? Jason Ritter was offered a last-minute, deluxe room for $200. In Manhattan in this day and age? I wish. Did the show explain how Samaritan managed to kill the governor-elect without raising suspicion? Everybody seemed to think it was from natural causes, or maybe from a drug interaction or something like that (I can't remember). Martine showed up as if she was about to assassinate her, did she stare the governor to death?