shura

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?

I'm OK with the idea that they could travel to Manhattan from the 14th century Europe. At least it's not impossible, even if there is no evidence that this actually happened. What I don't get is why they wanted to bring the body over here. If you want to get rid of it, why not simply burn it in a big fire with all the necessary prayers and incantations and whatever else they had to do in the Middle Ages. Also, why did those monks think that getting rid of this particular body would get rid of the "weaponized" plague? It certainly was not the last plague victim ever, how did they know there were no more victims of this strain out there?

ID her as the person who asked for information? If Martine is that concerned about flying under the radar, then maybe she should stop walking around impersonating a cyborg, and start being more discrete about shooting people for no other reason that she's an evil cartoon. BTW, who was the guy who started shooting at the election office? Was he just someone random or was he connected to Samaritan's scheme somehow? I have no idea whether punching your numbers guy is realistic, I would hope people are more reasonable than that. It's not like there is a reason to expect that his prediction is the same as a full guarantee, and that he has cheated you somehow when he is wrong. It's just a mathematical model based on certain assumptions. It's always possible that not all assumptions were made correctly, or that some new, unknown factors were unaccounted for. If Jason Ritter's character sincerely thought that he could not have been wrong, then he simply doesn't understand the nature of what he is doing.

If I didn't know better (and maybe I don't?), I'd say Finch has a thing for and was hitting on Root. Sneaking a peek at her while she was changing, "you seem so lonely, how long has it been... since you heard from the Machine?" (way to hold a pause, Harold!)... Just saying ;). Shooting the reception desk lady was stupid. What purpose did it serve exactly?

It is? That connection was completely lost on me. Red's speech went kind of like "You know why I'm here" (to Beck) - "Where is it?" (to Pepper) - "Oh, you didn't tell him?!" (to Pepper), as if all of this related to one and the same single subject. If his visit was all about the mystery girl and the key that Pepper didn't seem to resist giving up, why did he have to wait for Beck to show up? Especially since Dembe apparently found the plague cure without Beck's help. Or was that key needed to get the cure? I'm thoroughly confused. I thought it was deliberate. His whole attempt to console Lizzie was too awkward for Aram's mentioning Red's request to be just a slip-up. "I think you made the right decision. I've seen you in action, you don't crack under pressure. You are not even scared of Red like I was the other day when he asked me to... Oops, never mind..." My favorite Harold's contribution was "Get to the morgue and bring me the autopsy results, we need to know what killed her." Well, sir, there was this taxi...

Sure, but to the passer-by the question sounded as "My Swedish friend, please use your smartphone and look up the capital of your own country. And the city on the other end of this here bridge." I was wondering - purely academically, not intending to criticize anybody - if it's even necessary to spell "capital" correctly to be able to look it up. No worries, we don't need to know anything! Google will think and know things for us. It even knows how to bend a nail.

Oh, I should hope the locals didn't have to look up the capitals on their phones! Did they? Maybe they get there on time but then start falling down and rolling on the ground in celebration. What was that about? Is it safe (legal?) to drive using only one arm? And speaking of arms, funny how Brook was the only person who was holding the cake all the way to the restaurant. Everybody else seemed to think it was simply natural to just put it down and enjoy the bike ride.

I actually thought they said "worrier gene", not warrior. As in "you stress the gene carrier out a bit, he or she starts worrying a lot, and boom! - casualties." The gene didn't exactly make all those losers warriors. Or Red and Naomi have been sent from the future (I am not entirely convinced that "Naomi" is not a cyborg) where Liz is a John Connor kind of figure, and their job is is to make sure she becomes that. What? At least this explains stuff.

Yes, I thought he seemed too smart to explain that he was called Mini because he was big. Nicely done, show.

Then there would be TWO dogs not being walked and otherwise neglected. It would break poor Peewee's heart. I only remember her recognizing the personality test (which gave us the gem "this is a modified MMPI-2, but it's severely modified"). Did she do anything else, profiling-wise? Speaking of Lizzie's skills, why did she have to kick the poor student who was playing a video game, not bothering anyone, when she and Ressler came searching for Creel's last patient. That's what I got from it, too. Come to think of it though, if Lizzie was curious about her DNA test, what was stopping her from having it done on her own? What exactly is Red's problem with Solvang?

Dre was indignant that he had to drive all the way to Azusa to get the grass for Junior's project that wasn't even for extra credit. I think there was something else, too.

Not a problem, that particular facility can stay. Why not cripple Samaritan by blowing up a few of the other server farms if the Machine can locate them? Which it appears it can since the Machine knew about the facility in New Jersey. I say keep stockpiling those rocket launchers, blunt force is the way to go.

It most certainly would help, wouldn't it? I wonder if the Machine should be able to figure out Samaritan's physical location. I forgot, does Samaritan know about the Machine? If it does, it should probably make sure that its servers are housed somewhere at a very remote location with no cameras for miles around and no satellites trained on it. And that people servicing it never leave the site and get resupplied in a different way every time.