Danielg342

Yeah. It's completely plausible that a 13-year-old could sneak out of the house and make her way to the VMAs or an afterparty. Teens are creative. It's also highly likely that this woman looked older than she did when she was 13. She could have easily lied to the party hosts that she was 18 and they let her in. Or, because a party is unregulated, the party hosts could have simply not cared that she wasn't 18 and just let her in anyway. None of this would excuse any assault that may have happened. However, I also think it's fair to ask questions about how her parents never figured out she was out all night. Parents might get hoodwinked by their teens all the time but it would be a massive oversight if they didn't notice that she wasn't home by midnight or something.

I think we need to keep Diddy and his outsized influence in hip hop in perspective. Just about anyone who is somebody- within and outside rap- probably dealt with Diddy in some capacity and Diddy's parties were always known for their high profile guests. Make of that what you will, but it's highly likely that Snoop, Jay-Z, Nas, Eminem and any other famous hip-hop artist you care to name has been to a Diddy party at least once. Doesn't mean they necessarily did anything wrong.

Something the Variety article doesn't mention but the Associated Press does is that, in settling the lawsuit, the three women at the centre of the lawsuit against Rose admit that Rose had "no ill intent" with regards to his conduct. Make that of what you will, but I find that part interesting.

I mean, take it for what it is...but that's a rather forceful, blunt and direct statement from Jay-Z. I'd say he sounds pretty honest. Part of me wonders what a 13 year old girl was doing wandering around at night trying to get into the MTV Music Video Awards, but it's also a completely plausible scenario. She may even look older than she was, for what that is worth. This is the first time that Sean Combs has been- concretely- accused of impropriety with a minor, right?

For "dull". I mean, I actually fell asleep watching this, so, if I get some details wrong, I'll just blame it on that. The only reason this gets a "D"- other than I can't find a great word for "boring" that starts with "F"- is that the show resisted doing something stupid and graduated Bode, as well as finally pairing him up (I think) with Audrey. Who really was wearing a nice dress...anyway... I suppose the ending scenes with the two dates were supposed to be a study in contrasts to how their lives were going. Bode and Audrey have a nice, relaxed, formal, pleasant and structured evening over wine and steak to signify that both of their lives are coming into order and finally getting some stability. While Jake and Gabriella are both seeing their lives falling apart so they have a drunken, chaotic but hot mess of a date because both of them right now are hot messes. OK then. Not sure if I'm really excited about "Jakella" getting back together but "Bodrey" could be fun. I realize this is still likely a pipe dream because this show loves "Bodiella" too much, but...if the writers are slowly learning to let their characters breathe and not do stupid things with the plot, maybe there's hope after all. I also suppose this is it for Camden (Jared Padalecki) too. So long and good riddance. Padalecki looked like he had a lot of fun playing the character but, my word, was that character all over the place. He starts by encouraging Bode's recklessness and maverickness, but then gets all bent out of shape when said maverickness goes against what he wants. What's the saying again? Live by the sword... As for the episode itself, we had the most boring hostage crisis ever pulled by a Harry Potter wannabe. Yawn. I'll give the episode props that Harry's actions seemed to make sense but...it was a terribly insipid story. Harry (OK, I know the character's name is likely not Harry Potter but the actor looked so much like the younger Daniel Radcliffe with about a tenth of Radcliffe's actual talent) didn't make me feel for his story and the portrayal was absolutely abysmal. Plus the show did a far better hostage crisis episode in the first season when Bode and Vince were held hostage in the field by the drug lord. This episode felt like a far lesser version of that episode. Other things...don't know what to make of Vince's advice to Jake. Jake was right to be upset but Vince was right too. If Jake isn't going to fight for Genevieve then he's going to lose her. As for Sharon and Gabriella...well, Gabs, if you had answered the door maybe Sharon wouldn't have gone inside and snooped around...and Sharon, why didn't you say, "you didn't answer the door so I got concerned". If that line ended on the cutting room floor, I gotta question the editors. Oh well. Congrats to Bode and Audrey and hopefully we can move on to better things.

I'll give the episode this much- Khalistan is a great topic for exploration and is often not discussed much on these shores, plus the show using the Khalistan movement is a nice break from the usual gamut of Mexican drug cartels and other random militias the team deals with each week. Plus, I actually felt something for this story and the characters. Further, they didn't treat the Indians as stuck up caricatures where the parents refuse to see how much in love their kid and their significant other are in. So, well done show. I could start the negatives by saying the show is erroneous in its characterization that "India" is some kind of homogenous entity when it isn't- the Republic of India is home to one billion people with 27 different languages spoken across the nation, with an ethnographic profile similar to that of Europe- but it's a minor quibble. I think the real problem with this episode was that the criminals themselves were kind of lifeless and one dimensional. The show tried to make things a bit more personal for one of the criminals by having his mother die in the 1985 Air India bombing but I don't think it went far enough to make the criminals all that rounded. I also felt the girlfriend, her relationship and her family could have been better developed than what the show did. As for the other stories...well, family was a big theme in this episode, and for good reason. At least Nichelle stood up to Saint Hondo, though the drama there fell flat. Nice to see Devin Gamble's twin brother, and Tan's "heartbroken" line was funny. I also appreciated there was more nuance in that narrative than what was originally apparent. I'm just not convinced that Hicks would get too bent out of shape that a training car on a training course suffered some scratches. Shouldn't some dings be expected when conducting training exercises? Speaking of Hicks...well, I'm not sure I agree with him that there's never a time to give someone space, even if it is family. I agree that, with family, you've always got to fight for it especially if you want to make things right, which is what Powell wanted to do, and I'd further agree there's nothing at all easy about parenting. ...but... As a guy with my own family issues, I say there's a time to push and a time to fall back. It's an art that is hard to master and many never do, and sometimes the fight is fruitless. Glad that Powell resolved her issues quickly, but so many other families are not that lucky, and I wish the show would recognize that.

Via Paramount Press Express

Via Paramount Press Express

Welp.

You make a good point. It seems like the writers just don't trust the characters that they have to make good drama on their own, so they create cheap characters for cheap drama to compensate. We've had the fake firefighter, Collin. We've had Sleeper. We've had Liam (the one Vince got into a drunken brawl with). We could probably throw in Diego too, even though he wasn't villain-like, because we knew he was just there to be a rival for Bode for Gabriella and thus had a shelf life on this show. Now Camden (Jared Padalecki's character) is filling that role. We'll see how it ends up but given this show's history, it might not bode well for Camden. It didn't need to be this way. One of the things that struck me about the early episodes was the idea of Bode having let everyone down by going to jail and having to repair his reputation in front of everyone. I was also struck by the dynamic of Vince between his real son and his "adopted" son (Jake). I thought when Vince poured his heart out and admitted that he has to accept that his kids can fail and that they're not failures for doing so was one of the series' better moments. All this really points to drama that works- when we care about the characters, the drama works. We don't necessarily have to have the main characters always at each other's throats, but the writers shouldn't be afraid to let them conflict every once in a while and delve into their personal struggles a bit more.

So we have references to "demons" and "Bode's soul" with regards to comments about Jared Padalecki's character on Fire Country. Say, @possibilities and @Dowel Jones, are you two making Supernatural puns? :P With regards to more serious discussion around the topic...the battle for Bode's soul seems to, once again, relegate Bode to the role of spectator in his own show. Which has happened far too often on this show. I can think of maybe only a small handful of times where Bode did, well, anything to drive a story or a plot and very rarely did he ever do so in a major way. He's mostly just done things in reaction to what other people have done, and most of the time those reactions are just him moping about things. Which is bad enough for any character, but it's even worse when that character is supposed to be the main character, like Bode is. @possibilities, you're probably right that this show may never made Bode actually pay for his recklessness and hero antics in a major way. Which I think is unfortunate from a narrative perspective, because I don't know what else you do with Bode's character from a narration point of view (we don't speak of "Bodiella" here because that's really just silliness masquerading as a storyline). Perhaps the writers are too afraid that making Bode fail in a meaningful kind of way would hurt his character too much, with these same writers failing to realize that there are ways to make Bode fail meaningfully without having to sacrifice the integrity of his character. I mean, I think the show's done a wonderful job (albeit with a few hiccups) crafting an organic, natural storyline of the elder Leones and Manny struggling with the events of their past and trying very hard to rise above their own demons. Vince and Manny are great examples of characters who have failed meaningfully- spectacularly so for Manny- and their characters are still intriguing and interesting. The show could easily do the same for Bode (and, admittedly, the other younger characters like Gabriella, Jake and Eve) but they have chosen not too. Frustratingly so, too. The show's writers seem to have fallen into the trap where they think "struggle" has to mean some kind of suffering or sadness befalling a character, when it doesn't have to. Now, I do appreciate, on a level, the deep dive into the characters' personal lives and the attempt to actually show these characters interacting outside of work, but I'd agree the soap opera angst just doesn't fit within the show's dynamic all that well. It's like, as you say, @possibilities, that the writers want it "both ways". They want a fire/rescue drama but they also want one that's a soap opera beneath the surface, instead of picking one or the other. Shows like S.W.A.T. show that you can still have a procedural- and sacrifice none of the procedural elements- while still having good, even great, characters with lots of depth. You don't need soap opera elements and awkward on-the-job interactions to accomplish that either. As for Gabriella- and, as someone who is, admittedly, suffering from depression- it's unfortunate that the show isn't treating Gabby's depression all that seriously. I think it might be interesting if Gabby's depression blows up in someone's face (or at least leads to some appreciable character development for her), but I don't trust the show to treat Gabby's depression with the dignity it deserves. They just seem to want us to be sad that she's not yet shacking up with Bode, even if that drama falls very flat.

Maybe so, but I don't think they had much of a leg to stand on considering they kicked out their own (adoptive) son. Perhaps Zoe Powell didn't need to work out a peace between Thomas and his adoptive parents, but, considering that in that moment Thomas had nowhere else to go, letting him stay the night and at least telling him, "tomorrow you gotta make nice with your parents" is better than kicking him to the curb when he has nowhere else to go. I don't agree he was immature- it was not like he was going to quit school and go on a world tour. He was simply going to defer the last part of his semester to go on a small- but potentially door-opening- tour. Thomas seemed to have a plan and seemed to respect his schooling obligations, with the only real sticking point being the money issue, though it should be noted Thomas wasn't looking for handouts. So I side with Thomas on this issue, though I know mileage varies. I do, however, think the writers should have written the episode in other ways if they wanted their story to be a bit more effective. They were clearly going for a storyline where bio mom (Zoe) was going to clash with the adoptive parents over a decision they made with regards to Thomas with Zoe needing to learn that, for practical purposes, Thomas doesn't view Zoe as his "real" parents and thus Zoe should respect whatever his adoptive parents decide for him even if she doesn't like it. A fair enough story...but... Thomas is 19. I don't get why the writers viewed him as some kind of kid who couldn't make his own decisions The writers called the band Thomas was going to tour with a big time "indie" band. Now, I know some indie bands have crossover appeal and can sell out stadiums from time to time (Jack White headlined the main stage on the final day of Lollapalooza in 2018), but many indie bands tend to have really only a small national following. Which allows them to be successful, on a level, but going on tour with them doesn't strike me as the kind of "make-or-break" opportunity the writers described it as being for Thomas' band Nevertheless, assuming, as the writers intended, that this indie band was so successful that it could regularly sell out stadiums, I'd have a hard time believing that Thomas and his band would be struggling so mightily that Thomas' parents couldn't see his musical career as an actual viable option. Yes, there's the possibility that someone from the indie band went to a small show and happened to come across Thomas' band, but the more likely scenario- especially if they're asking Thomas' band to tour with them- would be that Thomas' band already has a large following and that puts them on the indie band's radar. Which would also likely mean Thomas' band is selling out decent-sized clubs and would also be on the radar of several major label A&R executives. I mean, c'mon- Thomas' band has a following in Los Angeles. You notice something like that. They're not in Laramie or Evanston or some other small town outpost playing bimonthly gigs to 15-20 people each night. Which means that if the writers wanted to suggest that Thomas' musical ambitions may not be realistic, they should have done a better job establishing that. Now, maybe the writers intended for the parents to come off as dismissive of Thomas' chances no matter how successful he looks on stage, but it's not effective to leave this ambiguously. Since we did not see Thomas performing, we have no idea how many people show up at his shows. So a piece of dialogue suggesting that, even in LA, Thomas is playing a bimonthly gig to family and friends would have gone a long way to establishing that Thomas still has a lot of work to do before he can realize his musical dreams. Further, the writers could have established that the only reason the indie band is reaching out to Thomas and his band is simply because someone in the indie band is a childhood friend of Thomas or one of his bandmates. The writers could have further established that the band tried to get Thomas' band to go on tour before but it failed spectacularly, or that Thomas' band went on tour with the indie band before and didn't see appreciable benefits. Perhaps there were other ways they could have done this too, but the point remains that the writers failed to portray believably that Thomas' ambitions were, at that moment, fruitless. They just wanted some cheap drama for Powell and, in doing so, created a story that is- surprise, surprise- less than satisfactory.

Not that I inherently disagree with you here, but Camden's problem is his hypocrisy. He made a point of telling Bode to trust his instincts and do what is right, ignoring orders and protocol if he has to, but then turns around and gets offended when Bode does that to him. Cam, it's either you want Bode to follow procedures and rules or you don't. You don't get to say, "you don't follow the rules, unless I'm the one giving them to you." Of course, no doubt, Bode should be following the rules regardless, but- pardon the pun- Cam shouldn't be stoking the flames if he's not prepared to get burnt.

Let's start with the positives. First, nothing says "this is a small town" more than an entire bar getting excited about the imminent hatching of some eagle eggs in the woods. For fans of SimCity, that sure reminded me a lot of Dullsville and their paint drying event, so I was happy to see the show really lean in to a storyline like this and give the episode some much needed levity. It was just great, all of it. Secondly, good to see Vince be protective of Bode with regards to Camden and set Bode's mind straight. I might have appreciated Bode being a bit more assertive and tell Camden, "you always told me to trust my instincts and that may mean going against orders, so, sometimes, I'll disobey you", but at least the show is recognizing Camden may not be the best influence for Bode. Thirdly, Levin Rambin was great again as Audrey and she should be in the main cast next year. That, or she gets her own show. How many more times can she hit it out of the park before the producers realize what she's worth? Lastly, nice to see the show remember that Eve's a lesbian and we get a bit of light shed on her previous loves. Seemed like she even rekindled that old flame and, while I might have appreciated a kiss (9-1-1: Lonestar did it, why not Fire Country?), I'll take what I can get. Oh, and one small one- as much as "Bodiella" gets on my nerves, at least Bode was right to call out Gabriella and tell her he's tired of waiting. If only he could get that assertive elsewhere in his life. That's about it for the positives. I can't really say there were a whole lot of truly bad negatives, but a lot of the episode's events felt very contrived. Honestly, we had the perfect episode where you have a situation where the crew had to make some hard choices and, as in real life, you're going to wind up with something that is merely "the best possible case" and isn't ideal. ...but...baby eagles. Gotta save them, even if you've got to contrive the events to make it all work. Perhaps the show wants to wait for the fall finale before doing something "really big" and finally have Bode's "instincts" screw up an incident so bad that he'll hit a major snag in his comeback. Perhaps the show also wanted to wait for the right moment, too, to really ignite the Leone vs. Camden feud regarding training Bode and have that feud blow up spectacularly in an episode, setting up a future arc. I get that. However, if so, why not use this story- which was tailor made for such scenarios- for that moment and use another story for this airing? Or, since too many people would be upset about baby eagles dying, don't put the eagles in the episode's main plot and have something else be that proverbial "rock and a hard place"? Of course, the episode's main problem was really that everything felt very forced and hardly anything really flowed. The only moment that really felt like it had some kind of authenticity was Manny's fight with Cole, but even those two acted like overgrown schoolchildren. "You took what was rightfully mine." Really Cole? Maybe the real takeaway is that we may finally see Bode face some real consequences for his hero antics, which is one thing the show has shied away from too much. Certainly the feud between the Leones and Camden is developing a real, um, slow burn and I'm actually looking forward to how it ignites. Of course, knowing this show, it'll just blow up in their faces. Again.

I think we need to call this season- or at least the fall half of this season- the "M. Night Shyamalan Season", because the writing this season sure loves its twists. It seems like every episode we're getting this season contains several episodes mashed together, with the episode starting with one premise before veering off into several different ones and leaving the original premise behind. There's nothing in principle saying that kind of writing can't work- it just hasn't worked at all for S.W.A.T. this season at all. Tonight, we got what appeared to be a story about a man with a vendetta against abortion clinics only for it to veer, halfway through, to a story about a man losing his kids and his wife, with the abortion workers only flimsily connected to him. So, the UnSub's wife is preparing to leave him along with his kids, so he kills her and, in further retaliation, happens to also kill two abortion clinic workers just because they happened to take the same self-defence class as the UnSub's wife. Huh? Like Tan, said, "help me make it make sense." You got me. It seemed like the only reason why the abortion subplot was written in was so that we could have some "drama" between Deacon and Gamble, with Gamble getting a teachable moment about not letting her beliefs get in the way of her duties. Great lesson...but did we need to waste half an episode with a story we weren't going to use just to get there? Speaking of Gamble, I've been singing the praises of the acting of her portrayer, Annie Illonzeh. I still think Illonzeh is doing a good job, but tonight's effort where she tried to talk to the UnSub felt off. Now, I'm not sure if I can fault the effort of Illonzeh, since the story said she was attempting the task for the first time so it would make sense for Illonzeh to portray Gamble as tentative and unconvincing, but it doesn't mean the performance achieved the standard it was supposed to achieve. Because, ironically, Illonzeh wasn't convincing that Gamble was unconvincing. If that makes sense. As for the episode's other subplot...if you want to talk being between a rock and a hard place, meet Zoe Powell and her dealings with her biological son, Thomas. I'm sure there will be plenty of debate about whether Thomas' adoptive parents were right, whether Hondo was right in his advice and/or Powell was right in her ultimate actions, but I felt like the situation at the end was handled poorly. I mean...Zoe...you got your biological son knocking on your door late at night having been kicked out of his own house. Whatever you may feel about Thomas' ambitions and whether or not it's right to step on Thomas' adoptive parents' toes...at least let Tommy stay the night or for a few days until you can sit everyone down and come to some kind of agreement. I guess that would mean the writers would have to write another scene in this storyline and they just don't feel up to it...which I get...but... They sure threw Zoe under the bus, and that's a poor way to handle her character. Of course, these writers cutting corners in Zoe's storyline is par for the course for this season, so, while I'm disappointed, I'm sure not surprised.

Via Paramount Press Express

Via Paramount Press Express

Artem Chigvintsev and Nikki Bella have finalized their divorce. Not a lot of details to share, but, of note, there will be no spousal support and the two of them dropped their restraining orders against each other. They also agreed to joint custody of their son, Matteo. The two of them decided to use mediation to settle their disputes, as they found the process "draining". Artem and Nikki are apparently still frosty with each other and they're working on their relationship, but they're glad they can move on. So yeah...make all that of what you will. Figured I'd provide an update considering the previous discussion.

That's the thing, though. I know mileage will vary on this, but I'm not sure the show has done enough to really show them as simply lustful for each other. Bode and Gabriella just seem to have sex at random points. Other times they look and act like they do with everyone else. Everyone on this show seem to be very cavalier about their relationships. The only real chemistry I see among any of the couples- potential or not- are the elder Leones. Everyone else just treats the others as if they're just there to fulfill whatever the plot needs for their relationship.

I feel the problem with "Bodiella" ties back to my earlier point about Bode- there has sure been a lot of talking about it but very little showing. I fail to see what Gabriella sees in Bode that would convince her to end her budding marriage to Diego. I also fail to see what Bode sees in Gabriella that makes him want to pine for her. The only thing I have seen from the two of them are a relationship between two friends where they sometimes shack up together. All their conversations have been cordial, except for the few moments of contrived dramatic tension that the writers awkwardly insert to make us think the two have some romantic tension between them. Heck, the show's done a far better job setting up the eventual tragedy of Jake losing Genevieve then the show has done creating any kind of issues between Bode and Gabriella. It's not like we've learned that, say, Gabriella is the only person who didn't see Bode as "just an inmate", or that Gabriella is the only person Bode feels he can talk to about his problems without judgement (or vice versa). The show has done very little to actually show us why the two of them feel any kind of connection with each other, let alone establish the kind of connection that suggests they are "the lovers of destiny". The writers seem to have thought that because Bode fixed Gabriella's car in the pilot and they have random sex that they've done enough to show their relationship has legs. They haven't- they haven't done near enough.

Thanks. I think what threw me off is that the Bay Area feels more distinct than the more northerly areas of California- i.e., Redding, Crescent Bay, Eureka, etc.- and even the Sacramento Valley. The Bay Area also felt like it has more ties to SoCal than the more northerly areas. I feel a similar disconnect where I live- in the Canadian province of Ontario. I get people who think places like Barrie, Sudbury and North Bay are "northern" even though they are closer to Toronto than more northerly places like Hearst, Kapuskasing and Timmins. Those places feel distinct from Toronto, for sure, but they're also more distinct than the other, more northerly, places. Of course, these are just musings of someone who's merely travelled to Cali and never lived there (despite my best intentions).

I feel like the show has painted itself in such a corner- particularly with Bode- that it has almost no choice but to go in this route. Bode has never faced true consequences for being "heroic" that a storyline where this happens is a practical necessity. The only problem is that it would regress Bode's progress and we've done that already by putting him back in jail. The only thing I can really agree on with myself is that the writers have made a total mess of things with their lead character. They may still play that beat. It may not be spoken at first but something tells me the "we're disowning you for becoming a firefighter" line is a smokescreen for the reason reason for the disownment.

What's also odd to me is that- it appears- the studio built a makeshift plane for their set, or at least parts of it. I'm not sure why they couldn't just build a whole plane and use that for the wide shot. It would look better than the cheesy painted over toy plane they did use. They did get free food. I'd take that. Though it is strange the show portrayed Edgewater as some kind of remote place. I've been to northern and rural California- within an hour's drive (at most) you can be at another city, or at least another place with motels/hotels, etc. Also- and Californians can correct me on this- is Edgewater really "NorCal"? Max Thieirot says he based Edgewater on his own hometown, Los Altos, which is south of the San Francisco Bay Area. I don't doubt Los Altos would have closer ties to the Giants than the Dodgers, but it looks to be in the southern geographical half of the state.

I'm not going to say this was a stellar episode or one that was particularly well-crafted. It just had enough engaging and memorable moments that, in the sum of its parts, made for a solid and entertaining installment. I mean, many of the problems that plague this show still plagued this episode, like characters acting the way the writers want them too instead of organically (e.g. Jake "I'm going to be angry for no reason" Crawford). Plus, didn't the above shot scream "our special effects team repainted a toy airplane and planted in a toy field"? Yikes. Yet, despite all the inanity, there was something that made this episode fun. Sharon and Vince were at their bickering best. Eve and her brother actually seemed to have some familial chemistry. Jared Padalecki seemed to have a heck of a lot of fun playing Camden, even if his lines weren't really all that great. There was also quite a lot of hilarity to go around with the passengers, who made the chaos- and Gabriella's stress- more developed and bring it to the forefront. Especially the stoner dude and idiot photographer. They were especially fun. Oh, what a joy it was to see Leven Rambin on stage singing with Billy Burke. The cover of Miranda Lambert's "Vice" was prescient given the episode's subject matter. I'm not sure that Rambin has a Grammy inside of her but it's always great to see other sides of actors and actresses that they might not always get to show on screen. I want to close with something I noticed about this episode that I think the show has done too much from the start, and that's how often this episode spent talking about Bode. One of the main rules about writing is the principle "show, don't tell". Sometimes you don't have a choice, like in matters of expediency or you have a murder on a network TV show. Other times, it's really just the laziness of the writers. It's a lot of work to craft a scene or a series of scenes and episodes that can effectively portray what you want to portray, so it can be easier to skip all that and have the characters just talk about what you want to portray. "Easier" isn't always satisfying. With regards to Bode, I'm not necessarily stating that Bode's tendencies to go rogue and play hero have been all "tells" and not "shows", because we've seen it a lot. However, the show's characters talk a lot about Bode's tendencies making him reckless and dangerous, which we've never seen in action. Sure, Bode has done some things that have gotten him and others into trouble, but those were all actions that were just patently stupid, like stealing the Medic Alert necklace. What hasn't happened is an episode where Bode's hero instincts go sideways on him and he compromises part of- or even the whole- operation. Every time Bode has "gone against the book", Bode has been proven right. Not once has he been shown to be wrong. Perhaps Padalecki's character, Camden, is there to shed this light on the other characters who may start coming around on Bode and realize his hero instincts are a positive, not a detriment. Or, we're building to that great character-defining moment where Bode's hero instincts actually do go south on him in a major way, forcing Bode out of the Cadet program and making him have to work his way back into the program. Which could be a nice redemption arc, even though it would feel like Bode's caught in a storytelling loop and his character isn't really progressing. Still, otherwise...what would we have left with Bode? See, this eventually goes back to the bigger problem with Bode's characterization, in that so many of the details surrounding him have been told to us by the other characters and have not been shown. Bode's backstory is a great example of this. He might have one of the best backstories I've ever heard. The show even seemed to lean into it early in S1 by talking about the work Bode needs to do to regain the good graces of everyone he let down. ...but then the show abandoned that storyline...and they have not figured out anything to do with Bode ever since. That's a big problem, especially considering Bode is your lead character. Yes, it's great that the show has recognized this and Max Thieirot allows the other actors and actresses to take the spotlight when needed, and the show has done a decent job creating an environment where no one character is really needed to carry the torch on the show. However, Bode is still the central guy and the central force, and it's troubling that, halfway through S3, they haven't figured out, really, what to do with him. At this stage, blowing the Cadet program- while not exactly being very satisfying- might be the writers' only option. They can do that story right if they put the work in, but these writers aren't always the best at that. The ball is in their court now.

First, Matthew Kay gets: He's not even in the episode and he's immediately the best part of it. I didn't see that twist coming, but Matthew perfectly resolved the shoe storyline. Deacon raised him well, for sure. The rest of the episode gets: It was really all just...there. Especially the Deputy Chief, who's only purpose was to further a storyline that's really only going to be used just so the writers have an out in case S9 isn't happening. There was really no depth to the character, and the other characters hit us over the head with how we're supposed to see her. We get it. Mrs. Deputy Chief and husband to Mr. Incompetent Warden is The Big Bad. You made it loud and clear, and did everything you could to make it loud and clear short of her wearing a shirt that literally says "Big Bad" on it. Speaking of which, no Devin Gamble tonight, but the show handled her absence- and the lingering plot about Gamble's parking spot and her car- very well. A rushed resolution but a good one, still. As for the case itself...I didn't feel the show did enough to make me care about what was happening. Mr. DEA guy was just there to mope about his kidnapped partner and offered very little. The only real stakes were Tan and his budding relationship with Olivia Navarro, and they telegraphed how it would resolve by Tan being upset that the last thing he said to Olivia was how upset he was at her. They did make a nice attempt with Olivia actually being there to interview the cartel members to get answers for protesters killed in years past, but they glossed over the apparent fake kidnapping that Olivia was a part of to make that interview happen. I also wonder if they even needed to make that narrative choice at all. Of course, if they didn't...we wouldn't have had an episode. Which isn't a good sign. When the writers feel they can coast, they cut corners and cutting corners leads to things like this episode's flimsy plot and the flimsy characterization of the Deputy Chief. The show still has its moments but it's also opting to simply rest on its laurels- which is not a long term strategy.