dwmarch

Yay! I called upon the show to deliver Patterson via conveniently-placed bullshit and there it was! A tunnel in the server room that we didn't see and somehow Patterson was able to get to it in a room where thermite was cascading down from the ceiling. Speaking of conveniently placed bullshit, there are air ducts large enough to accommodate a Rich Dot Com and they're at floor level? I'm surprised no one called Patterson by her actual first name with the disguise on. Did we get a close-up of the aliases? Was one of them a William? Did Madeline kill herself or did she use a dose of Zip on herself? If she has some lackey with an antidote somewhere she's got a ticket out of jail. Unless the lackey was her lawyer.

I can't say it surprises me because I feel like some of it crept into the show. The scene that stands out in particular was when Kono had to go undercover and Steve had an embarrassingly small bikini on standby for her to wear. As I recall, Steve and Grover had a good laugh at her expense.

Season 1 had a lot more involvement from David E. Kelly, famous for his many lawyer shows (The Practice, Ally McBeal, Boston Legal, Harry's Law, etc). Season 2 did not have as much (if any) of DEK's involvement and it is... different. Much less emphasis on the legal aspects. More of a crime drama with a lawyer in it. There are some disturbing scenes, some really twisted stuff that might make you not want to continue watching. Season 3 was better but gets straight whimsical at times. Again less law, more crime drama. Still, some powerhouse performances from all involved. And who knew water politics could be so interesting?

I was going to make a joke last week about being glad no one on the team had a puppy for Madeline to kick. And then this week because she's not already evil enough, they have her being responsible for killing Patterson, my favorite character! Also, I know this show does enjoy pulling a fast one on us but I don't see how she could have survived. But I will accept total bullshit at face value if it brings her back!

I want a whole episode of Rich undercover as an Irish priest. His accent was hilarious. Patterson looked adorable as a nun. The geode and bible were fake-out clues. However, Ilya and his mook somehow managed to find their way to the treasure without solving any of the puzzles so that was weird. I called Ice Cream a Deutsch Bag but he's Icelandic so I guess that makes him an Ice Hole instead. Instead of Weitz trying (and failing) to tie his shoes and getting someone murdered in the process it would be nice if he was actually running a con of his own and had told Shaw (Shah?) about the situation. That way she could fake her death and become a powerful ally against Madeline. I'm getting tired of Weitz and Afreen having the same "We have to do something!" "We can't" conversation every episode.

They did a Varley extraction! I love it! In John Varley's story Millenium (which is the novel version of his short story Air Raid), humans from the future were grabbing people off of airplanes that were about to crash and replacing them with convincing replica body parts. I look forward to seeing what Sousa thinks of the future. We had moments like that with Captain America and his list of things to check out so it will be interesting to see what Sousa's list looks like. Enoch the long-suffering operator was hilarious, especially how he cut Deke off even though it sounded like Deke wanted to do some catching up.

I take Dexedrine (basically Adderall) for ADD and I find this episode had a whimsical interpretation of how stimulants work but I will say I haven't tried them all. The time it took to kick in is silly but we'll say there was some Hollywood time compression going on there. It would take at least half an hour before Axe would feel any effects. Dexedrine does sharpen one's focus but it doesn't make one right all the time so I'm glad they noticed that. The scene with Taylor's lieutenant speaking Spanish was hilarious, as was Taylor's low-key reaction. Maybe things are different in the US but if I went into my workplace and started handing out ADD meds to everyone I'd probably get arrested for doing so. But to call back to Wags' speech about wanting a Traci Lords of an idea, maybe it's not illegal yet because no one has looked at it closely enough.

Note to self: when recruiting henchpersons, give Dowel Jones a call.

I love the costume design this season. The guys in their snazzy suits, the gals all dolled up, May and Yoyo in those bomber jackets. It's like the production team found a warehouse full of period costumes that fit the actors perfectly and decided to build the season around it.

I liked this episode although I was hoping the trip through Weller's head would be a little more whimsical like the time Jane went through something similar. Weller has got some deeply rooted insecurities, I hope this was therapeutic for him. Like he blames himself for somehow knowing that his dad was a child killer and he brought Taylor Shaw around hoping his dad would kill her? That's a weird one. Trying to trick Weller into believing his daughter has grown up to join the terrorists seems like a desperate ploy. Why not stage a fake rescue instead? I get Weller being full of remorse for his warehouse-filling body count but he could have at least shot Ivy in the ass or something. Rich gets the team into trouble again although it does work for me that he'd be the most likely to accidentally give up the bunker's location since he's not any kind of expert in counter surveillance. The new bad guys have trackers that alert the police if the wearer dies. How does that work exactly? It sends a message like "Hi, we're the Deustch Bags and we're trying to hijack our art back OJ Simpson style but the people who have it are wanted, dangerous fugitives who are heavily armed. If we suddenly die could you please come and arrest the fugitives? Thanks!"

The original contract did not include sex with Wendy either so that may be swaying Tanner's opinion on portraits. I remember reading comments from the writers that this season was going to show us how far these people would go in terms of what they are willing to lose in order to achieve their wins. Axe has got to be kicking himself something fierce. He wants a Tanner painting but Prince beats him to it. Okay fine, he'll hire Tanner and get eight paintings out of him. Take that Prince! But oops, now Tanner and Wendy are a couple. If he'd let Prince have Tanner all to himself, Tanner might be having sex with the woman of Prince's dreams. Once Axe has his eight paintings is he even going to want to look at them?

I laughed at the line about Axe having a Bob Ross painting in his collection. There is a warehouse full of Bob Ross paintings and they are not for sale. Any Bob Ross paintings you find on Ebay are fakes. Bob Ross might not be Picasso (link is to the Epic Rap Battle of history between the two) but his art is just as rare. I bet Axe does have one somewhere. About this whole museum plot, did anyone tell Wendy that her apartment was being converted into a museum? She's still staying there right? Even if she's having sleepovers with Tanner, her kid still plays video games at Axe's apartment... so she should be surprised to find out her living space is now a gallery. I love that Mafee is a casual genius. I take it he took the Mensa test at the same time and sent in his results as Spyros'? Or was he somehow mirroring Spyros' computer and checking the correct options? Either way, it was great to see that he's actually super smart. Dollar Bill gets short-changed sometimes too, playing a buffoon role because he's loud and aggressive. But Dollar Bill is also wicked smart, the human factor that the quant team can't account for. I hope he gets his mojo back soon. Axe, I know the heart wants what it wants but maybe wait a while on Wendy? She's still in the middle of a messy divorce with Chuck and she slept with Tanner the second time she met him. She's not waiting for you so why are you waiting for her?

I don't think Reade is dead. I think he's the mystery helper that keeps sending the team cryptic clues. I also found it jarring that this episode tells the story of how the team met but only a single member of the team remembers the day even though they had a major case. "Mix these two chemicals and get the deadliest poison ever!" and Patterson is stumped by this? Weller barking was hilarious.

Chronicoms can be knocked unconscious? I guess we saw that in the first episode as well but it stood out here with both Enoch and one of the bad ones getting taken down by impact to the head. Scrambles their wiring I guess. Mandatory comic book style good guy vs good guy (or gal in this case) fight. I feel like Enoch should have won decisively although I guess he was deliberately holding back. He said he didn't want to hurt May... and then he kicked her in the face. This season so far has had some elements of my favorite Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles episode ("Self Made Man") where a Terminator gets stuck in the 1920's and kills someone by mistake leading to him having to fix things himself.

There was some good humor in this episode, I had a couple of good laughs at some of the things the characters said. However, I feel like they should have called this episode The Naked Time or The Naked Now, those being Star Trek episodes where everyone on the ship gets horny simultaneously. Cat sees the bruise on Chuck's face and it seems like she is teasing him but she's also a little insecure about the idea that he might have gone to see a domme before their date (which she explicitly defined as a date). I thought she was an expert on this subject. What kind of domme straight up punches you in the face? (Having said that, I am not going to Google it because I'm sure there could be results.) Also, when she suggested they go over to Chuck's place I thought it was going to be because that's where Wendy's BDSM gear is (I don't think she took it with her when she left although it would be kind of comical if Tanner's first intimate encounter with Wendy consisted of her dropping her overcoat to reveal that outfit underneath) but they decided to go vanilla instead and it looked like Chuck was enjoying the moment. I wonder how Cat is going to feel about Chuck asking her to wear Wendy's gear... or is she going to say "no thanks, I've got my own?" In any case, she challenged Chuck as to whether his kink was ongoing (in terms of seeing a domme) and he didn't really deny it. Oh Connerty brothers, how I have missed you. Bryan, you might want to watch out for a guy named Wilson Fisk while serving your stint. He will definitely want to recruit you although you might have to change your name. I don't quite buy Sacker falling for the other Connerty brother, it's a little too much of the "girls love bad boys" cliche. Sacker has ambitions and this dude is not going to help her with any of them. Chuck's plan is a little weird too. Steal the ring from whomever had it and then break into the bank regulator's office and plant it in her safe? Sure, she was happy to see it there but about five seconds later she should have been all "dude, what the fuck?" I missed something in the Yonkers plot. Bobby skips dinner and some local reporter hears about it. Bobby tries to make nice with Semeon by losing a game of pool to him and leaving him a wad of cash in exchange for his silence. Bobby gets told off in exchange but the kid is true to his word. Bobby then buys the house and they part as buddies. I must have missed something here. The bank "heist" with the Axe Cap crew was hilarious, especially with the one trader making his cuddle noises. I feel like Dollar Bill would be recognizable but I'm not sure if he's actually been established as a minor celebrity.