dwmarch

Ressler is an FBI agent and doesn't know where to find hillbilly heroin in Alaska?!?! I loved the further background on Dembe. James Spader gives the best speeches. Tall creepy dude was Mr. Homn from Star Trek: TNG? I thought he had died a while back. Or maybe I'm just thinking of the character who was killed off in the books. Let me see if I have this straight: Red's guy following Lizzie finds the secret holding cell where she's got Tom. He plans to tell Red about it but gives her some grace time so she can tell him herself. She decides to take him out of the picture instead and doesn't tell Red. What the actual fuck? Last season, Red hired guys to deliver Tom to her and he escaped because she's dumb. Why would he care if she kidnapped him again?

Saul was the director of the CIA, has been on television and is also Jewish to boot. And he thinks he's discreetly following an ISI hitman through the airport? Speaking of the ISI, how do we know they're real villains? It's not the manipulations or kidnappings or etc. It's that they smoke in the office. I thought Carrie was going to flip Ayan right after sleeping with him. Or after he confessed about his uncle. "Guess what kid, you work for the CIA now!" I guess the soft approach is working better for now but at some point she's going to have to flip the script and the longer she keeps this pretense up the more awkward it's going to be. The ambassador's husband took a picture of Carrie's meds but I'm pretty sure that ship sailed when she testified on national television and then the CIA sold her down the river by noting just how crazy she actually was. I am pretty sure they never followed up with a "just kidding, we were trying to recruit someone in Iran and we needed our target to believe it." If we're in for more domestic fun with Carrie and Ayan I really want her to ask him what his favorite kind of tea is.

I liked the unusual format of this episode. Instead of a shocking incident leading to 5-0 being called in, we had a nice quiet opening. In fact, this whole episode was pretty low-key with I think only three shootings in total. I see this show is now sponsored by Ray Ban sunglasses. I like how Steve dresses up for the anniversary of his dad's death but cannot be bothered to shave. I wish there had been a little more follow-up to last week's events. We went to another country, murdered several people and all that happened is that Danny is taking some time off? Also, did we get those millions back to Chin's nemesis in Halava? Is Halava a real jail? If so I bet the real people working there absolutely hate that this show depicts Halava as having a revolving door through which criminals can pass at any given moment. Police corruption count: getting a prisoner out of Halava early (although they never did specify what he was in for) and ignoring Jerry as he blatantly broke the law. It's also questionable as to whether or not this cold case that Steve's dad worked on for twenty years is worth the resources of the governor's special task force. That homeless guy helped 5-0 without complaint and they didn't even thank him for leading them to crucial evidence. It was established early on that the guy in Halava was working for a drug dealer and the victim was trying to buy the young guy's freedom. So it seemed like it took way too long to come back around to the idea that the drug dealer might be the killer. Doesn't McGarrett already have a girlfriend?

Agreed. She hasn't seen anyone get brainwashed and she hasn't been established as knowing about it beforehand, so how does she know the exact terminology they use? Hydra has never really trusted her so it stands to reason they'd brainwash her just in case SHIELD did pick her back up. I speculate we're going to see brainwashed Simmons versus brain damaged Fitz. I loved Raina's leather skirt but since she was tortured in it last episode and choked in it this episode, she's probably never going to wear it again. I am surprised jumping onto a flying quinjet does not get one sucked into the engines, especially if the thing is cloaked when one jumps. If Skye's father is so anxious to see her again why did he run away when she came to his door? He could have prevented her from seeing the bodies.

Continuity glitch! When Lizzie is getting her double to impersonate her, we can clearly see that the other gal is wearing a plain old blazer. Yet somehow when she gets upstairs she's got a leather jacket on, just like Lizzie's. And when Lizzie comes back, the gal is still rocking the blazer even though the spy caught her through the window rocking leather. They could have at least had a scene in which Lizzie hands her leather jacket off to the other gal. Speaking of that leather jacket, why does she only wear it for Red? Usually, when a woman will wear leather for only one man, there's something sexual going on. Aram rocked in this episode. I am still unsure if he told Lizzie about Red's efforts deliberately or because he's just not that sly. But seeing him at the hospital bed at the end, I think he is that sly. So the CDC, the world's premiere authority on contagious diseases, can't deal with this pneumonic plague because it's old. But a bunch of enviro-terrorists not only manage to mass produce it, they also develop a cure that only the boss gets. Riiiiight. Looks like Lizzie is going to adopt that baby. If the way she treats her dog is any indication, Pee Wee Herman should be handing the baby over to someone else within two episodes.

So we've got a Pakistani version of Carrie now, complete with badass leather jacket. Interesting. The ambassador's husband was the one feeding documents to Sandy who was then feeding them to the bad guys? I feel like there's one too many traitors there. I also feel like in real life this would be absolutely, utterly impossible. Tom Clancy described the Canary Trap twenty years ago. Basically, for every sensitive document that exists, everyone who gets a copy gets a slightly different version. The document leaks, there's a unique identifier that traces right back to the source. I'm guessing the drugs are for Aayan's terror-uncle, who has bad kidneys or something like Osama Bin Laden had.

Add me to the chorus saying that 5.5 million should go back to the Leonardo DiCaprio wannabe while the other 13 million goes in the 5-0 fun fund. I can understand if they have to beat feet quickly because there could be more lackeys on the way but still... I want something to work out in their favor eventually, instead of just taking the same plot (5-0 owes a gangster a shitload of money!) and just transferring it from Danny to Chin. I liked that for once 5-0 got to the bad guys' destination before they did and cleared everyone out. However, I don't believe any normal police force would take on six heavily armed gangsters with only five team members and a civilian.I guess it was somewhat covered in establishing that this abandoned summer camp was as far from anything as one can be and still be in Hawaii but they still should have had a line about the area being too remote to call in backup. A clever side character! That EMT with his pocket dial to 911 was awesome. Usually these characters play along and get shot for their trouble, as we saw with the helpful airport lackey the gangsters shot. I assume there are medical ethics that prevent the EMTs from causing the guy to bleed out faster. Not much of a hostage situation if you can just nick the guy's artery and have him bleed out faster than he can pull the trigger. Why did it not occur to Jerry that all the soccer/football talk might have been code? And why is Jerry sitting five feet away from the shop? He's a distinct looking dude and even if they weren't keeping an eye out for him they would have noticed by now because he's right outside the door all day long! I asked for the big corruption and 5-0 did it, although not in the way I was hoping. I thought Chin Ho actually had the 25 million or whatever and would just dip into it to help Danny. So 5-0 takes this huge pile of money, flies off to another country, kills a bunch of people and presumably flies home. Vic Mackey would be proud.

I am pretty sure Raina's superpower is that leather skirt she was rocking. It definitely had me hypnotized and under her control. Strangely enough, it's the exact same skirt Margot Robbie wore in The Wolf of Wall Street. Raina must be a fan. The dueling Mays reminded me of They Live and that ten minute long brawl. Glad to see Talbot isn't with Hydra. Did Fitz actually give his imaginary girlfriend shit for letting him down? Convenient of Agent 33 to be exactly the same size as May in addition to having the exact same hair. Face/Off was the same idea. Change the face and everyone is fooled, despite the million other cues that should send up red flags. Although in all fairness, it's probably something one would be least expecting. Unless one was an Agent of SHIELD of course.

Red's ex-wife has a husband that she thinks is faithful. Alas, he is not and his girlfriend was about to spill the beans because she wanted him to leave his wife. Red and Pee-Wee made her go away. They kept the dog, both as an exclamation point on the message to the husband and also because that dog was being treated shamefully.

Well for what it's worth I'm going against the grain to say that I throughly enjoyed this episode. As with Hawaii 5-0, I always enjoy a departure from the formula and this episode certainly offered that. I don't think Lizzie has ever spent so much time with a Blacklister without being a hostage. There have been complaints that she is the worst FBI profiler in the world so I thought it was great that they actually used her background here. Paul Ruebens was an excellent addition to this show. He's perfectly creepy as Red's henchman and I loved his indignation at the treatment of the dog. He even cleaned up after it! I knew there was a Breaking Bad connection in this episode but I totally failed to recognize Gale beyond knowing he was a "Hey, It's That Guy!" I thought the young patient he was treating looked like Walt Jr. So Gale's cunning plan was to get himself shot in front of the Senator who had no interest in his research? Was the sniper who save Lizzie the same handsome man from her hotel stay? MLP's character is reminiscent of Nancy from Weeds and her lack of logic. She's been kidnapped and tortured, with her body parts being mailed to Reddington. Reddington saves her, resolves the situation that put her in danger in the first place (Berlin was mad about some money, which Red got back to him in a previous episode) and then offers to send her off to start a new life with the husband whom she doesn't know is cheating on her. She decides she'd rather stay in Philly and continue to be available as a target for Red's many enemies. Even though she must realize the next kidnapper might cut off something more significant than a finger, she has set down roots and is going to stay where she is, damn it! But her husband has a change of heart and she relents after a second of questioning Red's involvement. Alright then. I like that there's a bit more comedy in these episodes. The bit with Aram and Lizzie regarding her warrant was hilarious, although it is chilling that the actual FBI could poop on you in just such a manner and there's really nothing you could do about it. What's up with Cooper? Why did he just blurt out all this exposition about secret government programs? It's not like him to have an IDGAS moment. Is his illness catching up to him?

I initially really liked this show because it was, as I described it "24, but realistic". It would seem that in the fourth season they have given up on this idea. Let's examine: So Quinn wants to quit. Here is the CIA's process for a resignation. They interview him and ask him all kinds of inappropriate questions about his personal life. He tells them to fuck off and they accept this as him saying he does not resign as of this moment. However, he stops showing up for work and ignores calls from his boss. Eventually, the boss visits him in person to find out what is going on. He assaults the boss, offers no coherent explanation for his actions and shows himself to be compromised by over-consumption of alcohol. At the end, he inserts himself into a completely seperate operation that he wasn't even a minimal part of. At this point, if the CIA lets him back in they deserve every bad thing that happens as a result! Also, is he in a hotel or an apartment? I've never seen a hotel room that had a hallway before. Carrie was solid in this episode. She wasn't taking shit from anyone, she was getting results and she set up her own station without anyone else finding out what she was doing. I loved that she put on the leather jacket and seduced the kid. Farah reminds him too much of home. The crazy Western lady in the leather, begging him to help? Well, there's something special about her, isn't there? Carrie was way too shocked by Saul having an old girlfriend. Why didn't you say anything, Saul? Well, perhaps because first of all it's none of your fucking business and second, you ought not be surprised that the former head of the CIA has some secrets!

I liked that this wasn't a traditional 5-0 episode of uber-smart criminals whom 5-0 foils mostly by accident. However, a couple of things jumped out at me. First, the patronizing way 5-0 talked to the new ME. She didn't get her doctorate shining shoes! The team seems very pleased to find that she is compotent. They should expect no less! Second, did McGarrett and Grover actually have a bet as to whether or not they could get Kono to wear an embarrassingly small bikini? Like they actually have a stash of clothing that they keep in case the opportunity to sexually harass Kono comes up? Speaking of Kono, that monologue she gave at the end about surfing was odd. I did enjoy her interrogation method though. Danny has this cunning plan to dig up several million dollars by himself? Can't see how that could go wrong. I see now that Grover is a part of 5-0 he's learned to do things the shortcut way, like letting suspects escape because we can't wait for backup. Did he not bitch at them about forgetting to cover the back? 5-0 shot the shit out of the suspect car but no one in Hawaii bothered to report a speeding car that was liberally laced with bullet holes? They could have had the one surfer gal maintain her code of silence and just added a line about a concerned citizen seeing the car and a uni following it. I am not sure what the laws are for Hawaii but I think Jerry's audio bug is only capable of producing inadmissable evidence. I have to say though, for what should be a really silly plot it's working out well. The scene between Jerry and Kamekona was great.

Hawaii 5-0 is off to a good start for season 5. I always love it when they switch up the formula and this was one of those episodes. The kidnappers made a mistake! A simple one but a mistake nonetheless! And they weren't five steps ahead of 5-0 like they usually are! I missed something along the way though. The kidnapper had a brother-in-law who helped him? Why? That's some deep stuff to get into. Interesting that the only death in this episode was courtesy of trigger-happy 5-0. I am looking forward to the inevitable episode in which they are brought to account for gunning so many people down. Danny continues to be the heart of the team. His empathy is one of the best things to see and I love how he connects with the people he helps. I also appreciate that Danny took the intruder from last week and straight up arrested the son of a bitch. However, again... if you shoot this guy in the head he won't have any leverage. I was kind of hoping that the kidnapping victim's father would arrive home in time to be a part of the plot. Navy SEAL on the warpath! However, I am pretty sure that plot has been done before on this show.

Perhaps I just have an over-active imagination and I love Whedon connections but I thought the pastor at the funeral looked like Alan Tudyk and the sister looked like Summer Glau. Fitz has an oddly selective bit of brain damage. He can talk like a normal person as long as the conversation doesn't involve problem-solving. If it gets technical he gets confused but he gets help from his invisible friend. He knows he has solutions to problems in an archive but he doesn't know how to simply say "look at my SHIELD Ipad for the answer". I like Mac and I like that he was able to get through to Fitz. Loved when he dismissed the silent scientists because "you pissed him off!" Why did Coulson take his shoes off? Same reason Walter White stripped down before cooking a batch of meth. Also, do you know how hard it is to get fine concrete dust off of patent leather loafers? That holographic interface Coulson was using looks horribly complicated when it comes to looking up basic information. I wonder who he sent the BOLO to. Captain America? The Hulk? Iron Man? Wouldn't it be awesome if RDJ shows up at the end of an episode and drops off a briefcase with a glib "Yeah, found that thing you were looking for."

Gunnery Sergeant Hartman was watching me as I watched this episode and at the end he said "Jesus H. Christ, I think you've got a hard-on!" I love this show, unashamedly and despite all its faults. Megan Boone is rocking that short hair and for the first few minutes I was wondering who that hottie was who had been recast as the female lead. I liked this episode in particular for its departure from the formula. This episode was a much better chase than the usual bad guys are ten steps ahead and only Reddington's advice will save us plot. There was some good music played when MLP was re-united with Reddington. However, I would have given actual money for that song to be "Little Boxes" instead. Ressler is a considerate drug addict at least. He shares his pain pills with some random woman he met five minutes ago and he considers not taking them despite Lizzie starting to fill in the blanks. Mossad can be bought? Bull to the shit! Laugh line of the night goes to Aram: "The coffee maker is still working!" That is a silver lining if there ever was one and I'm not sure why everyone didn't appreciate it more.

If this show was hardcore, Adam would have been shot right then and there as Kono was asking him if they are safe together. The answer is clearly no, he's a "reformed" gangster with all kinds of skeletons in his closet and even the cleanest of characters on this show have had their past come back to haunt them multiple times. Speaking of which, Danno should have shot the intruder in his house as soon as the guy started mwa-ha-ha-ing. It's only on TV that these guys have intricate, layered backup plans and leverage against the good guys. Picture this scenario instead: the guy's lackeys read about his death on the news. Well, looks like our boss got shot in the head. Should we go get revenge on his behalf? You know what, maybe we'll just sit this one out. I know there's a gore quotient and this episode was already pushing it with the couple at the beginning but... a drone with dual 7.62mm military grade machineguns on it fires into a dense crowd and only kills 5 people? Landing a jet in the middle of the road is also a spectacularly bad idea. The road isn't a runway. There's rocks and garbage and all kinds of stuff that can be sucked into a jet engine. In fact, how does this jet become disabled? By foreign object damage! When did we become pals with the CIA again? When Kono is giving exposition about the Edward Snowden stand-in she talks about the CIA doing this and that as if she somehow heard these things directly. Didn't Steve recently gun down a CIA guy for telling yo mama jokes? And since when can CIA arrest people? I'd like to see more of the big corruption and less of the mundane corruption. Jerry helping with investigations? Mundane violations of police procedure (although I certainly hope no one's property was damaged by that jet he crashed in downtown Honolulu!). Chin Ho Kelly with $25 million? Big corruption! Go for it! Forget yet another Chin set-up plot. Go Vic Mackey Shield-style on this one. Chin's so tired of being accused of corruption that he just went ahead with it. "I have your $25 million, what are you going to do about it?" is a much more exciting plot than "Please sign this paperwork so IA will leave me alone!"

"In case one of us wigs out..." Oh, Jesus, Ressler, you get the best lines on this show! Okay, so we have a girl with a split personality. But her personalities don't communicate with one another. So how exactly does one use her as a reliable source of information? She can be triggered by a certain song. Okay, can't see how that could be inconvenient. Lizzie still has her dog although it looked to me like an entirely different breed than the previous puppy. Kudos to continuity direction if I'm wrong. An actress from Weeds and an actress from Breaking Bad and no references to either show?! Shameful display! Although the guy who activated Krysten Ritter's character did look a little Jesse Pinkman-ish.

Walt's beef with Gretchen and Elliot is that they basically stole his idea and got rich off of it. He had already sold his share in the company for $5000 because he needed the money at the time. Technically he's not entitled to anything but that doesn't stop him from feeling like he is. They didn't get into whether or not there was a love triangle but I assume there was. We see Walt and Gretchen together in a couple of flashbacks.

I like how the CIA's representation of how tough a security system is consists of little pictures of padlocks. Five padlocks means it's tough. I didn't see Chloe bonk her head (although I saw her bonking a lot of other heads). Why did she pass out? Rolling down a hill is that traumatic? How exactly did we get from "The Russians are after me!" to "I must go to their ambassador's residence and shoot everyone!"? Did this not cause serious problems in seasons past? Seriously, there was nothing established for why Jack and Kate get to storm the residence and shoot people. I thought the CCTV systems and satellites weren't working because Cheng was using the override to mess with them. But then the US forces were able to somehow wrest control back... sure would have been handy to have that ability a few hours ago! I assume Jack called Audrey because he wanted to ask her if she knew her husband was a traitorous douchebag. Unfortunately, once she gets all sentimental he totally forgets why he called her in the first place! Heller drops some pills on the floor and his military advisers immediately start plotting treason? Like it's any of their business what kind of pills POTUS takes?

So much action this episode! First, I loved that it only took Jack ten minutes to bring Navarro down with little to no backup along the way. I wonder if Jack had the interrogation plan all along, and if breaking Navarro's hand was part of it? Get him all confused with pain and then lay the setup on him. In any case, I loved it. I felt some tension for Chloe a couple of times and wondered if this might be it for her. I am pretty sure she's the first person to actually acknowledge biological functions on this show. I do wonder why she didn't try harder to escape. Cross has to know it would take her ten minutes just to get those leather pants down. She should have been long gone while he's knocking on the outhouse door, wondering what is taking her so long. The Chinese and the Russians show up at the same time? Ridiculous but in a good way. Now we just need some MI-5 action so the good guys have even odds. Speaking of which, are there no police in London anymore? Navarro clocked a soldier (Pvt. Glassjaw) and stole his gun but no one could be bothered to respond to the millions of semi-auto shots ringing out across London. When the CIA is tracking Navarro they never even think of getting the locals involved. Did those torpedoes have nuclear warheads? A torpedo creates a hole under the waterline of a ship and that is what causes the vessel to sink. It does not cause massive gouts of flame that look pretty. As well, I didn't catch how close that US sub was to the Chinese carrier but it seemed to me like they were way too close, like under a kilometer away. I am assuming Chinese carrier doctrine is similar to US carrier doctrine and that a Chinese carrier would be accompanied by a screen of escorts, several of which will be dedicated to anti-submarine warfare. How does a Chinese carrier get into the Med anyhow? Does it sail all the way around Africa and come in through the front door or does it pass through the Suez canal? Would a carrier even fit? I got the impression that Cheng was no longer with Chinese intelligence. Chloe seemed to think he was on his own. Good to see that not only is dial-a-mook still in business, they have also expanded operations into the UK.

Some good ruthlessness in this episode. I am surprised Terror Mom 2.0 let her son do so much back-talking without at least slapping him or cutting off one of his sensitive bits. Did anyone else get a Star Trek: The Next Generation vibe from Chloe's discovery of the three drone functions? Can't order them to self destruct? Put them to sleep, Chloe! I really hope Heller did actually get blown up. That would be much ballsier than some last-minute trickery from Chloe's tech-fu. Jordan could have saved himself a lot of trouble by shooting first. He knows quite well how much it hurts to get shot in the shoulder so shoot the guy in the shoulder! Was Jordan's phone call to Navarro the first time anyone has used a payphone on 24? I know Jordan is making an intuitive leap based on how little time is left for this plot to play out but really, he doesn't know it was Navarro. It could be that the assassin followed the blood trail Jordan was leaving instead. Jack gets himself a pardon, aw yeah! And he didn't even have to take anyone hostage to get it! It's nice to see a president who is actually on Jack's side for once. That Secret Service agent patrolling downstairs is totally fired.

I have seen Jack Bauer kill people with his teeth. I have seen him torture people who were probably innocent. I have seen him shoot people first without ever getting around to the asking questions later part. Having said that, seeing him drop Simone in the hallway of the hospital was the most ruthless thing he's ever done. I liked that Margot found out about Simone courtesy of an ambulance attendant who had no real idea what was going on. I much prefer that to the omniscient terrorists of 24's past. Does this silly show actually mean to tell me that in the evacuation of a hospital no staff member would think to grab the traumatized child who is sitting there by herself? I thought there were supposed to be guards around her. Speaking of that hospital, they have a funny definition of lockdown. That gunman went through a lot of unlocked doors before they caught up to him. Jack's regret at torturing Simone in front of Kate read more to me like he was saying "too soon?"