dwmarch

When Robyn realized her father had been intentionally targeted I couldn't help but say "ain't vigilantes a bitch?"

Cooper totally said "soft and cuddly" because Agnes was still in earshot and he doesn't think she's ready to hear "are you fucking kidding me?!?!" yet (although since she's Lizzie's kid she must have heard that a few times by now). I kind of love that the FBI is looking all over creation for Reddington and he's at Cooper's friggin' house eating ice cream and watching movies. I'm not really sure how a black budget secret FBI task force works but I'm pretty sure it's not on the basis of "what have you done for me lately?" I feel like they would get a set amount of money every year. It might make more sense for them to be in financial trouble because they are spending too much trying to teach Ressler how to hit a target or putting ads on milk cartons for missing animals or something like that and they've blown the budget halfway through a fiscal year and they're asking for more. But black budgets are black. Congressman So-and-So would not have paperwork that describes a secret thing in just vague enough terms to get the ball rolling on some loud public questions. That would defeat the entire purpose. How it is listed on the paperwork? EXPENSIVE SECRET FBI SHIT (valid through Q2 only), DON'T ASK ANY QUESTIONS? Speaking of budgets, there didn't really seem to be one for this episode. We had a lot of scenes suggesting a lot of globe hopping except it was mostly people talking indoors. For all the talk of the doctor's imminent execution, we never saw the people who were holding him except for their brief appearance at the beginning. And speaking of brief appearances, hey Siya, go away for a while, we don't need you for this one. Like, at all. Thanks! Maybe they pay her by the minute and since they are trying to save on money... Chalk up another suspect collaring fail for Ressler, who is driving a big FBI SUV with the lights on and everything and somehow still manages to arrive behind Reddington who really shouldn't have had much of an idea of what was going on and who probably got there in a goddamned Uber. Then again, I feel like this whole thing was manipulated by Reddington perhaps to put Dembe back on Team Red. It is weird that "Dr. Michael Abani" is a Blacklister. He was a patsy for the real villain so why put him on the list at all? Because then it wouldn't have been a shocking reveal when the only other character who could be the bad guy turned out to be the bad guy!

This show has got the weirdest schedule. Apparently season 3 has already been filmed and has aired in Australia but the Global TV website says season 2 is coming soon. I saw season 2 a long time ago!

I think Dee's plot would have worked better if it had been spread out a little more. Maybe she could get hired in one episode and be excited about working, even if it is just warehouse stuff for now. And then we see her coworkers being rotated out of the warehouse stuff and working up front but Dee seems to have been passed over. And then she clues in as to what is different between her and the other folks. Instead, she gets this new job and about five seconds later her racism detector goes off and on her first actual day where she's supposed to be working she decides to make a scene in the store in front of everyone. From her point of view they wouldn't accept her as her authentic self which is a perfectly fine reason to leave a job. But from their point of view they didn't say anything to her other than assigning her a very general task and she ended up storming out of there going on about how racist and criminal their work environment is. Even if she's right (which the episode didn't actually go out of the way to establish beyond that one woman having a sour faced look) there are better ways to speak truth to power. But I guess the fashion industry isn't for her so she'll have to do spy stuff instead. It was a weird look, like they put an outfit together for her out of whatever bits and pieces they could find that she hadn't worn yet. Harry was not nearly bothered enough by his rival getting tortured and killed in his shop. Harry, that is what we call foreshadowing. Remember, that guy was tortured and killed for the file that McCall hung onto for the lulz. That was weird too. So the CIA sends her on a mission to retrieve a thing. She retrieves it but decides the world is better off if she hangs onto it herself rather than handing it over to those shifty CIA pricks. The CIA guy basically laughs and says "you got me this time, Mall Cop!" and walks away instead of having her arrested and thrown in jail for several lifetimes.

Overall I liked this episode although I have to wonder who in the writers' room said "you know what we need? Remember how in Die Hard the FBI shows up at the hostage situation and they just fuck everything up? We should do a story from the point of view of those FBI agents!" It seems as though the writers for this season are only referring to recaps of previous seasons and skipping over those pretty lightly. For example, a plot about DNA results and agonizing over whether or not to read them? We already did that with Liz. And now all of a sudden Main Justice is concerned with Reddington leaving dead bodies on the floor of the Post Office? Reddington leaves bodies behind everywhere he goes! He has killed plenty of people at the Post Office and various other "Federal facilities" and he has often done it in plain view of many Task Force members! But now for some reason they care? Actually, knowing what I know about bureaucracy, that part is kind of realistic so maybe... but still! For the civilians at the end there, getting the bags of cash... did the husband and wife have to split one? Shouldn't they each get one? Also, can all these folks be counted on to spend their ill-gotten gains wisely? I would hope Red gave them some insight as to how to absorb a giant duffel bag full of money into one's life without attracting various kinds of unwanted attention. Remember, they do live in an area where well-armed, healthy-looking crackheads remember to cut the DSL connection before robbing a store! I have been giving the side-eye to Siya this whole season but after this episode I'm curious about Herbie too. Did Reddington figure out that Siya is obviously there to get revenge on her mother's behalf so he has set things up to just pull that particular rug right out from under her? Hey, guess what kiddo... you were adopted! No need to get revenge! She wasn't your real mom! Speaking of adoption, are you by chance in the market for a couple of cats or any of several dogs?

Is this the season finale? If so, this was a good way to wrap things up. I'm glad to see Weir had something of a plan going all along although I think I'd have to rewatch from the beginning to see how well it all ties together. I loved Hailey's look in that brown leather skirt. There was no particular plot related reason for her to change into it and that makes me love her even more. No answers on whether or not she works for some other company or agency yet. I'm going to guess Defense Intelligence Agency based on the skirt because Whistler on NCIS: Hawaii has the exact same one (leather on the front, stretchy back). Crowley had access to all that data and was just using it as a blunt-force object. This is a similar weakness to various villains in 24 who could only leverage such information against the CTU team so long as they could keep them on the phone. Oh no, the bad guy is going to call me and threaten to expose all of my secrets if I don't do something for him right now! What if I just send the call to voicemail? It's a bit of a dramatic shortcut to suppose that every person has some deep, dark secret that they will immediately kill someone else to protect. But some folks aren't going to care about their dirty laundry. Some folks are not going to react the way the villain thinks they will, no matter what his algorithm says. Speaking of CTU, when the villain was firing up Skynet, I had a feeling I saw those letters come up and sure enough, part of the data he trawled was from a 24 wiki:

Saw this movie today and I'm glad I went. The theater was packed and I overheard that the next showing was already sold out. Overall I thought it was great and a nice way to close out the series. I'm very glad no one died. I thought we were going to lose Drax for sure and I wasn't sure about Rocket. While I am not personally sensitive to any gore or violence that could possibly appear in a PG-13 Marvel movie, there were definitely moments in this one where I hoped there were no young kids in the audience. There is some nightmare fuel in this one for the young. I found myself on the verge of tears three times: Rocket saying it hurt, Kraglin seeing a vision of Yondu and Rocket finding and freeing the baby raccoons. James Gunn knows how to get great emotion even in the most absurd situations and there was plenty of that in this movie. I know all stories are going to overlap to some degree but I could not help but notice that the High Evolutionary is basically Handsome Jack from the videogame Borderlands 2. But I don't know the HE's history from the comics (aside from ScreenCrush videos that give very short summaries) so it's possible the inspiration is the other way around and Handsome Jack is the one who has been borrowed. In any case, both are mask-wearing megalomaniacs who suffered severe facial trauma courtesy of a hero character. Both are trying to build a perfect society. Both are doing cruel experiments on captives. There was a nice balance of comedy in this one. Sometimes Marvel movies are too quick with the quips so there you are trying to absorb an emotional moment and five seconds later someone cracks a joke. There was some of that here but by and large I think it was paced in such a way that the humor didn't end up stripping the impact of emotional scenes. The biggest audience laugh was for "open the fucking door!"

That was... not the best episode of NCIS: Hawaii I have ever seen. And as for NCIS: Mars, don't you even dare! Although I guess there have been enough of these shows now that a sci-fi one wouldn't be that much of a stretch. Hell, this one was practically sci-fi with the MacGuffin of the "micro-nuclear reactor" that fits in the pocket of someone's tac team vest. I'm pretty sure we're still at the stage where a "micro" nuclear reactor is about the size of a school bus and six times as heavy. Is that a real Space Force uniform? Do they really have to walk around like that and expect to be taken seriously? (I just Googled it and yeah, wow those are actually real and people have to wear them) There was one plot point I actually did like and that was how about ten actual seconds elapsed between "who could the real culprit have been" and the team figuring out that it was the super obvious one and only choice of the security dude. Sometimes they can spend up to three-quarters of an episode before they figure out that someone who is eager to help isn't really on their side. But in this episode right after they said out loud that they needed to figure out who it could have been, Ernie popped up with the answer. Nice. I also love Ernie's friendships. He has an adorable relationship with Lucy, a great vibe with Cmdr. Chase and he can be vulnerable around Tennant. I wonder if we will see the astronaut lady again. She should be on vacation now that the Mars habitat has been blown to bits.

Some interesting twists in this episode. I guess Crowley isn't Peter Weller after all? It would be weird for him to just be Chief Henchman but I appreciate that Real Crowley is smart enough to send someone to get beat up in his place. I also have to take a moment to appreciate the man-in-the-middle play here. Crowley figured out that Weir and his old buddy had been using the same code since they were kids. He then figures out the channel they were using to communicate and uses it to mess with Weir. I just noticed this show is totally shot in Vancouver. During the Weir-Faux Crowley confrontation there is a very clear shot of a Telus building and the random gift basket that shows up has a bottle of Peller Estates wine in it which is a BC wine. The show has done a pretty good job at being ambiguous but Hailey has to be a player, right? If she's an innocent civilian caught up in all of this she is being way too level-headed about everything. Plus she just casually walked up to an FBI agent and gave her the biggest break in the case ever. After she did that, she just saunters back to the group like nothing happened. She also ninja'd herself a new pair of pants too. I think she's from some Other Government Agency but I guess she could be from the corporate world. Jo, the tenacious FBI agent does not seem like the type who is going to sell out even if she knows the bad guys will kill her for doing the right thing. But I love that when her boss says "what can I give you to make this go away?" she takes him up on it. Might as well get your old job back while you can. There's no way she didn't make a copy of that data. The only thing that took me out of the show for a second was when they called out Weir for not liking guns. But this is because I have watched all of 24 so I have seen Kiefer Sutherland gun down hordes of bad guys and it would not have surprised me to see him doing it here. But it wasn't until they called it out that I realized he hasn't actually been involved in much if any gunplay so far.

Jersey too! The toxic waste dump was "down the Turnpike" in Jersey (because of course it was) and Dante the Bagdeless Wonder Cop had no issues trampling on the local jurisdiction. Although I did laugh at Lolo calling Dante "5-0" as the Hawaii 5-0 Task Force's jurisdiction was a bubble that followed them around wherever they happened to be if they were outside of Hawaii. They were state cops, under the mandate of the Governor of Hawaii... until and unless they needed to go shoot people in Colombia or Mexico or North Korea. From time to time they'd go stateside and shoot some people there too. Offhand, I recall Chicago, LA and some remote part of Montana getting a taste of that 5-0 justice. I'm sure there were more. Also I know the team was pressed for time and all but it is particularly brave of them to randomly pop barrels of Jersey's finest toxic waste open in the hopes that a person will pop out. No protective gear at all! I'm not sure what the best way would be to approach a situation like this but they did it in the same episode where Robyn was lecturing at length about the importance of situational awareness. There is some discussion to be had here as to what kind of legal theory applies to Robyn shooting this guy and the police taking no issue with it. Yes, he was an asshole and he deserved it. Yes, she was defending two people who were in imminent danger from this dude. Yes, the dude injured or killed that cop downstairs (and this makes me wonder if they cut a scene where he took the cop's gun) and so Robyn was at least theoretically in hot pursuit of a murdering murderer who was on his way to do more murder. But I have a feeling the police would take somewhat of a dim view on her shooting the guy dead nonetheless. I thought Dante's gun was going to show up at the end in the hands of someone who would gun Lolo down and make it look like Dante did it. Ohhh, I have an idea! Make it that kid who was "helping"! The one Dee likes. Turns out he's actually the brains of the operation and he's been fooling everybody this whole time! And he just tricked a cop into murdering a rival and that's when the dirty cops show up to put the squeeze on Dante. Because otherwise I feel like "low-level piece of shit drug dealer learns how to fly but not how to land" would not cause Dante's new Captain to give him the whole "you're too close to this!" speech. Instead, the cops would laugh, slap Dante on the back and change the subject to something like "I can't believe you went to Jersey... on purpose!"

Okay, I have to admit it. I'm impressed. I always enjoy Reddington heist episodes more than any other kind of episodes on this show and this was a good one. I loved Wujing getting taken out so offhandedly. I had to rewind just to make sure it was actually him getting casually dispatched. No big showdown, just a bullet in the dome from offscreen. Nicely done, Red. Flipping the mercenary team was a great trick too. "I see you need work. I have work, let's go." Pure boss move, we haven't seen one of those from Reddington for a while. And finally, Red hangs a lampshade (and kitchen sink) on the Post Office being the least-secure facility in the history of black sites. It was well past time to leave that building behind. And Red also has a bunch of cameras installed so he'll be able to tell if the Task Force decides to play nice while simultaneously trying to take him down. My only nitpick is that they do explicitly say that there are some guards still standing by at the real Post Office during Red's heist although I can handwave that easily enough by saying since Red basically has the run of the place he was able to get past or distract them with ease. Hmmm, Red said getting older is a drag. Redarina, is that you? No sign or mention of the various discarded animals of this show however this episode does give us the comforting notion that they might be living in perfect replicas of their former homes.

So the Borg Queen is all by herself eating through her drones to sustain herself. Okay, I guess that explains why the Borg didn't just attack Earth with a bunch of ships. But when Jack plugs in, he hears the Collective and describes all these voices and all this harmony and etc etc. Umm, where is this Collective he is hearing? Is it all the young kids attacking Earth? Because they just became Borg so they shouldn't be quite so harmonious yet. Picard was able to fight through the Borg programming a bit in BoBW and you'd think the various ensigns who were on the verge of blowing up the Earth might have also felt the same. Also, this new Collective wasn't really all that large. Dozens, perhaps hundreds of ships. So we have a situation where the Borg are both vast enough to be awe-inspiring (to Jack; I wasn't impressed) but small enough to be defeated by a handful of people and a hug. Speaking of hugs, they did most of the work this season. The Borg's nefarious plot? Picard stops it by hugging Jack. Seven's career in Starfleet? Saved by Shaw's final sentimental message. Data gives Lore a hug to bring him over and last but not least, Vadic is defeated by the cold embrace of vacuum. Even Worf hugged a bunch of people. Also, what is going on with the Borg tech? The new Borg have black veins but no tech implants. When the Borg get blown up this stuff just... goes away. Jack had some stuff bolted onto him but his modifications didn't look anywhere near as harsh as what happened to Picard. Resistance is futile, you will be mildly inconvenienced. Speaking of being mildly inconvenienced, why aren't all starships built out of the same stuff Spacedock is made out of? What a boss-level station that is, just taking a pounding forever and turning Starfleet into star dust. They could have done a nice stinger here with Seven. The bridge crew on the new Enterprise-G is awaiting her version of "I want the ship to go... now" and instead they get "surprise, MFs!" and she assimilates the entire bridge crew. I'm glad they didn't go that way but I'm sure they were tempted. I hope Picard and Crusher didn't get married because that would be really rude to Laris. She encourages Picard to get out there and deal with his restlessness and he comes back with a wife and child? Well, maybe that's not out of bounds to Romulans, who knows? So what exactly is a synth anyhow? Data talks about being human but he can still do android stuff like flying the ship through a Borg cube. Picard is a synth but can still be assimilated by the Borg. It's almost like the writers didn't put very much thought into the whole thing! While it was neat to see John DeLancie as Q one last time, I kind of wish it had been Q's son or daughter or Wesley Crusher or someone/something else. And I wish Guinan had actually appeared in the episode instead of just being mentioned.

I noticed one of them went yeeting off the ledge when R5 took off, I'm pretty sure he can count that as a kill. Axe Woves may not understand flanking (as also demonstrated in the space battle as well where his tactics were very... linear) but he sure understands fuel efficiency! I hope he teaches the other Mandos how to install the range extender on their jetpacks. Minor Andor spoiler: I wish they had addressed the helmets issue a bit. I don't need them to spend a whole episode on fundie Mando creed and how it impacts the newcomers but I'd like to hear something about it. Hey Mandos, since we've got the living waters right here and we're using them as our water supply, go ahead and take your helmets off. This is (technically) the way.

Count me among those who don't think Moff Gideon is dead yet. His "you killed all my beautiful clones!" speech suggests me that he is lying and at least one was being made off-site. Some Imperial rescue squad is going to pick up the burnt toast that remains of Moff Gideon Actual and they'll use Space Voodoo to transfer his mind into the force-sensitive clone. The VFX work in this episode was amazing. This is a TV show with movie-quality effects. The score was pretty good here too. It doesn't jump out at me quite like Andor's score does but I do notice it from time to time. The title seemed a little more intense than usual. The Mandalorian Adoption Agency has quite flexible rules. Seems to be "if you can keep it alive, it's yours". Meanwhile, sorry Ragnar, you don't get to be an apprentice for staying home babysitting. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop at the end but I guess we'll set the next bad guys up in the first episode of next season. And we're back to adventure of the week!

I thought it was kind of funny when Harry and Mel starting getting suspicious about the "stolen" necklace. Do you two know which show you are on? We are never going to have an episode where a pro-immigrant politician is murdered by the immigrants she was sheltering because they wanted to steal jewelry. Also had to laugh when Dee said she couldn't imagine being separated from her family. So that means she's going to get kidnapped next week, right? Did Aunt Vi bribe a cop in front of a roomful of other cops? She gets style points for that. And Dante is definitely right to be suspicious of that phone call he got from some "Detective". We all know Dante is the one and only Detective in all of New York! I'm glad the team has started identifying themselves as Police-adjacent. Seems to be fewer questions that way. Robyn's leather jacket had a really weird style to it. She had the jacket zipped up over a flap. Normally most jackets have the flap over the zipper. And the flap had a button on it but it was on the wrong side. I guess it gives you the option of zipping the jacket or buttoning it but not both. Weird.

I'm enjoying this show although I wish the team had survived. Still, I like the mood of this show. It's similar to 24 but less broody and intense. I must wonder if the commando squad chasing them around wasn't actually working for Peter Weller but rather was just people pissed off about losing that really expensive bottle of scotch. People have killed each other for far less. Did the characters throw the baby out with the bathwater here? They do realize the scotch itself isn't the problem, right? They've used it for multiple things so far and most of the team has benefited from it. Pour it into a to-go cup! Great to see Peter Weller as the villain. He was so good as a villain Star Trek used him in two different roles.

It's a shame we haven't seen them yet. If you want to assimilate the Federation try attacking with one of your bigass ships! Or you know, maybe even two or three!

I'm not sure if it has been called out yet but I'm watching reviews of the episode and I can't help but notice one of Axe's crew is one hell of painter. I'm also pretty sure the feast consisted of one of the space chickens Bo-Katan captured in a previous episode. Maybe that's why the fundie Mandos weren't disappointed about skipping dinner, they've been eating those things for weeks now. Edit: I also noticed that when Axe's group says they are "flanking" they move about three feet to the left. And what do Axe and Paz fight about later? His poor understanding of flanking.

So now that we know what is behind the red door, what was the point of Jack again? Seems to me like this Borg plan didn't require assistance from him at all (beyond proof of concept that Borg DNA could be passed along). And why didn't the Borg call Jack Vox Machina? Come on team, it was right there! In any case, despite calling Jack their voice, they just speak to themselves anyhow and if anyone inherited the job of Borg bingo caller, it seems to be Sidney LaForge. I didn't like how the red door issue was handled with Deanna running way and Picard trying to lock Jack in his room. Why not be matter of fact about it? "Huh, that's weird. I see a Borg Cube, any idea what that could mean?" It would have been way more TNG-like if they had worked together on puzzling it out instead of getting hung up on "sorry kid, these are the rules". Tell me what you can do, TNG crew, not what you can't. Sucks that Captain Shaw died because Starfleet doesn't have doors. For that matter weren't we setting up forcefields in the bare-ass hallways not too long ago? And hasn't Starfleet had that ability for a long time? Did the Changelings burn out all the forcefield emitters? I liked Shaw finally giving Seven of Nine her propers but I was also reminded of the Mirror Universe episode of Enterprise where Archer snarks at Forrest, "bridge is yoooours, Captain!"

So many great Grogu moments this episode. I loved that he was sitting in Bo-Katan's lap and I also loved him doing the annoying toddler thing of repeating himself over and over. I hope he realizes he will not be a bad baby if he does the squeezie on Moff Gideon's windpipe, especially if he uses IG-12 to help. Hey Bo-Katan, when the villain is monologuing I know it is considered polite to wait but you really don't have to. You can start cutting through walls with your Dark Saber whenever you please rather than waiting. Hey Mandalorians, having someone carrying a Squad Automatic Weapon sure came in clutch here! Maybe bring two next time? Props to Paz Vizsla for going out like a BOSS. This is the Way! Weird for Gideon to fight the Mandalorians with his own versions of them though. I was not in martial arts for very long when I was a kid but I vividly remember the advice to not use boxing against a boxer and so on. The Imperial Mandos will have some weakness like their jetpacks freezing up once they get to a certain height or something. As unusual as the stunt casting last week was, who had Skinny Pete as a Mandalorian on their bingo card for this week? Mixed Mandalorian socials must be so awkward. Aside from having two different sets of rules for Space Chess, there's also the thing where the liberal Mandos get to eat food while the fundie Mandos get to sit there watching. Maybe they all drink smoothies or something. It would be a shame if Paz Vizsla died because he didn't get a proper breakfast.

I really like the team dynamic in this episode although I wish they had at least mentioned Lucy. But it was great to see everyone rallying for Tennant with even Cmdr. Chase and Boom Boom showing up to help even though they weren't actually asked. I also liked that this was an episode with a nice, tight timeline. The whole situation unfolds over a short time period and unlike Hawaii 5-0 we don't spend half the episode with the team having no idea what is going on. Instead, the helicopter is about five minutes late and they are starting to investigate already. It was great that Ernie went to sit with Alex. How often do we see situations in these kinds of shows where the children are instant orphans when the parents are in trouble? I liked that we had a character think of the impact this would have on Tennant's kids and actually being proactive in addressing it. Now, I feel as though the real Navy would have real people who do this as an actual job rather than seconding this duty to the IT guy (who can second his duties to the Bomb Disposal guy) but that's nitpicking. I still appreciate that we saw the effort.

So some sad sack of a dude shows up at Ressler's NA meeting just in time to be sponsored by him? Obvious plant is obvious, no? They keep mentioning security measures for the Post Office but by now you would think they'd understand that the security must also follow the Task Force members around too because every single one of them has been compromised repeatedly. Well, except Siya, who also falls into the "obvious plant is obvious" category. A bunch of people died on the ferry... that sunk beside the dock? I guess due to budgetary constraints we are left to imagine the disaster since we couldn't actually see it. Maybe the ferries in New York are different but I recently traveled on the Queen of Oak Bay which is still in service and basically just had to be repainted in a few spots after trashing Horseshoe Bay. You're going to have to do better than that convincing me that a ferry is that vulnerable. Although having said that, the Queen of Oak Bay crashed for lack of a cotter pin. Weird that the Post Office has its own lab but no staff for it. Weirdly... convenient. But I like Herbie and I don't get why the Task Force feels so put out by having to babysit him for a few hours. He's certainly not the most obnoxious character they've had in there by a long shot. Damn, they really have forgotten Liz.

When Jack said he was afraid of what was behind the door, I replied "Nah dude, we've been dragging ass on this mystery for so long it can't possibly be anything scary." That was bizarre. There is no shortage of phasers around. Maybe Worf told her to get some aggression out? I am confused by the distribution of Starfleet leather jackets. Jack had one even though he's not Starfleet at all. Seven put one on at some point and I assumed it was because she is rebellious (like the TNG crew in Insurrection who did the same). And now at the end of this episode, the entire TNG crew has decided to start wearing them. Geordi even has the Commodore version. I guess they've been cooped up for a while and probably needed a change of clothes. Is it cold on the ship? Beverly has been wearing a coat all season and they did open the ship's front door so maybe that's it. Maybe the Titan is a ship where if you want to turn up the lights you have to turn down the heat? I'm a little sad that they had Vadic promise to "execute" but not follow that up with "every MF last one of you" although I thought "fucking solids!" was hilarious. Speaking of Tarantino Trek, didn't he talk about wanting to do a scene where someone is yeeted through the bridge window and leaves a trail of guts behind? Vadic's demise pretty much checks that off.

Losing Vesco was much sadder than losing Liz. I will actually miss Vesco and I wish he had been crafty enough to escape Wujing's clutches one last time. But I think it is a bold choice to kill him off and it will move the story forward. Wujing went through all the trouble to get Dr. Perillos that beautiful long black leather skirt and for some reason she traded it for boring pants after their first meeting. Don't you want to torture in style? Why is it so hard to figure out where the Task Force is located? Numerous bad guys have already raided the place. And now, since Wujing knows Cooper is in charge, there is also the option of just following him to work. I still don't know what to make of Siya but I still think she's up to something. Ressler is blathering at her like he's got everything figured out and she's looking at the torture chair wondering if she can sneak it out of there for herself. Well, if Reddington can set up a field hospital in minutes in a feed store, logistics can't be that difficult.

Well, nice to see Tuvok again, even if it's a fake version of him. Apparently he is a Captain now. This episode reminded me a lot of 24 and not in a good way. Intricate commando-squad tactics that the baddies immediately flip. Everyone talking in riddles to extend the mystery to the next episode. An unstoppable countdown clock to a doomsday device (Lore) and another unstoppable countdown clock to the arbitrary dumb event that everyone is still going to attend despite the terrorist threat. Moles and traitors everywhere. The villains have now taken over and our heroes are going to have to pull some desperate moves at the last minute. We even had a scene with a call being traced. And this does all center around a character named Jack who is not quite right in the head and who kills almost everyone he sees.