S01.E17: The Dex Files

[MissLucas]

12 hours ago, catrice2 said:

I thought so too, but I think it has finally lost me.  I went off the Dex character a while ago, Grey is boring, Grey and Dex are boring, and Michael Ealy and his partner getting together was too predictable.....it is missing something and I can't put my finger on it....

There was a quirky charm that I think was owned to the comic roots of the show. Remember the ridiculous car chase/fight from the pilot? It was fun and over-the-top in the best popcorn tv tradition - but not something you'd expect to see in recent episodes that give off a much more dreary realism vibe. Show's off-kilter and I can't feel helping a bit duped too.

Edited March 24, 2020 by MissLucas

[Gothish520]

On 3/19/2020 at 12:16 PM, saber5055 said:

Who wears watches these days. Anyone? Or just old rich guys. Everyone I know, including me, checks time on their phone.

On 3/19/2020 at 1:29 PM, Dowel Jones said:

Rich young guys, too.  Of which I am not (disclaimer).  It's more of a status symbol, much like jewelry.  "Watch me check the time on my $10,000 Rolex" plays a lot better in their eyes than pulling out the cell phone like the ordinary people do.

On 3/19/2020 at 2:38 PM, edhopper said:

I wear a watch. Easy to just bend a wrist than pull phone from pocket. And analog watches are better visual indications of time than digital. Chart vs just numbers.

On 3/19/2020 at 5:17 PM, Ms Blue Jay said:

I love jewellry and always wear a watch.  I would so much rather look at my wrist than fish for my phone in my purse, which could take 1-2 minutes in itself.  Sometimes it's so hard to find my keys in my purse when I get home I have to dump the whole thing out on the floor.   And a lot of women don't have pockets on our clothes, so our phones wouldn't be there either.

A lot of people who are wealthy, or simply love jewellry in general, wear watches.

For example, I watch Real Housewives, and I'm always coveting the watches they wear.

On 3/22/2020 at 12:23 AM, Linderhill said:

I do and I'm not an old rich guy.  It drove me crazy one week when I forgot to pick up my watch when I had to go on a business trip.  It was a royal pain to have to dig my phone out of my pocket everytime I wanted to know the time.  

Glad we finally got a few scenes with the famous Benny!  

eta: my ex-husband would never wear a watch and would be constantly be asking for the time, and that was before cell phones were very common and after they were.

On 3/22/2020 at 8:43 AM, MissLucas said:

And yeah, I wear a watch (not a Rolex) faster than digging into my purse when I want to know the time. 

On 3/22/2020 at 2:35 AM, shapeshifter said:

After I started carrying around a cellphone, I stopped wearing watches, but...

I never thought I would stop wearing a watch, but after I got my first smartphone I finally gave them up and don't miss them at all. I always have my phone in a slim holder with a clip and usually keep it on my belt or pocket. If I have to dress up then it just goes in my purse.

My husband, however, still wears watches and will never give them up. 

As for Rolexes, I've always found them rather ugly, but they are iconic so they make a statement. Back in the day I would've gone for a nice Movado if I wanted to spend some bank on a watch. If I wanted to spend Rolex money, I'm sure I could find a nicer high end watch.

Edited March 24, 2020 by Gothish520

[Ms Blue Jay]

2 hours ago, MissLucas said:

There was a quirky charm that I think was owned to the comic roots of the show. Remember the ridiculous car chase/fight from the pilot? It was fun and over-the-top in the best popcorn tv tradition - but not something you'd expect to see in recent episodes that give off a much more dreary realism vibe. Show's off-kilter and I can't feel helping a bit duped too.

I bet that scene was really expensive.  They probably couldn't keep it up.  But I get what you're saying.

I'd much rather have a watch on my body that just uses a battery rather than a keep a phone on my body which uses Wifi and mobile towers for signals.  Personally.  I'd much have a phone ring from far away in a purse than on my body and annoy my ears too.  

Edited March 24, 2020 by Ms Blue Jay

[saber5055]

2 hours ago, MissLucas said:

Remember the ridiculous car chase/fight from the pilot?

That reminds me that Dex used to gt in a brawl every episode. I remember, she never ever got even a scratch or bruise. Those were fun, and was the car auto-playing tapes. I had forgotten about all the fight scenes.

[shapeshifter]

13 hours ago, saber5055 said:

Those were fun, and was the car auto-playing tapes

We at least got a glimpse of the the car auto-playing tapes again. I guess with all the character plot-arcs spinning there isn't time for a nice old song montage with a chase scene.

[snarktini]

Question: Why was everyone taken to the police station, including Tookie's wife and the DOD guy? Was the sex being paid for?

The pixie-cut woman was drugging and robbing dudes, that much is clear. It wasn't clear if there was a larger ring of thieves or just her. And I have no idea if a sex club is strictly legal but it should be as long as money isn't changing hands.

 

[Alex22]

Does anyone know why Tookie calls Grey "Stripes" at the end? What does it mean? Did I miss something that happened with the two?

[paigow]

7 hours ago, snarktini said:

Question: Why was everyone taken to the police station, including Tookie's wife and the DOD guy?

 

Probably running ID for parole / probation violators.

[LaMatadita]

7 hours ago, Alex22 said:

Does anyone know why Tookie calls Grey "Stripes" at the end? What does it mean? Did I miss something that happened with the two?

I thought it was a reference to those old-timey prison uniforms with the black and white stripes, since Grey has done time. If it means something else, I have no idea!

[MisterGlass]

On 3/25/2020 at 1:10 PM, snarktini said:

Question: Why was everyone taken to the police station, including Tookie's wife and the DOD guy?

I thought it was the drug use.

[TV Anonymous]

Why am I more interested in Hoffman and Lee's adventure than whatever happens to Dex?

[Clanstarling]

On 3/19/2020 at 1:02 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Nothing that Laura said was untrue, but that still doesn't make what she did okay. Her first step should have been saying all of those things to Tookie BEFORE sleeping with someone else. Yes, he was spending a lot of his time on the food truck, but I don't think he realized just how much time and he definitely didn't realize how it was making her feel so he didn't know that there was anything to fix.

Going to a sex club seems a pretty big and deliberate step, so I have no sympathies for her.

On 3/19/2020 at 9:16 AM, saber5055 said:

Who wears watches these days. Anyone? Or just old rich guys. Everyone I know, including me, checks time on their phone. That the women would be targeting men to steal their watches was all 1950s. More likely they would steal their phones and empty their wallets and take credit cards. But I'm not writing for this show.

But these watches are very expensive (diamond studded, as they observed), easy to steal and easy to pawn (or whatever it is thieves do to get money from stolen goods).

 

On 3/19/2020 at 11:15 AM, bigmag said:

So was Benny the only one killed in the bomb attack?  If the rest of the squad was dirty and he was killed to prevent him from telling, was there any collateral damage?  It may have been mentioned on the show if there were other casualties but I don't watch that closely.  It would seem unusual I would think to have just one person killed in a bomb attack.

It seems like it would be hard to target precisely enough to kill only one passenger. So I'm guessing he wasn't the only one. At a minimum, the others had to be severely injured.

On 3/19/2020 at 11:38 AM, edhopper said:

I wear a watch. Easy to just bend a wrist than pull phone from pocket. And analog watches are better visual indications of time than digital. Chart vs just numbers.

Digital all the way. I like the precision.

On 3/19/2020 at 2:05 PM, Bulldog said:

I don't think I have ever in my entire life seen anyone actually sniff the shirt they are wearing then immediately take it off and toss it in the washer.  Yet, that is a TV trope that is shown all. the. time.  Of course it helps, if you have a young, good looking, ripped guy doing it.  They would never shoot a scene with Tookie doing the same thing. 

You haven't been in my laundry room then. 😉 Of course, that only happens AFTER I've been exercising.
 

Things that bugged me:

Miles has no jurisdiction where the sketchy guy lived (hours away). Pointless to ask him to talk to the guy.

No one with the DOD would ever leave their computer unlocked in their hotel room. No one, DOD or not, should.

 

[Kel Varnsen]

On 3/20/2020 at 12:36 PM, saber5055 said:

Can someone help explain Benny's timeline. He and Dex dated before he got married and had a child, correct? But then Dex joined the military and Benny left his wife and kid to follow her to Iraq (or wherever)? Did he get a divorce first? Did he date Dex after that and she left for the military anyway? She found a ring and thought Benny was going to propose, but didn't she find the ring after she came back stateside? So how could he be proposing on that military base? Weren't they stationed near each other, or on the same base? If so, why didn't he just walk over to her barracks?

I like that Dex appears to wear Cobie's real clothes, like her t-shirt with the frayed neck in this episode. She dresses like a real person, not an actor who is dressed by the Wardrobe Dept.

I would love to have a better idea of the timeline. It seems they met at some point around or after 2004, since that is when Tegan and Sara released Walking with a Ghost. At that point Dex was under 21 as she couldn't get into the bar. At some point after that she enlists in the military and works her way up to Chief Warrant Officer and gets sent to Iraq. Then Benny is killed and she comes back home and does a bunch of stuff before becoming a PI.

On the plus side I totally bought how they made up mid 2000's Dex. Because if you look at season 1 How I Met Your Mother she hardly looks that different. So it works for me.

As for the frayed shirt Dex was wearing, it was the shirt Benny put in her washing machine.

On 3/21/2020 at 7:11 PM, Ms Blue Jay said:

"Daughter" and "Alive" - I was swooning!

Well Yellow Ledbetter is their song so it works.

[Ms Blue Jay]

50 minutes ago, Kel Varnsen said:

On the plus side I totally bought how they made up mid 2000's Dex. Because if you look at season 1 How I Met Your Mother she hardly looks that different. So it works for me.

IMO her nose is different for sure, and she's a lot thinner these days.  But I know what you mean because she is beautiful and has aged gloriously.

[saber5055]

1 hour ago, Kel Varnsen said:

As for the frayed shirt Dex was wearing, it was the shirt Benny put in her washing machine.

Oh, wow, great catch that I totally missed. I like the rocker Ts that Dex wears, but I never noticed what Benny was wearing.

[Ceindreadh]

Tookie to Hoffman “nobody wants to see you skinny dip”

I beg to differ. 😜