S08.E09: The Cyranoid

[mxc90]

Quote

Air Date: 03/5/21

The Task Force is thrown for a loop when they encounter a nefarious enterprise that provides doppelgängers for criminals. Red scrambles to counteract a bold move by Liz.

 

[tljgator]

12 hours ago, mxc90 said:

nefarious enterprise that provides doppelgängers for criminals

Ha! I just said in the thread for the prior episode that it seemed like they purposely didn't show Lizzie's face in the previews and come here to read this...fingers crossed for another Lizzie-free outing (you know, the actor, not the surrounding chatter)! I'm starting to think someone challenged them to write her out without writing her out, and it may be the best thing to happen to the show in ages, lol.

[mxc90]

4 hours ago, tljgator said:

Ha! I just said in the thread for the prior episode that it seemed like they purposely didn't show Lizzie's face in the previews and come here to read this...fingers crossed for another Lizzie-free outing (you know, the actor, not the surrounding chatter)! I'm starting to think someone challenged them to write her out without writing her out, and it may be the best thing to happen to the show in ages, lol.

Yes. I noticed her face missing too. Fingers crossed for 5 in a row!

[paigow]

Megan Boone will be Fake!Liz... so there can be a My Fair Lady training montage of Red instructing her how to blend in

[ottoDbusdriver]

23 hours ago, mxc90 said:

Air Date: 03/5/21

The Task Force is thrown for a loop when they encounter a nefarious enterprise that provides doppelgängers for criminals. Red scrambles to counteract a bold move by Liz.

This seems all too familiar.  Didn't they do this already on The Blacklist: Redemption ? 

The Russian village where they made replicas of Americans and then replaced them.

I'm assuming that Lizzie's bold move will be to show her actual face on screen. 
Lizzie has been gone so long Agnes is probably in high school by now.

 

[milkyaqua]

On 2/27/2021 at 4:31 PM, ottoDbusdriver said:

This seems all too familiar.  Didn't they do this already on The Blacklist: Redemption ? 

The Russian village where they made replicas of Americans and then replaced them.

I'm assuming that Lizzie's bold move will be to show her actual face on screen. 
Lizzie has been gone so long Agnes is probably in high school by now.

 

They've done this in so many shows before though.  Heaven forbid Bokenkamp be original about something.

[paigow]

On 2/27/2021 at 7:31 PM, ottoDbusdriver said:

Lizzie has been gone so long Agnes is probably in high school by now.

Pretty In Pink

[edhopper]

So, what's with Megan Boone not being on the show. They should give her stunt double billing.

The FBI is back to being useless. They couldn't close off the street to stop a car from getting away?

So, bad guys didn't check abducted "Liz" for any electronic or tracking devices?

 

[edhopper]

Not only did Keene find a double, she found one that could repeat what she says in her ear with the acting ability of Meryl Streep.

And the FBI also doesn't check for electronic devices. Or keep an eye on any of their suspects.

Does the task force write reports? How are they not disbanded after letting one suspect kill another in custody and then letting her escape?

Edited March 6, 2021 by edhopper

[preeya]

On 2/26/2021 at 4:54 PM, mxc90 said:

 

Audacious!

Edited March 6, 2021 by preeya

[mxc90]

5 in a row! 

Red said he is engaged in "a 30 year project"? Good lord! It's season 8. Not a lot of people have enough "fucks" and "shits" left to give to this show!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now an arrest warrant has been issued for Keen????? Wasn't she supposed to be arrested months ago? Then foolish Ressler (who blew his chance to arrest her after their hookup) asked Cooper if he couldn't talk Panabaker out of it. Unbelievable!! 

Panabaker had first hand account at the ineptness of Cooper and his great team's epic disaster. And she leaves without firing everyone and closing the Post Office!!!!!

"It's hard to go after a beloved colleague"...... words from Harold Cooper! I am almost threw my remote at the TV.

Of course! Cooper has codes still in place for Miss Collins to use! No agents on hand to watch Mary and Miss Collins. The only thing we know about Cooper that's never in doubt: his desk drawer is well stocked with brandy and glasses.

Did Miss Collins really need Liz in her ear to disarm useless Aram? An easy task for anyone! Then Aram shoots at the bullet proof glass. Who gave this man a gun?

Cooper is patting himself and the team on the back for catching Chemical Mary. He was extremely lucky she was a slow runner. 

How many/what pills did Neville take? He looked comatose sitting that chair. That must have been his feeling after reading the script to this episode.

Liz couldn't find an easier way to meet pill popping Neville? Freeing the Freelancer, almost blowing up planes, kidnaping Mary, hiring a doppelganger and then Mary's killed seemed a little too much?!!! Sure this wasn't in the How to be a Master Criminal handbook! 

Haven't seen a good Ressler run in a while. As usual, he couldn't catch fake Keen or a break in life.

When Miss Collins put in the "contact lenses" and "ear piece", she gave a sigh and look as if Liz took over her body.  

I was waiting for Miss Collins to tell Liz "fuck you! You are not paying me enough to have gun to my head". 

Red was a little snippy to Cooper after he accused him of murder. Still not regretting dropping a bomb on him last week Harold?????

Edited March 6, 2021 by mxc90

[dwmarch]

2 hours ago, edhopper said:

The FBI is back to being useless. They couldn't close off the street to stop a car from getting away?

They actually do have a reason for this although they haven't spent much time talking about it. Their perimeters are a bag of ass because they're trying to capture Keen without letting anyone else in the FBI know. Having said that, there were some extra FBI mooks in the apartment raid who died never knowing why. But Harold did say at the end that an arrest warrant was being issued for Lizzie so now they can chase her like they've got a pair... and still fail.

The Post Office in the small town I grew up in has better security than the FBI black site Post Office. You can shut off the cameras from inside the room? Suspects aren't handcuffed? All those dudes in body armor and tactical gear are just for show?

Chemical Mary died way too fast courtesy of that instant death Hollywood strangulation. What would have been poetic would be if Faux-Lizzie had used one of Chemical Mary's own weapons on her. They could have also used chemical contamination as a reason to hustle everyone out of the building rather than having Faux-Lizzie be the nine hundredth person to escape from custody here.

Townsend is a crazy guy who sleeps most of the time and has one nurse on staff looking after him? And Red considers him a dangerous opponent?

All in all I enjoyed this episode a lot more than last week's. Last week was so meh I couldn't even muster up any snark. This week Panabaker reinvigorated me with her comment to Ressler about finding his dignity. Finally, a character on this show who looks at how everyone behaves and just straight up says "what the fuck?" Park had promise of fulfilling this role at first but she's Team Lizzie now for reasons that are tenuous at best (bad girl solidarity). Panabaker on the other hand has neither time nor energy for this team's bullshit and she called them out on not being able to find Liz because they are choosing not to.

[preeya]

Best line:

Panabaker to Ressler:  "What she knows is that you thought it was a fine idea to dip your wick in a fugitive"

[mxc90]

After this disastrous Liz experience/contract, the good people at Cyranoid will change their business to focus more on helping contestants win on game shows, have people give answers to students during exams, assist people lacking in "game" with good pick up lines, and help pro baseball teams steal signs. 

[Such A Flirt]

I like Fake Liz much better than the real one. Can we keep her, please?

None of this episode made any sense - once again. I feel like I'm doing really bad drugs every time I watch the show now. Can't believe it's been renewed.

[Surrealist]

5 hours ago, dwmarch said:

This week Panabaker reinvigorated me with her comment to Ressler about finding his dignity.

Finally, a character on this show who looks at how everyone behaves and just straight up says "what the fuck?"

Panabaker on the other hand has neither time nor energy for this team's bullshit and she called them out on not being able to find Liz because they are choosing not to.

Panabaker was everything in this episode.

As soon as she gave Ressler shit about "dipping his wick" in Liz, I was cheering. He's such a dumbass. And really, Aram? He should have shot her.

[NeenerNeener]

10 hours ago, edhopper said:

So, what's with Megan Boone not being on the show.

Yeah, I'm starting to think there's a medical reason for her absence but I don't see anything on the rumor mill about her. Oh well, I'm just going to enjoy it while it lasts.

[Neiman]

I hope they keep this Fake Liz. She’s a much better actor than the other one.

Hard to believe they didn’t have any nearby guards watching Mary or the doppelgänger. When  Aram, approached Fake Liz, my immediate thought was “How will she play him?” Knew Aram and Ressler would get played, but wasn’t sure how it would go down.

Funny how Liz has gotten so smart all of a sudden. 

[Suzysite]

I'm so bored with this show.   Like her or not, Liz makes the show more interesting.   I've ff'ed through the last couple of episodes.

[Jeffurry]

I've never watched this show before and I have no idea what's going on, but my friend started his run on the show tonight and I'm enjoying rooting for him to shoot people.

[Dowel Jones]

Why were there loads of heavily armed and armored agents available to roam the halls of the Post Office, but no one to help out in the hostile takedown at the beginning of the show, which caused 3 agents to die?  And no after action review, just back to work?

[Neiman]

2 hours ago, Suzysite said:

I'm so bored with this show.   Like her or not, Liz makes the show more interesting.   I've ff'ed through the last couple of episodes.

I totally disagree with that point about Liz making the show more interesting. These shows without her are much better than recent ones with her. Spader and Dembe are the best. The task force needs to get themselves together, though. A show with just Red and Dembe would be fine with me.

[Suzysite]

Well, to each his own, but I still think the show is boring without Elizabeth since she's one of the central characters.   It's a run of the mill crime show now. 

[ottoDbusdriver]

Faux-Lizzie ??  Fake-Lizzie ?  I'm going to go with Flizzie.

How bad is the security at the Post Office ?
-- they don't search people who turn themselves in at the front door (because that isn't suspicious at all).  While the eyepiece was not obvious, that earpiece was pretty large and would have been easily found.  For crying out loud they didn't even take away her necklace, which she proceeded to used to strangle Chemical Mary to death.
-- they didn't change any codes in the Post Office after Lizzie went rogue.
-- there was a code panel inside the interrogation room where Flizzie was kept.  Apparently it allowed her to open the door and shut off the camera.  WTF ?
-- obviously the Post Office security crew doesn't understand what the word 'scrambled' means.  If the alarm scrambled all the door codes, how did Ressler know the new code with seconds of the alarm.  And what's with all the 4-digit security codes ?  There's better security on ATM PIN codes.
-- why are there no external cameras at the Post Office ?  

When they kept mentioning Mr. Townsend I was kind of hoping that there would be a speaker box on the table next to him where he was sleeping in that chair, and the first thing that he would say when he woke up was "Good Morning Angels !!"

Aram needs to get over his obsession with Chemical Mary -- is Aram not aware of the people that the members of the Post Office have killed ?  Does he know what he's even doing there ?  But oh no, he decides he's going to have his very own war crimes trial -- dude, that's not your job.

Honestly, Lizzie is just not bright enough to pull all this off.  She's not.

Seriously Aram, just pull the fucking trigger and shoot Flizzie in the leg.  That's all you had to do. 
But no, he gets bamboozled with the gun still in his hand.  FFS !!  This is why Aram is not meant for field work.

Neville Townsend reminds me a lot of the angsty director of one of Joey's plays from the show 'Friends' -- and after doing some Googling it turns out it is the same actor, Reg Rogers.  I was almost expecting to see a plate of his mother's crabcakes next to all those pill bottles.

Chemical Mary really did die too quickly -- all of 15 seconds and she was on the floor.

It took them this long to put an arrest warrant out for Elizabeth Keen.  Seriously ?  What were they waiting for ?
At least Cooper stopped calling her 'Agent'.

Still no sign or mention of Agnes, the dogs or Robert Vesco's cat.

Still no sign of Cyranoid Agnes, Cyranoid dogs, or Cyranoid Robert Vesco's cat.  :)

ETA: And once again the Blacklister o' the week gets away again.

Edited March 7, 2021 by ottoDbusdriver

[saber5055]

36 minutes ago, ottoDbusdriver said:

the first thing that he would say when he woke up was "Good Morning Angels !!"

Thanks for the LOL moment!

I've been to software companies that have better security than the Post Office. Actually, I've been to grocery stores that have better security than the Post Office.

ETA: I've searched and no one anywhere is talking about the missing Megan Boone, even Megan Boone. Crossing fingers that "missing" is the adjective that continues to describe her. Bring on the Red and Dembe show.

Edited March 6, 2021 by saber5055

[preeya]

2 hours ago, ottoDbusdriver said:

-- there was a code panel inside the interrogation room where Flizzie was kept.  Apparently it allowed her to open the door and shut off the camera.  WTF ?

this was probably the most outrageous fukup in the entire episode

[milkyaqua]

Once again I flipped back and forth.  I saw enough to think fake Liz was the better Liz and wondered could we keep her instead of the the real one?  Also, how has Liz figured all of this out when Red doesn't even seem to know some of these things?  And she's taking and doing this all on the word of her dying "mother's" last phone message.  She just trusts every thing this woman said because she was her mommy and she'd never lie?

Ressler and Aram are useless.  I watched enough of their scenes to see if they'd do the same dumb things they usually do and of course, they did.

This whole task force is useless.  And this is some 30 year plan of Red's?  What the heck?  And Mr. Townsend and his pills?  So his nurse just keeps him drugged up and no one else who works for the guy questions this or are they all in on it?

As for Cooper, why on earth he let the whole task force in on N13 when none of them can keep their mouths shut or owes Red some sort of favor?

I missed Panabaker's takedown of Ressler.  If only it would keep him from doing the same dumb thing again but you know it won't.

That post office has had the worst security since season one and no one's done anything to upgrade it?  No metals detectors no infrared machines or whatever other machines you can use to detect weapons or listening devices?  Besides all the other things mentioned like all the codes that should have been changed and all the devices in the interrogation rooms that no suspect should have access to.  They deserve to all be jobless.

[Dowel Jones]

5 hours ago, ottoDbusdriver said:

Seriously Aram, just pull the fucking trigger and shoot Flizzie in the leg.

As was so memorably spoken in The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, "If you're going to shoot, shoot.  Don't talk."

The pay for those cyranoids must be really good.  Why else would someone willingly agree to walk into a situation where they might eat a bullet at any moment from someone less "honest" than Reddington?  And Liz was perfectly willing to let Ms. Collins die.

Note to Aram:  Napalm is a chemical weapon.

[BrownBear2012]

On 3/5/2021 at 10:41 PM, mxc90 said:

5 in a row! 

Red said he is engaged in "a 30 year project"? Good lord! It's season 8. Not a lot of people have enough "fucks" and "shits" left to give to this show!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now an arrest warrant has been issued for Keen????? Wasn't she supposed to be arrested months ago? Then foolish Ressler (who blew his chance to arrest her after their hookup) asked Cooper if he couldn't talk Panabaker out of it. Unbelievable!! 

Panabaker had first hand account at the ineptness of Cooper and his great team's epic disaster. And she leaves without firing everyone and closing the Post Office!!!!!

"It's hard to go after a beloved colleague"...... words from Harold Cooper! I am almost threw my remote at the TV.

Of course! Cooper has codes still in place for Miss Collins to use! No agents on hand to watch Mary and Miss Collins. The only thing we know about Cooper that's never in doubt: his desk drawer is well stocked with brandy and glasses.

Did Miss Collins really need Liz in her ear to disarm useless Aram? An easy task for anyone! Then Aram shoots at the bullet proof glass. Who gave this man a gun?

Cooper is patting himself and the team on the back for catching Chemical Mary. He was extremely lucky she was a slow runner. 

How many/what pills did Neville take? He looked comatose sitting that chair. That must have been his feeling after reading the script to this episode.

Liz couldn't find an easier way to meet pill popping Neville? Freeing the Freelancer, almost blowing up planes, kidnaping Mary, hiring a doppelganger and then Mary's killed seemed a little too much?!!! Sure this wasn't in the How to be a Master Criminal handbook! 

Haven't seen a good Ressler run in a while. As usual, he couldn't catch fake Keen or a break in life.

When Miss Collins put in the "contact lenses" and "ear piece", she gave a sigh and look as if Liz took over her body.  

I was waiting for Miss Collins to tell Liz "fuck you! You are not paying me enough to have gun to my head". 

Red was a little snippy to Cooper after he accused him of murder. Still not regretting dropping a bomb on him last week Harold?????

Ha! Best rundown of this mess of a show yet!!

[SherriAnt]

I am so sick of the "Lizzie is a precious angel we must protect her". She's a terrible agent, person, friend and mother. As if her week long relationship with Rostova was so important that she wrecked her whole life. And she's a murderer, worse even than Red. 

I second the vote for getting rid of Liz, I say get rid of the whole FBI and just have the Red and Denbe show. 

[edhopper]

53 minutes ago, lora said:

I thought Fake Liz was creepy. Also is this thing with the avatar a real thing or did they turn the series into a science fictions show?

Its scifi, from the co tact lens camera to a two way ear bud that has unlimited reception.

Also FakeLiz's responses, with there perfect emotional tone as if she was speaking them and not repeating the words, happened before Liz could have said them and then FL repeated them.

[paigow]

On 3/6/2021 at 11:32 PM, SherriAnt said:

I second the vote for getting rid of Liz, I say get rid of the whole FBI and just have the Red and Denbe show. 

Getting rid of the FBI is bad for Red. Who else would do all the leg work for free?

[TV Anonymous]

There are many episodes in this show that make no sense, but this episode is definitely up there among those that make the least sense.

• What kind of communication devices that the cyranolds wear? Continuous real-time video feed from a contact lens?
• The cyranolds, and the law enforcement, do know that any criminal activity, including murder, that the cyranolds do is chargeable to themselves, not to their principal, do they not?
• The cyranolds are just relaying messages from the principal, are they not? They are not in any way take over the principal's personality, are they?
• They also know that if they are shot, they die, do they not? Their principal remains untouched. The reason I ask this is because the avatar was rather cavalier in the first several empty shots that Reddington did.

[Dowel Jones]

26 minutes ago, TV Anonymous said:

The cyranolds are just relaying messages from the principal, are they not? They are not in any way take over the principal's personality, are they?

That's right, they don't.  Ms. Collins responded to everything in a flat, uninterested monotone, and displayed no sense of acting at all.  Oh, wait....

[CaptainE]

Just can’t waste much time.  So much dreck here still.

Aram wouldn’t shoot anyone even if a tiny baby was in danger.  
 

As said above, video feed from a contact lens?  Have we jumped forward a century or two? 
 

Previous seasons Red would have not hesitated to waste that murderous woman.  
 

That is all.

[yourmomiseasy]

Count me as another that prefers fake Liz to real Liz.  

So does the FBI Agents union make it impossible to fire agents?  Because that's the only reason I can think of that they have not all been shitcanned.

[Haimyas]

How didn’t Neville Townsend know about the fake death of Katarina Rostova? In S08E02 William Heidegger found out about it and he is a very high-ranking representative in the Townsend organization.