S08.E17: Ivan Stepanov

[paigow]

Airing: May 14 / 21

Red tries desperately to rescue an old friend at all costs while Liz and Townsend conduct an interrogation.

****************************************************************************************************************

If only Townsend knew an expert that conducts enhanced interrogation...

[NeenerNeener]

Of course, Liz is going to get Priya killed....at some point in the future if not in this episode.

Damn straight you had no right to ask Priya to do that, Red! 

And we're back to implying that Red and Liz are blood relatives.

Wasn't the assumption from the very first episode that Red had Russian ties? Why are they suddenly freaking out about it 8 years later?

Edited May 15, 2021 by NeenerNeener

[edhopper]

I guess the FBI doesn't know how to surround a building. Twice

Whatever Ivan told Townend to make him want to kill Liz will not make sense. 

Just as Liz wanting revenge on Red makes no sense.

Ivan and Red are Liz parents or some such idiocy. 

And Townsend super villain incompetence is now going toe to toe with the FBI's crime fighting g incompetence. 

Edited May 15, 2021 by edhopper

[tljgator]

Y'all! Ressler actually shot someone that he was aiming at! It's an auspicious day, I tell ya.

[redfish]

Soooo....By aligning herself to Townsend she and the Taskforce is now on his hitlist. She opened Pandora's box and brought death to her friends and possibly her daughter. She's a terrible friend 🙄

 

 

[paigow]

5 minutes ago, redfish said:

She's a terrible friend 🙄

But great for us if Season 9 can start with a clean slate.. Red, Dembe and a few minions with Liz & The FBI dead....

[mxc90]

Neville the "Couch Potato" torturer needs to sit in a nice comfy chair to shock Ivan and watch from a TV. 

Did the FBI confiscate all the old TVs from Neville's last torture site and was nice enough to leave him with one?

Neville was quick pressing that buzzer. He must have been inspired watching a lot of Jeopardy. Too bad he will never get to hit the "Family Feud" buzzer, as he is a few family members short to be on the show.

As young Neville was yelling "Why, Why, Why?" I was saying the same thing watching this episode!

Liz tells the team she doesn't have Stepanov and Ressler had to ask her seconds later: 'So you don't have Stepanov?" Are there anymore ways the man can embarrass himself?!

Now they are calling her "Keen". It took a while for them to drop "Agent" but they finally have gotten there. Congrats!

Did Neville need to whisper the amount to Laghari? There was no one else in the room. 

That's a second miss for Wile E. Laghari. If she bought a bomb from ACME and detonated it right in front of Neville, she still would have missed killing him. Assassination is not her calling!

It was cringe watching Liz knock the cup out of the Neville's hand. Not the director's finest moment shooting that scene!

Cooper never considered Ressler could have been a traitor talking to Neville. So easy for him to accept his phone was tapped.

Aram tells the office workers to show hands and of course the senior account manager notiflies Townsend's people seconds after "Always Alert" Aram walks right pass him. Then Ressler showed his vast FBI experience by prolonging the search to interview the 20 plus employees 1 by 1, allowing Townsend's team enough time to destroy their files. 

Red travelled from Maryland to NYC in 4 minutes.

Can they rename the song: "1 through 8 are the seasons of the Witch"?

That gun fight was hilarious.

Promised great wealth somehow turned Priya into some badass infiltrator and for some reason concerned for Liz's safety?!!! Why? Now she's channeling her days of watching "The A-Team" and "MacGyver" to come up with the plan to escape. And still found time to steal some jewels. 

Could "The Concierge of Wasting Time" Red just leave the collar on Ivan and try to take off in the armored truck speeding away instead of staying in the room?

Why is Neville's men wasting time with cutters. Just gas them!

What was the guy with the big gun waiting for when Dembe got out of the back to get to the driver's seat. He was lucky he was killed before Neville found out he just let him go.

Ivan must have read the script for next week's episode. He looked so sad crying and Red there to console him.

Best part of the episode was Red telling Park to STFU! Her reaction was priceless.

As usual! The dopes are foiled again by Red. Took Cooper a while to gather all that courage to defy his boss Red and it went for naught. When will he learn! Should have dropped the bomb on him when you had the chance.

Are we supposed to welcome back Liz to the good side just because Neville wants to kill her? No way writers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Edited May 15, 2021 by mxc90

[preeya]

Three take aways:

Who is Chuck?

I think I'm suffering from hypnagogia or hypnogogic hallucinations!

Manhattan to Brooklyn (over the Manhattan Bridge) is less than a minute.

Edited May 15, 2021 by preeya

[mxc90]

4 minutes ago, preeya said:

Who is Chuck?

Not sure but upchuck is what I got midway through the episode.

[dwmarch]

It's always fun when this show calls out its own nonsense and they did in this episode: what exactly could Stepanov have said that would make Townsend want to kill Liz so badly? He already knows she's needy and annoying. He already knows she's prone to sneaking around behind his back and pursuing her own agenda. He already knows she's somehow deeply wrapped up in Red's business whether she likes it or not. So what exactly was the Big Secret? Wasn't Liz a kid when all the Russian spy stuff was going down? At this point the only thing that I can think of that makes any kind of sense is that after Townsend's family was killed she adopted his dog but then let it die of neglect so now he wants to go John Wick on her. Doesn't explain how Stepanov knows this but at least it would be something.

I loved Ressler the eternal lunkhead clearing out the little surgery bay with the see-through walls. Did he think Stepanov was hiding under the table or something?

51 minutes ago, mxc90 said:

Neville was quick pressing that buzzer. He must have been inspired watching a lot of Jeopardy. Too bad he will never get to hit the "Family Feud" buzzer, as he is a few family members short to be on the show.

Promised great wealth somehow turned Priya into some badass infiltrator and for some reason concerned for Liz's safety?!!! Why? Now she's channeling her days of watching "The A-Team" and "MacGyver" to come up with the plan to escape. And still found time to steal some jewels.

Too soon! 🤣 I almost felt bad for Townsend for a minute there. But when do you ever hear a story about someone working for Russian gangsters/spies that doesn't end with "and then they murdered my whole family"?

I also had MacGyver vibes from that escape sequence. I guess one of the writers is a fan. But all things being equal, I wish MacGyver was still on the air and this wasn't.

[paigow]

Townsend needs a better brand of Chloroform that lasts longer than 5 minutes.

Flash-bang 1 disables 2 dudes at point blank range.  Flash-bang 2 does no damage to Park at the same distance

Armored car glass fails with a .50 caliber round? Or was it depleted uranium from a 80mm Anti-Tank gun?

[milkyaqua]

Of course my signal kept going in and out so I missed some of this when I wasn't flipping back and forth to something else (like usual).

Yes, Priya's an inept assassin but she'd rather steal jewels and did (much to her probable doom).

I like when Aram makes his little speeches.  I almost want to pat him on the head.  I swear at some point when this show started Ressler had some sort of sense.  Park is always getting chastised like some misbehaving pet.  One moment Cooper sounds like someone's boss and like he knows what he's doing and then the next, nope.

Also not sure what Ivan could have said to Townsend for him to be hell bent on killing Liz but really, did he really need to be told anything to want to take her out?  I mean, it's Keen.

I know I've given up on TV shows or even movies for that matter doing things that make sense but the constant compressed time that folks get from point a to point b has always annoyed me.  I don't even live in NYC.  I know when things are shot in San Francisco someone starts at the Embarcadero and winds up at The Presidio in less than five minutes and I'm shaking my head because while the city is small, it's not that small.  Let's forget about all the plane rides across the country and across the oceans...  We won't even discuss the fact that the law enforcement people know they're dealing with hired mercenaries/criminals but hey why surround all the entry/exit points so no one can escape.  Maybe it's not in the show's budget?  Yeah, that's it.

Finally, please tell me that Townsend will meet his end this season?  Between he and Liz there's only so much character up their own butt I can take.  I of course, expect no answers to anything since we're getting another season of this but please show, make this storyline go away. 

[Dowel Jones]

I wonder how Reddington worked his way up to "concierge of crime".  Did he start out, maybe, as 'bus boy of burglary', or maybe 'line cook of larceny', and then 'maitre' d of murder'?

So Townsend puts out another directive.  The Townsend Directive 2.0?

[paigow]

What was the first directive? Kill Katerina? 

[Surrealist]

I just want the Townsend storyline to end already. It's boring, and he's a shitty character anyway.

[Such A Flirt]

The only thing I like about Townsend is his main goon, Vandyke. He should take over.

[Neiman]

Favorite part was Red’s zinger at the end when he told Park to shut her mouth. The look on her face 😂

So, I guess the secret about Liz is going to soon be forgotten by the writers like the identity of the bag of bones and the location of certain dogs and a cat?

[mxc90]

7 hours ago, dwmarch said:

what exactly could Stepanov have said that would make Townsend want to kill Liz so badly?

 

6 hours ago, milkyaqua said:

Also not sure what Ivan could have said to Townsend for him to be hell bent on killing Liz but really, did he really need to be told anything to want to take her out?

He told him: "It was Liz who got NBC to renew the show for a Season 9 and she's hopeful for a Season 10".

Rightfully drove the man mad!

Edited May 15, 2021 by mxc90

[ottoDbusdriver]

Yeah, that was yet another episode that was badly written and didn't make a whole lot of sense.

We get yet another stormtrooper-quality gunfight where hundreds of rounds are fired and only 1 or 2 people get shot.  Why couldn't one of those stray bullets have hit Lizzie and ended our (the viewers) suffering ?

@Neiman beat me to it -- because, there was still no sign or mention of the dogs or Robert Vesco's cat or Agnes (at least until next week's preview).

Was Townsend's flashback supposed to make us feel sympathy for him ?  Because it didn't. 
I just figured that they were torturing his family since Townsend wouldn't give up the recipe for his mother's crabcakes.   :)

 

[paigow]

Why is Townsend unlikeable on sight? Because he was a whiny son that faked his own kidnapping on Law & Order Mothership when daddy cut off the cash flow.

Edited May 15, 2021 by paigow

[NeenerNeener]

12 hours ago, dwmarch said:

what exactly could Stepanov have said that would make Townsend want to kill Liz so badly?

I assume it's that she's related to Red somehow. Since he thinks Red is responsible for killing his family in front of him, he'd like to return the favor. While it looks like Red isn't Katarina with a sex change, maybe he's the brother of the OG Raymond Reddington? That would make too much sense and there would have been no reason to hide that all these years so that's probably not it. Think of the unlikeliest thing it can possibly be....and then triple down on that, and it's what we will get from these writers in the series finale, if at all.

[ottoDbusdriver]

12 hours ago, dwmarch said:

what exactly could Stepanov have said that would make Townsend want to kill Liz so badly?

You've been made a cast regular for Season 9.  :)

[Neiman]

If they don’t take out Liz, I hope they at least get to Agnes. All plot involving her is a boring distraction. 

[Brian Cronin]

The problem here is that "Red is Liz's mother" theory is one of the only thing that fits all of this stuff, as if Ivan had told Townsend "Reddington IS Katarina Rostova" then that would fit with him wanting to kill Liz in front of Red, right? 

And I HATE "Red is Liz's mother" as a theory and it doesn't fit with so much of what we know (like Red apparently having a lot of sex with Anne. Although I guess Anne might have been just super cool with Red being trans, but that's not at all what their scenes read like, right?). I think it is a terrible idea, but damned if everything doesn't seem to continue to point that way. 

[BrownBear2012]

This show was so much better this season when Elizabeth wasn't in it...now we're back to her whining about her "mother" and trying to act all tough girl bad ass bitch. Ugh. And I have to say something about Aram...he was their IT guy and now he's a gun wielding field agent? His character is just hilarious to goof on. I swear the show runner must go to a creative writing class at some middle school and pluck out a few kids to write for this show. What a sad decline...it really should be put out of its misery.

[preeya]

2 minutes ago, BrownBear2012 said:

This show was so much better this season when Elizabeth wasn't in it...now we're back to her whining about her "mother" and trying to act all tough girl bad ass bitch. Ugh. And I have to say something about Aram...he was their IT guy and now he's a gun wielding field agent? His character is just hilarious to goof on. I swear the show runner must go to a creative writing class at some middle school and pluck out a few kids to write for this show. What a sad decline...it really should be put out of its misery.

THIS ↑

I wrote something similar in the New Amsterdam forum.

[milkyaqua]

10 minutes ago, BrownBear2012 said:

I swear the show runner must go to a creative writing class at some middle school and pluck out a few kids to write for this show. What a sad decline...it really should be put out of its misery.

I'm pretty sure a number of us have been saying Bokenkamp and TPTB have just been throwing stuff at a wall to see what would stick and then going from there but kids writing this sounds about right but that's kind of insulting to the kids.  This is like so many shows that started off well but then went down the rabbit hole in "mythology" and then didn't/couldn't keep it right or care because they figured the audience would just go along on the hope they would get some answers or just not remember what came before.  But that's dumb on their parts because audiences do remember things (maybe not everything) but enough to know when their chains are being yanked or that the showrunners are just collecting a check.

[squidprincess]

I'm not really a Reddington is Katarina believer (though it doesn't really seem anymore nonsensical than most of the show at this point), but I think it's worth pointing out that trans men can and do have very satisfying sex lives.

Edited May 16, 2021 by squidprincess

[ottoDbusdriver]

Wasn't Reddington dying earlier this season ?  So what happened to that ?  He never got a miracle cure or anything, so he still should be dying.

[BrownBear2012]

15 minutes ago, ottoDbusdriver said:

Wasn't Reddington dying earlier this season ?  So what happened to that ?  He never got a miracle cure or anything, so he still should be dying.

Right??? That storyline seems to have been discarded and replaced with the "who is Lizzie's mommy and daddy" storyline...again.

[Brian Cronin]

45 minutes ago, squidprincess said:

I'm not really a Reddington is Katarina believer (though it doesn't really seem anymore nonsensical than most of the show at this point), but I think it's worth pointing out that trans men can and do have very satisfying sex lives.

Oh, of course, but it would typically come UP in conversation, ya know? That Anne never even slightly mentioned it suggests that she didn't know, which wouldn't make sense. But I assume they'll just handwave it with, "Red got, like, the most amazing surgery ever." 

[paigow]

22 hours ago, Such A Flirt said:

The only thing I like about Townsend is his main goon, Vandyke.

Dude looks like Gunther from Friends 

[Such A Flirt]

Not the bald dude - the hot one with the long hair and piercing eyes. He hates Lizzie.

 

ETA: IMDB says the actor is Lukas Hassel.

Edited May 16, 2021 by Such A Flirt

[paigow]

4 hours ago, Such A Flirt said:

Not the bald dude - the hot one with the long hair and piercing eyes. He hates Lizzie.

 

ETA: IMDB says the actor is Lukas Hassel.

These guys were separated at birth!!!

I never paid attention to their names. Sorry.

[paigow]

On 5/15/2021 at 1:37 AM, Dowel Jones said:

I wonder how Reddington worked his way up to "concierge of crime". 

• Valet of Villainy
• Doorman of Depravity
• Bellhop / Barista of Battery

[tvfanatic13]

Dear PTB- why can’t you just focus on blacklisters? Please 🙏🙏

I don’t care about who Red is anymore, I don’t care about Lizzie. I like watching them foil the black listers. 🙏🙏🙏

[kirkola]

 

On 5/16/2021 at 2:30 PM, paigow said:

• Valet of Villainy
• Doorman of Depravity
• Bellhop / Barista of Battery

I am loving this list of titles for Red.

What I immediately thought was Ivan whispered something like "Masha is N13".  She would have been just a baby or toddler at best...and it would have been easy for her to tell something she wasn't supposed to tell to the wrong goon.  Or that for some reason, N13 isn't a person trading secrets, but that N13 is the secret.  She's Russian right?  Maybe Masha is Anastasia's daughter or granddaughter or something.  And now all that Tsar Nicholas II money is owed to her.  Then she could reclaim the throne of Russia...which might upset some people.

That's (ok, not the Anastasia thing) the only common sense solution I have as to why Townsend would be mad at Liz/Masha.  That Anastasia thing was just for fun.

[Johnny Dollar]

I stopped watching this show when the idea of Lizzie becoming some super criminal with the ability to take on both the feds and Red Reddington became too preposterous. But I have one question for the brave souls who have stuck with it. What happened to Agnes?

[b4pjoe]

On 5/19/2021 at 8:48 AM, kirkola said:

That's (ok, not the Anastasia thing) the only common sense solution I have as to why Townsend would be mad at Liz/Masha.  That Anastasia thing was just for fun.

Common sense in this show? No room for that in this show. 😃

Edited May 21, 2021 by b4pjoe

[mxc90]

1 hour ago, Johnny Dollar said:

But I have one question for the brave souls who have stuck with it. What happened to Agnes?

She's somewhere overseas and being watched by a stranger (whom Liz considers a dear friend after meeting her for a few minutes). 

[ottoDbusdriver]

3 hours ago, mxc90 said:

She's somewhere overseas and being watched by a stranger (whom Liz considers a dear friend after meeting her for a few minutes). 

Somewhere in Norway as far as we know.

[kaygeeret]

I admire the grit and the entertaining entries from those of you who continue to watch.

I gave up after season 1.5.  Never made it to season 2.

I only stuck with it that long because I love the actor playing Red - sadly blanking on the name at this moment.

But I do enjoy coming here to read the comments.

Apparently someone loves the show as it continues, but the mystery is who and why?

I will continue to dip in every now and then to enjoy your commentary.

Thanks