S01.E10: Choice

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Quote

Nicky offers to help Evan when the case he's working on takes a turn; Ryan decides to officially introduce Joe as his boyfriend to his parents; Zhilan and Kerwin receive a surprise visitor.

Promo:

Original air date: 6/30/21

[paigow]

Nicky defeated by 2 drunken frat bros...

Zhilan kills 2 elite bodyguards... 

Battle at The Forge is going to be over really fast

[possibilities]

Why can't the show let Ryan and his BF be together? Too much love? Only allowed to be happy for half an episode if you're gay?

Nicky continues to be the weakest character on the show. It's depressing. Why do they keep writing her losing fights and passing off detective work to her team? Does she have any skills? Or is she just supposed to be the show's tasy morsel for dudes to pine for? Yucky.

 

[thuganomics85]

Seriously, even if she was holding back because she didn't want to just flat-out cripple or kill them, Nicky really should have been able to knock out both of those frat guys in seconds.  The fact that they were still able to destroy the phone was ridiculous.  It honestly could have simply been saved if they had at least two more evil frats there or something, because then I could buy that there was enough distraction going on to make it believable for the phone to be destroyed.  At least she had the sense to remember the identity of the witness, but even then it was Althea who came through with convincing her to turn.

But, hey, Nicky has finally made a decision on the whole love triangle thing (for now?)  Evan has been regulated to "I still care for you, but just as friends now!", while Henry gets himself upgraded to boyfriend status!  Yay?  I did find it hilarious that Nicky was concerned he might have moved on or changed his mind during their "break", because I'm not sure Henry actually has a social life outside of Nicky.  I wonder if he just lives at the library: wouldn't surprise me!

Ryan officially introduces Joe as his boyfriend to his parents, everyone is happy and makes nice, and Joe.... ends up getting his dream job in Chicago, so he's likely bouncing soon.  Sigh....

Continue to enjoy seeing Jin and Mei-Li happier and even more adventurous now.

Still find Althea's story to be the more interesting one: definitely helped by Shannon Dang's performance.

Zhilan and Tan get ambushed by his father's henchman, threats to take the weapons and kill Zhilan, so Tan kills the henchman (who use to be his friend), while Zhilan takes out the rest of the goons.  This shakes up Tan a little, but Zhilan goes from kind of putting up with him to really getting turned on by him now.  Aww, I hope these two crazies make it work!  I believe in them!

I see that Richard Speight Jr. directed this one, which is cool since I'm occasionally seeing him on screen right now as Gabriel on Supernatural, which I'm currently trying to wrap up (15 seasons, y'all!  That's a lot of Supernaturaling!)

[tennisgurl]

Being the super Kung Fu chosen one, you would think that Nicky could pretty easily handle two frat bros who are probably already at least a few beers in, but I guess even that was a bit of a struggle. She should have been able to take them down in about two moves, she really needs to step her game up. The case of the week was alright, I was a bit confused by some of the logistics like I often am, but it was one of the better ones. 

Jin and Mei-Li were really sweet this week, I am glad that they have made up from their fight. They were cute finally meeting Ryan's boyfriend as his official boyfriend...just in time for him to tell Ryan that he's moving away for his dream job. Of course. 

Turns out that Zhilan is super turned on by guys who will kill their old friends for her, which is so not surprising. It seemed like before this she was just using him as a means to an end, but now she seems like she might actually like him, even giving him a "sometimes you just have to murder a friend or sibling" pep talk. She will still probably kill him if he gets in her way, but she might actually feel bad about it. 

It looks like the love triangle is taking a break after the threesome trip (thanks Althea!) with Nicky telling Evan that she still loves him but not in that way (and he takes it well) and then going for the big kiss with Henry. Not that its settled forever, but we might at least have them as a couple for a bit now. 

The closer we get to the wedding, the more I think its going to end in bloodshed. 

[paigow]

17 hours ago, possibilities said:

Why can't the show let Ryan and his BF be together? Too much love? Only allowed to be happy for half an episode if you're gay?

Ryan makes life altering choice:

• Sabotage the job offer
• Move to Chicago
• Suicide
• Murder/ Suicide

[Camera One]

I too was pretty aghast at how they had Nicky lose to two frat guys.  Why didn't she bring some back-up to the party like all the other times?  Ryan could have worked as a look-out.  Were the videos connected to a hard drive or something?  Why not just grab that and run rather than stand around watching?  Why not be video conferencing with Althea and Evan, or have her phone files sync to the cloud as she was recording?  Case of the weeks can be fun if the the "heroes" intelligently plan it out.  

Overall, though, I though this was a much more carefully crafted episode, without super stilted dialogue.  They had three disconnected subplots, but it still worked pretty well, and the emotional scenes with Ryan, Althea and even Nicky and her "boys" played well.  

Joe knew Ryan was taking a huge step with his parents, so I wonder why he didn't say something about the job offer before they left the bar.  

Great, so now they throw in The Forge.  I'm assuming this means Nicky will be travelling back to China soon?  Unless it's a physical forge that the Chinese Community Center happens to have in their courtyard garden, or something Mei Lin will dig out of the attic to use for her mom's famous barbeque Sichuan chicken recipe.

[possibilities]

48 minutes ago, paigow said:

Ryan makes life altering choice:

• Sabotage the job offer
• Move to Chicago
• Suicide
• Murder/ Suicide

Gay misery porn.

[tv echo]

Like others here, I think it was absolutely ridiculous that Nicky couldn't easily beat two frat boys in a fight.  This show needs to show some consistency in how Nicky's fighting skills are portrayed. How difficult can it be for the showrunner and writers to decide on the level of Nicky's martial arts skills and then stick to it throughout the first season?* Realistically, those skills could improve over time, but instead they seem to be regressing. Nicky can beat an entire room of big guys in one episode, beat a martial arts dojo master in another episode, and then lose to two untrained frat boys in the latest episode. It was clearly done to drive the plot, so that Nicky and Evan would have to resort to convincing that girl to come forward as a witness, and for that scene to convince Althea to come forward in her own case against her former boss.

(* This inconsistency reminds me of Arrow where Laurel was beaten by a regular street mugger in one episode and then a few episodes later she was fighting trained martial arts assassins from the League of Assassins.)

I'm glad the love triangle is over so quickly. However, it will now be even more of a struggle for the show to give Evan a viable role in Nicky's story.** How often will Nicky need the help of an ADA in her quest for magical weapons (unless it's to cover up her illegal break-ins and thefts)? Given's Evan's reservations about his job in this episode, I suspect that Evan will quit his job as an ADA and get a new job that will bring him more closely into Nicky's story - and that will also avoid the stickiness of an ADA helping to cover up crimes.

(** Again, this reminds me of Arrow where the show struggled to fit Laurel into the main story about Oliver Queen after she stopped being Oliver's love interest, and after the show ended the love triangle with Oliver, Laurel and Tommy, but before she joined Team Arrow.)

Also, given that it's the CW, it's possible and even likely that the love triangle might come up again later.  Having Nicky and Henry get together in the first season means that they will likely break up at least once down the road. It's also possible that, if they can't find something for Evan to do, they might kill off his character to fuel Nicky's storyline and introduce a new love interest.

While Nicky has been showing improved maturity and thoughtfulness, I still struggle to like her as a character. While Nicky's storyline about finding the magical weapons is interesting, her character on its own is not that interesting. I don't know if the fault lies in the writing or the acting. It's a problem when the supporting characters (Althea, Ryan, Henry) are more interesting than the main character. Even the villains (Zhilan, Kerwin) are more interesting.

BTW, does Nicky have a job? Or is she still sponging off her parents? I believe that both Althea and Ryan have jobs outside the family restaurant (although I think Althea has taken a break to plan her wedding?). I assume that Nicky helps out in the restaurant when she has time in between her search for magical weapons. But where is Nicky getting her money from?

Edited July 3, 2021 by tv echo

[paigow]

On 7/1/2021 at 8:38 PM, Camera One said:

Great, so now they throw in The Forge.  I'm assuming this means Nicky will be travelling back to China soon?  

She has to hijack a Jeff Bezos spaceship, fly it to a white dwarf star where Peter Dinklage will make a new set of 8 weapons that are more magical than the originals...

[AnimeMania]

But in their defense, the Frat Boys were using Drunken Kung Fu!

[possibilities]

Remember when she defeated the gang that was threatening the community, including her family's restaurant, and floated in the air while doing it, and everyone thought she was magical? 

Her parents are more interesting than she is.

 

[Camera One]

1 hour ago, possibilities said:

Remember when she defeated the gang that was threatening the community, including her family's restaurant, and floated in the air while doing it, and everyone thought she was magical? 

They could have at least referenced the injury she had a few episodes ago.  At this point, her abilities are wildly inconsistent.  

Why didn't she immediately put her phone in her pocket?  She could have bluffed and said she sent the video out already, or she could have used a video call to show the frat boys were going to attack her.    

I'm assuming she locked the door from the inside, and the video was too loud so she didn't hear them turning the key?  

It did lead to the awesome scene with Althea convincing the witness, but they didn't need to make Nicky incompetent to get there.

[paigow]

4 minutes ago, Camera One said:

It did lead to the awesome scene with Althea convincing the witness, but they didn't need to make Nicky incompetent to get there.

At this rate, the Cobra Kai students would beat her with a crane kick...

[possibilities]

Another CW show had someone recording a video on her phone, which the culprit got ahold of, but she had been live streaming it to the cloud so losing the phone wasn't a problem for her. 

This show just has shitty writers.

[Trini]

Aw, I'm not as annoyed with Nicky as some of you all, but she is one of the least interesting characters, so I guess I'm not paying much attention to her varying power levels.  Truly grateful for her family who are interesting. Her parents were really cute this episode. Don't know why they needed to give Ryan drama for drama's sake.

Case-of-the-week was 'meh'; but at least it connected to Althea's story.

 

On 7/1/2021 at 3:31 PM, thuganomics85 said:

But, hey, Nicky has finally made a decision on the whole love triangle thing (for now?)  Evan has been regulated to "I still care for you, but just as friends now!", while Henry gets himself upgraded to boyfriend status!  Yay?  ...

Well, I'm happy! Henry's a cutie, but yeah, they should develop him out side of Nicky more. With him "winning" this early, though, the writers probably will throw a roadblock in front of them; but I'm going to enjoy for now.
 

On 7/1/2021 at 3:31 PM, thuganomics85 said:

Zhilan and Tan get ambushed by his father's henchman, threats to take the weapons and kill Zhilan, so Tan kills the henchman (who use to be his friend), while Zhilan takes out the rest of the goons.  This shakes up Tan a little, but Zhilan goes from kind of putting up with him to really getting turned on by him now.  Aww, I hope these two crazies make it work!  I believe in them!

LOL! I'm rooting for them too. My villain couple on Batwoman didn't work out, here's hoping Kerwin makes it out alive by the end of the season.

Glad things are moving along with Althea's story. Hopefully, she'll be able to find other victims willing to share their stories, etc.

Edited July 6, 2021 by Trini
typo

[william0102]

Episodes like this one are what make me afraid to watch Nancy Drew on this network, lol.

This was one of the the better episode, yay! They managed to tell 3 stories relatively well. Woo! Unfortunately, the only way they did that was relying on the characters being dumb. This is why the show is on the CW :(

Nicky: didn't put phone away, didn't share the files with Althea, and got her butt kicked by 2 drunk frat guys . All of that, after she had a relatively good episode for her character the last time, makes me sad.  Joe: didn't tell Ryan right away, but then made up his mind two hours later that he was going, so he HAD to tell Ryan immediately. At this point, he has to turn out to be working for Zhilan, somehow, otherwise the CW should never be allowed to have gay couples on their shows, ever. Tan, has been helped out by his old friend/bodyguard so much, he didn't think the man would figure out it was him and Zhilan who stole the axe, sigh.

Only the Zhilan part of the episode didn't suffer for the stupid choices. The Nicky and Ryan plots however, they just smack of lazy Berlanti stereotypes that work for the CW: stupid main hero and vanishing gays after they get to be happy. At this point, it honestly looks like they had two storylines that they care about (Althea and Zhilan) and they are just plunking in random/typical stories for the main character and the gay character, to make a quota of episodes.

[MichelleG]

I’m sorry but I just can’t  take Kerwin seriously…. So much plastic surgery!