S05.E08: Safe House

[thewhiteowl]

When an undocumented woman is violently abducted, the team forms an unlikely alliance to try to bring her home alive.

[Danielg342]

This was...an episode, I guess.

Lots of great, stirring moments from the cast who pretty much all brought their A-game tonight, giving the story the urgency and the meaning the plot called for.

I'll also give the show credit that, despite the kidnap victim being a woman, the show didn't resort to the explanation of it being about sex or romance or even just the fact they wanted a woman. They wanted her to find drugs they were missing.

You could have made a man the victim in this case- and, in many cases, other shows would have- so credit to the show there for an approach that is still kind of novel.

Still, I can't help but feel like this show recycles the same plots over and over again for their "cases of the week", only choosing to dress them up a bit differently. If they're not dealing with an ex-military group, it's a gang. Drugs are almost always involved, and hostages usually get thrown in there somewhere to raise the stakes and make the situation trickier.

Worse, the victims and the perpetrators tend to always be minorities, and stereotypical depictions at that., I mean, in this episode, despite the fact that many other nationalities can have undocumented immigrants and drug gangs, the show obviously cast those roles as Latin Americans.

Not that it's necessarily bad that the show uses those concepts for stories. The problem is that these stories are told in the most basic way possible, with SWAT running after them needing to "beat the clock" in some way. There's hardly any depth or exploration, with the cases not having much in the way of personality.

Sure, this episode did have a side plot with Mama Pina, but the show barely used that well when it was rich with possibilities. Same thing with throwing in Marcos and ICE- all that stuff just muddied the story. It would have been far better to focus on one angle for the story and leave it at that- that way we might have a story that actually had some actual development.

I think, going forward, I'm most interested in how things shake up with Luca and Marcos. That relationship always felt like it hung by a thread and, while I'm not sure I want it to blow up completely, I think it's a dynamic that's worth an episode or even an arc to pursue. Luca and Marcos are complete opposites- Luca the lawman and Marcos the outsider- even though both mutually respect each other and totally understand where they are coming from. You also get a sense that both need each other in ways they might not realize or even fully understand.

Even in this episode, Marcos had every reason not to help out SWAT, but he still does. I think it's time we actually found out why.

[milkyaqua]

14 hours ago, Danielg342 said:

Sure, this episode did have a side plot with Mama Pina, but the show barely used that well when it was rich with possibilities. Same thing with throwing in Marcos and ICE- all that stuff just muddied the story. It would have been far better to focus on one angle for the story and leave it at that- that way we might have a story that actually had some actual development.

I think, going forward, I'm most interested in how things shake up with Luca and Marcos. That relationship always felt like it hung by a thread and, while I'm not sure I want it to blow up completely, I think it's a dynamic that's worth an episode or even an arc to pursue. Luca and Marcos are complete opposites- Luca the lawman and Marcos the outsider- even though both mutually respect each other and totally understand where they are coming from. You also get a sense that both need each other in ways they might not realize or even fully understand.

Even in this episode, Marcos had every reason not to help out SWAT, but he still does. I think it's time we actually found out why.

I don't think this show is interested in being that deep though.  I do like your suggestions and think it would at the least be a break from all the personal relationship drama of the main cast (hello, Hondo and Michelle).

[nittany cougar]

18 hours ago, Danielg342 said:

This was...an episode, I guess.

Lots of great, stirring moments from the cast who pretty much all brought their A-game tonight, giving the story the urgency and the meaning the plot called for.

I'll also give the show credit that, despite the kidnap victim being a woman, the show didn't resort to the explanation of it being about sex or romance or even just the fact they wanted a woman. They wanted her to find drugs they were missing.

You could have made a man the victim in this case- and, in many cases, other shows would have- so credit to the show there for an approach that is still kind of novel.

Still, I can't help but feel like this show recycles the same plots over and over again for their "cases of the week", only choosing to dress them up a bit differently. If they're not dealing with an ex-military group, it's a gang. Drugs are almost always involved, and hostages usually get thrown in there somewhere to raise the stakes and make the situation trickier.

Worse, the victims and the perpetrators tend to always be minorities, and stereotypical depictions at that., I mean, in this episode, despite the fact that many other nationalities can have undocumented immigrants and drug gangs, the show obviously cast those roles as Latin Americans.

The story did feel like something we've seen before on this show.  I thought Deacon was kind of an ass to Chris.  Usually I like Deacon, but his tone was uncalled for.  I liked the aspect of Chris explaining that there was no good choice for the trafficking victim, who would be abused in her home country or taken advantage of here.  That scene made a powerful statement about why someone would attempt the journey here as an undocumented person

I liked the whole section with Chris going undercover and how the team were all with her in the operation.  Chris looked cool, and it was funny when she came out dressed in the undercover outfit.  It was funny when she told Hicks that her gun was in her "Louie" (Vuitton) and Tan said it was a Gucci and Chris saying "whatever it fits my gun."  Sometimes the side remarks on this show are the best part.

Edited December 11, 2021 by nittany cougar

[Danielg342]

4 hours ago, nittany cougar said:

The story did feel like something we've seen before on this show.

7 hours ago, milkyaqua said:

I don't think this show is interested in being that deep though.

I grant, going into this show, that I didn't expect a series with deep, intricate storytelling with an elaborate mystery and a complicated mythos. S.W.A.T. just isn't that type of show, and that's fine. I'll also grant that the show's writers have done, more or less, a good job at creating stories that flow well and have a good internal logic. Very rarely, I find, am I taken out of the show's story because a character made a head-scratching move or the plot became too predictable or the plot only moves along because the writer forces it to go that way. They're still believable, to a large extent.

However, early on, this show did at least manage to give their stories some personality and give the stories more stakes and urgency other than "we need to stop them!" This was the same show that gave us a great "cat and mouse" game between Hondo and the Korean drug lord in S1. The one that gave Street his proper comeuppance for being too much of a hotshot. The one where Hondo and Deacon were stuck in a forest and had to improvise. The one that gave Cortez and Alonso a rare spotlight going undercover in Mexico. The one that had a great story where Street went deep undercover. We even had some memorable villains, like the Somali warlord that tried to convince Hondo "there's a monster inside all of us".

Oh, and who could forget the one time the team "played the bad guys" and performed a "rip"? When are we going to see that again?

Even some of the light-hearted episodes and moments left quite the mark. Mumford had a heck of a last case and send-off. "Patrol"- where Tan and Street were actually patrol officers- was quite fun, as was the LAPD vs LAFD charity contests. Plus, who could forget "Hondo bingo" in the S3 premiere?

At its core, what the show seems to have forgotten- critically- is that its characters drive the show. The show doesn't have to sacrifice any of the action and excitement pieces in order to give its episodes some semblance of a character- they just need to pick an angle to explore or come up with a villain motivation that's a bit deeper than "wanting to be pure evil". I mean, before the show dropped the ball on the storyline, The Emancipators- the villains who swore to fight corruption- were the show's most compelling villains simply because they had very human and relatable motivations for what they were doing.

It's that kind of storytelling the show needs to get back to.

Which is why I like exploring Marcos and his relationship to Luca a bit more. I find Marcos compelling because he's not one of those rudimentary outlaw types who throws his hands up at the cops, swears up and down "screw the system" and just walks around all day doing "gang stuff".

No, he's probably as realistic a "gangbanger" that you can get on TV, which is saying something. You get the sense that Marcos is involved with the gangs only because he has to, and while he does hate the police, he seems to respect the need for them and what they (should) provide. His morals seem to be in the right place and, I bet, he probably feels if he made better choices in life, maybe he'd be on SWAT with Luca.

Of course, the choices he made in his life give him a perspective he wouldn't have gotten if he stayed within the bounds of the law. The criminal underworld is very much like a foreign country, and only those who are a part of it, like Marcos, truly understands what it's like.

Luca, I think, sees the good in Marcos and senses that Marcos really wants to make a difference, even if Luca doesn't truly understand the life that Marcos leads. Luca was drawn to Marcos at first because he was an asset for SWAT, but their relationship evolved to one that is so much more. Both of them see the potential to bridge the gaps between the outsiders and the system, and they pursue it because they see the value in bridging that gap. It's not a relationship that hums along in perfect harmony, but it's a relationship the two keep up because they know it will bear fruit.

Perhaps Marcos and Leroy can get together so that Hondo- who, unlike Luca, has outright disdain for Leroy's chosen life- might be able to open his eyes and see that underworld types aren't as bad as they seem. Hondo, I think, tends to see the world too much in a "black and white" circumstance (not just referring to race), so there's an opportunity here, with Luca and Marcos, for him to realize things are just actually a bit grey.

6 hours ago, nittany cougar said:

I thought Deacon was kind of an ass to Chris.  Usually I like Deacon, but his tone was uncalled for.

Yeah, I thought Deacon was way out of line in this episode. Not out of character, but still out of line. Getting aggressive with Mama Pina was a surefire way to not get her co-operation in the matter, because his aggressive nature reminds her about everything that she already hates about the police.

Then, when Christina confronts him about it- as she should- trying to justify his actions just digs his hole even deeper. At least be a bigger man and realize what you did didn't help the situation, even if it goes against your own personal convictions. Deacon needs to understand that sometimes there are bigger things to worry about than people who live "less than ideally".

[Sweet Tooth]

I have to say, the evolution of Hondo as a character is a joy to see.

Some shows, in an effort to create conflict and drama, have a character learn lessons, become better, and then have backslide after backslide.

In this episode, Hondo had a momentary lapse of judgement and then realized it immediately. I love the way they ended the episode, with him stepping up to the plate. It was also great how both women backed off and let him make the decision on his own.

The evolution of Luca is pretty cool, too. The "law and order" dude coming around and becoming friendly with Marcos, shows great strides with him as well.

Deacon, on the other hand...dude, what IS your problem? 

We've seen his black-and-white thinking with Chris's relationship, before he came around. And it did seem like when he saw Chris at the end, that he may have softened up a bit. But the guy has to know that talking to Mama Pina like that would not make her give up the goods. Especially looking like he does. 

And it seems like they might finally be figuring out what to do with Chris . They seemed to get lost with her character there, where she was either brooding or acting wild. But they've finally settled her into a nice groove that appears to fit. I hope they continue along these lines. 

They've also continued with Street being a supportive partner who listens. He's not pressuring her anymore and letting Chris be Chris, which I can appreciate. Their relationship is getting a chance to breathe and work its way up slowly. Too often, they get characters together and immediately start creating drama, so I'm relieved they've decided to take this route with the relationship.

The COTW was fine. It provided a backdrop for hitting a lot of character strengths and weaknesses. 

I assume just before the season finale, they'll start ramping up some of the other stuff that's been brewing, but for now I liked that, except for the Chris/Deacon exchange, this was a pretty drama-free, soap opera-free episode.

[DanaK]

I liked this episode. Stories like these show why the police need different voices like Chris to reach certain populations. Luca too is learning some things

I liked that Honda realized his error and came around to support his girlfriend and made sure to tell her they would figure things out now that she made the decision to go ahead with the adoption 

[Danielg342]

3 hours ago, Sweet Tooth said:

In this episode, Hondo had a momentary lapse of judgement and then realized it immediately. I love the way they ended the episode, with him stepping up to the plate. It was also great how both women backed off and let him make the decision on his own.

I liked how they played with the expected beats in the storyline. Hondo admitting he had an overreaction was great but expected, but then I expected afterwards for Nichelle to say, "no, I'm not adopting" and for Hondo to be relieved. Instead, Nichelle said, "yes, I'm doing it" and, unlike so many other men in Hollywood TV, Hondo stayed true to his word that Nichelle is his world by telling her that he's all in with the baby because that's what Nichelle wants and they'll find a way to incorporate the baby into the relationship. At least with adoption, Hondo isn't obligated to be the baby's father if he doesn't want to be or he feels he's not ready for that kind of task and I like how Nichelle isn't asking Hondo to raise the child with her- at least not yet.

You know, the two of them acted like...adults...about the situation. On Hollywood TV. Imagine that.

It could have been very easy to contrive the situation into creating more drama with Nichelle being insistent on raising the kid and Hondo being forceful about not wanting to, with one or the other caving to what the other wants and then brooding about that decision. Which then leads to more arguments, more head cases, more drama and an inevitable rift...which, as the show has pointed out, can rightly be avoided by simply being mature about things.

Kind of like how a lot of Hollywood relationship drama could be avoided if the characters simply behaved like adults about the situation instead of, well, being childish and defaulting their emotions and shutting off their brains.

Next time there's baby drama on a Hollywood show I'm going to evaluate it against how Nichelle and Hondo handled it in this episode. It was that good. Hollywood, you've been warned.

[Sweet Tooth]

3 minutes ago, Danielg342 said:

Kind of like how a lot of Hollywood relationship drama could be avoided if the characters simply behaved like adults about the situation instead of, well, being childish and defaulting their emotions and shutting off their brains.

Next time there's baby drama on a Hollywood show I'm going to evaluate it against how Nichelle and Hondo handled it in this episode. It was that good. Hollywood, you've been warned

This is almost as bad as "the misunderstanding." You know, where someone overhears or misinterprets something, and rather than having this cleared up in mere moments, by the person who misunderstood saying, "I overheard/saw this. Does it mean what I think it means?," they react on their assumption, and when the other person tries to explain, they won't let them, and the person trying to do the explaining lets themselves remain misunderstood.

I agree that this could have gone a number of ways, with Hondo continuing to resent Nichelle for not telling him sooner, Nichelle saying, "Fine! I'll raise this baby myself!" after Hondo's initial reaction, or like you said, Nichelle not accepting the baby, and Hondo being relieved. He said he'd support her before she told him she said yes, and he stood by his words.

It was indeed a very adult conversation, and I really do hope they continue along these lines. I love grown-up Hondo.

There were a lot of tropes this could have fallen into, but they avoided all of them.

[Snazzy Daisy]

This episode marks Alex Russell’s tv directorial debut on a major network! 😘

Episodes that showcased Marcos and Luca’s relationship were always good, in my book.

While Chris managed to extend her empathy to Mama Pina, Deacon was unable to withhold his judgement. This disagreement between them - a setup for next storyline?

Glad that Hondo and Nichelle are able to find common ground re the adoption. I was afraid they’re going to breakup again because Hondo is spooked by long term (love) commitments. Now give them a baby girl please!

[WinJet0819]

On 12/12/2021 at 10:45 PM, Sweet Tooth said:

They've also continued with Street being a supportive partner who listens. He's not pressuring her anymore and letting Chris be Chris, which I can appreciate. Their relationship is getting a chance to breathe and work its way up slowly. Too often, they get characters together and immediately start creating drama, so I'm relieved they've decided to take this route with the relationship.

This episode was the exception. Not the rule. Their drama, even before they got together, was suffocating the show. Especially in most of the episodes this season. Hence, most of us have been pleading for the show to cool it on their relationship focus. Seeing them focus on the Christina character in this episode, instead of just her relationship with Street was much more interesting. That's what the show seemingly had gotten away from. They stopped trying to develop her character, and just tried push the relationship drama with Street.

[Sweet Tooth]

10 hours ago, WinJet0819 said:

This episode was the exception. Not the rule. Their drama, even before they got together, was suffocating the show. Especially in most of the episodes this season. Hence, most of us have been pleading for the show to cool it on their relationship focus. Seeing them focus on the Christina character in this episode, instead of just her relationship with Street was much more interesting. That's what the show seemingly had gotten away from. They stopped trying to develop her character, and just tried push the relationship drama with Street.

While I agree that they've been floundering with Chris's character, and like I said, seemed to have found their footing again without making her overly maudlin and brooding, I was talking specifically about how just a few episodes ago, Street was getting upset why she showed up to comfort him if she wasn't willing to go whole-hog into a relationship. But now he seems to have realized that approach doesn't work, and he's backing off, allowing them to take things slow and be friends, rather than jumping into them immediately sleeping together, things getting weird, Chris feeling like she made a mistake and rushed into it, etc. That's where I thought they were going, so them taking a left turn with the relationship and slowing it way down, was great. 

And as you said, by doing that, Chris gets to be her own character rather than her only being interesting because she's with Street.

[mythoughtis]

Deacon’s attitude was just the same as it had been for many of these grey area life issues.  He sees it all from a extremely conservative  perspective.  Follow the law, get your visa properly, wait your turn etc. starving, exploited, makes no difference.   it’s the way he’s been portrayed the entire time.  Except for when Chris dated that couple and then he was ( surprisingly)  worried about Chris being hurt.  So Annie got the conservative lines  to say.   
 

The political and social preaching that goes on in this show from all sides give me a headache.  As does the fact that SWAT somehow gets to interview witnesses and interrogate suspects.  Doesn’t LA have any actual detectives? 

[Danielg342]

On 12/21/2021 at 4:20 PM, mythoughtis said:

Deacon’s attitude was just the same as it had been for many of these grey area life issues.  He sees it all from a extremely conservative  perspective.  Follow the law, get your visa properly, wait your turn etc. starving, exploited, makes no difference.   it’s the way he’s been portrayed the entire time.  Except for when Chris dated that couple and then he was ( surprisingly)  worried about Chris being hurt.  So Annie got the conservative lines  to say.   

I think what Annie said vs what Deacon said in regards to the "throuple" was more along the lines of Deacon believing it was not his place to "get involved" and tell Christina how she should live her life, even if he disagreed with that choice. I'm sure Deacon doesn't have a lot of nice things to say about Hondo or Street not settling down either but he knows their life choices are none of his business. So he stays out of it.

Deacon is, I think, more ultimately about people upholding the law and living within its bounds than anything else. He may not like a throuple or people having sex before marriage, but they're not illegal so he doesn't say anything. Mama Pina and people like her are, to the letter of the law, breaking it and he doesn't care why- he just cares that they're breaking it. When he dealt with the Patriot-like group that was hunting illegal immigrants earlier in the show's run (I believe it was S2, I don't recall exactly), Deacon did say that he understood where they were coming from and even agreed with their opinions, but he took issue with them breaking the law to achieve their aims.

On 12/21/2021 at 4:20 PM, mythoughtis said:

As does the fact that SWAT somehow gets to interview witnesses and interrogate suspects.  Doesn’t LA have any actual detectives? 

I've been complaining about that since Day 1. I do wish Hondo was a Detective (since I understand SWAT members can have other roles in the department) and/or they'd have a Detective character because it does get ridiculous how much extra stuff SWAT does.

I mean, I know "if SWAT didn't do everything we wouldn't have a show" but there's only so much they can stretch believability before it breaks.

[Raja]

16 hours ago, Danielg342 said:

I've been complaining about that since Day 1. I do wish Hondo was a Detective (since I understand SWAT members can have other roles in the department) and/or they'd have a Detective character because it does get ridiculous how much extra stuff SWAT does.

I mean, I know "if SWAT didn't do everything we wouldn't have a show" but there's only so much they can stretch believability before it breaks.

Maybe in other departments that can't afford the ready force but they are playing that this SWAT is a full time force with multiple teams waiting for the emergency calls. The show has not played that Metro should have other platoons besides SWAT under the Commander since Alonzo traded her K9 patch for a SWAT patch. Now in the original Steve Forrest SWAT Luca was an ex undercover detective and that backstory seems to have been transferred to Tan.  If memory serves they seemed to also spent their time at the desk doing paper work like the Detectives on Barney Miller waiting for a call out for Olympic SWAT, as opposed to this version spending their tier one money training.