S12.E09: Firewall

[zapper]

A cyber-attack on the NYPD forces Danny and Baez to release an evasive suspect; Baez questions her place with the NYPD; Eddie is torn over a workplace dilemma; Jamie wrestles with a family secret.

Edited December 9, 2021 by zapper

[preeya]

Alex Kingston, Dr. Corday from ER. Looks good at age 59.

Eddy Jenko Reagan, a huge pain in the ass. If I were NYPD I wouldn't want her as my partner either.

The whole episode was blah.

[susannah]

I only saw the second half of the show but was glad to see Alex Kingston, who will always be Elizabeth, and she is looking good. Eddie has a good heart and I assume she was trying to help the pregnant officer who was horrible to her with zero apologies, even when she found out that Eddie didn't rat her out, and I sure wouldn't be hugging her after getting that kind of attitude. I was hoping Baez was on her way out but no such luck. Really over hers and Danny's sappiness over each other. They are partners, they are not in a romantic relationship. I also thought Henry was a huge jerk, but I always think that. Loved Frank's and Abigail's chat!

[mojito]

I liked the scene with all the citizens pulling out their phones to video Danny and Baez. It has to be highly annoying as a cop when you’re doing something as routine as questioning someone accused of stalking, especially when the onlookers start expressing opinions of something they know nothing about. 
 

Has there ever been an episode of this show where no one was drinking alcohol? As I reflect different scenes, it occurs to me that Danny’s the Reagan whom I have the fewest memories of drinking.

[DanaK]

This isn't the first time Henry has had issues because of his age. Didn't they have to take his car away from him several seasons ago?

I liked seeing Alex Kingston again. Her character certainly had a prickly relationship with Frank this time around. She was both using their friendship and hiding things from him

I have to side with Danny not picking that guy up when he didn't have any information on him. I don't understand all the bricks thrown at him by the police department. That outside detective was a jerk and had a bad attitude, which was rich given she couldn't keep hold of the bad guy

 

[ctlady]

1 hour ago, DanaK said:

I have to side with Danny not picking that guy up when he didn't have any information on him

I agree due to the fact that they couldn't do anything procedure wise due to the outage that they couldn't do an on the spot background check.  What makes me fume is the fact that if there weren't a sudden nosy crowd of people encircling the victim with their cell phone cameras taking evidence of what they deemed was police harassment which then shamed that poor woman with the dog who WAS being harassed to drop the entire thing because she didn't want to be labeled a 'Karen' forced Danny and Baez to stop rather than wait for Baez to call in his ID for a background check.  Because of the crowd's harassment, a dangerous suspect got let go.  If people just minded their own business and let the cops do their job he wouldn't have gotten away.

Same with Eddie and her partner.  What part of "stop, put the gun down and put your hands up" did the perp NOT understand?  If only they just obeyed the police officer's command instead of trying to run away forcing the cops to chase him down which resulted in Eddie's pregnant partner getting shot.  Both instances just show just how much police officer's hands are tied due to public scrutiny

Erin referring to her family as her 'tribe' (not so much for some thinking it's native american appropriation, but moreso because it's catch-phrasy as a reference to your inner circle).  I loathe that term as much as I do 'squad'

I'm glad Baez is okay.  For some reason, I hope her and Danny do eventually get together.

[DanaK]

3 minutes ago, ctlady said:

I agree due to the fact that they couldn't do anything procedure wise due to the outage that they couldn't do an on the spot background check.  What makes me fume is the fact that if there weren't a sudden nosy crowd of people encircling the victim with their cell phone cameras taking evidence of what they deemed was police harassment which then shamed that poor woman with the dog who WAS being harassed to drop the entire thing because she didn't want to be labeled a 'Karen' forced Danny and Baez to stop rather than wait for Baez to call in his ID for a background check.  Because of the crowd's harassment, a dangerous suspect got let go.  If people just minded their own business and let the cops do their job he wouldn't have gotten away.

What surprised me was that the crowd was doing it for a White male, but he was also getting them hyped up; he knew what he was doing. Sometimes in real life, bystanders do need to intercede with police when it looks like they are unnecessarily harassing someone or hurting them, but most of the time, they need to just let the cops do their jobs as long as they are being professional about it

[Sarah 103]

3 hours ago, mojito said:

Has there ever been an episode of this show where no one was drinking alcohol? As I reflect different scenes, it occurs to me that Danny’s the Reagan whom I have the fewest memories of drinking.

My guess is that is because we only saw Danny drink at Sunday dinner. While married, he rarely went out to a bar, and we didn't see too many romantic date nights with Danny and Linda. I don't think there has ever been an episode where no one was drinking alcohol because the adults usually have alcoholic beverages at Sunday dinner. 

My problem with the Henry plot was that it was conflating mental and physical decline. Jamie can't do anything about mental decline, but he can try to mitigate problems with physical decline. The beginning of the end for my grandfather was when he tripped and fell in his house. Fixing a floorboard and other things so Henry doesn't trip made perfect sense to me.  

[mojito]

1 hour ago, Sarah 103 said:

My guess is that is because we only saw Danny drink at Sunday dinner. While married, he rarely went out to a bar, and we didn't see too many romantic date nights with Danny and Linda. I don't think there has ever been an episode where no one was drinking alcohol because the adults usually have alcoholic beverages at Sunday dinner. 

My problem with the Henry plot was that it was conflating mental and physical decline. Jamie can't do anything about mental decline, but he can try to mitigate problems with physical decline. The beginning of the end for my grandfather was when he tripped and fell in his house. Fixing a floorboard and other things so Henry doesn't trip made perfect sense to me.  

I was thinking that Danny makes fewer visits to his father’s house, where there is always booze involved.

[susannah]

4 hours ago, DanaK said:

What surprised me was that the crowd was doing it for a White male, but he was also getting them hyped up; he knew what he was doing. Sometimes in real life, bystanders do need to intercede with police when it looks like they are unnecessarily harassing someone or hurting them, but most of the time, they need to just let the cops do their jobs as long as they are being professional about it

It's not bystanders' jobs to interfere with the police. Ever. Taking videos of only half of what they see is also wrong. It's too bad that people think that the police are out there to hurt people, or to be unprofessional on the job, all 1.3 million of them.

[DanaK]

51 minutes ago, susannah said:

It's not bystanders' jobs to interfere with the police. Ever. Taking videos of only half of what they see is also wrong. It's too bad that people think that the police are out there to hurt people, or to be unprofessional on the job, all 1.3 million of them.

Not all of course, but some of them are. Even in-show they acknowledge that

[susannah]

15 minutes ago, DanaK said:

Not all of course, but some of them are. Even in-show they acknowledge that

Yes, of course there are some. Police officers are human beings, and they can make big mistakes, in jobs where they put their lives on the line every single day, and too often lose them. I am not excusing any wrongdoing, but I think there are too many people, not speaking about you, who judge and vilify the police just trying to do their jobs, without ever having to experience what they have to deal with every single day, like the episode where Witten quit because everyone got her on their phones pulling her weapon on the guy who struck her in the back, but not recording that part. It is even worse when administrations don't back their officers up. Here in Portland we had an entire summer of nightly rioting, not peaceful protesting, after Floyd was killed, as mentioned in the show. They burned police cars, broke windows, looted shops, set the Justice Center on fire, with people inside it, threw all kinds of dangerous objects at the police, who were ordered to do nothing to stop them or to protect themselves. Many officers since have left the force, and I don't blame them one bit. I wasn't sure why Frank had a problem with what the podcast guy was saying. He has always supported his officers, or I thought he did.

[Sarah 103]

2 hours ago, mojito said:

I was thinking that Danny makes fewer visits to his father’s house, where there is always booze involved.

I hadn't thought of that explanation but that works well too. 

[OLynn33]

Multiple storylines but none of them were Erin and her DA saga so episode was a win for me.

Pregnancy plot made me feel like I fell asleep and woke up in 1972. I think it was to ultimately reveal Eddie's future plans. 

Old Danny would have slugged one of the cell phone do gooders. His character has really matured over the years. I thought the episode presented this really well. That woman would have totally been viewed as a Karen and it showed how perception and reality could be skewed by only seeing a few seconds of video from an incident. I like the Danny/Baez relationship. There's a realness to it. Not sure it's romantic but it's believable.

Alex Kingston was a plus.

Gramps was grumpy. Again. He's lucky he has a big family to care about him. Not the reality of many seniors. Edited to add, if I were Jamie I would have 100% told Frank what happended but keep it on the down low. Frank should know. The exact same thing happened in my building with an elderly tenant. Started a fire. Luckily it was able to be put out before other apartments were affected. I remember the paramedics taking a family member aside for a chat when they arrived.

Edited December 12, 2021 by OLynn33

[susannah]

16 hours ago, Sarah 103 said:

My guess is that is because we only saw Danny drink at Sunday dinner. While married, he rarely went out to a bar, and we didn't see too many romantic date nights with Danny and Linda. I don't think there has ever been an episode where no one was drinking alcohol because the adults usually have alcoholic beverages at Sunday dinner. 

My problem with the Henry plot was that it was conflating mental and physical decline. Jamie can't do anything about mental decline, but he can try to mitigate problems with physical decline. The beginning of the end for my grandfather was when he tripped and fell in his house. Fixing a floorboard and other things so Henry doesn't trip made perfect sense to me.  

Completely agree about physical decline. Henry can be as big a jerk as he wants to be but if he fell and broke something, especially a hip or leg, the reality is that he would most likely not walk again and even decline to death. Jamie's wanting to make sure his house was as safe as it could be made perfect sense to me too, and it had nothing to do with treating Henry like a baby.

[Magnumfangirl]

16 hours ago, susannah said:

I wasn't sure why Frank had a problem with what the podcast guy was saying. He has always supported his officers, or I thought he did.

I agree.  The show wimped out on that story.  I get that nobody wants their words twisted, but I want to know what the podcaster said that Frank disagreed with.  Making the guy out to be a phony was a copout by the writers.

[Daff]

20 hours ago, Sarah 103 said:

My guess is that is because we only saw Danny drink at Sunday dinner. While married, he rarely went out to a bar, and we didn't see too many romantic date nights with Danny and Linda. I don't think there has ever been an episode where no one was drinking alcohol because the adults usually have alcoholic beverages at Sunday dinner.

When Linda was alive and the sons were younger, usually a “coming in the door from work” scene included opening a cold bottle of beer from the fridge (Jamie, too).  We’ve seen him order a draft at a bar occasionally, too. 

[Daff]

17 hours ago, susannah said:

I wasn't sure why Frank had a problem with what the podcast guy was saying. He has always supported his officers, or I thought he did.

It wasn’t that Frank’s personal opinion strayed that far from the podcaster’s aired views. The gripe was with the podcaster using his words and image without his consent. However, since he’s a public figure, he has no legal means to make him stop. He had no legal recourse, the podcaster knew it, and it REALLY irked him. As a public servant, he can’t afford to be seen as political. The podcaster freely enlisted hyperbole in crafting his images/messaging, all including images/recordings of the Police Commissioner of NYC! He’s unelected and serves at the pleasure of the mayor. He has enough trouble maintaining a working relationship without the podcaster taking advantage, at the same time projecting an image of the PC that’s less than fair and balanced. 

[susannah]

3 hours ago, Daff said:

It wasn’t that Frank’s personal opinion strayed that far from the podcaster’s aired views. The gripe was with the podcaster using his words and image without his consent. However, since he’s a public figure, he has no legal means to make him stop. He had no legal recourse, the podcaster knew it, and it REALLY irked him. As a public servant, he can’t afford to be seen as political. The podcaster freely enlisted hyperbole in crafting his images/messaging, all including images/recordings of the Police Commissioner of NYC! He’s unelected and serves at the pleasure of the mayor. He has enough trouble maintaining a working relationship without the podcaster taking advantage, at the same time projecting an image of the PC that’s less than fair and balanced. 

I disagree that it was "less than fair and balanced." I thought his statements were spot on.

[judyri]

I thought the COTW with the assault on older women was a bit off.  Who falls for the 'lost puppy' routine?  That's the first thing you teach school age kids venturing to playground play dates.

[wlk68]

I can empathize with getting older and losing some of your independence, etc. I can also empathize with memory loss and being terrified of losing yourself in the process. And I can understand lashing out at those you love as a result of that fear. 

All that being said, Henry is still an ass.

He put Jamie in a terrible position and then crapped all over him for just trying to help someone he cared about.  

I'm glad Jamie got in Henry's face and pushed back.  

Edited December 19, 2021 by wlk68

[zapper]

20 hours ago, Daff said:

... The gripe was with the podcaster using his words and image without his consent. However, since he’s a public figure, he has no legal means to make him stop. ...

at the end of his 2nd term Obama made a comment that he is a lot grayer now than 8 years earlier. I've seen the clip, it was pretty funny. As a public figure, do you think it would be fair for "Just For Men" (the anti gray touch up product) to start using that clip of Obama over images of their product with a tag line "Barak - there was a option for you..." and maybe toss in an image of 70 year old Ronald Reagan with a shock of near black hair?

That would not be right, and the podcaster use of Frank is no different.

 

FWIW, this thread likely belongs in the previous episode's topic, but since it is here. i reply here  :)

[zapper]

Back to "Firewall".  What a disaster. 

Pouring water on a pan of grease already on fire would be an explosion of flame and splatter igniting the curtains and much of the kitchen. Showing that water fixed the fire was not only irresponsible, but stupid and overly stupid for the character of Jamie.  Cover the fire with a lid to smother it or sprinkle baking soda on it. A house of cops should know better fire safety lest they need to call the hated FDNY

The cyberattack (speaking as an IT professional who was chasing hackers with the police 30 years ago and is still involved in cyber security) was a farce. Some of it was true to life (poking at a system to find the holes) and in a proper environment with network storage one could get back up in 20 hours or so. but .... For there to be no contingency plan for communication when all systems down - is ridiculous. There would be either manual procedures to replace the electronic ones and radio calls to fall back on when the app fails or there would be a complete hot-spot to cut over with an air gap to ensure that infection of one system does not proliferate to the other.

The COTW (creep of the week) case was silly. How many hours did that detective drive for a smack-down meeting? More realistic would have been to then have a meeting of minds with the out of towner working with Danny - particularly if Baez was have a moment like Officer Rachel and considering her future at the NYPD. Yeah, that sub plot with Baez seemed pretty familiar and pretty recent.

Finally, the pregnant officer leaning toward detective.  That was real (hold on, give me a moment) in that the Jamie/Eddie dinner where they discussed/not-discussed the day rang true to me. "True" in that those two have absolutely no way of working together so closely (and as supervisor/employee) while being married. That awkward dinner while played for laughs ("nice talk husband", "nice talk wife") showed how badly the working and marital relationships collide and how the two are doing anything but making it work. Oh, and peck on the cheek was a nice touch - not.

Finally, finally (really this time), the last joke about needing the receipt fell flat. I did not get it and I thought that Henry was being an ass in insisting that the material needed to go back when in fact he was saying that Jamie had bought way too much material for a 10x12 deck so some would need to go back unless the entire house was being slated for a reno.

Unfortunately, a 10x12 deck, once you add in the stringers, and the decking and, and and .... the amount of wood that Jamie had was not out of line. Maybe a 2x4 or so over, but being over by a board or two is better than having to drive back to big orange to get one board. Oh, and the wood did not appear to be pressure treated, so don't be making a deck out of that wood boys. 

 

sigh.

[NJRadioGuy]

1 hour ago, zapper said:

 For there to be no contingency plan for communication when all systems down - is ridiculous. There would be either manual procedures to replace the electronic ones and radio calls to fall back on when the app fails or there would be a complete hot-spot to cut over with an air gap to ensure that infection of one system does not proliferate to the other.

Can't speak for data comms, but most of the real-world NYPD's radio communications, for the moment, are ancient analog-FM repeater technology and immune from computer hacks. Sadly they are extremely vulnerable to over-the-air jamming, which is a somewhat regular occurrence using $30 radios you can get online. In a few years the NYPD radio system will be hardened and unmonitorable (AES-256 encrypted P-25 digital trunking system in the 700 MHz band). The 9-1-1 system is also impervious. But yes, I'm sure data system hacks are a different matter.

Edited December 13, 2021 by NJRadioGuy

[zapper]

7 minutes ago, NJRadioGuy said:

Can't speak for data comms, but most of the real-world NYPD's radio communications, for the moment, are ancient analog-FM repeater technology and immune from computer hacks. Sadly they are extremely vulnerable to over-the-air jamming, which is a somewhat regular occurrence using $30 radios you can get online. In a few years the NYPD radio system will be hardened and unmonitorable (AES-256 encrypted P-25 digital trunking system in the 700 MHz band). The 9-1-1 system is also impervious. But yes, I'm sure data system hacks are a different matter.

good information - thank you.

[NJRadioGuy]

43 minutes ago, zapper said:

good information - thank you.

This was exceptionally bad during the civil unrest last summer. Riot control was using the Citywide 2 band, as well as SOD and you could hear the incessant jamming by miscreants. It takes a little bit of knowledge of land mobile radio operations but nothing a 14 year old couldn't figure out in 15 minutes. Most urban departments have gone to trunked systems that cannot be jammed, and for the vast majority of those, police communications have been encrypted at the same time. I have a massive problem with patrol frequencies being encrypted, but that's a story for another day.

[wlk68]

3 hours ago, zapper said:

Finally, finally (really this time), the last joke about needing the receipt fell flat. I did not get it and I thought that Henry was being an ass in insisting that the material needed to go back when in fact he was saying that Jamie had bought way too much material for a 10x12 deck so some would need to go back unless the entire house was being slated for a reno.

 

I thought that it fell flat as well. Jamie gives his grandfather this impassioned speech about wanting him to stick around for many years to come and instead of clapping him on the shoulder or giving him a (manly) hug this is what Henry does? Way to ruin the moment, Pops.   

[EtheltoTillie]

I feel I have to post this here. I’m wAtching the sex and the city reboot, and Erin (well, Bridget Moynihan) is in it. I just had no memory of her role as Big’s ex wife. She wasn’t as well known then. 

Edited December 18, 2021 by GussieK

[mtlchick]

11 hours ago, GussieK said:

I feel I have to post this here. I’m wAtching the sex and the city reboot, and Erin (well, Bridget Moynihan) is in it. I just had no memory of her role as Big’s ex wife. She wasn’t as well known then. 

I believe that was her first acting role ever.

[Katy M]

Eddie's partner was 100% in the wrong. 

Just because a frying pan catches fire doesn't necessarily mean that there was grease involved.

Is Eddie not working nights any more?  This is the first epi I've seen this season.  

I doubt all those phone recording people would have cared all that much about a white guy being detained. Especially one who wasn't being touched in any way.

[TV Diva Queen]

On 12/17/2021 at 7:43 PM, GussieK said:

I feel I have to post this here. I’m wAtching the sex and the city reboot, and Erin (well, Bridget Moynihan) is in it. I just had no memory of her role as Big’s ex wife. She wasn’t as well known then. 

Ha  -me either, but I do remember how beautiful Natasha was.  Bridget is just a stunningly gorgeous person.  

[zapper]

On 12/18/2021 at 1:12 PM, Katy M said:

Just because a frying pan catches fire doesn't necessarily mean that there was grease involved.

Pops was frying eggs. So butter or oil. neither is a water friendly fire. obviously for the sake of the show it was not a grease fire, but that's a revealing mistake that they weren't really frying eggs in that pan :) 

[kwnyc]

On 12/11/2021 at 6:15 PM, susannah said:

It's not bystanders' jobs to interfere with the police. Ever. Taking videos of only half of what they see is also wrong.

Sometimes it does catch police doing the wrong thing. Even on the show: remember when Baker's husband got caught pounding the crap out of a suspect who reminded him of the one who shot him? (Of course, Frank handled that with a Frank Talk.) 

 

[susannah]

5 hours ago, kwnyc said:

Sometimes it does catch police doing the wrong thing. Even on the show: remember when Baker's husband got caught pounding the crap out of a suspect who reminded him of the one who shot him? (Of course, Frank handled that with a Frank Talk.) 

 

True, but even so, and especially so, it may not, and probably doesn't ever, capture the whole story. Whoever the one is doing wrong, the whole story is necessary, and it seems to me that too many people show half the story, to make the police look bad, like the time when they showed Eddie's partner pulling her gun on someone, but not showing that he had hit her in the back first.