S01.E08: Reclamation

[AnimeMania]

A showdown brews at Secretary of Defense Hartley's Orcas Island estate as Reece, Katie, Ben and Tony's paths and objectives collide.

Original Airdate: July 1, 2022 

[pH-factor]

Unrealistic in parts but worse that there are no comments here.  What did he do with the body and where is he sailing too?

[dwmarch]

I did not love that Ben turned out to be the final bad guy. That didn't make a whole lot of sense. Almost everyone he works with or talks to turns out to be part of the conspiracy but when they have him alone for long stretches of time they don't try anything.

I am also a little disappointed with the storyline about his brain. I thought the flashbacks might have been because of the trauma drug. So instead of seeing whatever caused his PTSD he was remembering family scenes in its place. That way it would take him coming face to face with his trauma and then being able to cope with it (which I fully understand is not how PTSD works except in action thrillers) and that is what would help him remember some vital clue. But nope, he's a good guy version of Walter White and his illness comes and goes as the plot demands.

Also seems kind of silly to hide out on an island where a Navy SEAL would have absolutely no trouble figuring out how to make an assault despite the prepared garrison. The SecDef could shelter in the Pentagon, good luck to Reece getting in there. Or she could have gotten onto a jet and flown away which would have prevented him from swimming to her. The defenses were kind of silly too. Oh no, lights! But if he just shoots a couple of them out all of a sudden he has the run of the place. And none of the bad guys thought to bring a thermal scope so his one smoke grenade is all he needs to make sure they can't fight back. None of the bad guys patrolled the beach which gave him a chance to get set up. There were no dogs. There were no drones (which as I understand are quite capable in the dark, thank you very much). There was just enough security to give us a good fight scene.

And why did the FBI agent let him leave at the end? "Don't make me shoot you!" Um, did you see the shape Reece was in? Go over there and fart in his general direction and he probably would have died. But no, let's just stare at him as he calmly exits because you're too polite to say "stand by" on the radio while your partner wenches at you.

On 7/2/2022 at 6:50 PM, pH-factor said:

What did he do with the body and where is he sailing too?

I would assume Ben is fish food. The map Reece looked at right at the end had a handwritten note that said "Niassa" which is in or near Mozambique. And he's going to sail there in Ben's sailboat because he learned how to do that in BUDS in between hauling 400lb logs around I guess. I assume this is the place that was referenced in the other note that came with the boat his unseen buddy left for him. As soon as he lied to Ben about what that note said ("he wished us luck" instead of "meet me you know where") I knew Ben was going to be the ultimate bad guy.

[ribboninthesky1]

My sister was interested in this, so we watched together.  I think there was a fair share of miscasts - Pratt, Kitsch, Wu. 

Constance Wu as Katie could have been an interesting choice, but her final scene opposite Jeanne Tripplehorn was particularly cringy. It was supposed to be a crescendo of dramatic reveal, and it didn't land for me.  

I agree with a comment in another episode thread that Kitsch might have been a better choice for Reece.  Pratt wasn't terrible, but I wasn't exactly rooting for him as the protagonist, either.  I realize Pratt is well-liked by the industry and his fans, but for me he comes off flat in his leading man roles.  I think there needed to be a certain balance of the Reece character - resilience, vulnerability, confusion, toughness.  Like the Ben reveal at the end was already absurd, but it should have been devastating for Reece.  Instead, Pratt has the one tear rolling down with an inscrutable expression, and it doesn't pack any emotional punch. 

I'm sure the book is better, but beyond general sympathy for Reece and his platoon being betrayed, I was not invested in Reece's journey.  The mystery had a lot of potential, but maybe the book to TV adaptation missed some nuances.  

22 hours ago, dwmarch said:

And why did the FBI agent let him leave at the end? "Don't make me shoot you!" Um, did you see the shape Reece was in? Go over there and fart in his general direction and he probably would have died. But no, let's just stare at him as he calmly exits because you're too polite to say "stand by" on the radio while your partner wenches at you.

I guess because he didn't kill Hartley?  Never mind all the other bodies he dropped. One of many nonsensical actions.

22 hours ago, dwmarch said:

Also seems kind of silly to hide out on an island where a Navy SEAL would have absolutely no trouble figuring out how to make an assault despite the prepared garrison.

Wasn't the "logic" supposed to be that she would have the private contractors take him out on the island, and somehow have plausible deniability? But even that didn't make sense - if Reece had been killed, I can't imagine there would not have been some type of inquiry or investigation into the incident, especially since she deliberately dismissed government security forces. 

[ferjy]

On 7/4/2022 at 12:48 AM, dwmarch said:

I did not love that Ben turned out to be the final bad guy.

I can’t believe they went there. I was afraid he would turn out to be a bad one  but really hoped in the end they wouldn’t use that extremely overused trope... someone close to you is the bad guy. How many times can they use that in shows/books? Do they really think we’ll be shocked at this point? They might as well have made Wu a villain, at least we would have had a WTF reaction. 

[ali59]

I really wanted to enjoy this series but it was just too dark.  Even during the day shots, I had a hard time seeing anything.  Let the acting (if possible) do the talking about the dark subject matter not the lighting.

[marcee]

Ben's reasoning was sound by movie/TV standards. He knew the platoon was dying anyway. He knew they'd rather go out in a blaze of glory than slowly weakening and dying in a hospital bed. The $20 mil. was just a bonus. He had nothing to do with Reece's family being killed. That was all Capstone. Speaking of - my favorite part of the whole series was the security guy telling Horn to basically put on his big boy pants. All that bullshit wannabe fake-ass frogman training, now it's time to man up - or something like that. And then he just went out begging and sniveling.

[Trillium]

On 7/6/2022 at 5:16 PM, ferjy said:

I can’t believe they went there. I was afraid he would turn out to be a bad one  but really hoped in the end they wouldn’t use that extremely overused trope... someone close to you is the bad guy. How many times can they use that in shows/books? Do they really think we’ll be shocked at this point? They might as well have made Wu a villain, at least we would have had a WTF reaction. 

Yeah I called it in like the 3rd episode. Only because it’s such an overused troupe and the writing was already pretty surface level, of course it would go with the best friend betrayal. 
 

This was not a good show. I was bored and I gave it a go because I thought  James Reece was funny name choice, because I loved Person of Interest, and John Reese would have kicked this meatheads ass.  POI was a much better show. 

[ferjy]

24 minutes ago, Trillium said:

Yeah I called it in like the 3rd episode. Only because it’s such an overused troupe and the writing was already pretty surface level, of course it would go with the best friend betrayal. 
 

This was not a good show. I was bored and I gave it a go because I thought  James Reece was funny name choice, because I loved Person of Interest, and John Reese would have kicked this meatheads ass.  POI was a much better show. 

I suspected it as soon as you saw him for the first time and he said something to the effect that he’d do anything for him. But I kept thinking Nah, they won’t go there, they won’t go there... it’s just too obvious. They went there.  🙄 So disappointing.

Edited July 9, 2022 by ferjy

[Taryn74]

Damn it, Ben. I  was hoping my fears about him were unfounded. 😥

I believe him as to "why" he went along with it, and I do have to give him credit for truly helping Reece instead of sabotaging his efforts in order to keep his part in it hidden and for standing there and taking it like a man at the end, but damn it. Reece deserved better.

My little Everwood loving heart skipped a happy beat when I saw Tom Amandes playing Reece's FIL. ❤️ And I swear Shut Up Carl was one of the military guys helping the FBI track Reece over the mountain but I never saw his name in the credits so I could be mistaken.

I thought there was going to end up being more to the bird hitting the window scene, and to Reece's memories being rewritten because of the drugs, but okay. At least I didn't have to throw things and swear off ever rewatching the show like I did at the end of LOST and The 100. Heh.

All in all, solid show and hubby and I enjoyed it quite a bit. I hope there's more humor in the upcoming seasons (assuming there is more to come) but humor would have been inappropriate in a season which takes place within a few days/weeks of a man's wife and young child being murdered in cold blood, so I was okay with it.

[Mrs. Stanwyck]

On 7/4/2022 at 12:48 AM, dwmarch said:

I assume this is the place that was referenced in the other note that came with the boat his unseen buddy left for him. As soon as he lied to Ben about what that note said ("he wished us luck" instead of "meet me you know where") I knew Ben was going to be the ultimate bad guy.

Is that what the note said?  I didn't go back and read it but I thought it said "This makes us even now.  If you make it out of this in one piece you know where you can go."  I interpreted that as this guy reluctantly helping him because he owed him, now they were even and basically he could F off if he made it out alive.  Since Ben clearly didn't like/trust the guy, I figured Reese just told him he said good luck so as not to get a "I told you so".  But at the end, when he was sailing off, my husband said he thought he might be going to meet the boat guy and we thought about the wording of the note and it could be interpreted as "f off" or "if you're still alive, you know where you can go for help".

I get Ben's reasoning as he told it to Reese but the flaw with it is that the Mexican doctor indicated that Reese's tumor could be treated and he would be fine.  If that was the case, there was no need for Ben to help murder 14 Navy seals.  I get why everyone else wanted them dead - 14 brain tumors would have to be explained and the secret tests would have been revealed but since Ben wasn't involved in the secret tests, he wouldn't have been worried about the tests being revealed.  I guess he could say they told him the tumors couldn't be treated and were fatal and he didn't find out about that lie until it was too late.

I think the FBI guy let him go because there was no one else on his list that he was going to kill and FBI guy had begun sympathizing with the horrific things that had been done to him.

I was glad his in-laws didn't buy the frame job.

[WritinMan]

On 7/4/2022 at 12:48 AM, dwmarch said:

Also seems kind of silly to hide out on an island where a Navy SEAL would have absolutely no trouble figuring out how to make an assault despite the prepared garrison.

If a SEAL really wants to get you, it doesn't matter where you're hiding. You'll have a serious problem.

It was a fairly entertaining series. Not great or ground-breaking, and it was pretty seriously pushing Pratt's acting abilities. A bit out of his depth when he couldn't be kind of goofy. Not thrilled by the Ben reveal at the end. Seemed like one extra, unnecessary and depressing plot point in an already grim series. Better than The Old Man, though.

[meeeechiganman]

One thing that bugged me is that him being a Navy Seal and all, you would think that he would have some sort of Security system at his home, especially after he came home after surviving the set up.   His family were sitting ducks, why didn't he move them or call Ben to Protect them?   Just seems that house they lived in was completely without any forms of defense.