S03.E07: Paradise Lost

[Trini]

After Misty (Kelly Rowland), a superstar singer deciding to retire, receives a terrifying fan letter, her head of security hires McCall to track down the culprit.

Airdate: November 27, 2022

[paigow]

What kind of jacket is McCall wearing? Was she attacked by cans of spray paint in the hotel lobby? 

[AnimeMania]

Midseason Finale
Kelly Rowland (Misty)
Sullivan Jones (Lucas Peterson)
Frank Whaley (Martin Culvert)
Nikki Renee Daniels (Anchor/Angela)
Jaelin Taylor (Tommy James/Elton Smith)
Jordon Alexander (Clyde)
Jayson Ward Williams (Kenny)
Angelica Toledo (Zara Ramos)
Conner John Gillooly (Grayson Bradley)
Pedro Hector Mojica (Guard)
Next New Episode is February 19, 2023     

[greekmom]

5 hours ago, Trini said:

4 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

Next New Episode is February 19, 2023     

I would have never guessed the guitarist or the reason.

Solid episode. Not much Dante :(

Looks like they are setting up some type of story for 2023 with Mel's brother.

Damn, no new episodes till Feb? And near the end of February!!!! WTF show? You are my filler for the shit season that 90 day is so far. 

[possibilities]

Vi and Mel and Dee really should have talked to Robyn about self-defense instead of going behind her back, but Robyn is so ridiculously wrong to deny this to Dee, it's just hard to take the plot seriously at all.

[Daff]

14 hours ago, paigow said:

What kind of jacket is McCall wearing? Was she attacked by cans of spray paint in the hotel lobby? 

Nicely color coordinated, though. 

[Good Queen Jane]

When Robyn was going on to Misti about sometimes people you trust go behind your back to do things to protect you, all I could think was, are you listening to yourself, Gurl? Apply that to Delilah and Mel.

[marceline]

The fashions in this episode were awful. Especially everything on Misti. The acid green dress. That weird white jacket with the feathers. Everything about Misti just felt weird and off. 

Robyn is being unreasonable when it comes to Dee getting trained but she's right that the incident at school showed part of the issue. I took some martial arts in college and the instructors often said that newbies feel confident because they've learned some moves but they lack control. Dee could've seriously hurt that boy and then she'd be looking at assault charges.

I have no interest in Mel's brother yet. I'll check back in February.

[milkyaqua]

Shocking that Dee, Mel and Aunt Vi not telling McCall about the training blew up in all their faces.  Yes, McCall is being a bit unreasonable but that was never not going to go bad because...drama.

As for the bad guy in this, I figured the manager had to be involved because that actor tends to play that kind of roll.  But then I zeroed in on the guitarist after Mel was doing her interview and he mentioned what happened to mom so him being a bad guy didn't surprise me.  I just couldn't figure out if they were in it together but it turns out they both were working their own separate agendas.

Have we even heard about Mel's brother and any trouble?

[blackwing]

Enjoyed seeing and hearing Kelly Rowland.  I can't help but think that the storyline was influenced by Whitney Houston and "The Bodyguard".  Especially all the crazy tabloid stories.

17 hours ago, possibilities said:

Vi and Mel and Dee really should have talked to Robyn about self-defense instead of going behind her back, but Robyn is so ridiculously wrong to deny this to Dee, it's just hard to take the plot seriously at all.

I agree that they should have talked with her.  But she is unreasonable too... her justification was "she's not ready".  Well, if Robyn had started and guided the training, maybe she could be ready.

4 hours ago, milkyaqua said:

Have we even heard about Mel's brother and any trouble?

I think this was the first time.  It was a fail for me.  When she got the phone call and ran out of the club, then confronted some dude and asked about her brother... if that was supposed to be a "shocking" revelation, um... no.  Shocking would have been if Bishop was revealed as being alive.

[marceline]

54 minutes ago, blackwing said:

Shocking would have been if Bishop was revealed as being alive.

That's what I was expecting: a recast Bishop or his son from last season.

[dwmarch]

15 hours ago, Good Queen Jane said:

sometimes people you trust go behind your back to do things to protect you, all I could think was, are you listening to yourself, Gurl?

Indeed! Imagine someone doing violence to protect others out in the community and daring to keep it a secret from their family because the family "isn't ready" to hear about it. Can you imagine such a thing, Robyn? Think real hard on this one.

13 hours ago, marceline said:

The fashions in this episode were awful.

For me it was Mel's brown faux-leather dress. I wanted to like it but she's got so many nice actual leather pieces in her wardrobe it's shameful for her to wear a garbage bag. It looked cheap and trashy and Mel usually goes for expensive and trashy.

7 hours ago, blackwing said:

Enjoyed seeing and hearing Kelly Rowland. 

Same here, I am not familiar with her music but it seems she's legit so I'll have to see what her actual songs are like. This show has a thing going for musicians sort of like Hawaii 5-0 had for football.

[blackwing]

8 hours ago, dwmarch said:

Same here, I am not familiar with her music but it seems she's legit so I'll have to see what her actual songs are like. This show has a thing going for musicians sort of like Hawaii 5-0 had for football.

She's definitely legit, she was one third of the megawatt girl group Destiny's Child.  She's been overshadowed by her childhood friend Beyonce (who wouldn't be?) but she's been pretty successful in her own right.  Her most recognisable song as a solo artist is a duet with Nelly that you would probably know as soon as you heard the opening strains.  "I, love you, and I, need you / Nelly I, love you, I do, need you / No matter what I do, all I think about is you / Even when I'm with my boo, boy you know I'm crazy over you".  

[kwnyc]

I will say that Dee had every right to defend herself when the school bully laid hands on her. If I'd been Robyn, I would have said something like: you'll be hearing from my lawyer if that kid isn't suspended or expelled. And with all the kids recording it, there's no question that he attacked her.

[statsgirl]

I was convinced that the culprit was the bodyguard because that attention seemed too creepy until Robyn told Misty something about needing to recognize the people who care about her in her life and then I knew that it wasn't him because Robyn is never wrong except when it comes to her family.

33 minutes ago, kwnyc said:

I will say that Dee had every right to defend herself when the school bully laid hands on her. If I'd been Robyn, I would have said something like: you'll be hearing from my lawyer if that kid isn't suspended or expelled. And with all the kids recording it, there's no question that he attacked her.

Exactly!  I thought that the writing for this episode was subpar generally but the training reveal was particularly bad. It was never even mentioned that Delilah was the one who was attacked. Yes, Mel's training upped her response but she should have fought back no matter what.

And yet again, no one points out to Robyn except tangentially that her decision to keep Dee feeling unprepared is making any anxiety that she has even worse.

[Trini]

I was coming here that I really liked most of the outfits in this episode -- LOL! Besides Robyn's multicolor blazer, I thought the applique sweater was great.

Case of the week actually had some interesting characters and twists.

So... Robyn and Dante at the concert -- does that count as their first official date?

Glad that they didn't drag it out too long, and glad that Robyn finally knows about Dee's training. But this storyline is still a lot of unnecessary DRAMA.

Are we supposed to care about Mel's brother that we've never heard of until now??

[andromeda331]

The training storyline is just stupid. Dee wants to learn self-defense and even she didn't have Robyn as her mother she has every right too. Dee's already saw a lot of stuff and it's a good thing to have. Anyone especially women and teen girls should learn if they want to. I don't think Robyn was right about what happened. Dee was attacked first and defended herself. If Robyn's worried about her using at the wrong time well that's something to talk her to her about. It's hard to be on Robyn's side with Mel, Dee and Aunt Vi when she's being so unreasonable. I really thought that talk with Kelly was going to be Robyn realizing that she was wrong. But it didn't.

[possibilities]

Robyn is also wrong to make it all about herself. Dee saw her friend shot dead on the street in an incident that had nothing to do with Robyn's job. Telling her she can't learn self-defense is just going to make her feel anxious. Self-defense builds confidence and makes you feel less helpless. It might not protect you from everything (including drive by shootings), but it is empowering anyway, and Dee is not going to be more temperate if she's anxious and feeling like an easy target. If Robyn thinks Dee might be volatile and mis-use her skills, I haven't really seen evidence of that being what kind of person she is, but denying her skills is not the way to address that, either.

[gesundheit]

On 11/29/2022 at 5:14 PM, statsgirl said:

I was convinced that the culprit was the bodyguard because that attention seemed too creepy until Robyn told Misty something about needing to recognize the people who care about her in her life and then I knew that it wasn't him because Robyn is never wrong except when it comes to her family.

I thought that the writing for this episode was subpar generally

Agreed, and the acting from some of the guest stars was equally subpar -- making a lot of it look really awkward and therefore suspicious. Half the time I thought it must somehow be the bodyguard because he was coming off as so bizarre but the other time I thought Misty herself must've been staging something because she was acting so bizarre. Turns out nope, just awkward writing and acting. 

[love2lovebadtv]

On 11/28/2022 at 6:28 PM, marceline said:

That's what I was expecting: a recast Bishop or his son from last season.

I really wish Bishop had been recast. He wasn't in the show just enough to be interesting and gave us that CIA element without all the plots being overly CIA and confusing. I liked Chris Noth's chemistry with Robyn so it would need to be someone with whom she has chemistry where their professional friendship is totally believable. I had forgotten about his son but it was an interesting storyline.

On 11/28/2022 at 5:32 PM, blackwing said:

Enjoyed seeing and hearing Kelly Rowland.  I can't help but think that the storyline was influenced by Whitney Houston and "The Bodyguard".  Especially all the crazy tabloid stories.

I agree that they should have talked with her.  But she is unreasonable too... her justification was "she's not ready".  Well, if Robyn had started and guided the training, maybe she could be ready.

I think this was the first time.  It was a fail for me.  When she got the phone call and ran out of the club, then confronted some dude and asked about her brother... if that was supposed to be a "shocking" revelation, um... no.  Shocking would have been if Bishop was revealed as being alive.

I definitely got Bodyguard vibes watching this episode. 

I've kinda felt that Robyn coddles Dee in some ways, as if a smart kid like her was going to walk around the rest of her life saying her mom "works for a charity" and never be interested or curious to ask questions. She seems like the kind of kid who would have been interested in social issues even at an early age. And wanting to learn self-defense is just more evidence of her being smart and aware. There are kids who are aloof and completely in their own worlds. But Dee is not that kid. Robyn should appreciate her intelligence and restraint (she could be blasting things on social media, grabbing one of the many weapons her mom has, etc.) and be sure that she gets properly trained. 

On 12/1/2022 at 3:31 PM, possibilities said:

Robyn is also wrong to make it all about herself. Dee saw her friend shot dead on the street in an incident that had nothing to do with Robyn's job. Telling her she can't learn self-defense is just going to make her feel anxious. Self-defense builds confidence and makes you feel less helpless. It might not protect you from everything (including drive by shootings), but it is empowering anyway, and Dee is not going to be more temperate if she's anxious and feeling like an easy target. If Robyn thinks Dee might be volatile and mis-use her skills, I haven't really seen evidence of that being what kind of person she is, but denying her skills is not the way to address that, either.

My dad wasn't CIA but he made sure my 3 sisters and I learned self defense. At the very least, training teaches you to be aware of your surroundings in a way most teens aren't. Sometimes it's better to have someone else teach your kids, and Mel is a great person to train Dee. I hope Robyn gets with the program.

On 12/10/2022 at 12:12 AM, gesundheit said:

Agreed, and the acting from some of the guest stars was equally subpar -- making a lot of it look really awkward and therefore suspicious. Half the time I thought it must somehow be the bodyguard because he was coming off as so bizarre but the other time I thought Misty herself must've been staging something because she was acting so bizarre. Turns out nope, just awkward writing and acting. 

I feel like the bodyguard was a red herring. He came off as odd and I thought he must have been behind it all. But I was glad he wasn't because that was too obvious.

Kelly Rowland, the singer who played Misty, is lovely but her acting is terrible. I've seen her in a couple of other things and they were hard to watch. I'm not a fan but I like her...but no.