S05.E04: Sacrifice

[AnimeMania]

The team races to rescue a young hacker, who reminds Harry of his past self, being forced to hack for criminals. Meanwhile, Dante is back in town to visit his father and Mel makes a breakthrough in therapy.

Premiere Date: November 17, 2024    CBS     10pm

Donal Logue as Fisk

Uly Schlesinger as Kaos

Danny Johnson as Big Ben 

[Trini]

So that was kind of a mix of a CIA case and an Equalizer case. So a bit more tolerable than a straight CIA case.

Ugh -- they were doing so well, then they had to have Fisk say "mall cop" literally one last time. Not sad to see Fisk go, although I thought the circumstances were a little silly/unnecessary.

Definitely silly is this love triangle with Robyn's ex. Anyway, nice to see Dante in town and having scenes with Robyn again. Never been a fan of amnesia storylines, so I hope they resolve that soon-ish; as in before Ben dies.

Is it a rule that TV hackers have to be annoying in some way?

Fashion highlight: Only Robyn's hair this week. But it's also nice to see Dante dress more casually now that he's out of the NYPD.

[Mollywolly555]

Who was the actor who played the hacker? I know he looks familiar and I checked several sites but they don't  identify him. Thanks. 

[KWalkerInc]

Are we positive that Fisk is really dead?  I didn't think about it at the time (and I've deleted my recording), but I think they just showed the boat explode from far away.  I doubt he jumped off, but I wouldn't put it past the show.  It was rather ridiculous that it all happened that way when they've gotten out of much tougher situations than one guy holding a gun to someone's head.  If Fisk is really dead, I hope that will bring an end to some of the past CIA storylines they still had hanging over our heads.

I know she wants to protect Robyn, but it's a little silly that they had Aunt Vi do a complete 180 on Dante (even though she still said she likes him) while all the reasons she's giving Robyn to give up on him are the reasons she previously gave her to pursue him (that they're so much alike, which she said before was good because it meant Dante could understand Robyn's crazy life).

The thing about Dee's essay was kind of stupid, though at least they've convinced her not to write about getting arrested.  I didn't get that she couldn't write about helping the people mentioned from past episodes because "that's about other people."  She could certainly write about those experiences if she wanted to do it.

[marceline]

Sometimes the writing on this show is just so lazy. A hacker named Kaos? They're always named Kaos and yes, they're always obnoxious.

The hackerspeak and technobabble in this episode was insane. And I grew up on Star Trek so I consider technobabble is an art form.

Harry seems to have gotten a lot more proficient with guns. 

Doesn't Dante have a brother? Didn't his dad drop that news on him in a previous episode?

I assume Fisk will be back. 

[possibilities]

Dee is starting to look more and more like Vi. It's not just the hair. it's also the decor. Her bedroom! Have we ever seen it like that before? She looks like Vi's kid more than Robyn's. I love Vi, so I'm okay with that, but I think it's deliberate shift on the part of the show, and I find that interesting. 

Even if she can't write about Robyn's cases, she could write about witnessing her friend being shot, and learning self-defense, and she could write about recovering from PTSD. That is character building stuff, isn't it?

I feel like she also had a story about mentoring other kids, or tutoring, or something like that? 

What are other kids writing about? They volunteered at the soup kitchen and ladled the soup?

--

I never heard of a "darty" but I thought that was funny.

Still no follow up on Vi's breast cancer???? I don't really want to see a cancer story, but they did introduce it, so???

--

The less I say about the CIA stuff, the better.

--

It occured to me that Marcus's dad might be faking the amnesia to avoid dealing with the issues between him and Marcus. Is there a way to test if somebody is faking? 

I wish Dante was his first name, because I like calling him that.

Harry isn't annoying, so I'm thinking the hacker is annoying because he's a kid. Kids with power beyond their maturity level can be intolerable.

Mel's therapist trying not to laugh was a good bit of acting-- in that I enjoyed it. I don't know if it was good therapist behavior or not. Though, I guess the show wants us to think it was, since Mel was magically healed just by basically getting mad at being told she couldn't. If only PTSD was that easy to fix!

I wish the Equalizer was actually equalizing-- i.e. helping the underdogs. The CIA has plenty of resources. It's completely counter to the original show concept that they are having the CIA be the helpless people she needs to help.

Also, this show does a major shootout in a crowded street, leaving corpses strewn  behind them, and none of it apparently gets noticed by the news, or any of the ziollions of cameras that are all over the place, so Robyn never gets recognized anywhere, and there are never any repercussions or investigation of what the hell just happened. No wonder people who live elsewhere imagine NYC is a dangerous hellscape! 

[andromeda331]

I really hope Fisk is dead. I really don't want to see or hear from him again. He's not fun, he's not "mysterious". He's annoying lying ass and I really don't care about him at all. 

[Trini]

13 hours ago, KWalkerInc said:

Are we positive that Fisk is really dead? 

10 hours ago, marceline said:

I assume Fisk will be back. 

I'm gonna need y'all to not jinx this for me! 😉 

 

5 hours ago, possibilities said:

Also, this show does a major shootout in a crowded street, leaving corpses strewn  behind them, and none of it apparently gets noticed ...

This was part of the silly circumstances I mentioned before; police should have been all over that scene within minutes.

[fastiller]

Still watching.  Just one quick thought (& please forgive the objectifying I'm about to do): Dante walking into the bar? Tory Kittles? Damn!

[AnimeMania]

I though this episode was pretty good and I was even not that bothered by Fisk. Definitely the best CIA related episode. Maybe they learned their lesson and are removing the CIA presence from the series.

[Trini]

13 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

Maybe they learned their lesson and are removing the CIA presence from the series.

Here's hoping!

But I don't even mind the occasional CIA stuff; it was that Robyn was getting pulled back in way too often (when she's supposedly retired from that life), also past nemeses kept popping up. We can do a CIA plot once a season, IMO.

[12catcrazy]

Not as bad as other CIA episodes, but I wish they would just get back to the original concept of this show - helping people who have no where else to turn.  I'm an old lady and really miss the hell out of God Friended Me (and going way back, Highway To Heaven) and I am sick to death of all the violence and guns going off and blood being spilled.  CBS Sunday night - lets kill lots 'o bad people - thats how we save the world.  

Dunno if Fisk will be back or not, but the guy has more hairstyles than Robyn.  What is up with that (and the one he had this episode was seriously fugly)?  Speaking of hair, makeup, and clothing, has the budget been cut this season or did they just get a new crew?  Aunt Vi still has her hair,  but it seems as if they have opted for easier (?) to maintain styles for Robyn and Dee.  The makeup seems a bit more natural (no more red lips for Mel) and the clothing not as noticible.  Again, no more over the top outfits for Mel - they have her looking like she's ready to lunch with Long Island girlfriends. Was that do to her stepping away from the team or for production costs?   Anyway, it just seems that the show has a different "vibe" this season.  

[blackwing]

I hate everything about the Fisk character so I hope he really is dead.  But he probably isn't.  He would probably just wander in some time in the future acting like it's no big deal that they all saw him get blown up.

This season has really soured me on the Robyn/Dante relationship.  I just don't care about him anymore.  I'm tired of his crinkled brow / worried expression.

On 11/18/2024 at 11:59 AM, possibilities said:

Even if she can't write about Robyn's cases, she could write about witnessing her friend being shot, and learning self-defense, and she could write about recovering from PTSD. That is character building stuff, isn't it?

I feel like she also had a story about mentoring other kids, or tutoring, or something like that? 

What are other kids writing about? They volunteered at the soup kitchen and ladled the soup?

She said something about how all of those stories are about other people, they aren't about her.  Not sure if I agree with her there.  She could definitely write about mentoring other kids and what it means to her.

I think Dee definitely would have some interesting stories but unfortunately, too many of them are too close to the vigilante/Equalizer cases.  If she wrote about her friend getting shot and determined to do something and learning self-defense.  From who?  That ex-soldier friend of Mom's who was a sniper in the military and also helps out with her vigilante cases?

Edited Wednesday at 11:41 PM by blackwing

[christie]

Put me squarely in the "I don't think Fisk is dead" camp too.

I have the memory of a goldfish and I barely remember plot points; did we know that Harry is ex military? I always had the impression that Harry was this geeky computer guy, happy to sit behind the screen doing his computer stuff whilst Mel and Robin did the shooting and the fighting - not so this episode and, to a lesser extent, the previous episodes from this season.

[Trini]

1 hour ago, blackwing said:

I hate everything about the Fisk character so I hope he really is dead.  But he probably isn't.

40 minutes ago, christie said:

Put me squarely in the "I don't think Fisk is dead" camp too.

I need y'all to have faith! 😭

 

41 minutes ago, christie said:

I have the memory of a goldfish and I barely remember plot points; did we know that Harry is ex military?

He definitely used to work for the government; not sure whether he's actually ex-military, though. That might be a ret-con? I think they only really got into his backstory in the first couple of seasons, and I don't remember details from that far back either.

[andromeda331]

Ex-military feels like a ret-con. If so you'd think he'd have talked to Delilah about joining the military when she was wanting to join. Or when Robyn or Mel were talking about their past military experiences.