S08.E06: Hot Button

[Danielg342]

Quote

When back-to-back shootings at women’s clinics leave two healthcare providers dead, Hondo and the team investigate whether the shootings were politically motivated

Via Paramount Press Express

[Danielg342]

I think we need to call this season- or at least the fall half of this season- the "M. Night Shyamalan Season", because the writing this season sure loves its twists.

It seems like every episode we're getting this season contains several episodes mashed together, with the episode starting with one premise before veering off into several different ones and leaving the original premise behind.

There's nothing in principle saying that kind of writing can't work- it just hasn't worked at all for S.W.A.T. this season at all.

Tonight, we got what appeared to be a story about a man with a vendetta against abortion clinics only for it to veer, halfway through, to a story about a man losing his kids and his wife, with the abortion workers only flimsily connected to him.

So, the UnSub's wife is preparing to leave him along with his kids, so he kills her and, in further retaliation, happens to also kill two abortion clinic workers just because they happened to take the same self-defence class as the UnSub's wife.

Huh?

Like Tan, said, "help me make it make sense."

You got me.

It seemed like the only reason why the abortion subplot was written in was so that we could have some "drama" between Deacon and Gamble, with Gamble getting a teachable moment about not letting her beliefs get in the way of her duties.

Great lesson...but did we need to waste half an episode with a story we weren't going to use just to get there?

Speaking of Gamble, I've been singing the praises of the acting of her portrayer, Annie Illonzeh.

I still think Illonzeh is doing a good job, but tonight's effort where she tried to talk to the UnSub felt off.

Now, I'm not sure if I can fault the effort of Illonzeh, since the story said she was attempting the task for the first time so it would make sense for Illonzeh to portray Gamble as tentative and unconvincing, but it doesn't mean the performance achieved the standard it was supposed to achieve.

Because, ironically, Illonzeh wasn't convincing that Gamble was unconvincing. If that makes sense.

As for the episode's other subplot...if you want to talk being between a rock and a hard place, meet Zoe Powell and her dealings with her biological son, Thomas. I'm sure there will be plenty of debate about whether Thomas' adoptive parents were right, whether Hondo was right in his advice and/or Powell was right in her ultimate actions, but I felt like the situation at the end was handled poorly.

I mean...Zoe...you got your biological son knocking on your door late at night having been kicked out of his own house. Whatever you may feel about Thomas' ambitions and whether or not it's right to step on Thomas' adoptive parents' toes...at least let Tommy stay the night or for a few days until you can sit everyone down and come to some kind of agreement.

I guess that would mean the writers would have to write another scene in this storyline and they just don't feel up to it...which I get...but...

They sure threw Zoe under the bus, and that's a poor way to handle her character.

Of course, these writers cutting corners in Zoe's storyline is par for the course for this season, so, while I'm disappointed, I'm sure not surprised.

[DanaK]

Thomas is being a jerk and really immature, but I guess it wouldn’t have hurt if Zoe had let him stay for at least the night and also contacted his parents to work through the situation. But the parents might have accused her of interfering again so she was definitely between a rock and a hard place. I do think the parents were right that Zoe shouldn’t interfere in family decisions. At best she should just continue to get to know her son and be a sounding board to him

I do like that the A plot took a turn as SWAT had to figure things out

[Snazzy Daisy]

My god, the writers are really turning Alfaro into Jim Street 2.0, aren’t they?

Is that Annie’s sister? I expect her to be older since Annie is in her mid-40s. Alfaro hooking up with Deacon’s SIL won’t be a good look for his character. Hope they won’t go there.

I DGAF about everything Powell.

Am really struggling to enjoy season 8 because am struggling to like the 3 newest additions. The NEW 20-Squad is basically a d!ck. Alfaro has asked them politely not to call him “Miko” and now everybody is calling him that. Why can’t they respect a basic request? It’s a common courtesy. 😏   
 

[Danielg342]

6 hours ago, DanaK said:

The parents might have accused her of interfering again so she was definitely between a rock and a hard place.

Maybe so, but I don't think they had much of a leg to stand on considering they kicked out their own (adoptive) son. Perhaps Zoe Powell didn't need to work out a peace between Thomas and his adoptive parents, but, considering that in that moment Thomas had nowhere else to go, letting him stay the night and at least telling him, "tomorrow you gotta make nice with your parents" is better than kicking him to the curb when he has nowhere else to go.

6 hours ago, DanaK said:

Thomas is being a jerk and really immature.

....

I do think the parents were right that Zoe shouldn’t interfere in family decisions. At best she should just continue to get to know her son and be a sounding board to him

I don't agree he was immature- it was not like he was going to quit school and go on a world tour. He was simply going to defer the last part of his semester to go on a small- but potentially door-opening- tour. Thomas seemed to have a plan and seemed to respect his schooling obligations, with the only real sticking point being the money issue, though it should be noted Thomas wasn't looking for handouts.

So I side with Thomas on this issue, though I know mileage varies. I do, however, think the writers should have written the episode in other ways if they wanted their story to be a bit more effective. They were clearly going for a storyline where bio mom (Zoe) was going to clash with the adoptive parents over a decision they made with regards to Thomas with Zoe needing to learn that, for practical purposes, Thomas doesn't view Zoe as his "real" parents and thus Zoe should respect whatever his adoptive parents decide for him even if she doesn't like it.

A fair enough story...but...

• Thomas is 19. I don't get why the writers viewed him as some kind of kid who couldn't make his own decisions
• The writers called the band Thomas was going to tour with a big time "indie" band. Now, I know some indie bands have crossover appeal and can sell out stadiums from time to time (Jack White headlined the main stage on the final day of Lollapalooza in 2018), but many indie bands tend to have really only a small national following. Which allows them to be successful, on a level, but going on tour with them doesn't strike me as the kind of "make-or-break" opportunity the writers described it as being for Thomas' band
• Nevertheless, assuming, as the writers intended, that this indie band was so successful that it could regularly sell out stadiums, I'd have a hard time believing that Thomas and his band would be struggling so mightily that Thomas' parents couldn't see his musical career as an actual viable option. Yes, there's the possibility that someone from the indie band went to a small show and happened to come across Thomas' band, but the more likely scenario- especially if they're asking Thomas' band to tour with them- would be that Thomas' band already has a large following and that puts them on the indie band's radar. Which would also likely mean Thomas' band is selling out decent-sized clubs and would also be on the radar of several major label A&R executives. I mean, c'mon- Thomas' band has a following in Los Angeles. You notice something like that. They're not in Laramie or Evanston or some other small town outpost playing bimonthly gigs to 15-20 people each night.
• Which means that if the writers wanted to suggest that Thomas' musical ambitions may not be realistic, they should have done a better job establishing that. Now, maybe the writers intended for the parents to come off as dismissive of Thomas' chances no matter how successful he looks on stage, but it's not effective to leave this ambiguously. Since we did not see Thomas performing, we have no idea how many people show up at his shows. So a piece of dialogue suggesting that, even in LA, Thomas is playing a bimonthly gig to family and friends would have gone a long way to establishing that Thomas still has a lot of work to do before he can realize his musical dreams.
• Further, the writers could have established that the only reason the indie band is reaching out to Thomas and his band is simply because someone in the indie band is a childhood friend of Thomas or one of his bandmates. The writers could have further established that the band tried to get Thomas' band to go on tour before but it failed spectacularly, or that Thomas' band went on tour with the indie band before and didn't see appreciable benefits.

Perhaps there were other ways they could have done this too, but the point remains that the writers failed to portray believably that Thomas' ambitions were, at that moment, fruitless. They just wanted some cheap drama for Powell and, in doing so, created a story that is- surprise, surprise- less than satisfactory.