S07.E08: Riptide

[Snazzy Daisy]

Quote

After three customs officers are shot dead in a cargo heist, the team entrusts OA’s old army buddy Clay to help determine if it was an inside job.

Air Date: Dec 17, 2024

 

[Xeliou66]

Really good fall finale - I knew Clay was bad news from the start, but he was even more evil than I thought he would be. OA had a major blind spot with him, and it almost cost OA his life. I thought Clay was playing them from the start of the case but I wasn’t 100% sure. Good investigation and case with a good role for each character - I liked Jubal and the analysts in the command room as usual, and Isobel telling the dirty cop he was a disgrace at the end was good. Scola’s new partner does nothing for me though - very bland. This was a good high intensity fall finale. 

[Dowel Jones]

I knew Clay was dead as soon as I saw him drive away from the scene.  Hero or goat, nobody gets two appearances on this show without consequences.  He was just too cavalier about the situation, anyway.  In reality, OA should have let him put the gold in the truck and try to drive away.  The radio is always faster and that way he's isolated.  A quick search shows that $25 million in gold probably weighs about 800 lbs. (depending on market price).  Ain't nobody going nowhere fast with that load, don't let Wahlberg fool ya'.

One flaw they missed was that the sender also knew where and when the gold was going, but it would be tough pursuing overseas leads unless they had, say, an international branch of the FBI.  Wait...

That CBP officer was dumb, dumb, dumb.  And dead.  Again, let them go, put them in the truck by themselves, and have the backup take them down.  No amount of theft is worth getting killed, and he should have observed that he was outgunned.

So, the four bent cops were going to somehow remelt all that gold, sell it, and use the proceeds to help out their fellow cops who also lost money at the investment agency?  Riiiight.

[shapeshifter]

7 hours ago, Dowel Jones said:

In reality, OA should have let him put the gold in the truck and try to drive away.  The radio is always faster and that way he's isolated.  A quick search shows that $25 million in gold probably weighs about 800 lbs. (depending on market price).  Ain't nobody going nowhere fast with that load,

Good point, well explained.
I guess OA thought he could "save" Clay?
The relationship between OA and Clay was always unhealthy after the one time when it was healthy in that OA's life was saved. Clearly that was an instance of luck; it could've gone south just as fast as anything shown in this episode. Clay rescued OA because it was a daring feat that would make him a hero, right? OA was understandably and inevitably grateful. I doubt any amount of therapy can reconcile all of that for OA. Hopefully the show will let it simmer in the background and just boil up a bit rather than get into a whole plot arc. 
Or even better: OA tells Maggie he realizes Clay only saved him because it was an opportunity?

 

7 hours ago, Dowel Jones said:

That CBP officer was dumb, dumb, dumb.  And dead.  Again, let them go, put them in the truck by themselves, and have the backup take them down.  No amount of theft is worth getting killed, and he should have observed that he was outgunned.

I guess 3 "dumbs" equals an atypical action by someone in that situation? 
Likely he wanted to try to save his coworkers since we heard about one having a daughter to put through college, which he probably knew too.
But now the pension will cover it? 😔

 

7 hours ago, Dowel Jones said:

So, the four bent cops were going to somehow remelt all that gold, sell it, and use the proceeds to help out their fellow cops who also lost money at the investment agency?  Riiiight.

Was there even a 50-50 chance they'd come out ahead?
Likely they were motivated by a nothin-left-to-lose frame of mind.

Edited December 18 by shapeshifter

[EtheltoTillie]

Scola was demonstrating his financial chops.  That was fun. 

[Dowel Jones]

Plus the snapback question "Are you profiling me?"

[MerBearHou]

I hope that is the last we've seen of Ortiz.  She did not grow on me one iota.  

[Snazzy Daisy]

OA wears his heart on his sleeve. The moment Clay turns around with a gun on him, you can see the hurt on OA’s face. The “you owe me” phrase can now be put to rest.

Quote

“My loyalty was my blind spot.”

Are we supposed to believe that Detective Lettieri and his crews are part of an elite team? So how come they forget to remove their bugs from the house after robbing the Haitians? It’s very sloppy and that’s how they get made.

Maggie/motherhood storyline is really a waste of screen time. It’s being resolved in an underwhelming manner like it doesn’t matter at all — gives Ella back to her maternal uncle and be done with it.  
 

[shapeshifter]

2 hours ago, Snazzy Daisy said:

Are we supposed to believe that Detective Lettieri and his crews are part of an elite team? So how come they forget to remove their bugs from the house after robbing the Haitians? It’s very sloppy and that’s how they get made.

I think they were in a hurry to get out of town and the country?

 

2 hours ago, Snazzy Daisy said:

Maggie/motherhood storyline is really a waste of screen time. It’s being resolved in an underwhelming manner like it doesn’t matter at all — gives Ella back to her maternal uncle and be done with it.  

Since they bothered to bring up Ella again, I'm guessing the mothering arc isn't done. Does Maggie have a dog?

Edited December 18 by shapeshifter

[Snazzy Daisy]

3 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

Since they bothered to bring up Ella again, I'm guessing the mothering arc isn't done. Does Maggie have a dog?

I don’t think so.

Let’s see whether the IVF thing is gonna resurface. People commenting on X that Missy herself pushed for the motherhood arc for her character. At this point, it feels half-baked.   
 

[Dowel Jones]

I'm always interested in the significance of episode titles.  Riptide is an ocean current that tends to pull people offshore after a wave breaks.  Any guesses as to how this effect applies to the episode?  Does OA get pulled "offshore" by his loyalty to Clay?

[MarylandGirl]

15 hours ago, MerBearHou said:

I hope that is the last we've seen of Ortiz.  She did not grow on me one iota.  

Agreed. Every time she's been on screen with an exchange of gunfire, I keep hoping she'll get shot, including in Tuesday's ep. That really says something, as I rarely wish for the death of a main character.

And I suspect this will mess OA up for a long time, both the guilt over killing the man who saved his life and the fact that he misjudged Clay's character so badly. 

[SoCal Mema]

Scola has become my favorite on the show.

[shapeshifter]

2 hours ago, SoCal Mema said:

Scola has become my favorite on the show.

Scola (John Boyd) was my favorite on Bones too.
This is the only FBI show I watch, initially because of Jeremy Sisto (Jubal/not-Lupo), but he's so poorly utilized that I suspect I'm only still here for Scola.