S01.E04: Phobia

[formerlyfreedom]

Beth and Jack investigate an attack by a stalker who preys on his victims’ phobias. Beth learns a friend is seeing someone who, unbeknownst to both women, has ties to her.

 

 

[friendperidot]

why does it always have to be snakes?

[Netfoot]

Observations:

 

Young, single, female teacher gets a verbal spanking from both detectives.  Because apparently role models aren't allowed to have a sex life.

 

Who knew Donald McDuck was related to Desmond Morris?  Or is it Patrick Jane?

 

Apparently a Stalker-Wall is not something you want your new bit of crumpet to catch a glimpse of.  All I've ever had to rush to hide was laundry!

 

I thought Det. Beth was going to keep an eye on Stalker-boi.  Yet he is boning her best bud and she has no idea?

[Kromm]

I thought Det. Beth was going to keep an eye on Stalker-boi.  Yet he is boning her best bud and she has no idea?

It was fairly convenient she never asked her friend for details about him.  Not that he's probably using his actual name, but who knows?  If he's an arrogant stalker maybe so.

Frankly the formula is already getting tired.  Detective Pervert stalks his Baby Mama every episode, less this one (they just didn't have time) and Stalker Boy stalks Maggie No Last Name every episode.  It's like a Stalking Circus, combined with the Case of the Week.

[TaraS1]

I have no idea why I keep watching this show.  Maggie Q, I guess?  And yet I can't be sure if she's interesting and enigmatic or just not a very strong dramatic actress.  But I still like her.  It's all very confusing.

 

I guess the one interesting thing we learned is that "Beth Davis" is a fabrication.  And that the show had more restraint than I thought, in waiting a whole four episodes before using "Every Breath You Take" at the end.

[alexvillage]

Before I watch the episode, has the two-week notice the bully state attorney gave the cop stalker expired? Did she tell his bosses about the terrible things he did and how he should be not where he is?

[CooperTV]

This episode was fun. I liked case of the week. The baby stalker is suitably creepy, the police stalker is now just weird and less stalker-y.

 

Beth was badass with the stalker of the week, and Jack's stunned face was priceless. But I must say, the writers kinda failed with the snakes thing. I'm pretty sure even the most cool and collected person would freak if they saw or felt actual snake in their bed, let alone if they saw thirty of them on the floor.

 

I don't get the point of Jack/the blonde co-worker hook up.

[shelley1234]

 

Beth was badass with the stalker of the week, and Jack's stunned face was priceless. 

 

That was my favorite moment of the episode....when Beth totally took the guy down and then looked at Jack and just said "you're welcome."   Loved it.  

 

I did find the stalker of the week to be interesting....using people's fears to get off.  As soon as the girl (patient zero) said the stalker was afraid of heights, I knew that they would use that to stop him.  I do wonder why stalker boy went to a place so high up though when I am sure he could have many more options.  I know it is his dad's old abandoned office or whatever, but branch out.  

 

Jack sleeping with the blonde, which just serves to move the storyline of the increasing sexual tension between Beth and Jack and the "will they or won't they" during the season.  She'll find out, be disgusted, but just a wee bit too disgusted...and obviously covering the denial that she is bothered deep down inside.  I've seen this done a million times....I have watched the CW before and all.  

 

Hey...at least the creepy Beth stalker's art is pretty gosh darn good.  

[threebluestars]

I am getting tired of the breathy, tiny-voiced female singer covering songs at the end of each episode. So depressing.

[Kromm]

I am getting tired of the breathy, tiny-voiced female singer covering songs at the end of each episode. So depressing.

Well its about Stalking, so I don't think cheery would fit either.

 

I guess the middle-ground is just to not have those stupid music cues/montages every episode. 

[MortysCleaningLady]

Enjoying over all, but if Dylan McDermott starts stalking the blonde co-worker after a one night stand, I'm out. 

[alexvillage]

I did not hate the episode. The phobias were well played, very real. I can't stand totally dark places either, I need to see at least a dot of light, so I can relate to the despair. 

Beth's stalker is not something I am looking for every week. I hope they don't turn this into a whole season thing. The more they drag the more ridiculous it can become.

Still want to know the timeline, since the wife gave Jack two weeks to leave and so far, nothing. And the show is much better without her and her story

[thuganomics85]

Well, at least this show doesn't drag things out.  Jack and Janice have been making eyes at each other the past two episodes, and now they are already hooking up!  I bet Beth is going to love that, if she ever finds out.

 

At least the case was a bit more stalker-ish, and the concept was interesting.  It must have been a long and loud shower though, if the guy had time to not only unscrew all those light-bulbs, but have to contend with the date as well.  And, those snakes were kind of enough to hide from the second victim, until the guy wanted his big reveal.  Such polite, evil snakes!

 

Could Perry have been more obvious with his Beth questions to the friend?  I'm not saying she should think he is up to evil stuff, but I would thought at the very least, she might think he was lusting over her.

 

Of course, the big bad secret, the teacher was trying to hide, was that she was having casual sex online?  Is society really that bad, that the teacher would be that embarrassed?  Does everyone expect teachers to be celibate or married?

 

At least there was no Jack/Rohm-bot stuff.  Not having to watch Elizabeth Rohm try to "act", or Dylan McDermott try to do anything other then smug, is good in my book.

[Kromm]

Of course, the big bad secret, the teacher was trying to hide, was that she was having casual sex online?  Is society really that bad, that the teacher would be that embarrassed?  Does everyone expect teachers to be celibate or married?

Nope.  Her dating as described was a little more wild. One night stands aplenty, including three-ways.  Also, "online" isn't exactly cybersex. Online in this case meant "people you don't know arrange to hook up with at a hotel room, fuck, and then never meet again".  I think the school board likely wouldn't approve!!!

Edited October 24, 2014 by Kromm

[thuganomics85]

 

Nope.  Her dating as described was a little more wild. One night stands aplenty, including three-ways.  Also, "online" wasn't the location of the sex, strictly speaking. Just the avenue to arrange anonymous partners.

Wow, I can't believe I missed that part.  I must have been distracted or something.  That does make a little more sense: some students' parents would probably flip out over that, and I can see why she didn't want that exposed.  I personally really wouldn't care as long as she doesn't bring it up in front of the kids, but, yeah, I'm sure other parents would be totally outraged.

Edited October 24, 2014 by thuganomics85

[Netfoot]

I'm sure other parents would be totally outraged.

 

Some would be outraged if she were vegetarian,  gay, or a Muslim.  That says more about them than about her.  I can understand her keeping her unconventional lifestyle private, but I can't see any reason for her to feel bad about it.  Or for the cops to give her a hard time about it, either.

[thuganomics85]

 

I can understand her keeping her unconventional lifestyle private, but I can't see any reason for her to feel bad about it.  Or for the cops to give her a hard time about it, either.

I agree about that.  That's why I still found the whole bit silly, but just not as silly as I originally thought (because, I got confused and thought she was freaking out because she was just on a dating website.)  Sorry, if I didn't make sense, but yeah: the way they played it like it was some shameful, dark secret was bad.

[shelley1234]

Enjoying over all, but if Dylan McDermott starts stalking the blonde co-worker after a one night stand, I'm out.

I doubt it. To me the blonde is clearly more into him than the other way around. She was just fulfilling a need IMO.

I can understand her keeping her unconventional lifestyle private, but I can't see any reason for her to feel bad about it. Or for the cops to give her a hard time about it, either.

The tv site is clearly supposed to be something like tinder....and given how communities often feel that they can police the private lives of their teachers, I can see how she would not openly share it. I know a lot of teachers and many won't have a FB page because they don't want to worry about it effecting their job. Edited October 24, 2014 by shelley1005

[chlban]

Well its about Stalking, so I don't think cheery would fit either.

 

I guess the middle-ground is just to not have those stupid music cues/montages every episode. 

" Cold Case" did that using songs from the era in which the episode had taken place. However, they used the actual recordings, not some breathy singer and I always liked it there. Here, not so much.

 

I still think they reveal the villain/Stalker too early in the episode. I end up not caring about the second half of the show at all.. Oh and Dylan McDermott having sex with a co worker. That's Original.  I was having flashbacks and wishing the rest of the episode had been half as good as the worst  episode of "The Practice".   

[alexvillage]

 

Could Perry have been more obvious with his Beth questions to the friend?  I'm not saying she should think he is up to evil stuff, but I would thought at the very least, she might think he was lusting over her.

Speaking of the friend: How old is she supposed to be? mid 30's? I am old, but even when I was in my mid 30's I didn't find any 22 year-olds to be "sexy". A tease, maybe, but "sexy"?

Nothing against the sex between the two, just found it odd that she tells Beth that he is so sexy. 

[shrewd.buddha]

As far as CBS procedurals go, this is not the worst of the lot. (don't get me started on how ridiculous NCSI: LA is ..)

But I'm wondering where they are going with the story line involving the main cast. I figure MQ's (Beth?) BFF is DOA. But I'm not sure about Dylan McDermott and the come-hither co-worker.

...And that's fine by me -- it's not often you can't see a trope coming from a mile away on a typical TV show. 

 

Speaking of co-workers -- what's up with the malcontent-ed Level 1 office guy and his hair that has been shaped into a ... shark fin?  ... faux hawk?  It's very distracting. I wonder why Dylan McDermott's character has not already psychoanalyzed that  .. in his usual inappropriate way, of course. 

 

I continue to think the concept of this show could work. I mean, how would a single woman realistically respond if she discovered that someone had come into her house and removed all the bulbs from her lamps, but not stolen anything? How could the police realistically respond to that in a way that could prevent a yet-to-be-determined threat?  ...But I doubt this show is capable of being subtle about anything.

Edited October 24, 2014 by shrewd.buddha

[Kromm]

Some would be outraged if she were vegetarian,  gay, or a Muslim.  That says more about them than about her.  I can understand her keeping her unconventional lifestyle private, but I can't see any reason for her to feel bad about it.  Or for the cops to give her a hard time about it, either.

The cops didn't give her a hard time about it.  Not even a little, from what I saw. She simply assumed they would--which was the source of the conflict.

[Texasmom1970]

I liked the cases this week with the phobias and another plus no Elizabeth Rohm being pissy!

What is that old saying about not dipping your pen in the company ink? I know they are consenting adults but we all know that it's not going to end well.

On a side note can they show a stalker that has OCD or something and keeps all their papers and photos in a nice pile. Getting tired of the let me wallpaper the house with evidence of my craziness look!

[Swansong]

 

I continue to think the concept of this show could work. I mean, how would a single woman realistically respond if she discovered that someone had come into her house and removed all the bulbs from her lamps, but not stolen anything? How could the police realistically respond to that in a way that could prevent a yet-to-be-determined threat?  ...But I doubt this show is capable of being subtle about anything.

Yeah the show is ok for what it is, but it does make me wish for a show that was actually about stalking.

 

 

Getting tired of the let me wallpaper the house with evidence of my craziness look!

Lol! I guess they feel a pile of papers on a desk wouldn't be as visually exciting, but I guess a bunch of papers on a wall isn't really all that exciting either. Especially when you do it over and over. But yeah show shake it up. Surely not all stalkers have a must paper the wall fetish.

[Shanna]

The cops didn't give her a hard time about it. Not even a little, from what I saw. She simply assumed they would--which was the source of the conflict.

I think what they are going for, with this and the teenager a few eps ago, is more of a House "everybody lies" kind of thing? So not judgement, just that they need all info to diagnose, or solve, the crime. At least that's how im taking it right now. Edited October 25, 2014 by Shanna

[Netfoot]

I think what they are going for, with this and the teenager a few eps ago, is more of a House "everybody lies" kind of thing?

 

Maybe, but it seems to be applied to women, particularly.

[YoureSoUrban]

Criminal Minds already did the phobias/torture story, and better. The "stalker" element of this show is pretty weak, IMO. I'm sure there are more than the stalk-one-person-until-you-kill-them variety we're most familiar with, but identify-trap-kill just seems like standard murderer behavior to me. Is the difference supposed to be that stalkers don't kill?

 

 

" Cold Case" did that using songs from the era in which the episode had taken place. However, they used the actual recordings, not some breathy singer and I always liked it there. Here, not so much.

Totally agree. I was introduced to some nice music through Cold Case but Stalker's faux-emo covers are horrible.

 

I was really hoping the show wouldn't go there, with Dylan McDermott and the blonde cop. It's not witty, it's not sexy. Just one long eyeroll for me.

[arjumand]

I am getting tired of the breathy, tiny-voiced female singer covering songs at the end of each episode. So depressing.

Yeah, who is this singer, so I can choose to boycott her instead of rolling my eyes every episode?

 

I don't know about this episode, am kind of bored with the show - I actually don't know why I'm still watching. I like Maggie Q, but is that really enough? Everyone's starting to irritate me, even minor characters like Ben (that's the guy cop, right? I'm even irritated that I had to look up his name) who I just want to yell GROW UP! JUST GROW UP! at. I mean, oh no! They brought in someone to take the job you thought you would get! That has never happened to anyone else ever!

 

Gah. So fucking annoying. And then at the end of a fairly good (for Stalker) episode we get the usual plinky plonky version of a hit song - the kudos for using Every Breath You Take as the stalker song it was originally intended to be are immediately taken away because it's not the Police version. Is it a budget issue? Are cover versions cheaper than the originals? Could we, the dozen or so people watching this, organize a quick collection to get better artists to cover the songs? As someone who will suffer a complete change of mood (for the worse) if the supermarket she's at is playing terrible music (wall to wall 80s=annoyed; Eurovision song contest entrants= enraged; Christmas songs on a loop= ready to bring about the apocalypse), this is really getting me down. There are good cover versions of songs if you have to have them: on the pilot of Constantine there was a pretty good use of a cover of Ring of Fire: it only lasted a few seconds, and got the message across.

 

This whole crappy montage set to a crappy version of a good song is just depressing.

[DeeDee79]

I'm still enjoying and sticking with this show. I see that the general consensus is that Dylan McDermott sucks but I've always enjoyed him. I've never seen Maggie Q in anything before this but I'm enjoying her as well. Last weeks ep was lackluster but this week was much improved. Part of my enjoyment was the absence of Elizabeth Rohm's character. That subplot doesn't interest or intrigue; I hope it's wrapped up or discarded quickly. The Level 1 employee grates & is very immature. Your new co-worker got the spot you were salivating over so you're a consistent dick to him; grow up.

[candall]

why does it always have to be snakes?

PSA:  If you get a snake in the house, set a big trashcan on its side where the snake can see it.  They're kind of shy and they'll be happy to go right into what they think is a dark safe hole.  You can carry the whole thing outside, set it down (on its side so the snake can get out) and scamper back inside. 

 

I've been told a basic brown paper bag will work, too, but I'm not carrying a snake around in a paper sack!

 

Re the show--I'm not sure how this would work if there are 50 of 'em.

[webruce]

Kristin Patterson was being stalked. Furniture moved and lights bulbs removed. She broke window to escape. Seems he got off over her fears. Also had had windows and doors open. Panty drawer tampered with. He filmed her screaming and running into things. He watched from next door. Home owner was found in his car truck.

She was on a dating site and had some back dates. Zack Thomas was last one. She had no feelings out of it. He is a good red herring.

2nd victim, Laura Flemming. Snakes let go in her place She is afraid of snakes, they are even in her bed. Same tampering with the lights and furniture. He films her panicking.

We also find Angela Darrow, found on toilet.She was on live feed. He harassed her too. She had said no to sex.He said he was helping her. She was molested as a child. Chris Powell is the Stalker. They find his office in an empty office building and he has many live feeds to peoples homes. This is a stalker that should have last a little longer. He was setup like Pelant on Bones almost. Beth took Powell down. "Your welcome" she states to Jack. And Ben and Janice save Amanda. Nice for Beth to follow up to see she is ok.

Beth does her class again on stalking. Perry watches her. He draws Beth and him together. He digs to find her history.

We see that Perry Whitley and Tracy Wright are having a good time dating. Seems right now he is making her feel younger and great. She even fills in Beth on some of it. He calls himself Brody. He finds out that Tracy had a bad ex that tried to kill her and Beth helped her. Will he use that against her?

Jack asking Beth who she is afraid of was good. He told her he is afraid he will make same mistake again. Beth replied that she is afraid of people really knowing her. So Jack must have been talking about whatever he did that got Amanda mad at him. And Beth not wanting any one to know about her past??

Janice chased Jack home and they had sex! He hides all his pictures of Amanda and Ethan.

Edited November 2, 2014 by webruce

[webruce]

My thinking about the team pressing about the teachers sex life is that she said she was just on a date. So to help figure out all the suspects, they have to check all the angles and make a profile. You don't want the Stalker to slip through their fingers.

Same with the teen loosing the kid. Beth wanted to see if there was some wierd bf in her history. Like in the Jack/Amanda case, lol.