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S02.E12: The Kenyon Family


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When Red tips Liz off about the disappearance of a polygamous cult leader with dangerous shipping containers buried on his property, the task force sets out to investigate. Red utilizes his sources to appease Fitch’s last words and tries to track down his hidden safe.

 

 

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Hi, Huge Ressler fan here, and I admit that I don't know what "worrying about CTE for Ressler" means.  What is CTE?

 

Love me some Ressler.  It bugs me that he's always getting shot and kidnapped.  I hope he'll get his chance to open a can of whoop-ass on Tom.

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Well, I at least didn't predict that twist was going to happen.  Went in thinking it was just another typical religious cult thing, and then, bam!  Suddenly, we are dealing with The Lost Boys 2.0.  What will this show think of, next?

 

Of course, this new Attorney General, that is apparently friends with Harold, was going to pull some strings to get Harold in that program.  It was so obvious.  What is this all about?  Why should I care?  I like Harry Lennix, but Harold isn't exactly a character I'm invested in.

 

Red was pretty much off doing his own thing.  Frankly, I would rather watch Red just globe-trot all over the place, participating in numerous shady dealings, compared to most of the FBI stuff.  At least James Spader is fun to watch. 

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Well at least this episode featured bad guys who were just screwing around and were blundered into by the FBI rather than being masterminds who were six steps ahead of them the whole time.

 

I'm assuming the weapons that were stolen will turn up elsewhere later. Or did the kids get them? They were tracked by the camera and GPS in the Hellfire missiles but what about all the other stuff?

 

Was the father dead the whole time or did his son quickly stuff a bunch of branches down his throat and into his eyes while running away? If he had done it shortly after the kidnapping, why was the body still in such good shape?

 

The people in the church were bludgeoned, stabbed, et cetera but by who? The kids?

 

Speaking of the kids, where did they learn to drive?

 

Is there some compelling reason why Lizzie isn't living in her own house? The bad guys who were stalking her are dead now. Painful memories of Tom? If she actually has any kind of psychological training she'd know to deal with it head on rather than running away from it.

 

I got a chuckle out of Ressler's longing gaze at the shelves of opiates. Also, yeah continuity!

 

I wish they would just come out and say what Harold is suffering from. Cancer? I hope not. I've met Walter White and you, Harold are no Walter White.

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No one cares about Cooper's medical problems -- either kill him off or drop this sub-plot, it's just filler at this point.  And we still don't know what's even wrong with him ?  Obviously, it's not liver-related.

 

Samar still shows no signs of having ever been shot in the leg or being hung from the ceiling within an inch of her life before surviving a pair of missile explosions.

 

So, was that kid driving that van full of explosives ?  How exactly ?

 

And the Kenyon Family is basically a Waco-type cult with a lot of circular branches in the family tree -- oh well, now most of them are dead so it doesn't rally matter.

 

Red is playing 'Where in the World is the Fulcrum ?" with Glen.

 

After the accident, why was Lizzie asking about cell reception -- she had a satellite phone ?  That's how she called Red.  Where did it go ?

 

Lizzie is so distracted by a doll hanging from a tree, she is completely oblivious noise of Resseler being kidnapped with the girl by the Watchers, despite being within earshot of the radio in SUV.  And Resseler goes for a lovely drive through the woods.  Did they ever find all the missing girls from the compound, or the girl taken from the Sheriff's SUV -- or was that just dropped entirely ?

 

Lizzie is all butthurt about the girls that were kidnapped, but no one seems to give a shit about the local sheriff that was beaten to death by the Watchers.  And Resseler suffered no injuries during his jaunt through the woods on his back behind an ATV.  How ?

 

Of course Lizzie is safe in a room full of wild boys -- she's not related to any of them.  Considering that these Watchers were supposed to be trained since they were young as soldiers, you would think one of them could tie a knot that Lizzie couldn't escape from.  And why did the Watcher with the rifle kill his own leader before he was gunned down ?  I figured he would have been aiming at Lizzie -- and it's not like he wasn't a good shot, as it was the same kid that shot out the tire of the Sheriff's vehicle.  And why did Lizzie drop like she had been shot ?  Some sort of cheapass fakeout  ?  This all makes no sense.

 

Has the dog been at the motel all this time ?   Does Lizzie even remember that she has a dog ?

 

Nothing about the dead harbormaster while Lizzie was out snipe-hunting in the Smoky Mountains.

 

So what the hell was in the case in the trunk of the old Presidential limousine in a shipping container under the altar of the Kenyon Family church ?  Since that was a working phone number that Red found in the safe in St. Petersburg, that means that someone had been in there recently to remove the Fulcrum and replaced it with that business card.

 

Seriously, this was a really shitty episode -- the Blacklister was little more than an arms storage facility for other bad guys being used to fund a religious compound.  If the Watchers hadn't decided to whack everyone and steal all the young girls, how would Red have gotten in to take the case ?  Did Red pay the Watchers to wipe out all their relatives at the church ?  It just seems all a little too convenient.  And this goes back to my comments upthread about how no one at the FBI asked what was Red's real reason for pointing them in the direction of the Kenyon Family.

 

So what were the targets that the vans full of explosives were supposed to blow up ?  It's like these Watcher kids didn't know what the hell they were doing.  If it was all about getting back at daddy, who were they trying to kill exactly ?

 

$5 says that the mystery man at the other end of Red's call is none other than Tom Keen.

Edited by ottoDbusdriver
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My only comment on this episode is Lizzie sees the little girl watching something/someone in the woods; Lizzie asks her what she is looking at and the little girl replies, "The Watchers" and the braintrust that is Lizzie doesn't think to question who/what the watchers are as she is in a wooded militia compound with who knows how many unaccounted for members! If this series doesn't end with Lizzie getting a bullet in the head, there truly is no justice in the world.

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Oh no!  

 

Lizzie and Ressler are captured by bad guys!

 

A child in their care is kidnapped from them!

 

Other red-shirt law enforcement officials are brutally killed and never mentioned again!

 

How does this show keep coming up with such innovative twists? /* sarcasm */

 

I love the premise of The Blacklist, and I'd like to hang out with Red (during his non-violent moments), but this show has fallen into a rut so fast and so deep that I'm not sure its ever going to get out.  There may be some people out there who only want to see Blacklist scenes of torture and despair, filmed in the dark, with confusing images of action, but I think most of us tune in each week to see interesting stories for our characters to get involved in and solve.  Lately, all we get are the exact same scenes, with the villain and his M.O. slightly changing from week to week.

 

If the world was really as bleak as it appears on this show, Director Cooper would be looking forward to the sweet release of death from whatever mysterious and vaguely sinister disease he's afflicted with.

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I thought it was pretty certain that Harold has cancer.  I'm actually more interested in him at this point than in Lizzie.  This from someone who used to defend her.  The rest of this dreck is so unbelievable I don't even have words for it.  Everything has already been said.  Thanks to Otto for the well thought out recaps.  I could skip the actual show from now on and just read his recaps (that's what I do with State of Affairs now).  I know I'll have to keep watching because of Red, and now Tom is coming back (Yay)!   Where is the dog? 

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Back to tonight's ep -- when she was talking about the supplies at the compound, did the Assistant AG pronounce "potable" like "pot-able" instead of "po-table"? I've always heard it with the long "o". Nitpicking, I know.

 

 

I wonder if the actor is British and just let the Brit inflection slip in.

 

What's up with Ressler getting his ass kicked every week and nothing ever happens to Lizzie? Why did the kids shoot/beat up/kill the woman cop but not Lizzie? Why did they capture Ressler and not kill him? If it was a male vs. female thing, see my question re: shooting Lizzie. If I were getting beat up every week like Ressler is, I'd be eyeballing some opiates too, Lizzie and her attitude be damned.

 

So those little kids reached the pedals of those big vans ... how?

 

The local police now has jurisdiction over the FBI?

 

When a tire blows, isn't one suppose to SLOW DOWN by applying THE BRAKES? And not speed up and crash into a tree?

 

Ressler can't climb out of the window? Although his convo with the little girl was pretty good.

 

Lizzie getting in the car with the little girl gave me deja vu back to episode 1.

 

Lizzie still lives in the motel? The heck? She could rent some jive apartment on her salary, one would think, without Red having to sugar-daddy her into new digs.

 

So the head of this fancy smancy FBI group doesn't have enough clout to get into some local cancer research program? Thanks to Red for getting him in as No. 36. (We all know he's the "friend of a friend.")

 

So that presidential limo was under the church, access gained by a trap door in the floor above. I was expecting Red to drive the car out ... but how? And why, when all the containers were robbed, didn't anyone find the car-in-a-case?

 

After the fun episode last week, this one really sucked. I could care less about Tom Keen coming back next week, although I'd really like it if he IS a woman now. And "Deer Hunter" ... are writers not old enough to have seen that movie? Please.

 

ETA: Did anyone else see the white cargo van driving alongside Red's car when the aerial view was shown before Red made a phone call? I was expecting him to look out the window and go, "Oh, sh*t, there's a bomb van driving right next to me, Lizzie!"

Edited by saber5055
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I'm going to assume CTE refers to:

 

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a form of encephalopathy that is a progressive degenerative disease, which can currently only be definitively diagnosed postmortem, in individuals with a history of multiple concussions and other forms of head injury.

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Oh my, the FBI agents are again captured/ tortured. This seems to happen every week to at least one or more agents. I was laughing my ass off as they drug Ressler along the road. How many times is he going to take one for the team? In all honesty, this theme is really getting OLD. Come on writers, grow an imagination or something.

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I think the DMV guy is my new favorite character. I love how he doesn't take any crap from Red and just keeps generating his own BS regardless of anything, which drives Red totally crazy. The way he was writing down "Alan Fitch" was awesome, the bit about forgetting his dyslexia pills entertained the crap out of me too. It's like this guy (the actor) brings his own writer, who is way better than the regular staff writing for this show.

 

The cult thing was weird, but not in a good way. Each male had to have exactly (or was it "at least"?) three wives? The cult leader must have been not very bright to have thought that up. Complete lack of any long-term planning there, demographically speaking. I'd love to see the moment it hit him that something had to be done with the surplus of boys there. And I bet he didn't even get to the idea that, if things keep going like that, the male-to-female ratio will keep dropping and pretty soon each man would have to deal with dozens of wives (unless they allowed women to stay single, which I wouldn't think they would). 

 

The expelled boys must have been extraordinarily dumb, too. Nobody ever had thought of maybe leaving those woods and asking someone on the outside to help them? Seems like at least some of them should have come up with that.

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The cult thing was weird, but not in a good way. Each male had to have exactly (or was it "at least"?) three wives? The cult leader must have been not very bright to have thought that up. Complete lack of any long-term planning there, demographically speaking. I'd love to see the moment it hit him that something had to be done with the surplus of boys there. And I bet he didn't even get to the idea that, if things keep going like that, the male-to-female ratio will keep dropping and pretty soon each man would have to deal with dozens of wives (unless they allowed women to stay single, which I wouldn't think they would). 

 

The expelled boys must have been extraordinarily dumb, too. Nobody ever had thought of maybe leaving those woods and asking someone on the outside to help them? Seems like at least some of them should have come up with that.

That part, horrifyingly enough, is based on a true story, and the guy was so not concerned about genetic diversity that he tried real hard to impregnate all the girls on his own.

Edited by Julia
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I'm going to assume CTE refers to:

 

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a form of encephalopathy that is a progressive degenerative disease, which can currently only be definitively diagnosed postmortem, in individuals with a history of multiple concussions and other forms of head injury.

Yes, you tend to see it in old football players or FBI agents who get knocked out or in car accidents every week.

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That part, horrifyingly enough, is based on a true story, and the guy was so not concerned about genetic diversity that he tried real hard to impregnate all the girls on his own.

 

Very loosely based. It sounds like the true story didn't have expelling extra boys as a matter of policy for mating-related reasons, it was done more to remove competition when needed, on a case by case basis. And the boys, or rather young men already, didn't sit in the woods, they would actually go out into the society, although they weren't prepared to deal with it.

 

The true story is super creepy for sure, but it does have its sick rationale. What the writers did was increase the creepy at the expense of believability, imo. I get it that those cult members are not rational people, but practical matters are practical matters, they would have to be faced with at least somewhat rational thinking by at least some people. 

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I think the DMV guy is my new favorite character. I love how he doesn't take any crap from Red and just keeps generating his own BS regardless of anything, which drives Red totally crazy. The way he was writing down "Alan Fitch" was awesome, the bit about forgetting his dyslexia pills entertained the crap out of me too. It's like this guy (the actor) brings his own writer, who is way better than the regular staff writing for this show.

 

 

YES! I totally meant to say this myself. This character -- and actor -- are the best thing in this series by a long shot, for all of the above reasons.

Edited by saber5055
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My only comment on this episode is Lizzie sees the little girl watching something/someone in the woods; Lizzie asks her what she is looking at and the little girl replies, "The Watchers" and the braintrust that is Lizzie doesn't think to question who/what the watchers are as she is in a wooded militia compound with who knows how many unaccounted for members! If this series doesn't end with Lizzie getting a bullet in the head, there truly is no justice in the world.

Exactly!  Um, you're the FBI - aren't you supposed to be trained in observation, situational awareness, counter-surveillance?  And someone TELLS you they are looking at "The Watchers" - maybe you are being watched??  What is this 'no time for back-up, lets just get her off the mountain" so they get in the SUV.  So far in this series, getting into an SUV with Liz is equivalent to putting on a red Star Trek shirt - has she ever ridden in an SUV that hasn't crashed?  

 

So when they do crash, what's the SOP?  Lets split up and wander off in different directions, and leave the crippled agent with the high-value witness.  

 

I love Red, and I would pay for a 2-hour on-demand special to see the plane flight with the DMV guy, but the rest of the FBI team is so terrible it drags the whole show down.   

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Oh my, the FBI agents are again captured/ tortured. This seems to happen every week to at least one or more agents. I was laughing my ass off as they drug Ressler along the road. How many times is he going to take one for the team? In all honesty, this theme is really getting OLD. Come on writers, grow an imagination or something.

I know I have stated in the past Ressler looks hot even when bloody and bruised but you are right. Give the poor guy a break drag Lizzie around behind a car or something. Now that I would tune in to see!

Edited by Texasmom1970
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This one *could* have been great. It was creepy, not just in the visuals (giving me lots of flashbacks to The Blair Witch Project) but in the idea as well. I loved the idea of the polygamist cult with its strange form of population control that results in a revolt by the castaways. It's a nice twist to a familiar story and is a nice way to bring the cult's narrative full circle.

Unfortunately...the execution sucked. The pacing was too slow. The characters stood around and talked way too much. The action, when it was there, felt random and nonsensical. The expositions were vague infodumps that didn't really inform at all. Eventually, I just sat around watching and wondering when people were going to get to the point...this felt very much like a writer having this wonderful idea but getting afraid he won't be able to explain everything so he crams too much information into one episode, forgetting the other details needed to make the episode entertaining.

Other points:

-Ressler's tough. Fine, we get it...he can take a beating. A huge beating. Beatings that likely wouldn't leave a regular man alive, let alone badly injured (being dragged by a car would likely kill someone). Enough already, it's getting tiring- pick on someone else. Then get Ressler into some fights and have him win. The character needs to be more than a punching bag.

(Kudos that he saw the coediene tablets and passed on them, though)

-"Stock character, you stay here and watch the kids while I, a main character, go investigate." Gee, when has that ever been effective for the main character? The show couldn't telegraph any more than the girl was going to get kidnapped and the other occupants dealt with.

(Did they ever find the girl? I seemed to have missed that explanation)

-Speaking of which, didn't Liz have a satellite phone? Why couldn't she make a phone call instead of wandering into The Blair Witch Project: Blacklist Edition.

-Finally, Lizzie is bugging me. She keeps on acting like she can be tough around Reddington yet never learns that Red always gets the upper hand. If this guy bothers you so much, why don't you just leave and start a new life somewhere else?

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Finally, Lizzie is bugging me. She keeps on acting like she can be tough around Reddington yet never learns that Red always gets the upper hand. If this guy bothers you so much, why don't you just leave and start a new life somewhere else?

 

 

Last week, Lizzie was all whiny about Red wasn't there for HER, to take care of HER, to watch over HER, to protect HER. This week she's all "I don't need you in my life, stay away from me." The heck? Yeah, why doesn't she transfer somewhere. Maybe some place that will comp her an apartment so she doesn't have to stay in the fleabag motel. You'd think Ressler or that other woman agent would let Lizzie sleep on their couch or something.

 

What ever happened to the hot guy that Red sent to the motel to watch her?

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Maybe she has some kind of amnesia and doesn't remember that she has been done with him numerous times already. Amnesia would actually explain a lot about Lizzie, like her forgetting all her profiling skills, for example. Or not remembering how to use facial expressions. And it would be easy to write it into the show and fix it, what with all her childhood traumas and someone messing with her brain and such. You are welcome, writers.

Edited by shura
  • Love 4
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So this episode finally made me take this show and for that matter Nashville off my DVR season passes. I can't spend time watching shows that I'm only nominally interested in when there is such great TV out there.

James Spader is not a good enough reason to watch a show that has so many bland characters.

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I think you guys are crazy.  I am really impressed by Megan Boone's ability to play a character who is both dumb as hair but smart enough to get into the FBI, who is unable to emote but still incites fiery hatred from those who watch her, and someone who forgets her training on a regular basis but manages to breathe and tie her shoes still. 

Love DMV guy.  It looks like Spader is having fun with him also.  He doesn't look as bored as when he is addressing Lizzie. 

  • Love 6
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Weirdly, she bothers me less now that someone here pointed out that she's got a ton of family money and political influence behind her. It was making me a little nuts having no idea why she was getting hired over people with talent. I feel better now.

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I hope Clark Middleton's role is recurring here, too.  Didn't Red go visit him one other time, earlier in the year, or last season? His part wasn't so big then so I didn't notice him. I just remember Red going to the DMV, and not to get his license renewed.

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I hope Clark Middleton's role is recurring here, too.  Didn't Red go visit him one other time, earlier in the year, or last season? His part wasn't so big then so I didn't notice him. I just remember Red going to the DMV, and not to get his license renewed.

 

I think that was when Red used Glen to track down Berlin's daughter, and then Red started befriending her at the food truck.

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Give the poor guy a break drag Lizzie around behind a car or something. Now that I would tune in to see!

I would agree with you, though I fear good ol' political correctness probably will stop that. Beat up a guy and no one really bats an eye, since a guy is supposed to be “tough”. Beat up a woman and everyone complains to the ends of the earth, since women are “delicate” (even the supposedly “tough” ones). There's just no winning, I'm afraid.

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I would agree with you, though I fear good ol' political correctness probably will stop that. Beat up a guy and no one really bats an eye, since a guy is supposed to be “tough”. Beat up a woman and everyone complains to the ends of the earth, since women are “delicate” (even the supposedly “tough” ones). There's just no winning, I'm afraid.

I wish I was raising my daughter in the world you live in. It sounds like a great place to be a girl.

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I wish I was raising my daughter in the world you live in. It sounds like a great place to be a girl.

Not to be antagonistic, but are you agreeing with me or not?

ETA: I should say that I'm not saying that women should be targets of violence on TV more than men- I'm saying that violence should treat each gender equally, and our reactions to a character being beat up should be based on the character's merits alone.

Edited by Danielg342
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I would agree with you, though I fear good ol' political correctness probably will stop that. Beat up a guy and no one really bats an eye, since a guy is supposed to be “tough”. Beat up a woman and everyone complains to the ends of the earth, since women are “delicate” (even the supposedly “tough” ones). There's just no winning, I'm afraid.

Have you noticed there is the same double standard when it comes to animals and humans? In movies snd television it's like the viewers are so used to seeing humans killed and tortured. If there is even off camera depection of animal torture people go all crazy. Not that I am saying either is okay or anything.

  • Love 3
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There may be some people out there who only want to see Blacklist scenes of torture and despair, filmed in the dark, with confusing images of action, but I think most of us tune in each week to see interesting stories for our characters to get involved in and solve.

 

 

That's exactly right. Somewhere along the line, the main premise of the show - that there are lots of smart criminals in the world (some in legitimate government roles) and Red has been outsmarting them and will continue to do so - became "let's try to gross out viewers with dumb but creepy bad guys." Look, Red's whole appeal is his intelligence. The show needs to leverage it. Not his quirks, not his weird habits - his brains.

 

This is why the DMV guy and Red are so awesome together. The DMV guy screws with Red but all the while is very good at his job. He isn't violent, or creepy. He knows what he is doing, and he has a minor quirk in that can make a silly mistake (like the apartment number). But he is interesting as all get out.

 

The Lost Boys and Waco-like nuts? Not so much.

 

IMO, the reason the show took this turn is because Lizzie is so irredeemably dumb.

Edited by Ottis
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I liked the ep well enough, but I definitely find that in heavily serialized shows that are on a typical 22-ep schedule, episodes like this are more enjoyable when I'm marathoning.  Since the named Blacklister didn't have anything directly to do with Red's plotting, it was just a storage facility that had been breached, the episode was basically just a bunch of character moments, which I like, but when you can't go directly into the next ep, there just isn't much to chew on while you're waiting.    

 

I didn't get a good enough look at the car to figure out what time frame it was from.  I thought it might have been the JFK assassination car, but I don't the the top was right.  And the car itself might not have anything to do with what was in the case, so it's probably a moot point anyway... yeah, I need the next ep, dang it.  

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...JFK assassination car...

 

Since the Bobby Darin version of  "Beyond the Sea" was recorded in 1959 ( I had to look that up, I'm not that old), I took the implication that it was from the JFK era, if not the actual vehicle.  Or maybe it was just a red herring.  Bad joke, sorry.

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Since the Bobby Darin version of  "Beyond the Sea" was recorded in 1959 ( I had to look that up, I'm not that old), I took the implication that it was from the JFK era, if not the actual vehicle.

 

 

Good catch with the song, Dowel. I didn't even pay attention since I know the song, so I did not think about the year/era it was from, which probably has all to do with whatever is in that case Red took. Right away, though, I thought the limo was '60s-era so I guess I got one part of the two-part clue. Did the JFK car have his presidential seal on it? I've watched that film over and over but don't remember seeing one. Doubt the storyline will go there (JFK), but it is an interesting sidebar.

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