S01.E04: Feathers Or Steel

[formerlyfreedom]

Meyer and Clements hunt a child kidnapper whose MO is similar to Adam's abductor. Bridey arouses Willa's suspicions while seeking information on Adam. In the past, Claire pushes Hank to share more about Adam's kidnapping and makes a painful discovery about John.

 

[Primetimer]

And more questions sparked by this week's episode, 'Feathers Or Steel.'

Read the story

[LoveLeigh]

I can't any more with this show. I sort of dislike weekly ongoing mysteries because we have to wait so long for each episode and to get answers to all the ongoing riddles. I hate mysteries. 

 

Shows like Mad Men, Homeland, Ray Donovan, even The Sopranos just continued the interesting plot and the story developed in captivating ways, but these mysteries are way too frustrating for me as a viewer. 

 

And The Family just is a big tease. 

[CPA Carol]

If they tell us next week if it's really Adam then what's the mystery of it?

[Free]

I can't any more with this show. I sort of dislike weekly ongoing mysteries because we have to wait so long for each episode and to get answers to all the ongoing riddles. I hate mysteries. 

 

Shows like Mad Men, Homeland, Ray Donovan, even The Sopranos just continued the interesting plot and the story developed in captivating ways, but these mysteries are way too frustrating for me as a viewer. 

 

And The Family just is a big tease. 

 

Agreed, it's just spinning its wheels and running out the clock until then.

 

 

If they tell us next week if it's really Adam then what's the mystery of it?

 

The kidnapper reveal I guess, when they drag that out and what happened with Adam, especially if he's an imposter.  otherewise, the mystery just isn't interesting enough to sustain it.

Edited March 21, 2016 by Free

[KaveDweller]

If they tell us next week if it's really Adam then what's the mystery of it?

 

When everyone else finds out? I'm assuming that the reporter finds out but the family doesn't. And if she just compared Adam's DNA to the old DNA on file for Adam they could say later the DNA was switched and change their answer.

 

So, did Willa have a thing with the reporter in the past? Or was she just fantasizing?

[thuganomics85]

Show just got weird in this episode.  Lets see, here.  As mayor, Claire used her power to make the warden allow Hank to get assaulted during his time in prison.  That's a lovely use of your authority, Claire.  She also knew about John's affair for a long time since he is seriously the worst cheater on the planet (worst in how he can not hide his tracks to save his life.)  At least we got to meet her future opinion, played by Grant Show, who I like, but I'm so sure is going to get his clocked cleaned by Claire.  Joan Allen is not someone I want to be running against!

 

Another boy gets captured, proving some easy filler since it ends up not being part of the case.  Instead though, boring copy lady kills the unarmed guy in cold blood, so she and the FBI cover it up.  Not sure if she did that because she thought he was the guy and just wanted to end him, or if it was showing just how inexperienced she is.  I would care more if I didn't find her dull, and find the actress to easily be the weakest on on this show.

 

So, Willa might have had a thing with Bridey/reporter, or really wants to have one with her.  It's it the former, then Bridey has been with both her and Danny, and she should totally complete the set and try it with Adam.  He's eighteen now, right?!  It would be legal then!  Creepy, but legal!

 

Of course Kidnapper Dude has a lair underneath his work-shed.  I would have been surprised if he didn't.

 

Episode ends with a beaten up Hank.  I'm guessing one of the members of "the family" will be the main suspect, but I'm sure there will be a swerve of some kind or there will be more to the story.

[SanDiegoInExile]

I find this "family" just plain creepy. Mayor Mom is creepy. Dad is creepy.  All three kids are creepy, with the daughter leading the pack (is she trying to pray away the gay?).  Plus now we get creepy cops as well, covering up an intentional murder.  I was also annoyed that the license plate number on the white van was sequenced like a California plate (number + three letters + three numbers)..... I think only CA has 7-digit plates.  Maine has barely 1.33M people, so likely fewer registered vehicles statewide than are on LA freeways at any given time.  Plus, that crack motel looked decent (and huge) from the exterior, but I guess since it's "abandoned", none of the interior doors locked?

 

I had noticed Grant Show as listed in next week's credits, so that will keep me tuned in.

 

Also a pleasant surprise that FBI guy has a husband.  

Edited March 21, 2016 by SanDiegoInExile

[cinsays]

   Ugh.........I was really hoping this episode would break the chain of just plain creepiness, but, no such luck.

Nobody in this family is at all appealing.  Actually, that goes for the whole cast.

   How stupid was it to let the reporter go up to the elder son's room to look for her lost phone alone????????  Willa is already acting like she suspects the gal is up to something, so why not go with her?  Too busy writing speeches for your mom to use to become governor?

  God save Maine if that is the best they can find for governor.   Wait......no worse than a few other real state governors (cough....Michigan, New Jersey, etc.).

  So who is the guy that kidnapped Adam and this new kid?  Why does his wife think his spending hours in his little secret shed is not suspicious? And, since he was getting the shovel, does that mean the new kid is dead and to be buried or is he just refining the rooms in the dungeon?

  I usually like this kind of show.  Loved the one about the kid found at the bottom of a cliff on the shore in another New Englandy type of location.  But I really just don't find anything likeable about this.

  So I think I will just come here for the synopsis and review and not bother with the rest.

  Enjoy everyone!

[Free]

I usually like this kind of show.  Loved the one about the kid found at the bottom of a cliff on the shore in another New Englandy type of location.  But I really just don't find anything likeable about this.

 

Gracepoint?  Broadchurch?  Yeah, they were more interesting too.

[JapMo]

Holy mother of......what a mess:

 

- First off, LOL that the Governor invites Claire to lunch and tries to tell her she can't use the biggest thing she's got going for her (mother of kidnapped child) as her campaign cornerstone.  Yeah, right...this is the guy who is running against her and she's going to listen to him?  Even though he's incredibly hot?  Well, on this show that might make a difference, but seriously, how stupid.

- Man, I was hoping the person beaten to a pulp on the floor wasn't the kook next door but Bridey, the incredibly unethical reporter.  Can't stand the character.  Also, how did she know the earwax from that Qtip was actually Adams?  Just because it's his room and his wastebasket doesn't mean it necessarily came from him.  With something so important, a REAL reporter would have been 100% sure it was his.  But not Bridey, of course.

- Speaking of Bridey, kudos to all of you for recognizing she was the object of Willa's rather...um...passionate attack of her bedspread.  I didn't realize it was Bridey she was using as her focal point.  Besides watching someone service themselves on TV, was there a point to this?  We already know Bridey is a slut.

- One of the reasons I started watching this show is because I like Zach Gilford (Danny).  But he's barely on.  Rather than have him hang with Bridey, I'd love to see him try to find Alex, the female best friend of Adam's before he was kidnapped.  Maybe she could shed some interesting light on this mystery.  Whatever...he's being wasted, as well as most of the cast.

- It takes Claire all these years to finally tell the cop to keep the hell away from her husband?  Speaking of John, he doesn't give Claire the expensive jewelry for Christmas because he didn't think it was the right time???  Gee John, when would the appropriate time be?  Groundhog Day, anniversary of Adam's abduction?

 

I'm in this for the long haul, which I don't really believe will be much longer, and because I guess I did something bad in a previous life and I need to be punished. 

[iMonrey]

 

Agreed, it's just spinning its wheels and running out the clock until then.

 

This one definitely felt like filler since the whole new kidnapping thing turned out to be a red herring.

 

I don't think I'm going out on a limb here by assuming Hank staged his own attack in order to frame one of the Warrens (presumably John). They took a restraining order out against him and slandered him on TV by calling him a monster, and the attorney he consulted with said he'd never win a lawsuit against them. This was probably his only recourse for justice that he could see. I'm still baffled by why he doesn't just sell that damn house and move somewhere else so it's hard to feel too bad for him.

[cinsays]

   Yeah, Gracepoint, that was the one I loved.  thanks fellow sufferer.

    No, I don't think the neighbor (Hank is it?) is smart enough to know how to stage his own attack with the bat at least not yet.  It seems like he is very slowly adjusting to life on the outside of jail and he seems to be somewhat on the high end of low intelligence to me.  And even though an admirer/fantasizer about children, he seems like a very passive, non-combative type of person.

 

[Free]

This one definitely felt like filler since the whole new kidnapping thing turned out to be a red herring.

 

I don't think I'm going out on a limb here by assuming Hank staged his own attack in order to frame one of the Warrens (presumably John). They took a restraining order out against him and slandered him on TV by calling him a monster, and the attorney he consulted with said he'd never win a lawsuit against them. This was probably his only recourse for justice that he could see. I'm still baffled by why he doesn't just sell that damn house and move somewhere else so it's hard to feel too bad for him.

 

It is, I'm guessing it's because he's attached to the house.  The new kidnapping thing just feels like padding.

[partofme]

He might like the location, they have a great water view and it's possible he wouldn't be able to find anything as nice if he sold it.

 

I couldn't believe the cop was dumb enough to not call for back up when she found the boy in the room and then to shoot an unarmed suspect.

[DoubleUTeeEff]

So, did Willa have a thing with the reporter in the past? Or was she just fantasizing?

I want to know that too.  At first I thought Willa turned to religion because she felt guilty about her part in setting up Hank and possibly she had something to do with Adam's disappearance.  Now, are we supposed to believe that she is using it to try and suppress her sexuality?  I mean, she was kneeling down to pray when she was having the fantasy or remembering that experience.

How stupid was it to let the reporter go up to the elder son's room to look for her lost phone alone????????  Willa is already acting like she suspects the gal is up to something, so why not go with her?

Maybe she was afraid of temptation?  Especially if they did actually sleep together before.  Naw, it was just so Bridey could get the q-tip.

It takes Claire all these years to finally tell the cop to keep the hell away from her husband?

I assumed that was because she is running for governor now.  As in, she doesn't really care what her husband does as long as it doesn't stand in the way of her political ambitions.  Although you are right, it seemed she did care about him in the past as evidenced with the whole necklace debacle.  So why not speak up then? 

 

A couple of the questions from last episode's thread were mentioned in this episode.  Specifically, asking Hank where Adam's body was and why not just do your own DNA test.  So that tells me that things are moving along but at a slower pace than people want.

 

I will say that this episode has made me hate Detective Nina Meyer.  How in the eff do you just shoot someone like that, unarmed yes, but also with no type of identification of who he is?  He wasn't the pockmarked dude they were suspecting did it.  He did walk into the motel room but how did she know it was the kidnapper?  Couldn't it have been motel staff?  Maybe it was the kidnapper's brother or friend who the kidnapper confessed to and he came to rescue the boy?  Maybe it was a PI that the mother hired to find her kid.  WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?   You did not know who that was with any certainty!  How can you shoot him like that?  And she didn't seem to give two shits about it later, either.  Even if it turned out to be the kidnapper and you believe he deserved the death sentence, can't you at least care one tiny bit about ending someone's life?  God, I hate her.  Also, earlier in the episode she was asking Adam, "that's him, isn't it?  isn't it?" so annoying.  Give him a second and let him answer for himself.  Don't put words in his mouth.

[roomtorome]

They are trying to hard to make everyone seem mysterious and all that I am is finding it stupid and over-wrought with all the supposed secrets - all so forced.  They have a decent cast but, boy, are they are wasting them.  

 

But, hey, I hope they all got paid a boatload of money to be in this thing.

 

I'm kinda hoping creepy mom hired this imposter (IF he is an imposter) just to win an election - now, that would be satisfying (to me) but I won't be around to see how it ends.  Will read about it when it is over and done with.

[UsernameFatigue]

It doesn't make sense to me that Hank would have staged his own attack. What would be the point of him staging an attack and then lying on the floor. Who is supposed to find him? He lives alone, doesn't appear to have friends and it is night time. Unless he supposedly called 911 before assuming the postion of being beaten and knocked out on the floor. So maybe that happens next epi but I really don't see it. Of course we are to believe that hubby saw Hank violating the restraining order by walking a few steps past the tree, and went nuts. Which doesn't make sense - just take a video of him standing where he shouldn't be, call the police and let them haul him off. But that would be too simple.

 

The idea that hubby and cop having been having an affair for 10 years is ridiculous as well. Not to mention that two years after the affair supposedly started Claire goes past the cop's house and there is hubby decorating a Christmas tree with the cop in full view of anyone who may pass by her house. This is the mayor's husband for frigg sake - not like people do not know what he looks like. Ugh. And of course that the cop who has risen through the ranks over the last 10 years would shoot and kill the guy in the motel without a second thought (and her partner would cover for her as well) is a stretch.

 

This show reminds me of a soap in that (at least the one soap that I do watch) it seems the writers are making it up as they go along (which of course they are) but really have no idea themselves where it is going or what the end game will be. However it is mindless entertainment so for now I will keep watching.

Edited March 21, 2016 by UsernameFatigue

[KaveDweller]

The idea that hubby and cop having been having an affair for 10 years is ridiculous as well. Not to mention that two years after the affair supposedly started Claire goes past the cop's house and there is hubby decorating a Christmas tree with the cop in full view of anyone who may pass by her house. This is the mayor's husband for frigg sake - not like people do not know what he looks like. Ugh. And of course that the cop who has risen through the ranks over the last 10 years would shoot and kill the guy in the motel without a second thought (and her partner would cover for her as well) is a stretch.

 

I'm not sure they've been having an affair for the whole ten years. I think they started having an affair after Adam was taken and it lasted for awhile , but then died out. But then finding Adam through them back together. There was a scene in the pilot where the cop asked the husband about him and his wife, it made me think they hadn't talked in awhile.

[Madding crowd]

This episode was a little boring to me. I wasn't sure if the pockmarked man actually had a kid hidden in that shed; it would seem pretty risky with his wife/girlfriend holding a party right outside the door. Not to mention that she could go in and snoop around and was already kind of suspicious. The motel seen and the shooting looked all wrong too-why would the cop go into the room by herself and just shoot the man coming in. If she thought he was the guy who kidnapped Adam, wouldn't she want him alive to find out for sure?

 

I couldn't figure out if the daughter's fantasy meant she had actually been with the reporter at one time or was just thinking about it. Don't know who attacked Hank either; they are sure showing him a lot so he has to have some kind of information on this case. 

[UsernameFatigue]

Who knows for sure how long the hubby and cop have been sleeping together since the show is short on details. I thought I would google the series and see if anyone else had any insight on this and the two sites that came up both thought the affair had been going on for 10 years. As one reviewer put it regarding Claire,  why bother telling the cop to stop sleeping with the hubby after 10 years? I suppose though it could be a renewed affair which is why Claire indicated to the cop that she was not a special snowflake and that hubby has cheated lots. One of the sites also thinks it is the person who spray painted 'monster' on the garage door that took the baseball bat that Adam and daddy had been playing with earlier and attacked Hank.

[Mayadog]

Thank goodness you all have better eyesight than I do.  I thought the Willa fantasy or memory was of her and Adam.  Or the imposter Adam.  I just couldn't see and my brain went to the ickiest place it could go.  Much happier with the news that it was the reporter!

[DebbieM4]

Thank goodness you all have better eyesight than I do.  I thought the Willa fantasy or memory was of her and Adam.  Or the imposter Adam.  I just couldn't see and my brain went to the ickiest place it could go.  Much happier with the news that it was the reporter!

 

I thought the same thing at first.  It was hard to see who the other person was, at least on my TV, and I played it over a few times trying to figure it out.  I didn't know for sure until I read the posts here.  So thank you all!

 

I think Willa was remembering an actual sexual encounter with Bridey.  Didn't Bridey say early on that she's a lesbian blogger?  And then she jumped into bed with Danny (for the sole purpose of getting close to him for nefarious reasons).  I think her preference is women, Willa was one of them, and things ended badly.  But of course the sex was awesome and that's what Willa is flashing back to.  When she grabbed onto the bedspread like that, I thought she was remembering another time that she had grabbed that same bedspread - not that she was hoping it would happen.  Of course, of course, of course I could be wrong.

 

I can't stand Nina.  I don't just find anything about her appealing, and she doesn't seem to be all that gifted as a cop.  I thought so even before this episode, where she stupidly shot that guy.  Seems like a real amateur cop move to me.  I think we're supposed to care about her, but I don't find the actress portraying her (sorry, too lazy to look up her name) to be all that compelling or sympathetic or interesting.  At all.  Kind of a very weak link for me.

 

I unabashedly love this show.  It's not my type of thing normally, but I binge-watched the first 3 episodes and got totally hooked.  Yeah, it's campy and for sure there's a lot to criticize.  But I am really enjoying it.

[paulvdb]

I will say that this episode has made me hate Detective Nina Meyer. How in the eff do you just shoot someone like that, unarmed yes, but also with no type of identification of who he is? He wasn't the pockmarked dude they were suspecting did it. He did walk into the motel room but how did she know it was the kidnapper? Couldn't it have been motel staff? Maybe it was the kidnapper's brother or friend who the kidnapper confessed to and he came to rescue the boy? Maybe it was a PI that the mother hired to find her kid. WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK? You did not know who that was with any certainty! How can you shoot him like that? And she didn't seem to give two shits about it later, either. Even if it turned out to be the kidnapper and you believe he deserved the death sentence, can't you at least care one tiny bit about ending someone's life? God, I hate her. Also, earlier in the episode she was asking Adam, "that's him, isn't it? isn't it?" so annoying. Give him a second and let him answer for himself. Don't put words in his mouth.

The guy didn't just walk into the room. He came out of the bathroom, so she knew he had to be the guy who kidnapped the boy. Of course that doesn't justify her killing him. She saw his gun, so she knew he was unarmed before he came out of the bathroom. So she should have just arrested him. So that certainly made me hate her and the FBI agent for helping her cover it up.

[Vivigirl10]

The passcode for the alarm system in the house was Adam's birthday and he wrote it down and put it with the key.  My thought is that the key is to the house.  Now he has the key and passcode to disarm the alarm.....and give it to his "kidnapper"?  Just a theory.  

 

 

Her close-set eyes creep me out.

Yuck me too!  Not a good looking girl!  And I know her Mom isn't some big time politician, but the daughter seems to be her #1 Political Adviser, PR Rep, Personal Assistant, Media Consultant, etc. etc.  What in the world makes her qualified?  She's just some creepy, socially awkward, never left home child/adult!

 

 

So that certainly made me hate her and the FBI agent for helping her cover it up.

 I can't stand Nina, anything about her.  And are we really supposed to believe that an FBI agent is going to risk everything to cover for some small town cop who was 100% in the wrong???  Not buying it at all.

 

 

How stupid was it to let the reporter go up to the elder son's room to look for her lost phone alone????????  Willa is already acting like she suspects the gal is up to something, so why not go with her?

Amen.  One of the many things that had me yelling at the t.v.

 

 

and there is hubby decorating a Christmas tree with the cop in full view of anyone who may pass by her house. This is the mayor's husband for frigg sake

Not to mention how he just quietly crept away from his family on either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.  

 

 

Plus, that crack motel looked decent (and huge) from the exterior, but I guess since it's "abandoned", none of the interior doors locked?

I felt the exact same way....how convenient that every door in a motel was unlocked?  What the???

 

And yet....I continue to watch!

[KaveDweller]

If Bridey had a thing with Willa, why not seek Willa out as her source instead of the guy she hadn't seen since high school? Unless something really bad ended things with Willa.

Side note: What kind of name is Bridey?

[Andromeda]

I think Willa was fantasizing and not about a past event.  The reporter thought she was a weirdo.  I do, too.  Her close-set eyes creep me out.

Yes, the actress's face weirds me out. It's hard to look at. I first saw her on Newsroom, the HBO show with Jeff Daniels, and something about her facial structure gives me weird vibes. Like she's so unusual she falls into the uncanny valley. 

 

I was confused by so many stupid little things, I just have to let them go. Like the unlocked doors at the hotel. Say, what? No manager was around to let them in, either. Like Willa not watching the reporter like a hawk when she went into the wrong room. Like the opposition giving the governor candidate advice.

 

I tend to think the hyper-religious Willa has never had sex with anyone, much less the reporter.

[designing1]

 

Yes, the actress's face weirds me out. It's hard to look at.

 

She has a very round face with all her features schmushed in the center. She looks far better when she smiles (which won't happen on this show, but check Google images) as it fills out all that blank space on her face. At the very least she should always wear bangs to cut down on the empty facial real estate. Soft waves near her face would help, too, but there's nothing soft about this character.

[iMonrey]

 

It doesn't make sense to me that Hank would have staged his own attack.

 

Well they spent the whole episode showing us Hank was trying to get some kind of recourse for the wrongs the family has done to him only to be shot down at every turn. Framing them for an assault seems like the most plausible avenue left to him. As for who's supposed to find him, I expect that question to be answered next week.

 

Since when can you get a DNA test from earwax? Don't you need blood, saliva or at least hairs (with the follicles still attached)? And how convenient there just happened to be a used Q-Tip swab in the trash in Adam's room. Lucky for Bridey Adam is so meticulous about personal hygiene, huh? You know, like most boys his age who have spent the last 10 years living in a hole in the ground {eyeroll}. 

[txhorns79]

I can't stand Nina, anything about her.  And are we really supposed to believe that an FBI agent is going to risk everything to cover for some small town cop who was 100% in the wrong???  Not buying it at all.

 

Yeah, he's known her for what, a few weeks?  I don't really buy that he is going to help her cover up her crime in a situation where there's no question she screwed up badly, and he has no reason to go out on such a huge limb.   

 

 

I'm still thinking he's related to pockmarks, who had him locked up, maybe hiding his mentally ill kid from his new chick.

 

I laughed out loud at how shady he was being with his pregnant girlfriend about the shed.  He might as well have asked her why she was obsessed with his forbidden shed of mystery. 

[dr pepper]

So: Bro/Sis/Reporter 3some next week?

Agreed on the tease. It'll soon be made clear that Adam is Adam and forgot his birthday because his kidnapper used a different date all those years.

Bad shoot? Yeah. Coverup? Please. Good to know someone on the show can make a clear decision and stick to it.

I want the perp's job, whatever it is, since it apparently pays enough to keep a middle class suburban lifestyle while leaving enough free time to set up two dungeons, one of which you have to dig yourself.

Next character that shows up will probably be a political operative working for the governor.

[Andromeda]

Well they spent the whole episode showing us Hank was trying to get some kind of recourse for the wrongs the family has done to him only to be shot down at every turn. Framing them for an assault seems like the most plausible avenue left to him. As for who's supposed to find him, I expect that question to be answered next week.

 

Since when can you get a DNA test from earwax? Don't you need blood, saliva or at least hairs (with the follicles still attached)? And how convenient there just happened to be a used Q-Tip swab in the trash in Adam's room. Lucky for Bridey Adam is so meticulous about personal hygiene, huh? You know, like most boys his age who have spent the last 10 years living in a hole in the ground {eyeroll}. 

When I sent my dog's DNA in for testing, I used a specially supplied Q-tip-shaped brush and rolled it inside his mouth to gather epithelial cells.

 

You do need a good sample for a decent DNA test, I think. I know just any hair won't do -- it has to have the attached tag, from where the hair is attached to the scalp. Blood works, too, of course, but most of us don't bleed on a daily basis. Some info on DNA testing samples.

 

And yeah, darned lucky to find a used Q-tip in the bedroom of a semi-feral teenage boy, lol.

Edited March 23, 2016 by Andromeda

[dr pepper]

   Ugh.........I was really hoping this episode would break the chain of just plain creepiness, but, no such luck.

Nobody in this family is at all appealing.  Actually, that goes for the whole cast.

   How stupid was it to let the reporter go up to the elder son's room to look for her lost phone alone????????  Willa is already acting like she suspects the gal is up to something, so why not go with her?  Too busy writing speeches for your mom to use to become governor?

  God save Maine if that is the best they can find for governor.   Wait......no worse than a few other real state governors (cough....Michigan, New Jersey, etc.).

  So who is the guy that kidnapped Adam and this new kid?  Why does his wife think his spending hours in his little secret shed is not suspicious? And, since he was getting the shovel, does that mean the new kid is dead and to be buried or is he just refining the rooms in the dungeon?

  I usually like this kind of show.  Loved the one about the kid found at the bottom of a cliff on the shore in another New Englandy type of location.  But I really just don't find anything likeable about this.

  So I think I will just come here for the synopsis and review and not bother with the rest.

  Enjoy everyone!

 

You might want to watch Thirteen, a current british show in the same genre.

Side note: What kind of name is Bridey?

 

Irish, variant of "Bridget". Best known instance was the claim of a woman to have been the reincarnation of someone named Bridey Murphy.

[Andromeda]

And crush a perfectly good truck.

Ha, someone else besides me got their mutt DNA tested!  

LOL, I sure did! Learned my supposed lhasa poo rescue dog is really a lhasa bichon, which is cool since my other dog is a purebred bichon.

 

I'm still debating testing my own DNA. (No, not because I might be part bichon!).

[candall]

Well, I'm rarely the most tolerant viewer on the board, heh, but I'm still enjoying the show and puzzling the clues.

 

Joan Allen is making me despise her--to the point I keep forgetting her years of missing child pain. 

 

I don't think they could have cast anyone better than Andrew McCarthy to generate some sympathy for an. . . .umm, still have no idea where he falls on the perv scale.  (We go way back--I still want to soothe his pain from Ally's rejection in St. Elmo's Fire.)  Hank reflexively checking his BLT for glass slivers was impressively poignant.

 

I think the deal with the motel shooting is that cop woman was still operating under the impression the man in the bathroom was Adam's kidnapper and she decided to administer ten years of justice--and assuage ten years of guilt--with one trigger pull.  I don't find such a thing happening as outside the realm of possibility.

 

I appreciate that the self-loathing gay religious freak daughter has been thoughtfully balanced, LGBT-wise, by the likeable even-tempered FBI honeybee husband.

 

There are some howlers--hello, handy underground garage lair--but for me, more pro than con.

[txhorns79]

I appreciate that the self-loathing gay religious freak daughter has been thoughtfully balanced, LGBT-wise, by the likeable even-tempered FBI honeybee husband.

 

Would that be the same likeable, even-tempered guy whose apparent first instinct when his partner murders someone is to help her cover up her crime?

[paulvdb]

I was just about to say that this episode made the last actually likeable character (the FBI agent) on this show unlikeable. I'd say that at this point the convicted sex offender is almost the most likeable character on the show.

[txhorns79]

One question I had: They said the MO of the new kidnapper who took the boy was the same as the person who took Adam because both were taken at a park.  However, they then say the new kidnapper assaulted the kid's mother before taking the kid.  My understanding was that Adam just vanished, and neither of his parents was injured when he was being taken.  Wouldn't that mean the new kidnapping wasn't following the same pattern as Adam's kidnapping? 

[candall]

I'm sensing some opposition.   : )

 

.

[Major Bigtime]

The guy with the pregnant wife, and the secret hidey-hole in his work shed...that's not the same guy with the big underground bunker that burned down...is it? Do we have two kidnappers? The guy in the woods was scruffier.

This show won't go past one season, I don't think. I'm not going to wait for them to find out about Adam and catch his kidnapper for more than one season.

[rue721]

I think that Willa was just fantasizing about Bridey while she masturbated (and her attempt at masturbation was weird because she's super weird and repressed). Willa and Bridey just seem too mismatched to have ever actually been together. And given how intense that fantasy was, I think that if Willa actually thought that she had a chance at having sex with Bridey in real life, she would probably have offered to feed Bridey information in order to get closer to her -- and Bridey wouldn't have had to even bother with Danny.

 

The cop is really terrible at her job.

 

All of the characters are pretty pathetic, so I alternately hate and feel sorry for all of them. Right now, the most pathetic is Hank, though, I think. The glass shards in his sandwich and nobody helping him in the prison lunchroom was pretty sad. And at the end of the episode, it looked like he'd really been clobbered. I also feel bad that he wasn't able to get a dog, who could have barked and alerted Hank to an intruder or barked and gotten the attention of someone who could have come and helped him after he'd gotten beaten up. But at the same time, I think he's likely a terrible person and I'm glad that he couldn't get a dog to use to lure children to him.

 

Adam continues to be creepy and strange, but I like him best out of all the characters. I didn't actually believe him when he freaked out over seeing the photo, though. Even if that was his kidnapper, he's only been away from the guy for like a week, and was with him for a decade before that. I can believe that he'd be terrified of him in general, but I can't believe that he'd be frozen in fear like that over a photo of someone he'd had to have gotten that accustomed to and familiar with. Especially because his reaction to the photo was so different from his reaction that hole in the ground where he'd been kept.

 

The thing with the birthday was weird. It was my favorite part of the episode because it felt realistic somehow, but also inexplicable. I don't know if it actually meant anything, though. Maybe Adam just likes collecting locks and keys and passwords and stuff. If he wants to let the kidnapper in, can't he just leave a window open or something? It doesn't need to be that high-tech.

[millennium]

I hate this show and I'm not watching it anymore.   See you all elsewhere.

[atomationage]

I like the show, and I've started to watch Thirteen also.  I think Joan Allen, Rupert Graves, and Zach Gilford are all doing just great.  I would also like it better if Zach Gilford was in the show more.  His face is the most interesting to look at.   I don't have any problem with Graves' accent, but as said previously, why can't he just be British?  I don't know why, but I thought the hole in the shed might connect with some other part of that Oil Refinery's tunnels, but I guess not.  I didn't read Willa and Bridey's scene as a fantasy.  One thing that gets confusing to me is when they are in three different time frames in a series.  Other than that, I find the show enjoyable. 

[ari333]

I like the show. I does have holes that they could fix. I hate the flashbacks.

[DebbieM4]

The guy didn't just walk into the room. He came out of the bathroom, so she knew he had to be the guy who kidnapped the boy. Of course that doesn't justify her killing him. She saw his gun, so she knew he was unarmed before he came out of the bathroom. So she should have just arrested him. So that certainly made me hate her and the FBI agent for helping her cover it up.

 

She also could have shot him in the leg or somewhere else that would have surprised and disabled him.  What she did seemed very stupid to me, and pretty amateurish.  It looked as though she panicked, which didn't seem at all appropriate under the circumstances.

 

Not to mention that taking him alive could have resulted in new information, a confession, things that might have been helpful.  He could have had other kids stashed away somewhere or he could have been involved in other unsolved cases, and she took away any opportunity of finding out.  Her life wasn't in danger - There was no reason to kill him in a panic like that.  If I had a missing kid, I would be furious that she did that.

 

Are we supposed to like her?  Because from her very first scene on the very first episode, I just haven't liked her at all.  

Edited March 25, 2016 by DebbieM4

[DebbieM4]

I think the writers figure a gay woman has gaydar for other gay women, hence Willa's fantasies about Bridey.  I don't think uptight, religious Willa has ever acted on her lesbian sexual urges.  Or that hot, hipster Bridey would stoop to weird Willa.  I could be wrong, though.

 

I think a whole lot of what we're seeing are people who are not as they appear to be.  Probably every one of them has deep dark secrets that no one would ever guess, and I think Willa may very well have a whole other side to her that people would be shocked to know.  Whether that - or the secrets that any of them are keeping - have anything to do with the Adam mystery is yet to be revealed.  Clearly, there's a lot below the surface with all of them, but I think they've all done things that we wouldn't ever think they would do.

 

I also assume that we're supposed to think that Bridey is hot, but I don't think she's all that attractive.  Willa is not a sexy woman at all, but I don't think Bridey is all that great either.  I actually think they're both kind of weird, and I think it's possible that they did hook up in the past and that's what Willa was remembering.   Maybe they did, maybe they didn't, maybe it will ultimately matter, maybe not.

If Bridey had a thing with Willa, why not seek Willa out as her source instead of the guy she hadn't seen since high school? Unless something really bad ended things with Willa.

Side note: What kind of name is Bridey?

 

 

They've always seemed to really dislike each other, so I think that - if they really did have a thing - it definitely did end badly.  I noticed a sense of animosity between them right off the bat, kind of a little much for people who didn't know each other or have some kind of history.

 

Yeah, Bridey is a dumb name for her.  I've known Brideys, and it just doesn't fit her at all.

Edited March 25, 2016 by DebbieM4

[jhlipton]

Not to mention that taking him alive could have resulted in new information, a confession, things that might have been helpful.  He could have had other kids stashed away somewhere or he could have been involved in other unsolved cases, and she took away any opportunity of finding out.

It was so poorly executed -- we have no idea why she shot him, or why FBI guy let hr get away with it.  So dumb, for all  the reasons above.

[peachmangosteen]

They've always seemed to really dislike each other, so I think that - if they really did have a thing - it definitely did end badly.  I noticed a sense of animosity between them right off the bat, kind of a little much for people who didn't know each other or have some kind of history.

 

I agree with this, but in the scene where Willa caught Bridey in Adam's bedroom they were definitely acting like they had never even met before and I don't really know why they would act that way while alone if they actually had a fling in the past.

[txhorns79]

I agree with this, but in the scene where Willa caught Bridey in Adam's bedroom they were definitely acting like they had never even met before and I don't really know why they would act that way while alone if they actually had a fling in the past.

 

I agree.  I think what we saw was Willa's fantasy, not something that had actually happened.  Given how we have seen her act, you would think if she had slept with Willa, she'd try to use that to her advantage. 

Edited March 25, 2016 by txhorns79

[atomationage]

My favorite parts of this episode were Adam's scene dropping the ipad and Danny's reaction to that, and Adam's nervousness about the alarm.  He was actually being locked in by his father.  The actor did a great job. 

 

That key looks very large, like for a large door in an old house.