S02.E09: Why Let Cooler Pasture Deform

[formerlyfreedom]

After Jane discovers that Sandstorm is gearing up for an imminent attack, she risks everything to send a secret SOS to her FBI team.

 

[paigow]

Cliffhanger...Weller must choose between Jane and his facial hair...who will survive?????

[slf]

After the hype ("It's like a season finale!") I expected something a bit more than that but it still packed some strong punches.

First off, I. Do. Not. Care. One. Single. Iota. About. Weller's. Baby. Drama. So making that one of the first big moments did nothing for me. I wasn't hoping Allie and the baby would die but I'm not going to judge those who were.

I think we all knew Jane was being set up with the phone and being left alone with the filing cabinet and it's a bit disappointing they didn't have Jane figure it out, too. But the Jane/Shepherd/Roman setup was a mixed bag for me. Shepherd telling Roman to kill his bunny...man, what an asshole. That comes from the most traumatic experience of his life and she employed it when ordering him to execute his own sister. (But a nice way of making explicit what the show has alluded to, that Shepherd honestly just saw an opportunity to harness child soldiers and took it. She never really cared about them.) I honestly wasn't sure if they'd have Roman choose Jane or his mother so I was thrilled when he tried to shoot Shepherd. (Was the safety on or were there no bullets? If it was an issue of no bullets...wouldn't he be able to tell just by holding the gun?) The siblings teaming up to take down Shepherd wasn't as good as I'd hoped simply because they've both been shown to be such highly skilled, vicious fighters. I honestly would've expected a more intense fight. But that Roman actually did shoot Shepherd made me so happy. Finally, they get to hit back at the people who've abused and exploited them.

But I'm pretty conflicted about Jane wiping Roman's memories. On the one hand, I get it. The FBI wouldn't take Roman as is, unless it was to shackle him in a cell somewhere. And she wants her brother to be free from the decades of trauma they suffered, or at least freer than he is now. On the other hand though, it is a violation. Only Roman truly had the right to make that decision. As much as he hated his memories...he'd chosen to keep them. Dude knew what ZIP is, had access to it; he could've wiped his memories if he'd wanted to, but he didn't. Remy was a part of why that is (and of course why he was so angry at her for wiping her's). But I am happy they're keeping Roman around. He's a welcome addition to the show.

I knew Borden was the mole. Did not see any of the rest coming, though. Gotta give the man props though- he got kicked square in the nuts and kept on fighting. I'm hoping Patterson shot Borden and then tries to help him. I like those two crazy kids. I hope they works things out.

Rob Brown was so, so good in his final scene. I hope someone tells Reade that standing by and watching a pedophile and rapist choke on his own blood when he's already about one minute away from dying actually does not make you a bad person. It's not pretty but it's not wrong.

[saylubee]

Does it make me a bad person that I wanted Nas to get stuck under the rocks until after the gas line blew?  My husband thinks so after all the cheering and whooping I was doing when the rocks crumbled again.

Totally called Dr. Borden as the mole.  I was surprised he was a cognizant mole.  I thought it'd be a situation where he didn't know how complicit he was.  I hope he's not dead because I want to know how in the world he pulled all his shadiness off.

With Freddie given a ticket to nowhere, I certainly hope that storyline is over.  I do think in a "cruel" twist of fate Reade or Zapata is going to watch the video and it's gonna be just football stuff.  Freddie was just being a manipulative dick about Reade not remembering what happened.

I hope the second half of the season resets a little bit.  Allie and the baby needs to be gone.  Nas needs to die in a fire.  Weller needs to have his neckbeard burned off in the fire.  Etc, etc.

[twoods]

That was intense. I have to watch Psych now to decompress because I'm still traumatized. Poor Jane being played by Sandstorm. Shepherd is a vile bitch- I hope Jane finishes her off in the season finale. Nice twist with Roman getting his memories wiped away- I want him to be an FBIer.

Zapada and Reade made me cry, especially when he said that he loved her. Borden and Patterson were so cute in the beginning, so it broke my heart that he ended up being the mole. I get it, but I don't want him to die so him and Patterson can work through this crap, get his memory wiped out, and they can live happily ever after. I can dream, can't I? Now we have to wait until January to see what happens.

Back to Psych- need happy thoughts.

[Trini]

Boo. They foreshadowed it before, but I didn't want Borden to be the mole. I did like getting to see some of his backstory, though. Hated that cliffhanger with him and Patterson! I know they're not going to kill her off, but I even if he gets shot, I still want Borden around.

Was NOT expecting Jane to memory wipe Roman. It's a bad decision for a bunch of reasons. I hope it actually doesn't work or work permanently with him.

So Allie and Weller are having a child together, but they're both involved with other people?? WHY is this storyline even here? It adds nothing!

More later...

Edited November 17, 2016 by Trini

[omgsowicked]

Holy shit! I originally suspected Borden but then got totally on board with Patterson being the mole. I'm happy it wasn't her, though I still think that would have been amazing(ly painful). But I think they did a fantastic job explaining Borden's motivations. It made sense that he wasn't an original member, that he and his wife were innocent people and he was avenging her death because Jane got him to join her plan. It also helped me understand why Jane came up with all of this in the first place... and it's nuts but I get why she wanted to do it. Shepherd couldn't get her to understand her original intentions but maybe Borden could. Not to say Jane should get back into it but she's so disgusted with her past self and I'd be curious to see her at least understand why she wanted to do it.

The promo for this episode hyped up the last five minutes so I was disappointed that it was a cliffhanger. I don't want to lose either of them, especially after learning Borden's backstory. I don't think he's unsalvageable... plus, seeing him and Jane together was really sweet and I think he does loves Patterson. But a selfish part of me kind of wants the actor to be free to go back to The Royals (even though that would be a downgrade for him, tbh). I wonder how long they had this planned, as I remember Borden not being much of a fighter last season (he nail-gunned a guy and was totally shocked) and now he's super-skilled (though he still didn't want to kill someone). Playing dumb or was the decision made later? I don't see how he could ever go back to the FBI now, unless he gets a mind wipe or becomes a triple agent like Jane... but now that we know he has history with Jane, I'd like to see them together.

I'm glad nothing actually happened to Allie and the baby, since they just played with that a few episodes ago. But Shepherd acted like there was some big plan for Weller, when really it just made it so there was someone on the outside to help those who were trapped. So she helped them, lol. I hope this is the end of pregnancy drama, it's so cheap. Who was the guy who pretended to be Conor? Since we saw his face, should we look for him again in the future or was it simply to trick us into believing it was really him? I thought Nas might die down there but I'm glad she didn't. Still think Weller/Nas is rushed and strange but their scene after the explosion was well done.

Zapata and Reade are total bros and I love it. These last few episodes really improved on selling this team as a family. I'm actually not too surprised that Reade watched the coach die but it does mean that he has a real reason to fear getting caught. Even though the guy was scum, I'm sure standing by while someone dies still counts as some kind of crime. I have a feeling they're going to continue with this plot but if they dropped it right there, I wouldn't be angry.

I'm so embarrassed by how beyond stoked I am for Roman joining the FBI, pending the results of the memory erasure. I really wanted him to switch teams but I wasn't sure how they would go about it, since he's so unhinged. I never considered that he'd have his memories erased. I don't think Jane should have taken it upon herself to do it to him but I did like the parallels, how Jane treated Roman's injuries like he treated hers earlier in the season, and now them both going through the mind wipes. Who knows what will happen now though... who's to say he'll be a docile lamb or attach to Jane again. Maybe he'll be even worse. But it's a good way to keep him around, so I'm happy.

Shepherd's extremely cruel and I kept yelling, "kill her!" But she knew better than to give Roman a loaded gun. They left her alive, which is good for keeping Sandstorm going and for capturing her later, hopefully. It's a good thing Phase Two wasn't ready to go, so they have time to prevent it from happening (if that was even the real plan). I thought they were going to destroy the world somehow but destroying the power grids is nothing to scoff at. But what does the rocket from one of the earlier episodes have to do with anything?

January! Well, that's not too far away. I'm excited.

[slf]

36 minutes ago, Trini said:

Boo. They foreshadowed it before, but I didn't want Borden to be the mole. I did like getting to see some of his backstory, though. Hated that cliffhanger with him and Patterson! I know they're not going to kill her off, but I even if he gets shot, I still want Borden around.

Was NOT expecting Jane to memory wipe Roman. It's a bad decision for a bunch of reasons. I hope it actually doesn't work or work permanently with him.

I don't think they're going to kill Borden pretty much because of the backstory they gave him. He was a good and honorable man working with DWB and deeply in love with his equally good wife and they saved Remy's life until the US military decided to bomb an entire village and kill innocent people. Yeah, they're absolutely keeping Borden around.

I really like the idea of the memory wipe not working permanently, or only wiping out recent events.

[alvajon]

On 11/16/2016 at 10:43 PM, omgsowicked said:

On 11/16/2016 at 10:43 PM, omgsowicked said:

The promo for this episode hyped up the last five minutes so I was disappointed that it was a cliffhanger. I don't want to lose either of them, especially after learning Borden's backstory. I don't think he's unsalvageable... plus, seeing him and Jane together was really sweet and I think he does loves Patterson. But a selfish part of me kind of wants the actor to be free to go back to The Royals (even though that would be a downgrade for him, tbh). I wonder how long they had this planned, as I remember Borden not being much of a fighter last season (he nail-gunned a guy and was totally shocked) and now he's super-skilled (though he still didn't want to kill someone). Playing dumb or was the decision made later? I don't see how he could ever go back to the FBI now, unless he gets a mind wipe or becomes a triple agent like Jane... but now that we know he has history with Jane, I'd like to see them together.

Maybe I missed it, but I do not recall Jane recognizing Borden from the past (maybe she hasn’t yet, and wouldn’t he be concerned that she would?), as she’s obviously now remembering a lot from the past.  I don’t understand the Weller/baby mama plot either, except maybe to show he does have a heart.  Also I liked the Jane v. Shepherd fight; looked like Shepherd trained Jane?

Edited November 24, 2016 by alvajon

[dwmarch]

Finally some forward movement!

I'm imagining the morning meeting at Sandstorm HQ. Shepherd says "Alright everyone, drive around in SUVs and jeeps and rev the engines a lot while making your best scowling faces." All the mooks reply "Why?" Shepherd: "Because Jane is really dumb." Like seriously, Jane. You have just enough time for sneaky shit simply because they keep leaving you alone while they tend to other things and you don't think that's awfully convenient? Also in the Jane is smart like dump truck file, she gets outed by a spelling mistake.

And Sandstorm is supposed to be this paramilitary outfit that draws from the ranks of the Navy SEALs (including those who did not graduate but still got the tattoo, WTF?) and other special forces but they can't blow up one house in a manner that kills all within?

Nice of the house to collapse in a way that would injure a couple of main characters, kill most of the FBI mooks (except that one who got nothing more than a reassuring pat on the shoulder and directions to fuck off courtesy of Weller) and stay intact until they were just outside the blast radius. I see Dafuq Consulting and Don Geevasheet engineering have been busy.

Cruel I know but I had to laugh when Borden was looking at the bombed village from miles away and was calling out his wife's name. I'm sure it's a natural reaction in such a scenario, perhaps even that first stage of grief, denial. But I was watching and thinking dude, she totally can't hear you.

So the shadow government decides to shit-can Orion and executes all the team members except Jane, who is lost in Afghanistan. They get a lead on her but have no idea where they might find the other white girl in the small Afghan village. So they carpet bomb the whole place instead. Well, for what's worth that is some deep villainy right there and I could understand why Jane would want to bring those guys down.

I loved that Jane dosed Roman with that Zip drug. Didn't the show already establish that Jane had been given a high-to-insane amount of it? Whatever, so long as she gets her brother back. I predict anger management issues for him.

I was also very fond of how Jane immediately recruited Borden after he watched his village and wife get blown up. However, I have a feeling the wife might still be out there somewhere. No body = no death and this show has shown us that at least once.

Patterson took a moment to forget how to be a cop while going for the woman-scorned takedown. I know the FBI is fresh out of ninjas because they spent them all on an empty house but seriously, could she not have found a couple unis from the local PD to come along?

Reade loves Zapata! She however does not return the affection. I thought she was about to confess her gambling addiction. And I know she's just sad for what Reade is going through but she's not shedding any tears because he watched a pedophile choke on his own blood. She'd have shot the guy herself if she had been there.

[Loandbehold]

I was surprised that the Allie accident and baby drama was a fake-out. I've felt from the beginning that she was going to die / be killed and the baby would be raised by Weller's sister. I guess that won't happen until the season finale.

Felt bad for Paterson. After all the speculation here, Borden being the mole was expected. Did anyone else find it weird that he was in DWB but is now a psychiatrist? Was that always the case or did he become one when he arrived in the US? I thought the backstory was done well and did a nice job explaining why Jane signed on and how Borden agreed to join Sandstorm's plot.

Quote

Shepherd acted like there was some big plan for Weller, when really it just made it so there was someone on the outside to help those who were trapped. So she helped them, lol.

I think Weller can still play a big role. The whole Phase II is now going operational was a ploy to get the FBI to the fake compound, and Weller was specifically set up to have to be elsewhere so he wouldn't be killed in the explosion. It would have been funny if he had ruined Sandstorm's grand plan by getting himself killed  anyway.

I have never shot nor even held a gun, so I don't know how much difference in weight there would be if there were no bullets. But, given that Shepard knew how upset Roman was about everything, it doesn't surprise me that he didn't realize the gun was not loaded.

[saber5055]

What's with everyone on every show stabbing people in the neck with syringes. No one ever aspirates, so syringe could be in artery, spinal cord, windpipe ... anything. Plus someone can so easily move their head/neck. Neck stabbing just seems to be in vogue these days while a shoulder stab would be so much safer and less likely to kill the stabbee.

What's the big deal with Weller being sent somewhere else? Because he's so brilliant he would have figured out team was in a trap? If Sandstorm had bid higher in that auction last week, they would be owning Weller now. Opportunity missed, Sandstorm. I did like the Patterson Borden romance though. Sorry that's probably finished.

[blackwing]

Not surprised at all that Borden is the mole.  That was telegraphed early on, when there was a "we still have a mole on the team" line and there was a quick flash of faces of all the FBI personnel, including Borden, who I hadn't even realised was considered part of "the team".

Surprised at how easily Jane fell for Shepherd's phone trick.  She didn't think the room would be bugged or have surveillance?  She didn't think it was odd that this ancient phone would be in a not-so-secret hidden compartment and still have battery life?  I guess they already knew all about her from Borden, but still.  I'm curious as to how Jane knew that the bottle labelled ZIP would erase Roman's memories.  I think he just said "this is where you got tattooed and where we erased your memories".  How did she make the leap to ZIP?  That could have meant anything.

I'm curious as to how Roman will be when the show returns.  I'm assuming he will join the FBI.  But I would think he should be paranoid and skeptical and reluctant.  There will be this woman calling herself his sister but he won't have any memory of anything.

The show has still never really explained the purpose of the tattoos, other than "it was an interesting hook for pitching the show, naked tattooed woman wakes up in Times Square, and it worked, because here we still are".  They never explained why the need for actual tattoos.  Why didn't Sandstorm just send emails to the FBI with the puzzles/conspiracies that they wanted the FBI to take care of?  Why not just throw a journal filled with doodles into the bag with Jane?  It makes little sense why she had to get her entire body tattooed.

[luvly]

34 minutes ago, blackwing said:

I'm curious as to how Jane knew that the bottle labelled ZIP would erase Roman's memories.  I think he just said "this is where you got tattooed and where we erased your memories".  How did she make the leap to ZIP?  That could have meant anything.

As she was looking for supplies she said something like "this place is actually pretty well stocked", most likely because Roman had initially described it as just a nearby safe house. After she said that, he then told her that this had been their main medical facility where they tattooed and mind-wiped her. She already knew what ZIP was so it wasn't much a leap to see if there was some still lying around.  

[calipiano81]

4 hours ago, blackwing said:

Not surprised at all that Borden is the mole.  That was telegraphed early on, when there was a "we still have a mole on the team" line and there was a quick flash of faces of all the FBI personnel, including Borden, who I hadn't even realised was considered part of "the team."

...

I'm curious as to how Jane knew that the bottle labelled ZIP would erase Roman's memories.  I think he just said "this is where you got tattooed and where we erased your memories".  How did she make the leap to ZIP?  That could have meant anything.

...

The show has still never really explained the purpose of the tattoos, other than "it was an interesting hook for pitching the show, naked tattooed woman wakes up in Times Square, and it worked, because here we still are".  They never explained why the need for actual tattoos.  Why didn't Sandstorm just send emails to the FBI with the puzzles/conspiracies that they wanted the FBI to take care of?  Why not just throw a journal filled with doodles into the bag with Jane?  It makes little sense why she had to get her entire body tattooed.

I agree that if the show simply hadn't done that camera pan of each of the FBI team members, I think we all would have been much more surprised by Borden, since like you said, he stuck out.

I think Jane may have seen the ZIP bottle in the Season 1 finale when Oscar was getting ready to try and wipe her memory for a second time.

I think the show explained Jane's tattoos and memory wipe by saying they were the way to get the FBI to trust her, since she would know nothing, they would be sympathetic to her, and the tattoos are helping them to solve crimes? But surely, there must have been less complicated, drastic ways to do it that wouldn't have risked Jane's loyalty to Sandstorm.

Edited November 18, 2016 by calipiano81

[slf]

9 hours ago, Loandbehold said:

Did anyone else find it weird that he was in DWB but is now a psychiatrist? Was that always the case or did he become one when he arrived in the US?

I thought that was a little weird at first but then I decided maybe Sandstorm had him become a psychiatrist figuring that would be way more useful in getting him into the FBI and for his role there as a mole?

[paigow]

Memory wiping drugs available in clearly labelled bottles??? WTF? FDA approved?? "What happened in the double blind?" "I dunno.." 

[Dowel Jones]

Along with the clearly worded cautions:  Do not operate machinery after taking this drug, Do not exceed recommended dosage, keep away from children, etc.

[paigow]

49 minutes ago, Dowel Jones said:

Along with the clearly worded cautions:  Do not operate machinery after taking this drug, Do not exceed recommended dosage, keep away from children, etc.

But you will still remember your MMA skills, how to shoot and handle knives.....

[pumpkin]

so pumped for roman/ian and jane to be their own mini family!! he is the most intriguing character as far as I'm concerned, I'm way more invested in him then i was in janes boyfriend last season. maybe now he'll join FBI family? if reade doesn't die? I do think though they mentioned in the past they had to give jane a ton of the memory wipe stuff to wipe her whole system, didn't look like she actually gave him that much but i hope it has enough of an effect that they can integrate him into team FBI, or at least give him a shot at a less fucked up life and a repaired relationship with jane. it was awesome when roman turned on shepard, that women is psycho. i liked the twist w the lack of bullets though bc i think if he'd just shot her outright it would've been too easy. i think he later used that gun to actually shoot her though so idk if it actually had no bullets or if shepard had just strategically removed the one up next... maybe he shot her with a different gun idk  

who does everyone think got shot at the end? It has to be borden right? it seems like he's still loyal to sandstorm but i really do think he was starting to love patternson though :/ 

also i think i remember an episode a while ago where jane was starting to remember some things he and was v concerned about it which struck me as odd at the time but then i forgot (XD) even so we all knew it was him making the reveal pretty underwhelming... the flashback more then made up for it though i felt it was really well done, nice to watch some happy functional people in a colorful setting for a change even if one of them got blown up at the end of the cutaway---  but then again as was pointed out earlier:

On November 17, 2016 at 6:13 AM, dwmarch said:

No body = no death and this show has shown us that at least once.

im also glad to see sandstorm has suspected jane's real motives this whole time bc she was skating on some pretty thin excuses most of the time and i was surprised sandstorm kept swallowing them so its nice to see that sandstorm is better then that-- felt like this episode did a pretty good job of establishing that sandstorm had their shit together a little bit more then was previously indicated, gotta say though seemed pretty unnecessary to have weller out of the way for the explosion, kinda wondering what the 'something else they had planned' was supposed to be. maybe they still need him for something, after all they never explained that surveillance tape of him in the military academy  

feels like the season is starting to hit its stride! i wasn't super impressed with a lot of the earlier episodes this season bc it felt like a lot of telling not showing and filler plot and awkward rushed build up that could've flowed better if they'd cut some side plot out and put in a little more effort to the interpersonal relationships and the main story, but feeling that less from the last two episodes so yay :)  

[Traveller519]

If whomever was shot dies, it's Borden. I don't think the show can lose Patterson as easily as it can lose him.

[Cigale]

On 2016-11-17 at 6:13 AM, dwmarch said:

Patterson took a moment to forget how to be a cop while going for the woman-scorned takedown. I know the FBI is fresh out of ninjas because they spent them all on an empty house but seriously, could she not have found a couple unis from the local PD to come along?

I don't think she knew he was the mole when she entered his house.  It came to her after.  

[thuganomics85]

So, it's Borden who is the mole.  Not too surprised; even though I suspected both Patterson and Naz; because he has barely done anything this season, so it was one of those cases where now it is all revealed and will be expanded on it.  Assuming he survives the cliffhanger.  I know Patterson isn't dying, so it's either he's dead, he's shot a wounded, or she's shot and wounded.  But I have to think there is more to the story.  I did like how he ended up getting involved with Sandstorm, by his wife being the person that saved Jane, and Orion killed her (well... we didn't actually see the body...), and Jane more or less, recruited him.

Of course, Weller's stupid baby drama was to separate him from the rest of the team, because Shepherd has "important plans" for him.  How lame, Shepherd.  Of all the agents to center your plan around, you had to pick this dullard.

Got to love explosions that take down every poor extra on the planet, but somehow every regular makes it out in one piece (even Reade is technically still whole.)  That plot armor is the true power on these shows!

Reade does reveal that he let the coach die instead of try and save him, but since he was a pedo rapist, I doubt anyone; let alone Zapata; is really going to give a damn about that.

A this rate, Patterson will probably never date again.

Did not predict Jane using the memory wipe drug on Roman, in order to hopefully turn him to the good side.  On one hand, it was clearly against his will so that's kind of creepy, but I can see why Jane was desperate enough to use it.  With Shepherd clearly a psycho and her relationship with the FBI hit or miss, he's really the only family she has, and I can see why she wouldn't want to lose him.  This plot is the most interesting one for me, going forward.

[dwmarch]

On 11/17/2016 at 10:12 AM, Loandbehold said:

I have never shot nor even held a gun, so I don't know how much difference in weight there would be if there were no bullets. But, given that Shepard knew how upset Roman was about everything, it doesn't surprise me that he didn't realize the gun was not loaded.

Well it's from Tom Clancy so take it as you will but there's a moment in Executive Orders in which a Secret Service agent is fooled into thinking his weapon is loaded despite all the gunpowder being tapped out of the bullets. Apparently blanks would have a different weight.

On 11/18/2016 at 9:40 PM, sisterspoon said:

I don't think she knew he was the mole when she entered his house.  It came to her after.  

She was packing heat though and while all of these characters would be wise to do so at all times it's not consistent with what we've seen of her so far.

[Bishop]

I have to say that the brother/sister component of Jane/Roman is making this show for me.  I do still like Weller, but he has suddenly taken a backseat to Roman, who is simply more interesting and compelling to me.  He is such a damaged guy in that he longs for a family.  That's my opinion anyway.  He wants to do right by his "mother" and sister, but when push comes to shove, his loyalty is to Jane.  I thought Luke did a great job of showing the conflict of not wanting to shoot his sister but also NOT wanting to shoot Shephard either.  As for the fight, I didn't realize that Roman had actually been shot when he tackled Shephard to prevent her from shooting Jane.  That's partly why Jane was desperate to free herself - great chair-smashing-roll-over the table move there, Jane.  It's interesting how quickly Shephard became terrified of Roman killing her.  For a badass, she seems afraid to die.  I don't get that vibe from either Jane or Roman.  Regarding the mindwipe, I was happy simply because it means that maybe Roman will stick around for a while, and not as the bad guy.  It will be interesting to see what type of man he is without a memory.  I have to say, I am very curious.  I agree that Jane had no right to do that to her brother.  She did what she wanted in order to get her brother back.  I have to believe that Roman would be better off not remembering his horrible childhood, but that wasn't Jane's call.  I'm still happy.

Patterson is the other bright spot on this show.  I hate that she had to have her heart ripped out AGAIN.  Geez show.  At the same time, Borden did not come off as evil as the spoilers were alluding.  At least it was his intense love for his wife that sent him over the edge, and I never got the impression that Borden wanted to kill Patterson at the end.  If so, he could have just shot her when her back was to him.  I'm wondering if there is a Roman/Patterson hook-up in the future - and I mean in the VERY distant future, but I can see it.

Reade/Zapata - I like both these characters a lot, but their whole detour into a murder cover-up side story is boring..  It's much better than the Weller/Nas/baby crap, but it's distracting.  I do like the relationship between Reade and Zapata.

As for Weller?  I don't hate on him the way many do, but the writers are not doing him any favors.  If someone can explain to me why the writers feel the need to 1) Have Weller attracted and protective of Jane; and 2) sleeping with Nas; and 3) having a baby with ANOTHER woman - I'm all ears.  Who is writing his scenes?  It's as if they only care if he's in a romance with someone, anyone.  I much preferred Weller's relationship with his sister than I do with Nas or his baby mama.  Please get rid of both.  I don't see the purpose of either on the show.  

Overall, I thought it was a decent fall finale for the most part.  I'm excited to see what happens next, especially with Jane, Roman, and Patterson.

[Sulis]

I enjoyed most of this one - the Borden flashback was really good and I do hope he's not dead. Anything with Jane and Roman is automatically more interesting than pretty much everything else so I'll be interested to see where that goes. Though as someone else mentioned, that fight scene with Shepherd I expected to be much better.

But as ever, I just rolled my eyes every time Weller was on screen. I'm not a fan of his romance with Nas but as long as that keeps him away from Jane, I'll deal with it.

[MissLucas]

Late to the party - but here goes. Bringing in Roman this season was the show's best decision since they decided 'naked chick in a bag covered in tattoos' would make a great pitch. I really expected him to die this episode and was surprised by the ZIP twist. This means we get to keep him around for a while (unless show loses its mind and decides to kill him anyway for shock-value just because we all think he's safe. Note to show: don't!)

Reade and Zappata actually worked for a change. Boden as the mole was what most people predicted. They did give him a decent background story but I don't think he'll survive next episode. Which means Patterson has now killed her second boyfriend (technically she did not kill boyfriend no 1 but I kinda blame her for his death anyway).

Weller and Nas are becoming more and more narrative dead-weights on this show.

[Coriandria]

Finally caught up on Hulu.  I was screaming at Jane don't be so stupid when she brain wiped roman.  This is not going to go well.  Remember the icy treatment Jane got at opting the save Romans life over giving them intel.  How will I wiped all his knowledge on phase 2 so he can have a fresh start going to go over.  The FBI is going to be pissed.  They won't give roman any chances.  They'll interrogate him then toss him to the wolves known as the CIA without batting an eye.

All this memory wipe will do is remove Jane's influence on him and priming him for any propaganda that goes his way.  I have no doubt this will go very badly and the next time roman has a gun he won't hesitate to shoot Jane sadly.

[Trini]

Yep; mind-wiping Roman is a terrible idea on several levels.

• Betrayal! How is Roman supposed to trust Jane/Remi after this?
• Lack of consent! At least she choose to go along with the Sandstorm's plan -- and at least there was a plan -- but he had no choice.
• Did Jane learn nothing from her experiences? She said she was giving him a "fresh start", but did she forget how hard it was to have no answers, and be played everyone, and not know who or what to trust? To not know your own identity? Even a couple episodes ago she couldn't go on a date like a normal person.
• Losing all that intel AND history! This is the big one. Roman not only knows things about Shepherd and Sandstorm and their plans, but about Jane/Remi's past. All that info is gone now. I think Jane still could have convinced Roman to help her fight against Sandstorm, but she decided to take to most extreme option??
• Does she even know what she's doing? What if the dose she gave him permanently screws up his mind? (I'm really hoping his mind wipe isn't as severe as hers.)
• What if she's wrong? And Roman can't be 'reformed'?

[Beatriceblake]

I enjoyed this episode and I really didn't want anyone to die so everyone could glare at Jane for the next ten or so episodes. But it was also a bit frustrating because it could have done with being a bit more subtle. Jane, as written so far, is reasonably savvy so the writers could have done with coming up with a subtler trap for her. It wasn't even a safe, Jane!

Also Shepherd has been disappointingly boringly evil. She'd be much more of an interesting character if there was some complexity to her but she's come across as fake, manipulative and sadistic from the off. Plus her last ploy at manipulating Roman was pretty obviously ill-judged.

My favourite bit was Patterson's response to Borden. If you can't hide your feelings and leave the situation, at least she was trying to defend herself. Wish she'd retreated and called for backup though.

Tasha and Reade might be a bit predictable but I actually liked their scenes towards the end. They sell it really well.

On 04/01/2017 at 7:27 AM, Trini said:

Yep; mind-wiping Roman is a terrible idea on several levels.

• Betrayal! How is Roman supposed to trust Jane/Remi after this?
• Lack of consent! At least she choose to go along with the Sandstorm's plan -- and at least there was a plan -- but he had no choice.
• Did Jane learn nothing from her experiences? She said she was giving him a "fresh start", but did she forget how hard it was to have no answers, and be played everyone, and not know who or what to trust? To not know your own identity? Even a couple episodes ago she couldn't go on a date like a normal person.
• Losing all that intel AND history! This is the big one. Roman not only knows things about Shepherd and Sandstorm and their plans, but about Jane/Remi's past. All that info is gone now. I think Jane still could have convinced Roman to help her fight against Sandstorm, but she decided to take to most extreme option??
• Does she even know what she's doing? What if the dose she gave him permanently screws up his mind? (I'm really hoping his mind wipe isn't as severe as hers.)
• What if she's wrong? And Roman can't be 'reformed'?

I like Roman but I couldn't be mad about the memory wiping when it's so clearly plot-driven. Clearly the betrayal will come up at the least convenient time and if Roman remembers everything or most of the detail about Sandstorm they won't be able to keep the show going indefinitely without coming up with contrived reasons for the FBI to keep failing at taking them down.

My main gripe was with Jane just randomly injecting his neck with what looked like quite a large dose of the drug. It seems like it would have been more likely to kill him than wipe his mind. Plus it presumably means Roman gets to hang around the FBI.

Edited January 12, 2017 by Beatriceblake

[PurpleTentacle]

How the doctor was shocked that the US military would drone civilians. I think I haven't laughed this much in a long time.