S04.E16: Moo Moo

[Danny Franks]

7 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

Not all the power.  Terry actually does have power in this situation because he's a cop.  If some random teen files a complaint against the cop, 99.999999% of the time the cop's POV will be trusted and believed. But Terry isn't a random teen or black man.  He's a respected officer with integrity whose perspective won't easily be dismissed.  It was refreshing that the show focused less on Terry's reaction to being a victim and more on his indecision about how to use his power to prevent something similar happening to that random black man---at least by the same cop that did it to him.

In the grander scheme of things, Terry does have power because he's a cop. But in that moment, when he had no badge, no ID, and no way of proving it that doesn't rely on the other man listening to him, he's stripped of all power. That's part of the issue, that the power shift puts another man in total control of you, that if that man is unstable, or angry, or believes you're a danger, then your life is genuinely in his hands. 

After the initial encounter, yes, Terry regains his power. Which gives him an advantage over a lot of the people this has happened to, who have no recourse. But until he gets the cop to listen to him and look up his details, he's just like any other black man who is stopped on the streets by a cop who has bought into racial and cultural stereotypes. I do agree that seeing him struggle with how he should use his power to address the issue was interesting, and I do like that the show didn't shy away from saying 'you did the right thing, but it probably cost you', when he didn't get that liaison post.

The more I think about it, the more I appreciate that stripping Terry of his power is deliberately jarring for the viewer as well. We know Terry as this big, tough, alpha male character who is also a great husband and father and friend. That cop saw him as a criminal. The incongruity of it was uncomfortable to watch, because we're having to watch Terry process it, while we're trying to process it ourselves.

[Kel Varnsen]

On 05/05/2017 at 2:02 AM, possibilities said:

What does Mike Schur have against Scottsdale, I wonder? They used it as the butt of jokes in The Office, too..

Wasn't Hank Hill's mother from Scottsdale? Maybe Schur picked it up from Greg Daniels or Paul Lieberstein during their time together working on The Office.

[Loandbehold]

He also seems to hate Florida given what was said about the swamp state during the first few episodes this season.

[Doyounot]

Dealing with serious issues for so much of an episode was surprising for b99 but they do have moments just usually its a sentence here and there hidden behind the comedy, this time the comedy was secondary put in there just to let us breathe.

Im glad they did it this way and ginas advice was awesome  (put it in song or in this case comedy). If i was younger it would have worked on me i just know how serious this episode was. Good on them for doing it and good job by quinn from dexter playing it how i imagine people like that would view it. I appreciate when actors arent afraid to be awful (someones gotta represent the awful in media because it does exist in real life).

On a lighter note jakes tv and cake line and reaction was hilarious. Sad. But hilarious

[Chas411]

Was that Desmond Harrington playing the cop?

[luckyroll3]

On Thursday, May 04, 2017 at 2:00 PM, biakbiak said:

I laughed many times this episode, more than many other sitcoms I watched this week.

Same here. I was laughing so hard at one point I was actually in tears. And then a couple minutes later I was crying because of one of the Holt/Terry scenes. 

Fucking great episode all around, from the funny to the serious.

And I'm still chuckling about orgasm juice! Lol!

[Sandman]

On ‎2017‎-‎05‎-‎03 at 10:05 PM, tennisgurl said:

I was basically Boyle throughout the whole episode, squeeeeeing all over the place about Jake/Amy adorableness.

I think we all might have been at least a little bit Boyle there. It's one of the nice things about the Boyle character, I find. It would be easy to make him the butt of all the jokes, to make him not just an innocent, but pathetic. He's in some ways deeply uncool, he tries too hard a lot of the time -- but he's not played for a fool. He's shown to be a very good detective, and in his way, smart. He's a dyed-in-the-wool Jake & Amy shipper (he probably uses a portmanteau name for them in his head sometimes) but it comes from a place of genuine love and respect -- and he's rooting for them in a way that the show supports as ultimately correct on the facts -- Jake and Amy come to realize that they probably are interested in being parents, in the end.