S03.E22: Revelation

[CooperTV]

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As Elizabeth and President Dalton head to Rome for the G20 Conference, she is concerned for Henry’s safety when he is sent to Israel to intercept the doomsday cult’s bio-weapon before it is deployed. Also, Blake reveals a personal secret to his former colleagues that he meets at the conference, and Elizabeth goes behind Stevie’s back to ask Russell to get her off Harvard Law School’s waiting list.

Promos

[thewhiteowl]

Bump

[shapeshifter]

So Stevie inherited her father's superhero gene? IRL Russell might've fired her for standing up the President of Harvard twice at meetings Russell had fanagled on her behalf.

Did the head reverend get to go to the countryclub prison for giving them a tip that he didn't even know the meaning of?

Does Jason have a serious disease?

[Athena5217]

Stevie is an idiot. Her siblings are in high school so her parents do not need that much help from her with them. More importantly, her parents would not want her to delay her education to be a babysitter. If she really feels like she needs to be close to home, Georgetown and GW both have excellent law schools. Surely she applied to other law schools? Unless she wants to be a lawyer on Suits, she doesn't need to go to Harvard.  This feels like a rehash of when she dropped out of college.

Russell is an idiot because you don't show up at someone's house and say we have to be downtown in 20 minutes, especially not downtown D.C. I don't know where the McCords live, but it's probably upper Northwest or McLean. That's at least a 20-minute drive, and Stevie has to get dressed, lock the house, etc.

Edited May 15, 2017 by Athena5217
Correct typo

[Bobbin]

I can't see raising three kids with both parents career diplomats and constantly out of the country and in harm's way. Stevie and Henry are both too full of themselves thinking they're indispensible for their "higher calling." Russell is right, Stevie is presumptuous. Henry needs to stop trying to save the world and start turning down assignments and be a full-time parent. The nature of public non-profit enterprises is to constantly guilt employees and volunteers into making never-ending personal sacrifices. Sometime, you have to walk away or they'll suck you dry.

With all the couples on CBS shows getting married this past week, I wondered when Blake being gay (or bi) was going to come up. Or "out." Now, for all the bigots to come out of the woodwork railing about gay characters being "shoved down their throats," even if that aspect of Blake's life never comes up again.

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, Bobbin said:

I can't see raising three kids with both parents career diplomats and constantly out of the country and in harm's way. Stevie and Henry are both too full of themselves thinking they're indispensible for their "higher calling." Russell is right, Stevie is presumptuous. Henry needs to stop trying to save the world and start turning down assignments and be a full-time parent. The nature of public non-profit enterprises is to constantly guilt employees and volunteers into making never-ending personal sacrifices. Sometime, you have to walk away or they'll suck you dry. . . .

Hmmm. . . Maybe that is the point of this Stevie drama? Maybe Henry's role will be scaled back superhero-wise? And then Stevie will go to law school locally so her character doesn't need to have distracting plots away from D.C. in order not to lose screen time? Just guessing.

[Guest]

I get that the writers wanted to keep Stevie in the story. However, I have major issues with how the show is  handling gender roles. It had to give Henry a super strong role because he couldn't just be a supportive husband and now they're intelligent, driven daughter is choosing to forgo law school to be a stay at home parent  figure to her teenage siblings? 

 Clunkiest exposition ever for  Blake's storyline.

[Netfoot]

8 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

Does Jason have a serious disease?

We can but hope.

[thewhiteowl]

Stevie is right that they need her. They were halfway out the door when they asked her to watch the sibs. Who else were they going to ask if she said no? Stevie wants to make a difference now and she can do that at home while her self involved super hero parents do their globe trotting for humanity. If she was more like them she would have said toodles! But she apparently went to her hospitalized brother, instead.  Her parents need a clue here, hire a vetted nanny if they want Stevie to be free. JMO

[CheshireCat]

8 hours ago, Athena5217 said:

 

Russell is an idiot because you don't show up at someone's house and say we have to be downtown in 20 minutes, especially not downtown D.C. I don't know where the McCords live, but it's probably upper Northwest or McLean. That's at least a 20-minute drive, and Stevie has to get dressed, lock the house, etc.

Georgetown. At least, that's what her brother said in S2 and I think it has come up before, too.

[buckboard]

Wouldn't two high ranking, constantly busy, wealthy professionals have a housekeeper or someone to keep their home maintained while they are busy with late night meetings and running off around the world on assignments?   Someone who could look after the kids when necessary?

The idea that these parents are doing all the cooking, cleaning and otherwise in charge of the upkeep of the house in addition to all their other work responsibilities has always struck me as a false note.

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, buckboard said:

Wouldn't two high ranking, constantly busy, wealthy professionals have a housekeeper or someone to keep their home maintained while they are busy with late night meetings and running off around the world on assignments?   Someone who could look after the kids when necessary?

The idea that these parents are doing all the cooking, cleaning and otherwise in charge of the upkeep of the house in addition to all their other work responsibilities has always struck me as a false note.

Yes. I guess one reason for it is that they'd have to pay and write for an additional actor. And then there's the whole awkward disconnect between the personnas of the egalitarian McCords and the reality of the socioeconomic class difference that would exist between them and the "hired help." 

[Noneofyourbusiness]

Bess should have a talk with Henry about wanting to be Dangerman.

Stevie wanting to stay to help her parents (whether they want her to or not?) is so doormat-y. The part that makes sense is thinking she has more to learn from Russell if she sticks around. Her parents are right, she and Jareth should be going out and enjoying themselves. Like to see more of him. Actually, way back when, I thought Stevie was going to have a thing with Dmitri. But since the McCords are so big on keeping their work life and home life separate, I suppose it's very unlikely they'll ever meet.

I'm glad this episode addressed biphobia and way that we get told by ignorant people, both straight and gay, that we "have to choose one".

Edited May 17, 2017 by Noneofyourbusiness

[Bobbin]

53 minutes ago, Noneofyourbusiness said:

I'm glad this episode addressed biphobia and way that we get told by ignorant people, both straight and gay, that we "have to choose one".

I'm glad that the episode showed that gay/bi people are not all alike, with the same dispositions, attitudes, ambitions, self-assurance, etc.

[sinkwriter]

Delighted to get another glimpse into Blake. And his babbling at Elizabeth in the final scene cracked me up, he was so adorably funny and sweet. And when he finally stopped talking, I said to my TV screen, "Oh my gosh, give the guy the hug," so I was very glad that she did just that. Lovely.

[Bobcatkitten]

Anyone surprised at how "ho-hum" the end of the episode was. Terrorists tried to assassinate the president overseas and it was barely a blip. 

I, like others, am so tired of Henry being a secret agent guy. Part of the reason I loved the show originally was showing how a woman could be the strong professional one while the husband took up the slack at home (while still having his own career). But that career should not be in the same orbit. It's too much for both of them at once.

[CheshireCat]

18 minutes ago, scribe95 said:

Anyone surprised at how "ho-hum" the end of the episode was. Terrorists tried to assassinate the president overseas and it was barely a blip. 

That didn't me bother as much. Or maybe it did. I don't know. I would have liked to have a little more at the end, but what bothered me more is that they didn't show the Bess-Henry reunion. I loved the end, it was perfect, but a Bess-Henry end or even just a phone call before the scene with Blake would have made it even more perfect. 

I'm not sure if the episode could have been a two-parter. Maybe? Something else that I felt was missing was dealing with Russia. They went from "Russia thinks we did it on purpose" to Dalton mentioning the tragic loss in his speech but there was nothing in it in between. I know that the finale deals with Russia (I haven't seen it yet) but it didn't feel like something that was left open-ended to come up again. It felt more like "we didn't have time to deal with it properly because we only have 42-43 minutes". I also think they could have showns a little more of the take-down of the two terrorists, so, they may have been able to make it a two-parter.

 

18 minutes ago, scribe95 said:

I, like others, am so tired of Henry being a secret agent guy. Part of the reason I loved the show originally was showing how a woman could be the strong professional one while the husband took up the slack at home (while still having his own career). But that career should not be in the same orbit. It's too much for both of them at once.

Agreed. Although, what I thought was most ridiculous was that they said Henry and the other agent (forgot his name) would be working with Mossad. I'm sure Mossad would be thrilled to have to work with amateur-agent SuperDad ;-) And it was totally unnecessary, too. Why could they not simply say that Henry and the other agent would go to interrogate the guy? It was all that they were shown doing anyway, and it made sense. There was absolutely no reason to hype up what Henry would be doing because they didn't follow up on it. Not that I wanted them to follow up on it.

Generally, I didn't mind how they used Henry in this episode. He stuck to religion, and it was very reminiscent of S1 ep 18, so I was okay with it. What I hated was that he yet again withheld information from Bess even though he, apparently, could have told her. This is also the third time that Bess referenced to Henry going into danger even though was the ethics/religion professor. It made me wonder if maybe she was voicing more than her own frustration.

Also, when is Henry ever going to take some responsibility? It was yet again Bess who said that she should have been with Jason. Yes, she is the mother and the woman, and yes, Henry was there to calm her down a little, still, it would have been nice if one of these days one of these comments of Bess' would lead him to say, "you know what, you're right. One of us should be there and since we agreed in S1 that you can't quit, and I am the man beside the woman, I'll go back to teaching full time". S1 Henry probably would have done that. I miss him.

That said, there were a lot of things that I liked about the episode, too. Russell's "As much as I would love to see where this is going" in the Oval Office for one thing. I wouldn't have minded to see where this was going, too. Could have been fun. And awkward. But mostly fun.

I also liked that Bess wanted to get Stevie out of the house. I'm not sure I would have appreciated the string-pulling in Stevie's case, but I liked the reason behind it. I wonder if that'll be a story next season that Stevie needs to live her own life and not her parents' life. She may want to go into public service but to me, it sounded a lot like she thought she had to stay first, and wanted to public service second. Besides, she told Russell that she wanted to go to law school do then do public service, so I'm not sure I'm buying the "I need to do something now". It's not like her job as Russell's intern is that meaningful. She certainly would be able to do a lot more as a lawyer. And whatever happened to her Microloans job?

Everything Blake was something else that I liked. And on a very shallow note - his ex was some serious eye-candy! Nadine was cute as ever. I kind of feel sorry for her, everyone's always unloading on her. But I also love how supportive she is. And Blake's speech at the end, wow. I think I would have had a very hard time mainting a straight face had I been in Leoni's place.

I thought that the leaders in Rome were the target was rather easy to figure out. I don't know if it was intentional but I kind of liked the twist - make a fuzz about Henry going into danger, then have Bess be the one who ends up among those who are in actual danger.

I did wonder though where the respective bodyguards are taking their charges when they have to evacuate 20+ of them at the same time. Do hotels that hosts these kinds of dinners have to have secure rooms somewhere? It's really the only thing I can think of.  

[kwnyc]

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And whatever happened to her Microloans job?

That was still "not very bright" Stevie, who didn't realize that sleeping with her boss was not good optics (and a very good scene where Daisy straightened her out on that matter.)

[CheshireCat]

9 minutes ago, kwnyc said:

That was still "not very bright" Stevie, who didn't realize that sleeping with her boss was not good optics (and a very good scene where Daisy straightened her out on that matter.)

But she continued to work there after they had broken up. And in the S2 premiere, she tells the Secret Service that she has to go to work when they pick her and Harrison up at the hotel, so I assume she was still working there then, too, since we never learned that she was working elsewhere.

Edited May 23, 2017 by CheshireCat

[kwnyc]

Well, on the bright side, at least we haven't heard anything about Harrison again.

[Mellowyellow]

LOVED the hug at the end! Bess is such a mother hen. Tea Leoni really conveys the warmth in her personality despite being a very powerful woman and bit of a superhero!

I loved Bess! So nice to watch a show where you adore the lead character! 

[CheshireCat]

On ‎23‎.‎05‎.‎2017 at 3:00 PM, kwnyc said:

Well, on the bright side, at least we haven't heard anything about Harrison again.

I would actually like to hear about him. I don't have to see him but I'd really like to know what he's up to now.

[VinceW]

Current sweeps episodes with top writers: Matt Ward, David Grae not much help with the declining viewer numbers. David Grae effort closing out the doomsday cult threat was his poorest of the series. IMO. The 'Murphy Station' ensemble is a better fit for Henry's role in intelligence. The outcome from the bio-weapon arc was too predictable.

Edited May 29, 2017 by VinceW

[shapeshifter]

On May 22, 2017 at 4:09 PM, CheshireCat said:

…also liked that Bess wanted to get Stevie out of the house. I'm not sure I would have appreciated the string-pulling in Stevie's case, but I liked the reason behind it. I wonder if that'll be a story next season that Stevie needs to live her own life and not her parents' life…

As someone who has worked with thousands of "Millennials" and several dozen parents of Millennials, shares a duplex wall with a Millennial, and who has 3 Millennial daughters, I can see the writers wanting to explore "Millennial" life issues through Stevie. But the phenomenon of "boomerang kids" (adult Millennials who live with their parents—stereotypically in a basement) is more common to young men whose parents are not well enough off economically to help them thrive outside the home. I'm just not sure how realistic or believable or even typical this plot arc can be with Stevie. But, hey, they managed to pull off Dr. of Religion Super Spy Daddy, so maybe Stevie can live in the basement after Noodle redecorates it.

Edited June 7, 2017 by shapeshifter
Specificity

[txhorns79]

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I'm just not sure how realistic or believable or even typical this plot arc can be with Stevie. But, hey, they managed to pull off Dr. of Religion Super Spy Daddy, so maybe Stevie can live in the basement after Noodle redecorates it.

I wanted Russell to tell her she was fired when she announced that she didn't want the second meeting he took the trouble of arranging for her. 

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LOVED the hug at the end! Bess is such a mother hen. Tea Leoni really conveys the warmth in her personality despite being a very powerful woman and bit of a superhero!

I loved the hug, but the conversation was weird and awkward as heck.  I did like like Blake shouting after her "I'm bi," and her responding "Bye Blake!" 

Edited August 11, 2017 by txhorns79