Brooklyn Nine-Nine 3x02 "The Funeral" (Anything for the Nine-Nine) [Contributor: Connie]

"The Funeral"

Original Airdate: October 4, 2015

This week's Brooklyn Nine-Nine was another solid one for the books. We get to see Jake and Amy together (SQUEE) while working together against the Vulture, one-drink Terry, a depressed Captain Holt, and Archie Panjabi. So many great things, so let's dive in.

The squad must attend Captain Dozerman’s funeral and their newest Captain (the Vulture) is doucheing it up all over the place. What I can see about this season already is how Captain Holt’s absence is subtly affecting each of the characters. Terry says it more explicitly later on, but our characters are finding themselves more and more out of their comfort zones the longer that Holt is gone. Terry, Charles, Jake and Amy, and even Holt himself are all in new territory and are trying to adjust. It doesn’t help that they keep acquiring new Captains with the same frequency as Harry Potter got new Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers.

What I enjoyed most about this week’s episode was that we had the chance to see Jake and Amy work together as a couple. I mentioned last week that we didn’t get the opportunity to see Jake and Amy talk like normal people due to their heightened awkwardness. This week, they are operating as their normal selves, which is both refreshing and also a solid way to write transition into the “they will” part of their relationship. For it only being an official six days, they have settled comfortably into their at home and relationship groove. I hope (and am sure that) we get to see more of this. I also like that the show didn’t fall into the trope of creating some dramatic falling out due to confusion between the two and their new status quo. Jake and Amy genuinely like each other and they’re figuring their relationship out, but there isn’t a necessity for there to be some big misunderstanding or fight between them every episode (ahem, The Mindy Project).

The Vulture (I’m not even sure I remember his real name at this point…) demands that Jake and Amy break up or else he’ll demote Jake to beat cop. Rather than really even consider the option (“I got it: we lie, tell him we broke up, and then date in secret.” “Great! And you’d be okay with lying to your Captain?” “Okay, new plan.”), they spend the episode working together to dismantle the Vulture’s rising reign of terror. We get to see how Amy and Jake’s partnership works when it is at its best. Jake has a wild, not well thought-out plan, which often distracts from Amy’s real, level-headed plan. Their effort to record the Vulture was brilliant, even if they never got to use it. (I love when Jake so convincingly puts himself into a position and then quickly learns that’s NOT the one he wanted to be in.) Don't worry, though: we’ll get to Jake’s speech a little further down in this review.

IN OTHER STORIES:

Boyle is trying the hook-up life and it’s really not going well for him. I love how Boyle thinks he is fully into this “sleeping with someone but knowing nothing about them” lifestyle, but it’s Rosa who reminds him that he doesn’t operate that way. Once she gets into his head, Boyle's funeral sex with The Good Wife’s Archie Panjabi grinds to a halt. (That play on words wasn’t on purpose, but I recognize it and stand by it.) Boyle tries to find out more about her and the fact that she is a vegan (“a gluten-free vegan!”) is the ultimate dealbreaker. Typical Boyle. Sadly, Panjabi was underused in this episode, so I hope she gets to come back. She didn’t get to do much, but this show has a way of bringing one-off characters back, just like Parks and Recreation did.

Captain Holt returns to the Nine-Nine and feels like it has moved on without him. Of course, he should be proud that his team is doing so well after he molded and shaped them, but the Vulture gets into his head. “I keep forgetting, you used to work here. Everyone does.”

Of all the people the Vulture verbally kicks (and physically, in Boyle’s case), his words to Holt are the worst of all. I despise him more for that than for his words to Jake or any of the rest of the squad. Partially because I know that Holt can take the Vulture down in a millisecond, and partially because Holt is so vulnerable right now and the Vulture manages to get under his skin. Holt heads to a bar and doesn’t even stop to sniff the bouquet of his wine! “The alcohol has rendered me a simpleton.”

Holt is asked to prepare a “message of hope” after the funeral. “This is what I have so far: pain.” I wish words on the page could express the way Andre Braugher delivered that line. It was guttural, it was full of, yes, pain, and it was hilariously executed. It is so sad that Andre has not won an Emmy for this show yet. His speech, in the end, boils down to: “Everything is garbage.”

“Never love anything, that’s the lesson.” 

Jake has a wonderful rebuttal, not that his speech (or Holt’s) had anything to do with Dozerman. He speaks directly to Amy. Jake wants to fight for them, because he sees it as something special. “Sure there may be obstacles, but I don’t care if I get demoted. I care about being with you.” AWW, JAKE.

“I’m all out of plans.”  

“I have one: Holt saves your ass.”

Inspired by Jake’s speech, Holt convinces the Vulture to leave Jake and Amy alone, while letting Jake keep his job:

“I was moved by your speech, Peralta. The syntax was problematic, and your vocabulary is a true indictment of the public school system.”  

“I love the Nine-Nine and I’m not going to turn my back on the squad.”

Holt, come back to us! Also, loved Amy’s whisper to Jake that Holt “totally approves of us.”

Never change, Amy Santiago. Never change.

Bullets on the Bulletin Board:

• “He heard that I speak Spanish so he made me fire his housekeeper. She was Polish.”
• “Pillow talk alert! Set the scene: spooning or face to face?” “Charles.” *fist pumps* “Spooning.”
• “Once again, Scully’s butt is the downfall of this precinct.”
• “Hugs are a form of inappropriate workplace touching. Trust me, I am very familiar with the sexual harassment guidelines.”
• “Also, if you ever want to bust out that Holt impression at home, I’d be okay with that.” “Wow, okay. Duly noted, super disturbing, but I’m definitely gonna do it.” 
• There were several references to Jake and Amy being “home” “together,” both between themselves and others. SQUEE!
• “You’ve probably heard that Amy and I have been dating.” “And we would love your approval.” “-- no.”
• “Meet me in 15 minutes.” “I’ll meet you alright. M-e-a-t.” BOYLE, NO. Just. No. But also, I love how Boyle’s food nerdiness comes out even accidentally. 
• “Do you really need to warm up though? You’re just going to make a terrible wall of sound.” Back in college, a bagpipist (-- piper?) would play on the same floor at the same time as my gospel choir rehearsals. I don’t think anyone could make those two very distinct sounds go together. Ever.
• “We’re both SO bummed that he’s dead.” “Super bummed.”
• “So you were the one who brought all the prostitutes?” Talk about a wham line. Also that was Dozerman’s wife whose “work ethic” were his last words of praise. 
• One-drink Terry pulls out the Carlton. Good to know. 
• On the second viewing, I really enjoyed how everyone’s official police attired went from crisp, starched, and clearly uncomfortable, to unbuttoned and rolled up at the sleeves. 
• “Yeah, it [Jake’s speech] pretty much sucked butts, but somehow was the best of all three toasts.”

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Blindspot 1x03 "Eight Slim Grins" (Trust and Mistrust) [Contributor: Jen]

"Eight Slim Grins"

Original Airdate: October 5, 2015

My apologies for missing last week's review! A special thank-you to Maddie for filling in. It looks like I'm jumping back in just in time because Blindspot is revving up its engines. Buckle up, friends and readers because things are about to get interesting.

The singular theme to this week's episode was trust. Who can Jane trust? Can she trust the FBI? Can she trust Kurt? Can the FBI trust Jane? Can the team trust her? Can Kurt? The FBI, the team, Kurt and Jane are all separate entities. Trust between one does not necessarily necessitate trust between another. In "Eight Slim Grins," Blindspot began sorting out the players and whom can truly trust whom.

THE FBI

The man from Jane's memories, the one who trained her, broke into her apartment. I looked up his name on IMDB and he's listed as "Ruggedly Handsome Man." No, that's not a joke and honestly I couldn't come up with anything better. So, Ruggedly Handsome Man it is. After some fierce hand-to-hand combat, he tells Jane that she cannot trust the FBI. Then, he's summarily shot by an unknown assassin. Goodbye Ruggedly Handsome Man, we barely knew you. See you in the flashbacks!

The FBI is an extremely large institution, so Ruggedly Handsome Man's intel wasn't particularly helpful. He basically pointed at a haystack and said "happy hunting" to Jane. The search for the needle puts Jane on high alert and she begins to view everyone with suspicion.

We, the audience, have a bit more information than Jane does at this point. We know Kurt's boss Bethany Mayfair is connected to the FBI file number tattooed on Jane –– a file number Patterson tracked down in the episode. Honestly, how long did Mayfair believe she could keep the redacted file a secret? The case file is tattooed on Jane's body, which automatically lends it to high visibility. It's surprising it took Patterson this long to figure it out.

Did anyone else get nervous for Patterson when she handed Mayfair the file? Mayfair may not be interested in killing Jane, but her associate Thomas Carter (thanks, IMDB) certainly was. Since Patterson discovered the file it means she's now in the crosshairs as well. Gulp. Please don't kill Chrissy from Growing Pains because it's Chrissy from Growing Pains!

Jane is right not to trust the FBI in its entirety, with Mayfair at the top of the list. Her continued refusal to share any information with Jane still lands her firmly in my "shady" column. Mayfair's reticence to kill Jane does put a plus in her column, however. (I may be grasping at straws, but strangely I like Mayfair.) Although Thomas Carter's relationship with the FBI is unknown, he's nothing but bad news. Jane needs to keep her head on a swivel when it comes to the FBI.

THE TEAM

We've surmised by now that Jane is right to be suspicious of the FBI, but not necessarily of the team. Mayfair and her shady intentions notwithstanding, Kurt, Tasha and Patterson are all firmly on Team Jane. They trust her and believe that she's an asset to the investigation. They really do want her on the team.

Reade continues to be the lone wolf in questioning Jane's motivations. He's not entirely wrong to distrust Jane, but he goes too far when he wonders if she's amoral. Just because the Seals he's investigating tested amoral doesn't mean Jane is, too. They share a tattoo, after all, not a brain. Jane has: defended an abused wife, helped save a little girl, and put herself in harm's way to stop attacks countless times. I think we can safely rule out "amoral" from her character description. Dial it down a notch, Reade, sheesh.

Patterson uses an elegant tangram analogy to explain to Jane that the team is simply going through some growing pains. Pun intended. (I'm sorry. I had to. It was far too easy.) Essentially, they are trying to figure out where Jane fits so they can form a new and fully functioning team with her included. This doesn't mean they don't trust her, as Jane instantly assumes. (Well... except for Reade. Nothing but mistrust coming Jane's way from Reade.)

The end result is that Mayfair officially puts Jane on the team. It means Jane will finally carry a gun. Hallelujah! It's always nice and rare when logic wins in a television show. It also means that Blindspot can put an end to the ridiculous "stay in the car" arguments between Kurt and Jane. Of course, Jane has to pass a field exam before this all happens. Maybe the FBI should blindfold her so the field exam is actually challenging.

KURT WELLER

Last week, when Kurt was explaining his theory that Jane is Taylor Shaw, I screamed: "Don't make them siblings!" First, a confession: I ship Kurt and Jane. The chemistry, the looks, the partnership and the pitch perfect "long-lost childhood sweethearts" storyline is too good for me to pass up. I'm on board with Team Jeller or Kane or whatever portmanteau actually wins on Tumblr and Twitter. So, obviously for this ship to sail, the show making the two siblings would be extremely inconvenient. Luckily, five seconds after this exchange took place, I did the math and realized that if Taylor was Kurt's sister, her last name would be Weller not Shaw. Bullet officially dodged in my book.

I assumed Blindspot would drag this storyline out and lead us to believe Jane wasn't Taylor Shaw. Perhaps they would pull a DNA swap or something. Instead, Blindspot is hitting the ground running. Three DNA tests with three different samples all confirmed matches. Jane Doe is Taylor Shaw, Kurt's missing childhood neighbor. Could it be a ruse? Sure, but I doubt it. By answering the Taylor Shaw question sooner rather than later, Jane only becomes more mysterious and opens up more story opportunities. It gives both Kurt and Jane a foundation to start looking, which will move the story forward. It also means Blindspot isn't afraid to churn through story, which is a good sign.

Jane (or do I call her Taylor now?) and Kurt spend a good deal of the episode fighting. Jane wasn't sure she could trust Kurt because he was obviously withholding information from her. Kurt wanted Jane to earn his trust, rather than expect him to hand it to her on a silver platter. The push/pull dynamic was interesting, especially during their fight after Jane chased down the Seal suspect. In the end, Jane and Kurt put suspicions and distrust aside. They tell one another everything. By doing so, they affirm that regardless of the madness surrounding them, they can trust one another. They can depend on one another. After Patterson informs Jane and Kurt that she is indeed Taylor Shaw, they grab hold of one another's arms. They weren't holding hands. The news stunned them both, as if the wind was knocked out of them. Jane and Kurt grab arms to steady themselves, as if they were one another's anchor.

Stray Thoughts:

• It'd be nifty if they stopped killing all of Jane's leads.
• Is there a reason Jane couldn't see a dentist? Woman lost a tooth. Give her some novocaine with that ice pack.
• Weller giving Jane his gun and telling her he'd get another one was extremely hot.
• Orion is terribly vague. This is worse than Alias. But despite the vagueness, "Orion" and "Daylight" do correlate. There are varying Orion myths in Greek mythology, but in most he is a hunter. His constellation is also one of the brightest in the sky. If Jane is associated with "Orion" and Mayfair and Carter are associated with "Daylight," those two images are diametrically opposed. The only thing that can obliterate the night is the day and vice versa. Yet, by associating the night sky with "Orion," the brightest constellation, it seems Blindspot is pointing to Jane as the hunter and "Daylight" as the hunted.
• Taylor Weller. Doesn't Jane's married name sound nice? Jeller or Kane or whatever we're calling this ship forever.

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#CountdownToArrow: 13 Times Oliver Queen Made Us Emotional Wrecks

Arrow's fourth season officially debuts tomorrow (CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?) and it has been an absolute blast getting the opportunity to not just reminisce about some of our favorite moments throughout #CountdownToArrow, but to really get excited for the show's return. We've gotten to know and hear from a lot of you during hiatus thanks to this project and I can't thank you all enough for being so supportive and encouraging, as well as engaged!

This project was a massive undertaking and it would not have been possible had it not been for the amazing women who have helped support it (Jen, Meredith, Maddie, Lizzie, Lynnie, Hope, Chelsea, etc.) I'm so thankful for them and for the way they helped not just support me but also our team in the last month. Go give them some love on Twitter or Tumblr (or here!).

If this is your first time reading anything from #CountdownToArrow, then welcome! If it's not and you've been with us during the entire month-long celebration... still welcome! You can check out all of the posts from the month HERE. Be sure to also come back tomorrow night after Arrow airs for my review of the episode.

In our final day of the countdown, we decided to celebrate the man who makes the entire show possible: Oliver Queen. And when contemplating what kind of listicle I wanted to do, I thought that discussing the moments in which Oliver Queen was awesome and action hero-y wouldn't do him justice. Because even though Oliver is amazing as The Arrow (and now Green Arrow), what I really love is how Stephen Amell can use this character as a vehicle to convey a lot of powerful and strong emotions. So now, without further adieu, we are going to break down thirteen moments in which Oliver Queen made us emotional.

Grab your tissues and chocolate!

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The Mindy Project 4x04 "The Bitch is Back" (Having it All) [Contributor: Anne]

"The Bitch is Back"

Original Airdate: October 6, 2015

I didn't like the stupid breast milk-spraying joke.

I really, really didn't like it. It was stupid and slap-sticky and should have certainly gotten Mindy fired.

Now that I got my biggest grievance out in the open, let me talk about the rest of this episode of The Mindy Project, which has given me a lot to talk about. Yes, I was so worried about not having enough to talk about, but silly me. I always have something to talk about.

What struck me about this episode was that it was the first well-done ensemble episode of the entire series, or at least in my memory. This show has always had a complicated relationship with its ensemble; when they carry B-plots, they're mostly boring, and when secondary characters intervene in the main plot, they more frequently hurt than help.

I'm not saying that every episode with a focus on the ensemble failed –– not at all –– but that this episode was an ensemble episode, one that made me understand how this show could be the things it has always wanted to be. As a show whose focus is on one character (maybe two), there's always pressure on which elements are going to be the focus. Mindy's "friend" life wasn't sustainable, for example, and Danny's "ma" sometimes worked and sometimes didn't.

But in the fourth season we're seeing so many of these elements being toyed with in a pretty perfect measure, whether you've got Mom Mindy, Friend Mindy, Co-worker Mindy, Entrepreneur Mindy, Daughter Mindy, or Lover Mindy. You've got the Mindy who can't solve Dora the Explorer mysteries, the Schemer Mindy, the Feminist Mindy, the Friendly (and then Flirtatious) Mindy.

Basically, you've got a fully-developed main character this season. You "have it all." Thank goodness.

I know I've said this before, but Mindy was always hard for me to peg down in the first couple of seasons. Early Danny and Mindy plots emphasized Danny's redemption-by-love more than Mindy's own change of heart; Mindy Kaling says as much in her book Why Not Me when she describes the show's premise as "Boy meets Girl. Boy hates Girl. Girl is not crazy about Boy either. Eventually Girl wears Boy down with friendliness. Boy grows to love Girl but can't express it." And so on. There's always been an emphasis on Danny's warming towards Mindy and his inner conflict over it*; this is frankly the case in most romances (Pride and Prejudice, anyone?) and frankly is something I love in my romantic comedies.

But in a show like this one, having a focus on Mindy is an asset in the long-term, because this is her project, not Danny's (though he is free to share the spotlight from time to time). And what ended up happening as a result of how the first two seasons were structured is that the third season had to reconfigure. Danny had been redeemed by Mindy's love –– not made perfect, mind you, but redeemed in perfect rom-com formula. So the question lingers: now what?

What the third season did, and what I always made clear that I appreciated, was really outline Mindy Lahiri as a character for me. Maybe it was because Danny was such a tremendous jerk, but at some point during the third season I began to root for Mindy rather than Danny. I never thought this would happen! Hardened, cynical men with a heart of gold are my bread and butter, after all! But I am so happy that I came to appreciate the potential of Mindy Lahiri, and I'm happy that the fourth season continues to paint the picture of who she is as a character. Mindy Kaling once compared Mindy Lahiri to Michael Scott –– both main characters, both incredibly flawed, but ultimately complex. I can totally see that here.

I've been yammering on about one character when I promised that this was the first well-done ensemble episode of the show. Why?

Because the ensemble lifts Mindy up! A good ensemble creates situations for the protagonist (Mindy, of course) to react to –– whether that's through direct interaction (conflict) or through indirect interaction (parallel stories that inform the main character's). But a great ensemble can do those things while getting you to care about them, too.

I am so sorry, Peter and Jeremy, but Jody and Colette are more interesting in their first episode than you will ever be. I love them so much and so immediately. Jody, like Peter, is sexist and charming and brushes up against Mindy in an unfavorable way; Colette is grounded and cool, which makes her more interesting to me than almost anyone else in the office. They are ridiculous but are grounded by the fact that they have compelling strengths and flaws in their personalities. What a novel concept! (But considering Betsy, Shauna, Peter and Jeremy, it kind of is, though.)

But the best thing about these two new characters? They have a relationship with each other that is so interesting. They're so different, but also compatible, and I'm excited to see that relationship play out on my screen. Again, having a real relationship lends a character some plausibility and makes you, as an audience member, care about them. In contrast to someone like Morgan, who plays 99% ridiculous all of the time with his relationship to Dr. L, the demonstration of tenderness (or even lucidity) is welcome to me.

I can also see that these characters will make the show around them better, too. Tamra and Colette are already hanging out. Jeremy knows both of them! For characters who promise to be more but normally don't live up to this promise, Jody and Colette are well-needed (especially because Dr. L is so busy).

Let's talk about the episode. I know Danny shouldn't have been so aggressive about enforcing his idea of parenthood on Mindy –– like, get her a gift, dude, out of the goodness of your heart for once! –– but I also think that this episode, like previous episodes, makes it clear why Danny feels the way he does (not for traditional reasons but for reasons tied to his past), makes it clear why Danny is in the wrong (Tamra's awesome speech to him in the jewelry store), and eliminates hurtful or manipulative schemes of Danny's before they actually happen. And it's not like he's without a point; Mindy is more stressed because she is at work, she does feel like she doesn't belong, she does miss Leo, and he doesn't hear her say that she wants to change her mind at the end of the episode.

I also really enjoyed the weekly sage talk, this time delivered by Tamra. (I do love, love, love, love, love Tamra.) I loved that Danny had to consider all that Mindy's given him and had to try to find a gift that was one fraction of that value. I also appreciated the gift; I think that this show, with the dance, documentary and now this, have really killed "sentimental and beautiful gifts." I also think that a tattoo's permanency is the perfect representation of how committed Danny is to Mindy and actually implies that Danny is becoming less traditional/loosening up as a result of knowing her, which is nice to see.

This episode went by quickly. Being without FOX is the best thing that could have happened to The Mindy Project. While the fourth episode was on par with the third more than the first two, it was the fourth consecutive episode that I loved and the fourth reminder of why this show is on its best season yet.

Stray Observations:

• But get rid of the breast milk gag! That joke was so in-your-face, I was waiting for the corresponding "bazinga."
• (Pun intended in the previous point.)
• I'm being harsh on that joke. I am sorry. Seeing as this show hasn't gone for slapstick that much, it's obviously a nitpick. But it is thus far my least favorite thing in the fourth season, which should at the very least tell you how much I've enjoyed this season.
• * If you want examples of "Danny's inner conflict gets more focus than Mindy's in their courtship," consider the second season's premiere, "You've Got Sext," the Christmas episode, and the desert kiss, which is initiated by Danny. Obviously, Mindy's feelings get a clearer focus post-kiss, especially "Be Cool," "Girl Crush," and their fight in the bathroom. This all happens after Danny's feelings have been realized, though. And this isn't a bad thing! Fun, carefree, lively characters redeeming tortured, seemingly irredeemable ones through love is a major trope (Hey ARROW fans! Hey THE VAMPIRE DIARIES fans!) and is also one of my favorites (Hey LUKE AND LORELAI fans!).
• I say this every episode of everything I review: how beautiful everyone is, but everyone is so beautiful in this episode, especially Mindy. #teamlongbob
• I miss Eliza Coupe already.
• I am worried that Jeremy needs to go. He did his best service by bringing in Jody and Colette.
• Morgan was absolutely insufferable this episode. He is normally insufferable to me, but this episode was way over-the-top.
• I would give this episode a B+. Because my least favorite thing of the episode was hinged on a lot of things I wasn't that crazy for, either, this episode was less enjoyable to me than the one before it.

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#TheXFilesRewatch 1x13 "Beyond the Sea" (Emotional Nuances) [Contributor: Lizzie]

“Beyond the Sea”

Original Airdate: January 7, 1994

This is not a mythology episode. No plot advancement of any kind will be found here. (Apart from, like, character growth and one of the creepiest villains in the history of television.) And yet, to me, "Beyond the Sea" is one of the most important episodes of The X-Files ever, so forgive me if I get all wordy and emotional. Because I will get all wordy and emotional.

The episode opens with Scully entertaining her parents. It’s a nice scene, especially because this is not a show that dwells on the personal lives of the protagonists. So, Scully entertaining her parents, and actually cooking for them seems like a bad omen. Something is coming. You know it. I know it. Scully, however, doesn’t know it, which is why she hesitates before asking her father something, and then swallows the words as she says goodbye. He calls her Starbuck. She calls him Ahab. And though I hate Moby Dick, the nicknames were always special to me. My father and I had our very own nicknames. And my father, like Scully’s, is no longer around.

Regret is a funny thing. It’s almost impossible to live without it, because we are not perfect. There’s almost always going to be something we wish we’d done another way. And yet there’s nothing quite as painful as the idea that you disappointed your parents, especially when they’re not around to reassure you otherwise. So, yes, I was already crying a couple of minutes into the episode when Scully wakes up to see her father sitting in front of her. Because it means something different to me, now that my own father is not around.

As does the phone call.

We already know what happened. Scully’s father is gone. We’ve been expecting it since we first saw them having dinner. This is the way of television, of course: you don’t cast an actor for a role unless the role is going somewhere. But the pain of Scully's father passing away still hurts us all the same. You want to know why? Because Gillian Anderson is a wonderful, wonderful actress.

She got most of the accolades during the The X-Files' run, and I remember thinking, as a child, how unfair that was. When I was younger, I used to think that David Duchovny was a better actor. That he somehow deserved more praise. He was Mulder, after all! And honestly? I, wrongly, never truly appreciated the nuances in Gillian Anderson’s performance. Not until I re-watched this episode. Because, let me tell you, Gillian Anderson knocks it out of the park in “Beyond the Sea,” an episode that is only a little over half a season into this show’s run. Gillian Anderson didn’t just suddenly become a good actress after some time and multiple episodes, though – she was always a good actress. I just learned how to see that.

While all of this is going in in Scully’s life, a young couple is making out in a car in Raleigh, North Carolina. It’s very cliché and all, until a cop shows up. These people have apparently never seen a scary move in their life, because the guy actually gets out of the car when prompted, without FIRST asking for some kind of identification from the cop. And then the couple gets kidnapped, which should serve as a lesson for everyone out there: never, ever get out of the car if someone tells you to without asking for their ID first. Better yet, if it’s night, just don’t get out of the car unless you’re in a public place. (Okay, PSA over.)

A couple of days later, Scully arrives at Mulder’s, just as he’s immersed in something. She jokes, because yeah, humor is the best deflection technique ever, that she hasn’t seen Mulder this engrossed since that time she found him reading Adult Video News. Mulder calls her Dana and is generally sweet and concerned, which, for early season one Mulder is a bit much, but whatever. Mulder is also wearing the ugliest tie known to man in this scene, by the way. Scully is charmed, but she doesn’t want to be distracted. She wants to know what Mulder is reading.

The bare facts of the case don’t seem to make this X-Files-worthy. Kidnapped couple, repeat offender, they’ll be dead in about five days, if the pattern is to be believed. However, it all gets a little more interesting when Mulder brings up Luther Boggs. The aforementioned Boggs is a serial killer Mulder helped apprehend years before, back when he was a big-shot profiler, and he claims he’s had psychic revelations about the kidnapping, which he will share only if his death sentence is commuted. To top all of that, Boggs will only talk to Mulder.

If it were anyone but Boggs, Mulder would be eating this sort of attention up. But in this particular case, our favorite believer is surprisingly skeptical. Scully has a little fun with him: “Mulder, do I detect a hint of skepticism?” (That, by the way, is one of those lines that are instantly quotable.) But the more Mulder reveals about Boggs, the more it seems like he’s right in his apprehension. Because yeah, killing your family on Thanksgiving and then sitting down to watch the rest of the holiday football game does scream "raging lunatic" to me, too.

Scully wants to go with Mulder to interview Boggs, but her father’s funeral is coming up, so she actually listens to him and decides to take some time off work. There’s face caressing and stuff as Mulder tells her how sorry he is, and excuse me, how did these two take seven seasons to get together if the intimacy level was already at a thousand percent in episode thirteen? It boggles the mind. (Pun intended.)

When Mulder leaves, Scully looks up “visionary encounters with the dead” before closing the filing cabinet abruptly and walking out of the room. Because yeah, she might want to believe, but she doesn’t really want to.

The elder Scully’s funeral is just the thing we’d expect out of navy man. There’s a guy on a little boat casting the ashes into the ocean, as the song “Beyond the Sea” plays. The only person who interacts with Scully as they stand there is her mother, but we assume the rest of the people standing here are her sister and her two elusive brothers. It’s not really the time to ask, but it seems Scully can’t help but wonder aloud if, despite choosing a different career path than medicine, her father was proud of her at all. Her mother has only one response for her? "He was your father."

Cue sobbing like a baby. Because, yes, this is the only answer she needs. And also because, once again, Gillian Anderson really sells the pain that Scully is feeling.

We transition to Boggs next, and let me tell you something about Luther Boggs – for someone who’s about as normal as they come on this show, he sure is a creepy guy. In fact, he’s one of the scariest villains in the history of this show. He’s got "kill" tattooed in the knuckles of one hand and "kiss" on the other hand, and his whole physic bit is very well done. Mulder, who doesn’t believe a word he’s saying, hands him a scrap of fabric and Boggs begins to go on and one about the kidnapped girl and how she’s being tortured, only for Mulder to reveal the scrap he gave him was from one of his New York Knicks t-shirts. He leaves, but when Scully is about to follow him, Boggs apparently assumes the identity of her father, first singing “Beyond the Sea” to himself, and then physically appearing as her father, only to then, as Boggs, ask if she got his message.

A distraught Scully leaves the cell. And Mulder, thinking she’s still having a hard time dealing with her father’s passing, suggests she go back to the motel and rest while he stays to interrogate Boggs. She doesn’t seem to want to go, but the sight of Boggs still singing that song is enough to convince her otherwise.

Later, as she’s driving, she comes across several landmarks that seem to match the descriptions Boggs gave when he was having psychic vision of the teen’s location. She, on a very-unlike-Scully hunch, follows the clues to a condemned warehouse, where she finds as small charm that belongs to the girl and signs that the kidnapper has indeed been there.

Alone in motel, Scully can’t stop thinking about her father’s face and her earlier vision. Mulder shows up to tell her that the charm she found has been confirmed to belong to the missing girl. Mulder is in a good mood, joking about asking Boggs to summon up the spirit of Jimi Hendrix, but that all changes when Scully confesses how she founds the warehouse.  Can I just say angry/concerned Mulder is the hottest thing ever? Because it kinda is. Skeptical Mulder, not so much, but meh, everyone gets an episode.

(Still, the whole grief-is clouding your judgment thing is way out of line, Mulder. WAY out of line. She finally believes in something, and just because it’s not the thing YOU would have wanted her to believe, then you don’t like it? Not cool. Not cool.)

They go back to the prison the next day, and Mulder has a plan. He has a fake newspaper proclaiming the teens have been found, and he wants to see how Boggs reacts. This doesn’t really fool Boggs, who reaches out-of-this world levels of creepiness when he uses his one phone call to call Mulder’s cell and berate him for not believing him, like Scully does. Since they’re running out of time, our favorite agents decide that they might as well listen to the crazy guy, and they go into his cell, where he gives a spine-chilling description of where the teenagers are being held and what’s been done to them.

Like, seriously. It’s so bad that you should be glad I’m not going on and on about what he said. The only important part is the ominous warning to Mulder, that he, of course, ignores, but which, OF COURSE, comes to bite him. Because, yes, the kidnapper is where Boggs said he was. They get the girl, he still escapes with the boy. But more importantly, Mulder is shot.

I repeat, Mulder is shot. He’s down. He’s bleeding. Scully’s there, freaking out. We’re here, freaking out, even though we obviously know he’s going to survive.

Liz, the kidnapped girl, identifies her kidnapper. And surprise, surprise, the man she points out is a known associate of Boggs, who was actually believed to be his accomplice. And now Scully’s mad. Really mad. Gillian Anderson goes through the range of emotions in this episode, and she seriously nails the entire performance. It’s a beautiful thing to watch, especially when she confronts Boggs and tells him that if Mulder dies, she’ll kill Boggs herself. Because that, right there, is love, my friends. And it’s only episode thirteen. Try to tell me again that they were just best friends, Chris Carter. Just try.

Boggs gets to Scully, and to me, with what he has to say next. I don’t know if I believe him, but his description of the electric chair, and how his previous almost-death experience there led him to be able to see the souls of those that have passed away, complete with black-and-white recreation haunted my dreams for days when I was a kid. Uh, I’m all grown up now, and I still think I’m going to have trouble sleeping tonight.

This is why Boggs works as a villain. He gets inside of your head. Inside of Scully’s head. He wants a deal: commute his death sentence, and he talks. If not, the boy dies. And, maybe, Mulder too.
But no one is offering Boggs a deal, and a convalescent but thankfully alive Mulder advises Scully not to deal with him at all. All Boggs wants is revenge, Mulder states, and since he couldn’t get Mulder killed, Scully would be the next best thing.

Because she’s the one person Mulder cares about. I need a moment. I’m drowning in feels here.

*sobs*

... Okay, I’m good now.

Scully lies to Boggs, saying she got him a deal, just to get the information out of him. Later on, when she’s about to confess the lie, Boggs admits he already knew, and states he told her because he knows she tried. He also tells her to avoid the devil, a cryptic warning a-la Mulder’s that will prove to be just as on point as the previous one when they go rescue the teenage boy. (In which Scully only survives because she stops when she sees a painted devil, only to see the kidnapper fall to his death.)
Later, she returns to Boggs’s cell, presumably, to tell him what happened, but he knows why she’s really there. She wants her father’s message. He promises to give it to her if she comes to his execution – which we get to see, in excruciating detail later.

I don’t want to dwell on that, because I want to dwell on this: the final scene of the episode. Hyper-rational Scully admits, to herself and to Mulder that this whole thing could have been arranged by Boggs. Mulder, despite the fact that earlier on, he didn’t seem to want her to believe, wants to know why she has such a hard time doing it.

What Scully does then is about the bravest thing a person can do. She comes out and admits it – she’s afraid. Mulder doesn’t understand her fear, can’t understand being so afraid that she’d miss out on her father’s last message. But Scully didn’t. She already knew. She’d always known. He was her father.

Cue the waterworks again. This is a very profound and important message that I think we’d all do well to remember: live every day of your life to the fullest, tell the people you love that you love them, and when they’re gone, keep trusting in them. That’s the way to keep them with you. Forever.

Quote of the episode:

Mulder: Dana, after all you've seen, after all the evidence, why can't you believe?
Scully: I'm afraid. I'm afraid to believe.

Scary moment of the episode:

Every time Boggs was on screen? Do I really have to pick one? Fine, the last scene, where’s he’s walking to the chair with the ghosts of all the people he killed. Because real life killers are way creepier than monsters.

Mulder/Scully moment of the episode:

The final scene is so powerful, that even though I loved Scully’s desperation when Mulder was shot, I have to go with the ending. They’re both as vulnerable and as open in that moment as we’ve ever seen them, and it says a lot about how far their partnership has come in so little time that they’ve allowed themselves to be that way.

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Quantico 1x02 "America" (Do You Trust Yourself?)

"America"

Original Airdate: October 4, 2015

I have jokingly said that “trust no one and question everything” should be the mantra for Pretty Little Liars. On the show, no one is who they seem and everyone lies to everyone else with relative ease. This same mantra can also be applied to ABC’s newest hit show, Quantico. In its second episode, “America,” the show did something different from Pretty Little Liars, though. It didn’t just ask us to question everyone –– we already know that all of the recruits are harboring secrets. The show asked us to question the sincerity of their answers to the question: “Why do you want to join the FBI?” The episode opens with each recruit answering and ends with Miranda essentially telling the recruits and the audience that everyone is a liar. 

... Okay, so maybe it is really similar to Pretty Little Liars in that regard after all.

Which really brings us to an interesting predicament, here: if we’re to believe everyone is harboring a secret and everyone is lying about something, Alex Parrish becomes a really interesting character (more interesting than she was initially, and she was interesting initially). We’ve seen over the course of the past two episodes that every recruit is capable of evil –– that they have a secret they would do a lot to protect. So where does that leave Alex? She’s seemingly being presented as “the innocent”: she’s the smartest and she’s got a pretty pure heart (in spite of some minor crimes and misdeeds she does during this episode). But... should we trust her? Should we believe her, given what we know of everyone else in the FBI? If someone is framing her, the question is: why? Why, when Alex seems to be this model citizen whose secret occurred in her youth and does not seem like one that might cause her to become a terrorist? If Alex is indeed an innocent, why would someone be framing HER? Would it be to protect their own secret or simply because they are malicious?

In novels, I love the ideas of unreliable narrators. But it’s also kind of frustrating. When I was in my AP Literature class in high school, I had to read a book called The Things They Carried –– a story of war and soldiers in which truth and reality fluctuate. We don’t know if we can trust the person who is telling us the story, and therefore we don’t know if we can trust the story.

(Aside: You’d think Alex would have gotten that particular foreshadowing when Liam’s assignment to the recruits ended with her essentially telling him that she figured out the puzzle –– he was an unreliable source of information and that’s why none of them were able to accurately guess which “terrorist threat” was real in the simulation. )

So if you don’t trust your source, you can’t (and shouldn’t) trust the information that comes from them. There is a lot of dichotomy between truth and lies present in “America,” and a lot of information, too. I’m going to try to unpack it based on characters this week. Let’s see how we do!

ALEX PARRISH –– KICK-BUTT PRINCESS OF THE FBI, ON THE RUN

So in the flashbacks, we essentially see Alex refusing to speak to Booth because, you know, he lost her trust during the interrogation in the pilot episode. Also in the flashbacks, Alex is seen working really hard and caring about her assignment while a new recruit, Nathalie, constantly tries to one-up her. Not to be outdone, though, Alex steps up to the plate during the assignment and is literally the only person in class who is able to piece together what Liam was really trying to teach them. Alex is such a great character in the flashbacks (and present, but I’ll talk more about that momentarily) –– she’s driven and she’s smart and while she’s made friends at the FBI among the recruits, she doesn’t treat them like competition. Nimah/Raina, Shelby, and Alex seem to actually be friends which is kind of refreshing in a show that has so much backstabbing. (I’ll probably eat these words about their friendship later in the season, but for now, I’m going with it.)

Present-day Alex is on the run, but much more clever than any of the FBI agents –– most notably Liam –– give her credit for. Miranda tells Liam that the Academy trained her too well; they’ve essentially created the perfect fugitive/agent. Here’s also what we learn in the present-day: Liam is (or was) in love with Alex and scorned. What I love about the way Quantico is navigating the flashback and present-day narratives is that they’ll drop little things like this in the scenes or lines of dialogue, just to make sure the audience is aware that a shift happened in the past that we will see eventually, and we should look out for it. That particular revelation makes scenes with Liam and Alex in the past even more important to us. It’s like a little clue or a treasure map without being too on-the-nose, and I’m appreciative of the subtle way the show is building the story of these recruits. We’re getting to know them and trust them (or distrust them) slowly.

Alex manages to out-smart the FBI by slipping the walkie-talkie she used whilst on the run into some poor, unsuspecting dude’s delivery bag. As an aside: the FBI is really bad at their job in this show which I think is the only thing bugging me so far (unless that is supposed to be on purpose). Like, they had no idea about Eric’s really, really sordid past and were out-smarted by an agent who is still really new. Get it together, FBI. While Alex is out-smarting the supposedly really smart people on this show, she’s also trying to figure out what exactly happened the morning of the bombing and why Booth was at her apartment in the first place. So she does what one would normally do and locates a restaurant with cameras facing her building to watch who enters and exits and when.

She’s able to determine that there is a secret entryway from her apartment bathroom into the vacant apartment next-door… where a TON of bomb-making supplies are being held. It’s not looking good for Alex who then nearly gets caught by Nathalie (until Alex, in a brilliant fight sequence, manages to handcuff Nathalie to a pole on the roof –– Nathalie emits frustration that is akin to what you might say or do if your friend beat you at Monopoly). But before Alex flees, she manages to swipe a piece of evidence from the floor of the apartment next to hers (without wearing any gloves or wrapping the evidence in any way –– DID YOU NOT WATCH CSI, ALEX?). Next, she calls Booth and he tells her that he’s sorry for what happened at Quantico (we don’t know what happened but I’m sure you DO have reason to apologize, Booth) and that he just went to her apartment in order to talk to her since they haven’t spoken in a long time. Booth knows that Alex didn’t shoot him but he can’t let Liam know that he knows that. The only logical solution? He has to tell Liam that Alex shot him.

Alex is okay with this, for… some reason? The episode ends with her embarking on a journey to find out who really planted the bomb in New York and who is trying to frame her. She tells Booth that it was someone in the recruits. And she's going to find out WHO.

Lingering storyline questions: Does Alex know that Booth was in on some plan with Liam? Is Liam the one who shot Booth? Maybe because Booth fell in love with Alex and Liam wasn’t down with that? (For two-fold reasons: because it screwed up their plan and because HE was in love with her.) Does Alex have an idea of which recruit it might be? Did someone ever let that poor woman out of the locked room in the restaurant? How does Alex have her hair and makeup look so flawless while on the run?

NIMAH AND RAINA –– TWINSIES WITH PLANSIES

So as it turns out, maybe people at the FBI are a little bit smarter than I give them credit for. Or maybe they were just smarter nine months ago, because Liam totally figures out that Nimah is a twin and Miranda figures out that Booth is an undercover agent. Unfortunately for Miranda, she doesn’t figure that Liam is the one who hired Booth as an agent. So close and yet so far.

Apparently Miranda is using Quantico as a way to prime Nimah and Raina for an assignment after their training. It’s a really important mission and the first of its kind (we’re not told much more than that), so the twins need to not blow their covers in order for it to be successful. For them, that necessitates that they act more alike than they have been. If one twin can only do ten push-ups, the other can’t be showing off. If one twin is becoming BFFs with Simon (Raina likes Simon, Nimah does not) then both of them need to. Essentially, they need to not raise any suspicions and they’re toeing a dangerous line, currently, in getting themselves caught.

Lingering storyline questions: What is the assignment Nimah and Raina are needed for? Who will be the first recruit to figure out that they’re twinning?

SIMON, SHELBY, AND CALEB –– OH MY!

This week, Simon acted a little bit shady by revealing to the audience that his glasses are fake (I mean, I kind of saw that coming anyway but still). Also, he spent most of the episode warding off the advances of new analyst, Elias (played by the insanely pretty Rick Cosnett) and smacking him down verbally on a few occasions. However, Simon continues to be my favorite character on this show and if he turns out to be evil, I feel like he’ll be the delightful kind of evil that I just can’t help but love. (I don’t think he’s evil though –– it looks like the promos are showing him helping Alex.)

Meanwhile, Shelby continues to have a love-hate relationship with Caleb, her sorta-crush from the pilot who, you know, was horrible and essentially made someone kill themselves. Caleb returns to his horrible self this episode, frustrating Shelby by reminding her that he’s not really that guy she had the conversation with at the pool and is –– instead –– just a terrible person. But Caleb proves a little bit of humanity toward the end of the episode by telling Shelby that he had no choice in becoming an analyst: it was either that job or nothing. Shelby feels a moment of compassion for him but then smartly exits his room. And then Caleb, at the end of the episode, reveals to the audience that he has a fake social media account under a different name. Or, perhaps, his real name? WHO KNOWS.

Shelby spends most of the episode being extremely delightful, per usual, with a few moments of eyebrow-raising actions (she deletes an Arabic contact from her phone after her FBI interview, but then at the episode’s end, answers the phone and says –– in Arabic –– "I told you not to call for a while"). Overall though, she’s pretty adorable and definitely the bright ray of (possibly evil, because everyone is a suspect) sunshine.

Lingering storyline questions: Does Caleb have a secret identity or does he really just like little huskies? (I mean, who wouldn’t?) That picture of The Catcher in the Rye seemed pretty suspicious. What connection does Shelby have to someone who speaks Arabic? How did Simon get in and out of Gaza and what was he really doing there? 

THE NEWBIES –– EDDIE THAWNE (UH, I MEAN ELIAS) AND NATHALIE

Both of these new recruits are sketchy. Rick Cosnett did a wonderful job balancing the really silly, eager sides of Elias (he seriously seemed like such a smiley puppy for most of the episode) with the slightly shady, extremely inquisitive ones. Elias has figured out that Simon’s glasses are fake and he’s taken a close interest in the recruit. Initially, we’re meant to assume it’s just a romantic interest. But throughout the rest of the episode and especially toward the end, there are hints that Elias might be interested in Simon for other reasons.

Nathalie is exactly the kind of archetypal “competitive mean girl” one might expect from a show like Quantico: she thinks she knows everything better than Alex does, tries to get Booth to focus on her and not Alex, and generally has an air of self-righteousness that I find irritating. I could do without more of Nathalie, even though I’m sure she’ll play a more prominent role in the series’ flashbacks.

Lingering storyline questions: Will Elias figure out what Simon is up to? And is he genuinely interested in him or sent by someone else to investigate? Can Rick Cosnett be any more gorgeous? What is Nathalie’s relationship with Booth? Why does she want to follow Alex around and beat her at everything? Why is she faking a scar?

Everyone has a secret at Quantico and everyone is lying. The trick is, who is lying about the most important thing? Whose secret most lends them to being a terrorist? I’m not sure that after two episodes, the series is giving us any definitive answers. But I’m really pleased by how the show is setting up the stories of these characters and how engaged I find myself with all of them (even the ones I don’t care about as much). With Alex on the run, hopefully she finds some answers along her way and is able to distinguish friends from enemies.

MOST LIKELY SUSPECT THIS WEEK: Liam has shady written all over him, so he’s definitely up to something in the flashbacks and in the present.

Additional fun:

• Is it the cool thing these days to have all of the lead characters in shows do voiceover introductions? Because that totally happened this episode.
• Nimah, Alex, and Shelby are my OT3. #LadiesSupportingLadies
• "What are you gonna do?" "I'm gonna find the needle."
• I love Caleb, but also I hate him.
• "Do you trust yourself?"
• This show is immensely captivating. I hope it continues to be that way.

What are you all thinking about Quantico? Are you loving it? Hit up the comments below and let us know your thoughts. Until then. :)

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Series - This Week's TV MVPs: Week 15

WELCOME BACK, EVERYONE!

For those of you who are new around the website, perhaps you weren't here for the launch of our TV MVP series in the spring, welcome. This is a fun series where the writers who participate pick one stand-out performance from that week in television and write about why the performer was so great. I loved the opportunity we got last television season to talk about some great performers because it demonstrated to me how varied all of my writers really are and the scope and depth of television we watch on a weekly basis. We all have shows that overlap with one another, of course, but we also all have varying degrees of interest in shows. And that's what makes our site so great, in my opinion: we all love each other but we are all so different and so diverse. (I hope that, in addition to the great writing here, is what you love too!)

So joining me this week in our first official TV MVP series of the fall television season are:

• My Spanish sister from another mister, Lizzie
• A woman I love more than most people on the Internet I haven't met in person, Mer
• My honorary Gryffindor and Florida friend, Deb
• Basically my personal stylist, Maddie
• The human form of a puppy GIF, Hope!
• My name twin, soul sister, cheerleader, and confidante: Jen
• Our friendly, fun token male, Jon!
• The mac to my cheese and our social media queen, Chelsea

Let's get started!

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