Grey’s Anatomy 15x09 Review: “Shelter from the Storm” (Three Elevators) [Contributor: Julia Siegel]

“Shelter from the Storm”

Original Airdate: January 17, 2019

It’s been a long two months, but the wait is finally over! Grey’s Anatomy is back with seventeen new episodes that are sure to contain even more OMG moments — starting with the midseason premiere’s continuation of the havoc a wind storm causes in Seattle on one fateful day. Unfortunately, we have to wait until March to find out how the crew of Station 19 fared, but it’s safe to say that no one at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital is going to forget this storm.

THE AWKWARD ELEVATOR

Thank goodness this episode starts right where it left off: the power in the hospital has gone out, leaving doctors and patients trapped and in need of some serious help. The backup generators come on quickly, yet they don’t have enough power to move the elevators. The first half of the episode focuses on the three occupied and unmoving elevator cars, causing the doctors to come face-to-face with the problems that they have been repressing this season. The first elevator becomes home to the most awkward pregnancy reveal of all time.

Owen, Teddy, and Amelia were transporting a dying patient when they were trapped in an elevator. Since they have nothing else to do, Teddy and Owen quickly start talking in code about Teddy’s situation, which Owen had just learned moments before. Being the smart cookie she is, Amelia quickly catches on that something isn’t right, and the cat is let out of the bag. The shocked Amelia literally doesn’t know what to say for once, while Owen yells at Teddy for not telling him the news sooner, especially given that she has been in town for weeks. Just as the three doctors really start getting into it, their patient crashes.

Unsure of what to do both medically and in the new situation she has been thrust into, Amelia struggles to help Owen and Teddy save the patient’s life. With minimal supplies and space, Owen and Teddy decide to get creative and perform impromptu trauma surgery in the elevator. I think we all should be as in awe of the situation as Amelia is as she watches her colleagues work. Granted, Amelia is also clearly contemplating her role in the ever-complicated relationship with Owen, given that his history with Teddy is on full display in front of her. While performing this very complex surgery, Owen and Teddy feel it is the appropriate time to continue discussing the pregnancy. Teddy finally admits that she didn’t tell Owen sooner because she saw how happy he was with Amelia and his new family and didn’t want to disrupt their life. She goes on to say that she is sixteen weeks pregnant, doesn’t know the gender yet, and plans on staying in Seattle permanently. Amelia barely lets Teddy’s apology get out of her mouth before another argument ensues, which ironically became the perfect moment for the elevator doors, and flood gates, to open.

THE BARELY-HOLDING-IT-TOGETHER ELEVATOR

Everything is tumultuous inside and outside the second elevator, which happens to be the only one anyone in the hospital seems concerned about fixing. Bailey, Helm, and the braindead patient — whose heart is supposed to be given to matchmaker Cece — occupy this claustrophobic elevator. Bailey and Helm have the same feelings about being trapped but show it very differently.

At first, Helm panics about not being able to get the patient to the OR in time to save Cece, while Bailey appears calm on the outside and snaps at Helm to get a grip. Bailey knows that showing signs of panic will not help their situation, but after a bit of time has passed, the tables turn. Helm winds up having to calm Bailey down after she goes into a spiral. Both doctors fight to stay emotionally okay, as help is on its way. But more on that later.

CHEMISTRY'S ELEVATOR

Finally, it's the elevator you have all been waiting for! There’s just something about those elevators at Grey Sloan that tend to send sparks flying, which is just what Meredith was trying to avoid. Unwilling to acknowledge that she has any romantic feelings toward anyone, Meredith is upset at her current situation — being stuck in an elevator with Andrew DeLuca, who is so head-over-heels in love with her that it hurts. While I personally don’t like the idea of DeLuca and Meredith having any sort of non-professional relationship, it was interesting to see how time in a shared space slowly started to break down Meredith’s walls. Poor DeLuca tries everything he can think of to get Meredith to realize that they have chemistry.

Meredith spends a majority of their shared time fending off DeLuca’s advances and attempting to keep her mind on getting out of the elevator and to the OR for Cece’s transplants. DeLuca’s charm starts getting to Meredith when he reveals he is a secret Doctor Who fan and says their situation is just like the T.A.R.D.I.S. — a magical place where the regular rules don’t apply. Much to his chagrin, Meredith puts the kibosh on that real quick.

Eventually, DeLuca decides to have a real conversation with Meredith and opens up about his past. He tells her about how he came to live in America and discusses his father for the first time. DeLuca reveals that his father was a famous surgeon in Italy but, like all of the characters’ backstories on this show, he made some pretty big mistakes. Feeling insecure — and not totally trusting Meredith — DeLuca proceeds to tell her his father’s story in his native Italian. Daddy DeLuca suffers from mental illness and went on a surgical manic craze, where he operated on seven patients straight with no breaks. Four of those patients died, and thanks to friends in high places and a big wad of cash, Daddy DeLuca was able to cover up what he had done. By the conclusion, DeLuca is happy that he told someone his story, and Meredith’s walls start to visibly crack.

Meredith realizes that she is beginning to have feelings and decides to distract herself by having DeLuca pick her up so she can see if there’s a way out through the vent in the elevator’s ceiling. DeLuca brings Meredith down and embraces her before she can say no. He asks again why they can’t date, so Meredith says she doesn’t want to make the same mistakes she has in the past. DeLuca smartly asks if her marriage and kids were a mistake, which puts Meredith on the defensive about her real reasons for not wanting to pursue him.

To get off the topic, Meredith asks DeLuca to talk to her in Italian again. Taking the language of love seriously, DeLuca starts saying that he wants to kiss Meredith and that she will eventually let him, which will lead him to never stop kissing her. With his profession of love on full display, Meredith responds in Italian, “Did I tell you I took three years of Italian in undergrad?” DeLuca is a bit surprised that Meredith knew everything he was saying, making everything just a bit steamier. The two continue to embrace, and — as DeLuca goes in for the kiss — Meredith decides that maybe it’s not such a bad idea. Just as their lips are about to meet, the elevator doors fling open.

The biggest tease of an elevator ride ends just as promptly as it started, but what happens in elevators might not stay in elevators...

ALEX TO THE RESCUE!

While everyone is still trapped, Alex and Jo are enjoying their time at home on their second honeymoon. Alex keeps getting texts about what is happening at the hospital and decides he is going to attempt to get there since everyone needs his help, leaving the very drunk Jo behind. The wind continues to whip around at the hospital so upon his arrival, Alex winds up finding shelter in the same ambulance that Nico and Schmitt have made into their love shack. All three are incredibly shocked, and Alex quickly leaves, telling the other two to get back inside and help out.

In the meantime, Jackson, Qadri, and Link have found the elevator that Bailey and Helm are in and try to open the doors with varying means of force. They all know that Cece is not doing well as she awaits surgery in the OR, where Maggie is keeping watch over her. As they try to beat the doors in, Jed, the hospital’s head of maintenance, shows up and helps bust the doors open. Alex arrives just in time to see that the elevator car is slightly below the floor, but there is enough room to get the all three occupants out. Link, Alex, and Jed help Bailey, Helm, and the patient get out of the elevator. Jed struggles to get out and refuses help. He pulls himself up and out of the elevator right as the power is fully restored and the elevator car starts to go down, which crushes his legs.

Alex and Link manage to get the elevator to come back up to free Jed, while Bailey and Helm have already rushed to the OR. After freeing Jed, Alex goes to the OR to inform Bailey what has happened. Still shaken from being trapped, Bailey decides to leave the OR and have Alex finish harvesting the new heart for Cece. Instead of going to help out in Jed’s surgery, Bailey returns to her former office for some privacy. In a moment of panic, she texts Ben to see if he is okay. As she tries to recover, Alex storms into the office and starts ranting about how Bailey can have the job back. Bailey says that she bailed on the surgery because she knew she was freaking out. Ben texts her back and says that he is fine, which causes Bailey to break down and use Alex for support. She tells him that she has been struggling and begs him not to quit because she needs time to fix herself. She asks for his help, and Alex sympathetically agrees.

THREE OR'S

Now that everyone is free, we can get back to our regularly scheduled surgeries. Teddy, Owen, and Amelia get their patient to the OR and quickly stabilize him. Amelia sees that her help is no longer needed, which can be taken two-fold, and leaves. The patient survives the surgery, which allows Owen and Teddy to finally take a breath and have a meaningful conversation while scrubbing out. Owen says that he really wants to be involved with the baby and is happy that Teddy is sticking around. It’s good to see the two of them on the same page about something this season. As they start to ponder what their new reality will look like, the excitement and nerves prove to be a bit much for Teddy, who starts crying. Owen comforts her by saying that they will figure it out.

Things are a bit more heated in the next OR, where Jackson and Link start operating on Jed. Nico and Schmitt show up a little while later. Link doesn’t think that Jed’s legs can be saved due to the extensive nerve and blood vessel damage. Jackson stops him from amputating by suggesting a way to potentially save them. He goes a little overboard in his presentation, which shows that he isn’t as focused on simply saving his patient as he is on mirroring his struggle to accept that his mother is sick and the fact that he might not be able to save her. Link agrees to try and save Jed’s legs, and Jackson’s methods work. The positive surgery leads Jed to keep his legs and have a (small) chance at walking again.

The third OR turns chaotic when Cece’s transplants don’t go the way everyone had hoped. Helm brings the harvested heart to the OR and stays to assist Maggie, Meredith, and DeLuca. The heart is transplanted successfully and beats on its own after being taken off bypass. The team moves on to the kidney transplant, but Cece crashes not long after. Everyone frantically tries to save Cece’s life, and Meredith even goes as far to beg her patient to hold on and keep fighting. In the end, Cece doesn’t make it through the surgery, leaving a room full of very upset doctors. Meredith stays behind to close Cece up and thanks her for all her help in a sweet parting monologue.

REALITY BITES

Elsewhere in the hospital, Richard has spent the day taking charge and trying to keep himself busy. He runs into Betty, who is roaming the halls, early in the episode. The two team up to find ways to help others in the hospital, but Betty eventually splits off from Richard to go back to the ER. Toward the end of the episode, Richard finds Betty frantically searching through cabinets in a room and asks her if she came back to the hospital to steal drugs. Betty pleads with Richard to not tell Amelia what she was doing, but Richard says he wouldn’t be a good doctor if he didn’t say anything.

On her way to find Betty and Richard, Amelia bumps into Owen, who apologizes for the mess he has made by getting Teddy pregnant. In a very sweet moment, Amelia tells Owen that she was the one who told him to go to Germany, so he’s not at fault. Owen says that they will figure things out, but he wants to stay with Amelia. Amelia tells Owen that he can’t commit to her when there’s another option on the table. She decides to give him some space to weigh his options and make a decision. Her speech feels more like a goodbye than an “I’ll wait for you,” but it was good to see Amelia move forward emotionally. However, she doesn’t tell Owen what Betty has been up to.

Amelia eventually finds her way to Betty and Richard, and tells Betty that she wants to put her in a rehab facility to give her the best chance possible at getting sober. Betty sadly agrees without arguing while a somber Richard looks on. On his way out of the room, Jackson and Maggie find Richard. Jackson asks him if he has heard from Catherine, which Richard has not. Jackson and Maggie proceed to pull Richard into another room to tell him about Catherine’s cancer.

The episode closes with Meredith coming out of an elevator as DeLuca walks down the hall. He stops to ask if she’s all right and says that they should go on a date that night... right as Link walks up to see if Meredith still wanted to get drinks. Meredith realizes the mess she’s gotten herself into and says that she is being haunted by Cece. She tells both that it has been a long day and she wants to go home to her kids. Meredith says she will see them both later, thus officially starting that long-awaited love triangle and leaving the two flabbergasted men behind.

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Blindspot 4x10 Review: "The Big Reveal" (Good Me, Bad Me) [Contributor: Jen]

"The Big Reveal"

Original Airdate: January 18, 2019

After coming off such an incredibly strong episode last week, Blindspot's "The Big Reveal" is a big letdown.

CASE OF THE WEEK

Jane is officially Jane again, only now she's whole. She remembers everything from her life as Remi and even as Alice. This is fantastic news of course, but unfortunately she is still dying from Zip poisoning. Shepherd told Remi the last time she spoke to Roman, he said he was looking into someone named Kallisto.

Patterson and Rich get cracking! In Greek mythology Jupiter transformed Kallisto into a bear and, just before she was about to be killed, Zeus placed her into the heavens — thus forming the constellation Ursa Major. This constellation is part of the Big Dipper, and another name for the Big Dipper is The Plow. And that's the password to open Roman's final data cache. The mental gymnastics Blindspot uses to create these passwords and solve the tattoos will never make complete sense to me, but I've let that dream go.

The cache unveils the creator of Zip — Dr. Nora Lee Roga, who died two years ago. Dead end right? Nope, because Dr. Roga is played by Patricia Richardson (who was Jill Taylor on Home Improvement). Blindspot wouldn't cast Jill Taylor if she's playing a dead character. That's just fact.

Of course Nora Roga is alive. Zip began as a treatment for Alzheimer's and other neurological disorders, but when Nora discovered it was killing people, she demanded the project be terminated. Her employer, Christian Kearns, assured Nora all supplies were destroyed. Instead, Christian sold it to Sandstorm.

Kearns Pharmaceutical put a hit out on Nora and her partner after she found a document confirming the sale. Roman found Dr. Roga after her partner was killed, helped fake her own death and set her up with a lab so she could continue to find a cure for Zip. Roman was a seriously busy dude. The mind reels with all the travel, saving lives, murdering, hiding, buying lab supplies, mastering a double life to woo pretty girls, creating super complicated caches and puzzles to solve all while he's actively trying destroy his sister's life, while simultaneously trying to save it. I'm tired just thinking about it.

Of course, Dr. Roga has the cure for Zip because even if this is the last season, Blindspot isn't killing Jane. Nora had the cure for a while. It was ready to go; she was just waiting to hear from Roman... who was busy getting shot by his girlfriend and dying. Poor guy.

Nora's super secret hiding spot is blown by her son, who is understandably excited to hear his mother is alive, when he makes a phone call to his wife. Kearns had his phone tapped. If you are wondering how he brought a cell phone into the FBI AND MADE A PHONE CALL, then trust me you are not alone. How did the FBI not know his calls were being recorded?! See this is what happens when you start asking logical questions about Blindspot episodes.

Thus a great gun battle erupts and destroys the stem cells, which are the crucial ingredient to the Zip cure and extremely difficult to procure. Relax, kids. Jane still isn't dying. Team Blindspot will find the impossible to find stem cells in the nick of time.

TEAM BLINDSPOT

Zapata, you got some splainin' to do! Tasha gets perp walked right through the FBI and for about five minutes I was genuinely interested in hearing her explanation for all her shady and nefarious activities during season four.

... Right until the part when Blindspot started using flashbacks to explain everything away.

I hate when they do this. The flashback is a serious writing crutch on Blindspot. It's pretty much an epidemic. The writers are constantly filling in the plot holes with never before seen scenes which magically give all the answers and erase any responsibility for a character's actions. I don't know why I was expecting different, but I was.

I'm not even going to get into all the scenes that explain how Zapata is really a good guy pretending to be a bad all along. It's just so... boring. I was way more interested in Zapata actually choosing the dark side. Tasha Zapata is one of those characters who will cross any line if she believes the ends justify the means. This whole deep cover with the CIA really eliminates any shades of grey. She was just following orders. Heck, she even tried to wiggle out of it a couple times. Tasha wanted to loop in her team, particularly Reade, but was instructed not to by Blindspot's forever fall guy, Keaton.

What is Reade even mad about now? Tasha lied to him. Okay, well she was doing her job. Get over it. It's a little difficult to listen to Reade defend the moral high ground. Keaton wanted someone on the inside to deal with whoever took Crawford's place. He made Tasha burn all her bridges so Madeline would buy her story. SHE. WAS. LITERALLY. FOLLOWING. ORDERS.

Don't get me wrong: I would much prefer rogue!Zapata to undercover!Zapata. Then at least it makes Reade's anger more clean cut and his forgiveness a little more complicated. But now? Eh. He'll fume for a few episodes, Tasha will do something heroic or almost die or something to that effect, Reade will realize he still loves her, and TA-DA! Happy ending.

I'm not unhappy about a Reade and Tasha happy ending. I was just hoping the road getting there was slightly more interesting. Jamming an episode full of five or six scenes which conveniently fix all the problems is just lazy though. Hard pass. Tasha's entire storyline feels like a waste of time.

KURT AND JANE

Jane is feeling bad about being evil, particularly since Zapata was arrested for her nefarious activities while Jane got off scot-free. I mean... you aren't wrong, Jane! Kurt, however, explains all the hypocrisy away with, "Zapata chose her own path. You didn't."

Also true. The Jane side of her brain was benched while Remi wreaked havoc. Had the Jane side of her brain been active, like it is now, her conscience would have stopped the Remi side of her brain. Zapata doesn't have a split personality, which comes and goes because of a magic memory-erasing drug. Darn, Zip is handy at times.

I feel like "I was following orders" equates to "I became Remi again," and once the rest of the team gets the full story they will probably forgive Tasha just like Jane. At least Patterson, Rich, and Kurt will. Edgar is too busy moping over being a temporary one night stand.

However, Kurt's need to erase all of Remi's actions grates on me a little. Both Kurt and Patterson are adamant Jane is not Remi in "The Big Reveal." This is one of the few times I disagree with my faves. That was the entire point of "Check Your Ed." All of Jane's memories are back. She is as much Remi as she is Jane. The difference between then and now is Jane can make a fully informed choice with her free will. We all have a darker side to us, and Jane is no different. Hers is just magnified because she was raised by a terrorist. Remi isn't erased simply because Jane chooses to be good.

The only person who seems to understand this, and the struggle Jane is having with juggling all these returning memories, is Rich Dotcom: "You know, it's like you. I have certain things in my past that haunt me. I don't even have the 'good me, bad me' excuse to fall back on."

Rich acknowledges his past behavior, as much as Rich can, while also acknowledging he's been reformed with the help of the team. He even believes Remi could have been reformed if she'd stuck around long enough. I agree, but what is truly important in this exchange is Rich's willingness to acknowledge Remi as a part of Jane — a part who still exists to Jane more than ever before, because she can remember everything Remi said or did.

Unconditional love is not obstinately ignoring the less than pleasant aspects of our partner. Unconditional love is acknowledging the good and the bad. We don't have to accept the bad behavior. We can challenge our loved ones to be better, like the team has done for Rich, without being completely blind to their faults.

Kurt's blind spots with Jane change every season, but right now he's too focused on embracing all the good in Jane while willfully being blind to the bad. It's unfortunately because Kurt and Jane's love is more than simply all their positive aspects or all the good they've accomplished. They've had to claw their way back from a lot of bad, which includes choices each has made when supposedly being their best self.

Memory doesn't make us who we are; our free will does. Now that Jane has all her faculties back, she can focus on the one choice that separates good people and bad. It's why Rich's advice resonates so much with her. He's making the choice to be good every day just like Jane will — just like any of us do.

Stray Thoughts:

• Remories. HAHAHA.
• "Your fire is one of the things I love about you, but you need to control it." Kurt and Jane talking about what they love most in one another is like shipper catnip. We've been starved for so long.
• Rich as the stenographer is hilarious.
• "You can think whatever you want, but that was real." Did any of us really think Tasha didn't love Reade when she slept with him? No, but it was still nice to hear.
• Rich yelling at Jane to get out of the van and "do some good" was really freaking awesome.
• "It's easier to make good choices when you surround yourself with good people." This is true.
• "You will never get close to me again." Sure, Jan.

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The Flash 5x10 Review: "The Flash & The Furious" (Crash and Burn) [Contributor: Deborah MacArthur]

"The Flash & The Furious"

Original Airdate: January 15, 2019 

Welcome to 2019, The Flash fans. I wish I could say the episode to start the new year is one of promise and indication of wonderful things to come, but... uh, well, let’s just assume they’re still getting their footing. It was a long hiatus! If I may use a holidays-specific metaphor, it’s like the show gorged on a lot of turkey and baked goods and now it’s gotta work off the lethargy of Christmas dinner before it gets back into the swing of things.

This week: Nora acts like a bratty teenager (again) and fails to understand that moral judgement can be varied on a case-by-case basis, Cisco and Caitlin have possibly discovered a metahuman cure and (inexplicably) Cisco would be okay with using it, and Barry is Sir Barely Appearing in This Episode. So, yeah — not the strongest midseason return the show has ever seen, but they can’t all be winners. Hopefully next week will be better.

BABY YOU CAN DRIVE MY CAR

The episode starts in 2049, with Nora confronting an imprisoned Eobard Thawne about what she learned regarding his role in Barry’s mom’s murder. Thawne whispers his way through the conversation, swearing that he’s a changed man who only wants Nora’s help in proving such, but Nora ain’t picking up what he’s putting down. She returns to her past, our present, with a grudge against all lawbreakers in equal measure.

This grudge comes into play when — and here’s a real rare moment, actually getting to see a villain of the week face trial — Barry, Iris, and Nora accompanying Cecile on her first trial back from maternity leave. The trial is for Joss Jackam, a.k.a. Weather Witch, and Cecile’s low-key psychic powers are picking up enough remorse from the defendant that she decides to go a little easier on her. Nora isn’t fond of this idea, so when Barry is taken out of commission and she replaces him as Cecile’s primary CSI witness, she practically orders the judge to put Joss before a firing squad immediately. According to Nora, criminals are irredeemable, soulless monsters who can never change, and all should be condemned forever, regardless of what they actually did. All law breaking is equal in her eyes. Murder? Rot in jail! Destruction of property? Rot in jail! Jaywalking? I hope you enjoyed that ill-timed stroll across the street because you won’t be strolling much as you rot in jail!

Yeah, this is my major gripe for the episode, and since it provides the emotional through-line of the plot, my irritation is renewed quite frequently. The villain of the week, Silver Ghost, is a car thief looking to branch out into bigger and better things. She sets her sights on Joss as a potential partner in crime and uses meta-tech to take over the prison transport vehicle Joss is riding in after her trial. The sudden disappearance of Weather Witch en route only feeds into Nora’s vendetta of the week, reinforcing her assumption that every criminal Team Flash ever deals with will be equally bad as the guy who killed her grandmother.

The thing is, Joss was kidnapped from the transport vehicle, not rescued, and she really does feel remorse over her actions as Weather Witch, and she takes the risk of luring Nora out in order to turn herself in. She hopes that Nora will back her up on the kidnapping thing so Joss’s crimes don’t look worse than they already are but, of course, Nora doesn’t. Which means the next time Silver Ghost stages a prison break for Joss, Joss goes willingly — if no one is going to believe she’s not a career criminal like her father, she figures she should just stop trying.

Joss and Silver Ghost break into ARGUS to steal a fancy prototype car full of fancy tech. Fancy! It’s a real pity the user interface of the car looks on par with a cheap Facebook game. Anyway, Nora chases after the criminal duo and, having gotten a little pep talk on the value of second chances from Team Flash, realizes her mistakes. She tries a pep talk of her own, hoping to get through to Joss, but it looks like she’s too late — until she realizes that a life-saving burst of ice hadn’t come from Killer Frost, as she’d originally assumed, but from Joss’s weather staff.

Unfortunately, Nora learns the worst possible lesson from all this and decides to go back to the future and hear Thawne out. Nora. Nora, darling, I am begging you to look up the word “nuance” in the dictionary.

GOIN’ CURE CRAZY

Caitlin performs some basic follow-up maintenance on the hand wounds Cisco got from Cicada’s dagger and he examines the shards she yanks from his palms, discovering that the dagger doesn’t just dampen dark matter abilities — it removes them completely. Cisco is inspired by this, explaining to Caitlin that the shards (or the dagger) could be the start of developing a permanent metahuman cure and undoing what the particle accelerator started all those years ago. They could actually stop their villains of the week on a more permanent basis without killing them. Cisco is thrilled; Caitlin is not.

Side note: I’m way more on Cisco’s side than Caitlin’s regarding the use of a metahuman cure on villains. On the one hand, you have shoving metahuman after metahuman into special prisons for an indefinite period of time. On the other, you could remove their powers, put them into regular prisons, and allow them to serve time and be released like any normal criminal. The latter sounds a heck of a lot better than the former, if you ask me.

What I’m not a fan of during this whole B-plot? Cisco’s sudden enthusiasm for normal life, which feels like it’s coming completely out of left field. Sure, they drop a couple lines about how Cisco thought being without powers was liberating and relaxing, but that doesn’t really gel with Cisco’s relationship with his meta-abilities up to this point. He’s always seemed proud about being Vibe, bordering on cocky; the show couldn’t have tried a little harder to lay some groundwork for this sudden change in perspective?

By the end of the episode, Cisco and Caitlin agree to develop the cure with the caveat that it would only be used on willing participants. Okay, I guess... still think you guys should probably use it on criminals, but fine. Do whatever.

Hey, I wonder if Cisco and Caitlin developing a cure for metas could mean solving the Cicada problem without any more bloodshe—oh. Nope. He’s going on a killing spree next episode. Cool. Cool, cool, cool.

Other Things:

• I still haven’t figured out what the deal with Sherloque is. Does he just get wrapped up in mysteries? Does he know more than we think he knows about Nora? He was suspicious of her from the start. Why? How?
• I usually enjoy episodes where Barry takes a backseat to all the action because they usually mean more room for all the other characters to grow and develop as independent entities, but this episode was really, really not that.
• Why is Thawne wearing a Wells face? And why can’t he speak at a normal volume?

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Blindspot 4x09 Review: "Check Your Ed" (A Whole Person) [Contributor: Jen]

"Check Your Ed"

Original Airdate: January 11, 2019

Just when I think I'm done with Blindspot, they churn out one of their best episodes ever, if not the best episode. I'm permanently Michael Corleone in the Godfather III with this show.

I'm not going to split the review into sections this time because "Check Your Ed" is all about Jane Doe. We start where we left off in "Screech, Thwack, Pow" with Remi and Weller charging each other like they are vying for Ultimate Fighting Champion. The battle gets more interesting and far less cheesy once Kurt and Remi start throwing punches. It feels very Buffy versus Angel from Buffy The Vampire Slayer. (I should have known then that Angel would go evil.) Anyway, the fight ends with Weller tranquilizing Remi, which is something Elena always did to Stefan on The Vampire Diaries. I'm starting to notice a pattern with my fictional romance choices.

Weller brings unconscious Jane to Patterson's lab and hooks her up to a lot of brain-scanning equipment. Apparently Patterson and Rich have gone through all of Roman's data cache and found the only doctor in the world who can cure Jane. I feel like I missed a step. We arrived at the magical cure very abruptly, given how much Blindspot has dragged their feet with it. I probably should have paid more attention to the midseason finale.

Rich, Patterson, and Random Doctor go through all the science that will cure Jane, which isn't really science at all, but we don't care. The bottom line is this: we're going to do a psychedelic deep dive into Jane's brain until she wakes up with her memories intact. Cool? Cool.

LIGHT VS. DARK

Blindspot is not the first show to explore the light and dark in their main character. This is familiar story telling territory for me. I love when there is a split between two selves and the main character struggles with his/her internal dichotomy.

It's the good versus evil, or devil versus angel trope. The darker/evil side of the character rises and the light/good side of the character must fight back. Angel lost his soul and became Angelus. Stefan shut off his emotions and became The Ripper. Jane regained her memories and became Remi.

The female character is the one struggling with the light and dark on Blindspot and the male character is the romantic touchstone, which is fun because typically it's the other way around. Remi has wreaked some havoc and the writers have wrung all they can out of her cat and mouse game with Weller. So I feel it's high time for Jane to return; Remi was growing stale.

Of course, the procedure is dangerous and Weller starts to freak out with Patterson in the hallway over the prospect of losing Jane. Kurt, my sweet man kitten, there's no way they are killing your wife. She's the show. However, all the applause to Sullivan Stapleton for selling Weller's fear and making me feel all the things.

An unconscious Jane is slowly but surely rebuilding her own mind... with help from the fake and nonsensical science. Every memory is another building block, and another piece to the puzzle. She has to remember Jane to stop Remi, but remember Remi to be a complete Jane. Try saying that sentence ten times.

Jane cannot do it without help. So the first piece to this puzzle is obvious. Kurt Weller helped Jane find herself back when she had no memories. Jane formed her new identity largely based on the love she had for Kurt. Shepherd buried all the goodness in Remi, but the Zip brought it back to the surface. Jane's compassion, selflessness and heroism is what comes to her naturally. However, it was Kurt who helped Jane hold on to what came naturally.

We begin where we started in the pilot — Jane touching Kurt's face. I never grow tired of watching these two do this. Blindspot could only be a show of Jaimie Alexander touching Sullivan Staptelton's face and I would watch week after week, completely riveted. I recognize this is a little unrealistic.
Unfortunately touching Kurt's face isn't enough to trigger Jane's flood of memories. It didn't work in the pilot and it's not working now. We're not getting off that easy.

Patterson reminds Kurt Jane isn't the only one who needs to fight. Kurt has to be who he's always been to Jane — the man who believes in her. Kurt saw Jane's good heart from the beginning. His belief in Jane gave her a place to start. Kurt's belief is what helped Jane believe in herself.

Patterson tells Kurt to man up and do his thing. He goes back into the room, takes his wife's hand, and tells Jane she can do this. It's important to connect the physical and the mental. Jane needs one foot in reality and the other in the psychedelic mind trip. She hears Kurt's real voice and it triggers the connection. And then she jumps him. Hahaha. Just kidding. ... Kind of.

Jane kisses Kurt and thus, the Jeller memory flashback montage commences! We see all the kisses and feel all the feelings once again. Quite frankly, I am good with Jane remembering Kurt and only Kurt, but I suppose we can include the rest of the cast in this rebuild too. Jane rebuilds her identity the same way she did in the pilot: coffee or tea? The answer is coffee, but Reade appears because the tea is his. I did not know Reade was a tea drinker and I feel a whole other level of kinship with him now. Jane remembers Patterson next, and then Rich. A core memory triggers each team member's appearance: Jane's first puzzle with Patterson. Her first op with Rich (the painting). And the gunshot wound from the time Zapata shot Jane that we never talk about.

The memories are like dominoes. One kicks off the next until Jane is given the key to solving the puzzle. And I'm not talking figuratively. She opens the FBI box from season three with Kurt and literally finds a key.

The team refuses to follow Jane to the next step for a variety of reasons. Zapata's is the most hilarious: "I really don't want to." Kurt goes with because he's ride or die, but there's some kind of monster and a little girl direct from The Ring chasing after them. Jane is terrified, which is exactly what Remi wants. Kurt puts Jane's hand on his chest and reminds her to breathe just as he did in in "Split The Law." Another core Jeller memory locks into place!

The elevator is the only way to Remi, but it requires a coin slot. At this point I start jumping up and down because my boy is coming back. The "monster" chasing Jane is Roman. YEAH! If Jane is processing memories and extreme emotional baggage, she can't do it without dealing with her baby brother.

FORGIVENESS. CAN YOU IMAGINE?

Seeing Roman triggers all Jane's memories of him, which is a decidedly less cheerful flashback than her memories of Kurt. Jane traps Roman in the interrogation room and demands he tell her how to get to Remi. Roman tells her: "You don't want to fight me. I always win." But Jane replies, "No. You don't."

The two begin to play their childhood game. Jane is confused about the choice of game because she only played it with Roman as Remi. Roman explains she'll never find Remi until she's finished with him. Jane isn't just searching for her memories. She's also searching for closure. Jane tells Roman all the things she never got the chance to say.

Jane: I'm sorry. 

Roman: For what? Not killing me yourself? 

Jane: For not protecting you. From our parents' death, from Crawford's orphanage, from Shepherd, from me.

What Jane wants is Roman's forgiveness. She always had the very best intentions when it came to her brother, but Jane understands injecting him with the Zip was a deep betrayal. Jane didn't know it was a death sentence at the time, but that's not the only thing she's sorry for. She took Roman's choices away when she injected the Zip.  It's not enough for Jane to remember the good. She has to make peace with the bad.

Jane rebuilding her brain is not merely a cognitive exercise. There's a spiritual element to it too. The last time Jane saw Roman, he was deeply sorry for all he had done and scared to die. He was sweet and gentle like the little boy she grew up with. He was the Roman before Shepherd, before Crawford, before Remi, and before Jane. That's the brother Jane sees now. I don't believe Roman is merely a memory or a compilation of synapses firing. This is Roman. He wants Jane to know he is at peace.

Guilt and shame are weights around our necks, and forgiveness is the only way we are freed from them. What's so beautiful is how freely Roman forgives Jane. He gives her his forgiveness without hesitation — just like Jane forgave him. What Jane really needs is to forgive herself. She needs to let Roman go. Jane says: "I miss you. You're the only one who really knows me. All of me." And then Roman replies, "No there's another."

This isn't a slam against Weller. Jane is not Taylor Shaw. She didn't grow up with Kurt. The only person who truly understands what she has gone through is Roman because he went through it all too. But he's right. There's one more person who knows all of Jane Doe.

The scene between Jane and Roman is probably one of the best in the episode. I was genuinely moved. Jaimie Alexander and Luke Mitchell knocked it out of the park. Jane and Roman had one of the most complex and layered relationships on Blindspot. This was an amazing final episode for Luke Mitchell and a proper goodbye to Roman.

THE ELEVATOR TO HELL

Roman gives Jane their coin and she slips it into the elevator. But instead of going up to Remi, it goes down to Shepherd. Jane's adoptive mother symbolically representing a descent into hell is probably the most accurate character description Blindspot has ever done when it comes to Shepherd.

Shepherd straps Jane to a chair and forces her to remember every terrible thing she's ever done as. It's like a hellish episode of This Is Your Life. The pain stems not just from memories of Remi, but from Jane too. We get her greatest hits too — holding a gun to Kurt, fighting Kurt, lying to Kurt, abandoning Kurt. It was a lot of Kurt. Oh! Mayfair's murder. There. I found one not about Kurt.

Fear has a major hold on Jane these past four years. As much as Jane wanted to remember who she was, she was also terrified of the answers. Jane has been running from Remi for a long time. This flood of painful memories is almost too much for her. But then Jane hears Roman's voice: "There's a place in your mind no one can get to. A place that only belongs to you. No matter what they say, no matter what they do, no one can reach you there. Pain is a dream." This advice helped Jane survive being tortured at the CIA black site. Roman trained Remi how to deal with pain.

Jane realizes she has a choice. She can't keep the pain out, but it doesn't control her either. Slowly the painful memories change to joyful ones on the television screens before Jane. It's a beautifully elegant way of showing Jane getting her memories back. In case you are wondering, the joyful memories are a lot of Kurt too. Screen after screen of kissing. Glorious. There is no hiding from pain. We all experience it because it's part of being human. Our painful experiences are often our best teachers in life though. At the very least, they make us appreciate moments of happiness. One informs the other. Pain and joy are two sides of the same coin.

Jane is ready to face Remi now that she remembers, but Remi keeps devising scenarios where Jane must save Kurt. It happens again and again until Jane realizes it's all a ruse to keep her trapped. So she chooses to let Kurt die. It's a devastating decision for Jane and us (as all Jeller fans yelled collectively), but it's the right one.

Kurt's love can only take Jane so far. At some point, Jane must do this on her own. She must do this for herself. I reject the idea that a woman can only be strong if she's not in a relationship. Love is a powerful force in all our lives and doesn't need to be shamed as weakness just so a female character can be considered a hero.

That said, it's important for a female character to have an identity outside of her relationship. Blindspot perfectly balances the Jeller romantic anchor and Jane's independent heroism in "Check Your Ed." The door to Remi requires a handprint scan to open. Jane has one final puzzle to solve. Unfortunately, the team is not there to help her solve the hand tattoo, so she goes through the procedural elements of Blindspot to figure it out. It's not meant to be funny, but I was laughing so hard. Jane can recite word for word what each character says and does every week. This may help some of you understand why I yawn my way through the "Case of the Week" section in the reviews.

Of course Patterson's words — "We'll always be here when you need us" — are the cipher to crack the tattoo description: Alice Through the Looking Glass. Patterson is the master of all even in Jane's memory, so we know some of the synapses are firing right.

Taylor Shaw's doll — the one Kurt found when he unearthed her grave — appears next to Jane on the table. But Jane isn't Taylor Shaw; she was Alice Krueger. A photograph of Alice, before Remi or Jane, appears on the screen when she uses "Alice" as the password. The creepy girl from The Ring now looks exactly like the sweet, happy girl in the photo. A sweet and decidedly less scary Alice Kruger takes Taylor Shaw's doll and leads Jane to the door. Alice scans her hand. The door opens and Jane can finally face Remi.

TIME TO FIGHT

We finally get our Jane versus Remi fight and it's AWESOME! Blindspot keeps the symbolism simple. Jane is in a white shirt while Remi is clothed in black. The stuntwork reminded me of the flawless fight between Elena and Katherine in the season four finale of The Vampire Diaries. Remi gets the upper hand quickly and tells Jane she's not a person, but a vessel, and she was here first.

But Remi was not here first. Alice Kruger was. Jane is not merging two personas, but three. Alice represents innocence, Remi represents darkness, and Jane represents light. However, we cannot categorize our humanity simply by good and evil terms. Humans are not that simple. We are nowhere near perfect enough to live in such black and white worlds. As Jane's memories have shown, Jane isn't entirely good and Remi isn't entirely evil. When Jane was Remi, she saved lives. She was unable to hurt or kill any members of the team. There was a lot more Jane in Remi than she wanted to admit. Kurt saw it too.

Ultimately, the blame lies with Shepherd. It was Shepherd who killed Alice Kruger — Remi and Jane's innocence. The real difference between Jane and Remi is Jane is not alone. She has people in her life who truly love her for who she is. If you didn't get choked up when Kurt, Roman, Reade, Patterson, Rich and Zapata each appeared on screen, their faces full of love and acceptance, then I can't help you.

But Roman is right. There is one more person who knows all of her: Remi.

Jane doesn't need to beat Remi or separate from her. This was never about choosing personas. It's about recognizing the dichotomy of her humanity. We are all two sides of the same coin. Jane needs to accept Remi and Remi must accept Jane. And the only way to acceptance is through forgiveness.

So Jane says," Whatever you did, whatever we did... I forgive you."

Jaimie Alexander gives a tour de force performance and I was legitimately crying during this scene. "Check Your Ed" is the culmination of everything Jane's been fighting for and against for the last four years. We've been waiting for Jane to merge her identities, forgive herself, and find self acceptance. The road has been bumpy, but it is finally here and Blindspot did not disappoint. This episode was worth the wait.

Jane and Remi literally merged bodies and I cackled with glee. Listen, I don't need my symbolism to be Maya Angelou-level all the time. Sometimes I want it delivered to me on a silver platter. Blindspot makes it easy and I appreciate that. And Jane says, "For the first time in my life I feel like a whole person."

Jane wakes up and tells everyone she's back and remembers everything. Jane momentarily freaks out when she remembers she broke her crazy mother out of a black site, but Kurt is nonplussed. There's more apologizing to Kurt for all the lies Jane told. Pfft. Girl, you actually have a legitimate medical reason you lied to him this time. This was nowhere near rock bottom for you two. They exchange "I love you's," smooch, and gaze at each other longingly. MY SHIP IS PERFECTION. Now go make me babies.

Patterson and Weller go the location Jane told them to find Shepherd, but she's not there. Patterson is momentarily concerned Jane is jerking them around, but Kurt is confident she's not. It's not that I'm questioning your unwavering belief in the Mrs. Kurt, but she was Remi for several months and you didn't figure it out, Kurt. Your track record is not great. However, I agree with you. We didn't do all that self-acceptance for nothing.

Kurt returns to the apartment expecting to see Jane, but instead is greeted by Shepherd. We all saw this coming a mile away. There must be a physical showdown to go with the mental showdown. Shepherd really kicks Kurt's butt though. It's a little embarrassing. Then Jane Doe — our Mrs. Kurt Weller — arrives and shoots Shepherd three times center mass. NICE. THAT'S MY GIRL! It takes an excruciatingly long time for Shepherd to die, given she has three bullet holes in her chest. It does give Jane the chance to get some closure and she tells Shepherd where to stick it. Shepherd says, "I love you in my own way," and blah blah blah I just wanted her to die already. You are the worst, lady. If God is a just and fair God, then Shepherd's death means the Sandstorm storyline is over for good.

Jane passes the barrage of medical and psychological tests and she's officially cleared for duty. I love that the FBI couldn't care less that Jane was momentarily a super secret double agent. What's that you say? Your brain was fried and you went all evil? No problem. Your turn to bring in bagels.

Kurt gives Jane her FBI ID back. It's a not so subtle way of saying Jane has finally found her identity — all of it. It's a moment of real peace and happiness for everyone. And then Reade walks in with Zapata in handcuffs. So much for one big, drama-free family!

"Check Your Ed" could serve is a series finale, which lends more evidence to my theory season four will be Blindspot's last. The writers are really putting all their cards on the table, so it's difficult to see where they can go next. The team needs Jane back so they can deal with super shady Zapata. Also, Jane is still dying apparently. This all feels like a ramp-up to a final ramp-down. I'm not holding my breath for a season five renewal. If we continue to get quality episodes like this week's, then I'll be completely fine with Blindspot ending. It's best for a show to go out on a high note.

Stray Thoughts:

• Weller literally chucking Jane's entire body up in the air into a steel beam feels realistic. I think he has over 100 pounds on her.
• Jane's dress, flowers, reception decor, and bridal party photos are all manifested in her brain because our girl will never forget her wedding day no matter how zipped her brain is. BIG MOOD.
• Jane remembering Reade before she remembers Patterson? I think not.
• The shot of Shepherd's reflection in Kurt and Jane's wedding photo is so cool and creepy
• Kurt sends Rich in the ambulance with Jane, which tells us exactly how much Kurt loves and trusts Rich.
• "I'm getting some very mixed signals from you lately." HAHAHA. Accurate, Shepherd.
• When Jane is remembering all the people who love her and sees their faces on the television screen, there is a glitch when Zapata appears. I feel strongly this is Blindspot trying to fool us into thinking Zapata can't be saved, but I'm not buying it.

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Brooklyn Nine-Nine 6x01 Recap: “Honeymoon” (What’s Up, Beaches?) [Contributor: Alisa Williams]

“Honeymoon”

Original Airdate: January 10, 2019

BROOKLYN NINE-NINE IS BACK, BABY! Wow, what drama we had last year with the series being cancelled by Fox and then picked up by NBC and all of the craziness in between with both mega-stars and regular ol’ fans rallying for the show’s survival. Needless to say, the season six premiere has been greatly anticipated for MONTHS now. Well, it FINALLY aired and it was everything fans were hoping for — and more! Let’s get to it!

We pick up right where we left off in season five: at the after party for Jake and Amy’s wedding. Captain Holt has just received an email letting him know the outcome of his quest to become the city commissioner. At first, Holt tells the team he got the job, but when he reads the email again, out loud this time, he realizes he misread it the first time, and he did NOT get the commissioner gig. Jake only heard the first announcement and ran off to get a boombox and comes back dancing, only to find that the party has officially died with this bad news.

Holt decides to take some personal time, leaving Terry in charge of the Nine-Nine in his absence. As Terry’s doing morning announcements, Jake and Amy burst in with great news: thanks to Amy purchasing wedding insurance before the big day, they have been completely refunded for their disastrous nuptials and can now take a super fancy honeymoon to Posadita Bonita, an exotic beach in Mexico that Gina’s always going on and on about.

There’s trouble in paradise, however. They’ve only just arrived when they spot Captain Holt sipping a cocktail and wearing questionable beach attire. Apparently Holt was so distraught at John Kelly being chosen as commissioner over him that he jumped on a plane and headed to Mexico without even packing a bag. He bought a bundle of novelty shirts at a local tourist shop, all with humorous phrases (the hot pink number he’s wearing when Amy and Jake find him says, “What’s Up, Beaches?”). When Amy points out that he hates humor, he tells her that he’s a joke now, after losing to someone so unqualified, so it suits him. Kelly’s plans for the city are outdated and problematic, and Holt feels hopeless about the whole thing. So, he came to Mexico, to the place Gina’s always going on about, and has been here ever since. He had no idea they’d be honeymooning here.

Holt tells them not to mind him, he’ll avoid them so they can enjoy their honeymoon in peace. Unfortunately, Posadita Bonita — in addition to being extravagantly priced — is also extremely small and intimate, so it’s impossible to not run into Holt everywhere they turn. There he is, eating alone at dinner, in a t-shirt with faux abs. There he is in the pool, literally bumping into them with his inflatable raft, and there he is popping into their room during an intimate massage, his shirt loudly announcing that he is “DTF: Down to Fiesta.”

At the precinct, things are not going as smoothly as Terry hoped. Gina and Boyle are fighting because Boyle just found out that Gina’s mom left Boyle’s father, and they’re getting divorced. Boyle’s determined to get them back together but Gina refuses to help, and she refuses to tell Boyle why they broke up, even though she knows. Boyle is outraged — how can he fix their relationship if he doesn’t know what caused the break-up?

Rosa’s having a difficult time, too. Sanitation is trying to steal a case she’s been working on and so she goes to Terry for help, but everything he suggests Rosa’s either already tried or quickly points out why it won’t work. Terry is stumped. Sanitation has already threatened to file a formal complaint with the mayor if Rosa won’t hand over the case, so they have to tread lightly. Rosa mentions that Holt was writing an instruction manual for his replacement in case he got the commissioner job, but Terry refuses to read it, saying he doesn’t need an instruction manual to take on the captain’s role.

Back on the beach, Amy and Jake feel so bad for Holt they decide to invite him to join them for the rest of their honeymoon, but this turns out to be a spectacularly bad idea. All of the activities they’re signed up for are clearly for couples, from the “Sensual Food Tasting: The Art of Feeding Your Lover” to spa treatments to a hot tub strewn with flower petals. Despite the awkwardness, Holt decides that he’s sufficiently over losing out on the commissioner job and will head home.

At first, Jake and Amy are thrilled to hear that Holt is headed home, but then Jake runs into Holt as he’s about to head out and Holt tells him he’s only heading home so he can quit the NYPD forever. Jake panics and decides to stall Holt’s departure so he misses his flight. He rushes Holt into his hotel room, only to find Amy’s waiting with a “sexy” surprise: she’s laid out candles and rose petals, and best of all, she’s dressed up as Bonnie Bedelia from Die Hard.

Since Holt can’t be reasoned with, they decide to tie him to the bed to prevent him from leaving. They find what they need in the “Lover’s Toolbox” that Boyle sent to them at the resort, or as Amy likes to call it, “Boyle’s Box of Nightmares.” They try several tactics to get Holt to agree to stay on as Captain of the Nine-Nine. They remind him that Kelly is old and when he retires, Holt can try for commissioner again. They remind him of all the goals he still has left to accomplish for the Nine-Nine. Jake even tells Holt he can’t quit because Jake needs him and Holt is the whole reason he loves going to work each day, but Holt just calls him selfish.

That’s when Amy finally explodes, telling Holt he’s the one being selfish, wallowing in self pity and ruining their honeymoon while they did everything to cheer him up. Amy says after five years of caring so much about Holt and making him happy, she’s all out of hoots to give, and doesn't care what he does. She and Jake storm off, leaving Holt tied to the bed.

Meanwhile, Terry finally gives in and goes in search of Holt’s captain’s manual so he can best advise Rosa on her problem. He looks everywhere for the password to Holt’s computer, figuring the manual is on there, but can’t find it. At Rosa’s suggestion, he guesses something really simple, but the computer immediately locks him out and gives a scary warning that the hard drive will be deleted. Terry panics and throws the laptop against the wall.

After painstakingly rebuilding the laptop, Rosa asks if Terry’s checked to see if Holt saved the manual to the cloud. Terry has not checked, so he then tries to log into Holt’s cloud account by saying he forgot the password and then answering the security question. But this is Holt we’re talking about, so his question is “What is God?” and even after deep-diving into some philosophy textbooks, Terry is stuck. Fortunately, Rosa finds a hard copy of the manual (unsurprisingly, Gina had it all along), and shows Terry a section he should read, which says that if anyone is ever unsure what to do, they should consult Terry, because Holt trusts him completely. That gives Terry the confidence he needs to solve Rosa’s problem in a way that will make everyone happy.

While Terry and Rosa work through that, Boyle sends Scully to distract Gina so he can try to unlock her phone using a mask of her face. When Gina finds Boyle, he manages to unlock the phone when she tries to grab it. He finds a text exchange between Gina and her mom, where Gina is convincing her mom to divorce Boyle’s dad, but to not tell him why. Boyle is furious with Gina, and she’s forced to come clean about the whole thing; she tells Boyle that her mom had been cheating on his dad. Gina convinced her mom to end her marriage without explanation, which Gina thought would hurt less than coming clean about the affair. Boyle realizes that Gina was just trying to protect his dad from further hurt.

Over in Mexico, Holt has managed to escape his restraints using some of the lubricant from Boyle’s “Lover’s Toolbox” and finds Amy and Jake to ask their forgiveness for his behavior. Holt says while he was tied up, he realized that even though Kelly got the job and is planning to implement regressive policies for the city, he’s not out of options. He’s going to go directly to the mayor and tell him what he thinks of Kelly’s plan, and if the mayor isn’t receptive, he’ll go straight to press with his opinions.

Holt heads back to the city, and Amy and Jake finish out their honeymoon in peace. When they all arrive back in the office on Monday, Amy and Jake run into Holt at the elevators and ask how it went with the mayor. It went well, and the mayor has put Commissioner Kelly’s proposed policy under review. To retaliate, Kelly closed the bottom floor of the Nine-Nine for “renovations” indefinitely, meaning everyone has been moved into the bullpen. “The Nine-Nine is at war with the NYPD,” says Holt ominously as the elevator doors open onto complete chaos.

Bullets on the Bulletin Board:

• “Boyles don’t ‘get over it.’ It becomes part of us. It lives within us.”
• “I tried to suck it up and go back to work. I put on my uniform and got in my car, but next thing I knew I was on a plane to Mexico.” 
• “Don’t worry, I’m not listening to you. I’m just thinking about how this sea bass is cold. But not as cold and cruel as the hands of fate that have thrust my entire life into darkness.”
• “I love how the mud revitalizes my skin.” “And I love how it masks my shame.” 
• “I’m all out of hoots! I’m hootless!”

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Crazy Ex-Girlfriend 4x08 Review: “I’m Not the Person I Used To Be” (Meta Meet Cute) [Contributor: Jenn]

“I’m Not the Person I Used To Be”

Original Airdate: December 7, 2018

Sometimes when you catch up with old friends, it’s like no time has passed at all. And sometimes when you catch up with old friends, it’s like they’re entirely different people. Their lives don’t remotely resemble what you remember. Maybe they used to party in high school, gossip about people, or run with the cool crowd. Then you run into them at a grocery store and they’re married with a stable career and toting two kids. It’s jarring sometimes to reconcile the memory of who someone used to be with who they are in the present.

In the case of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, this well-known feeling works in their very meta favor for a very meta episode. “I’m Not the Person I Used To Be” features the return of Greg — sorta. We all knew Santino Fontana wasn’t returning to the show and that Skylar Astin (of Pitch Perfect fame) would be recast in the role as Greg. We also all wondered how the recast would be explained. And in a characteristically brilliant move for the series, Greg’s reappearance and completely new face is explained pretty well. Let’s dive into what this episode establishes for Rebecca and our characters for the rest of the series.

HELLO, NICE TO MEET YOU

When Greg unexpectedly shows up at Josh’s 12-year (don’t worry about it) high school reunion, Valencia and Heather immediately gasp. Rebecca is confused, however. That’s not Greg. It definitely is a totally different person. The meta commentary throughout the episode of how weird it is that no one else besides Rebecca sees the difference is so great. But as Heather and Valencia explain, Rebecca’s his ex. She hasn’t seen him in a long time, and because of that it’s understandable that she doesn’t recognize who he is anymore. He’s changed, and so has Rebecca. It makes sense she wouldn’t recognize the person who left West Covina and left her in tears.

As you’ll recall, Rebecca has been on the path to reconciliation. She’s decided that she’s going to make amends and fix what she’s broken. So when Greg shows up, Rebecca is reminded that she has some unfinished business with him. Namely, you know, the fact that she slept with his father. Their first exchange is uncomfortable until Greg and Rebecca decide to put the past behind them and start fresh. They really don’t know each other, after all. It’s been two years since they’ve last spoken. Rebecca is a little hurt when Greg reveals that he’s actually come back to town multiple times since, but asked everyone to hide that fact from her.

Rebecca spends the entire episode waffling between whether or not she should tell Greg what happened between her and his father. At first, she justifies her decision not to tell him — after all, when you start over with someone, why not just leave the past in the past? The thing is that the past never just stays in the past. Rebecca has spent most of the series justifying her misdeeds, trying to tell herself that she’s not really hurting anyone and that the ends justify the means. As long as it’s taken, now Rebecca knows that the only way to form healthy relationships is by coming clean about the past. You can drag around your past into new relationships, but it’ll eventually have to be unpacked — sometimes by an unwilling participant.

Right before Rebecca and Greg kiss, she tells him about her tryst. He’s understandably horrified and disgusted. Rebecca tells Greg though that it was the right thing to do; she’s tired of hiding and hurting people. As Greg is prepared to walk out the door, something pretty incredible happens — he acknowledges how hard it must have been for Rebecca to admit what she did to him. Greg expresses compassion for Rebecca when she expects him to throw his fist through a wall. Then, just before he departs, Greg says this: “You think I’ve changed. Maybe we both have.”

Rebecca Bunch is not perfect, and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend doesn’t pretend that she is. But when new!Greg acknowledges how much she’s changed from the woman he once knew, we’re reminded of the same thing. Rebecca still falters and fumbles, but what if Greg sees HER as an entirely new person too? The truth is that we’re all constantly changing — or we should be, if we want to become better people. And though Greg doesn’t tell Rebecca he wants to pursue a romantic relationship, he leaves the door open to a reconciliation. He acknowledges that Rebecca has changed. He acknowledges that he has too.

And that’s a step for a new beginning.

Additional fun elements:

• I love Intro Rebecca mentioning how she misses the season one theme song. Same.
• This week’s episode has SO many meta moments, but at least we know the series ends on Valentine’s Day and that Valencia and Greg are around until then.
• Speaking of Greg, I love Skylar Astin’s addition to the cast.
• Heather had the BEST moments this week: “BAAAAAAR!”
• “I drove him into the arms of Jesus.”
• “I’m not NOT gonna spy on that.”

What did you all think of the episode? What do you hope for the remainder of the series?

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Doctor Who New Year’s Special Recap: “Resolution” (New Year, Old Enemy) [Guest Poster: Stephanie Coats]

“Resolution”

Original Airdate: January 1, 2019

When Showrunner Chris Chibnall spoke about Doctor Who’s series eleven at San Diego Comic Con, he emphasized everything is new, including the villains and aliens. Not a single classic or traditional Doctor Who alien or enemy in sight... but maybe he meant just in 2018. In the show’s first ever New Year’s special, Jodie Whittaker finally gets to a take a crack at one of the most iconic foe’s in Doctor Who history.

“I POINT AND LAUGH AT ARCHAEOLOGISTS.” 

In the 9th century, British forces barely won a war against an unnamed opponent. To prevent the enemy from ever returning, it was cut into three pieces, buried in remote places around the globe, and guarded at all times. But one of the “custodians” was killed en route, so his portion lay unburied and unguarded until centuries later when archaeologists Mitch and Lin discover him.

While carefully uncovering the body, the two unknowingly place a part of the unnamed enemy under a UV light and it reconstructs itself. Mitch and Lin are distracted by adorably talking about their New Year’s kiss. They notice too late that one of their bags has gone missing. Lin spies a tentacle creature on the wall and reaches out to touch it — for some reason — just as the Doctor and her team arrive by TARDIS. They had been touring different New Year’s celebrations throughout time and space when the Doctor received an alert for present-day Sheffield.

She sends Mitch and Lin to safety while searching for the creature, which has supposedly disappeared into the water. But Lin is behaving very strangely, and for good reason. The creature isn’t in the water; it’s attached to her back and controlling her actions. All attempts to fight back are futile.

THE RESURRECTED FOE

Team TARDIS land at Graham’s house to regroup and they receive an unexpected and not entirely welcome visitor: Ryan’s dad, Aaron. The Doctor immediately lets him know he let Ryan down and, in so many words, they don’t like him. Ryan agrees to go for coffee with his dad, where Aaron says he’s trying to do better and Ryan reminds him of all of the ways he’s been a major letdown over the years.

It doesn’t take the Doctor long to realize her greatest enemy is loose in Sheffield: a Dalek. More specifically, a reconnaissance scout, which was sent to scope out Earth for the fleet. The team brings Mitch into the TARDIS to help them put all the pieces together and he tells them about the “custodians.” They figure out Lin isn’t safe, which is a bit of an understatement. The Dalek has forced her to drive at top speed. When they’re pulled over by a cop, the Dalek makes Lin attack the officers and steal a uniform and car. It directs her to where portions of its armory and weaponry are stored in Britain’s archives.

The Doctor hacks into the Dalek’s connection with Lin to warn it and to encourage Lin to keep fighting. The Doctor tries calling in reinforcements through UNIT, but UNIT was shut down over a lack of funding due to Brexit. At a remote farm, the Dalek rebuilds its armor and weapons but Lin can tell it’s starting to weaken. She fights it off just before the Doctor and the others arrive. The Doctor faces off with the Dalek alone. It’s reconstructed itself from scraps (“junkyard chic,” as the Doctor says) but its hatred for the Doctor is the same as ever. Unable to kill her while she’s blocking its laser gun, it flies off to summon the Dalek fleet.

METAL AND THE MICROWAVE

Miffed at being left behind, Graham calls for a pickup and Aaron is invited to join too. The Dalek breaks into the national communication station, killing all in its path, and diverts power from the U.K. to contact the fleet. The entire TARDIS group confronts it there and bum rush the alien. They attach pieces of a modified microwave to it and basically cook the Dalek until its armor explodes. Any victory is short lived, as they realize the alien is now attached to Aaron and demands to be taken to the fleet.

The Doctor agrees and then opens the door of the TARDIS on a supernova star. The vacuum sucks the Dalek and Aaron toward space. Ryan makes a heroic reach for his dad, yelling all the while that he loves him, and Aaron is able to overcome the Dalek long enough to grasp his son’s hand just as the alien is sucked into the dying star.

In the end, Aaron passes on the chance to join the TARDIS Team but promises to be around more. The Doctor, Yaz, Ryan, and Graham head off to their next adventure, “everywhere.”

Final Thoughts: 

• Wow it was great to see Thirteen face off with a classic Doctor Who villain. While overall this episode was pretty average, finally getting a Dalek storyline for Thirteen was enough to rate “Resolution” above the other average episodes in series eleven. 
• Once again I find myself asking, "What did Yaz do in this episode?" I know she was there and did things but were any of them actual focal points of the episode? There’s still a lot of attention on Ryan and Graham, which is nice and I love them, but please give Yaz more screen time in series twelve. 
• What exactly was the purpose of having Aaron in this episode? I was so sure he was going to sacrifice himself for Ryan. Instead, he got told off a couple times, nearly died, and made new promises. Maybe this was meant to be a payoff for all of the focus on Ryan’s relationship with him that played throughout the season but it fell short of interesting. 
• I LOVED Thirteen’s scarf. She should wear it way more often.
• A Dalek’s laugh is probably the worst sound I’ve ever heard. 
• Dalek: “Who are you? Identify?” The Doctor: “Oh mate, I’m the Doctor. Ring any bells?”
• The Doctor: “You don’t have to come” Yaz: “Of course we do. We’re always with you.”

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