Writers: Seth Hoffman and Quinton Peeples
Grade: B
This episode was overflowing with implausibility, to the point where I couldn’t even enjoy it.
Just Dem, Janis, Marcy, and Al starting in the LA office at the same time would have strained credibility, but there were almost 20 recruits in that crowd listening to Mark’s (boring) first-day-on-the-job speech, which is just ridiculous. With that many newbies at once, they must have been the most incompetent FBI office in the country for at least a year, no matter how well-trained those recruits were.
The apparent fact that no one bothered to ask Marcy what she saw in her flash-forward is also ridiculous. The FBI should have rounded up every single employee right down to the secretarial pool and grilled them about what they saw, so if they didn’t, they’re still the most incompetent FBI office in the country. Not to mention we saw various agents forced to undergo questioning, and even lie detector tests, on the trip to D.C. earlier in the season, so I can’t imagine that sharing one’s flash-forward was optional.
Dem’s reasoning for insisting on talking down the crazy guy with the gun didn’t make much sense to me, either. He wanted to ask him why? Why what? Why he was going to kill him? I’d think that staying out of the guy’s way and thus making the question irrelevant might be the better choice… And how did “Go far, far away, Demetri, because someone’s going to kill you” become “After we throw a big wedding with family and friends!” Seriously, y’all couldn’t just elope to Hawaii and have a ceremony a few weeks later to please the family? Also, why didn’t Dem have a few agents guarding him, considering the threat to his life? Again, most incompetent FBI office in the country…
As for other things I’m not sure I liked, Janis’s reaction when Mark told her to help him interrogate Marcy was a bit shady. I can’t help but think we’d never have been shown that scene if the writers hadn’t revealed her mole status to the audience, which is why this sort of thing breaks the fourth wall. Now that we know, we’re going to see all the questionable behavior that we very conveniently didn’t get to see before. At least it’s not extreme, though. She’s not grinning evilly behind Mark’s back or winking at Marcy.
I also wish the writers weren’t being so coy about what happened between Janis and Demetri in Somalia. My current assumption is that they both knew it was a desperate shot in the dark as to whether it would actually result in a pregnancy, they did it anyway, then they immediately regretted doing something so desperate and drastic for such a small chance at achieving the desired result. They both probably felt like they'd risked their friendship and Dem's relationship with Zoey for nothing. Then Janis found out it worked, struggled with whether or not to tell Dem, and ended up telling him on a whim because she genuinely cares for him and believes he’s going to die. It’s also possible that Demetri was surprised because they didn’t go through with it and he wanted to know how she managed to get knocked up “on time.” Or possibly she was lying to him, although if she was, I think it would have to be an affectionate lie, because I'm not sure what nefarious purpose could be served by having Dem mistakenly believe that his progeny will carry on after his death. I’m not sure what purpose is served by keeping viewers in the dark, either, unless this somehow plays into the main plot in a big, surprising way.
Other Stuff
-The flashback to Zoey grilling Dem in the courtroom didn’t make me like her more. I don’t hate her, I just don’t give a shit.
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