4.06: Pretenders

[J-Sun]

"How do you do that with your voice?"

PoI frequently has some dry humor to vary the drama but this was probably the funniest episode, having outright laugh-out-loud moments such as when "Forge" whiffed trying to punch Reese.

And the people who cast the female parts have impeccable taste. I could have listed Jessica Hecht (playing Beth Bridges) in the "weird crush" thread (not that there's anything weird about it, but she's not usually noted in that way) who is more attractive than ever after many many years.

Anyway: an insurance guy is interested in a coworker who has recently committed suicide but he's not so sure, so impersonates a cop and looks into it, thereby drawing unwanted attention. Elias and the new kid on the block come into play. Harold goes to Hong Kong and meets an ambiguous person. Shaw shows her versatility and we get to spend quality time with her while she spends quality time with Bear.

Good stuff. No Groves, but you can't have everything. Not all at once anyway.

I especially like the ambiguity and complexity all around but I really wonder what someone just joining us would make of the show even now, where it's already recomplicated to quite a degree over just this season's premiere.

(BTW, given tonight's episode's title, anyone ever watch The Pretender? I don't recall it being particularly good, but it wasn't bad. Enjoyable entertainment. Jarrod and Miss Parker doing The Fugitive thing while Our Hero became whatever he needed to that week.)

Edit: how weird is that? Somebody posted something here that prompted me to link to a utoob clip of Buffy the Vampire Slayer's "I, Robot... You, Jane" today and it turns out the co-author of that episode (as well as the co-author of "Out of Mind, Out of Sight" from a Whedon story) was making her PoI debut as the writer of tonight's episode. (Ashley Gable.) Holy synchronicity, Batman! And welcome aboard.

 

[willwallace]

I thought it was odd at the time that Harold could recall the characters from the deliveryman's motorbike so exactly. The reveal of his scheme to plant some type of device onto Bridges' laptop is hopefully a sign that he has some plan to begin acting against Samaritan, possibly with some intelligence gathering, or maybe even trying to inject Samaritan with a virus.

 

[markpud]

Another strong episode, the meeting between Elias and Dominic was great and sets up an escalating gang war for the rest of the season no doubt. Because only having Samaritan to worry about might get dull?!

Anyone tuning in for a casual hour of drama is really in the deep end with this show, but I'm happy that the networks are increasingly willing to let shows weave complicated arcs around the "x" of the week format.