4.06 "Blow Out" Reaction Post
Oh, hey. So, two good episodes in a row. Nice. Especially since, were this a Friends episode, it would be called "The One With Alexander Mahone. A Lot. Being Awesome, But That Goes Without Saying."
Michael Scofield ---> I alternated weirdly between two viewpoints: a) thinking Michael was really, really dull and wondering why the hell he is the main character on this show, and b) wanting to give him a great big hug for being reminiscent of a toned-down 4.03 Linc.
Loved: - His floppy hat, butofcourse. I think Alex is a little bit jealous that floppy hats suit Mike's face structure better than they do his own.
- His conversation with Sara, at least his part of it. The Mahone/Alex name choice continues to be fascinating, but that's been discussed enough by sol_se et al. and I won't get into it more than to say that I thought it was interesting that he feels comfortable referring to him as 'Alex' when speaking with Sara.
- Him quasi-defending Alex in his & Self's daily bitchfest.
Disliked:
- Him being cold and distant and boring during the planning sessions for card no.5. I could be optimistic and see it as a reflection of his disappointment at leaving Alex behind, but that may be a little too much wishful thinking.
Lincoln Burrows ---> Damn, Linc, I really don't want to put you on notice, but I will if you push me any further. The only cool thing you did this week was to tell Roland to shut up, but that's like a S4 tradition, so you only get a bare minimum of points for that. I hated him making that casual passing reference to Cameron. It feels like he killed a bunch of potential bonding scenes with that one line. He was also really Not Cool talking about forgetting Sucre if he died. Worst of all, "Was." Really stung.
Sara Tancredi ---> I actually thought she was OK in this episode. I thought her accent was ridiculous in the sneak peeks, but I warmed up to it eventually. I still blame her for the arrest, and I didn't appreciate her half of the conversation with Michael (the truth of what she said aside), but I thought her acting as Alex's lawyer was cool, and I enjoyed the moment where she handed him the fingerprint file.
Sucre ---> Hey, sugar! ILU a little in this ep, baby. It's cool that he has this blanket of loyalty that now covers everyone on the A-Team, with the notable exception of Roland. Hugs for Sucre for joining in on the honoured tradition of telling Roland to shut up, esp. when it's in Alex's defense. Hey, Sucre has no reason to hate Alex... they can be bffs, yes? Please? Injecting a little bit of Alex's awesomeness into Sucre's dull storyline could make me care about him again.
T-Bag ---> Almost fell asleep watching his plotline this week. C'mon, Teddy, bring back the infamous shenanigans you've always brought to the table. That said, I love him skittering down the hallway on the way out of GATE... and 4.07 looks promising like woah. Gretchen/T-Bag is my new favourite crack pairing.
Brad Bellick ---> Not much to say on this guy. He didn't offend me with his incompetence nor blow me away with adorable-ness. He was pretty useless, what can I say.
Alexander Mahone ---> Why is WF so far down this cast list? If you watched PB based on this episode alone, you could believe Alex was the main character. Excellent as per usual. The phonecall scene b/w Mike & Alex actually made me tear up (read: cry and shake and nearly hyperventilate) more than the Alex/Pam diner scene last week did. Not that I like it more (b/c nothing trumps Lord & Lady Mahone together), it was just... I dunno. I was sort of in an irrational sort of place b/c I knew that he WASN'T going to die, but I was still really scared. My heart was beating a mile a minute when Wyatt entered the police station. It struck me at that point that the dynamic between Alex and Wyatt is a tad similar to that between Alex and Mike in season 2... Fichtner elevates his half of it, but it still doesn't compare to the electric hunter-hunted dynamic between our favourite mindmates. Fichtner was particularly gorgeous this week in his new pale blue button-down shirt, I highly approve. I especially loved how he looked in the scene where he called up Wyatt. I can't wait to icon that bit. When he snapped his phone closed, it felt like he'd reached out of the screen and socked me in the nose. Great moment. I'm trying to collect my thoughts, there was just so much Alex stuff to process in this ep. Again, I loved the bit where he was complaining about the stuck gate, and his laugh of exasperation before he punched the cop. The scene with that cop trying to convince Alex to give up Michael -- at first my attention was piqued by the "ten years your junior", but I remembered that in PB canon, Mike is 30 and Alex is 42, so that's about right. I really wanted Alex to start shouting and swearing at Wyatt in the scene in the courtroom, unwise though that might have been. Fury just radiated from him in that scene, and I loved the cheesy bad-ass music played when Wyatt (finally -- holy crap unobservant) caught his eye. I think it's really tragic how low Alex's expectations are from life. He seemed really blown away that the A-Team came to rescue him, even when he worked that unintentional (was it?) guilt trip on Mike. I'm going to pretend that last scene where he tossed the pink sticky note away just didn't exist, because Alex wouldn't be that dumb. It was so clearly just a plot device (and so OOC for Alex), that I'm willing to just repress it from my memory.
Gretchen Morgan ---> Hoorah for the return of bad-ass motherfucker Gretchen! All of her scenes were great. I noticed in that scene where she breaks down a little in the bathroom that she looks a little like me. I think. Her face, at least. Her face without make-up. Obviously I think I little too much of myself. After so many scenes with huge men (Lincoln, Pad Man, Michael, Wyatt) that make her look positively skinny in comparison, you forget that she's got quite a thick-set build, which I noticed when she was standing next to her petite sister. I enjoyed her dynamic with the sister, and was touched by her goodbye scene with Emily.
Pad Man ---> *shrugs* Eh. Leon Rossum has absolutely no on-screen presence. His face alone makes me drowsy with boredom.
Wyatt ---> I put my finger on it: Cress Williams has no physicality. He lacks the ability to manipulate his own body in believable and interesting ways. That finger gun thing? I literally laughed out loud. It was so poorly executed. Which is too bad, because it could have been such a cool moment. The only merit Wyatt has is as a pivotal character in Alex's story arc -- the story arc which is the only reason I'm hanging around this popsicle stand to begin with. Wyatt continues to be unbelievably stupid -- the way it took him, like, five minutes to find Alex in the courtroom, the way he completely failed to notice Sara and Sucre hanging out in plain sight, plus the fact that he was completely immobilized by the blackout (in his shoes, I would have taken it as the perfect opportunity to take out Alex) and allowed them to slip away without incident. During the green parking garage scene (a homage to that other green parking garage scene in Panama between Alex and Wheeler, maybe? There were certainly enough parallels.), I was caught trying to pick the lesser of two evils... Self the hypocrite douche or Wyatt the child-beating zombie? Oddly enough, Wyatt won out, if only for that last line, "That's all." (Did it remind anyone else of Meryl Streep's frequent refrain in "The Devil Wears Prada" a little, tiny bit?) Oh, don't get me wrong, I still want Alex to grind him into dirt and spit on his dying body (violence!)... but at least he isn't Self.
Don Self ---> Ah, Self. I want to propose something to you -- would you consider stepping out of the land of the fictitious for a moment so that I could wreak horrific violence on you? How does that sound? Rappaport continues to be jarringly out-of-place (shouldn't I have stopped seeing him as Gary The Cop Boyfriend Who Shot The Bird by now? He still sounds like he's on a guest spot on Friends.) and his character isn't any better. I'm actually glad that he betrays the A-Team later on, so that we can dispense with any lingering ideas that he is in any way a good guy. I'm not sure if I understood his implications in that conversation with Michael -- was he actually suggesting that they have Alex killed? Or did I miss the point entirely?
Roland Glenn ---> I thank the gods for small favours that Roland's role in this episode was minimized considerably. I got a kick out of his baseball shirt... why are so many people on this team so fashioned-impaired? Not that I should be talking -- but I think they're actually worse than me. I still can't work out how this Wyatt&Roland angle is going to play out. Will the reasoning behind his inevitable betrayal just be... that he's a douche? Fucking with assassins is never a good idea, dear.
Trishanne ---> Thnx for getting a new shirt, bb.
For half of this episode I was all "GUYS. NOT COOL. I HATE ALL OF YOU SO HARD RIGHT NOW." and then the second half I heel-face-turned and it was all "Aw, c'mere bbs, ILU so much. C'mere, group hugs. You know you want 'em." It sucks that it took a guilt-trip phone call on Alex's part to get the A-Team to be awesome, though.
Oh, I wanted to post this article excerpt, because I am insanely excited about "Night and Day" and it keeps sounding more and more awesome with each passing day:
Night and Day stars William Fichtner (Prison Break, The Dark Knight, Crash) and Sherry Stringfield (Tell me You Love Me, ER) in a character-driven drama that is set in the world of international crime. Fichtner plays a federal law-enforcement agent who is facing personnel changes in his department that are causing clashes and differences of style and opinion. His character also juggles his dangerous work as a top agent during the day with the challenges of being a husband and father at night.
“Rarely does a script come along that combines so much feverish action and heartrending emotion into one hour,” said executive producer Michael Prupas, the CEO of Muse Entertainment. “This has never been done before: a window on the life and labors of a federal agent at work and at home.”
“Night and Day is a coup for us,” added Rola Bauer, the managing director of Tandem Communications. “We are once again working with Michael Prupas, who is an excellent partner. In addition, we’re thrilled to be working with an exceptional and veteran creative team headed by Joel Surnow and Todd Robinson. Night and Day will definitely have strong legs internationally.”
"Todd Robinson and I are thrilled that our pilot has been attracting such a superior level of talent,” commented Surnow. “Our behind the camera team is world class, and our cast is shaping up as a dream team. Bill Fichtner and Sherry Stringfield are our lead actors-it doesn't get better than that. And we are truly lucky to be doing this show at TNT with Michael Wright and his team who are responsible for the most successful shows on cable."
... I just love some of the words they use to describe it, even though it's based entirely on marketing the show and may not be a very good reflection on the reality of the show at all.
I've been watching some Sherry Stringfield clips from Tell Me You Love Me and ER, and... I may be completely biased 'cause she's on Bill's new show, but she is now one of my favourite actresses. I'm convinced that she will be fabulous.
I was going to say "That's all." but you need to slap me if I'm ever tempted to sign off on a Wyatt quote. So, just... byebye.
Michael Scofield ---> I alternated weirdly between two viewpoints: a) thinking Michael was really, really dull and wondering why the hell he is the main character on this show, and b) wanting to give him a great big hug for being reminiscent of a toned-down 4.03 Linc.
Loved: - His floppy hat, butofcourse. I think Alex is a little bit jealous that floppy hats suit Mike's face structure better than they do his own.
- His conversation with Sara, at least his part of it. The Mahone/Alex name choice continues to be fascinating, but that's been discussed enough by sol_se et al. and I won't get into it more than to say that I thought it was interesting that he feels comfortable referring to him as 'Alex' when speaking with Sara.
- Him quasi-defending Alex in his & Self's daily bitchfest.
Disliked:
- Him being cold and distant and boring during the planning sessions for card no.5. I could be optimistic and see it as a reflection of his disappointment at leaving Alex behind, but that may be a little too much wishful thinking.
Lincoln Burrows ---> Damn, Linc, I really don't want to put you on notice, but I will if you push me any further. The only cool thing you did this week was to tell Roland to shut up, but that's like a S4 tradition, so you only get a bare minimum of points for that. I hated him making that casual passing reference to Cameron. It feels like he killed a bunch of potential bonding scenes with that one line. He was also really Not Cool talking about forgetting Sucre if he died. Worst of all, "Was." Really stung.
Sara Tancredi ---> I actually thought she was OK in this episode. I thought her accent was ridiculous in the sneak peeks, but I warmed up to it eventually. I still blame her for the arrest, and I didn't appreciate her half of the conversation with Michael (the truth of what she said aside), but I thought her acting as Alex's lawyer was cool, and I enjoyed the moment where she handed him the fingerprint file.
Sucre ---> Hey, sugar! ILU a little in this ep, baby. It's cool that he has this blanket of loyalty that now covers everyone on the A-Team, with the notable exception of Roland. Hugs for Sucre for joining in on the honoured tradition of telling Roland to shut up, esp. when it's in Alex's defense. Hey, Sucre has no reason to hate Alex... they can be bffs, yes? Please? Injecting a little bit of Alex's awesomeness into Sucre's dull storyline could make me care about him again.
T-Bag ---> Almost fell asleep watching his plotline this week. C'mon, Teddy, bring back the infamous shenanigans you've always brought to the table. That said, I love him skittering down the hallway on the way out of GATE... and 4.07 looks promising like woah. Gretchen/T-Bag is my new favourite crack pairing.
Brad Bellick ---> Not much to say on this guy. He didn't offend me with his incompetence nor blow me away with adorable-ness. He was pretty useless, what can I say.
Alexander Mahone ---> Why is WF so far down this cast list? If you watched PB based on this episode alone, you could believe Alex was the main character. Excellent as per usual. The phonecall scene b/w Mike & Alex actually made me tear up (read: cry and shake and nearly hyperventilate) more than the Alex/Pam diner scene last week did. Not that I like it more (b/c nothing trumps Lord & Lady Mahone together), it was just... I dunno. I was sort of in an irrational sort of place b/c I knew that he WASN'T going to die, but I was still really scared. My heart was beating a mile a minute when Wyatt entered the police station. It struck me at that point that the dynamic between Alex and Wyatt is a tad similar to that between Alex and Mike in season 2... Fichtner elevates his half of it, but it still doesn't compare to the electric hunter-hunted dynamic between our favourite mindmates. Fichtner was particularly gorgeous this week in his new pale blue button-down shirt, I highly approve. I especially loved how he looked in the scene where he called up Wyatt. I can't wait to icon that bit. When he snapped his phone closed, it felt like he'd reached out of the screen and socked me in the nose. Great moment. I'm trying to collect my thoughts, there was just so much Alex stuff to process in this ep. Again, I loved the bit where he was complaining about the stuck gate, and his laugh of exasperation before he punched the cop. The scene with that cop trying to convince Alex to give up Michael -- at first my attention was piqued by the "ten years your junior", but I remembered that in PB canon, Mike is 30 and Alex is 42, so that's about right. I really wanted Alex to start shouting and swearing at Wyatt in the scene in the courtroom, unwise though that might have been. Fury just radiated from him in that scene, and I loved the cheesy bad-ass music played when Wyatt (finally -- holy crap unobservant) caught his eye. I think it's really tragic how low Alex's expectations are from life. He seemed really blown away that the A-Team came to rescue him, even when he worked that unintentional (was it?) guilt trip on Mike. I'm going to pretend that last scene where he tossed the pink sticky note away just didn't exist, because Alex wouldn't be that dumb. It was so clearly just a plot device (and so OOC for Alex), that I'm willing to just repress it from my memory.
Gretchen Morgan ---> Hoorah for the return of bad-ass motherfucker Gretchen! All of her scenes were great. I noticed in that scene where she breaks down a little in the bathroom that she looks a little like me. I think. Her face, at least. Her face without make-up. Obviously I think I little too much of myself. After so many scenes with huge men (Lincoln, Pad Man, Michael, Wyatt) that make her look positively skinny in comparison, you forget that she's got quite a thick-set build, which I noticed when she was standing next to her petite sister. I enjoyed her dynamic with the sister, and was touched by her goodbye scene with Emily.
Pad Man ---> *shrugs* Eh. Leon Rossum has absolutely no on-screen presence. His face alone makes me drowsy with boredom.
Wyatt ---> I put my finger on it: Cress Williams has no physicality. He lacks the ability to manipulate his own body in believable and interesting ways. That finger gun thing? I literally laughed out loud. It was so poorly executed. Which is too bad, because it could have been such a cool moment. The only merit Wyatt has is as a pivotal character in Alex's story arc -- the story arc which is the only reason I'm hanging around this popsicle stand to begin with. Wyatt continues to be unbelievably stupid -- the way it took him, like, five minutes to find Alex in the courtroom, the way he completely failed to notice Sara and Sucre hanging out in plain sight, plus the fact that he was completely immobilized by the blackout (in his shoes, I would have taken it as the perfect opportunity to take out Alex) and allowed them to slip away without incident. During the green parking garage scene (a homage to that other green parking garage scene in Panama between Alex and Wheeler, maybe? There were certainly enough parallels.), I was caught trying to pick the lesser of two evils... Self the hypocrite douche or Wyatt the child-beating zombie? Oddly enough, Wyatt won out, if only for that last line, "That's all." (Did it remind anyone else of Meryl Streep's frequent refrain in "The Devil Wears Prada" a little, tiny bit?) Oh, don't get me wrong, I still want Alex to grind him into dirt and spit on his dying body (violence!)... but at least he isn't Self.
Don Self ---> Ah, Self. I want to propose something to you -- would you consider stepping out of the land of the fictitious for a moment so that I could wreak horrific violence on you? How does that sound? Rappaport continues to be jarringly out-of-place (shouldn't I have stopped seeing him as Gary The Cop Boyfriend Who Shot The Bird by now? He still sounds like he's on a guest spot on Friends.) and his character isn't any better. I'm actually glad that he betrays the A-Team later on, so that we can dispense with any lingering ideas that he is in any way a good guy. I'm not sure if I understood his implications in that conversation with Michael -- was he actually suggesting that they have Alex killed? Or did I miss the point entirely?
Roland Glenn ---> I thank the gods for small favours that Roland's role in this episode was minimized considerably. I got a kick out of his baseball shirt... why are so many people on this team so fashioned-impaired? Not that I should be talking -- but I think they're actually worse than me. I still can't work out how this Wyatt&Roland angle is going to play out. Will the reasoning behind his inevitable betrayal just be... that he's a douche? Fucking with assassins is never a good idea, dear.
Trishanne ---> Thnx for getting a new shirt, bb.
For half of this episode I was all "GUYS. NOT COOL. I HATE ALL OF YOU SO HARD RIGHT NOW." and then the second half I heel-face-turned and it was all "Aw, c'mere bbs, ILU so much. C'mere, group hugs. You know you want 'em." It sucks that it took a guilt-trip phone call on Alex's part to get the A-Team to be awesome, though.
Oh, I wanted to post this article excerpt, because I am insanely excited about "Night and Day" and it keeps sounding more and more awesome with each passing day:
Night and Day stars William Fichtner (Prison Break, The Dark Knight, Crash) and Sherry Stringfield (Tell me You Love Me, ER) in a character-driven drama that is set in the world of international crime. Fichtner plays a federal law-enforcement agent who is facing personnel changes in his department that are causing clashes and differences of style and opinion. His character also juggles his dangerous work as a top agent during the day with the challenges of being a husband and father at night.
“Rarely does a script come along that combines so much feverish action and heartrending emotion into one hour,” said executive producer Michael Prupas, the CEO of Muse Entertainment. “This has never been done before: a window on the life and labors of a federal agent at work and at home.”
“Night and Day is a coup for us,” added Rola Bauer, the managing director of Tandem Communications. “We are once again working with Michael Prupas, who is an excellent partner. In addition, we’re thrilled to be working with an exceptional and veteran creative team headed by Joel Surnow and Todd Robinson. Night and Day will definitely have strong legs internationally.”
"Todd Robinson and I are thrilled that our pilot has been attracting such a superior level of talent,” commented Surnow. “Our behind the camera team is world class, and our cast is shaping up as a dream team. Bill Fichtner and Sherry Stringfield are our lead actors-it doesn't get better than that. And we are truly lucky to be doing this show at TNT with Michael Wright and his team who are responsible for the most successful shows on cable."
... I just love some of the words they use to describe it, even though it's based entirely on marketing the show and may not be a very good reflection on the reality of the show at all.
I've been watching some Sherry Stringfield clips from Tell Me You Love Me and ER, and... I may be completely biased 'cause she's on Bill's new show, but she is now one of my favourite actresses. I'm convinced that she will be fabulous.
I was going to say "That's all." but you need to slap me if I'm ever tempted to sign off on a Wyatt quote. So, just... byebye.