El Conejo (No. 177)

Wasn't expect that ending... Another great and unexpected episode. I can watch Spader 24/7 and still enjoy from his acting. This episode ends with a big surprise and I can't wait for the next one.

Reddington investigates the theft of his TED Talks and Aram is front and centre this week.

Voluminous bald exposition blights this story, from Red's enthroned monologues to Aram's preachy, speechy diatribes. McGuffin software and Deus ex Machina locator hacking, along with obvious culprits, round out a dreadfully written episode.

Despite all of the above, I enjoyed this instalment immensely. Carlos Gómez gives a fabulous guest performance, the 'murder in a room' style puzzle solution is ingenious and the promise of a returning friend is welcome indeed.

This season had some real clunkers in the first half but this episode was rather good. Raymond was pretty much wrong about everything but so was the audience. The script was deliberately all over the place with unconnected subplots to hide the reality of an incoming reveal that wasn't at all telegraphed as they are in most TV shows. Very enjoyable.

This was less than great

Aram character is basically reminded back to the beginning. Instead of awkward fumbling as an agent, now it's the same thing but he is the boss. Such a strange de evolution of his character. Just hurry up and put the real boss back in charge. The show looks so much better in those episodes. The "aram is just so kindhearted that he can't hurt anyones feelings or see bad in people...so he falls for everything" is an insult to his character and the show.

And can we just be done with other this "Elizabeth is dead" plot line. She was mediocre as a main character. Her best seasons and episodes was when another character was playing her and she was always 10 steps behind.

I did get a kick out of this episode. For one thing, Reddington makes some bad mistakes and acts on them. The poor guy who was waiting in the house for Elizabeth to come to him, gets the royal treatment from Sciatica Man. He is innocent. Then there's the bit with the safe, Reddington going after the guy who built it. And finally mention of a character whose name we have not heard for some time. The other plot has to do with Aram and a program he wrote (and slipped up on trust and oversight) which was used against a drug cartel. It nearly gets him killed. Most of the time I have no understanding of the computer stuff which diminishes the understanding for us average folks. I have the same problem with Star Trek when they solve a problem with quantum gobbledegook. Still, everything is ultimate portrayed in reality. Good show.