"A gift from Reddington. Enjoy" (dialog)
They say there are less than a half dozen stories or plots in the entire realm of fiction.
So it should be hard to surprise a jaded fan.
But the scene where Spader as Reddington walks unarmed into the building where the "bad guys" are holding an abducted prisoner, puts his arms in the air, identifies himself, and then (the camera shows) the villains lower their ams is triply clever because ....
(a) it is reversal or turnabout. The last thing we expect is that the man who first told the FBI about these guys is going to be the man to hire them
(b) the direction is spot on -- the audience has figure out what happened from the jump-cut and feels all the smarter once they do
(c) the scene nicely cross the two arcs in the episode, the business and personal stories Great!
And oh wait it gets better. The scene at the 42:00 mark when Lizzie accepts her "gift" (her double agent husband who tricked her into marrying him but never cared, it was just a job) and then, with hubby, a professional killer, tied to a kitchen chair so cannot escape (again) Lizzie exercises her female prerogative to sound off and tell him what she thinks of him and he HAS to listen, he has no choice -- WELL THAT IS ICONIC AND SETS A NEW STANDARD FOR HEN-PECKED.
BTW, the little twist "if you are going to handcuff someone, don't break their thumb" was used in an earlier episode of PERSON OF INTEREST but I was enjoying this episode so much, I did not much care.
Remains one of the most creative series on the air.
They say there are less than a half dozen stories or plots in the entire realm of fiction.
So it should be hard to surprise a jaded fan.
But the scene where Spader as Reddington walks unarmed into the building where the "bad guys" are holding an abducted prisoner, puts his arms in the air, identifies himself, and then (the camera shows) the villains lower their ams is triply clever because ....
(a) it is reversal or turnabout. The last thing we expect is that the man who first told the FBI about these guys is going to be the man to hire them
(b) the direction is spot on -- the audience has figure out what happened from the jump-cut and feels all the smarter once they do
(c) the scene nicely cross the two arcs in the episode, the business and personal stories Great!
And oh wait it gets better. The scene at the 42:00 mark when Lizzie accepts her "gift" (her double agent husband who tricked her into marrying him but never cared, it was just a job) and then, with hubby, a professional killer, tied to a kitchen chair so cannot escape (again) Lizzie exercises her female prerogative to sound off and tell him what she thinks of him and he HAS to listen, he has no choice -- WELL THAT IS ICONIC AND SETS A NEW STANDARD FOR HEN-PECKED.
BTW, the little twist "if you are going to handcuff someone, don't break their thumb" was used in an earlier episode of PERSON OF INTEREST but I was enjoying this episode so much, I did not much care.
Remains one of the most creative series on the air.
