Ray Donovan 7.5: Bing!

Another primo episode of Ray Donovan tonight - 7.5 - which ended with a great low Irish tenor voice from Bing Crosby singing "Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-rah".  Bing's voice has been on television a lot these days, singing "There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays" for an ad for the US Postal Service.  And, just for good measure, I recall reading somewhere years ago that "Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral" was John F. Kennedy's favorite song.

So lots of nostalgia in tonight's episode including the plot, which featured the return of another Sullivan - maybe the late Sully's brother - who had a major role in the Brinks robbery, which took advantage of Mick.  All this while Ray is starting to fall in love with Molly Sullivan, which I hope he does.  They should have had a shot of Ed Sullivan on some CNN retrospective of the 1960s, there were so many Sullivans around.

The episode also had a retired cop, Larry O'Malley, played by Mike Starr, who was so good as Tony on The Bodyguard.  Tonight he gets electrocuted by Mickey, trying to get some information out of him.  With Sandy and Daryll in on the action, this was good for some laughs, too.

And there was even what can only be described, against all odds, as a tender scene between Ray and Terry.  First on the Cyclone, I don't think I've seen either of them, especially Ray, laugh so much.  One of the best little scenes of the series.  And then the deer - something very emotionally effective about that.  And speaking of touching, what a scene with Alan Alda as Ray's shrink, hand shaking, saying he can't be Ray's shrink forever, because he has Parkinson's (which Alda in fact has).

And Dash Mihok as Bunch had a fine night, putting on masks of Hillary, Nixon, and Trump to get money for the mother of the kid he shot a few weeks ago.  All this going on while Smitty finally grows some.

So, like I said, a primo episode.  I'm really enjoying this season of Ray, and I'm looking forward to more.

See also Ray Donovan 7.1: Getting Ahead of the Game ... Ray Donovan 7.2: Good Luck ... Ray Donovan 7.3: "The Air that I Breathe" ... Ray Donovan 7.4: Claudette and Bridget

See also Ray Donovan 6.1: The New Friend ... Ray Donovan 6.2: Father and Sons ... Ray Donovan 6.4: Politics in the Ray Style ... Ray Donovan 6.6: The Mayor Strikes Back ... Ray Donovan 6.7: Switching Sides ... Ray Donovan 6.8: Down ... Ray Donovan 6.9: Violence and Storyline ... Ray Donovan 6.10: Working Together ... Ray Donovan 6.11: Settled Scores and Open Questions ... Ray Donovan Season 6 Finale: Snowfall and Mick

See also Ray Donovan 5.1: Big Change  ... Ray Donovan 5.4: How To Sell A Script ... Ray Donovan 5.7: Reckonings ... Ray Donovan 5.8: Paging John Stuart Mill ... Ray Donovan 5.9: Congas ... Ray Donovan 5.10: Bunchy's Money ... Ray Donovan 5.11: I'm With Mickey ... Ray Donovan 5.12: New York

See also Ray Donovan 4.1: Good to Be Back ... Ray Donovan 4.2: Settling In ... Ray Donovan 4.4: Bob Seger ... Ray Donovan 4.7: Easybeats ... Ray Donovan 4.9: The Ultimate Fix ... Ray Donovan Season 4 Finale: Roses

And see also Ray Donovan 3.1: New, Cloudy Ray ... Ray Donovan 3.2: Beat-downs ... Ray Donovan 3.7: Excommunication!

And see also Ray Donovan 2.1: Back in Business ... Ray Donovan 2.4: The Bad Guy ... Ray Donovan 2.5: Wool Over Eyes ... Ray Donovan 2.7: The Party from Hell ... Ray Donovan 2.10: Scorching ... Ray Donovan 2.11: Out of Control ... Ray Donovan Season 2 Finale: Most Happy Ending


And see also Ray Donovan Debuts with Originality and Flair ... Ray Donovan 1.2: His Assistants and his Family ... Ray Donovan 1.3: Mickey ... Ray Donovan 1.7 and Whitey Bulger ... Ray Donovan 1.8: Poetry and Death ... Ray Donovan Season 1 Finale: The Beginning of Redemption


 

It started in the hot summer of 1960, when Marilyn Monroe walked off the set of The Misfits and began to hear a haunting song in her head, "Goodbye Norma Jean" ...

The Blacklist 1.20: Unanswered Questions

An interesting Blacklist 1.20 last night, which seemed to move the major story of Lizzie and Red along a bit, but actually did not, or only barely.

Indeed, the best part of the episode concerned the villain de jour - the Kingmaker, played by Linus Roache, who brought the same presence and power to the role that he does for King Ecbert on Vikings. The other significant part of the episode involved Red's interactions with the Fitch (Alan Alda) nefarious group. Anything that peels back a little more of Red's ultimate doings on The Blacklist is a good thing.

But not much was revealed or moved forward regarding Lizzie and Red in this episode.  Yes, she finds out that Red killed her adoptive father and calls Red a monster for this, even though Red explained himself pretty well.   But we still know zero about Red's relationship with Lizzie, and, most crucially, whether he's her father or other blood relative or whatever.

In other words, here, in the final episodes of this first season, we still know next to nothing about what has been motivating Red in his relationship with Lizzie.  It's a mostly protective relationship, in which he usually is looking out for her interests, but not always.  For example, although he warned her about Tom, why didn't he do more than just express misgivings and irritations?   He was so sure that Tom was "the good guy" he said he was - whatever that is - that Red was ok with his beloved Lizzie asleep with this guy every night?   Or was it because Red had and has some interest that supersedes his protection of Lizzie - perhaps saving his own skin?  No, that doesn't quite jibe with what we've seen, either.

The Blacklist moves towards concluding its first season as one of the major mysteries on television today.

See also The Blacklist Debuts: Alias Meets Jay Z ... The Blacklist 1.2: Mysteries ... The Blacklist 1.3: Construction Site Heights ... The Blacklist 1.6: Truth and Enigma ... The Blacklist 1.7: Natural Immunity ... The Blacklist 1.8: The Father and the Husband ... The Blacklist 1.9: Field Transfusion ... The Blacklist 1.10: Those Words ... The Blacklist 1.11: Red's Retribution ... The Blacklist 1.12: The DNA Meister ...  The Blacklist 1.13: Red Writ Large ... The Blacklist 1.15: The Husband's Other Shoe ... The Blacklist 1.16: True Colors ... The Blacklist 1.19: Leveling the Scales?

#SFWApro


  Enjoy a little espionage?  Try The Pixel Eye

The Blacklist 1.11: Red's Retribution

The Blacklist was back with a good episode - 1.11 - for Red tonight, in which we get to see another, tougher side of him, or a side we knew existed, but up until now had not seen in such back-to-back, vivid evidence.

Red was nearly killed in the last episode, and we couldn't expect him to take that lying down.  Indeed, we'd expect him to unleash just the reign of retribution and terror that we saw on the screen tonight, as he methodologically hunts down and eliminates just about everyone responsible for the depredations he and Elizabeth and the FBI suffered in December under Anlso's onslaught.

So as the team hunts down the serial killer of the title - the Good Samaritan killer, with some crucial advice from Red - we get a gruesome killing spree from Red himself, which could be considered serial killing the way it's supposed to be, with the victims being people who contributed in crucial ways to the near miss Red and his loved had with death in 2013.   This also showed Red for what already knew him to be, but only saw occasional evidence of:  someone unafraid to snuff a life in an instant, but only if justified, and very much enjoying the process in the bargain.

Meanwhile, we also get a startling revelation about Fitch near the end: he's not only a bad guy, but someone important enough in the government to sit across a table from US Assistant Attorney General Fowler and hold his own with her.   In addition to being a pleasure to see Alan Alda and Jane Alexander in the same scene, this tells us our government is a lot more involved with Red and who knows what else than we've so far seen.

And last, for now, there's Liz's husband, who's off on a job interview in Nebraska for most of the episode.  As I've been saying, and will say again - I think he's a bad guy, with a nefarious story we have not yet seen, and I'm looking forward to seeing it.

See also The Blacklist Debuts: Alias Meets Jay Z ... The Blacklist 1.2: Mysteries ... The Blacklist 1.3: Construction Site Heights ... The Blacklist 1.6: Truth and Enigma ... The Blacklist 1.7: Natural Immunity ... The Blacklist 1.8: The Father and the Husband ... The Blacklist 1.9: Field Transfusion ... The Blacklist 1.10: Those Words

#SFWApro

The Blacklist 1.10: Those Words

The Blacklist 1.10 concluded the two-part episode that began last week, with a sharpening of everything already in place, a new major player, and some words at the end by Red to Lizzie which preserve what we knew and didn't know, and set the agenda for the resumption of the series in January.

Let's start with those words.   When Lizzie asks Red point blank if he's her father, he answers no.  The question is more than warranted from Lizzie, since she's just seen Red put his own life at risk to save her, after he brilliantly staved off the bad guys when he was locked in that transparent enclosure.   But he uses the same ingenuity to get out of the enclosure, and give the bad guys what they want - himself in their custody - all on behalf of saving Lizzie.  So her question is eminently reasonable.

But is Red's answer truthful?  I'm still thinking it's not.  And this pitches the question into why would Red lie about this?  I'm guessing this is the central question of at least the first season, and, whatever the answer is, we'll see that Red was unable to answer to truthfully because the lie was necessary to keep Lizzie safe.

And, as I've also said before, I'm thinking that Lizzie's husband has something to do with this.  Red reminds us to be suspicious of the husband by warning Lizzie about him.    He has yet to do anything overtly to put Lizzie in peril, but there's something about him that's wrong,  and I'm betting it will just be a matter of time until we see  his true colors when the series resumes.

Indeed, the scene with Ressler and his former wife in the hospital makes me think that in the end it will be Lizzie and Ressler that we'll see together.   Not only did Red save Ressler last week, but Ressler gave up the code tonight - against his superior's orders - to save Lizzie.   It's not completely clear what she is now feeling for him, but he definitely cares a lot for her.

And it was great to see Alan Alda as the soft-spoken head bad guy on the scene - Fitch - introduced tonight.   My guess is he knew that Red would get the better of Anslo in that room.  Maybe he even would have given Red those little scissors, if Red hadn't obtained them another way (come to think of, when did Red them in his hands?)  Anyway, a soft-spoken powerful antagonist is the perfect foil for Red.

Another fine piece of writing - by Lukas Reiter and J. R. Orci.

See also The Blacklist Debuts: Alias Meets Jay Z ... The Blacklist 1.2: Mysteries ... The Blacklist 1.3: Construction Site Heights ... The Blacklist 1.6: Truth and Enigma ... The Blacklist 1.7: Natural Immunity ... The Blacklist 1.8: The Father and the Husband ... The Blacklist 1.9: Field Transfusion

#SFWApro