“Finders Keepers” – aired on July 14, 2019
Written by: Carol Flint
Directed by: Lee Rose
Grade: 5 out of 5

Notice: All episode reviews contain spoilers

The task of coming up with a compelling and original plot for each episode must be, I presume, one of the most daunting challenges of TV procedurals due to their episodic style of storytelling. Every now and then, the writing room is able overcome that challenge with flying colors and put out an episode that checks all the boxes.

“Finders Keepers” is that type of episode.

It is exhibit A in terms of how a well-crafted script (hats off to Carol Flint), combined with directorial dexterity (same to Lee Rose), can knock it out of the park. The outing’s success is further propelled by some terrific guest-star performances, making us care about their choices in dealing with deeply personal conflicts.  

The central plot features a bitter custodial dispute with lasting consequences on the most innocent, meaning the children. Robby (Jayden Marine) is the boy caught in the middle of a drawn-out quarrel pitting his father Will (Tom Lipinski) against the Alfaros, his grandparents.

Heightening the tension is the fact that Robby’s mother Mimi died under vague circumstances five years earlier, leading the rich and rigid grandfather Theo Alfaro (Carlos Gomez) to unequivocally conclude in his mind that Will killed their daughter and got away with it thanks to his “fancy lawyer” who argued that Mimi was suicidal. We also learn that their dislike of Will even predates Mimi’s death.

Flint’s fine script does a good job of juxtaposing the various agendas of everyone involved. It is difficult to decide whose side to take in the custodial clash. The episode begins with Will leaving his son alone in the apartment to run an errand which puts him in a bad light from the get-go, but not before conveying thoroughly how much he loves Robby in a touching father-son scene in the house. As more background information is revealed, the ambivalence on whether he is a good father or not remains. On the one hand, he used to be a drug user and attempted to take Robby out of state once despite the custodial agreement forbidding him to do so. On the other hand, he has gotten clean since then and truly cares about Robby who, for his part, seems to genuinely love his father.

Theo Alfaro is portrayed in a similarly ambiguous manner. He behaves at times like a judgmental, authoritarian jerk, the kind of wealthy man who is accustomed to getting his way via money and power. Yet, it is evident that both he and his wife Amanda (Rose Arredondo) profoundly care for Robby. What is harmful to the boy is not the time he spends with the Alfaros or his dad, during which he seems to feel safe and loved, but rather the toxic environment created by the clash between them. It is obvious to Lizzie and Dylan that Robby was suffering, but apparently, he was hiding it well (Dylan makes insightful comments on a child’s mental state in such situations).

Robby’s one escape from that febrile milieu, as we find out late in the episode, is the bond formed between him and the two daughters of his godparents, the Lockharts. He has spent extended time with them and they get along very well.

The crisis reaches its pinnacle when Robby disappears from his father’s apartment the night before a court date. The window is broken and there are traces of blood on it. Suspicions of kidnapping and finger-pointing run rampant.  

From the time our two leads arrive to the scene, Lizzie’s terse and edgy disposition grabs Dylan’s attention. After much probing by him, Lizzie eventually explains why the case carries a personal nature for her. This is a clever angle taken by the writing room, shifting Lizzie and Dylan’s positions from one of mere crime investigators to that of human beings intensely invested in pursuit of justice and happiness for the most vulnerable in our society. Back when she was 11 years old, Lizzie’s mother left her and Katie (her sister introduced back in “Secrets and Lies“) alone in the house for a night. They were told not to use the stove, but Katie was desperate for a hot dog, so Lizzie relented. The dishtowel caught on fire and a neighbor reported the incident. Her mom was served, but Lizzie claimed to the judge that her mom left them with the downstairs neighbor named Mr. Keller and that the incident occurred when the two ran up to their apartment. Except that there was no Mr. Keller. The judge bought Lizzie’s tale and the mother got off.

Reflecting on her experience, Lizzie says that she was in a better situation than Robby because she had Katie whereas Robby has had to deal with adversity alone. Upon listening to Lizzie’s recount and reflection, the wheels in Dylan’s head turn and it dawns on him that Robby was not exactly alone either. The Lockhart daughters Emma and Sutton are his friends (Brookly Shuck and Shiloh Verrico are terrific in their roles despite their limited screen time). It turns out that they helped Robby escape from Will’s apartment. Robby knew that his grandfather’s van drove away to Rockaways each night and that is how he ended up, unbeknownst to everyone but Emma and Sutton, at a walking distance away from the Lockhart’s beach house where he was hiding. Lizzie and Dylan find him there watching cartoons on TV. The boy did not want to be put in a position to choose between his father and grandparents the next day in court, so his friends Emma and Sutton helped him escape.

There are a few neat little twists and turns in the script that keep us guessing. For example, when the police search the Alfaros’ home, they find plane tickets to Cuba along with Robby’s passport, which makes it look as if the grandparents were planning to take Robby away for good, considering that Cuba does not have an extradition accord with the United States. Then, blood is discovered in the back of a van owned by Theo’s company and his response is to ask for his lawyer, making it seem likely that he kidnapped Robby (his wife chiming in with her trembling voice as she asks him, “What did you do?” is a nice additional touch). Furthermore, the lab results show later that the blood in the van matches Robby’s DNA which leads to a brief action scene in the precinct where Will tries to attack Theo but our Nebraskan detective Ryan stops him at the last second thanks to an uber-athletic jump over a desk.

Speaking of Ryan, he gets assigned the task of babysitting/interrogating Will at the precinct. He learns that Will got some cash from the ATM on the night of Mimi’s death five years ago. Dylan and Lizzie dig up the ATM records that could function as alibi for Will and clear his name once and for all.

Another example of a twist involves one of the company drivers Mr. Henderson (Daniel Stewart Sherman) who becomes a suspect in the case because he happened to be in the crowd watching the initial crime-scene investigation earlier in the episode and Robby’s blood was later found in his van.

Two late developments, apart from Dylan’s reflection on Lizzie’s childhood experience, help our heroes definitely solve the puzzle. First, the finger-print results from the windowsill in Robby’s room do not match that of Theo, Will, or the driver which causes Dylan and Lizzie to re-focus on Robby’s point of view. Second, when they go back to Robby’s room for a second look, Lizzie finds under the bed the handle of a jump robe in what is the only blemish in the otherwise flawless script. In the beginning of the hour, we see the police force searching Robby’s room with Dylan, Lizzie, and Lt. Gooden present. The jump-rope handle going unnoticed under the bed is simply not plausible.

In any case, it seems that the true heroes in this mess are the children while the adults in the room fail to behave like, well, adults. It’s an hour filled with lessons and although the notion of disaccord between adult family members ultimately damaging children is nothing new, “Finders Keepers” does a great job of capturing the harmful effects of family disputes by shining the spotlight on the consequences of adults losing their sanity and good judgment, rather than on the reasons behind the dispute itself.

Judge Gillespie (Debra Monk) rules that Robby can stay with the Lockharts until the custodial dispute is resolved between Will and the Alfaros. The brief reunification at the end with Robby getting a group hug from Will and the grandparents, with no sound except soft background music, is a beautiful scene.

In other news, Julian and Andy make brief, yet meaningful, appearances in the episode.

In my review of “Broken Record,” I mentioned Julian and Lizzie’s frustration at their inability to spend time alone due to Jasmine temporarily moving in with Lizzie. Well, they appear to have solved the problem as we see them in a five-star hotel room, where Julian claims to live. Lizzie, in her bathrobe, hears Julian, the jack of all trades, speaking in Serbian on the phone and they kiss. He plays a far more important role later in the episode when he modifies the computers at the precinct, under his “Jules the computer guy” persona, so that the company van suspected of transporting Robby can be tracked more efficiently.

Andy, for his part, is leading the search for adoption. A surprise development takes place when he finds out, through an unexpected call at the end of the hour, that his helper at the bar named Samantha “Sam” Arimitsu (Olivia Oguma) is pregnant and considering giving her baby up for adoption. The episode does an adequate job of introducing Sam to the viewers earlier in the episode when we see Andy praising her skills to Dylan on the phone but also expressing his disappointment that she is resigning because of her plans to move back to California. He had even offered her a promotion. Having now learned about her pregnancy, I am expecting Andy to have another talk with her in the upcoming episode(s). It is not clear (at least to me) at this point if Sam is truly leaving for California or if that is just the reason she gave Andy for her resignation in order to avoid revealing to him that she is pregnant.

Last-minute thoughts:

– In a nice little nod to continuity, we see Fucci and Stock getting along much better after the positive ending to their stressful collaboration last week. Fucci calls his Nebraskan colleague “Ryan of Mayberry,” and Stock comes back with “Manhattan’s finest” in a funny little banter between the two.

– I also appreciate the distribution of airtime to the recurring actors so far this season. Fucci was more involved in the previous episode’s story. In this one, Sgt. Harris takes more center stage because he was on the team that investigated Will five years ago when Mimi died.

– Robby telling his dad and his grandparents separately that he wanted to live with them signals his concern for the feelings of both parties. The boy is a mensch.

– Robby’s emotional tie to Cheetah, the stuffed monkey, is well depicted in the early going, a detail that comes into play later.

– I found the stylish time stamps that appeared occasionally throughout the episode, telling us how long Robby has been missing, to be an effective visual accessory.

– I love how Ryan explains his impressive tackle of Will to Lizzie by informing her that he played safety, wide receiver, “and the water boy” in high school, before awkwardly adding, “it was a small school.” Ryan’s a cool character and Van Winkle is a good addition to the cast.

– Lizzie and Dylan have a great little banter at the end, in which Lizzie, for once, turns the table on Dylan and analyzes his behavior.

– After three episodes, I feel comfortable enough to conclude that both the Dylan-centric monologue that began each episode in season 1 and the irksome blue-hued tone that accompanied Dylan’s epiphanies are both gone for good. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Michael Rauch, the showrunner (and whoever else may have played a role in making this change). Thank you! I know I harped on this a lot in my previews, but I shall no more.

Until the next episode…

PS1: You can find the links to all my episode reviews by clicking on “All Reviews” at the top.
PS2: Follow Durg on Twitter and Facebook

“Broken Record” – aired on July 7, 2019
Written by: Keith Foglesong
Directed by: Alex Pillai
Grade: 3 out of 5

Notice: All episode reviews contain spoilers

The main problem with “Broken Record” is its A story’s lack of depth. The concept of the musician who suffers from a rare mental condition that makes him seek new thrills, and unfairly gets killed as a consequence, is simply not conveyed with enough bravado to engross the viewer. The investigation of a far more intricate murder du jour in the season opener “Stay Gold” ended up getting squashed timewise because of too many other plot developments and I could not help but think how much better that story would have played out as the A story of “Broken Record,” considering the ample amount of time allocated to it here. It would have at least avoided the rushed conclusion it had to settle for last week. Yet, despite having plenty of time to flesh out this week’s murder mystery, everything comes across so predictable and so bland that I struggled to care for it. Average performances by the guest actors, except for Lizzy DeClement who plays Annie, did not help the cause either.

A gun-shot victim named Elliott is found dead in the roller coaster of an amusement park. According to his twin sister Annie, he “found inspiration in solitude,” so he picked odd places to write his music in isolation. They formed a band together until a month ago when Elliott suddenly decided to take his music in a different direction.

Lizzie and Dylan search Elliott’s apartment where they find a key and a ton of broken records. Next, they talk to Ross (Samuel H. Levine), the band’s manager, who informs them that Elliott had a storage unit where he kept his music equipment and computer. They use the key to open the unit in which they find a second key to open another one with an expensive Maserati in it. Elliott apparently stole the vehicle from a dealer in Hell’s Kitchen the week before. Dylan and Lizzie also learn that he robbed a bank and recently started skydiving.

At first, our detectives struggle to explain the sudden change in the musician’s behavior. He apparently tried to give the car away and left the stolen money in the parking lot of the bank. He was merely searching for new thrills. There is just not enough riveting material here (and not much action either, for those who enjoy them). Instead, the plotline rather comes across as an exposition on a mental condition called “persistent déjà-vu,” triggered by temporal-lobe epilepsy in Elliott’s case. It stopped him from signing a deal with a record company that would have been lucrative for both Ross and the band. Ross turned desperate and tried to force Elliott at gun point to sign. Agitated and tense, his finger triggered the gun by accident, killing his friend. We learn all this thanks to our behavioral expert Dylan getting the guilt-ridden Ross to confess everything following a profound tête-à-tête at a bar. All-right!

Another reason why this tedious story seems to drag out, apart from endless scenes of Dylan psychoanalyzing Elliott’s music, is the lack of a B story. Instead, we get glimpses of C stories relating to the longer arcs established in “Stay Gold.”

One involves Andy and Dylan doing a “birth investigation” for their adoption. Andy asks in the beginning of the hour if they ready to “dive back in.” Heck, they already have a board ready with all the adoption possibilities drawn out like a family tree. Thus, it comes as no surprise when, during a sweet talk between the two at the end of the episode, they decide to “pursue them all.”

Another C story is Jasmine’s newly found penchant for going out and partying, which is visibly wearing Lizzie out – see her hair through half of the episode. Inserted in there somewhere is a pedestrian scene of Julian and Lizzie secretly “necking” (Dylan’s words) in the front seat of her car parked in front of a night club. Lizzie apparently snuck out and away from Jasmine, to engage in this pre-teenager activity because the two cannot fulfill their desired quota of lustful encounters since Jasmine moved in with Lizzie.

Eventually, Lizzie gives Jasmine a friendly, but necessary, lecture on how the latter’s tendency to party every night only serves to avoid tackling the real issue, which is, for Jasmine to confront the emotional aftermath of her break-up with her fiancé. Lizzie offers to help, but would rather do so by talking with her at home while eating a pizza, not while drinking at clubs and dancing to loud music.

A third C story involves the relationship dynamic between detectives Fucci and Stock. They are assigned by Jasmine to investigate the “Sleeping Beauty” murders and form a link between the two cases. Except that these two guys come from different backgrounds and use different methods. Stock is particularly frustrated because he is in unfamiliar surroundings and the investigation carries a bit of a personal nature for him. He promised the family of the victim, a long-time member of the community back in Garfield County, that he would bring the killer to justice. At some point, he takes Dylan’s advice and goes rogue to find evidence that links the two cases together. Fucci is pleased with the end result and praises Stock in front of everyone, ending the synergy conundrum between them on a positive note.

Last-minute thoughts:

– Neat choice for the episode title, referring to both Elliott’s condition and the broken records in his apartment.

– Second episode in a row with no Dylan-centric monologue to start and no blue-hued tone during epiphanies (if you have read my reviews, you know what I’m talking about). I will wait one more episode to be absolutely certain, before I celebrate and put a big check mark in the plus column for Season 2.

– Nit-picking myself: I was thrown off by Dylan’s use of plural when he said, “The Sleeping Beauties case” at the end of the season opener when Det. Stock showed him the photo of the male victim in Nebraska. I thought he was referring to a series of murders by the same killer, the one in Nebraska being merely one of them. Then again, I am still thrown off, because throughout this episode, the singular form is used, “The Sleeping Beauty case,” yet we know there are at least two such murders.

– Reinhart’s vocabulary lesson of the week: Musical anhedoniac. It refers to someone who is incapable of enjoying music.

– DeClement can sing! Nice pick by the showrunners for the role of Annie.​  

Until next episode…

PS1: You can find the links to all my episode reviews by clicking on “All Reviews” at the top.
PS2: Follow Durg on Twitter and Facebook

“Stay Gold” – aired on June 30, 2019
Written by: Michael Rauch
Directed by: Stephen Surjik
Grade: 4,5 out of 5

Notice: All episode reviews contain spoilers

The first act of Instinct‘s season 2 premiere closely resembles that of “Pilot,” the episode that launched season 1 and the series. It begins with the murder du jour when Justine Crowley (Rosie Benton), a successful businesswoman who was doing research on the prospects of extending the lifespan of humans, gets locked in her cryogenic chamber from the outside by unknown assassin and freezes to death. Next are scenes with our two leads in their familiar surroundings. Det. Lizzie Needham is carefully observing the corpse of another victim neatly wrapped in a blanket and left in Central Park (in “Pilot,” the crime-scene observation was passed over, understandably, for the sake of introducing the two leads to one another), while Professor Dylan Reinhart is playing the super-witty genius in the classroom with his students.

Lizzie’s interaction with Det. Fucci at the crime scene and Dylan’s playful social experiment with a student named Jenny (Alicia Crowder) are good reminders of why this duo is Instinct’s best asset and how much fans of the show probably missed Bojana Novakovic and Alan Cumming playing them. True to their form, the straight-shooting Lizzie questions Fucci’s use of the term “intellecty” and Dylan, for his part, blows his students’ minds with the link he forms between happiness and narcissism via the brief question-and-answer moment with Jenny. The synergy between Lizzie and Dylan when they banter back and forth later as they are walking to see Crowley’s frozen corpse is as impeccable as it was when they first sat down to chit-chat at a bar back in “Pilot.”

Welcome back Instinct!!

“Stay Gold,” Penned by showrunner Michael Rauch, is a strong start to the season. There are several positive signals emanating from it, such as the return of all main characters and recurring cast, meaning that the audience will not need to adjust to new faces and that even accessorial characters like Doug the Medical Examiner (Andrew Polk), Det. Anthony Fucci (Danny Mastrogiorgio), Sgt. Kanter Harris (Michael B. Silver), Det. Jimmy Marino (John Mainieri), and Zack Clark (Stephen Rider) will get to grow further and perhaps earn the chance contribute to storylines in significant ways – well, ok, to be precise, Zack did that once, in “Long Shot,” in his first appearance. These guys display the types of comportment and humor that mesh well with Instinct’s light-hearted genre of procedural.

There is also the fact that “Stay Gold” does not feature couple of trends from season 1 that I found somewhat annoying. If you read my reviews regularly, you can probably guess what they are because you noticed me incessantly complaining about them.

First of all, the Dylan-centric monologue that began each episode in season 1, and did everything but scream that Lizzie (the female co-lead) was, after all, a complementary character to showcase the nonpareil virtuosity of Dylan (the male co-lead), appears to be gone. Or, so I hope. Second, Dylan’s epiphany moment was devoid of the blue-hued visual that accompanied his epiphanies throughout last season. Please, let it remain that way.

As for the episode itself, there are a couple of murder investigations crammed into the hour, as noted above. Justine is our victim du jour, meaning the reason behind her death gets solved by the end of the episode. As for the victim found in Central Park, it appears to be an attempt on behalf of the writing room at a long-arc story involving a serial killer and a nation-wide search. Thus, the appearance of Det. Ryan Stock (Travis Van Winkle) who visits the precinct at the end of the episode. He has found similarities between the murder he is investigating back in Garfield County, Nebraska, and the one discovered by the NYPD at the park.  

Although “Stay Gold” spends hardly any time on the mystery of the body found in Central Park, it is bound to be explored in the upcoming episodes. Dylan seems to have prior knowledge of the investigation of the “The Sleeping Beauties” case (use of plural suggesting there had been more than one) when Stock shows him the picture of the victim wrapped in a blanket in Nebraska.

Since the long story-arc is merely introduced, one would expect the murder du jour to take center stage in the episode. This is not exactly what happens in “Stay Gold.” There are important B, C, and D stories taking place involving the main characters, thus taking away from the bravado of the A story tackling the Crowley investigation.

On the one hand, it’s completely understandable, because the episode, being the season premiere, needs to establish direction for the main characters and act as a signpost for the season to come. On the other hand, it’s too bad, because the A story, as cleverly built up as it was, suffers from a reductive, ham-fisted conclusion, simply because there does not seem to be enough time to do otherwise.

I am specifically referring to the two sequences leading to its conclusion, the one in the restaurant with Andy, Dylan, Julian, and Lizzie and the other with Dylan and Lizzie apprehending the perpetrator and saving the day.

The first one features a process of deduction by Dylan and Lizzie so far-fetched, and a starting point of that process so half-baked (some guy yelling at the host about his table not being ready), that it’s in your best interest to simply put your attention on the much better part of the scene, its saving grace frankly, which is the disbelief on the faces of Andy and Julian as they stare at Dylan and Lizzie putting 2,4516354 and 2,8594986 together in a minute and a half, identifying the murderer, realizing that he is on the verge of killing another, and rushing out of the restaurant. Julian turns to Andy and asks, “How’s the sea bass?” once Dylan and Lizzie depart. It is a moment of pure bliss because it is meant as sarcasm with regard to how they were ignored by their lovers, yet it also comes across as a punctuation mark on the absurdity of the scene. I shouldn’t complain though, at least I was spared the blue hue with Dylan’s epiphany.

When Lizzie and Dylan do finally with the killer who is about to commit another murder, the show falls back to its safe zone, where Dylan plays the ‘distractor’ and Lizzie the ‘apprehendor,’ after the perpetrator spills out the “hows and whats” of his crimes. Yes, we’ve seen that before.

It’s a shame because the Crowley murder story is nicely built until then, and it is one of the more intricate schemes by a perpetrator that Instinct ever had to offer, with good performances from the guest actors (Jennifer Ferrin as Dr. Becker, John Lavelle as Mr. Crowley, and Andrew Rothenberg as the villain, and Paul Alexander Nolan as the Olympic swimmer from 2004 on whom both Dylan and Lizzie had a crush). I just wish it had more room to breathe once time came to bring it to an end. Again, I cannot help but believe that it was somewhat inevitable, because there are important developments involving the main characters as individuals and as couples.

A lot happens to (and around) Julian in “Stay Gold.” He arrives to his apartment to find an intruder hacking into his system. He decides that it’s best to destroy the system than let the intruder grab any sensitive information, so he blows it up himself with a remote. He then escapes and spends the rest of the episode attempting to identify the one who burned him, using the computers at the precinct. Maybe I missed something, but why did he not even consider neutralizing the intruder and questioning him? Or at least, learn his identity?

Speaking of Julian helping himself to the precinct’s computers, the last thing Lizzie wants is her secret lover, of whom only Dylan and Andy are aware if memory serves, spending extensive time at her workplace. Yet, there he is, posing as “Jules” the computer guy who is there to solve the precinct’s computer-virus problem, the one that Lizzie mentioned to Dylan on the phone while Julian was lying next to her in bed after a steamy session of sex. Needless to say, Lizzie, the straight shooter, is vexed at the prospect of having to daily pretend not knowing “Jules” around her colleagues. There is a great little back-and-forth between Dylan and Lizzie as he tries to assure her that it’s no big deal, which sends Lizzie into a hard-whisper tirade to which Dylan responds with a defensive riposte of his own. It’s another one of those golden Dylan-Lizzie verbal spats and Cumming and Novakovic look and sound so natural doing them that they are delightful to watch.

Julian (half)lies to Lizzie at first saying that he took the computer-guy job to be closer to her, but little by little, he realizes that he may have miscalculated Lizzie’s unwavering penchant for honesty and openness. There is a touching scene at the end in which Julian, recognizing that his presence at the precinct is hurting Lizzie more than he ever expected, decides to come clean to her. He reveals his real name, Reuben, and confesses to her that he is not at the precinct solely for the purpose of being closer to her as he had claimed before, but also because of another reason that he cannot share with her at the moment, but promises to do so very soon. Lizzie rewards his confession with a passionate kiss. Well done Julian! In fact, this is the best ‘Julian episode’ so far in my opinion, at least the one that carries the most substantial developments involving his character.

But of course, someone had to ruin the magic moment between the two, and that would be Lt. Gooden who rings the doorbell as they are kissing upstairs. To make matters worse, she brought a suitcase, meaning that she is planning to say with Lizzie for a while because she broke her engagement to David (who cheated on her) and needs a friend. For some reason, I never cared one iota about the Jasmine-David relationship, so I’d be more than happy if David is never mentioned again. I just feel bad for Lizzie who had to interrupt her kiss and open the door to a depressed Jasmine, and Julian who had to escape through a window (or something) once Jasmine showed up.

Dylan, in the meantime, gets back to working within the fold of the NYPD, because Andy decided to use his dexterity as a lawyer to find a loophole of some sort to get Jasmine to reinstate Dylan. Of course, Andy the consummate diplomat also twists Dylan’s arm into apologizing to Jasmine without “making the other person feel as if they should be apologizing.” As Dylan tries to object, Andy pulls one of the most effective “shush”s ever and Dylan properly shushes. Later, there is a brief conversation that suggests that Andy is considering practicing law again, and if so, count me in. I would love to see Andy’s character go beyond the portrayal of the lovely domestic partner to Dylan. By the way, these two are also looking to get back on the “adoption horse” (Dylan’s words, I promise).

I am curious to see how all these threads develop, including the “Sleeping Beauty case,” as the second season progresses further.  

Last-minute thoughts:

– Lizzie dressed in full suit, runs after young and athletic dude wearing a track suit and running shoes, and catches up with him fairly quickly. O-kay. We’ve seen that before too – “Long Shot” – so I guess I should not be surprised.

– Lizzie handcuffs the runner and walks him back to Fucci who, in the most casual manner possible, says to the guy, “Come on, you’re going to jail,” after cracking a wise-ass joke to Lizzie. Fucci rules!

– Fear of dying from boredom: Thaasophobia. I probably said this before but if you watch Elementaryand Instinct weekly, you will probably learn more from Sherlock and Dylan than you have ever learned in school. Then again, Dylan did not appear to know the term “corpsicle” when Doug the Med.Ex. used it. That’s a firm minus on Dylan’s vocabulary card.

– Speaking of Doug, I adore his brand of sarcasm and Andrew Polk is terrific in delivering those lines. Just watch him say to Dylan and Lizzie, while standing next to the corpsicle of Justine, “You guys are really struggling with the notion of frozen. Let it go. Let it go.” Priceless!

– Time to nitpick myself. I just realized that Lt. Gooden runs the “11th” precinct. I guess I never paid attention to the official designation of their workplace. I knew it was “a” precinct, just not the number. Was it ever mentioned before?

Until the next episode…

PS1: You can find the links to all my episode reviews by clicking on “All Reviews” at the top.
PS2: Follow Durg on Twitter and Facebook