X-Files Episode Guide: Via Negativa

Written by Frank Spotnitz

Directed by Tony Wharmby

A truly frightening episode. A real test of  the measure of John Doggett. Who could've thought we'd be fortunate enough to get both in the same episode?

On the surface, Via Negativa should be more frustrating for the long-time X-Files viewer. Scully is absent for the majority of the story for the second consecutive week, and considering how erratic the tenor of the episodes we've been getting have been, it doesn't seem ideal to make the focus of this episode Doggett. To a certain extent, the episode hedges its bets a little, for the first time letting us see the supporting cast outside the mythology. Mitch Pileggi gives one of his more intriguing performances, finding himself, of all people, trying to take on the role of Mulder, when there is no clear explanation to what happened in the deaths of twenty cult members. Apparently, once you see a UFO on the X-Files you never go back. The episode also features the first encounter of Doggett with the Lone Gunmen, which for once succeeds on a comic level, when the trio realize, a little grudgingly perhaps, that the new guy in the unit seems to have a better grip on the paranormal than they would've given credit for being.

But jokes are hard to be found in this one. For the first time in at least two years, suspense and scares are truly the word of the day. The storyline would've been a good one  for the X-Files to handle even during the Mulder-Scully era. An apparently kooky cult leader (very well played in  small installments by Keith Szarabajka) preaches the idea of being able to reach a new level of consciousness by the taking of hallucinogenic drugs. Once he gets into that higher plane, though, things begin to spiral out of control, as he finds that in some fashion people who know him, however briefly, begin to die.  Its then revealed that the victims are dying in their dreams, when their worst conceivable nightmares come to life to kill them. The setpieces involving the dreams are quite frightening on their own - the scene where the doctor who has been experimenting on rodents, find himself being devoured by them in their jail cells, is one of the most unnerving sequences we've seen the series do in quite some time. And ultimately, the protagonist of the episode, after an encounter with the cult leader, finds himself unable to tell the difference between dreams and reality.

 All of this makes for a great episode. But what makes it sing is the work of Robert Patrick. This is the true trial by fire for Doggett, and he gives his first truly masterful performance. The way he approaches this case is completely different from Mulder - its police procedural done in a way the series hasn't tried nearly often enough, and rarely as well. As he slowly comes to accept what he is seeing, Doggett finds himself, for the first time in the series, accepting extreme possibilities, however reluctantly that he wants to.  The final act is by far one of the most unsettling things the X-Files will ever do, as Doggett finds himself walking the halls of the FBI, unable to tell for certain if he asleep or awake. Ultimately, of course, its revealed that he is - we know the series will eventually play certain tropes. But seeing Doggett come face to face with the possibility of killing Scully is arguably even scarier than it would be if Mulder had been the one to hold the ax. We've become so convinced of Mulder and Scully's link that we'd never believe that one would kill the other by now. Doggett is just enough of a tyro in the X-Files for us to think he might - and it reveals a lot about his character that, even in a dream, he'd sooner kill himself than Scully. The sequence where he walks into Scully's apartment, strobe light flashing, each step getting closer to realizing his nightmare, reveals that the series still has the possibility to enthrall even in its eighth season.

An impressive story, its even more remarkable considering that it comes from the mind of Frank Spotnitz. By this point, Spotnitz had been with the series longer than anybody with the exception of Gilligan and Carter himself. Its been harder to get the measure of Spotnitz's work than anyone else on the series, mainly because the majority of it seems to be tied with the mythology, and the remainder of his work has almost always been done in collaboration, usually with Gilligan and/or John Shiban. As a result, its been harder to get a measure on his particular style, even after nearly six seasons of writing for the X-Files. This episode is truly one of his greatest accomplishments, a relative simple story, with scary setpieces, and a doozy of a climax. He'll actually do some of his best writing during this season, finally showing some range in a way he hasn't. Equally impressive is the fact that this is the series debut for director Tony Wharmby. This is an episode that needed to be shot well, if it was going to have the power it needed. To find that its being done by a series freshman is remarkable still.

Via Negativa is one of the scariest episodes in the entire X-Files canon. And by centering it around a completely new character, it almost entirely justified the fact of the series continued existence. If the writers had managed to maintain this level of skill, the eighth season would've been even more impressive. Sadly, this is not the case, as will quickly become clear.

My score: 5 stars.

Better Late Than Never: Stranger Things review

As I've mentioned on numerous occasions, there are only so many TV series a man can watch. I've let a lot of interesting shows slip by, the majority of them on streaming TV, because I simply don't have the time. So when Stranger Things premiered on Netflix, and quickly became a cultural phenomenon last summer, I decided I had to let it pass like so many other great sounding series, like Bojack Horseman or The Get Down. Even after the kid stars stole the spotlight at the Emmys, I ignored it. Then the award nominations started coming in, and it got Best Drama nods from the Broadcast Critics and the Golden Globes. Then it managed an upset victory at the SAG awards. I gave in, and I'm so glad I did.

For one thing, the series is only eight episodes long, which means its even easier to get in to then say, Orange is the New Black.  For another, there is a definite homage to some of the classic 1980s sci-fi and fantasy - Poltergeist, The Goonies, early Spielberg. But perhaps the series it reminds me the most of is a delightful gem called Eerie, Indiana,  a delightful TV series in the early 90s that tried to be a satiric version of Twilight Zone for teens. The Duffer Brothers may not have consciously been reflecting that, but the series is set in the small town of Hawkins, Indiana. Maybe Eerie is downwind?...

From the first two episodes, Stranger Things has a pleasant feel of what is like to be a young boy or teenager growing up in the pre-cell phone, pre video game world, where the average young geek could only live in worlds around their imagination. The pilot starts out with four young boys playing D & D in their basement, and then going home. Only one of them, Will Byers, doesn't make it. This seems to run in parallel with some diabolical government event that has let something that sounds a little too much like the smoke monster from Lost. The next day, Will is gone and his mother Joyce (Winona Ryder, doing her best work in decades) becomes frantic. Hawkins is a small town, and Sheriff Harper (David Harbour), an ex-big city cop with a tragic past is still not sure of the magnitude of what is going on. Meanwhile, in the Hawkins Research Plant, a group of evil government and military officials (led by Matthew Modine, of all people) are searching something.. or someone. All of which seems to tie in to a mysterious child who will only call herself Eleven, and seems only capable of saying one or two words at a time. (By now, everyone knows Millie Bobby Brown).

Will's friends are trying to find him, led by Mike Wheeler. When they come into contact with Eleven, they still have the youth and naivete to believe that their parents have all the answers. Then they see that Eleven 'has superpowers' , seems to know who Will is, and seems very interested in the D & D action figures they were using. I have some idea what's going to come next, but for now, I will tread very lightly and talk in generalities.

Stranger Things seems to remember what it was like to be a scary show before computer effects and gore took all the subtlety out of it. It manages to get more thrills out of a few notes of music than some of the early 80s movies it pays tribute to. More importantly, it has a better feeling of what it was like to be a child in that now particularly bygone era, and what its like to be a loner in any era. There are bullies here, and angry parents, and the fun one could get out of a ham radio.  As a child of the 80s, this resonates with me specific, but I imagine any outsider will love it.

Oh, the acting on this series is exceptional, especially Brown's work, and the writing and effects are great, even when it comes to the opening sequence. But what should be most important for fans of Stranger Things  is how fitting it is for the pre-teens at its center. There's very little onscreen violence, and I haven't heard a curse word that would be out of place on broadcast TV. It's rated TV-14,  and I could easily see the CW running it. If a network head was offered this series, and passed on it, he deserves to be devoured by a Gorgomite. Parents, binge-watch it with your children. Trust me, both of you will get something out of it.

My score: 4.25 stars.

Billions of Reasons to Watch Season 2

Given the current attitude towards our economic climate combined with the result of last year's election, and there are suddenly  more intriguing reasons for watching the sophomore season of Showtime's Billions. It doesn't hurt matter that the series has decided to turn many of last year's ideas on their head, and added several intriguing new characters.

Last year's clash of titans between hedge fund billionaire Bobby 'Axe' Axelrod (Damian Lewis) and Wall Street attorney Chuck Rhoades (Paul Giamatti) ended  badly for everybody concerned. Bobby managed to escape prosecution, but only at an immense cost to his reputation, when it came out that he had made his fortune on events directly related to 9/11. Chuck's failed prosecution has damaged his standing public, and has now brought him under scrutiny from the attorney general who wants to fire him. The biggest loss came to both men to the woman they had in common, Wendy (the always fascinating Maggie Siff),. Chuck's wife, who left them both, walking out of the marriage and her job at Axe Capital.

Now, as Season 2 begins, rather than resume business as usual, the series reversed direction. Now Chuck is in severe trouble and Bobby is trying to finish him off. Though Chuck managed to barely escape being fired by the AG in last week's episode, he is still struggling to survive a massive class action lawsuit against him arranged mostly by Bobby, and which the Justice Department has taken the unprecedented step of not defending him. In addition,  a DC investigator Oliver Sach (Christopher Denham, who plays as if he were auditioning for a series created by the other Sorkin in TV)  is looking into his methods and conduct. Ironically, while Rhoades did a lot of things last season that were borderline unethical, he may now be nailed on a bonus payment to his wife that has only the appearance of being illegal, but is one of the few things last season that wasn't. Throw in the fact that his marriage to Wendy is in a non-existent phase, and Chuck is looking in bad shape.

Not that Axe is willing to just let this go. Driven to his limits, he literally tore the place apart in the final episode, and now is trying to desperately rebuild his company and his reputation.  He's walking an equally fine line; when Sach comes to him, and offers him immunity for a bribery charge, he turns down the sure chance to see Chuck indicted because it means Wendy will be as well.  He seems to be taking the loss of Wendy almost as hard as Chuck is, and it's making him even more reckless, getting angry when he can't purchase an NFL team, and demonstrating very petty behavior at a poker tournament mainly for Wendy's benefit.

As is often the case in a Showtime drama, the more intriguing characters are the supporting cast. As Wendy tries to find a new job and accept her new reality, there is a firmness to her behavior as she finds herself unable to emerge from the muck that much of the two dove into last season. Axe's second in command, Wags (David Costabile), continues to show  unwavering loyalty, despite signs that he may be overindulging in alcohol and prescription drugs. Such loyalty may not be present in Connally, Rhoades loyal second, who in the series most shocking moment so far was revealed that he called the feds in about Rhoades unethical behavior last year. And in one of the more astounding turns, the most fascinating new character is the first gender neutral character on TV. (Asia Dillon): Taylor, an intern at Axe Capital, who seems like a real genius at almost everything, who operates solely under the pronouns 'they' and theirs', and who seems to have a clear read on everybody, especially Axe. If this continues to play as well as it did last night episode, we may have new Emmy discussions down the line.

Billions is rapidly becoming one of the most entertaining series on TV, with one of the more well-used guest cast (in addition to everybody previously mentioned, Eric Bogosian, Terry Kinney and Danny Strong have all got intriguing new parts) If anything, the series is now guilty of trying with too many new things, its letting some of the older ones slip under the radar. (Malin Ackerman has yet to be used to her best benefit so far.)  But with the departure of Masters of Sex, this may be Showtime's best drama on the air, and considering the company its keeping, that's impressive.

My score: 4 stars.

X-Files Episode Guide: Redrum

Teleplay by Steven Maeda; Written by Steven Maeda & Daniel Arkin

Directed by Peter Markle

This is one of the strangest episodes in the entire X-File canon. Not because it doesn't contain any supernatural elements, or because it doesn't seem stylistically different from a lot of stories that have come before, but because despite all this, Redrum doesn't seem to really be an X-File.

It's not that we haven't had episodes without Mulder or Scully in them, but they've usually been tied to filming difficulties (Unusual Suspects or Travelers) or because the writers were trying something with one of the major characters (Musings of a Cigarette-Smoking Man). The closest equivalent we've had in the previous seven seasons is Hungry, where Vince Gilligan took us to see the episode from the perspective of the monster. One could make the argument that's what Redrum is trying to do as well - albeit with a protagonist rather than a brain-sucker - but really that's not what we're getting.

This is a lot closer to an episode of The Twilight Zone than anything that we've come to expect from Chris Carter and his merry band. We have a central character, Martin Wells, who wakes up in a jail cell on Friday in prison for his wife's murder, gets shot while being transferred to prison, and spends the rest of the episode living backwards, trying to get the clues as to what the hell is going on. The episode has very vague X-Files connections - Scully's role is insignificant, and Doggett's is just barely larger - but its primarily the story of a man who is going backward in time to prevent the death of his wife, and to realize the sins that he has committed. Even the end of episode narration doesn't sound like the purple prose of Carter and friends, but the syntax of Rod Serling.

Now, the big question is, is this altogether a bad thing? Stylistically, it plays extremely well. Joe Morton, who at the time was one of the more undervalued character actors on any medium, gives a striking performance as Wells. And because we're seeing the episode through his eyes instead of the filter of the X-Files, he's allowed to give a more elaborate and structured performance than more of the guest stars on this series are allowed to give. (Its also rather intriguing to see him in scenes with Bellamy Young nearly fifteen years before they would end up working together on Scandal). There's a very clear, simple story for the series to follow, as Wells learns that what is happening to him, and the reason why the tragedy is about to befall him. The fact that he is allowed to triumph over fate is a rare positive ending for the series - the fact that he ends up in prison in the denouement seems more of an X-Files twist then anything else.

But the problems is, of course, this is the X-Files and not Twilight Zone.. The two series may have emerged from the same oeuvre, but they have entirely different styles. As ineffective as Mulder and Scully may often be when it comes to dealing with mutants and aliens and shadowy men, they are active protagonists in all of the adventures. Twilight Zone, by contrast, had an era that was mainly dealt in paranoia and the fact that fate could not be beaten. (That was, in fact, part of the thing that the two successive remakes often failed at - as well as the fact that they didn't have Rod Serling at the helm.)  That, in fact. is what the makes Redrum more of an X-Files story - if it were Twilight Zone, Wells would've murdered his wife in the act of trying to stop it.

More to the point, there is the problem of whether its a wise idea, at this stage in the X-Files run, whether the series should be destabilized in the first place. We're already dealing with a series where one leader character has literally vanished off the face of the earth, another is trying to fill his shoes, and the series is still trying to establish the third. Is it really worth it to try and tell a story that breaks all these rules, even if its a good one? It doesn't help matters that we're still not a hundred percent sure of the style of Steven Maeda, a writer who, at this point in the series, has one other X-Files script to his name. Vince Gilligan might be able to get away with something like this - maybe with a more fitting jab or two - but we're still not sure about this one. And as a result, Maeda doesn't even try to come up with a realistic explanation as to why time is flowing backwards only for Wells. Which may be for the best - I doubt even Mulder would've been able to come up with a theory that would satisfy anybody.

Despite all this - or in a strange way, because of all this - Redrum remains one of the more entertaining episodes of the eighth season. Paradoxically, the problems with the X-Files actually make this episode work a lot better - its hard to imagine it fitting in anywhere else in the X-Files canon. It doesn't indicate a good sign for the series future that this is what they need to do in order to make workable episodes. But as a one shot deal, it's well-acted, concise, and has a beginning, middle, and end. There's very few good episodes you can say that about.

My score: 4 stars.

X-Files Episode Guide: Invocation

Written by David Amann

Directed by Richard Compton

The last thing one ever wants to complain about an X-Files story is that it's too simple - you'd think after all the unnecessary convolutions of the mytharc, one would be upset about a story that has a plain beginning, middle and end. And yet that may be the basic problem with Invocation, a way too simple ghost story with way too few twists and setpieces.

We have the setup of seven year-old Billy Underwood, who disappears right under his pregnant mother's nose at a school fair. We seem to see the teenage boy who is responsible. Ten years later, Billy reappears in the grade school, not having aged or changed a bit in the time that he's been missing. The boy refuses to say a single word, and follows all the attributes of some kind of creepy demon towards his entire family, particularly his new brother. Doggett and Scully come in to investigate, and Doggett focuses in on the same boy - Ronnie - who was at the scene in the teaser. The Underwood family fragments so that the boy and his father leave the home, and the younger brother Josh is abducted. Eventually, they find the abductor, Josh, and the skeleton of the young boy.

The idea that this is some kind of ghost story is pretty much obvious by the time the first act is over. Indeed, its so obvious you wonder why Scully doesn't cotton to the idea sooner. Much like Patience two episodes earlier, if this were a Mulder and Scully story, this episode not only would be boilerplate, it would have been resolved within the first fifteen minutes. What makes this episode work - at least in fits and starts - are two very separate brilliant performances. The first of which is Robert Patrick's.

It is clear from the moment that the agents are called on to the case that Doggett is taking this way too personally for it to be just another case. There is clearly something in Doggett's past, but whereas with Mulder, where the tragedy involving Samantha was pulled out almost immediately, David Amann manages to find a way to subtly draw out the process. He looks at a photograph of a young boy, and the scene with the police psychic, where it is clear that there is some tragedy in his past, but rather than spell it out -- Doggett doesn't wear his heart on his sleeve the same way that Mulder and Scully could - its shown through the way he focuses on figuring out who did this. The single-mindedness to resolving what happens eventually spills out to be a certain kind of desperation - he has to find the people who did this, its the only way he knows how to deal with the pain that he has. Robert Patrick gives the first well done portrayal of Doggett he will give on the series, and its the first of a series of subtle performances he will give in this way.

The other, even better performance is that of Kim Greist as Mrs. Underwood. Just as its clear that Doggett is undergoing some kind of personal problem, its equally clear that Billy's mother has never been able to deal with the loss of her son. When he is supernaturally returned to her, she is so relieved that she refuses to see the strangeness of the situation in order to be reunited with him - even if it comes at the expense of her own marriage and family. Greist clearly wants to believe that this will work as a panacea to restore something that she clearly regarded as her fault, and watching her deal with this agony as she realizes that something is still not right is one of the most wrenching things the series has managed to do.

The performance are so real and true that they almost make you forget how pedestrian the episode. The problem is, and this is becoming something of a pattern with a lot of the Amann scripts, the critical word is almost.  This is an episode that doesn't have much in the way of scares or shocks. That also works in the story's favor for a bit, because it mostly reminds us that there is a very human tragedy at the center of all this. But the episode is so focused on the performances of Patrick and Greist that it doesn't let you realize that there isn't much there. The realizations about the mark that Billy is drawing is on a knife, and the fact that somehow the psychic's fit leaders her to sing 'All the Pretty Horses' backwards are such bizarre leaps that its hard to imagine that Mulder would've been able to make him, let alone just minted believer Scully. And considering what's going on here, Scully is far less to do over the course of the episode, which unfortunately starts a trend of the next few stories that have even less of our central character.

None of this makes Invocation a terrible episode; some of the acting is very good and there's a dark, terse story underneath. But its a story that would've been ordinary had there never been an X-Files to tell it. And a simple ghost story with no shocks and twists isn't particularly good TV, even if there are some good elements.

My score: 2.5 stars.

X-Files Episode Guide: Roadrunners

Written by Vince Gilligan

Directed by Rod Hardy

Gilligan has been the most consistent writer on the series, even in the last couple of seasons when it was at its most erratic, being able to follow the changes in tone, and even move somewhat ahead of them. So it makes a certain amount of sense that, in Season 8, his first offering is a story that matches the shift back to genuine thriller. In fact, Roadrunners is one of the scarier X-Files we've had in quite some time, even if it has one of the more eccentric ideas at its center.

Over the past seven seasons, Mulder has left Scully behind in so many crimes that X-philes had begun to call them 'ditches'. It's a little less powerful that, when Scully decides to go rogue for the first time as senior agent, she finds herself in a near-death experience. What is more arresting is that the situation is far more dire than any of the escapades Mulder got himself into. Mulder at least let his conscience be his guide; Scully goes out on a consult, and finds herself, step by step, being lured into a situation involving a lunatic cult.

Now we've seen some strange things on the series (understatement of the year) but very few bring about the fear and dread that the series has been capable of maintaining that Roadrunners does. We can see the danger early on (the opening teaser is one of the more shocking that we've seen on X-Files in quite some time), but its still unsettling to see Scully, being forced into a situation where she finds herself the vessel for a monstrous slug.  I can't think of a writer on the staff other than Gilligan who would be capable of mining this story for all the shocks that he does. X-Files has done very little with actual cults, and there are few scenes as scary as seeing these people praising the lord when their vessel for Christ seems to be recovering, or when a man who has been that vessel allows himself to be stoned to death. The fact that their Christ-figure is a disgusting banana slug is one of those twists that only the X-Files could do.

Roadrunners also plays in a way like a grizzly episode of the Twilight Zone - there were more than a few episodes where lonely protagonists would find themselves in desolate settings surrounded by strangers who seemed not quite right. First-time director Rod Hardy seems to establish the atmosphere of paranoia that the former series was so good at it, not showing us the monster in its glory until the episode is more than three-quarters over. He and Gilligan also do a fine job of eliciting a fine performance from Anderson, climaxing in the moments when she sees what the townspeople are capable of, and screams with a fury that we weren't sure even now she had in her. (It would be nice if this wasn't the only time her pregnancy would be mentioned for the next third of the season, but none of that is Gilligan's fault.)

The episode stammers a bit in the final act. Doggett seems a little irked at being left behind, but manages to perform heroically throughout, alerting the local authorities that Scully is in danger, finding out exactly what is going on behind the mysterious deaths, and finding out where his partner has gotten to. It does, however, seem a little contrived how he manages to swoop down and rescue her in the last few minutes of the episode, finally managing to do what must be done to save Scully. The awkwardness in the denouement, though, throws things off a bit mainly because it seems to do  a lot to start a double standard. Mulder spent seven seasons leaving Scully behind, risking his life to the point of lunacy, and Scully never asked for an apology. Scully does it one time,  there's nothing deliberate about it, and she gives a mea culpa to Doggett. Now granted, this may be due to more pressing circumstances in her life, she is pregnant, and she wants to find her partner. But it does seem to have a double standard that just shouldn't be there, considering everything she's already gone through, and that Doggett shouldn't have to ask for. One could say that it would do more to solidify them as partner, except the series neither in its present or future states would have Scully have to apologize.

Parsing that problem aside, Roadrunners is a much better episode than last week's and does a good job of setting the tone for what future stories in the X-Files could be like. Had there been more episodes like it, relying on chills and the feeling of dread, themes the series had all but abandoned over the last few seasons, the new series could've stayed in this particular groove for quite some time. But then again, not every writer on the staff was Vince Gilligan.

My score: 4.25 stars.

Homicide Episode Guide: End Game

Written By Rogers Turrentine; story by James Yoshimura and Henry Bromell

Directed by Lee Bonner

            ‘Homicide’ hasn’t been playing by the rules in the entire ‘detectives shot’ storyline and they don’t stop in ‘End Game’ either.

 Tradition suggests that the killer be found and arrested by the end of the episode. But in the great tradition of ‘Homicide’ we don’t even know if the detectives found the real shooter. Gordon Pratt SEEMS like  the shooter ,his behavior corresponds with that of the killer and he behaves like a guilty man but we never get a straight answer one way or the other. Certainly, we get absolutely no indication from Pratt himself---- though considering his appearance and his attitude we think he did it.

Portraying Gordon Pratt is noted character Steve Buscemi. By now he has built up a reputation for being the quintessential eccentric criminal. Which makes sense because, well, he looks like

a weasel.. But Gordon Pratt is a very meaty role. He appears to be an academic, philosophic racist---- the kind of people who form militias out in Montana or West Virginia. He has a lot of intellectual books (Homer, Sophocles and Marx), in his rundown apartment a predilection for guns, and a real sense of being a wannabe For most of the episode, he talks a good game trying to sound like an intellectual gentlemen.    But it becomes pretty clear that it’s a façade and that he is little better than a thug.

            The interrogation scene between Pembleton and Pratt is an exceptional scene. Pembleton seems like the same cold ruthless interrogator that he always does--- until we get a clearer picture of Pratt. He never graduated from high school, he doesn’t understand Plato and he certainly can’t read it in the original Greek. He makes a feeble attempt to translate a passage and then gets one-upped when Pembleton (who had a classical education) interprets the page with no trouble. Then Frank falters. Heaving exposed Pratt’s ignorance he rubs it in the mans face----a move which angers Pratt into finally calling in a lawyer. With only circumstantial evidence, he can not be held. And he walks out of the station.

            We then get another scene in which Pratt walks out  by a parade of police looking at him coldly.  Then comes the wrap-up in which temperatures come to a head. Munch is pissed at Pembleton for blowing the interrogation and letting his emotions compromise him. This is ironic considering Frank’s behavior up to now. Most of the detectives leave angry---- which given the nature of Pratt’s crime, leads to something that has probably been  inevitable

            Though the search and interrogation of Pratt take up much of the episode, we do see some more of the detectives recovering. Felton is feeling well enough so that he can be released. Bolander seems alright but slips into a coma while talking to Munch, requiring him to have an operation to relieve the pressure on the brain--- something that may have given him amnesia. Howard, though she’s still in pretty bad shape, is finally awake and it seems like she’ll get through. The detective parts of them haven’t changed though. Beau goes to Kay and tells her that he thinks it was his fault for the shooting because he didn’t come in the building first. And since he was a better shot, maybe he wouldn’t have gotten the shooter. But Kay is standing firm. She was the primary she goes in first. A cop is  a  cop.

            We also get some insight into their colleagues. Reporter Rhonda Overby talks to the detectives while they walk in and out of the squadroom. Bayliss, as you might expect seems the most optimistic, Pembleton the most cool and firm. But there are some surprising reactions .Lewis is incredibly pissed off and delivers a very foul diatribe, while Munch is still reeling from the shooting (Though he does come up with a bit of Munchian wit when Overby asks him who cops talk to relieve their stress. ‘Reporters’)

            It is clear that there is a lot of anger still around and eventually, perhaps someone finds an outlet for it. Two hours after leaving police custody Pratt is found shot in the lobby of his hotel. 911 never comes and  Bayliss is the only cop who appears on the scene. No one will miss him but there are implications that when confronted by it, must face--- that someone he knows might have done it. He faces it more in the next episode but he may never be able to get right with it.

            Not much of a release, huh. ‘end Game’ doesn’t feature any of the  usual behavior or investigation from a police shooting. The guilty man may have gotten away with a murder--- or a cop might have killed an innocent (if unsavory) man. There’s no closure here, not for the police or for the audience. And that’s how real life works too. Fontana and friends may not have liked using violence in this case but dramatically it paid off. In spades