Well, this was a boring and anticlimactic episode, had I watched last night I would have fallen asleep, though I can’t say it was bad just the equivalent of watching fish swim in an aquarium. I mostly have observations, because honestly I was so bored I don’t trust myself to give this episode a fair grade.
This episode was my first encounter with Peyton or maybe my second and I just don’t recall. My first thought when I heard Peyton speak was holy hell I hope that isn’t what I sound like when I speak, her over enunciation almost killed me. I’m not sure how I feel about Mac and Peyton, it is not offensive, childish, insidious or unbelievable like Danny and Lindsay, so that is a point in its favor. Watching Mac and Peyton though, is a bit embarrassing and uncomfortable, in the same vein as catching your parents having sex in the kitchen while trying to sneak your boyfriend in the house, as opposed watching Danny and Lindsay, which is akin to catching your father in the kitchen having sex with your boyfriend.
I’m not certain why I had this particular reaction to their scene at the opera and on the fifth floor, but I did feel a bit voyeuristic at the episode’s conclusion, perhaps that is a sign of how realistic this particular portrayal of intimacy comes across on screen . I’ll take Mac and Peyton’s uncomfortable encounters over the writers trying to shove Danny and Lindsay’s negative chemistry in my face week after week. I hope Mac and Peyton are the couple of the season because whatever my level of discomfort it is several steps up from the offense and anger brought on by Danny and Lindsay’s uninspired pairing.
As far as Mac ripping Hawkes a new one in the middle of the lab rather than taking it into the office, well it is just character continuity in my mind and I am a big fan of character continuity. He yelled at Danny in Season 1 in the midst of the lab, he yelled at Stella in what looked to be the garage of the station during season 1, so this particular outburst neither offended, surprised, or upset me they way it did two years ago, besides Hawkes was wrong.
Though in Hawkes defense if he compromised the case because he knew the dead woman for all of one hour, what was Mac doing on the Aiden/Pratt case, the Danny case, or Stella’s case. I understand it’s for the drama and everyone watches the show to see the characters they know investigating the cases, but you can’t really keep going on about lab integrity when team members, with closer personal connections than Hawkes had to that women, are heading up cases concerning one another.
I think the scene with Danny, Stella, and the vacuum layers was some sort of fictional scientific procedure that used many words that didn’t fit together to confuse the audience into thinking that not only was the procedure possible it was state of the art. I don’t even think I know what they said they were going to do and I went back to that part twice, it seemed to be some of the more obvious scientific bullshit they sling on this show.
I did, no surprise here, enjoy Flack’s interaction with Danny and Stella throughout the episode. It was also nice to see someone other than Danny screw up, not because I ever tire of seeing Danny and his theatrics, because I don’t, but because it added some depth to Sheldon Hawkes the walking encyclopedia. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t dislike Hawkes, but ever since he left the morgue, he has seemed a bit one-dimensional, i.e. the incredibly smart hip dude. I blame the writers wasting so many opportunities to let him shine last season, because Hill Harper is an amazing actor and given the chance to shine, he will.
