So 'Nothing for Something' was on here, and it was AMAZING!!!! Finally, a really good, meaty, 'personal' storyline for Mac. The Untouchable was great too, but that was because it had Kidnapped!Mac in it, it was a good ep from a 'case' point of view. But in this ep, Mac took a back seat on the actual case of the episode, and we got more focus on his personal storyline, which was great to see. I just *loved* this episode. From Tired!Mac at the beginning (he looks even hotter when he's tired, IMO it seems to bring the green in his eyes out more) and Jo telling him to go home (yay, Jo!), to the brilliant Mac/Flack moments - *loved* the diner scene especially, and the interrogation of the vic's husband. Loved Mac and Bill's interactions, especially the look between them when Mac came into the diner and Bill had spotted the two kids planning to leave without paying, and Mac stopped them. *Loved* seeing Mac as a young cop - hot! I was impressed to that there was actually some continuity in that according to 'Blacklist' Mac would have joined the NYPD around 1992/93, so him being a uniform cop working with an older guy like Bill in 1994 fit. No mention of Claire, which was a bit disappointing, but then Mac said he last saw Bill '8 years ago' at some police event, I think, which would be 2003, so I assume Bill would have offered his condolences then, if not immeadiately after Sept 11, and because of the type of men he and Mac are, he wouldn't bring it up again when they met up this time. So, nice continuity, and absolutely great to see Mac being given more of a history/backstory.
Great episode. For all that some people complain about the show being Mac-centric (and maybe at times it is, but I don't care) it's not often (since s1-3) that he gets a really decent, significant personal storyline, especially one that's not connected to a case the team are investigating.
Dear writers, if you read this, please write more episodes like this one. The reviewer in the tv paper we get actually said it was good to see certain characters 'back on form' - he didn't specify which characters, but I suspect he meant Mac and probably Flack, as they were definitely 'back on form'.
Seeing the Mac/Flack scene made me realize it's been a long time since we saw some real Mac/Flack goodnesss.