Episode Discussion 3x09

[orockthro]

Well dudes, it's that time of the week again. o___o
Tonight's episode (3x09, The Crossing) might be a doozy, so let's hold onto our butts, keep our heads, and don't blink.
Spoilers beyond this point! And also feelings.

Comments

[hedda62]

Yes. We all could have written that better, right?

And of course I've been doing just that in my head since. My favorite scenario (aside from "Everybody lives!") is the one where Carter and Fusco change places for the episode; it's Carter who gets nabbed by HR and tortured, and Taylor who gets saved by Shaw, and they have a tender phone call where it's obvious how much of a dire crush Shaw has on Carter, and then Carter escapes just like Fusco did (and I know they'd never do that, because we can KILL a woman but we can't break her fingers, oh no). And meanwhile Reese is trying to get Quinn to the FBI on his own, until Fusco joins him and they hole up together in the morgue, and have the chance for a real heart-to-heart (and it can be bro-talk, I won't insist on the kissing). And then, if we have to have the ominous twist at the end, it's Fusco who goes down, and Reese is equally furious, not because he was in love but because A HERO FELL.

But if they insist on Reese/Carter and dead!Carter, I could write that better too. Dammit.

OH. WELL. Sticking in a comment below about what I did like, just for the sake of some balance.

[giandujakiss]

Everything was indefensible. They fridged another woman, they killed their only black character (and their only POC character - Shahi is of Iranian descent but the Shaw character is, as far as we know, white). And apparently, a woman's death is meaningless unless she has a lover - Reese's platonic love, Shaw's and Finch's admiration, Fusco's affection isn't enough - so they have to shoehorn in a romance plot that had no grounding in the prior storylines. And to do that they had to retcon two seasons of Reese's characterization, by making it that Carter's arrest in the Pilot is what gave him the will to live, and not, you know, getting a chance to save people by Finch.

I can't decide if I'm more angry or more depressed.

[hedda62]

by making it that Carter's arrest in the Pilot is what gave him the will to live, and not, you know, getting a chance to save people by Finch

This, yes. That just made me burn. And it's not like he couldn't have been motivated by both things and say so - although, um, he didn't exactly have a choice until the point when he walked away from Finch, and the next thing we see is him drinking himself to sleep. I'm happy to believe that Carter had an influence on his decision, but it wasn't bang like magic on meeting her. And Finch was a much bigger influence.

Also, this just throws him right back into his season 1 characterization, which is sad. I'm actually okay with Carter dying if it's on her own terms (and at least she had a real arc), but for God's sake don't do it so Reese has something to avenge. He would have had that anyway.

[enemyofperfect]

I think the name Sameen suggests that Shaw's background is similar to Shahi's -- but just because they still have one character of color doesn't mean it was fine to kill off the other. One out of four was too low, and one out of five is worse.

[aprilvalentine]

I can't decide if I'm more angry or more depressed.

Same here.

And to do that they had to retcon two seasons of Reese's characterization, by making it that Carter's arrest in the Pilot is what gave him the will to live, and not, you know, getting a chance to save people by Finch.

You know, if they just had avoided doing that, I might have been less angry. Was he lying when he told anyone who would listen for two years that Finch was the one who saved him and gave him a purpose, when he told Finch on the rooftop that he'd be dead already if Finch hadn't found him? I don't mind Reese being grateful to Carter too, but I have never felt their scene in the pilot was any kind of magic that created either romantic sparks or was the one thing that gave him the will to live. If Finch hadn't sent the lawyer to pick him up, he'd've walked out of that precinct and never been heard of again.