I don't have much in the way of thinky thoughts on this one. It was okay - not one of my favorites, but with some good stuff. And it kind of felt like a...filler is the wrong word...like a bridge of sorts, an episode that was there to get us from here to there (like the middle movie or book in a series). Not sure that will make sense to anyone but me.
There were bits I really liked: The whole exchange/negotiation between Neal, Peter, Jones and Mozzie.
The bit where Mozzie calls Neal's phone after they've switched out for Pratt's - Mozzie's improv was genuinely, LOL funny.
The return of the Swiss army knife baby! Still creepy, btw.
The scene where Neal calls Pratt out - I can't put my finger on exactly why, but that scene really worked for me.
"Keys don't have existential crises."
The main thing I was not so enthused about was the Elizabeth sub-plot. At first it seemed out of character to me that she would tell Neal to lie to Peter. Then I wondered if I maybe have a too-idealized view of El, and if that might be coloring my reaction to the episode. But honestly, it felt kind of contrived to me. Pratt ended up on Peter's radar because of the situation with Neal and his father, but once there was evidence that Pratt was corrupt, Peter was, well, doing his job to investigate him. And I guess I'm not so convinced that looking into the key was going to put Peter in more danger than just going after Pratt in general. And Elr's point is a good one. Peter knows Neal lied, and he (Peter) is clearly still looking into the key, so why doesn't Elizabeth tell him what happened at that point?
Re: the Peter!whump - I think the way that was played may have had something to do with my problem with the El thing as well. *She* was clearly really upset and worried, and her level of worry is supposed to be the motivation for her essentially ordering Neal to lie to Peter. And okay, her husband's just been in a car crash and it's pretty obvious that it was due to foul play. But the filming of the accident itself, and then everyone else's reactions, seemed to downplay the whole thing. I mean, Peter is unconscious, but the diagnosis is concussion and whatever they said was wrong with his arm, it doesn't seem that either Diana or Neal is extremely worried about his condition, and while his car was t-boned (poor, poor Taurus), the staging/filming of the crash was kind of underwhelming. Maybe if I had felt the danger to Peter more, Elizabeth's concern (and what she does about it) would have felt more real to me? It was kind of like, intellectually, I understood why she would do what she did, but as I was watching I didn't quite believe it. And IDK if *that* makes sense to anyone but me either. :-)
On the other hand, as much as I felt less than convinced about what got us there, the idea that Neal and Peter are both solving the puzzle of the key at the same time (it's a race?) is cool. And I really liked that last sequence where they cut back and forth between the two of them working it out. Oh, boys!
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Date: 2013-01-30 04:59 am (UTC)There were bits I really liked:
The whole exchange/negotiation between Neal, Peter, Jones and Mozzie.
The bit where Mozzie calls Neal's phone after they've switched out for Pratt's - Mozzie's improv was genuinely, LOL funny.
The return of the Swiss army knife baby! Still creepy, btw.
The scene where Neal calls Pratt out - I can't put my finger on exactly why, but that scene really worked for me.
"Keys don't have existential crises."
The main thing I was not so enthused about was the Elizabeth sub-plot. At first it seemed out of character to me that she would tell Neal to lie to Peter. Then I wondered if I maybe have a too-idealized view of El, and if that might be coloring my reaction to the episode. But honestly, it felt kind of contrived to me. Pratt ended up on Peter's radar because of the situation with Neal and his father, but once there was evidence that Pratt was corrupt, Peter was, well, doing his job to investigate him. And I guess I'm not so convinced that looking into the key was going to put Peter in more danger than just going after Pratt in general. And Elr's point is a good one. Peter knows Neal lied, and he (Peter) is clearly still looking into the key, so why doesn't Elizabeth tell him what happened at that point?
Re: the Peter!whump - I think the way that was played may have had something to do with my problem with the El thing as well. *She* was clearly really upset and worried, and her level of worry is supposed to be the motivation for her essentially ordering Neal to lie to Peter. And okay, her husband's just been in a car crash and it's pretty obvious that it was due to foul play. But the filming of the accident itself, and then everyone else's reactions, seemed to downplay the whole thing. I mean, Peter is unconscious, but the diagnosis is concussion and whatever they said was wrong with his arm, it doesn't seem that either Diana or Neal is extremely worried about his condition, and while his car was t-boned (poor, poor Taurus), the staging/filming of the crash was kind of underwhelming. Maybe if I had felt the danger to Peter more, Elizabeth's concern (and what she does about it) would have felt more real to me? It was kind of like, intellectually, I understood why she would do what she did, but as I was watching I didn't quite believe it. And IDK if *that* makes sense to anyone but me either. :-)
On the other hand, as much as I felt less than convinced about what got us there, the idea that Neal and Peter are both solving the puzzle of the key at the same time (it's a race?) is cool. And I really liked that last sequence where they cut back and forth between the two of them working it out. Oh, boys!